Cartoonist Alli Katz talks about giving her kids the coolest names possible, her alternate life as Allison Williams, and how her name made her funnier. You can find more of Alli's work on Instagram @allikatz. You can find us on Instagram @namedroppingpod or send us an email at namedropping@defector.com. Namedropping is hosted by Giri Nathan and Samer Kalaf, and produced by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. Our editor is Justin Ellis, and our supervising producer is Alex Sujong Laughlin. Our production assistant is Jae Towle Vieira. Defector Media is a collectively owned, subscriber-based media company. If you love this podcast and want to support us, subscribe at defector.com.
Cartoonist Alli Katz talks about giving her kids the coolest names possible, her alternate life as Allison Williams, and how her name made her funnier. Episode transcript available here.
You can find more of Alli's work on Instagram @allikatz. You can find us on Instagram @namedroppingpod or send us an email at namedropping@defector.com.
Namedropping is hosted by Giri Nathan and Samer Kalaf, and produced by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. Our editor is Justin Ellis, and our supervising producer is Alex Sujong Laughlin. Our production assistant is Jae Towle Vieira.
Defector Media is a collectively owned, subscriber-based media company. If you love this podcast and want to support us, subscribe at defector.com.
Alli Katz: I don't think that there's such thing as a fake name. If people can choose their own names, they should choose their own names—you should live life with the name that you want to live life with. And all names in the end are made up. This one feels, like, really made up.
[music]
Giri Nathan: I'm Giri Nathan.
Samer Kalaf: And I'm Samer Kalaf. And this is Namedropping, a show about having a made up name.
Giri: In this episode, we talk to Alli Katz. I think Ali reached out to us because she's a friend of our coworker Dan McQuade, who is effectively the mayor of Philadelphia, and knows everyone there is to know, everyone with an interesting name included.
Samer: And as we were putting together season two, we thought she would be a great guest.
Giri: We really liked the idea of a name that's just, straight up a concept. Alley cats are a thing in the world, they're out there, if you go into the right alley, you might see some.
Samer: It felt like a concept that was fading away over time, as there were fewer alleys and more housing developments built, because New York used to have a ton of alleys. And they deliberately got rid of them. And I think there are still more in Philadelphia, where Alli lives currently.
Giri: Yeah, we ended up having a much more sunny conversation than I think we usually have, in terms of how a name can affect the little day to day interactions you have. And it might seem superficial, but I think the sum of all these little interactions over the course of your life, can steer it in some way, and sort of shape your personality.
Samer: Yeah, also just being a little familiar with her work in illustration and cartoons. I thought it was really interesting how her name kind of fit her personality, and also how maybe her personality was shaped by her name.
[music fades]
Alli: It's kind of interesting, because like, my name is so literal. There's like a very precise image, I think in most people's heads, if you say—
Giri: Vagrant felines
Alli: —an alley cat out there. But that mostly means like I just have the experience of watching people's realization that my name is a literal … it's like a literal, it just is a thing. It's a concept in the zeitgeist. Yeah. My name is a concept.
Giri: You said you watch people kind of realize that in real time. What kind of responses do you tend to get after introducing yourself?
Alli: I'd say there's some people who are immediately like, “Is that your real name?” Yeah. Which like, yeah. Yes, it is. And then there are people who don't think— the concept is not immediate to them, they don't hold onto it. And so there's kind of a weird thing that happens there, where, like, I'm waiting for it. Like, are you gonna notice?
Samer: Are you waiting, like hours, or days, or even longer than that, sometimes?
Alli: Sometimes the realization comes, like, months and months and months later, and I'll be talking to someone who would be like, “Oh, my God, did you know your name is Alli Katz”. Like, yeah, “Oh my god!”
Giri: I love the idea of framing it as like, “Did you know?”
Alli: Some people are like, “Oh, my God, I've just got it. Just now. That's why people say your whole name. It’s because…” Yes, it is. Thank you. Thank you. That’s true.
Samer: Do you ever ask them what specifically triggered the realization?
Alli: The narcissist in me wants to ask, but I don't. Because we're already at that point, like engaging in a very “me” focused conversation. So tell me more about what you think about me. Always tempting.
