The Tom & Jerry cartoon show is an American animated media franchise and series of comedy short films created in 1940 by animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera for Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM).

The name Tom & Jerry was named after a cocktail. In the early 19th century it was a British term for rambunctious youth as coined in the 1823 book Life in London or Days and Nights of Jerry Hawthorne and his friend Corinthian Tom by Pierce Egan.

It all started when Joseph Barbera began to work at MGM in August 1937 as animator and storyman. At the time one of the owner of MGM, Louis B. Mayer wished to boost the animation department. Barbera then teamed with animator and director William Hanna and the pair discussed the idea with producer Fred Quimby who gave green-light to produce one cartoon short despite a lack of interest in it.

After MGM gave their go for Hanna and Barbera to continue the show, the two would continue to work on the series for the next fifteen years of their career. Barbera estimated the average budget of $50.000 for each Tom and Jerry cartoon. A typical cartoon took around six weeks to make.

At their very first appearance in 1940’s Puss Gets the Boot, Tom and Jerry were originally named as Jasper and Jinx. In that MGM short animated Hanna gave the mouse’s original name as “Jinx” while Barbera claimed the mouse was unnamed in his first appearance. Later, the two main characters had their full names : Thomas Jasper Cat, Sr. (Tom) and Gerald Jinx Mouse (Jerry). Jerry even has his nephew, Tuffy, joining the show after a while.

Originally, Hanna and Barbera produced 114 Tom and Jerry shorts for MGM from 1940 to 1958. During those years the cartoon won seven Academy Awards for Best Animated Short Film. MGM revived the series after MGM cartoon studio closed in 1957 with Gene Deitch directing additional 13 Tom and Jerry shorts from 1961 to 1962. The show then became the highest-grossing animated short film series of that time and surpassed Looney Tunes.

Although portrayed as long time enemies, the two animals are best friends. However, Tom pretends to hate him and chase the mouse in front of his owner. He does that so that his owner will be under impression that Tom hates Jerry and as such the owner would not replace Tom with another cat which could kill Jerry. They don’t hate each other actually. Jerry always wins because he fights for his life, his survival and Tom fights for a meal.

Even though Tom and Jerry has often been criticized  as too much violent, there is no blood or gore in any of the scene. In some countries the show is banned for many reasons including smoking, harmful substance abuse, alcohol and violence. The result then, some episodes were banned, scenes were deleted and characters were replaced.

Throughout the years a number shorts have been made such as Chuck Jones that produced another 34 shorts between 1963 and 1967.

Spin offs for the show including the television series The Tom and Jerry Show (1975),  The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show (1980–1982), Tom & Jerry Kids (1990–1993), Tom and Jerry Tales (2006–2008), and The Tom and Jerry Show (2014–2021). The first feature-length film based on the series, Tom and Jerry: The Movie, was released in 1992.

Generally there is little dialogue as the Tom and Jerry almost never speak but the two main animals speak English on rare occasions. Most of the vocal effects used for Tom and Jerry are the high-pitched laughs and screams.