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Character Witness

Mark Halpin and Joe Cabrera

The inclusion of two duplicate files, plus the reference to animals “reproduced below”, is meant to lead solvers to the realization that all of the animal types depicted have been successfully cloned. The line “when introduced” should be applied to both the cloned animals and the cartoon characters. The difference between the year of each animal’s first cloning and its jersey number gives a number in the 1–26 alphanumeric range; these letters are then ordered by introduction of cartoon character.

Character Animal First Appearance Jersey Year Cloned Difference Letter
The Big Bad Wolf wolf 1933: The Three Little Pigs (Walt Disney) 18 ’05 13 M
Billy Boy goat 1954: Billy Boy (MGM short) 21 ’00 21 U
El Kabong horse 1959: The Quick Draw McGraw Show 7 ’03 4 D
Mushmouse mouse 1964: The Magilla Gorilla Show 101 ’97 4 D
Muttley dog 1968: Wacky Races 30 ’05 25 Y
Stimpy cat 1990: Ren & Stimpy 10 ’01 9 I
Oscar Wildcat wildcat 1999: Queer Duck (Icebox.com) 22 ’03 19 S
Sheep sheep 2000: Sheep in the Big City 119 ’96 23 W
Spanky Ham pig 2004: Drawn Together 8 ’00 8 H
Vice-Coach Horace Ferret ferret 2005: My Gym Partner’s a Monkey 7 ’06 1 A
Remy rat 2007: Ratatouille 23 ’03 20 T

The letters spelled out, “MUDDY IS WHAT?”, can in the context of a cartoon character-based puzzle be answered with MUDSKIPPER, the final solution word.