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Completely off the rails

Garfield, 3/23-4/06

I never really thought I’d say this, but … I’ve suddenly become quite concerned about Garfield. The whole Garfield-and-Jon-eat-at-a-restaurant schtick is on the one hand a blessed relief from the usual mind-numbing sameness of the strip, though it may herald things going seriously awry. Yesterday’s installment is pretty much par for the Garfield course — Garfield’s fat, you see, and loves to eat, so the thought that he didn’t have room for desert is laughable. Of course, the laughing seems a little … off, what with the mouths gaping open and the spit flying and what not. Today, the laughing continues, in a way that would make no sense unless you had read the previous day. The waiter (who’s freakier and freakier looking every time I look at him) joins in. And it’s not joyful laughter either. No. It’s discomfort-making laughter. Crazy person laughter. Disturbing laughter. Did someone release nitrous oxide into the air supply over at Paws, Inc.? I sort of want to know, but I much more sort of don’t want to know, what’s in store.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 24, 2006 at 05:00 am and is filed under Garfield.

74 responses to “Completely off the rails”

  1. joe
    March 24th, 2006 at 5:14 am [Reply]

    there seems to be a hinge in Jon’s head right above his ear….. weird

  2. Ferd Berfel
    March 24th, 2006 at 6:14 am [Reply]

    RMMD – Wow! Rex is going straight for the hole! Oh God, I really got to stop thinking like that…

    Gasoline Alley – Has anyone else notice that this strip has gone batshit insane lately?

    GF – Rob’s just the type to wear a $19 suit too.

    MW – So, Kelly and Lou are empty-nesters and Lou is starting to pay Kelly a little more attention now? He must be a chubby chaser. Does anyone else think Kelly looks like Toby after 25 years and 50 lbs? Is that what this arc is going to be all about? Mary tries to nag Kelly off diet pills and Kelly realizes that Lou likes women with junk in their trunk anyway? Yawn…

    Monty – After the brilliance of the Lost/Gilligan’s Island crossover, back to the blahs…. sigh

    FBOW – The Foobverse has been so innocuous of late that Johnston must have something really cringe worthy planned. Just imagine how bad a full-bore multicultural wedding at Miggiewhogivesashit between Lizardbreath and Constable Tonto Do-Right will be. I wonder if Shannon could be a bridesmaid…

    SF – Ted is going to take care of Ralph if Ralph does anything bad to Sally? Ted?!? Mr. My-Wife-Keeps-Them-In-Her-Purse Ted? What’s he going to do? Cry on him? Or give him such a pinch?

  3. Fred P.
    March 24th, 2006 at 6:42 am [Reply]

    Jon is practicing for his new gig as a Pez dispenser.

  4. Happenstance
    March 24th, 2006 at 7:08 am [Reply]

    Garfield: How posh can a restaurant be if it lets a guy bring his cat in for a dinner date? Personally, I love cats, but come on.

    SF: You know, I like this strip for some reason, but I’m hoping it’s building to a big blowup. I hope to see one of two things happen:

    (1) Sally walks in and Ralph falls to his cracking knees begging for her help, because he’s been out of the loop for too long.

    (2) Ralph immediately starts insulting her, and she – at long last – loses it, backing Ralph up against the wall and tearing him a BNBB (Brand New Bloody Backdoor) in front of the entire staff, to their roaring cheers of approval.

    (Yes, between Sally and Brad, I’m getting tired of the pussyfooting around the bullies. Come on, sock somebody already.)

    Unfortunately, chances are Ralph’s first act is going to be to fire Alice (Sally’s friend who made a fool of him when he was managing the Burgerrhoid or whatever), and Sally’s going to turn the other cheek again.

  5. Ianscot
    March 24th, 2006 at 7:38 am [Reply]

    Ah, Garfield, king of the middle panel that supposedly builds comic rhythm but that really means Jim Davis is so dry of material that he makes his characters fling beads of sweat, or saliva, or something just to feel like there’s some life left in his pen hand.

