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Right-Hand-Cat

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
The cat looks more dignified than its owner.

"That makes me angry, andwhen Dr. Evil gets angry, Mr. Bigglesworth gets upset. And when Mr. Bigglesworth gets upset... peopleDIE!"

In anevil contrast to how muchHeroes Love Dogs,Diabolical Masterminds are cat people. If theydon't have a face, they will always have a pet cat, usually some shade of white, sitting on their desk or in their lap, that they stroke as they describe theirEvil Plan.

Why do bad guys like cats? Maybe becauseCats Are Mean --they kill birds and mice, just so they can offer you the corpse. Cats are lap-sized and perfect to pet while scheming. Or maybe it's because cats also (reputedly) believe they are entitled to be worshipped and revered by humans, or deserve toTake Over the World themselves. Dogs are faithful and loyal, but cats are fickle with a superiority complex. Villains and cats just fit. It's the perfect accessory for aCard-Carrying Villain.

TheBig Bad'sRight-Hand-Cat will have varying degrees of a personality depending on the context of the series. Some will display sentient facial expressions and even an evil laugh, showing a morality in sync with their master's. Some just sit there, emotionless, yawning and purring like any other ordinary pet. Even in animation, the cat will probably never speak, but it will almost always have a name.

This may stem from the tradition thatAll Witches Have Cats and often use cats as theirfamiliars. SeeKindhearted Cat Lover for examples when a character simply likes having a cat around.

In real life, this is almost entirely untrue. Famous cathaters throughout history have included Caligula, Nero, Bonaparte, Hitler, and Stalin. Oddly,all of the above were fond of dogs, perhaps because of their obedient, worshipful nature. (Alternately, for a psychopath terrified of assassination, a German Shepherd is a little more comforting than a tabby.)

However,Cardinal Richelieu was a famous cat-lover (he owned 14 cats at the time of his death) and he got aHistorical Villain Upgrade sinceAlexandre Dumas'The Three Musketeers. Most adaptations picture him petting a white cat while scheming, making Richelieu the likelyTrope Maker.

Pirate captains will have aPirate Parrot instead. See alsoFeather Boa Constrictor,Right-Hand Attack Dog.

Examples of Right-Hand-Cat include:

Played Straight

Anime and Manga

  • Giovanni with his Persian, fromPokémon. For a while, the Team Rocket trio's Meowth from the same series had it as his overriding goal tobecome a Right-Hand-Cat for Giovanni.
  • InPeacemaker Kurogane, after goingcrazy andgay, Suzu is depicted as having a fondness for cats.
  • Djibril pets his black cat inMobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny.
  • In the manga ofDeath Note,Teru Mikami has one.
  • Parodied in aFullmetal Alchemist Omake. In a picture of members of the cast as members of organized crime, Al is "Da Boss", and has an Adulr cat which is referred to as "demon henchbeast".
  • InUrusei Yatsura, the principal of Tomobiki high is sometimes seen petting a white cat while plotting against the students. He's hardly a villain (more of aCloudcuckoolander), but the parody is obvious.


Comic Books

  • Atrocitus comes to Earth looking for the other Lantern Corps entities inBrightest Day and brings only one fellow Red Lantern with him: a blue house cat named Dex-Starr, who isthe most sadistic of the entire Corps. Then, inGreen Lantern #55, we learn Dex-Starr's origin,cue waterworks.
  • Gargamel's cat, Azraël, fromThe Smurfs. Leans intoRight-Hand Attack Dog territory, since the Smurfs are small enough to be frequently chased by Azraël.

Film

  • In Disney's version ofCinderella, Cinderella's stepmother has a cat named—I kid you not --Lucifer. He is intelligent enough to understand that Cinderella is unfairly put-upon with the chores, and mean enough to complicate them at one point in the movie. His opposite number is Bruno, a nice dog who sleeps in the basement.
  • Junkman in theThe Incredible Crash Dummies (a 1993 half-hour CG movie) has the Hubcat.
  • Ernst Stavro Blofeld, from the earlyJames Bond films, as pictured above. His ever-present fluffy white cat is probably theTrope Codifier, being responsible for most, if not all, of the parodies and references listed below.
    • Diamonds Are Forever plays with this a little, when Bond confronts Blofeld and his double. Unsure of which is which, Bond kicks the white Persian in the room and shoots the Blofeld it jumps to for safety. Sadly, it doesn't work, as there's more than one cat too.

