History Headscratchers / Garfield

* What's the deal with Garfield and Mondays? He's a cat, he doesn't go to work. Monday shouldn't be any different to him from any other day.

* What happened to the funny Garfield of my childhood? This isn't the "NostalgiaFilter" talking here (I hate that term anyway), Garfield, the character and the strip itself, were really different before and during my childhood. I cringe whenever I see Jon described as a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} because when I was growing up, ''Garfield'' was the Cloudcuckoolander, ''Jon'' was the StraightMan. At first Garfield was just doing those crazy things cats do, but later on he got more of an imagination. He would take on alter egos such as The Caped Avenger, Banana Man, Amoeba Man, etc. He would dress up in fruit or pretend to be a sumo wrestler. And there were so many more sight gags back then than there are now. Sometime after [[GarfieldAndFriends the animated version]] ended, it started becoming what it is today: a bland comic about a cat insulting his pathetic owner (Garfield has always insulted Jon, but like I said, there used to be more to the strip than that). The reason ''GarfieldMinusGarfield'' and other variations on the theme work is because Jon became the entertaining one. My question is: Why and how did this happen? Did Jim Davis think that after ''GarfieldAndFriends'' ended that kids wouldn't be interested in the title character anymore, so he stopped making him interesting? Or did he just run out of ideas? I know I'm asking a lot about a strip that was just made to make money... but it '''was''' much, much more clever once.
** I agree, and here's my theory on the subject: It's because Jim Davis can get away with it. At first, he had to really work to make money off Garfield, meaning he actually had to put great jokes in. After GarfieldAndFriends was made, he realised that he had a CashCowFranchise that won't die, so he can chuck in whatever crap he likes. Jim Davis was in it for the money, and he got it.
** To be fair, Jon shows occasional bouts of competency nowadays, and Garfield still has a foiled plan now and then (though much more rarely than in the past).
** This Troper's theory is that there Davis began to run out of ideas after awhile and fell into a rut. But she agrees, the earlier comics were ''much'' funnier and the newer ones almost seem downright cruel at times.
*** Seconded. When I archive binged Garfield in 8th grade, things got worse around the turn of the century, and I always put it to this.
** Lol, for the past ten years I have thought Garfield had started to suck when Jim Davis died and somebody else took over writing it! I only just found our right now when I looked up Jim Davis on Wikipedia to check the dates that it's not true!
** Here's an overly-detailed theory: Garfield's current age is more than twice the normal lifespan of his species. As such, he has aged to the point that he can no longer physically partake in - or even complete the mental processes required to dream up - the wacky escapades he used to put on. In his impaired physical and mental state, he is no longer capable of doing very much beyond eating, sleeping, and degrading others. Jon, on the other hand, has spent so many years in isolation and endured so much mental anguish from repeated failures to engage in social affairs with members of the opposite sex that his sanity has gradually slipped away, taking with it his basic knowledge and perception of the world around him (hence his incompetence at daily tasks and utter lack of good judgment). This could be why Garfield has become the StraightMan and Jon is now the CloudCuckoolander. If you want to think about it on a deep level, that is...
*** I tip my hat to you, sir or madam. Genius.
*** Well, Jim Davis got much much older. He was 33 when he began the strip but now is 65.

* What's been up with Garfield and Arlene lately? They seemed to be something of BelligerentSexualTension when Arlene was a regular, but after [[http://garfield.nfshost.com/1999/03/14/ this strip]], she didn't appear for ''nine years'', and now that she finally returned, Garfield actually seems to be denying she's his girlfriend! The sad thing is, before she was (inadvertently?) written out, they [[http://garfield.nfshost.com/1993/02/27/ actually]] [[http://garfield.nfshost.com/1995/05/07/ seemed]] [[http://garfield.nfshost.com/1997/01/12/ like]] an OfficialCouple! Again, I must ask: What the heck, Jim Davis? Garfield and Arlene should be the OfficialCouple, not Jon and Liz!
** He found [[GarfieldAndFriends Penelope]]? Less likely to sass him and more likely to give him a large Italian dinner? The choice is obvious.
*** God, I hope not. I hope Penelope stays in that separate continuity. She always annoyed the hell out of me as a kid and still does. I like Garfield and Arlene's jerk/tsundre BelligerentSexualTension, but at least there used to be an indication [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther that they really did care underneath it all]] ([[http://garfield.nfshost.com/1984/04/08/ yes, even Garfield]]).
** She still shows up in some of the newer animated specials as his love interest. Doesn't explain her absence in the strip, though...
** If ever you cared about Arlene and Garfield as a couple then I suggest you get Garfield Gets Real, Garfield's Funfest, and Garfield's Pet Force. Jim Davis is finally admitting that they work together as a couple, with their scenes together being the highlight of these new movies for me. The first one especially centered around how much Arlene cares for Garfield, and that and the latter two show how much Garfield is willing to actually sacrifice for Arlene. Only Garfield's Judgement Day, where Garfield heroically faces down a tornado for Arlene's sake, did more for this troper than these movies are doing now. I can only hope the trend continues.

