History YMMV / Garfield

** After a strip went viral for being interpreted as Jon drinking dog semen, [[http://exclaim.ca/film/article/jim_davis_swears_jon_isnt_drinking_dog_semen_in_viral_garfield_strip Jim Davis had to explain]] he was actually referencing the high protein supplement given to pregnant cows. Adding on to that, this wide assumption doesn't even make sense as you can't get pregnant from drinking semen, which would make Liz's following quip nonsensical, even if she was just joking.

->'''''Original''''':
-->'''TV:''' Nothing is showing up on the computer radar, so I'll put a nice "Mr. Sunshine" here. But satellite pictures show an approaching low-pressure area, so I'll put mean ol' "Mr. Thunderstorm" and his lightning bolt right here. ''LOOK OUT, MR. SUNSHINE! BOOM! KABOOM! BLAM!''\\

->'''''Translation''''':
-->'''TV:''' Today, the Parliament has raised the question whether Garfield the Cat is a bad influence on our kids. Everyone is joining in on the fun! A sandbox has been placed in the middle of the room, and everyone has brought a bucket and spade. Some are cranky because there isn't enough ice cream. ''Look out! The Minister of Defence has a water gun!''\\
'''Garfield:''' The politicians spend millions to get their people into the Parliament. The result -- ''me.''
** In a February 1979 strip, Jon is doing a crossword puzzle and asks Garfield what a six-letter word for "pain" is. Garfield hits him in the arm, Jon yells "ARRRGH!", and asks how many Rs it has. As ''Webcomic/SquareRootOfMinusGarfield'' [[https://www.mezzacotta.net/garfield/?comic=2441 pointed out]], the punchline doesn't exactly make sense because he already knows how long the word is. In the German version, he says "Autsch!", and asks "Is that with a D or a T?"

* BaseBreakingCharacter: The fandom is pretty evenly split on how they feel about Nermal. There are those who adore him for his cuteness and snark towards Garfield, and then there is an equally large number of fans who absolutely despise him and find him annoying for those exact reasons.

** The 2004 video game (completely unrelated to the movie; simply named ''Garfield'') for the [=PS2=] and PC, which is a ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'' knock-off (except with no ghosts, you suck up objects and place them back in the right areas) with abysmal voice acting (just so you know, Garfield and Jon are voiced by the same actor, making them sound ''very off''; [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgaSr2TtnM4 see for yourself]]), terrible graphics (Garfield is stuck with a permanent grin and Jon with an angry expression), repetitive, awkward dialogue ("Jon's gonna put me on a diet now and I don't want to go on a diet!"), rather poor grasp of the source material, strange controls, [[LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading frequent and long loading screens]] (especially on the [=PS2=] version, possibly due to being printed on a CD instead of a DVD) and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Odie only flipping over when attacked]].

** As ''Webcomic/SquareRootOfMinusGarfield'' [[http://www.mezzacotta.net/garfield/?comic=1375 pointed out]], [[http://gocomics.com/garfield/1998/10/19 a 1998 strip]] managed to predict the UsefulNotes/{{Wii}} pretty nicely.

* SugarWiki/NoProblemWithLicensedGames: While most of Garfield's video game outings typically run the gamut between being mediocre at best and absolutely dreadful at worst, ''VideoGame/GarfieldCaughtInTheAct'' for the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis and ''VideoGame/GarfieldsNightmare'' for the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS are regarded to be surprisingly decent 2D platforming outings for the fat cat, even if they're not perfect. There's also the ''VideoGame/GarfieldsScaryScavengerHunt'' web browser games released in 2002 and 2003 — both of them are worth playing, and the first game in particular is considered to be a classic browser game.

** The UsefulNotes/{{Famicom}} game ''A Week of Garfield'' starts going wrong with its ExcusePlot, where [[OutOfCharacterMoment Garfield somehow wants to save Odie]]. In actual gameplay, it's a side-scrolling platformer with ugly graphics and primitive level design. Beating a level requires jumping around randomly to make a key appear. Difficulty comes mainly from having to face enemies like spiders with a pathetic kick attack and no MercyInvincibility or extra lives. The array of weapons Garfield can use are limited and inaccurate.
** The UsefulNotes/Commodore64's ''VideoGame/GarfieldBigFatHairyDeal'' is an adventure game. The problem is that it's ripe with {{Moon Logic Puzzle}}s and {{Red Herring}}s, plus it has [[GuideDangIt absolutely no hints]] for what you have to do. It's even UnintentionallyUnwinnable if Garfield ends up eating an important item he happens to be carrying around. The graphics are also rather ugly, and the soundtrack consists of one looping track. The [[PolishedPort Amiga release]] helps it out a bit, but it's still not a game worth recommending.

** Garfield had a string of generic platformers between the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance and UsefulNotes/NintendoDS (with only the aforementioned ''Garfield's Nightmare'' for the DS standing out above the rest). However, the worst of them is generally regarded to be ''Garfield: The Search for Pooky''. The game's start screen is written in Comic Sans and miscapitalizes the title, which sets the tone perfectly. The cutscene graphics are poorly cropped directly from the comic, ripe with scaling and coloring errors[[labelnote:*]]most infamously, Jon's mother [[https://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/152547-garfield-the-search-for-pooky-game-boy-advance-screenshot.png is no taller than Garfield himself]][[/labelnote]], and the dialogue is awkwardly written. [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/garfield/images/9/98/Search_for_Pooky_screenshot.png It has to be seen to be believed.]] The gameplay suffers from weird physics and boring sidescroller levels.