Blofeld: Right idea, Mr. Bond...
Bond: But wrong pussy.

  • Austin Powers:
    • Dr. Evil, a parody of Blofeld, with Mr. Bigglesworth. Starts as a Persian, becomes a Sphinx cat after the cryogenic revival.
    • Mini-Me, in turn, has a Mini-Bigglesworth (a Sphinx kitten).
  • The Godfather: TheVillain Protagonist is seen stroking a cat in the opening scene. This was not in the book or script; Brando just made friends with a cat and they decided toThrow It In.
  • Auntie in the Japanese horror filmHausu has Shiro, a white Persian, who the heroines discover provides Auntie with her immortality and magic abilities.It turns out Auntie lied and even killing Shiro won't stop her. Not to mention, Shiro is immortal, too.
  • In the JapaneseNinja movieShinobi no Mono,Oda Nobunaga is shown petting cats in several scenes. Notably,Roald Dahl saw the film while writing the script forYou Only Live Twice, so while the (unseen) Blofield stroked a pet cat in earlier Bond movies, this film might have been an inspiration for his iconic representation doing it inYou Only Live Twice.
  • In the modern film verson ofHairspray, Velma von Tussle gets a fluffy white Persian to stroke in one scene.


Literature

  • In 1956, even before Blofeld made it cool, back in the original book ofThe Hundred and One Dalmatians, Cruella de Vil had a white Persian cat, as opposed to the heroic dog-loving Dearlys. When they actually met the cat, Pongo andPerdita Missis found she was actually nice (we had already learned of Cruella's drowning of her kittens—as if that woman needed extraKick the Dog credentials). She then joined the dogs in wrecking Cruella's private fur collection.
  • In the1632 series, it is briefly established that Richelieu likes cats after he is given a Siamese kitten as a diplomatic gift and plays with it.
  • In Yulia Latynina'sInhuman, when Mehmed Lee "Eat-Alive" Trastamara (an incredibly old, infamous man, the right-hand of theEvil Overlord that founded the empire, the inventor of many nasty viruses, as well as a brainwashing symbiont, and the great-grandfather of theVillain Protagonist who comes to him for advice) finally appears in the flesh, he is sitting in a chair with a big white and red cat resting in his lap. Despite being both ancient and retired, "Eat-Alive" still has a hand in almost everything that happens in the Human Empire and more,to the extent of eventually organising a successful coup d'etat and establishing himself as the most adroit and savvy opponent of the alien conspiracy. Let's just say, heearned that cat.
  • One of the earliest examples of this trope would be Victorian Era supervillain Dr. Nikola, who was always accompanied by a huge, black cat named Appolyon.
  • Etienne Galant, theBig Bad inThe Corpse in the Waxworks by John Dickson Carr, is seen stroking a white persian. The book was published in 1932.
  • In theNovels of the Change,Chessmaster Sandra Arminger pets her Persians as an aid to concentrating on her schemes.
  • She doesn't hold her cats in her hand, butDolores Umbridge fromHarry Potter, probably the second most sadistic person in the series behind Voldemort himself, is seemingly addicted to cats. Her office is lined with plates and pictures depicting cats. As well, her Patronus was in the shape of a Persian cat, and it paced in front of her during the courtroom scene inDeathly Hallows to protect her from the dementors. Professor McGonagall, a good character in the same series, also has a cat Patronus and can transform into a cat (an ordinary tabby rather than something fluffy and expensive).
    • This evenhandedness also extends to actual cats. The two cats with actual camera time are Mrs. Norris and Crookshanks, who are respectively kept by Mr. Filch (the caretaker, an entirely unsympathetic person and supporter of Umbridge when she was at Hogwarts) and Hermione (the heroine).
  • Averted inThe Dresden Files: Harry Dresden lives with a gigantic grey cat named "Mister," whom he (Harry) rescued from a dumpster as a kitten.