Giri: But I definitely liked the idea of having your name or having every introduction be this kind of slow-release punchline that hits either seconds later or months later.
Samer: For posterity, your full name is Allison, correct?
Alli: My full name is Alison. Yes.
Samer: So was there a stage in your life you remember where you decided to go by Alli?
Alli: It was definitely my parents intention that I would go by Alli, and that Alli would be my name from here on. But I do come from a family that is like, full name first. Nickname for sure. But you get the big name. and go from there. But my dad actually, weirdly, calls me Allison now. He didn't when I was a kid, but now, I don't know what the change is. But he’ll be like, Alison, did you get my email?
Giri: Do you have any theories as to why?
Alli: He was a teacher, for a long time, so I think maybe it's just, roll call based, he still has that like … And I don't know, maybe he just has discovered that he really loves the name Allison, this many years later. But my mom actually, usually called me Al in high school. So they both strayed from calling me Alli eventually, but completely different directions.
Giri: Subtracting or adding syllables. What have your parents told you about how they chose your name?
Alli: It's a source of controversy. I'm going to glide over it a little bit, because I did mention it to my dad while he was visiting. And then he was like, “I can't believe your mom”—I was like, you know what? I’m gonna leave it. I told my mom today that I was coming on to this podcast, and she was like, “Are you gonna tell the story?” I was like, you know what, I'm just not. I'm just not. It's fine. Like, they’re so divorced. They've been divorced since I was like three. So I will say that one of the interesting things about my parents is that they, in many ways, they don't get along. But probably the one thing that they both share is wildly different, but equally very peculiar senses of humor. And so I think they're very happy that my name is Alli Katz. Like, both of them feel like it's right for me. And it's beautiful, when you could find a point of connection between people like that. So we'll see if they listen to that. They're like, “Oh, yes. Finally.” Kidding. Woof. Parents.
Samer: Do people ever assume you chose to go by Alli Katz? Even though your parents actually gave you the nickname?
Alli: Yeah, I think it definitely feels ... I don't think that there's such a thing as a fake name. If people can choose their own names, they should choose their own names. You should live like life with the name that you want to live life with. But this definitely—and all names in the end are made up—this one feels like, really made up. I get that. It's so hard to know, the difference between whether … would I be the way I am if I didn't have a funny name? My parents, like I said, they have great senses of humor. They're very funny people. Would I have leaned into that so hard? Would I have maybe gone in a different direction, if it wasn't so easy to be this way with this name? It is very easy to be jokey and light when you have a silly name. Would I have maybe thought a little more about treating myself with more seriousness? I know that certainly many people have tried to encourage me to maybe tone it down a little bit. But it's an interesting question to think about. Would I have been that person if I had always been Allison, or if my last name was something else. The only thing that I almost want to make sure that people know: that I've lived my whole life with this name. Just because I feel like it explains things, like I was born Alli Katz, and it just sort of kept going from there.
Samer: Was there any point in your life where you felt like Alli Katz was a burden or a benefit? Maybe in terms of making friends or meeting new people?
Alli: It's always been a benefit. But it's like,
Giri: That's great. That puts you in the minority among our guests so far.
Alli: That makes me also feel sad. But it’s just because it's memorable. I think it predisposes people to want to talk to me a little bit more, just a little bit more. And that's like, my sweet spot. And then I talk to them a lot more, and they're like, okay. But I even had one of my first sort of professional jobs at Philadelphia Weekly, like, at this point, a million years ago, there was an editor there who decided that he wanted my byline in the paper just because it was funny. He was like, you get to write this, you know, 210 word blurb for whatever, because you have a funny name. And I’d like to see that byline in the paper.
Giri: So it seems like you've gotten pretty good personal and professional perks out of this. But did you ever at all struggle with puns, and like, the idea of having a pun in your name?
Alli: I didn't, but definitely some kids in high school were like, “Oh, this is rich,” which is also sort of to my advantage. I think it's mostly that I'm an optimist. Like, if you're gonna make fun of my name, you're not making fun of all of the other things. This is what you’re stuck— you can't really get out of that. I did have a geometry teacher who I really liked. And I didn't dislike him because of that. But he thought maybe that it was silly that I was like, sort of entertained by my own name. So he used to call me “street rat.” Which I thought was a weird thing to do.
