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		senseless violence never had a purer or more enjoyable form than that of "eek! stravaganza" (well most parts of it, "eek! the cat" and "the terrible thunderlizards" were both great, but "clutter" was rather mediocre). now naysayers may believe that "eek! the cat" was just a stupid cartoon, like a trite version of "looney toons" without any of real substance. but that was, in part, what made the show so great. eek is like a parody of violence, with near constant barrage of explosions and pummelings of the furry characters. a true gem were all those appropriately placed "den of bugs" or "bug stores" or "pit of bugs" that added the fun of having a swarm bugs chasing our beloved protagonist with the obligatory howling of "ah, bugs! the bugs! oh the humanity!". of course much the greatness of eek was derived from the plethora of running jokes that they shoved into the short segments that made up that half-hour of quality tv. there was incredible elmo's little brother little timmy who was always landing into interesting predicaments (like when he gets his butt stuck in a wicker lawn chair or when he goes through a disturbing madonna phase or when he finds his nose too big to be bearable) forcing elmo to perform some great feat or another. who can forget the squishy bears, all carefree and happy aside for pierre, the bitter french canadian squishy bear, who is always saddled with having to do the dirty work of the group. and then there is sharky the sharkdog with his never-ending attempts to destroy "the evil purple blob" that is eek. and in a sense "eek! the cat" is a showcase of the various types of people in real life. eek the constant optimist who always does right and whose only fault is near complete ignorance. elmo the well intentioned coward in us all, who knows he should be doing something but really can't muster together enough sense to see things through. pierre the oft squashed upon realist surrounded by dolts who only care about their appearances. and sharky who sees his dreams squashed time and time again by the ignorance of another. "eek! the cat" does have a moral message. looking past the violence, it is quite a wholesome show, i personally find it on par with most normal kiddie shows in terms of instilling positive attitudes. eek always does the right thing, he never promotes any bad behavior aside from stupidity, and he never fails to accomplish his goals (although it's often only after he receives a severe beating by a mob of people and gets run over by several miscellaneous vehicles). all that is what makes eek so endearing and enjoyable. it is rare that in today's world of cartoons that a show does not reduce itself by using potty jokes or by relying on the cuteness of its characters, and all the rarer that one instead relies on solid stories, solid characters, and good ol' fashioned random acts violence.