Some cartoon characters whisper. Mr. Blik from Catscratch screams. He is the loud, vain, scheming black cat at the center of Catscratch, and he ranks near the top of my list of favorite forgotten Nicktoons characters.
Bossy, greedy, and utterly convinced he is a genius, he is wrong about that last part more often than not.
Still, he is an absolute blast to watch.
So here is everything worth knowing about Mr. Blik from Catscratch: what kind of cat he is, who voices him, where he came from, and why this loud little furball deserves more love than he gets.
Who Is Mr. Blik?
Mr. Blik is the oldest of the three cat brothers in Catscratch, a Nickelodeon cartoon from the mid-2000s. As the self-appointed leader, he mostly just bosses the other two around.
By his own estimation, he is also the brains of the whole operation.
The setup is simple and great. Three cats inherit a fortune from their late owner, scoring a giant mansion, a monster truck, and a butler.
From there, they spend their days living large and stumbling into trouble. Naturally, Blik is the one who craves the money, the fame, and the respect most of all.
The Catscratch setup: the three cats, Blik, Gordon, and Waffle, belonged to a rich old woman named Edna Cramdilly. When she died, she left them everything: her mansion, her fortune, a giant monster truck called Gear, and her butler, Hovis, who now takes orders from his former pets. The cats also share a serious obsession with root beer.
In fact, he is loud, fussy, and stubborn, and his sleek black coat comes with piercing yellow eyes. The show turns that classic black-cat look into a running gag about bad luck, because trouble follows Blik absolutely everywhere.
What Kind of Cat Is Mr. Blik?
This is one of the most common questions about him, so let me clear it up. The show never gives Mr. Blik from Catscratch an official breed. However, his look points to one obvious answer: the Bombay.
He looks like a Bombay: breeders created the Bombay to resemble a tiny black panther, with a sleek, jet-black coat and bright copper or gold eyes. That describes Blik perfectly. The show never says the word Bombay, but if you spotted him in real life, that is the breed you would guess.
For the record, fans have pinned down his brothers too. Gordon reads as a Manx, while most people peg Waffle as an American Curl. Blik, meanwhile, is the little black panther of the family, and he knows it.
Who Voices Mr. Blik?
Mr. Blik has a perfect voice, and you have almost certainly heard it before. Wayne Knight plays him, and if that name does not ring a bell, his most famous roles absolutely will.
The voice of Blik: Wayne Knight voices Mr. Blik, and you know him best as Newman from Seinfeld and as Dennis Nedry, the “you didn’t say the magic word” guy from Jurassic Park. Fun fact: in the show’s unaired pilot, Rob Paulsen voiced Blik instead, before moving over to play Gordon in the real series.
Besides, the rest of the cast is just as stacked. Rob Paulsen plays Gordon, using the same pipes behind Pinky, Yakko, and Raphael.
Kevin McDonald of The Kids in the Hall voices Waffle. Maurice LaMarche, the legendary voice of the Brain, handles Hovis the butler.
For a little show almost nobody remembers, Catscratch landed a murderers’ row of voice talent.
The Comic That Started It All
Here is the part the wikis tend to skip, and it might be the coolest thing about the whole show. Catscratch did not start as a cartoon. It started as a comic book.
Where Blik came from: Catscratch loosely adapts a graphic novel called Gear. Its creator, Doug TenNapel, also made Earthworm Jim and the cult video game The Neverhood. Even better, he modeled the cats on his real-life pets. And in the original Gear comic, Mr. Blik went by the name Mr. Black.
So Blik is not just a cartoon cat. He is a real cat, reimagined as a comic character, then reborn as a Nicktoon.
Here is the twist most fans miss, though. In the darker, more action-heavy Gear comic, Mr. Black was the calm, level-headed one, basically the only sane cat in the cast.
The show flipped that completely and cranked him up into the arrogant hothead we know. Same design, wildly different attitude.
