He just missed his time... he arrived 3 decades too soon. If he'd shown up in the last 5 years, particularly as a webcomic, he'd likely have succeeded.
"Jon: This is twice the Weight I've lifted. Won't this be exciting? Garfield: You Bet. Garfield(Grinning): I've Never Ridden in an Ambulance Before!" (Jon attempts and fails to lift Heavy Barbells)." Come on, that was Funny!
I adored Garfield as a kid. I had many of his books and I would read them over and over. I wrote to Jim Davis and even received a reply back much later. It was type written and it came with a drawing of Garfield. Probably all pre printed, but it was my absolute favorite thing that happened to me as a kid
There were a handful of the strips that were laugh out loud funny at least to me as a kid -- and I don't easily find things laugh out loud funny. But mostly it was just sly and cute.
Yep, I devoured Garfield anthologies when I was a kid. I have to admit they were hugely formative to my sense of humor, and likely, my personality as a whole.
Oh man, I was so hoping he'd go into the absurdity that is the Garfield Eats app.! Prior to watching this video I'd no idea that Garfield was pretty much 100% created for cynical reasons- I've got to hand it to Jim Davis, that's something that seldom works-out in the arts.
@@redram5150 Another fun fact. He was an incredibly popular mayor and was elected _after_ a huge scandal involving his spending of funds on... I can't remember entirely, but I'm gonna say a prostitute? If I remember correctly, he also ran for Governor of Ohio and had a very real chance of winning. Long story short, Springer's life has _always_ been a wild ride, be it his political life or his absolute-garbage television life.
@nemo pouncey Do you have proof you graduated third grade? Based on your command of the English language, I find it far more probable that an individual met Jerry Springer at a brief meet-and-greet ages ago where he discussed his show than that you managed to pass elementary school. Find your first grade teacher and apologize for being a waste of their time.
@@barneynedward Yep. They made a big deal about it in the show, there was even an episode where he wished Mondays to disseapear, and a plenty of people were happy about it (kids didn't felt entitled to go to school, because the first day of school supposed to be Monday, so no Monday=no school by their logic), and the moral was it doesn't matter if that day is cancelled, they will adapt and reschedule things for an other day instead to replace it, so that's gonna be the "worst day". You can't just escape from it, there is always gonna be something you don't like. You can get rid of it, but something will always come instead. That's just how the world is. I think it was a really good message, I loved it as a kid, because it surprised me. It was not just the "Monday was not that bad afterall" from what I remember (I watched that one years ago), more like: "Yeah, Monday was definetely bad, but other things can be just as bad too, because humans give things meaning. They are the ones who named the days of the week and they're the ones making the changeable schedule to suit them. Days are neutral. Interpretation is what matters."
As a child I loved Garfield. I literally spent hours reading the Garfield books that I had. Even the original cartoon was great Garfield and friends. It's the recent movies and TV shows that have not been funny.
Did that Garfield sound like Bill Murray? Memories are incredibly unreliable so I might have made this up, but I REALLY remember thinking Garfield sounded exactly like him.
MarkT2 Thank you for that info! I really knew Bill Murray’s voice because I had Stripes on VHS and watched it over and over. So it wasn’t a vague this sounds kind of like, it was more this sounds exactly like. Plus the delivery was the same. Thanks for replying!
Also, the guy who voiced Garfield in Garfield and Friends also did the voice of Venkman in The Real Ghostbusters. I think he left the latter after a few seasons though.
I first found Garfield in a bookstore when I was a kid. I was browsing (hard to believe, but in the 80s, kids actually roamed freely) and found Garfield at Large. Supposedly I amused the staff because I couldn't stop laughing.
Commercialized or not, Davis has always been a very approachable and sweet person. I've never heard of him turning down an autograph, or ever being rude to a fan of Garfield. His reaction to Garfield without Garfield is just a very Davis reaction.
A complete opposite of Bill Watterson, who is a sour recluse who spurns his fans. Davis always saw Garfield for what it is, a simple, inoffensive, universal way to make money. He makes no bones about it and has had a wildly successful career because of it. Watterson made art, Davis makes commerce. Calvin and Hobbes means more but Garfield has had its role as well.
relatability? Also, the Monday gags had morphed into something like Garfield is just cursed by Mondays. Once, the comic strip had a full week of Mondays. Another comic had a land mine in his breakfast. Some are pretty surreal. www.gocomics.com/comics/lists/1720946/garfield-mondays-comics
@Jess Hanks the wrongness is in polluting the world with billions of pounds worth of cheap plastic crap merchandise, based on a soulness and empty cartoon designed only to make money, so you can live in a million square foot mansion with 45 bathrooms.
@Jess Hanks What are you talking about? Jim Davis's materialistic pursuit of merchandising money didn't happen? Jim Davis is a hack. Bill Watterson was right.
