YMMV / Herman and Katnip

• Designated Hero: Not that Katnip isn't a threat, but a lot of Herman's actions against his feline foe come off as mean-spirited at best and downright cruel at worst. The fact that many stories end with Katnip dead, once even having his corpse used by Herman as a Christmas tree, which would make absolute sense of this being the direct inspiration for Itchy & Scratchy.
• Designated Monkey: Take a wild guess. But all jokes aside, Katnip can be abused and tormented WAY too much for a mostly Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain.
• Parody Displacement: According to the writers of The Simpsons, this show was one of the biggest inspirations for Itchy & Scratchy. The latter is now far, far more popular, to the point that you've probably only heard of it because of them citing it as an inspiration.
• They Copied It, So It Sucks!: This series gets a lot of vitriol for being a clone of Tom and Jerry, only with more Family-Unfriendly Violence and sadism heaped on.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Although Katnip does attempt to kill Herman and the mice, even having eaten some, the excessive methods Herman uses to defend himself and the fact that he's actually outright killed Katnip in some episodes makes the actual villain of the story more sympathetic than the hero. Much of this comes down to the fact that Katnip is just too much of a Villainous Underdog, being rather hapless and usually lacking any actual strategy besides blundering in, whereas Tom came across as much more of a clever match for his opponent.
• The Woobie:
  • Katnip being a villainous simpleton version of this.
  • Poor Henry, his wife is controlling, abusive and ungrateful for everything he does for her.

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