Live-Action TV

  • While she wasn't a villainper se, Mrs. Pynchon, the (cold and typically unlikable) newspaper publisher (and everyone's boss) in the TV seriesLou Grant, has a cat who resides on her desk at her office.
  • Conan O'Brien's impression of anNBC executive involvestalking in an "evil" voice and miming petting a cat in his arms.
  • Mick ofKamen Rider Double is the pet cat ofThe Don/Big Bad Ryubee Sonozaki. Mick also happens to be one of the high ranking villains: theSmilodon Dopant.
  • Another non-villainous example:Cee Lo Green strokes a white cat in this fashion during Season 2 ofThe Voice.
  • Star Trek: The Original Series used this a few times.
    • "Assignment Earth". Gary Seven has a black cat named Isis that appears to be intelligent. At the end of the episode it's revealed that Isis is actually a beautiful humanoid female who can take cat form.
    • "Catspaw". Korob has a pet black cat. Since he's dressed (and acts) like a wizard, Spock assumes that the cat is his familiar. Later on the cat changes into the form of a beautiful woman, and it turns out that she's really the episode'sBig Bad.
  • Referenced in the finale ofThe Shadow Line:

Gatehouse: People don't do bad things just because they want to stroke a white cat.


Radio


Tabletop Games

  • The cover to theParanoia splatbook "High Programmers" has a High Programmer petting a cat with one eye.
  • Intentionally invokedon this forum as a suggestion for a good use for a template that creates an undead made from a taxidermied skin that can pass for a living creature to all but the most keen-eyed of observers... until they look into its eyes and see the inside of its scalp, or it deflates and slithers away.


Theatre

  • Pyewacket, Gillian's familiar inBell, Book, And Candle.


Video Games

  • InWorld of Warcraft, Kel'thuzad,The Dragon of theLich King, has a cat named Mr. Bigglesworth after Dr. Evil's cat in his dungeon. If it is killed, Kel'thuzad gets quite upset with the players and threatens to send the Scourge to hunt them down.

"NO! A curse upon you, interlopers! The armies of the Lich King will hunt you down! You will NOT escape your fate!"

  • InKingdom Hearts, Maleficent hasPete, who is a large anthropomorphic cat. Just replace the stroking with yelling at how he always screws up.


Web Comics

  • InThe Brick Testament, the evil pharaoh of Egypt inExodus isportrayed with a pet cat.
  • Dr. Nonami: Dr. Mechano has Destroyer, an adorable little kitty who he insists is a vicious killing machine.
  • InOverlord of Ravenfell, Razin maintains cuddling kitties is perfectly acceptable for an Overlord. Since cats are evil, so are the cuddles.
  • InHomestuck, Her Imperious Condescension appears to have control over a cat.Which happens to be the First Guardian, and therefore has the powers of Becquerel. It is unknown if G Cat is planning anything, if he is being manipulated, or if he is a willing servant of the Condesce.


Web Original


Western Animation

  • Mildlyparodied inDanny Phantom, to the point ofRunning Gag status. In several episodes of the first two seasons, Danny encourages his arch enemy, Vlad, to get a cat, to which he usually gives an emphatic "No!", but lo and behold, the second episode of the third season had him sitting in his study, petting—what else—a white cat, named after Danny's mother, Maddie.
  • Even Angelica, theDevil in Plain Sight onRugrats, has a pet cat named Fluffy.
  • Skeletor with Panthor, fromHe-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Though this was somewhat reversed in that it was the cat who carried Skeletor, rather than the other way around.
  • Catwoman didn't start with one, butBatman the Animated Series provided her with Isis, proving this trope fits on her pretty well.
  • Inspector Gadget: Dr. Claw has Mad Cat, his constantly laughing cat that would endure all the abuse that happened when his master would suddenly pound his table (which he apparently liked to do, even when it wasn't necessary), rub his fur a little too hard, or simply whack him because he was in the way or because he did something he didn't like.

Claw: Why are you laughing? I'm the one who did all the work!