@@toniaansaldo8140 Because the video's title is: 'Why is Garfield unfunny?' If they agree with this, it's perfectly fine. And it's coming from someone who likes Garfield, he was a huge part of my childhood.
did not garfield came in 1978 while heatclif was in 1980 though? i love both of them though and find them finyy no matter what others say garfield is stil my fav comic
Same. I felt as a kid it was really funny, but I was also very depressed bc of long term illness. The sarcasm, dead panning, and searing observations were funny and relatable to me, and was a great strip I liked forward to.
He even went as far as to state that he didn't want Hobbes to become another Garfield. Takes a special kind of true integrity to turn your back on potentially millions of dollars. Although, had he spent more time on drafting licencing agreements instead of drafting comics, one may find that Watterson's objectively better writing would have suffered and the comic wouldn't be as fondly remembered today. Haven't bothered reading Garfield since the '90s. Still pull out Calvin and Hobbes books... in fact, just yesterday.
Michael Ingling I think you will find that someone who just wants to make money, doesn't have what it takes to be a succesfull artist and therefore doesn't make any money. So in order for Davis to make money, he actually needs to be a talented and skillful artist.
What is bad about wanting to make money? As long as you aren't screwing other people over to make it. It's not like he is Wal-Mart, where he is driving other comic strip artists out of business.
I was a fan of both comics and the difference is Calvin & Hobbes reflects on life with thoughtful commentary (while they are rolling dangerously down the hill for example lol). It's more thoughtful and reflective about life, while also very fun.
Don't many of us work for money? As Garfield goes, it's early stuff was actually very funny with lots of good observations made by a self-aware slob who drives his owner mad. By the later stripes, certainly by the 90's it was really going through the motions though.
Davis makes comic strip with what he thinks are good jokes, but has no marketability. Decides to add marketability when he creates his next comic strip. This Today I found out guy "Since he was into marketability, that means it was the only ingredient." Video criticizing incredibly popular comic strip, is great click bait. Mr. Today I Found Out, is all about marketability.
@@coda821 One could argue that everything people pay money for (on an wide scale) is created for marketability. Or one could argue that the level of skill and craftmanship makes something saleable. I bet he would never made it that big if not for his previous failed attempts, you can have the best idea ever and it would not sell if you do not have the skill to put it into an product you can sell, I know plenty people who are very very skilled but do not understand that marketability is not an bad thing, or makes them an "traitor to the art" but just an skill of knowing what people like
@@pouncepounce7417 True, True. But the header of this video claims that Garfield was not about comedy. That's means he's claiming that it's all about money, and that we were duped into believing it had anything to do with wanting to make people laugh and enjoy themselves. I agree with you totally, that's why I disagree with this video. It's entropic. I've known plenty of people who will strip the notion of altruism, from anything loveable, and call it just business. They call ppl gullible for believing in any kind of altruistic motivation. Whether it's intentional or not, that's what this video is doing.
@@coda821 The title is clickbaity, sure, but i think in an way true that the comic is more observational than plain humor. Many comics back then where humor pure, slapstick, Garfield is more an characterstudie that happens to be funny. And it is refreshing that someone goes out straight with "yeah i like earning money with the stuff i produce" Right on the nose of the artists who have million dollar mansions but are all about the "art" and "commercialism is bad, mkay?"
You know, just to avoid the obvious comments... 1. I said "it's not common," not "it never happens" or even "it's rare". Yeah, a lot of 80's cartoons (Transformers, He-Man, My Little Pony, etc) were made solely to sell toys, but they're the exception. Also, it's worth noting that modern incarnations often have other motivations behind their creation, which brings me to... 2. I said _solely_ to sell toys. The reason shows like Steven Universe, Dragon Ball, and Spongebob stay on the air is because they have merchandising and franchise potential, but there are other reasons that they were created. 3. I know that this isn't going to stop anyone from listing the examples I mentioned as though a few counterexamples disproved "It's not common".
I thought this is the definition of advertising? TV ads are media created for marketing only. Remember PC vs Mac? Funny media to sell Macs? Or the Energizer Bunny? Funny to sell batteries? So Garfield is just an ad masquerading as a comic strip. So that makes Garfield just like any advertisement with the exception that it is not being inserted into newsprint as an ad. The newspapers should charge Davis for the column inches to run his ad every week.
Garfield holds a special place in my heart. I had a rough time of it as a kid and one of my uncles, who is like a second father to me, introduced me to Garfield to get me to laugh. For over a decade we shared our love of Garfield and while I'm not as big a fan as I used to be, I still have a little set of Garfield paper clips my uncle gave me one birthday and a little Garfield figurine I got in a Christmas stocking. I will never give them up. Garfield helped me through my parents very ugly separation and the complete upheaval of my life as a result.
