Cats as a punch line?

[MarkBearSF]

This weekend, I realized that "Cats" was a punch line in both shows I saw - Angels in America (Millennium Approaches) and Soft Power. And of course, it's a running joke in Six Degrees of Separation and Jeffrey.

Is there any other show or movie that is used as a punch line as much as Cats (Wizard of Oz?) - and what other Cats jokes am I missing? (I didn't count count Something Rotten, since "A Musical" spoofs everything)

[Kitsune]

The Play That Goes Wrong has a joke at the beginning about their underwhelming production of "Cat" (singular) - does that count?

[kdogg36]

My mind is a complete blank on the details, but I think there's a Cats-related joke in School of Rock. Maybe someone else can remember exactly what it is!

[adamgreer]

One of the shows that Bialystock and Bloom produce at the end of The Producers is "Katz." Does that count?

[raddersons]

I'll never forget this bit of dialogue from The Nanny:

Jeffrey: (about Maxwell reading his play) He hates it.

Fran: What are you listening to him for, he passed on "Cats".

Maxwell: It was singing ****cat people in a giant garbage can. What would you have done?

Fran: Two words, Mr. Sheffield...still running.

[Lot666]

raddersons said: "I'll never forget this bit of dialogue from The Nanny:

Jeffrey: (about Maxwell reading his play) He hates it.

Fran: What are you listening to him for, he passed on "Cats".

Maxwell: It was singing ****cat people in a giant garbage can. What would you have done?

Fran: Two words, Mr. Sheffield...still running."

Loved that one!

[BrodyFosse123]

The show's original tag line: "Now and Forever" has been used for decades and anyone around during CATS original run picked up on this reference whenever it was used.   It was right up there with "Effie, we all got pain" (from DREAMGIRLS).  

[haterobics]

I loved it. It was much better than Cats. I'm going to see it again and again.. 

https://www.hulu.com/watch/276365

 

[MarkBearSF]

[DAMMIT - while I was fighting the site here (It's taking forever today to load a page) I was beaten to the punch (with a better recollection of the ad!]
..and of course, the jokes over the old TV ad "It was better than Cats!" which is sort of a sideways joke on it.

[bear88]

I never saw Cats, so I have no positive or negative attachment to it, but I find the continued use of the show as a punchline to be a turn-off. The first show I ever saw in New York was the original Six Degrees of Separation, which employed it as a running joke, but that was a long time ago when Cats was an unavoidable sensation for theatergoers. I just find it unbearably lazy and pandering when the reference pops up in new works, especially when it's a more extended joke, even when there's a defensible reason for doing so (the otherwise clever panel discussion in David Henry Hwang's Soft Power).

It's almost always a variation on the same joke: The show is stupid, and so are the people who flocked to see it. The condescension is irritating, and the joke is decades-old.
 

[JudyDenmark]

kdogg36 said: "My mind is a complete blank on the details, but I think there's aCats-related joke inSchool of Rock.Maybe someone else can remember exactly what it is!"

In the movie, Summer sings a line of "Memory" in a way that's supposed to be cringeworthy ... maybe that's what you're thinking of? (Unless there's something totally different that I'm forgetting.)

[Lot666]

bear88 said: "It's almost always a variation on the same joke: The show is stupid, and so are the people who flocked to see it. The condescension is irritating, and the joke is decades-old. Stop! "

I agree completely. I recently saw a show at a local theatre and it included a similar joke about Andrew Lloyd Webber himself. I thought it unamusing, lazy, and crass.

[ClumsyDude15]

kdogg36 said: "My mind is a complete blank on the details, but I think there's aCats-related joke inSchool of Rock.Maybe someone else can remember exactly what it is!"

There is! It is during the part in the show when Dewey is auditioning the kids for the band and Summer sings Memory as her audition song and he stops her and tells her he doesn't know what that is but he never wants to hear it again. The joke is also from the movie in a similar form. 

[adamgreer]

“I’ve seen it about nine times now and every time is better than the last time.”

https://youtu.be/rDxDOTos84Y

[Rainah]

I feel like that's what Hamilton will turn into. Not necessarily the same punchline, but it's definitely used often as a joke. Anyone remember that commercial where the woman says she's having a baby, her friends are all excited, and then another announces she's just got Hamilton tickets and they all flock over to her instead? 