  6. RichM
    March 24th, 2006 at 7:43 am [Reply]

    #5: Go ahead and say it – Garfield bukkake. Now, doesn’t that feel better?

    Mary Worth: Wilbur Weston has a ready-made solution for Kelly’s problem with her randy husband. It worked so well last time.

  7. Matt
    March 24th, 2006 at 7:51 am [Reply]

    Rumor has it that because some newspapers have dropped the strip, Davis has started to, um, get more involved with it. This can have unpredictable consequences, since he doesn’t happen to have a sense of humor.

  8. Molassey
    March 24th, 2006 at 7:54 am [Reply]

    Phew! I’m glad to know there was at least a semblance of context for Garfield’s alleged “plotline.” I hadn’t read yesterday’s, and today’s was freakin’ me out.

  9. Pozzo
    March 24th, 2006 at 8:03 am [Reply]

    Any explanation for the fact that Garfield’s and Jon’s teeth are little and (not quite) pointy is panel 3 yesterday and panel 1 today, and big and square in today’s panel 2 and 3? And shouldn’t Garfield, being technically a carnivore, have sharper teeth than omnivore Jon?

  10. Jacob Haller
    March 24th, 2006 at 8:09 am [Reply]

    Shouldn’t Garfield’s laughter be in a thought balloon? Is he really _saying_ “WAH-HA-HA-HA-HA!”?

  11. Jim C.
    March 24th, 2006 at 8:10 am [Reply]

    Isn’t that Andy Gump, coming out of strip retirement, playing the “waiter” in this skit?

    Meanwhile, the spring sports begin on (DT)GT. Once again, Hadley (V. Baxendale!) is all about the marketing. This may be crazy, giving advice to strip characters, but Hadley, honey, you need to stop trying to put lipstick on a pig. Spend more time getting the pig to play a good game. You’d think she gets a cut of the gate, all the complaining she does about empty stands.

    Tomorrow: Where’s Brent’s weight at? See Gil Thorp, channelling Johnny Orr, respond to this question from Marty Moon: “Where’s his weight at? It’s in his a**! That’s where it’s at!”

  12. Jacob Haller
    March 24th, 2006 at 8:12 am [Reply]

    Holy God, you must look at the Spanish version of today’s strip: http://www.ucomics.com/espanol/garfieldespanol/

  13. Chet McCord, Wildlife Defender
    March 24th, 2006 at 8:18 am [Reply]

    Aren’t there usually health code restrictions against allowing pets in public eating establishments? Why does this bother me, when I don’t have a problem with comics that have talking animals?

  14. RichM
    March 24th, 2006 at 8:21 am [Reply]

    #12 – That’s also the German version of Garfield, where the threesome are exclaiming “yes! yes! yes!”

  15. Ces
    March 24th, 2006 at 8:33 am [Reply]

    This may be the best series of Garfield strips since the first two books. I believe in the third strip they start tearing off their clothes/fur, all the while laughing, laughing, laughing!

    Fourth strip, the knives come out. Fifth, baptism of blood. Sixth, momentary regret. Sunday strip, feasting on the kill.

    Gonna be a good week.

  16. luluchappel
    March 24th, 2006 at 8:45 am [Reply]

    Is Sunday’s Sally Forth the first mention of Festivus in a comic strip? Anything to publicize that holiday (thanks, Ces) but why has it taken so long?

  17. Ian
    March 24th, 2006 at 8:48 am [Reply]

    I have to agree with Ces that this is quite possibly the best series of Garfield strips since the post-Apocalyptic “Dark Garfield” strips some time ago.

    And while I’m here, props to Ces for the shout-out to loyal Medium Large readers in today’s Sally Forth…

  18. Joe
    March 24th, 2006 at 8:52 am [Reply]

    I think it is possible to laugh so hard that your teeth become instantly capped, squared and grotesquely huge. I’ve seen it happen with local newscasters in mid-market cities during ‘happy talk.’