The Far Side ruined Garfield for me. In the back of my mind it bothered me that Garfield was popular. Why? It's relatable... Oh well I'll never need to think on it again!
I LOVE his reaction to Garfield Minus Garfield. A lot of creators react to that kind of thing with hurt feelings and attack lawyers but it's always done out of affection and love for the work! I remember back in the early 00s when writers threatened to sue fanfiction websites for 'copyright infringement'. I actually wrote to one of the writers and explained what fanfiction was and she said she would tell her lawyers to stop.
The original 2D animated movies and Saturday morning cartoon were the best things about the Garfield franchise. They didn't last, but they also didn't overstay their welcome. RIP Lorenzo Music, a performance and a voice that can never be replaced.
Dude....totally killing me. Reminds me of my mom frustrated with the interior of my windshield. I cannot clean glass for the life of me. While she was inside my truck cleaning it, I flung myself to the glass of the side window and screamed "Look ma, I'm Garfield". Totally scared the crap outta her. She should of expected it. When I was 10 and we were driving on the highway I was sitting behind her as a passenger, knocked on her window and screamed "someone's at the window"! I am paying for it now....I have a 13 year old son with the same prankster humour...so love it!! 😁🤣🤣
Lynx Integra It’s two o’clock in the morning and laughing at the paragraph you wrote of torturing your poor mom. I bet you guys do that “remember that time when I/you.....” all the time.
In 5th grade (around 1994) I went on a field trip to Davis's Paws studio, because one of my classmates parents worked at the studio as a woodcarver. The studio is literally in the middle of nowhere in Indiana. It's kind of incredibly humble settings for such a massively successful pop culture phenomenon. Davis has never forgotten his roots, I think.
@@klutterkicker There was a Garfield merchandise store at the Mall in Muncie, IN (not far from the studio) and I remember seeing some wood carved items there, along with stuffed animals, prints, paintings, and housewares. This was mid 00's, and I don't think the store is still there, but I always wondered if my classmates dad had made those items, but I have no idea.
Mid~Late 80's I had the worst wreck of my life on a three-wheeler. I was wearing a t-shirt with a picture of Garfield riding Odie and using his ears like handle-bars. The shirt had "Easy Rider" printed just below the image. For a few years, I had scars that matched the holes in that shirt. I continued to wear the shirt because I liked the irony.
Better than Garfield is the strip/book GARFIELD WITHOUT GARFIELD. In it, Garfield is removed from the strips, and Jon is left talking to himself. It becomes a surreal exploration of depression and other neuroses.
Did you catch the last bonus fact? Simon said they contacted the person who did Garfield without Garfield, who assumed it was to-be told to cease and desist, and they said, no, they wanted to collaborate with him. I think that’s pretty cool.
I actually prefer Realfield, in which Garfield is still in the comic, but as a real cat who doesn't have lines or distinct expressions. It has a similar effect, but doesn't reach as much by making Jon appear to talk to a nonexistent entity.
The earliest Garfield comics actually had more variety and creativity. I know because my family had collections of the oldest Garfield comics, where Garfield is much more fat, and the jokes aren't repetitive yet.
The cat has gone into philosophy and game shows in several comics and a few animated shows, and most of them can be recognized through him wearing a bathrobe, sitting in an armchair and "smoking" a bubble pipe. Spoiler, he inhales with the pipe.
This. The editor reply was common typical editor of the 70s and 80s who think their opinion represent the rest of the world. Thanks to the advent of the internet Gnorm Gnat will have its audience without stupid meddling of one old editor guy/lady who live in Missouri or Nebraska or Maine or wherever and never know other people outside his/her community. Bugs are treated like shit for way too long and now people realize how important they are, especially bees.
First, Lorenzo Music = Animated voice of Garfield Then, Bill Murray = Peter Venkman in live-action Ghostbusters. and then, Lorenzo Music = Animated voice of Peter Venkman and finally, Bill Murray = Voice of CGI Garfield in live-action movies.
My friend smuggled all his drugs into Burning Man by putting them in a baggie,, then slipping it into the middle of a fresh baked lasagna, which he then froze solid. The dogs couldn't smell anything, so he got in without a problem...and when the lasagna thawed, he had food for days, too. His new nickname was Garfield 😁
My mom loved Garfield. She'd take as many children as she could so she didn't feel self-conscious at 65. Mom loved cats and I think that love spilled over to Garfield. Thanks Garfield for making mom laugh.
@@spacemanx9595 it's true; they don't have dogs at the gate, but cops post up all along the little rural highways that lead there...if you get pulled over for any reason at all they will find some excuse to search your car. Fines for drug citations are a huge revenue generator for that little county, and who can blame them?? You basically have all these rich hippies coming through every year; why not make some money off them??
Garfield and Calvin and Hobbes are my top two favorite comics. Loved them as a kid. I also remember watching Garfield and Friends on Saturday mornings. Those were the days...
