Fraidy Cat is an animated Tom and Jerry short released on January 17th, 1942 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera.
After listening to a spooky radio program, Tom is left on edge and believing in ghosts. Jerry decides to take advantage of the situation by making Tom believe the house is haunted and scaring the cat out of his wits. However, Tom eventually learns of the mouse's duplicity, leading to a typical chase, the noise of which awakens Mammy Two Shoes, and when Tom sees her, he makes the mistake of thinking Jerry is playing ghost again...
Tropes:
- Cats Have Nine Lives: When he's caught by the vacuum cleaner, Tom's nine lives start getting sucked in, holding on to Tom's tail for dear life (lives?). When he gets away, the other lives are dragging behind, with the last one enjoying the ride. When Tom stops, all the lives crash back in place.
- Get Out!: After Tom accidentally bites Mammy's rear, thinking it was Jerry trying to trick him, Mammy in retalation attacks Tom and throws him out of the house.
- Giving Up the Ghost: Jerry uses a vacuum cleaner to scare Tom into believing there's a ghost in the house. When it tries to suck Tom up, his nine lives are sucked out one after another, the ninth with a big smile on its face, before the first one bites Tom to shock him out of the suction and letting them go back to his body.
- Literal Metaphor: When the narrator of the radio show says that "a chill went down his spine", Tom's spine is shown growing icicles, with his tail encased in a block of ice.
- Nature Abhors a Vacuum Cleaner: Jerry puts a white nightgown on an upright vacuum cleaner to make Tom think it's a ghost. The way the vacuum almost sucks in Tom makes it all the more frightening for him.
- Oddball in the Series: This is the first cartoon where Jerry loses in the end.
- Pain to the Ass:
- To get Tom to escape the vacuum cleaner, the life hanging on to him bites his tail, causing him to run.
- Tom accidentally bites Mammy in the rear, thinking it was Jerry in disguise. Afterwards, an angry Mammy whoops Tom. Even though it isn't shown obscure en, it's implied that Tom's rump is smacked as retaliation.
- Water Wake-up: After Tom passes out after being scared by the vacuum, Jerry sprays him with a water bottle to get him up so he can continue scaring him.