What the Internet Did to Garfield

[Alyce: Old Media Enthusiast]

Due to its content, albeit censored, I feel it's safer to not direct link it. Search for Super Eyepatch Wolf's video "What the Internet Did to Garfield" on Youtube.

(language)
(content warning: Some legitimately nightmarish imagery including *That scene from the ending of Lasagna cat* though it is very much censored)

How the internet turned Garfield from simple comic cat to hellish Lovecraftian nightmare. How Jim Davis' comic strip turned into some of the most insane stuff ever, like Lasagna Cat.

[Paul]

Garfield Minus Garfield is still my favorite.

[Deleted]

I'm Sorry Jon.

[cosmo]

[hassanchop]

[Hurbster]

Oh, you mean the gentleman who is arriving.

[Vice honcho room temperature]

"Who ever invented the internet should be drug out in the street and shot"

~Garfield

[MrElijah]

You know the way to look at horror Garfield is that it's the bad ending of when they took on the The Creature That Lived In The Refrigerator, Behind the Mayonnaise, Next to the Ketchup and to the Left of the Cole Slaw and lost. The creature merged with poor Garfield and there you go.

Remember don't let Jon cook new stuff and always keep some baking soda.

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

It’s the Garfield strip that’s kinda banal and easy to meme on. Garfield and Friends was actually really witty and smart, and was almost a preview of the same style of subversive kids humor that could also appeal to adults.

[CMWaters]

Won't post any pictures but...

...there's also Gothfield...

[dav]

Sexy Goth Garfield...

There is so much to unpack from this video, but that alone shows just how far down this entire rabbit hole goes.

[CeilingFan]

Heathcliff is better.

[jimmyjackezekiel]

I watched it last night. It was very.... Insightful.

I am never giving Sonic fans crap again.

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

Dec 13, 2021 7:29:45 GMT -5 jimmyjackezekiel said:

I watched it last night. It was very.... Insightful.

I am never giving Sonic fans crap again.

Sonic artists at least balance that out with kickass fan comics like Ghosts Of The Future and Archie Sonic Online. What I saw of that Goth Garfield comic freaked me out and I had to bail.

[KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!!]

From cute to disturbing back to cute again:

[Deleted]

I know he only focused on the comics, but I'm disappointed he didn't explore the full media empire Garfield had, consisting of two full animated series, numerous shorts, nearly two dozen animated and/or live action movies or TV specials, video games, amusement park deals, being the mascot for several corporations (most recently Indiana Farmers Insurance), and more.  But that's not the scope of the video.

However, it does explain the media reach Garfield possesses as well as the cynicism that many people developed over the years about both the character and the brand about being a license to print money first and a source of entertainment second, given how far reaching the Garfield merch bonanza spans.  If I could hazard a guess as to where the "anti-Garfield" backlash began, it wasn't necessarily due to the similarities some members of the public noted between Heathcliff and Garfield (though Heathcliff takes a more surrealist approach to humor, requiring you to accept the absurdity as opposed to Garfield's general everyday content), but with Bill Watterson, the creator of "Calvin and Hobbes" and a man famous (or infamous, based on your view) for flat out refusing to merch his work, as he considered it "selling out".  Watterson rarely took potshots at his contemporaries, but he specifically had venomous hatred towards Jim Davis for his creations, believing they were the nadir of creativity and wit, insisting he was a slavedriver towards his staff in creating a global empire built around tchotchkes, and that Davis had absolutely no talent.

And if you're a purist or a snob, you're gonna go "Mmm... I agree with that sentiment", given it comes from an artist who is notorious for not putting his characters on anything about an artist who seemingly was notorious for putting his characters on everything.

However, this only applies to the point of view where you hate Garfield as nothing more than a corporate shill.  I think a lot of the internet weirdness, which is the actual point of the video, ranges from people who genuinely liked Garfield at one point in their lives to people who view it as an oddity, and tried to decipher not "what" is Garfield but instead "why" is Garfield.  The general thread around using Davis as a memetic device long before the discovery of "Jon" seemed to be built around observations that there may have been some deep-seated resentment over a character becoming more famous than you, which is not uncommon in the world of fiction.  We're not experts and obviously there's no point in prodding in one man's personal life, but I think enough evidence is there to show that Jim Davis, at one point, wished he was like a Charles Schulz or even a Bill Watterson (contrary to what Bill says about him) where folks would refer to him as a person and as a source of admiration instead of being the opening round answer to a trivia contest.  But, that moment has long since passed.

[Malcolm]

You know I'm numb from the weirdness from the internet when my response to the existence of rule 63 sexy goth Garfield is:

"Of course they did."

[Tiger Millionaire]

All he wants is some f***ing enchiladas.

[Deleted]

Dec 13, 2021 7:28:58 GMT -5 CeilingFan said:

Heathcliff is better.

I'm not even agreeing just to be a hater. I loved the Heathcliff cartoon as a kid and I've never gotten why people think Garfield is funny.

[CeilingFan]

Dec 14, 2021 7:44:34 GMT -5 @therealoblivion said:

Dec 13, 2021 7:28:58 GMT -5 CeilingFan said:

Heathcliff is better.

I'm not even agreeing just to be a hater. I loved the Heathcliff cartoon as a kid and I've never gotten why people think Garfield is funny.

I loved the cartoon too, but I always wondered why Heathcliff and Riff-Raff never had a confrontation.