  19. Joey
    March 24th, 2006 at 8:52 am [Reply]

    I think it is possible to laugh so hard that your teeth become instantly capped, squared and grotesquely huge. I’ve seen it happen with local newscasters in mid-market cities during ‘happy talk.’

  20. BigJoe
    March 24th, 2006 at 9:12 am [Reply]

    #17 – Maybe I’m dense today, but I didn’t pick up on any shoutout. What was it?

  21. aaron
    March 24th, 2006 at 9:20 am [Reply]

    The most depressing thing about the strip is that Jon has gotten to the point where dinning out with his cat is pretty much the highlight of his week.

  22. Sturgeon General
    March 24th, 2006 at 9:34 am [Reply]

    Today’s RMMD

    Man, that is the biggest WHACK off I have ever seen in the comics outside of a Penthouse magazine.

  23. juggernaut
    March 24th, 2006 at 9:38 am [Reply]

    #2 – i was thinking that kelly looks like jane (from the last storyline) after a few months of heavy drinking and excessive cheeto consumption. the same dingy blond hair, the same “please don’t hit me again” smile. i thought MW had suddenly gone into a time warp. sort of a “ghost of meddlesome bitches to come” thing.

    and, in a new twist, there seems to be a nuclear explosion in the middle panel of Rex Morgan. way cool.

  24. BigJoe
    March 24th, 2006 at 9:41 am [Reply]

    Take the word balloon out of panel three and I think you can imagine what little surprise Rex just gave to Tony.

    http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComick.mpl?date=20060324&name=Rex_Morgan

  25. dlauthor
    March 24th, 2006 at 9:54 am [Reply]

    GF: my god, that middle panel on today’s strip. Stephen King could write an entire novel based on the insanity of Garfield and Jon’s grins. Actually, that’s a cool germ for a story — a comics artist who goes slowly insane, and his readers slowly cotton on by reading the strip. Barring Johnny Hart writing an autobiography, I might take a crack at it someday.

    Mallard: Why stop at president? Clearly Saint Tom of Coburn should be named some sort of pope-emperor, and rule the WORLD! Nay, the universe! And I love how Tinsley’s railing against the Republican establishment’s choice of candidates all of a sudden. He didn’t seem to have a problem with it before.

    Spidey: please please please let Justice Man get confused and open up a natural gas pipe instead of a water pipe. Hijinks ensue!

  26. Howard Erk
    March 24th, 2006 at 10:17 am [Reply]

    When did Liz show up at home to talk to Apwil about being home alone?

  27. Molassey
    March 24th, 2006 at 10:23 am [Reply]

    #26 — I think that’s Elly, who’s looking especially youthful in her nightgown.

  28. Howard Erk
    March 24th, 2006 at 10:45 am [Reply]

    #27 If that is Elly, then Lynn better hire a better cartoonist.

  29. Noumenon
    March 24th, 2006 at 10:48 am [Reply]

    I was coming in to post that hey, yeah, there have been some actual funny Garfields of late and while this one is weird it’s trying something novel which is the serialized strip, like that Calvin and Hobbes series where Calvin just grew from normal size to giant size to hopping off the earth into the cosmos over the course of five strips with no dialogues or jokes.

    Also, did you see that Garfield at Large is the 15th most widely held title at OCLC member libraries? It beats out Tom Sawer and Macbeth.

  30. Smitty Smedlap
    March 24th, 2006 at 10:59 am [Reply]

    The Milford Milfs girls softball team practices on ice — the better to…uhhh….aww, to hell with it. I got nuthin’.

  31. Canaduck
    March 24th, 2006 at 11:04 am [Reply]

    What the hell, so he isn’t going to eat dessert? Isn’t that his whole schtick, that he eats everything? Okay, so that means that after this whole terrifying, tooth-morphing example of insanity, he’s going to order dessert anyway. Just watch. WAH-HA HA HA.

    I do like the way the waiter looks, though…at least when he isn’t laughing.

