Krazy Kat Goes A-Wooing

Krazy Kat Goes A-Wooing

Krazy Kat tries to serenade his love interest, Ignaz, but does not succeed.

These characters originally appeared in the comic strip, Krazy Kat created by cartoonist George Herriman. His credit in the opening titles was included for contractual reasons and he Herriman had no direct input on the short itself.

This short currently features the oldest explicitly queer character in the database. As examined in The New Yorker article "The Gender Fluidity of Krazy Kat" by Gabrielle Bellot, Herriman described Krazy Kat's sex as follows: "'They have no sex. So that Kat can't be classified as either male or female.'"

Due to the lack of queer terminology from that period and Krazy Kat's fluctuating pronouns in the original comic strip, I will categorize Krazy Kat as androgynous and queer, and refer to them with they/them pronouns unless explicitly stated otherwise in a specific strip or short.

For Krazy Kat Goes A-Wooing, the copyright description archived by the Library of Congress gave masculine pronouns for Krazy Kat. I shall keep androgynous and queer to reflect Herriman’s perspective on Krazy Kat and how the audience would have interpreted the short, while also including gay and implicit to reflect the information obtained in the copyright description.

Animation: Leon Searle
Year: 1916
Country: United States
Gender and Sexuality: Androgyny, queer
Animation Style: Traditional
Genre: Comedy
Type: Explicit, implicit, short

Can currently be watched on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1xLV94EFR5k