Bill the Cat

Bill the Cat is a fictional cat appearing in the works of cartoonist Berkeley Breathed, beginning with the comic strip Bloom County in the 1980s and continuing in Outland and Opus in the following decades. Bill also appeared in some of Breathed's illustrated children's books, including A Wish for Wings That Work, which was also made into an animated Christmas television special, and also on greeting cards and other sundry merchandise. The cat's most frequent spoken sentiments are "Aack!" and "Thbbbt!" The former is a result of his regularly choking on furballs, the latter sound an approximation of the "raspberry". These statements have often been used in the cartoon as a social indictment of policy or popular opinion in the United States. Image File history File links Billthecat. ... Image File history File links Billthecat. ... This article is about the cartoon. ... Billy the Cat (later Billy the Cat and Katie) was a comic strip in the Beano. ... Binomial name Felis catus Linnaeus, 1758 Synonyms Felis lybica invalid junior synonym The cat (or domestic cat, house cat) is a small carnivorous mammal. ... Cartoonist Jack Elrod at work. ... Guy Berkeley (Berke) Breathed (born June 21, 1957) is an American cartoonist, childrens book author/illustrator, director, and screenwriter, best known for Bloom County, a 1980s cartoon-comic strip which dealt with socio-political issues as seen through the eyes of highly exaggerated characters (e. ... This article is about the comic strip, the sequential art form as published in newspapers and on the Internet. ... Bloom County was a popular American comic strip by Berke Breathed which ran from December 8, 1980 until August 6, 1989. ... The 1980s refers to the years of and between 1980 and 1989. ... Outland was a Sunday-only spin-off of Bloom County by Berkeley Breathed. ... Opus is a weekly (Sunday only) comic strip by Berkeley Breathed. ... A Wish for Wings That Work: An Opus Christmas Story was a childrens book by Berkeley Breathed that was published in 1991. ... In American television, a Christmas television special is typically a one-time, half-hour program aired during the Christmas season. ... Greeting cards on display at retail. ... A coffee mug bearing the logo of a company or organization is a common practice in product merchandising. ... -1...

He was raised in Dubuque, Iowa, left for New York to become a film star, leaving his girlfriend, Sally, behind. His film roles include the leads in Orangestoke: The Legend of Bill, Lord of the Monkeys and Terms of Bill's Endearment. During this period, he drank heavily, used illegal drugs, and "free-based Little Friskies", until his friends helped him to recover. On September 30, 1983, Bill drove his Ferarri into a cactus at 140 miles per hour, dying instantly in the crash (the media, not wishing to divulge the true nature of Bill's death, claimed that he died of acne). The only part of Bill that was salvaged from the wreckage was his tongue, which young genius Oliver Wendell Jones used to clone Bill and bring him back to life. In the latter months of 1984, Bill's bid for the American presidency was effectively ruined by his decision to run off and join (and end up leading) the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh cult in Oregon, only to be "rescued" and deprogrammed several weeks later. Bill spent time as an unintelligible rock star who played lead electric tongue with his heavy metal band Deathtöngue, later Billy and the Boingers. Bill got rich when their song "U-Stink-But-I-♥-U" became a jingle for Wheat Thins, but he did not share the wealth with his bandmates. Although Bill was the front-person of Billy and the Boingers, the band excluded him and disbanded when it became public that he spent his nights staying up late, reading the Bible with a nun. After this incident, Bill became the televangelist "Fundamentally Oral Bill", parodying Televangelists like Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker and Oral Roberts. Nickname: The Key City, City of Five Flags, Masterpiece on the Mississippi Location in the State of Iowa Coordinates: Country United States State Iowa County Dubuque Incorporated 1833 Government  - Type Council-Manager  - Mayor Roy D. Buol  - City manager Michael C. Van Milligen Area  - City 71. ... NY redirects here. ... September 30 is the 273rd day of the year (274th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Ferrari is an Italian sports car manufacturer based in Maranello and Modena, Italy. ... Oliver Wendell Jones was the most recurring African American character in Bloom County, a comic strip by Berkeley Breathed. ... 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Rajneesh Chandra Mohan Jain (December 11, 1931 - January 19, 1990), better known during the 1970s as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and later as Osho, was the founder and leader of a controversial India and the United States. ... Official language(s) None Capital Salem Largest city Portland Area  Ranked 9th  - Total 98,466 sq mi (255,026 km²)  - Width 260 miles (420 km)  - Length 360 miles (580 km)  - % water 2. ... This article includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... Heavy metal (sometimes referred to simply as metal) is a genre of rock music that developed between 1968 and 1974. ... Billy and the Boingers is a fictional heavy metal rock band from the comic strip Bloom County. ... The Deathtöngue (later Billy and the Boingers) lineup Billy and the Boingers is a fictional heavy metal rock band from the comic strip Bloom County, originally known as Deathtöngue. ... Wheat Thins are a popular baked snack cracker found in North America and distributed by Nabisco, a subsidiary of Kraft Foods Global Inc. ... The Deathtöngue (later Billy and the Boingers) lineup Billy and the Boingers is a fictional heavy metal rock band from the comic strip Bloom County, originally known as Deathtöngue. ... This Gutenberg Bible is displayed by the United States Library of Congress. ... For other uses, see Nun (disambiguation). ... In the USA, a televangelist (television evangelist) is a religious minister (often a Christian priest or minister) who devotes a large portion of his (or her) ministry to TV broadcasts to a regular viewing and listening audience. ... Jimmy Lee Swaggart (born March 15, 1935 in Ferriday, Louisiana) is a Pentecostal preacher and pioneer of televangelism who reached the height of his popularity in the 1980s. ... James Orsen Bakker (born January 2, 1940, in Muskegon, Michigan) is an American televangelist, a former Assemblies of God minister, and a former host (with his then-wife Tammy Faye Bakker) of The PTL Club, a popular evangelical Christian television program. ... This article is about Oral Roberts, the Christian televangelist. ...