  32. Hogenmogen
    March 24th, 2006 at 11:12 am [Reply]

    RMMD: I like the La Brea Tar Pit they’re playing next to, just like where “Justice Guy” was born. Unfortunately, in panel 2, it explodes in fiery anger.

    FBOFW: I have to admit as bone-grindingly boring as the plot line is, the punch line actually contained a modicum of humor.

  33. Benicillin
    March 24th, 2006 at 11:21 am [Reply]

    What I enjoyed about this strip mini-series is how the water remains still and undisturbed inside the glasses until THE FINAL PANEL.

    But I have a question for all of you…why does their teeth change together between laughing fits? One panel their dental work looks like a Civil war graveyard and the next the teeth are huge and gapless.

  34. John
    March 24th, 2006 at 11:31 am [Reply]

    Normally I’m a devout Garfield-hater but I think this sequence is actually pretty funny.

  35. Concerned Citizen
    March 24th, 2006 at 11:51 am [Reply]

    This is my second favorite Jon facial expression, right after the one where his mouth turns into a funnel when he’s having fun with one of his lame college or high school buddies. It looks like some kind of alien sucking mouthpart.

  36. TEM
    March 24th, 2006 at 11:55 am [Reply]

    Garfield is still in the papers?

  37. gnome de blog
    March 24th, 2006 at 11:56 am [Reply]

    #2: “SF – Ted is going to take care of Ralph if Ralph does anything bad to Sally? Ted?!? Mr. My-Wife-Keeps-Them-In-Her-Purse Ted? What’s he going to do? Cry on him? Or give him such a pinch?”

    One look at Ted’s powder-blue power suit and Ralph will die laughing.

  38. lb
    March 24th, 2006 at 12:41 pm [Reply]

    #34, THANK YOU for also noticing the teeth. wtf. suddenly everyone’s got caps or dentures. argh!

  39. Badly_Computer_Animated_Boy
    March 24th, 2006 at 12:46 pm [Reply]

    #16: I’m not sure about that, but you may be right. What struck me about that strip was how Ted and Sally reminded me of Todd and Margo from ‘Christmas Vacation’.

  40. fuzzmaster
    March 24th, 2006 at 12:55 pm [Reply]

    What bothers me most is that the cartoonist must believe:

    A) That Garfield is alone on the comics pages, with no other strips to distract us from this engaging plotline.

    B) That none of his readers have actual lives, so the string of his narrative will be at the top of our minds when we turn to each day’s strip.

    C) That comics can use laugh tracks the same way bad sitcoms do, as peer pressure to make us think it’s funny.

    and D) That he is not destroying his immortal soul by continuing to accept cash for drek like this.

  41. SteveDallasFan
    March 24th, 2006 at 1:02 pm [Reply]

    I think this Garfield strip is from the outtake reel – you know, like at the end of a Jackie Chan movie, where you see scenes of the actors unable to deliver their lines ’cause they’re laughing so hard.

  42. Howard Erk
    March 24th, 2006 at 1:07 pm [Reply]

    I think that Garfield and Friends just got the latest Get Fussy joke and just plain can’t help themselves.

  43. Ohioteach
    March 24th, 2006 at 1:14 pm [Reply]

    Possibly both Jon and Garfield are in the advanced stages of peridontal disease, so their teeth actually waggle when they distort their faces into cretinous grins, then move back into alignment when their faces relax into mere moronic grins. As my own peridontist would say, “Lots of mobility there on number 12.” Gum grafts may be in order, perhaps using donor tissue–now there’s an untapped storyline.

  44. Goober
    March 24th, 2006 at 1:19 pm [Reply]

    GT: Is that creature behind Kenya supposed to be female? Or is one of the uglier male athletes wearing a wig left over from Milford HS’s production of Gone With the Wind?

    And Hadley v. Baxendale is leaning and gesturing to the left, again.

