Quote Originally Posted by Peelee View Post
If Bob's job is to follow you around and punch you all day long, would you have any sympathy for Bob suffering due to anything you do?
No, but if Bob's a security guard and his job is to catch the guy squatting on the property and stealing from the owners. I mean, in most episodes where tom starts it that's the most apt comparison.

In fact, in it's the future and they're fighting each other with RC robots" short I'm pretty sure that's literally the case.

they're both clearly as smart as people, so if we treat them like people, Jerry's a trespasser on the property who supports himself by burglarizing the property.

If you filter out those episodes, then most of the remainder are of Jerry antagonizing Tom for no reason and getting away with it—sometimes Tom gets in trouble for retaliating even—or one-shot episodes that shake up the formula. And those are the episodes where the "big sibling/little sibling" dynamic comes in.