Who or what is Toonces? That's probably one of the questions I hear most frequently since I first got online about eight years ago (after "Are you really a stalker?")
Quite simply, Toonces was a "character" in an old Saturday Night Live skit -- a cat who could drive a car (just not very well). When I signed onto AOL back in 1993, I wanted a screen name that didn't have numbers after it, but after about 30 minutes of trying various things, I was getting frustrated. My eyes landed on the "Toonces and Friends" video laying on top of my TV so I decided to try that. No luck -- it returned with numbers after it. However, by that point, I was so pissed that I just accepted it, and Toonces has been my alter-ego ever since.
I got hooked on Toonces the first time I ever saw the skit, because Toonces was the spitting image of my cat Gizmo (that's Shayna and Sasha the cocker spaniels with him). When I'd take Giz to the vet and get stuck in traffic, I'd amuse myself by pulling him up on my lap, positioning his paws on the steering wheel and ducking down. OK, so it doesn't take much to amuse me. Sadly, I lost Gizmo in 1997 to diabetes, but he still lives in on my heart...and my current cat, Edgar, also bears a startling resemblence to Toonces, thus carrying on the tradition.
 Toonces rides the lawn mower |
 Toonces changes a flat tire |
 Toonces plays chauffeur |
 Toonces, look out! |
 The Tooncinator |
 Urban Toonces |
All sounds are in .WAV format, courtesy of my good friend The Egg.
He drives around all over the town, Toonces the driving cat...
Toonces and four teenagers just went over a cliff...
This has been Toonces the Cat's World of Nature.
Official NBC Saturday Night Live Website
Saturday Night Live Transcripts