This week has been really serious, and has gotten a lot of attention from people and I am immensely proud that people have enjoyed my look at the pop culture classroom, but today is Friday and I want to lighten things up a little.
Few people realize this about me, but I hate Garfield more than anything else in the world. I think this strip is hands down the most unfunny of all comic strips of all time. I hate Garfield so much that I wrote the following letter over a year ago to the my local newspaper about a strip that I particularly hated, but wrote it in a voice that I thought would be far more funny than simply complaining about how empty, boring, and predictable it is.
Today, I grabbed the Wednesday, November 18, edition of the News-Leader to read the comics. To my surprise, I must say that I found the Garfield comic strip to be quite offensive. It begins with Garfield’s owner, Jon Arbuckle breaking the fourth wall to stare directly into the reader’s eyes like some kind of voyeur. “I love . . .” Arbuckle begins a statement.
In the second panel, Garfield leaps in front of his owner and announces, “TUNA!” I find this one word to be the ultimate betrayal to all Garfield fans everywhere. Everyone knows that Garfield loves lasagna, not tuna. The statement that Garfield loves tuna is a slap to the face of all newspaper readers who have enjoyed the rotund tabby cat’s 31 years of comic strip hilarity.
Furthermore, this strip demonstrates Davis’s lack of audience awareness. Perhaps Davis is trying to be ironic by disrupting expectations with the word “tuna” instead of “lasagna.” Perhaps he is trying to show his audience that he can still be fresh by playing on different punch lines, but this sort of unpredictability is more suited to “the Lockhorns” or “Family Circus” crowd rather than the “Garfield” crowd. Fans of “the Lockhorns” and “Family Circus” are better equipped for experimentation in their comic strips while Garfield’s audience relies on tradition.
To summarize, Jim Davis needs to put down the pen. This latest strip in a long line of offenses toward his audience is simply too much to bear for one reader. In addition, the comic strip editors of the Springfield News-Leader need to take better care in their reading to ensure the strips printed in their comics section do not offend. Thank you for your time.
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My favorite is that it was printed online here and after a day or two, it received 16 comments. Some people took my letter seriously and complained that I had too much time on my hands while others pointed out that it was ridiculous that my letter was ever even printed. Finally, my favorite responses were the ones that tried to argue that Garfield was still a great comic strip . . . as if my letter could be argued with.
It’s fun to have fun with your local newspaper. Enjoy it while it lasts, folks.
You will be pleased to know that I began boycotting Garfield as early as 1983. Years previous, in second and third grades, I’d finished a few of my friend’s Garfield collections and felt comfortable with them. However, by grade 5, Garfield was an altogether too-accepted running dog of grade school mediocrity, and I was rapidly souring on it. Mrs. Hampton, my teacher, had Garfield and Michael Jackson plastered on our classroom’s every surface. They became a one-two punch of Orwellian brotherhood–“join us in predictable vapid loyalty to Mrs. Hampton’s mainstream tastes or just sit there deprived of fun.” Stephanie Long and Michelle Hawkins rubbed Teacher’s shoulders while I fumed. Garfield was not funny, and Michael Jackson was not cool. I wasn’t joining. Our big rewards were Garfield stickers and some big “unit” or semester culminating in the watching of “The Making of Thriller.” For Willard, MO in 1983, this was probably pretty progressive, but I was already poisoned. My only feeble resistance to their bogus mass-consumption was “not really being into it.”
Eventually this would lead minor displays of “bad attitude,” and it finally culminated in my refusal to do a report on some topic because I felt all the good topics were taken by the students in the fold. When confronted over why I failed to complete the assignment, I said, “Because I thought it was a buncha shit.” This got me put in the hallway with, among others, Richard Peck, the mean kid who once pushed me down on the playground and ripped my favorite corduroy pants. So began the corrosion of my conformity, and my near-everlasting gobstopper of virginity.
Thanks Garfield, you unfunny piece of shit.
Garfield is completing the sentence that John is saying. In other words, Garfield is saying that John loves tuna.
Garfield used to be funny up until the mid 90’s or so. Then Jim Davis realized that people would continue to buy Garfield products no matter what, so he decided to stop caring about its quality (at least that’s how it appears to me).
It’s clear that Mr. Davis needs to put the series out to pasture. It had a good run in its heyday, but it has long overstayed its welcome.
The really sad part is that it’s still better than most newspaper comics nowadays.
Though I do agree that Garfield has gotten stale. Personally, I think you should, as Garfield would say, Get. A. Life.
I wrote it over 3 years ago and I did it as a joke.
You, however, have stumbled upon this site 3 years too late and took the time to be rude to me.
Now, who needs to get a life?