The well of "Oh whatever you're not the cast of Hamilton" jokes seems like it will be quite deep

[ScottyDoesn'tKnow2]

I like that they kept the Cats reference in School of Rock considering ALW's composing both show's scores. I think the joke in School of Rock isn't really a joke about the show (though Jack Black's face can be interpreted that way) and more of a joke on that girl's singing. Though the character seems to have discriminating tastes against anything that isn't rock music.

[raddersons]

As a former Cats hater... I think the main thing I dislike is when people act as if they're the first people to see how stupid it is, without really knowing anything about it. Like, do you think I don't understand what Cats is? I know exactly what it is. I know it's ridiculous. That doesn't make me like it less -- that's why I like it.

[Elfuhbuh]

This is one of those shows that’s designed specifically to be fun, harmless fluff that keeps families entertained for a couple hours, and considering its ongoing popularity around the world, I’d say it succeeds at being exactly that. CATS was never meant to be anything deep or thought provoking, and it never claimed to be anything more than it was. I think the people who obsess over taking jabs at it and bemoaning how “dumb” it is don’t get that.

[Wildcard]

ALW is laughing all the way to the bank!

[BalconyClub]

In the 1997 film, Love! Valour! Compassion!, one character is packing a few CDs at the last minute for a summer getaway.

Many showtune CDs make it into the Gotta Pack pile, but Cats is tossed away as a Don't Take reject.

[eddy3]

ClumsyDude15 said: "kdogg36 said: "My mind is a complete blank on the details, but I think there's aCats-related joke inSchool of Rock.Maybe someone else can remember exactly what it is!"

There is! It is during the part in the show when Dewey is auditioning the kids for the band and Summer sings Memory as her audition song and he stops her and tells her he doesn't know what that is but he never wants to hear it again. The joke is also from the movie in a similar form."

The joke is a little more funny, as Dewey says he never wants to hear that song again in this theatre.  The theatre that School of Rock plays in is the Winter Garden, the same theatre that Cats played in for nearly 20 years.  In the West End production of School of Rock, they play in the Gillian Lynne Theatre, renamed after the choreographer of Cats, and is where the original West End production of Cats played for over 20 years.  Both theatres had Memory sung thousands of times.

 

[CarlosAlberto]

eddy3 said: "ClumsyDude15 said: "kdogg36 said: "My mind is a complete blank on the details, but I think there's aCats-related joke inSchool of Rock.Maybe someone else can remember exactly what it is!"

There is! It is during the part in the show when Dewey is auditioning the kids for the band and Summer sings Memory as her audition song and he stops her and tells her he doesn't know what that is but he never wants to hear it again. The joke is also from the movie in a similar form."

The joke is a little more funny, as Dewey says he never wants to hear that song again in this theatre. The theatre that School of Rock plays in is the Winter Garden, the same theatre that Cats played in for nearly 20 years. In the West End production of School of Rock, they play in the Gillian Lynne Theatre, renamed after the choreographer of Cats, and is where the original West End production of Cats played for over 20 years. Both theatres had Memory sung thousands of times.

I caught that when I saw it! I was laughing my ass off and wondering if anyone else realized that the very theater we were in was home to Cats for a veeeerrry long time! And yes I did see Cata there as well!

[henrikegerman]

I seem to recall that there's a joke about CATS in the "Oedipus Wrecks" section of "New York Stories," directed by Woody Allen and starring Allen and Mae Questel.

[A Director]

I caught that when I saw it! I was laughing my ass off and wondering if anyone else realized that the very theater we were in was home to Cats for a veeeerrry long time! And yes I did see Cata there as well!"

Didn't the program include a footnote about this, or, at least, have a character explain things to the audience?

 

[SeanD2]

In the movie All I Want For Christmas from 1991ish a teenage girl says that her mom is going to take her to Cats and that she hates the show.

Also in the movie Jersey Girl the school talent show is filled with multiple kids singing Memory before Ben Affleck shows up to perform God That’s Good