victimology

Being a victim is sympathetic.  Sooner or later, we all wish that Wile E. Coyote could catch, cook, and eat that silly Road-Runner. 

Not so much with other cartoon characters.  Tom and Jerry -- well, if Jerry launches the carving knives at Tom in the kitchen, he's about to discover that he's tipped the forks over and they're about to impale him.  Bugs actually finds himself being marched around at gunpoint.  Etc.  Spreading the misery around helps.

Then, it's not enough.   In the cartoon where Daffy gets an animator playing fun and games with him (who turns out to be Bugs), every time his sufferings get enough to make us feel sorry for him, he acts obnoxious enough to say -- he had it coming.  And all the characters are clever and resourceful. . . .

And if you're not writing cartoons, you probably want to make your victim something more than clever and resourceful.  Possibly even something more sympathetic.  Even if they have to be (gasp) rescued.

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