  • Roger, the bully fromDoug, has a Right-Hand Cat called Stinky, whereas Doug has a reliable, intelligent dog called Porkchop. One episode gives himA Day in the Limelight when Roger makes Doug look after him while Roger's away. He trashes the house, and eats pizza and ice cream, and is generallynasty. Then, he gets sick and Doug freaks out, thinking that this is because he let the cat get its own way, and worries about what Roger will do...turns out, he was neither sick nor a "he".She was pregnant.
  • An episode ofGoldie Gold and Action Jack has a villain with one.
  • Baudelaire, Max Madison's cat inPhantom 2040.
  • One of theFreakazoid!! villains has a white, menacing cat. Freakazoid himself has a fat orange cat inThe Godfather-spoof episode.
  • Geraldine has one in theTotally Spies! episode "Return of Geraldine".
  • Ravage fromTransformers is usually this to the Decepticons.
  • Coco Diablo's cat, Esteban, inTrick or Treat Scooby Doo!. Like Scooby, Esteban can talk, and has human-level intelligence, able to use a computer and camera with ease, doing so as his master's assistant. Being a cat, he and Scooby don't get along.

Subversions andPlaying with the trope

Anime and Manga

  • Double Subversion inYu-Gi-Oh GX: the fact that Daitokouji-sensei had a pet cat could have been a clue he wasThe Mole, until he was further revealed to be aDouble Agent. And after hisRedemption Equals Death, the cattakes over his job.
  • InMedabots, the Right-Hand Cat contains the soul of theBig Bad; the human body is just a robotic shell.
  • Tailmon (Gatomon in the dub) ofDigimon Adventure started off as Vamdemon's (a.k.a. Myotismon) Right-Hand Cat (though, being a Digimon, she could talk and fight), but it later turned out that she was the missing partner of the eighth Chosen Child.
  • The animeNow and Then, Here and There has the resident psychotic leader pet a cat in the first episode he appears in. And then break its neck when getting his first but not last on-screen psychotic episode.
  • Played with inThe Prince of Tennis, where the main character is anantisocial and skittish kid who is very attached to his pet cat, Karupin. He may not pet him à la Blofeld, butlikes to have the feline sleeping in his bed.
  • What the hell the fat cat inFLCL actually was is unclear, but Haruko spends a remarkable amount of time and attention on it. Apparently, she was using it to communicate with her boss.


Comic Books

  • Bomb Queen's eponymous supervillainess/EvilOverlord has a black cat named Ashe who, in the most recent volume, has been revealed as an ancient demon who's been using Bomb Queen and her city.


Fan Works

Film

  • Ratigan fromThe Great Mouse Detective has a white cat, Felicia, do some of his dirty work for him—but, being arat large mouse, he naturally can't carry her around. Henceforth, he uses a bell to ring her up whenever some hapless fool needs to become dinner.
  • OnBolt, the villain of theShow Within a Show has two cats. The actors who play them love to torment Bolt (who thinks the show is real) by going to his trailer and make threats in character. After Bolt is lost, he mistakes stray alley cat Mittens for one of the Right-Hand Cats and tries to get her to take him back.
  • Inverted inCats and Dogs where the villains of the film are cats who just happen to be led by a white Persian. The leader Persian Cat invokes this trope to interact with humans, using a comatose man in a wheelchair. The human's mouth has a bandana or something around it, so the cat make others think the human is talking, so as not to freak everybody out with a talking cat.
  • In one ofThe Cannonball Run films, a Mob boss is seen stroking a cat. Then he looks down...and says (quietly and with no special tone), "This cat is dead. Bring me another cat." The mooks do.
  • Inverted inThe Spirit. The Octopus sacrifices a white Persian cat just to demonstrate to hisArch Enemy, the Spirit, the drawbacks of his potion. As the Spirit points out, that's reason enough to kill him.
  • InLicence to Kill,James Bond is stopped by armed men and led to a man who is stroking a cat.Turns out M was getting bored waiting for him and a cat happenned to wander in.


