Cue Ball Cat is a 1950 one-reel animated cartoon and is the 54th Tom and Jerry short directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and produced by Fred Quimby. It was animated by Kenneth Muse, Irven Spence, Ed Barge and Ray Patterson, with backgrounds by Robert Gentle and music by Scott Bradley.

Plot

Tom, playing pool, wakes Jerry up by shooting a 10-ball into the pocket where he is sleeping, deep inside the pool table. Jerry is smashed between the 10-ball and a 13-ball. Jerry is mad and walks up through the pocket. He sees nothing, but after a few steps back to the pocket, he spots Tom perches behind it. Jerry tries to jump into another corner pocket, but Tom aims a cue ball with so much English that it spins backwards and takes Jerry back to Tom, who has placed a slanting cue stick leading up to his mouth. Jerry is propelled up the stick and blown down by Tom. Tom then sends a stream of balls after Jerry, flattening the mouse. They give chase back toward Tom, and they stack up at Tom's end of the table. Tom shoots all the balls with his cue, but Jerry hangs on. Jerry is chalked and used as a cue tip by Tom for a shot with an 8-ball. Jerry is upended by the 8-ball rolling in circles, and Tom forces the mouse to jump through the wood rack. Tom then sets it on fire, and when Jerry accomplishes this with poise, Tom aims the 8-ball at the opposite end of the table. It bounces back and hits Jerry in the behind, leaving an "8" imprint. An angry Jerry draws back Tom's cue stick and hits Tom with it.

Tom throws an 8-ball at Jerry, but it squeezes on top of Jerry and bounces off the end and slams Tom in the face. Tom throws an 8 and 6 at Jerry, but Jerry bats them back into Tom's eyes. Tom's 10-ball is returned at such speed it burns a hole through Tom's glove. Tom makes one last attempt with a 1-ball. Jerry hits it so hard that he breaks the cue and Tom retreats through the pool hall to catch it. The ball is heavy enough to pull Tom into a drink machine and Tom is spit out as a drink bottle.

Jerry dives into a corner pocket as Tom returns in anger. Tom gropes through the pocket to find Jerry, but instead grabs his own tail. The cat sticks a fire hose down the pocket tunnels, sweeping Jerry up. He takes swings at the stream with a mechanical bridge to hit Jerry, but only catches Jerry on the end of it. Jerry steals it and uses it as a balancing stick on a high wire. Tom throws two cues at the mouse. The first shreds in half when it hits the wire dead center, but the second scrapes Jerry's rear and he shoots the mechanical bridge into Tom's mouth as revenge. Tom gets up with the mechanical bridge in his mouth and says "Duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…"

Tom shoots a stream of balls at Jerry, which chase him into and out of the various pockets on the table. Eventually, the balls chase Jerry of their own accord, but Tom is in their path and Jerry opens his mouth and causes Tom to swallow all seven balls. Jerry flees into the corner pocket. Tom sticks a cue into the pocket, looking to poke Jerry, but he stabs himself in the rear end with a hatpin attached by Jerry, upon which he is sent screaming manically into the air and coming crashing down into one of the pockets. At this point, Jerry knocks all of the balls into the pockets with one shot, including the 1-ball into Tom's mouth. (Jerry hit Tom's head, making him scream and swallow the ball)