Well comic strips in the so-called “funny pages” are almost never actually funny, unless your name is Gary Larson or Bill Watterson, you’re probably not making anyone actually laugh out loud.
As a kid I could never understand how strips like Rex Morgan MD, Steve Canyon, and Terry and the Pirates were so popular. Now that I'm older, I still don't. (But I've definitely gained an appreciation for Milton Caniff's artwork!)
There are three kinds of comics. The first are the really funny ones, created by people who understand the comic medium and really want to do something with it. The second are made by people trying to be the first, but without the understanding of, passion for, and/or respect towards comics to pull it off. The third is trying to tell a serialized story, which probably worked better when more people read newspapers (and their comics) daily.
Garfield may not have been meant to be funny, but I will never not laugh hysterically at the Sunday strip that has Garfield drinking 47 cases of soda and then blasting Jon and Odie out of the house with a nuclear burp.
I burst out laughing remembering it. Last time I read it was over a decade ago and I still remember it... He certainly did hit the nail from time to time.
For some reason I always laugh at the one where he has the dream he keeps eating until he's big enough to eat Jon, then he keeps growing until he eats the world. Something about the nonchalant attitude as he throws his owner into his growing gullet and Jon just doesn't seem to care. ^_^
I think my favourite Garfield comic is a really simple non-sequitur gag: Scene: Garfield watching TV. TV Announcer: "Now a word from our sponsor:" Sponsor: "Sasquatch" TV Announcer: "And back to our show..."
The first one I remember was when I was around 8, Garfield and Odie had a shouting match and Odie shouted Garfield's stripes off. Then Garfield is picking his stripes up off the floor and saying "You win"
@@seldonwright4345 I really wonder if other people's cats really act like that, or if the people are just repeating a meme. I've never met a cat that acted like its humans were just staff.
Was it intentional that the midroll ad is set at the moment Simon mentions "squeezing every dime possible out of it"? If so, bravo on a great hidden joke. If not, bravo on accidentally creating a great hidden joke.
Certainly it's possible for ads to be generated based on words spoken in the video. Most TH-cam videos have internal transcripts for the purpose of subtitles.
I've loved Garfield ever since I was exposed to the comic in the early 90s, and I took it to the next level in '94 as a kid who loved art. I used to mimic the art styles of Calvin & Hobbes, The Simpsons, and even old Disney stuff. When I saw the Garfield art style, I fell in love with its crisp, iconic, and clean look. I'd draw Garfield over and over, recreating entire books, color and all. The style was so fun to draw, and I always appreciated how honest Davis was about his work. The humor was mostly chuckle generating, but occasionally would have some really great gems, all of which were completely relatable. I never knew Schultz solved the feet issue, and I had wondered about that transition. Few comics/cartoons have ever captured my interest regarding the technique/style of the illustrations. I would say one of the most brilliant comics' art styles is the comic "Mutts" in that the simplicity of the drawings is bare bones, yet conveys so much in the execution. I also loved "Zits," which was very reminiscent of Calvin & Hobbes. Then, of course, there's "The Far Side." Probably the funniest comic strip with some of the ugliest drawings, yet they're somehow a good ugly. Like, REALLY good. I never could replicate The Far Side in my time drawing; always looked off model somehow. Garfield, though, like The Simpsons, has a style that others can easily reproduce with a bit of practice, which makes me wonder if Davis formed that style with the intention of getting others to replicate the style on his behalf. He certainly didn't try to hide how to draw Garfield, as one of the earlier books actually has step-by-step "how to draw Garfield" illustrations. In the end, whether you're a Garfield fan or not, there's no denying Jim Davis knows his stuff.
Glad someone else appreciates the Zits art style. It's incredibly expressive. I remember a panel of Pierce going wild on the drums that I could practically hear... an incredible thing to achieve with a single image!
I really liked Get Fuzzy - probably because I had a Siamese cat of my own. I would often snip the strip and replace 'Bucky' with my cat's name, 'Simon', and leave them as little notes for my husband from Simon. I've still got one hanging on our fridge. Simon passed away in April of 2021 at age 20. It still wasn't enough time. Glad I found this video and comment though and it sparked some happy memories.
I actually had the pleasure to meet Jim Davis in person. He was a very friendly, very humble man whom I felt I could talk to for hours. He was also a fellow Hoosier, like myself.