Literature

  • Gregor Brastov inKim Newman's alternate-history vampire novelDracula Cha-Cha-Cha (a.k.a.Judgment of Tears) is a Blofeldish cat-stroking archvillain who turns out to bejust a puppet manipulated by the real archvillain -- his cat.Hamish Bond should have remembered that some vampires haveVoluntary Shapeshifting.
  • Discworld
    • Parodied in the series, when Lord Vetinari, aMagnificent Bastard dictator who began as a sort of Blofeld spoof, had an old terrier called Wuffles, even though other characters and the narrator had him pegged as the "white cat stroking type". InMaking Money it's revealed that Wuffles has died of natural causes, and Vetinari subsequently ends up adoptingMr Fusspot, whose actual breed is rather unclear but is usually depicted as a pug.
    • In theTime TravelPrequelNight Watch, the young Vetinari's aunt has a Right-Hand Cat, but it's a borderline-feral moggy, which Vetinari feels isn't really appropriate. Heeven says it should be a long-haired white cat.
    • Played with in that the Evil Lord Harry Dread, who would like to be the kind of villain that has a white cat, is allergic to them and has to settle for a pet Hamster instead.
  • In the book1633 (in which an American town is transported to 17th-c. Europe), the people of Grantville send Cardinal Richelieu a Siamese cat as a "diplomatic offering". He takes it and strokes it in exactly the way described here. (Persians evidently were introduced in Europe in 1620 according to T.O.W., so one of them wouldn't have been quite as impressive a gift, though a modern Persian's appearance is evidently very different-looking to those times'.)
  • In theMalloreon saga by David Eddings, Kal Zakath has a cat that serves more as an opportunity for quiet humor than a villainous icon; the (seemingly) ruthless and cold-hearted emperor of all Mallorea frequently attempts to pawn off newborn kittens to heads of state, the main characters, and whoever else seems likely to claim a cat. Of course, the frequentPet the "Dog" moments only foreshadowed Kal Zakath's eventualHeel Face Turn from not-quite-villain antagonist to ally of Belgarion. Even if he did make one of his primary reasons for turning face. "You know, Garion, I've just realized that you'refunctionally omnipotent. So how's about I just give up and make peace before you eventually kill me?"
  • Subverted inThe King in Yellow. Evil psychopath Mr. Wilde has a cat. At the end, it tears out his throat, thusfoilingHildred Castaigne's evil scheme. To express his annoyance, Hildredkills the cat. So the Right-Hand Cat made theHeroic Sacrifice to save the day.
  • Billingford inThe Jennifer Morgue byCharles Stross has a classic Right-Hand Catas part of his Bond-based destiny trap, which eventually turns outto be posessed by theEldritch Abomination he's working for.
  • A rare heroic example:Honor Harrington and her treecat Nimitz. Though he's usually perched on her shoulders, which are covered with reinforced pads.

Live-Action TV

  • Star Trek: The Original Series
    • Gary Seven with Isis in the episode "Assignment: Earth" is initially thought to be a villain, but this isSubverted at the episode's end when Gary Seven is revealed to be trying to save the human race from a nuclear war, and Isis is revealed to be a shapeshifter.
    • Also, in the episode "Catspaw", the villain Korob has a black cat, who turns to be another shapeshifter, Sylvia, who later turns into agiant black cat.
  • Police Squad!
    • The TV comedy has fun with this one in a few episodes, including one scene where a man is stroking a white cat until someone enters his office, at which point he casually puts the cat away in a desk drawer. He has a puppy in another desk drawer, not to mention a flock of doves in his filing cabinet.
    • The Boss is first shown via a Blofeld-style lap-cam, until he gets tired of this and leans down to speak directly into the camera.
  • TheDirty Harry parodySledge Hammer! has one episode where a crime boss is always seen with a cat and ends up throwing the cat out of the window when he is upset. It is not surprising when Sledgekicks him out the window at the end of the episode (and even more ironically, the cat lands safely on the crime boss' chair).
  • Scrubs
    • After having sworn revenge against Dr. Cox and then overheard something that would aid him in said revenge, the Janitor turns around in a swivel chair, stroking the nonexistent Leonard.

Janitor: So, you don't want to know the ending of something. I can relate to that.
Dr. Cox: What is that in your lap?
Janitor: Leonard. Half-kitten, half-monkey.

    • Dr. Cox also makes use of this trope when confronting a pediatric physician in his office full of toys (sorry, collectibles), by stroking a plush white Persian cat.
  • La Femme Nikita: A villain is shown holding a white Right-Hand Cat, before demonstrating nerve gas on him for buyers.
  • House, in one episode of season 4, deals withDeath Cat. To confuse his team, he puts it on his lap, plays with acigar, and says, "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die." More than one Bond fan has noted that this was said byGoldfinger, not Blofeld, though he gets Blofeld's mannerisms pretty well.
  • The "Spy Car" episode ofUltimate Car Buildoff gives us co-host Lou Santiago playing the part of a foreign spymaster with, get this, a bobcat.