[All laughing]
Samer: Was he trying to take you down a peg?
Alli: Yeah, I think maybe.
Samer: This kid embraced her name too much. We need to humble her.
Alli: Grind that self esteem down a little bit. Which, like, my math grade was enough to do that. I don’t know why he needed to come at me so hard.
Giri: Wow. I do feel like this is maybe the least problematic possible retelling of a story where your teacher calls you street rat? I feel okay about this, on balance.
Allli: Yeah, I didn't feel hurt. And I think that is sort of one of the insulating things, like in the same way this is this sort of easy target, it also means that I've sort of been getting weird energy from people my whole life. You don't necessarily meet a person named Alli Katz and think like, this is a person I'm going to treat with utmost respect and you're not going to necessarily meet a person named Alli Katz and presume a seriousness, or that they're going to be hypersensitive. And you know, I have my own sensitivities. But you're not going to think like, oh, this person probably hates jokes.
Giri: I can see that being frustrating sometimes. I mean, you definitely have an easygoing personality from as far as I can tell, but there's probably moments where you don't want the tone of the conversation to immediately go a little loopy.
Alli: Yeah, I mean, most people are like, you know, if someone's like, “I'm sorry to tell you this, but this horrible thing is happening to you … Alli Katz!” Like, you know, people are capable of modulating their tone. And I do, if I was ever really, really, just I couldn't handle this anymore, this name is so ridiculous, I can't stand it—I could be Allison Katz. I can be that other version of myself that is not funny.
Giri: You're not in the mood to josh around?
Alli: Oh, well, that's my brother's name, so.
Samer: Oh, we should actually talk about your brother Josh.
Alli: Yeah, he'll love that.
Samer: How do you feel about the fact that he has a more common—he's not getting people being like, “Oh, Josh Katz,” whereas you are kind of mostly in that situation every time you introduce yourself. Have you ever talked about it with him? Or?
Alli: Yeah, I mean, there's a couple things happening with that. It's a chicken and egg situation too—I don't know. Am I like this about my name because this is my name, and there's not a lot of space otherwise where I would be going by Allison, if I felt otherwise? Similarly, like, one of the names on the table, my father's suggestion for my brother's name, was, or first suggestion for my brother's name, was Felix.
Samer: Ooh.
Alli: And my mom said no, emphatically, no. So there's this kind of like, other version of my brother that's out there, where it's like, he could be Felix. Felix T was actually what his name was going to be.
Samer: Oh wow.
Giri: That’s very good. I like that.
Samer: Is he older or younger?
Alli: He's a year younger than me. Like, exactly a year younger than me. And so, you know, I think that there, it could have really, would my? You know, my brother's funny and he's smart. But would he have been like, over the top? If his name was Felix? Or would it have been like, especially because he is 37 now, it wasn't a super common name. Would it have actually just kind of made things weirder for him? Allison was an incredibly common name. I was born on Long Island, there were like a million Allisons in my kindergarten class. I moved to Chicago, there were a million Allisons all over the place. Alli's a nickname for like six different names. But Felix.
Samer: Felix you don’t see as much.
Giri: It has a nice whimsy to it.
Allison: Yeah, I know a lot of kids named Felix now, I know several children named Felix.
Samer: It made a comeback, probably.
Alli: I was thinking of it for my kids, but I wanted to leave it in case, I didn't want to take it from my brother, in case he ever decided that's what he was gonna do.
Samer: That’s very generous.
Giri: Josh Katz was actually the name of one of my favorite professors in college. But I wonder if he models your brother's Google results, that's kind of what I was thinking about.
Alli: That's true. Well, my brother's pretty hard to Google. Josh Katz is kind of a common name. Alli Katz is too. There's a couple other Alli Katzes. In the early days of Facebook, I friended all of them.
Samer: Did you have like a group chat going? Or?
Alli: It was before group chats. Because it was the earliest days of Facebook.