Mr. Blik’s Personality
Blik is vain. Deeply, hilariously vain. He obsesses over his own fur, which he lovingly calls “buttery,” and he wants every fancy thing money can buy.
Above all, he craves status, forever chasing the title of richest, most respected cat in town.
But here is what makes him work.
Underneath all that bluster, Blik is deeply insecure. He acts brave, yet he puffs himself up precisely because, deep down, he is not sure he measures up. Fans often compare him to Ted Baxter in cat form, a pompous loudmouth who is mostly bark. That little crack in the armor is exactly why he lands as lovable instead of annoying.
Blik, Gordon, and Waffle
You cannot talk about Blik without his brothers, because the whole show runs on the three of them bouncing off each other.
Blik is the schemer. Gordon is the sensible one, a sweet Scottish-accented cat with a crush on the human girl next door, Kimberly. And Waffle is the sweet, dim, happy one who adores his pet newts.
Blik fights with Gordon constantly, usually over who is in charge, and he treats Waffle like a baby brother he loves and gets annoyed by in equal measure. When it truly counts, though, Blik would do anything for them.
That bickering hides a real bond, and those sudden bursts of heart are the best part of the show. He even leans on the long-suffering butler, Hovis, for everything from schemes to cleanup.
The Best Mr. Blik Quotes
Half the fun of Blik is the stuff that comes out of his mouth. The writers handed him some all-time nonsense. A few favorites:
- “For I, and my ginormous brain” (he is endlessly proud of a brain that rarely helps him)
- “Look at your beautiful, buttery fur!” (said to himself, lovingly)
- His insults for Gordon: “Fatty McQuid,” “Tubby McThumpkins,” and “Bulbous McPorky”
- Total nonsense zingers: “You cobbler-stuffed leaf monkey!” and “Lemur-sauced radish pole!”
- A triumphant victory cry, a simple, booming “Yeah!”
None of it makes sense. All of it is funny. That is Blik in a nutshell.
Fun Facts About Mr. Blik
A few more things worth knowing about the loud little cat.
A few deep cuts: Blik nurses a crush on a wild yellow cat named Katilda, though she only turns up in two episodes. He owns a beloved doll named Commodore Nougat. He also acts the most “human” of the three cats, happily working the TV remote and making phone calls. On top of that, in one episode he builds a fully working robot replica of himself, which is peak Blik.
Of course, he even sings his own triumphant victory song whenever he wins, belting out lines like “Best house on the block, YEAH!”
Catscratch: Episodes, Ending, and Where to Watch
How Many Episodes of Catscratch Are There?
Catscratch had a short life. It ran for a single season, and then it was gone.
The numbers: Catscratch ran for 20 episodes across one season, airing on Nickelodeon from July 2005 to February 2007. Each episode split into shorter segments, the usual Nick format. Then Nickelodeon quietly canceled it in 2007 without ever giving a public reason.
In fact, it even picked up a 2006 Annie Award nomination for its character design. Sadly, it never found a big audience, and that was that. A real shame.
Where Can You Watch Catscratch?
Good news on this front. For years, Catscratch was one of those great lost Nicktoons, but you can finally stream it again.
Watch Catscratch on Prime Video
Availability may vary by region.
Amazon Prime Video now carries the series, though the lineup shifts by region, so what you get depends on where you live.
It never scored a full DVD release, and only a couple of old Nick compilation discs ever included a single episode each.
Still, having it on a major streaming service is a huge step up for a show fans nearly lost for good. If you are a parent weighing it for the kids, Common Sense Media has a full content breakdown.
In the end, that is Mr. Blik from Catscratch: a loud, vain, scheming black cat with a giant ego, a soft heart, and a brain that gets him into far more trouble than it gets him out of. He is the kind of character who should not be lovable, yet somehow is.
Catscratch deserved better than to fade into obscurity, and Blik is a big part of why.
Were you a Catscratch fan, and who was your favorite of the three brothers?
Let me know in the comments.