Own up if you own at least one piece of Garfield merchandise. I own a mug with a garfield handle. It must be at least 35yrs old. And it survived many household declutterings😆
I used to have the Garfield mug. I'm not sure where it is anymore. I used to have it at work and I used to put pens in it as a pen holder. I will have to look and see if I still have it. I packed all my stuff from working stuck in a box
I set out a few years ago to digging through secondhand toy bins looking for a good Garfield plush toy, and found one in great shape! I'm still very pleased about that, AND having found an 'Opus' from Bloom County wearing his Christmastime 'Basselope antlers' which is in excellent shape and still has a Dakin-brand tag with a little story about the Basselope! These things really do make me happy. This reminds me I want to get the Bloom County book which mimicked the cover of Springsteen's big hit-collection album from around 1989, and had a record inside of 'Billy and the Boingers' featuring 'Bill the Cat' on lead vocal. I hated Bill the Cat as a child but around age 10, I began getting the jokes of the strip and liked it hugely.
"Here comes Arlene. Better suck in my belly and throw out my chest" *Arlene walks by glaring at Garfield's massive protruding belly, as he has sucked in his chest and thrown out his belly, but with as sexy a look as he can muster... *Garfield facepalms "Backwards, dummy!"
JoJo Tk That is very true. The older you get, the more you have seen. The more you have seen, the less there is of "new" things to tickle your funny bone. More and more it is, "Been there, done that."
@ 5:43 "Garfield is an International character. Therefore, I don't even use seasons. The only Holiday I recognize is Christmas." *Garfield's Halloween Adventure: 1985* *Garfield's Thanksgiving: 1989* You never saw those.... Never....
Oh my god man, this kinda opens the door for a whole new interpretation of Garfield that would probably work extremely well for most of his material. Awesome connection.
Note on Audible: If you sign up and already have an Amazon account you cannot cancel and delete the Audible account without both losing any books you have bought and having your Amazon account deleted as well. I did the 30 trial and know and have the emails from Audible to prove it. I found out the hard way and hope this helps others.
Ummm why would you delete your Audible account? Just cancel your subscription. Done. I’ve canceled my audible numerous times and never lost my amazon account.
audible is a subscription from amazon. You just cancel the subscription basically. Don't delete the account because of course you would be deleting your amazon account as its from amazon lol
So if you were told you could not delete your Instagram account without deleting your Facebook account also that would be OK? It would not be for me. Facebook acquired Instagram just as Amazon acquired Audible but they are treated as two separate entities. Amazon do not tell you both are forever linked when you sign up. I am also fairly sure this goes against GDPR. We are supposed to be in control of all our data held by others and be able to delete it.
I am from his area. I was lucky enough to have dinner with him once, and he was a complete gentleman. It was a great evening, and before we got up to leave, he turned over a paper menu and drew a Garfield cartoon for my young son. Well done, Mr. Davis.
"Garfield" was pretty funny at the peak of its fame from about 1988 to 1995, when Jon was getting lots of laughs with his "nerd" behavior and the strip as a whole got more zany and surreal. Garfield's ability to "talk" without moving his mouth was always amusing to me, and I still smile whenever I think of Binky the Clown! I'm glad Davis licensed Garfield, because I got a lot of joy out of the merchandise.
3:20 well then he didn't research very hard, because there were in fact at least 2 popular feline comic strips that pre-dated Garfield; there was Felix the Cat as a comic strip in 1923, and Heathcliff in 1973. So nobody +2 had invented a cat character by 1978.
I think what he meant was, that no one was currently creating comic strips of a cat (as he was going through current papers to find what worked). Market unfilled; filled it: profit.
I always thought that Jim Davis just had some old-fashioned and vanilla sense of humor, and that's why I didn't like Garfield. Now I know he's actually a marketing genius. The fact that he collaborated with the 'Garfield Minus Garfield' creator says a lot about how self aware the guy is regarding the original Garfield strip and his willingness to capitalize and find a way to market to people who don't even like Garfield.
I don't like Garfield because there's nothing really clever about it. Every strip is essentially Jon being an awkward geek, Garfield being lazy and sarcastic, Odie being and idiot, etc etc. Sure, any set up could be turned into excellent comedy, but the strip never really does that, it just sticks to the same mundane formula day in and day out.
I really liked Garfield when I was young, but then found him boring by the time I was 11 or 12. And listening to this video, it makes perfect sense. Very simple jokes that require no context are good for little kids, but have very little to offer once your sense of humor requires something more complex.