Samer: There's a similar thing for me. I friended like a couple of Samers. And I think one of those Samers had a connection to some Samer who had the initiative to put like 50 of us in a group message, but I don’t think anything ever came of it. There was too many Samers for anything to get done really.
Alli: Yeah, I wonder, do you guys have like a collective noun?
Giri: A murder of Samers?
Samer: Yeah, we need one of those.
Alli: I guess it would be like a colony of Alli Katzes. But I recently, like, very recently, learned that I spell my name in an atypical way, which I didn't know.
Giri: Oh, without the E at the end?
Alli: Without the E, with no Y, two Ls. The whole thing is like, this is the rarest way to spell it, I think.
Samer: That kind of makes it distinct then in its own way.
Giri: Visually, I like how it looks on the page. Yeah.
Alli: Yeah, it works too, you know, you stack Alli on top of Katz, and it’s got a nice—
Giri: Four on four. Yeah, that's nice. And the E is totally superfluous, it’s not doing any work.
Alli: No. I briefly did experiment with using the Y, because I thought that Ys were cool when I was in eighth grade. So I was like, I'm gonna change the way I spell Alli. Told everybody.
Samer: A rebrand.
Alli: Total rebrand, didn't work, didn't stick.
Giri: Gritty reboot. It’s cool that you thought Ys were cool. I thought X was cool. I put X into a lot of my screen names. And then I also thought that S was cool. You know that S that everyone drew?
Alli: Yeah, your notebook S.
Giri: Yeah, I’m actually drawing it right now. It feels amazing.
Alli: Yeah, I thought the Y would set me apart. It looks better in block letters. Actually, you know what, a block letter I can be pretty cool, if you're gonna go ahead and put the top and bottom on it. But yeah, it's like, you know, the loop that comes from writing Y in cursive. Kind of had a nice balance with the cursive Z.
Giri: Oh, I could see that. Do you have like a mental image in your mind of Allison Katz if you are going in Allison Mode?
Alli: Yeah, that person is like, much richer than me. She has really, she has made it. But she has. You know, I won't say that she has like a dark undercurrent, but I will say that maybe she's a striver a bit, like she's really trying really hard. She probably likes to ride horses, almost certainly, like in law or a scientist or something like that, works long hours. Wears nice pants. Has a ponytail. Yeah. She's like, I had like a version of the mental image my whole life. And Allison Williams has completely supplanted—basically her.
Giri: That makes sense.
Samer: Yeah, that's a good template.
Alli: Yeah it was something like that. But now it's just like, now I can't even envision my own face there anymore. It’s fully morphed into her. It’s fine.
Giri: Like when you see a movie and you lose your book impressions of the characters.
Alli: Yeah, she's the new version of my like, very rich, successful self. Sort of more confident in a worse way. Like, confident about the exact wrong things. But successful professionally—I don't want to diminish my own professional success—successful in a very traditional high-paying job. And the weird hobbies, like maybe field hockey growing up or something, I don't know. Definitely more athletic, definitely more coordinated.
[music/ad break]
Giri: To touch on your work a little bit, you write a lot of comics about parenting, and I was wondering how much you thought about naming your kids.
Alli: I'm naming my kids is like, I don't know, 50% of the reason I had kids. That’s not true. I love you both so much. My children who are obviously going to be listening to this podcast.
Samer: We know they’re loyal subscribers.
Alli: My husband's also a writer, we were both thoughtful about these kinds of things. So we made like, really, really big list of names. And we debated them and we tried to think about all of this sort of different factors involved in our kids’ names, and, you know, we wanted stuff that was relatively common, but maybe not super trendy, that kind of thing. And so we went with Penelope for my older daughter, and Arthur for my son, these kind of story-ish names, connected to sort of literary figures, but also, you know, kind of cool, I guess. But yeah, we ended up naming our kids Pen and Art, and I am a cartoonist, so like they have to—
Samer: That's really sweet though. That’s a nice thematic consistency.
Alli: Yeah, it's better than the first draft, which was just me thinking about it, was gonna be like Dorothy and Dashiell, so like Dot and Dash Sharp-Katz, which felt like a lot.
Giri: But they hyphenate, the kids do?
Alli: Yeah, my husband's last name is Sharp. So Sharp-Katz is just too cool to have passed up.