Theatre

  • Creepily subverted in the playWoyzeck (as well as the opera and rock opera based thereon). Althoughthe Doctor has a pet cat, hethrows it out the windowjust to see whether it lands on its feet.
  • In a version ofThe Pink Wasp and Yellow Jacket, the villain has a cat that he would periodically forget he was holding and accidentally throw into the air. At one point, Yellow Jacket, played as a asian stereotype, picks up the cat and tries to eat it.


Video Games


Web Comics


Western Animation

  • Subverted to the extreme inThe Powerpuff Girls. The girls once defeated an archetypalfaceless villain who stole a valuable jewel to power a laser, and took his pet cat home afterwards. Thecatwas actually the villain all along and hypnotizedThe Professor into almost finishing the massbrainwashing project.
  • Subverted in theChip 'n Dale Rescue RangersFive Episode Pilot, wherein Fat Cat debuts as Chlordane's Right-Hand Cat, only to become a villain in his own right for the rest of the series (while Chlordane is never heard from again). Even during the pilot, after helping Chlordane steal a ruby, Fat Cat steals the ruby from Chlordane for his own purposes, making sure to return it before its absence is noticed.
  • Played straight at first when Peter meets The Don in an episode ofFamily Guy. However, when Peter meets him again, it looks like he's petting a cat, but the camera cuts to behind him, and he's really grating cheese.
  • Twisted around inEarthworm Jim with Bob the Killer Goldfish, who has a massive cat (known only as "#4") that acts as his bodyguard. This is the only reason why anyone takes a freakin'goldfish seriously.
  • Parodied a couple of times onThe Simpsons:
    • In "When Flanders Failed", Homer goes to see Mr. Burns in his office and finds the old man stroking a cat on his lap.
    • In "Itchy and Scratchy: The Movie", Bart holds the family cat, Snowball II, in his arms while roasting a 007 action figure in the microwave: "Stick around, Mr. Bond. Things are really starting... to cook."
  • Mistress Leevil, the president of BET inThe Boondocks, has her own cat. The twist here? The cat isdead.
  • In theFuturama episode "That Darn Katz!", a grumpy professor namedKatz, who rejects Amy's proposal for harnessing the Earth's rotation for energy, has a white cat in his lap. It is later revealed that Katzwas really a puppet operated by the cat, who (like all cats, as it turns out) is actually an intelligent alien who wants to use Amy's device to stop Earth's rotation and transfer it to his homeworld.
  • InThe Fairly OddParents episode where Timmy wished that life was an action movie, Jorgen turns villain complete with pet cat, who he accidentally abuses so much it does aHeel Face Turn.
  • Parodied in theTotal Drama Action episode "Dial M for Merger". As a parody of spy movies, Chris introduces the challenge wearing aneyepatch and petting a white cat. Afterwards,the cat attacks him.
  • Discussed inBob's Burgers. where Bob's landlord Mr. Fisher is an eccentric rich guy who wears an outdated white suit, an eyepatch, and drives a golf cart (as in, not while playing golf, he drives it instead of a car). Louise says he's "one white cat away from being a super-villain."

Real Life

  • Pope Benedict XVI is apparentlyfond of cats, not helping rumors of his evil-ness.
  • Sultan Abdul Hamid of the Ottoman Empire was reported to have been fond of the rare Van breed of cat. As to whether or not he was evil, well, hewas known as the Red Sultan in the west for a reason.
  • Cardinal Richelieu (HisActual Villainy) was famously fond of cats, once (anecdotally) excusing a failure to stand up at the entry of an aristocratic visitor because he did not wish to disturb the kittens sleeping on his lap. Isn't thatsweet?
  • Mob big shot Monk Eastman was fond of cats and pigeons and ran a pet store.

"I like de kits and boids. I'll beat up any guy dat gets gay wit' a kit or a boid in my neck of de woods."