No he has a very deadpan, very sarcastic and cynical sense of humour. This video is also pretty inaccurate on Jim's intentions. All he said was he wanted a character with wider appeal than Gnorm Gnat. The "it was all for merchandise" angle on it comes from a single article over 40 years old that the newspaper retracted because it was rife with inaccuracies and moved quotes around from his interview to make it seem like he was all about the merchandise money. Aside from that single interview that the newspaper admitted to being flawed, he's always said that he wanted a character that would be well liked. If you read Gnorm Gnat, the humour is identical despite what this video claims. Dry, cynical and sarcastic. So I don't buy the conclusions based on a single retracted interview personally. Jim Davis isn't even the one who merchandised Garfield, the original syndication and licensing company was, and when he took control he attempted to stop all merchandise. It was his experience with his creation being out of his input and being heavily commercially exploited that meant he could advise Bill Watterson on what to look out for in contracts to avoid that happening to him. Not something a supposed obsessive merchandising machine would do. He's always maintain that when he got control of the brand, he attempted to stop all merch but couldn't because of existing contracts. He decided that "the cat was out of the bag" and continued with it but exercised heavy control over what merch could be made with everything needing his personal approval. This idea he was always about heavy merchandising and a kind of commercial genius is one he's always fought against and documents back him up. But that's the story that's on the net and videos like this just perpetuate it. Garfield strips have had me in absolute tears of laughter. There are some I just find so hilarious I can barely speak when I remember them. It's not vanilla, it's just deadpan and sarcastic and not everyone picks up the right inflection for the characters so it falls flat for some. Davis himself says that the country that finds the strip itself the funniest is The UK because that kind of deadpan sarcasm is second nature to them.
It’s hilarious as hell. I laughed a solid ten minutes at one of the Sunday issues. Not all are winners, but some are pretty cute-certainly lightyears funnier than Marmaduke or Heathcliff.
My favorite Sunday Garfield was the one where his owner Jon got zapped and fell off his ladder just changing a light bulb. It reminded me of a totally incompetent electronics technician I once worked with. I made it the background on my computer desktop for years, and he never seemed to notice it. I think Garfield is hilarious, probably because I have cats. I never felt the urge to buy any of the merchandise, though. Maybe it's a cultural difference in humor among the Brits as to why this guy doesn't like it.
My favorite one is so simple that one doesn't expect it. Jon and Garfield are just chilling, leaning on their elbows, bored out of their minds; then Jon says "We need to do something exciting". Next panel, Jon says "On three: One... Two... Three." Final panel, the only difference is which elbow they're leaning on.
Even back when I was a kid, my whole life in fact, I don't think I've laughed for ten minutes about Garfield in total. Most Garfield strips were worth a little monosyllabic "hah" if that.
I think "The Far Side" was the best comic ever. Funny almost every day-And with only one panel. A lot of people would probably agree. It even had it's own page in my local paper (The New Haven Register-Connecticut. It was with the horoscope and advice columns). Set it apart from the other comics,a class by itself.
I hated how bulbous all the characters were, they also looked like they were straight outta the 50’s, 60’s with their ugly triangle glasses, the humor was hot or miss, mostly miss for me
I can recall at least 3 occasions when Garfield made me laugh out loud, and I have found him amusing all along. I guess that is the 'relatable' part. Whatever, it worked.
Hardest I've ever laughed as a child. In the library at school, reading a Garfield book. 3 panels. Garfield Jon and Odie in the car, first panel normal, second panel turned 35° on its side, 3rd panel normal again with Garfield saying "Congratulations Jon, you ran over a cow." School had to call my mom because they thought I was on drugs
Lol I go to school in Indiana and the whole STATE is a Garfield museum. They have these giant Garfield statues "hidden" all over Indiana and the goal is to get people to try to visit them all, take pictures with them and post them in what is essentially a free advertisement on their social media. My hat is off to Jim Davis!
Fun fact. For 35 years, on a beach in France, hundreds of Garfield telephones were washing up and it was a big mystery where they were all coming from. A few years ago they finally discovered a shipping container in a nearby sea cave full of them. It's suspected that the container must have fallen off of a ship some time in the 1980s.
I had the great honour of getting to know PEANUTS creator Charles (Sparky as he insisted you call him) Schulz. Garfield (and by association, Jim Davis) was the only topic I heard him say anything bad about. "I hate that darn cat". Sparky resented that Davis stopped drawing the strip for years and had others write it, but still signed his name to it. Sparky drew every detail and lettered all his own work, even late in his life when a heart condition compromised the steadiness of his hand (he just worked on bigger panels so the jagged lines would not show when reduced for print. He would make a great BIOGRAPHIC subject.
He cheated on his wife & rubbed her face in it by including his affair in his comic strips by way of the little red-head girl. I’ve got no respect for Schultz.
All I will say about Jim Davis's work is that, as a kid in the late 80's and early 90's, I had a lot of fun reading both Garfield and US Acres comics and, for that, I am grateful.
Does anybody remember the Garfield And Friends cartoon featuring US Acres? I loved the egg who didn't fully hatch yet and was just legs stocking outta shell lol
I don’t remember that, but when I was a kid the neighborhood had an Easter egg hunt. For the hunt you had your hard boileds which were basically trash. Our moms would scape them up make potato salad with them. You had your coloreds, those twist-aparts full of candy. Then there were the Prize eggs. They were oversized bronze, silver, and gold eggs which were the ‘ol Legg’s egg shaped container pantyhose came in just painted those colors with a special paint marker from Micheal’s.