Giri: That's incredible.
Samer: That is really cool.
Giri: We got to get them on the pod now.
Alli: Yeah, like hello, Penelope Sharp-Katz. Both of us felt really neutral about the idea of the kids having either of our last names, like they could have had mine, they could have had his, whatever. But you can't pass up that hyphen opportunity. It now, however, takes like forever to fill out forms. Their first names aren't that short. It takes a long time.
Samer: Was that mainly the reason that you chose to hyphenate, was you want to leave it up to them when they got older or?
Alli: No, I wanted the cool name. Yeah, my husband and I wanted to give the kids the coolest name that we could, without being too cool. We weren’t gonna name them like, Superhero …
Samer: Superman Sharp-Katz.
Alli: Yeah. I don't want to insult anybody.
Giri: Big Sharp-Katz.
Alli: Yeah. We did try to come up with some things like, what if we double down on the pun? My favorite is probably Feral. Someone suggested Feral Sharp-Katz. Or just Feral Katz.
Giri: It's all good stuff. Wow, I would be so confident if my last name was Sharp Katz.
Samer: Yeah.
Giri: When I'm running, I'd feel faster. If I'm arguing with someone, I'd feel fiercer.
Samer: I’m thinking in like, an NFL game, on an interception or something. If Sharp-Katz came up with a pick, it'd be like, that's a great player, instantly.
Alli: Yeah I think one of them is gonna get married and change their name anyway. They’re like, Oh, I don't want to carry around this hyphenarte forever. It's helpful, because it might be a hyphenated name, but it’s still only like two syllables, it’s just Sharp-Katz. It’s not a lot in terms of saying out loud.
Giri: Existing saying words that English speakers can say without too much of an issue.
Samer: Yeah. That’s a great benefit.
Alli: Yeah, I think if they were longer names, even if it was really remarkable, we probably would have just picked one. We talked briefly about portmanteauing the name—but not good. Shatz.
Giri: Shartz?
Alli: Shartz and Shatz are the best options there. That's not fair.
Giri: Karp? I guess you go the fish route. I'd be less confident, I think, if I was named Shartz, versus Sharp-Katz.
Alli: That's one of of those ones where it's like, why didn't you just change your name? If your last name is Shartz. Maybe, maybe you take somebody else's name when you get married. You just change it, also. You don't have to live with that if you don't want to. But, yeah, we decided to hyphenate instead of portmanteau. It was on the table, the Shartz wedding, join us all the Shartz wedding.
Samer: Did you or your husband ever consider taking each other's last name?
Alli: Um, I definitely would have not taken his, I mean, like, politically I already am that. And lazily, I probably wouldn't. But also my name is Alli Katz. And the idea that I would like, pay money and spend time losing that, was just … that wasn't going to happen. Yeah.
Samer: Just in general, do you have any particular affinity for cats? Or I guess what's your opinion on cats in general?
Alli: I am generally pro-cat. I am specifically pro some cats. Like deeply pro some cats. And I am like, kind of anti my current cat.
Samer: What's wrong with him?
Alli: Well, I think in this same thing, you know, you sort of grow into names, I think I grew into I am the way I am in part because my name is Alli Katz. We named our cat Uh-oh, because it was something that my daughter could say. And now that’s that cat's name. And it's also very confusing for poor Arthur, who is just learning how to talk, and it's one of the like, four things he can say. So he thinks everyone's always talking about his cat. He sees the cat: Uh-oh, uh-oh. He’s one of those cats that like, knocks water onto you, and steals your stuff and hides in this weird basement lair? You know, one of those cats.
Giri: You feel a little responsible for it? Do you feel like you set him up for this fate? Or?
Alli: I do yeah, I do. But his name from the shelter was Chase. So like, already a problem.
Samer: Instant upgrade with Uh-oh honestly.
Alli: It feels right when you’re like, “Uh-oh, no!” Once again, hard for probably a child learning the language.
Samer: Yeah, I just like the idea of your son being like, “Getting a lot of vibes of my house cat from all this” every time he hears Uh-oh.
Alli: “Where is he? Where is he?” He’s probably sitting at daycare, “Where’s the cat?”