  45. SteveDallasFan
    March 24th, 2006 at 1:24 pm [Reply]

    They might be laughing at today’s continuing Baby Blues crossover in Pearls Before Swine – frickin’ hilarious! I’m not sure which is funnier – baby Wren
    makin’ with the gangsta talk or the imminent ass-whoopin’ of the crocodiles by the baby.

  46. dlauthor
    March 24th, 2006 at 1:27 pm [Reply]

    Hey, what if this is the end of Garfield? Maybe this is Davis’s way of ending the whole shooting match. Perhaps for the next few weeks, we’ll see a different new character enter the frame and join in the crazed laughter, until the whole frame is nothing but glassy eyes and monstrous, capped teeth. Then, at the end, it will zoom out to show Jon’s missing buddy Lyman staring into a snow-globe, where the whole thing’s been happening, all along.

  47. J Shiggity
    March 24th, 2006 at 1:33 pm [Reply]

    Wait…Garfield still loves lasagna and hates Mondays, right? I can’t bear the thought of this strip failing to hit those same unamusing punch lines from now until the end of time!

  48. Matt
    March 24th, 2006 at 1:37 pm [Reply]

    Ah, I get it. The waiter recognizes the famous cartoon characters, and, in spite of not having heard the ‘joke’, realizes that something hilarious must have happened– and so starts laughing.

  49. MLH
    March 24th, 2006 at 2:29 pm [Reply]

    #46 dlauthor – We can only hope that you’re correct. Imagine: “Garfield” was only a dream!

    I personally would rather have it end with some horrible “Garfield-goes-postal; kills-Jon-and-wierd-little-dog-character-in-imiginative-lasagna-related-way” mayhem. However, I’ll accept anything that brings this sorry episode in American comics and stuffed animal marketing to a close.

  50. BassoGap
    March 24th, 2006 at 2:30 pm [Reply]

    GT — Holy crap…Kenya’s got man-hands (Seinfeld reference)…take a look at panels 1 and 3…yikes.

    And evidently the indoor workout regimen includes doing the Twist (blond at center-left of panel 2).

    PBS — “Wren, where did you get that new croc-skin bag?”

    I really do need to get a life…

  51. Erik
    March 24th, 2006 at 2:31 pm [Reply]

    I liked Garfield a lot when I was a kid. But after I started reading strips like Calvin and Hobbes, Foxtrot, and Zits, I learned what actual quality comics are like.

    However, I think Garfield still works when it just comes off as completely batshit insane. This one does just that.

  52. Lydia
    March 24th, 2006 at 2:38 pm [Reply]

    The only difference between the previous day’s third panel and the next’s first one is the addition of Jon’s tongue and the waiter. They probably just have a pile of panels that they add and remove stuff on. Garfield is almost the worst comic in the world, I think.

  53. Lyman Returns
    March 24th, 2006 at 2:38 pm [Reply]

    #46-As you can imagine, I support the idea of the Garfield strip bringing back Lyman in some sort of way. The poor guy was Odie’s owner, for crying out loud! He just disappeared and left his dog behind! Now Odie has no owner to protect him from vicious attacks by Garfield. Why did Lyman leave? If he returns, will he still have that huge mustache? I’d like to think he’s in another comic strip under another name…any ideas as to who he is?

    And what happened to Nermal and Arlene? Nermal was da bomb, yo!

  54. Hank Kimbel
    March 24th, 2006 at 5:11 pm [Reply]

    GT 3/24– Judging by the angle of Hadley’s hairy nipples, I don’t think they are practicing on ice.

  55. T.J.
    March 24th, 2006 at 6:29 pm [Reply]

    #20, Big Joe, check out strip number 2 from a couple weeks ago: http://www.drinkatwork.com/mediumlargewk97.html

  56. Maxim Gorky
    March 24th, 2006 at 7:18 pm [Reply]

    Here’s what I want to know:

    Did Odie save room for Garfield’s protein-rich turds?