  • Rush Limbaugh has not only owned cats, but has also had[1] featured inPSAs forThe Humane Society.
  • 4chan users, often perceived as somewhere betweenChaotic Neutral andChaotic Evil, are also associated with fondness for cats, even to the point where some 4chan usershelped track down cat abusers. The notion that 4channers care more about abused cats than about abused humans isreferenced in this comic.
  • Deadmau5, a Canadian house artist popular for performing with a giant mouse head on, is very fond of his cat, Professor Meowingtons, going so far as to name one of his tours the Meowingtons Hax Tour.


Right-Hand Cat Substitutes

Anime and Manga

  • InRead or Die,The Gentleman has a turtle instead.
  • Played with in theHellsing manga and OVA with theMajor and Schrödinger, aCatboy subordinate fond of sitting on the floor next to his superior'schair with his head at convenient scratching height.


Comic Books

  • Adrian Veidt fromWatchmen has Bubastis, some kind of bright-red mutant lynx-thing. Untilhe disintegrated it.
  • The demonic Lord Arux fromLucifer has an advisor, Praxspoor, also a demon, who chooses to take the form of a panther-size black cat because he finds it helpful to be underestimated.
  • The comic book version ofThe Thrawn Trilogy often depicted Grand Admiral Thrawn cradling and stroking aysalamiri, a nearly vegetative lizard creature, like it's a cat, when in the books, he carried one in a nutrient frame strapped to his back or connected to his command chair. Ysalamirinegated the powers of hispsychotic dark Jedi ally, and occasionally, he reached up and stroked it to remind C'baoth that he couldn't be choked, electrocuted, orcharmed, but he didn't carry one around in his arms or on his lap. You can't really do that with ysalamiri.Plus, they smell. Still, the depiction is universal enough that it's practically an extension of hisMemetic Outfit.
    • It should be noted that saidMemetic Outfit, while not being the same as Blofeld's, certainly resembles it.


Film

  • Heavy Metal film. TheBig Bad of the "Taarna" segment has a Right-Hand Rat: a giant rat-like creature with a nasty snarl. He petted it while it sat next to him.
  • InTwice Upon a Time, Synonamess Botch has a pet armadillo named Ratatooie.
  • InDespicable Me, Gru has a bizarre-looking mongrel dog named Kyle.
  • Early on inMegamind, the title villain uses one of his Brain-bots for this purpose.
  • Spoofed inSpice World, whereRoger Moore, unseen, strokes a series of increasingly ludicrous pets as he plays the Spice Girls' corporate boss.
  • Dirty Work (1998): the villain holds his tiny dog a lot. The protagonists speculate that their relationship is not entirely platonic.
  • The Fifth Element: Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg has a bizarre little alien creature that rests on his shoulders at his corporate office (and laughs at him when he chokes on a cherry).
  • TheBig Bad fromKiss of the Dragon has a pet turtle that he keeps in a drawer in his desk.
  • He doesn't actually have a cat, but Mola Ram, the villain fromIndiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, is briefly shown holding hishelmet and stroking it like a cat.
  • Star Trek III: The Search For Spock: The Klingon Villain Kruge has a pet "Monster Dog" on board his Bird of Prey, which is said to be a cross between a lizard and a timber wolf.
  • Jabba the Hutt fromStar Wars has Salacious Crumb, a mischevious "Kowakian monkey-lizard" which officies as jester in the crime lord's court.
  • InA Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner!, the villain, Hugh J. Magnate, hasan evil bunny rabbit who even giggles evilly.It luresTootie into a trap.
  • Feathers McGraw pets a white seal-cub inVengeance Most Fowl.

Literature


Live-Action TV

  • Spoofed in the "Secret Service Dentists" sketch onMonty Python's Flying Circus: "I'm glad you could all come to my little party. And Flopsy's glad, too. Aren't you Flopsy?" When the villain doesn't get a response, he shoots Flopsy and says "That'll teach you to play hard to get. Well, poor Flopsy's dead, and he never called me mother." Although Flopsy was a rabbit, not a cat, it still sorta works.
  • Red Dwarf. Parodied in the opening scene of "Stoke Me a Clipper", where Ace Rimmer's evil Nazi opponent is first shown via a lap-level view of his hand stroking hispet crocodile, Snappy.
  • InM.I. High, the evil Grand Master has a Right-HandBunny named General Flopsy.
  • InSkippy the Bush Kangaroo, one of the recurring villains has a right handkoala.
  • TheMad Scientist villain in the pilot movie for short-lived 1979-80Spy FictionA Man Called Sloane had a tarantula he named Salome. At one point he gave hisassistant the order to fire hisDeath Ray with the words, "Salome says, 'Now!'"