* Garfield is shown killing spiders because they annoy him, or simply for fun. The spiders are portrayed just as intelligent and human-like as him. This basically makes him a sadistic mass murderer. Now, I don't have a problem with dark humor; for example, I find [[http://images.ucomics.com/comics/ga/1986/ga860824.gif this]] strip funny. However, the comic also portrays Garfield as an essentially nice person, a JerkWithAHeartOfGold if you will. I find these two aspects irreconcilable, so spider-killing jokes annoy me.
** He's not killing the spiders. He's just squishing them. There have been a lot of strips showing the squished spiders still conscious. Hell, one showed the spiders have hospitals.
** True, spiders often survive being squished, but sometimes they unquestionably die. Like in the strip I cited originally, or [[http://garfield.nfshost.com/1999/02/07/ this one]] (not the spider who appears in the strip of course, but his ancestors).

* The strip on July 25, 2011 is exactly same the November 9, 2009 one. Not similar, but exactly the same, word-to-word. Making a joke that he already made once years ago when he's out of ideas, I can uderstand. But giving us the exact same strip... what does this guy take us for, idiots?
** I had to look this up for myself and wow, just wow. For better or worse, though, Jim Davis hasn't drawn the finished strips himself for a long time. He writes and sketches them, but then they're sent to other artists for the inking, lettering and coloring. In this case, since literally the only thing that's different is the coloring, I'd guess that an old strip got sent out for color processing by mistake. Still not much better, but it reveals more about the strip's own creative process than what he thinks about the readers.

* Why doesn't he walk on all four anymore? HE! IS! A! CAT!

** I had to look this up for myself and wow, just wow. For better or worse, though, Jim Davis hasn't drawn the finished strips himself for a long time. He writes and sketches them, but then they're sent to other artists for the inking, lettering and coloring. In this case, since literally the only thing that's different is the coloring, I'd guess that an old strip got sent out to for color processing by mistake. Still not much better, but it reveals more about the strip's creative process than what he thinks about the readers.

** I had to look this up for myself and wow, just wow. For better or worse, though, Jim Davis hasn't drawn the finished strips himself for a long time. He writes and sketches them, but then they're sent to other artists for the inking, lettering and coloring. In this case, since literally the only thing that's different is the coloring, I'd guess that an old strip got sent out to for color processing by mistake and nobody caught it. Still not much better, but it reveals more about the strip's creative process than what he thinks about the readers.

** For better or worse, Jim Davis hasn't drawn the finished strips himself for a long time. He writes them and handles rough sketches, but then they're sent to other artists for the inking, lettering and coloring. In this case, since literally the only thing that's different is the coloring, I'd guess that an old strip got sent out to for color processing by mistake and nobody caught it. Still not much better, but it reveals more about the strip's creative process than what he thinks about the readers.

** I always told myself that Lyman moved away, couldn't take Odie with him, and so Odie stayed with Jon. As for the meta reason, having Lyman around as a roommate meant that most of Jon's interactions would've been with him, and Garfield's role as the title character would've been overshadowed. Though in the TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot department, I could see a storyline where the focus is on Jon and Lyman's lives as post-college roommates in TheEighties, and Garfield's just a secondary character, making a great webcomic.

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*** God, I hope not. I hope Penelope stays in that separate continuity. She always annoyed the hell out of me as a kid and still does. I like Garfield and Arlene's [[WhenAJerkLovesATsundere jerk/tsundre]] dynamic, but at least there used to be an indication [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther that they really did care underneath it all]] ([[http://garfield.nfshost.com/1984/04/08/ yes, even Garfield]]).

** Garfield on two legs has been going on so long, it doesn't bother me. The more recent instance of <i>Odie</i>! on two legs is disturbing, largely because he still has a quadrupedal body shape.

*** {{WildMassGuessing}} OMG LYMAN DIED OF TEH AIDS!!!!11oneone

*** WMG is that way --> http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WMG/Garfield

** Or, because Jon IS Garfield? Possible Deconstructed {{Power Trio}}. Perhaps, Garfield is a actually a manifestation of a character of Jon's psyche -- Garfield isn't really there. Garfield might have existed a time ago (like Jon's childhood), but now is actually dead. Infact, Garfield and Odie may be manifestations of Jon's personality disorder. Garfield represents the normal, socially intelligent jerk with a heart of gold character. Odie represents the dumb animalistic character. Jon is the failed middle character of balance between logic and emotion. As a matter of fact, you'd note that Jon acts more like Odie when he comes to approach women. Had he begin to act like Garfield, he might actually get laid. There's a lot supporting this theory. Why does Garfield prefers real human food over cat food and mice? Because it's Jon raiding the fridge under his multiple personality disorder, that's why. Jon seems to be up when Garfield sleeps. Think about it.

** Or, because Jon IS Garfield? Possible Desconstructed Power Trio. Perhaps, Garfield is a actually a manifestation of a character of Jon's psyche -- Garfield isn't really there. Garfield might have existed a time ago (like Jon's childhood), but now is actually dead. Infact, Garfield and Odie may be manifestations of Jon's personality disorder.

Garfield represents the normal, socially intelligent jerk with a heart of gold character. Odie represents the dumb animalistic character. Jon is the failed middle character of balance between logic and emotion. As a matter of fact, you'd note that Jon acts more like Odie when he comes to approach women. Had he begin to act like Garfield, he might actually get laid.

There's a lot supporting this theory. Why does Garfield prefers real human food over cat food and mice? Because it's Jon raiding the fridge under his multiple personality disorder, that's why. Jon seems to be up when Garfield sleeps. Think about it.