  57. Power of 1000 Lemons
    March 24th, 2006 at 7:24 pm [Reply]

    Garfield was funny when I was a kid, but it’s grown progressively more tired over the years (of course, I’ve gotten smarter, too). These strips really do cross that fine line from “breaking convention” into “unmitigated insanity,” though, don’t they? Unless today’s joke is about putting in a really funny set of false teeth.

  58. Mibbitmaker
    March 24th, 2006 at 11:23 pm [Reply]

    I’m absolutely loving the Garfields from the past two days. I suggested in an earlier CC comment that yeasterday’s strip be wonderfully odd if the first panel was removed. Little did I know!

    I just love oddball stuff like this. I’m REALLY wondering now if Paws, Ink, is aware of the thought balloonless versions of Garfield on the web, and reacting uncharacteristically non-litigiously to them. Then trying a similar experiment.

    Oddly enough, I didn’t notice the dental incongruency until clicking on here, but before reading any comments.

    I really hope Garfield will change permanently into this kind of bizarro strip, mining Conan O’Brien style absurdism. I…

    Aw, who’m I kidding? It’s nice while it lasts.

  59. Ubiq
    March 25th, 2006 at 1:17 am [Reply]

    If I recall correctly, when asked about the Lyman situation, Jim Davis hinted that he was buried in the basement.

  60. Mibbitmaker
    March 25th, 2006 at 7:33 pm [Reply]

    Aww, darnit, we’re back to the same old same old today.

    It was too short…. it was (meaningful pause) …too short…

  61. Shannon
    March 25th, 2006 at 9:26 pm [Reply]

    Damn it! I read the bizarre nothing-but-laughing strip, and was pleasantly confused by it. Why did you have to ruin it by giving me a context?

  62. Rusty
    March 25th, 2006 at 10:38 pm [Reply]

    For those wondering about the changing teeth, I believe the “artist” tries to guarantee that therre is a slight difference in every panel, otherwise the rumors of Garfield consistiing of basically four standard panels, nterchangeable each day, will be proven true.Hence the raised eyebrow, the flattened teeth, the sideways glance, all used to denote “action” in this moribund strip.

  63. Sarah
    March 27th, 2006 at 4:25 am [Reply]

    I like how Garfield’s and Jon’s teeth change shape in the last 3 panels.

  64. fugudog
    April 1st, 2006 at 6:23 am [Reply]

    Oh good grief. All I can say is the waiter looks like a cruel caricature of my High School band teacher.

  65. Marion Delgado
    April 3rd, 2006 at 1:40 am [Reply]

    The Garfield assumption that people read it every day was unwarranted in my case. I saw the laughing 2nd day panels and had ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WTF WAS GOING ON.

    I just figured someone new had taken over Garfield. It looked like someone slipped acid to a guy having dinner with his cat and to the waiter too.

  66. Anonymous
    September 26th, 2007 at 9:43 am [Reply]

    lol, thats cool

  67. Carly
    November 18th, 2007 at 2:59 am [Reply]

    He might be disturbing-looking, but at least he has a nose.

  68. Anonymous
    January 18th, 2008 at 11:59 am [Reply]

    dont call me peanuts

  69. Kavak
    January 27th, 2008 at 2:19 am [Reply]

    Garfield reminds me of Reel Big Fish’s version Morrisey’s “We hate it when our friends become successful” It’s really laughable WAH-HA-HA-HA, HA-HA-HA-HA-HA, WAH-HA-HA, OH HO HO HO…

  70. Tracy
    May 28th, 2008 at 1:52 pm [Reply]

    I love grafield and i think that the comic is wonderful and very humrious

  71. Anonymous
    June 16th, 2008 at 8:01 am [Reply]

    fuck

  72. Anonymous
    October 6th, 2008 at 4:13 pm [Reply]

    dam

  73. Anonymous
    October 6th, 2008 at 4:14 pm [Reply]

    dan

  74. Anonymous
    October 6th, 2008 at 4:14 pm [Reply]

    help

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