Top Cat's Right–Hand Cat

I'm extremely sceptical about the description of Benny the Ball as "Top Cat's right–hand cat". It's true that he's cast in this role on Wikipedia; but there's no evidence to back up this description, and it's never a good idea (IMHO) to base a quiz question purely on a throwaway description that you find on Wikipedia.

Benny was one member of Top Cat's hapless gang, along with Choo–Choo, Fancy, Spook and Brain. It's probably true to say that Benny was the most memorable character in the gang, apart from Top Cat himself; but right–man?

Benny is clearly based on Private Doberman in The Phil Silvers Show (a.k.a. Sgt. Bilko) – as also suggested on Wikipedia. This is all rather a long time ago now, and nobody has the time to go through the entire series to make an informed judgement. I'm just saying that I don't think TC would have trusted Benny any more than any of his other ill–starred associates – in the same way that Bilko wouldn't have trusted Doberman with anything that mattered.

At the end of the day, and as already stated, Benny is probably the most memorable character in the gang, apart from Top Cat himself, and most people would probably have plumped for him as the answer to the question. But this would have been more by luck than judgement.

You may think I'm taking this all a bit too seriously, and you may be right. But my point is that it's dangerous to rely completely on Wikipedia when setting quiz questions. We all use Wikipedia for inspiration, and I know I refer to it constantly in these notes. But if you're lifting stuff directly from it to use in quiz questions, I think a certain amount of scepticism is in order.

To my mind it would have been better to mention the Doberman connection.