History YMMV / Garfield

* LoveItOrHateIt: The use of the punchline "We're bachelors, baby!" for five days in a row has been a little dividing among the fans.

** Jon almost constantly calls Garfield fat in some of the most degrading ways possible, and it's played for laughs. Now realize that Garfield is fully sentient and can communicate in-universe, and [[FridgeHorror now imagine a parent treating their overweight child that way]].

* NauseaFuel: After commenting on his coffee being too weak, he dumps it into Jon's shoes. Jon then wrings it out of his socks and into Odie's dish, and Odie subsequently dumps it ''back into the coffeepot''. Garfield takes a drink and says, "Much better." [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAKF8lDLOv0 Watch it adapted into Garfield and Friends in its entirety.]]

* GuiltyPleasures: Everything Garfield catches on TV.
* HoYay: Between Garfield and Jon occasionally. [[http://garfield.nfshost.com/2006/05/31/ This strip]] may be the best example.
** It was never even hinted at between Jon and Lyman, but it's really not hard to interpret two men living together as a gay couple...

** The strip itself, for that matter. Despite the massive {{hatedom}} for its often-monotonous nature, it still has its fans.

** Not as big as the above examples, but it seems rather odd to me that the strips published on [[http://garfield.nfshost.com/1991/06/07/ June 7]] and [[http://garfield.nfshost.com/1991/06/29/ June 29]] of 1991 (barely three weeks apart) would both have the same basic gag.

* CrossesTheLineTwice: In a G-rated example, a spider trips and his contact falls out. Garfield squishes the spider with a newspaper... then after a BeatPanel, crushes the contact lens too.

* {{Hatedom}}: Getting worse with time, and arguably second only to TheFamilyCircus.

* HoYay: Between Garfield and Jon occasionally. [[http://garfield.nfshost.com/2006/05/31/ This strip]] may be the MostTriumphantExample.

** Jon almost constantly calls Garfield fat in some of the most degrading ways possible, and it's played for laughs. Now realize that Garfield is fully sentient and can communicate in-universe, and [[Fridge Horror now imagine a parent treating their overweight child that way]].

** Jon almost constantly calls Garfield fat in some of the most degrading ways possible, and it's played for laughs. Now realize that Garfield is fully sentient and can communicate in-universe, and imagine a parent treating their overweight child that way.

* AdaptationDecay: Nightmarishly evident in the live-action films.

* TearJerker: Namely, the sequence in the special ''Garfield's 9 Lives'' involving [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP7IYegv0BQ Diana's Piano.]] If the music doesn't get you, the added visual at the end probably will.
** There is a sequence in the television special ''Here Comes Garfield'' that qualifies as well. Before Odie [[spoiler:is dragged away to certain death by the Pound employees, Garfield lays next to him to comfort him. Garfield then cries for him, because there was nothing else he could do.]]
** In ''Garfield Gets Real'' Garfield stares forlornly into a newspaper, which functions like a camera, after a long day of trying and failing to return home. He wonders if anyone is still even watching, before turning away. Arlene is, and what happens next turns this into a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming.
** Quite a bit of ''Garfield's Fun Fest'', but especially near the end when Garfield almost gives up the competition after seeing Arlene and Ramone during their act.
** The 1984 StoryArc in which Garfield wanders away from home while Jon's at a convention and ends up stumbling upon the abandoned Italian restaurant where he was born. The strip has several tear-jerking moments, such as Odie trying to console Jon by abusing him like Garfield did; Garfield discovering that the restaurant is now abandoned; and finally coming home just in time for Christmas. It also subverts this trope on the December 23 strip, with Garfield collapsing dramatically in the front door; Jon asks if Garfield's okay and he replies, "Actually, yes, I just thought it would be more dramatic this way."

* HighOctaneNightmareFuel: The Halloween-themed strips in 1989 depicted Garfield waking up in an abandoned house to learn he's in an alternate reality where he no longer exists. Unable to cope with being alone, he screams out "I don't want to be alone!", and the next thing he knows he's back in his own time again. Some fans speculated that this meant Garfield was ''really'' in an abandoned house and slowly starving to death, and imagining future strips in a never-ending state of denial. [[WordOfGod Jim Davis himself]] has said that this is false; he had wanted to write a Halloween strip that was actually scary, and decided on what he felt was what people feared the most: [[NothingIsScarier true loneliness.]]
** In the graphic novel and television special ''Garfield: His Nine Lives'', one of the titular lives involves Garfield as a lab cat: [[spoiler:he turns into a dog at the end, complete with scary transformation sequence.]] Another segment of the graphic novel involved a cat possessed by a demon, which was even worse.
** ''Garfield's Halloween Adventure'' quickly turns from a comedy to a creepy ghost story set in a creepy abandoned mansion told by a creepy old man, [[spoiler: which turns out to be true.]]
** The camping special, with the killer panther. [[spoiler:Doesn't stop Garfield from [[BadAss attacking it]] when it threatens his family, though.]]
** The title panel for [[http://images.ucomics.com/comics/ga/1994/ga941030.gif this Sunday strip]].

* TearJerker: Namely, the sequence in the special ''Garfield's 9 Lives'' involving [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP7IYegv0BQ Diana's Piano.]] If the music doesn't get you, the added visual at the end probably will.
** There is a sequence in the television special ''Here Comes Garfield'' that qualifies as well. Before Odie [[spoiler:is dragged away to certain death by the Pound employees, Garfield lays next to him to comfort him. Garfield then cries for him, because there was nothing else he could do.]]
** In ''Garfield Gets Real'' Garfield stares forlornly into a newspaper, which functions like a camera, after a long day of trying and failing to return home. He wonders if anyone is still even watching, before turning away. Arlene is, and what happens next turns this into a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming.
** Quite a bit of ''Garfield's Fun Fest'', but especially near the end when Garfield almost gives up the competition after seeing Arlene and Ramone during their act.
** The 1984 StoryArc in which Garfield wanders away from home while Jon's at a convention and ends up stumbling upon the abandoned Italian restaurant where he was born. The strip has several tear-jerking moments, such as Odie trying to console Jon by abusing him like Garfield did; Garfield discovering that the restaurant is now abandoned; and finally coming home just in time for Christmas. It also subverts this trope on the December 23 strip, with Garfield collapsing dramatically in the front door; Jon asks if Garfield's okay and he replies, "Actually, yes, I just thought it would be more dramatic this way."

** In another strip, Jon intentionally doesn't buy Garfield kitty treats "because life's not fair." Even though [[NegativeContinuity it only happened in that one strip]], it can still come across as a harsh thing to do to one's pet.

* DudeNotFunny: Jon almost constantly calls Garfield fat in some of the most degrading ways possible, and it's played for laughs. Now realize that Garfield is fully sentient and can communicate in-universe, and imagine a parent treating their overweight child that way.
** Plus there's that strip where Jon doesn't buy Garfield kitty treats "because life's not fair." Even though [[NegativeContinuity it only happened in one strip]], it can still come across as a harsh thing to do to one's pet.

** Quite a bit of ''Garfield's Fun Fest'', but especially near the end when Garfield almost gives up the competition after seeing Arlene and Ramone during their act.