Samer: In terms of non-household cats, do you have any affinity? Or how often do you see actual alleycats where you are?
Alli: There are a good amount of indoor-outdoor cats in my neighborhood. So there's a couple of set cats I see regularly. I don't know if they'd quite qualify as alleycats more than just like somebody's outdoor cat. When I lived in West Philly, I saw more feral cats, but there are fewer alleys. So you know, it's hard to know. Like, what's the difference between a feral cat and an alley cat? But I do. I mean, I love cats. I do love cats. They're my preferred pet. I like the way—I like purring, I think that's nice, comforting to me. I don't purr, but like, having a cat.
Samer: Yeah, dogs have no equivalent of I guess, wagging the tail. It's not as satisfying as like, purring.
Alli: Yeah, I like, you know, dog’s happy, wagging its tail, but then they jump and then they you know. A cat curls up, purrs, falls asleep, and then you can't move the next couple hours. It's great. And then like, I don't know, I've taken one trip ever out of the country. My husband and I went to Greece, there are cats everywhere. And that was awesome. Yeah, what I spent most of my trip doing is taking pictures of cats.
Giri: I also did that the one time I went to Greece. They're just sunning on all these beautiful little nooks and crannies, it’s a good lifestyle.
Alli: I saw this really metal looking Acropolis cat. He basically looked like he was … there. He’s been there the whole time.
Samer: The Ancient One.
Alli: He's a truly ancient cat.
Samer: You got to think that that's basically just like the largest kind of cat tree, basically, that has all these nooks and crannies, like all of them would congregate there and laze about.
Giri: Yeah, it feels beyond time. If you do have a third kid, I think Ancient Sharp-Katz could be promising.
Alli: Ancient would be a pretty good name.
Samer: We wanted to talk some about your work and your cartooning. And I was just going through some of the stuff you've published on Instagram, and I found one about the terrible toys to be really funny. Just wondering, I guess, because I don't really have a lot of experience, as a non parent, but have children's toys just gotten shittier? Are they just all bad now?
Alli: No, I think actually, like, they've gotten better. Probably. We just like—when I was a kid, I wasn't annoyed by my own toys, especially if they were properly functioning. Because I got to play with them. They were fun for me. There's just like, you don't want to take away a kid’s joy, from enjoying the thing that they have.That's why they have them. They have toys to have fun with them. But they can be horrible. And Josh, my brother and his partner, they love sending my kids toys that make really loud noises. It's fine. I sent them a recorder.
Giri: Wow, that's terrorism.
Alli: For my niece, I was like, yeah, it was like a Frozen songbook. So it's like, you know, I'm there. I'm ready.
Samer: I kind of imagined just like the noise that comes out of toys is similar to when you hear like somebody else—this might just be me thing—when I hear somebody else whistling, it's just possibly like, the most annoying thing in the world. But when I'm whistling of course, it's pleasant and fun.
Alli: Yeah, it's like perfect when one whistles, one's own self whistles.
Giri: To be whistled upon is one of the worst fates though.
Samer: Yeah. You don't want it.
[music]
Samer: We wanted to do a rapid fire round in which we would ask you your opinions on various cartoon alleycats.
Alli: Oh, please.
Giri: So first off, we have Sylvester the cat from Looney Tunes.
Alli: I love him. I love his enthusiasm that he brings. He's not a laid back cat. And I think that, I mean, Uh-oh isn't a laidback cat either. And there's something kind of good about that, you know? It’s cool.
Samer: Sylvester has ambition.
Alli: He's definitely ambitious.
Giri: The next one is one of my favorites. Tom from Tom and Jerry, what do you think about him?
Alli: My aunt and uncle actually had a cat, their family had a cat named Tom. And he looked like Tom. And that's usually what I think of. And I feel really complicated about Tom because it feels like he actually doesn't want to eat Jerry at all.
Giri: Yeah, he’s just trapped in this horrible cycle.
Alli: He looks almost like too gentle. Like he’s playing a role that he doesn't want to be playing. Like, you could just eat your regular dry food, dude. Like, you don't have to have to do this.