Bill was also depicted to be a defector to the Soviet Union, but being traded back soon afterwards. The reasons he stated for returning to the US were, as he put them, "to again walk the green grass of liberty" or (less politically correct) "to make some big dough".

Bill the Cat twice won the National Radical Meadow Party's nomination to run for President of the United States, in 1984 and 1988, despite being dead in the first instance, and despite having a vocabulary that mainly consisted of "Aack!" he lost twice, once because of coughing up a furball on Connie Chung. This did not stop him from selling secrets to the Soviet Union, including the alleged secret of George Bush's appeal (the secret being that he didn't have any), embarking on a torrid love affair with Jeane Kirkpatrick, and being used as the primary source for an illegal cat-sweat-based baldness cure. His brain was replaced with Donald Trump's (who had been hit with his yachts anchor while sunbathing in New York Harbor). The National Radical Meadow Party (or the Meadow Party as it is sometimes known) was the fictional political party from Berkeley Breatheds 1980s comic strip, Bloom County. ... The presidential seal was first used in 1880 by President Rutherford B. Hayes and last modified in 1959 by adding the 50th star for Hawaii The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. ... 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Constance Yu-Hwa Chung Povich (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ; born August 20, 1946) is an American journalist. ... George Herbert Walker Bush (born June 12, 1924) was the 41st President of the United States, serving from 1989 to 1993. ... Jeane Kirkpatrick Jeane Jordan Kirkpatrick (November 19, 1926 â€“ December 7, 2006) was an American ambassador and an ardent anticommunist. ... Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American business executive, entrepreneur, television personality and author. ... New York Harbor, a geographic term, refers collectively to the rivers, bays, and tidal estuaries near the mouth of the Hudson River in the vicinity of New York City. ...

Bill the Cat has returned to comics in Berke Breathed's latest strip, Opus. Given his ostensible death and revival by tongue cloning (a la Sleeper), his carcass was suggested as the source of the recent BSE(aka. "Mad Cow Disease")epidemic. Later, he was chosen as the new mayor of Bloom County. He got the message when he was playing Garfield at a mall promotion (the child in his lap asked her father if Garfield had died). Mayoral efforts for Bill and Opus involved forcing low-jeans teenagers to wear suspenders. Bill, however, lost an election a few months later because of an affair with Paris Hilton. Opus is a weekly (Sunday only) comic strip by Berkeley Breathed. ... Cloning is the process of creating an identical copy of something. ... Sleeper (1973) is a futuristic comedy loosely based on the classic science fiction novel When The Sleeper Wakes by H. G. Wells. ... Classic image of cattle with BSE. Frantic digging going nowhere. ... A mayor (from the Latin māior, meaning larger, greater) is the modern title of the highest ranking municipal officer. ... Garfield is a comic strip created by Jim Davis, featuring the cat Garfield, the pet dog Odie, and their owner Jon Arbuckle. ... Paris Whitney Hilton (born February 17, 1981) is an heiress to the Hilton Hotel fortune, as well as her father, Richard Hiltons, real estate fortune. ...

Bill the Cat is commonly seen as a parody of Jim Davis' Garfield, an attempt to create a character so repulsive that it would have absolutely no merchandising potential. Naturally, Bill the Cat trinkets and figurines have therefore sold in great quantity. There is, nonetheless, a real person behind the story. Bill the Cat was inspired by a colorful economist named Bill Moore. Moore was a graduate assistant at the University of Texas in Austin during the 1970s, and one of Berke Breathed's teachers. Recognizably wild-eyed (and one legged), Moore also became one of Breathed's friends. James Robert Jim Davis (born July 28, 1945), is an American cartoonist who created the popular comic strip Garfield. ... Garfield is a comic strip created by Jim Davis, featuring the cat Garfield, the pet dog Odie, and their owner Jon Arbuckle. ...

Trivia

• A Bill the Cat doll can be seen in Eminem's The Real Slim Shady video.
• In one of Bill the Cat's earliest appearances, he sings the song "Tomorrow" and claims that it gives him hairballs. This was one of the rare occasions where Bill actually spoke. Another was when he was on trial for selling secrets to the USSR, when he asked his lawyer Steve Dallas if a "jury box" was anything like a "litter box".
• Bill the Cat has appeared in three of the comic strips by Breathed now: Bloom County, Outland, and Opus. Opus has also appeared in all three of those strips; only the character of Steve Dallas has appeared in more of Breathed's strips. Dallas appears in all four, including "The Academia Waltz."

The Real Slim Shady is a song by the rapper Eminem, released in 2000. ... Steve Dallas was a fictional unscrupulous lawyer in the 1980s comic strip Bloom County, by Berke Breathed. ... Bloom County was a popular American comic strip by Berke Breathed which ran from December 8, 1980 until August 6, 1989. ... Outland has several meanings: Outland (comic) Outland (movie) Outland (shop) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Opus is a weekly (Sunday only) comic strip by Berkeley Breathed. ... An early Opus appearance in the strip Bloom County Opus the Penguin is a character in the comic strips and childrens books of Berke Breathed, most notably the popular 1980s strip Bloom County. ... Steve Dallas was a fictional unscrupulous lawyer in the 1980s comic strip Bloom County, by Berke Breathed. ...

Further reading

Rovin, Jeff. The Illustrated History of Cartoon Animals. New York: Prentice Hall, 1991. ISBN 0-13-275561-0.

References

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