I still have one, although it's suction cups don't work anymore. I also have the blanket I forced my parents to buy for me and a whole heck of a lot of his compilations since if you did good in English our school let you buy a free book from the Schoolastic magazine every year.
When I bought my house the previous owner had one stuck to the glass on the door. Turns out it was a load bearing toy. The glass and wood holding it disintegrated when I tried to remove it decades later.
I remember a strip from 25+ years ago. Garfield being in a bad mood, Jon comes along, Garfield tells him to go away cos he's in a bad mood. Jon picks him up and gives him a cuddle. Smiling, Garfield says " I hate you Jon" Maybe the strip the day before had Garfield go out into the rain to be drenched cos it matched his bad mood.
I like how you put the single most distinctive, jarring, and out-there strip on screen at 4:30 while talking about how Davis was designing the strip to be as predictable and standardized as possible. For those curious, the strip itself is "No More Mondays?" and is very much worth reading...
I still would love an "authentic" Hobbes plush, and would love to give one to my snarky little nephew with some comic books. I mean, come on. He's literally a plush tiger. That's not even selling out.
I actually remember the comic strip Heathcliff quite some time before Garfield. Also about a cat, the comic was a single panel gag strip and I always thought of it as the cat version of Marmaduke. Heathcliff comics did come out with books, I bought one in grade school in the late 70's.
I remember being in junior high and watching the Garfield holiday specials. The first Christmas that I was living away from home was 1987. I sent out Garfield Christmas cards. I also had these Garfield litter bags for my car. One of my close friends still has a Garfield phone.
Im just making you aware in your commentary you said Jim Davis said there were no cats featured in comic strips before Garfield. That's actually not true. Heathcliff was out a decade before Garfield. I actually liked Heathcliff better. There also was Felix the Cat, starring in cartoons and a comic strip. Just pointing out the errors.
There is a Jim Davis museum in the house he lived in Fairmount, Indiana. Plus, a museum for James Dean who lived there, and buried at the local cemetery.
Nermal is supposed to be male, but I just can't see him that way. I think it would just be too politically incorrect for Garfield to beat up Nermal and throw him through windows if he were a girl.
Chris Jackson seems you are the one who is bothered here. Triggered much? Need a tampon and some chocolate with that attitude? I will throw in some primrose oil for that sass for free if you "sod off elsewhere." :D
I read every Garfield book in my library twice one summer, and had a Garfield (landline) phone. The Garfield online store was the FIRST website I ever visited as a child, back when the internet had 100 web pages. I played right into their hands, and I loved it so much I'm not even mad. I still love you Garfield, now to just get my kids to feel the same. 💜😋
_ACKSHULLLY,_ Garfield Jon *DID* put Garfield on a diet, for a weeks' worth of strips starting on October 17, 1987, leading Garfield to complain that a a diet is "DIE WITH A 'T'!"
Heathcliff, created by Geo Gately, came before Garfield & Jim Davis used many of the same gags as those that appeared in Heathcliff. Accidentally or deliberately?
I always thought that Heathcliff was more of a rip off of Dennis the Menace than Garfield. The first line of his cartoon's theme song was "Heathcliff, Heathcliff, No one should terrorize their neighborhood."
@@acousticpsychosis I loved that Heathcliff TV show from '84. It did help that they had Mel Blanc as the voice. I thought it was a much better show than Garfield, which is saying a lot since Garfield only had a few TV specials until his show started in '88 or whenever it was, and the specials clearly were something they could put all their effort into, and they were good but not so good that I'd rather watch the tape of that than a new episode of Heathcliff. The Halloween Garfield special with the pirate ghosts was great though.
My son has a 2 foot tall Garfield and as I watch this there is a giant Garfield head pillow on my bed. Our family adores this grumpy cat. He is sprinkled all over my house. Its like where's waldo but better. My granddaughter enjoys trying to find him in each room!!
Honestly, the premise of a fruit fly being depressed because he only has two weeks left to live is really funny
He just missed his time... he arrived 3 decades too soon. If he'd shown up in the last 5 years, particularly as a webcomic, he'd likely have succeeded.
@Austin Lane ok
@Austin Lane yeah I don’t give damn. You gonna hack their computers and bank accounts too....
Hmmm. The May Fly living a single day must be hysterical... :)
His shirt is blue......GNAT
Garfield isn’t supposed to be slap on knees kind of funny, is just something to make you chuckles.
"Jon: This is twice the Weight I've lifted. Won't this be exciting? Garfield: You Bet. Garfield(Grinning): I've Never Ridden in an Ambulance Before!" (Jon attempts and fails to lift Heavy Barbells)."
Come on, that was Funny!
He doesn't even do that, though.
Is feminist comedy unfunny on purpose too?
