Mr. Jinks

Mr. Jinks
Like, uhh... I'm just a cool cat, y'know!
Species	Cat (tabby)
Gender	Male
Member of	Yogi's Gang[Note 1] Yogi Yahooeys[Note 2]
Affiliation	Pixie and Dixie Huckleberry Hound Yogi Bear Boo Boo Bear Hokey Wolf Ding-a-Ling
Other relative(s)	One cousin, Snagglepuss Lion[1]
Marital status	Single
Son(s)	One son, Jinks Junior
First appearance	P&D&MJ: "Cousin Tex" (1958)
Played by	Daws Butler (1958-85) Greg Burson (1991) Billy West (2018) Jeff Bergman (2021-present)
Yo, Yogi!
Wacky Races
Deathstroke/Yogi Bear Special
Jellystone!

Mr. Jinks is an anthropomorphic tabby cat and the main antagonist of the Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinks animated shorts of The Huckleberry Hound Show. His voice was originated by Daws Butler.

Jinks usually picks on the two mice, Pixie and Dixie, though he is also sometimes a friend of the two.

Character description

“

I'll get you, meeces! I'll batter your hatches, like! ― Mr. Jinks, Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinks, "Heavens to Jinksy" (1959)

”

Mr. Jinks is an orange, two-legged, slender cat with tan highlights on his feet, hands, the insides of his ears, and muzzle. The only piece of clothing he normally wears is his trademark blue bow tie.

In terms of personality, Mr. Jinks is very laid back, confident, fussy and high-strung. He speaks in a whimsical speech pattern, using beatnik slang and saying the word "like" in a majority of his sentences. He also makes a habit of using frequent grammatical and pronunciation errors in his speech, with the plural "meeces" being one example (instead of the correct plural, "mice"). As a house cat, Mr. Jinks is a bully to Pixie and Dixie and is determined to catch and clobber the two mice; often relishing on catching the pair for his own good. He can be quite irritable when it comes to bonding with Pixie and Dixie, especially since the two share the same habit of pulling pranks on each other. Jinks is somewhat dimwitted to varying degress, either prone to falling on the duo's elaborate tricks, or smart enough to concoct an elaborate scheme on the two. At the end of the cartoons, he would usually yells his catchphrase, "I hate meeces to pieces!", or some variation thereof.

Despite their rivalry, Mr. Jinks, Pixie and Dixie do have a soft spot for one another. Jinks doesn't exactly understand why he chases them, but he believes in the notion that "cats are supposed to hate meeces".^[2] Furthermore, he doesn't mean to cause any harm on the two in some instances, opting instead to take good care of them. In return, Pixie and Dixie care about Jinks deep down as well. But they also sometimes have a love-hate relationship with Jinks, where they can both be equally cruel to each other and will retaliate when provoked.

Appearances

TV series

Movies

• Yogi Bear's All-Star Comedy Christmas Caper

Shorts

• Cartoon Network Shorties
  • "Harasscat"

Comics

Books

• Pixie and Dixie and the Make-Believe Mouse

Biography

Debut Series

Yogi's Birthday Party

Kellogg's Corn Flakes

Crossover Era

Laff-a-Lympics

Yogi Bear's All Star Comedy Christmas Caper

Yogi's Treasure Hunt

Yo, Yogi!

In the episode "Of Meeces and Men," Jinks runs a local cheese store, but constantly tries to remove Pixie and Dixie, due to the fact that they eat his cheese on numerous occasions. He later teams up with Dickie Dastardly and Muttley, to get rid of the two mice, which they eventually do. After numerous failed attempts of trying to get them back into the cheese store, Yogi is able to separate the teamwork between Dickie and Jinks, and get Jinks to allow the mice back in.

Wacky Reboot

Everyone's Back in Jellystone!

In Jellystone!, he works as mayor Huckleberry's personal assistant. Unlike previous iterations, he is not paired up with, nor teamed up with Pixie and Dixie. In the episode "Business", Jinks reveals that he has romantic feelings towards Huck.

Jinks' in the Funny Books

Marvels' Laff-a-Lympics

Flintstones visit New York World's Fair

Development

Mr. Jinks—along with Pixie and Dixie—were created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera as part of The Huckleberry Hound Show. They were both modeled after Tom and Jerry, respectively; though Pixie and Dixie are comprised of two mice instead of one. Despite the similarities between these cartoons and those of Tom and Jerry, they were less violent due to the budgetary restraints Hanna-Barbera had at the time. Likewise, more emphasis was put on making the cartoons rich in witty dialogue—as opposed to visual gags like in their previous work.

Mr. Jinks' vocal characterization was modeled after actor Marlon Brando (namely his role as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire). Butler admmited that his Brando impression started from his collaborations with comedian Stan Freberg,^[3] such as in Freberg's cover of the song "Sh-Boom."^[4]

Gallery

Main article: Mr. Jinks/Gallery

Behind the scenes

• In some early episodes of Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinks, Mr. Jinks would occasionally use the correct plural "mice" instead of "meeces" like in other appearances moving forward.
  • In "Pistol Packin' Pirate," Mr. Jinks could not tell the difference between the words "meeces" and "mooses,"^[5] although he still makes the habit of saying "meeces" to refer to mice as usual.
• In "Jinks Junior," Jinks is implied to have a son, which also hints that he was married at one point.

In popular culture

• In The Ren & Stimpy Show episode "The Big Shot!," Stimpy becomes the co-star of Muddy Mudskipper, where they reenact one of the many chase sequences between Yogi and Ranger Smith, respectively. Muddy tells Stimpy to get his hand out of the picnic basket, while Stimpy spouts some random quotes like "I hate meeces to pieces!"
• In the Garfield and Friends segment "The Cartoon Cat Conspiracy," Garfield watches a cartoon of a cat chasing a mouse to demonstrate how cartoon cats are wrongfully portayed as foolish villains. The cartoon in the beginning is similar to cartoons such as Tom and Jerry and Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinks; the latter of which especially also takes inspiration from. The blue cat at the start is a parody to Mr. Jinks, including his appearance, voice, and similar role.
• In the Beast Wars: Transformers episode "Beast Wars (Part 1)," Rattrap says Cheetor's new beast mode looks tacky, which instigates an angry response that he'll cut meeces to pieces, something that Mr. Jinks said to Pixie and Dixie frequently.

• 

  That purple meece, uhh, isn't the biggest fan of that copycat, y'know.

• 

  Even the dog doesn't like him, like.

Footnotes

References