Samer: In a weird coincidence, right before we got here to record, I was getting a slice of pizza and the TV was playing Tom and Jerry. And so I watched a little bit of it. And the premise was that the dog that beats up Tom was sleeping. And Tom was chasing Jerry around him. And he really didn't look like he had his heart into it.
Giri: It wasn't just a blankness in the eyes.
Samer: Yeah, he didn't look like he really wanted to catch Jerry and eat him. So I would agree with that assessment.
Alli: Tom's family, like his human family, is actually really, they're the instigators in this. There's all these moments I think of the cartoon. I can't believe I remember this. But there are moments where Tom's family is pressuring him to get rid of the mouse. Like, what a lazy cat this is. They're always like kicking Tom out of the house. Like he's really taking shit from every direction.
Samer: He was signed up for a job he doesn't want to do.
Alli: He doesn't want to do it. He just wants to sleep. He wants to be left alone. The dogs after him, the mouse is after him.
Giri: I think it's time for critical reappraisal of Tom and Jerry, and like a rehabilitation of the image of Tom. Okay, what do you think about Scratchy from Itchy and Scratchy?
Alli: Oh, see, Itchy and Scratchy merge into one unit in my head. Like, I appreciate the turn that the Simpsons did on the Tom and Jerry story. Man, those get really graphic.
Samer: Yeah, I was surprised when I was watching them recently.
Giri: Were you disturbed?
Samer: I don't know. Not that disturbed, not like I was gonna have a congressional hearing about it. But like, damn, I can't believe this show was rated TV PG with dialogue and language and stuff, and they have just like, scratchy getting disemboweled.
Giri: It was a rougher time.
Samer: Yeah. I think the last alley cat we want for you to have an opinion on was in The Aristocats. The Disney cartoon. Do you remember O'Malley the alley cat?
Alli: I actually don't. We didn't have the VHS for that when I was a kid. I didn't know it existed as a movie until I was probably like 10. You know, I found myself very old and mature. And the first time I watched it, I was like, “There's a whole movie about cats? And no one told me? Me, Alli Katz?” So I have a vague memory of that. But I was mostly just like, spent the entire movie offended that this movie had existed. There's actually another cartoon cat that was more significant to me, very much an alley cat, and it was Oliver from Oliver and Company.
Giri: Yeah we were about to ask you about that one too.
Samer We had it as like, a maybe, a deep cut.
Alli: He had that great song, the dog. I think it was maybe Billy Joel.
Samer: Was it?
Alli: “Why should I worry? Why should I care? It don’t make a difference.”
Samer: Oh, yeah, it was Billy Joel.
Alli: Yeah, it was amazing. Amazing song. It's always like a little bit in the back of my mind. Yeah, but Oliver, he was a great cat. Big fan of that guy. But I think that there's another amazing song in The Aristocats and that's “Everybody Wants to Be A Cat.” Which I have sung to people. But with my own last name. Yeah. “Everybody wants to be a Katz.” Right guys? Right? It's one of those winning jokes that I deliver on the regular.
Giri: I'm sold. It sounds like the Katz experience has been pretty good for you.
Alli: I'm pro. I’m pro. I'm thankful that my parents gave me this ridiculous name, I am.
[music]
Giri: Thanks for listening to Namedropping. You can find more of Alli’s work on Instagram @allikatz. And she was recently awarded a Sachs Program grant to complete a series of comics about parenting. Congrats, Alli! You can find us on Instagram @namedroppingpod or send us an email at namedropping@defector.com.
Namedropping is hosted by me, Giri Nathan, and Samer Kalaf; and produced by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. Our editor is Justin Ellis, and our supervising producer is Alex Sujong Laughlin. Our production assistant is Jae Towle Vieira. Thanks to Editor-in-Chief Tom Ley and the rest of the Defector staff. Defector Media is a collectively owned, subscriber-based media company. If you love this podcast and want to support us, subscribe at Defector dot com.
[music fades]
Alli: My mom is really like it. She's like, can I listen live?
Giri: Bring her into the studio! This is a strong contrast from my own family's response, which was my sister put on the podcast while they were all hanging out and then my dad asked who is this?
Alli: [laughs]
Giri: I wasn’t there but I probably would have walked out.