Tabletop Games


Video Games

  • Rugal Bernstein and his pet panther Rodem inThe King of Fighters. His kids, Adelheid and Rose, have a little black kitten who is apparently the offspring of Rodem. Also included is Zero with Glaugan (a black lion) from2001.
  • President Evil Rufus Shinra inFinal Fantasy VII had (very briefly) a panther named Dark Nation. Very briefly because it only shows up in the battle where you first meet Rufus, where Cloud promptly kills it.
  • Chen Yakumo qualifies to some extend. A cat youkai at the service ofYukari Yakumo fromTouhou.
  • Donkey Kong Country. K.Rool has a Right-Hand Klaptrap for the cutscenes ofDonkey Kong 64. In a mannervery reminiscent ofDr. Claw, no less.


Web Animation

  • Homestar Runner: from theDangeresque films, Baron Darin Diamonocle (played by Bubs) is a parody of the Blofeld-style supervillain. He uses The Cheat as his cat-substitute.


Web Comics

  • InUmlaut House 2, ASCII is briefly seen with a robotic cat (he's an android) during his supervillain phase.


Western Animation

  • ReBoot:
    • Hexadecimal, as an insane anthropomorphism of a computer virus, somewhat inexplicably, has a small round cute thing with a feline face called Scuzzy as a pet. In one episode, Bob and Mike the TV find to their horror and sorrow that Scuzzy also doubles as Hexadecimal'sRight-Hand Attack Dog: one thatcan grow impossibly large,move very fast, hasvery sharp teeth, andcan clone itself as necessary.
    • Her male counterpart, Megabyte, has Nibbles, a slug-like creature that was formerly sentient but reduced to that form after losing a game. Nibbles used to be, in a sense, Megabyte's father. Nibbles is the Null ofDoctor Matrix, the father of Enzo and Dot, and the designer of the Gateway Command.
  • InDanger Mouse, Baron Silas Greenback's Right-Hand Cat is a furry caterpillar named Nero.
  • A fewKim Possible villains havetoyed with the concept of the Right-Hand Cat:
    • Gemini, the most straightforwardly "Bondish" villain on the show, has a yappy pet Chihuahua named Pepe.
    • Camille Leon, who is a parody of Paris Hilton as a shapeshifting villainess, has a Sphinx cat named Debutante, who lives in her designer handbag.
    • Ron Stoppable, when he is changed into a villain in "Bad Boy", takes to stroking a confused Rufus in a Blofeld-esque manner during a hand-wringing rant.
  • Phineas and Ferb:
    • Suzy Johnson (Jeremy'sDevil in Plain Sight sister) has a Right-HandPoodle whom she has trained to attack Candace.
    • Also, in "Spa Day", Dr. Doofensmirtz adopts a stray kitten he dubs "Mr. Fluffypants", but the mischievous feline proves to be more trouble than he's worth when he accidentally sets off several of Dr. Doofensmirtz's old evil inventions.
  • Parodied in an episode ofInvader Zim titled "Voting of the Doomed". The shadowy figure of the Principal is seen stroking a beaver, which itself strokes a little green...thingy (it drops it and starts to cry).
  • InBeast Wars, Megatron's Right-Hand Cat is his... actual hand. In two of the three forms he uses over the series (So Last Season at work), his beast-mode head is his robot-mode arm. He actually pets it at times, and at one point, when he's "asleep", the head-hand is looking around on its own. Near the end of the series, he turns from the monitor he's watching, the head-hand turns toward it, and tracks back and forth as things happen onscreen. He also has hisrubber ducky.
  • A mad scientist onCourage the Cowardly Dog had a right-hand rat named Rat. Rat mostly carried out errands for his manic-depressive master, but would also allow himself to be held and stroked if the morose scientist needed comforting.
  • Dr. Robotnik fromSonic Sat AM has a pet robotic bird named Cluck.
  1. ↑Punkin, an Abyssinian who would likely have the post due to seniority
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