Splatter (popularly known as WB Splatter) was a provocative art exhibition held in London in 2008, created by British artist James Cauty of The KLF fame, in collaboration with his son, Harry Cauty. The exhibition took place at The Aquarium Gallery and centered on reimagining characters from the Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry series in extremely bloody scenarios, being image edits and sculptures of their respective original episodes.
Splatter also features a six-minute short
, directed by James and Harry and animated by Robin Reeder, following the same gory premise from the exhibition.
Not to be confused with Joe Dante's horror film of the same name.
The exhibition and animated short feature the following examples:
- The Bad Guy Wins: Whether you treat them as "bad guys" or not, there are instances where antagonists such as Tom, Sylvester and the Coyote win against their targeted preys, albeit in a bloody fashion although the former did win in some occasions whenever wining over Jerry or he and Jerry both win at the end Sylvester did win at the end for a few shorts like Back Alley Oproar, Bell Hoppy, A Message to Gracias, A Tasteof Catnip (despite he was in a cameo in one scene but still counts), Kitty Kornered, Catchas Cats Can, and Doggone Cats. The Coyote did also win at the end of Lickety-Splat (however this is mostly due to the fail of the dynamite darts)
- Bloodier and Gorier: The very reason as to why it's called Splatter in the first place, as what are normally Amusing Injuries in their respective shows because of the characters' Toon Physics get turned into gruesome deaths when you take those same physics away from them.
- Dismembering the Body: The infamous image of Tom cutting Jerry to pieces with a knife◊ while putting on a Slasher Smile, which is edited from the episode "The Yankee Doodle Mouse" in the scene where Tom grabs Jerry and starts tying him to a firework pointed at the sky, only for Jerry to trick Tom and tie his own hands to the firework instead
- Nightmare Face: The smiling Bugs Bunny head from the Merrie Melodies' title card gets replaced by one that shows all of his muscles exposed.
- Your Head A-Splode: There are two edits where Bugs and Elmer Fudd blow Daffy's head off (and Daffy retaliating on the former, at least in the short), as well as Tom having the firecracker meant for Jerry exploding on his face in the animated edit from "The Yankee Doodle Mouse", which was originally a blackface gag.
