The ninth episode of the fourth season of Garfield and Friends.
Post-Opening Sequence Line: "I'm sick of those singers! Can we get some, like, Elvis impersonators for next week?"
Mind Over Matter
Jon takes Garfield and Odie to see Swami Pastrami, who claims he can read minds. Jon buys a jewel from him but is unable to read minds with it. Garfield discovers that Swami Pastrami is a phony who knows his audience through the contents of their wallets that he stole, and exposes Swami Pastrami for the fraud that he is.
Orson at the Bat
Orson gets knocked out during a baseball game he and his friends have and has a dream where he is Casey of Casey at the Bat fame.
The Multiple Choice Cartoon
Garfield allows the audience to decide what happens in this episode through three different choices, with the choice that gets the most applause being the deciding factor.
"Mind Over Matter" provides examples of:
- Accidental Misnaming: Swami Pastrami accidentally misnames Jon's brother Doc Boy "Dick Boy". Upon hearing this, Jon exclaims "That's right; I do have a brother named Dick... I mean Doc Boy!"
- Alliterative Name: When Garfield returns to the theater to get Jon's money back from Swami Pastrami, he finds him scamming a man named Fred Finster.
- Big Eater: Garfield. He eats nine burgers from a burger stand and leaves Jon to pay the bill of $33.00. Later, when Garfield gets Jon's $200.00 back from Swami Pastrami, he decides to spend it on pizzas.
- Hypno Fool: Garfield exposes Swami Pastrami for the fraud that he is by changing the stations on his radio system, including a one for horse race and one for an opera.
- Malicious Misnaming: Garfield calls Swami Pastrami "Swami Salami" when he decides to expose him for the fraud that he is.
- Rhyming Names: The Swami who cons Jon is named Swami Pastrami.
"Orson at the Bat" provides examples of:
- All Just a Dream: Much of this episode's events are a dream of Orson's.
- An Aesop: When Orson awakens from his dream, he learns that in order to be a good baseball player, you have to keep your eye on the ball and give it your maximum effort. Sure enough, instead of being too overconfident for his own good like Casey, Orson does keep his eye on the ball and put in his maximum effort, resulting in his team winning the game.
- Baseball Episode: In this episode, Orson and his friends partake in a baseball game. Orson gets knocked out and has a dream where he is Casey of Casey at the Bat fame.
- Big Eater: Orson. He eats several pizzas and a submarine sandwich before the first pitch, and some Chow Mein before the second pitch.
- Brats with Slingshots: During the third pitch, Gort launches the baseball with a slingshot.
- The Cameo: Garfield appears on a TV screen when Roy turns off the ball game to watch his VCR.
- Camera Abuse: When Orson hits the ball during the third pitch, the ball flies into the camera, breaking its lens, which is used as a transition to the next scene
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Orson's fantasy ends with Orson having struck out and lost the game. Sheldon points out that it wouldn't have happened if he had just hit the ball the first two times he had the chance to.
- Low Count Gag: Sheldon is the only character in the audience.
- Rhymes on a Dime: Much like the source material, most of the dialogue is done in rhyme.
- Self-Deprecation:
- Upon seeing Orson's team losing to Gort, Wart, and Mort, Sheldon says "If I were home, I would have changed the channel long ago."
- After Orson loses the game, Wade mentions that people have turned off the ball game to watch their VCRs.
- Think of the Censors!: When Sheldon shouts "Kill the Umpire!", Wade reminds Sheldon that you can't kill a person on a TV cartoon show.
- Whole-Plot Reference: To Casey at the Bat, with Orson in the role of Casey.
"The Multiple Choice Cartoon" provides examples of:
Garfield allows the audience to choose special elements of the cartoon for them to watch.- Audience Participation: Garfield was ordered by the network to let the audience choose the episode's elements. To his misfortune, the audience only wants the most exciting or most ironic element, which turns the episode into a nightmarish doomsday for him and Odie as because of the audience's choices, Garfield and Odie have to run from the Finnark, a giant bird-like monster that's trying to eat them.
- Big Bad: The Finnark.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: "You people could've voted for Cactus Jake, but Noooooo. You had to pick the Finnark!"
- Denied Food as Punishment: You the viewer even get to choose just how long of a period Garfield has to forgo food as punishment for slingshotting Odie. The choices are no food for a day, a week or until the next time Halley's Comet cruises the galaxy (around the 2060s).
- Deus ex Machina: Choice B for the last decision was if Garfield and Odie be rescued by a muscular forest ranger from the Finark.
- Emergency Taxi: How the episode ends, rather than Garfield and Odie pulling a Big Damn Heroes and fight that Finnark like the audience wanted.
- Fake Interactivity: Parodied; Garfield gets the viewers to decide where the episode takes place, who's in it, and what the plot is. As a Running Gag, the choice the audience votes for is always C.
- Humiliation Conga:
- By order of the audience votes, Jon has to wear a stupid-looking pigeon suit for the whole episode even while flame broiling burgers on a barbecue (isn't that hazardous?) and scolding Garfield for slingshotting Odie.
- Garfield himself complains it's humiliating that he's being blackmailed by a guy in a pigeon suit to go bring back Odie.
- Kaiju: The Finark. It's slightly bigger than an adult human, but looks especially gigantic when chasing Garfield and Odie.
- Kick the Dog: Played With. The audience wholeheartedly vote for Garfield to slingshot Odie into a lake just cause it's entertaining, but they vote for Odie to be found and brought back. That is, until they vote for Odie to go into a cave and meet a bird-like monster.
- Jerkass: The audience. They take a sociopathic liking for cruel, terrible things happening to the protagonists so long as it amuses them.
- No Ending: On account of 1) there's no time left to properly conclude the cartoon, 2) Garfield being too much of a coward to fight the Finnark (to be fair, he doesn't actually stand a chance) and 3) he's lazy, he'd rather prefer hailing a taxi.
- Plot Hole: Garfield at one time asked the viewers to choose the option of him going back to eat cheeseburgers with Jon after he gave up looking for Odie, even though the viewers settled on Garfield being Denied Food as Punishment should he fail to retrieve Odie. If he went back, Jon would refuse to feed him.
- Rule of Three: Each of the questions Garfield asks the audience has three answers to what outcome could occur; A. B. and C..note C. is always the one that gets chosen.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Despite the fact that the audience voted for C. Garfield and Odie to fight the Finnark in the last question, Garfield instead chooses A. That he and Odie should flag down a taxi cab to escape from the Finnark.
- Time-Passage Beard: When Garfield gives the audience the choice of how long Jon will punish him without food unless he brings Odie back, the picture for C. No Food Until the Next Time Halley's Comet Cruises the Galaxy depicts Garfield with a long gray beard.