*** The original game for the UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS garnered [[MemeticMutation much ridicule from gamers over its absurd premise]], and when they finally got their hands on it they found the game was hardly any good in practice either. The presentation is bland, the gameplay is exceedingly run-of-the-mill, the karts control very poorly, extra content is frustrating to unlock, and there's hardly anything distinctly "''Garfield''" about it besides the playable characters. The game is also absurdly easy due to the rampant ArtificialStupidity of the AI drivers. Sharing a system with ''VideoGame/MarioKart7'' (which, mind, was ChristmasRushed onto the [=3DS=] as an emergency and ''still'' ended up a stellar game for the system) only serves to highlight how bland and unambitious the game was compared to other kart racers at the time.
*** The upscaled port for UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, UsefulNotes/XboxOne, UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch and PC, ''Furious Racing'', manages to be even worse than the original game. That it adds very little new content that wasn't already in the original game is problematic enough, but the game also has the misfortune of being [[PortingDisaster an absolute trainwreck]]. The AI drivers went from being [[ArtificialStupidity dumber than Odie]] to [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard playing so unfairly]] they put the infamously unbalanced RubberbandAI in ''VideoGame/MarioKartWii'' to shame (not helped by the addition of hat power-ups that can give AI players either additional or more accurate ammunition to hit you with) and make finishing most races in a position higher than third a chore. The game and physics seem poorly designed for the new speeds the karts can reach as well, as on higher difficulties races are absolute chaos with karts regularly shooting off the track due to not being able to turn quickly enough, dropping through the track or through walls, driving ''on'' walls if you hit them right, and going flying out of control or being flipped completely over from so much as hitting an anthill. Add the game's broken and unhelpful respawn system that resets the player's position if they do as little as brush their kart against a wall and you get a game whose only true merit is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyYZMnARS1w getting your friends together]] [[SoBadItsGood to revel in how hilariously broken it is]].

** In one 1990 strip, after Jon orders a pizza, it's revealed that Garfield recorded Jon's order, and remarks how useful the tape will be. [[WesternAnimation/TheGarfieldShow Guess what happens about two decades later?]]

* SugarWiki/NoProblemWithLicensedGames: The tie-in game for the second movie is surprisingly good.

** Fans who appreciate the sophisticated, philosophical humor of ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' see ''Garfield'' as being too lowbrow and repetitive for enjoyment. Garfield fans usually retort that Mr. Watterson and his fans are too stuck up to simply smile -- Calvin & Hobbes minus Hobbes would never have flown. It doesn't help that the two creators are basically the antithesis of each other: Watterson has stated ''Calvin and Hobbes'' was [[DoingItForTheArt done for its own sake]] and he infamously turned down nearly all merchandising and spin-off offers, while Davis has fully admitted ''Garfield'' was made [[MoneyDearBoy just to get rich]] and was manufactured to be as marketable as possible.

** And [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1979/10/06 this other trip]] from 1979 where Jon outright French kisses Liz after she refused a date with him. With sexual harassment now being treated a serious issue, this strip would never get away with the backlash it would get if it were published in the present day.
** In ANOTHER [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1979/06/30 1979 strip]], Jon says to Liz, "Tell me, Liz, haven't we met somewhere before? A rice paddy in Hong Kong?", which comes off as rather racist today. Note, Liz is annoyed about Jon hitting on her not the racist remark.

** In Norway back in the 1980s, the strip was published by two separate publishers and as such got two separate Norwegian translation -- one that kept Garfield's original name, and one which changed his name to "Pusur." While the former stuck very closely to the original, the latter -- penned by Jan Amundsen and Tore Kvil -- was an extremely liberal translation with a slightly more adult feel and a very strong satirical streak. "Pusur" often commented on and made fun of various sides of Norwegian society in the 1980s, often namedropping Norwegian celebrities, politicians, entertainment and trends.

* SeasonalRot: The number of people defending the strip is shrinking as the years go by, for various reasons: Jim Davis now uses ghostwriters for most strips (even when he did write it, he admitted to having little ambition for anything beyond his comfort zone), the comic doesn't have a lot of storyline strips anymore, opting with only gag-per-day strips with loose plot threads, many newer strips are recycled from older strips or just very slight variations of the same jokes, and the artwork has become stiffer over the years. The strip still has an online fandom, but it's a mostly ironic one.

* SugarWiki/NoProblemWithLicensedGames: While most of Garfield's video game outings typically run the gamut between being mediocre at best and absolutely dreadful at worst, ''VideoGame/GarfieldCaughtInTheAct'' for the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis and ''VideoGame/GarfieldsNightmare'' for the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS are regarded to be surprisingly decent (if not perfect) 2D platforming outings for the fat cat. There's also the ''VideoGame/GarfieldsScaryScavengerHunt'' web browser games released in 2002 and 2003 — both of them are worth playing, and the first game in particular is considered to be a classic browser game.

->'''''Translation:''''':

* MemeticPsychopath: Much like WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}} before them, the strange and occasionally horrifying world of fan work (especially ''WebVideo/{{Garfielf}}'' and ''WebVideo/FistOfTheB0rfStar'') has turned Jon and Garfield into psychopaths, with Jon [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation commonly perceived]] as an antisocial, insane recluse who hears voices and murdered [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome Lyman]] to steal his pets and Garfield as a [[ExtremeOmnivore ceaselessly hungry]] EldritchAbomination that will devour the entire world if not appeased with lasagna. Hell, there's even an entry (#3166) about Garfield on '''''[[Website/SCPFoundation the SCP Foundation]]'''''. There's also a very active [[Website/{{Reddit}} subreddit]] dedicated to fanart of Garfield as an Lovecraftian eldritch horror, [[https://www.reddit.com/r/imsorryjon/ "r/imsorryjon"]].