I don’t know how many people would agree with me on this, but I think that “Pecos Pest” is the greatest of the Golden Age Tom and Jerry cartoons. I am enthralled with this short because it deviates from the usual knockabout of the series with the inclusion of an audacious new character who shakes up the comedy with inventive humor.
In this go-round, Jerry gets a telegram that his Uncle Pecos is arriving from Texas to “the big city” to make his singing debut on a nationwide television broadcast. No sooner does Jerry get the telegram than Uncle Pecos arrives from Texas – and you know he’s from Texas thanks to his oversized cowboy hat that covers his eyes, his oversized mustache that droops to his chest, and his cobalt blue cowboy boots and red bandana. As soon as he arrives, Uncle Pecos entertains Jerry by playing his version of “Froggy Went a Courtin’” on his “gi-tar.” Never mind that Uncle Pecos has a considerable stutter and forgets his lyrics – he’s laser-focused on big time stardom.
Unfortunately, a “gi-tar” string snaps and Uncle Pecos doesn’t have a replacement handy. He quickly spies the source of his needs with the sleeping cat Tom. Unafraid of cats, Uncle Pecos boldly marches up to Tom and pulls out a whisker to use as a guitar string.
The beauty of “Pecos Pest” is that Tom is the victim of Uncles Pecos’ constant need for “gi-tar” strings. Even though Jerry keeps trying to carry his relative away from the angry cat, Uncle Pecos keeps coming back to the increasingly terrified cat to yank out another whisker. “Pecos Pest” quickly becomes the animated equivalent of the “Trilogy of Terror” episode with the Zuni doll chasing Karen Black around her residence – when Uncle Pecos comes with a human-sized axe to chop at the door of the closet where Tom is hiding, it is both terrifying and hilarious, especially when Tom sticks out a white flag on a stick and we then hear the pluck of a guitar string for audio affirmation that he pulled one of his whiskers out to make the Alpha-mouse leave him alone.
What’s truly interesting in “Pecos Pest” is the denouement where Tom and Jerry are sitting together on a living room couch to watch Uncle Pecos’ TV debut. It was very rare to have the two characters living together in this type of a domestic relationship where they could watch TV together. Of course, the final gag is closer to the surrealism of Tex Avery than the slapstick of the William Hanna and Joseph Barbera cartoons, but it also reaffirmed that Tom always winds up the loser in these cartoons.
Special praise goes to Shug Fisher, the Western comic-singer who voiced Uncle Pecos and provided his singing. This is one of the all-time great cartoon voice performances of all time, though sadly he received no screen credit for his brilliantly funny work.