@@Dragon-Believer damn I'm too used to reddit I wanna take your like away
@@Tornado1994 yes
best Garfield line ever "diet is just die with a t"
Its a smart comic not a funny comic.
and then The Simpsons ripped him off.
(nah)
Or as once saw on a Garfield kitchen apron “A diet is too little of a good thing”
Ah yes. Great joke to translate for international markets.
@@rustykoehler2789 Naw it’s definitely funny in its cynicism
"I'm not overweight, I'm undertall" ~ Garfield
My Dad loves that line, being a big guy and all
My favourite one is “I’m fat and I’m lazy and I’m PROUD of it” haha
love that game
I'm not overweight, I'm Sans Undertale
I am not fat my centre of gravity is getting lower Garfield 1989.
I like that they didn't want the "Garfield without Garfield" guy to stop, instead they wanted to collaborate. That's boss energy there.
I adored Garfield as a kid. I had many of his books and I would read them over and over. I wrote to Jim Davis and even received a reply back much later. It was type written and it came with a drawing of Garfield. Probably all pre printed, but it was my absolute favorite thing that happened to me as a kid
There were a handful of the strips that were laugh out loud funny at least to me as a kid -- and I don't easily find things laugh out loud funny. But mostly it was just sly and cute.
Yep, I devoured Garfield anthologies when I was a kid. I have to admit they were hugely formative to my sense of humor, and likely, my personality as a whole.
"MERCHANDISING: where the real money is made" -Yogurt, Spaceballs.
XD
Suction cup car window plushies
Will we ever get Spaceballs 2: the quest for more money?
Oh man, I was so hoping he'd go into the absurdity that is the Garfield Eats app.! Prior to watching this video I'd no idea that Garfield was pretty much 100% created for cynical reasons- I've got to hand it to Jim Davis, that's something that seldom works-out in the arts.
@@TheDreamSyndicateArts I wouldn't say cynical reasons, but CAPITALISTIC reasons, lol
I once met Jerry Springer. He openly said something to the effect of "My show is stupid and I make a lot of money doing it." I can't argue with that.
Dude, even if Carlos is lying, Springer's been in multiple interviews saying essentially the same thing. Just go to Google, the evidence is there.
Beats being mayor of Cincinnati
@@redram5150 Another fun fact. He was an incredibly popular mayor and was elected _after_ a huge scandal involving his spending of funds on... I can't remember entirely, but I'm gonna say a prostitute? If I remember correctly, he also ran for Governor of Ohio and had a very real chance of winning.
Long story short, Springer's life has _always_ been a wild ride, be it his political life or his absolute-garbage television life.
@@josephschultz3301 Marion Barry was popular too. Not an argument
@nemo pouncey Do you have proof you graduated third grade? Based on your command of the English language, I find it far more probable that an individual met Jerry Springer at a brief meet-and-greet ages ago where he discussed his show than that you managed to pass elementary school. Find your first grade teacher and apologize for being a waste of their time.
"I don't like Jon; I tolerate him."
- Garfield
Garfield hates Monday’s yet he has no job but John does, Garfield hates Monday’s because he likes to be with John
@@byronbrady8227 to relate to the common reader.
...And Garfield doesn't even just "Tolerate" Jon anyway-He provides the food. The absolute most important thing to Garfield.
@@byronbrady8227 Bad things always happen to him on Mondays. Anyone remember the infamous week of Mondays?
@@barneynedward Yep. They made a big deal about it in the show, there was even an episode where he wished Mondays to disseapear, and a plenty of people were happy about it (kids didn't felt entitled to go to school, because the first day of school supposed to be Monday, so no Monday=no school by their logic), and the moral was it doesn't matter if that day is cancelled, they will adapt and reschedule things for an other day instead to replace it, so that's gonna be the "worst day". You can't just escape from it, there is always gonna be something you don't like. You can get rid of it, but something will always come instead. That's just how the world is. I think it was a really good message, I loved it as a kid, because it surprised me. It was not just the "Monday was not that bad afterall" from what I remember (I watched that one years ago), more like: "Yeah, Monday was definetely bad, but other things can be just as bad too, because humans give things meaning. They are the ones who named the days of the week and they're the ones making the changeable schedule to suit them. Days are neutral. Interpretation is what matters."
As a child I loved Garfield. I literally spent hours reading the Garfield books that I had. Even the original cartoon was great Garfield and friends. It's the recent movies and TV shows that have not been funny.
Did that Garfield sound like Bill Murray? Memories are incredibly unreliable so I might have made this up, but I REALLY remember thinking Garfield sounded exactly like him.
@@jennymisteqq695 we all thought that as kids lol
MarkT2 Thank you for that info! I really knew Bill Murray’s voice because I had Stripes on VHS and watched it over and over. So it wasn’t a vague this sounds kind of like, it was more this sounds exactly like. Plus the delivery was the same.
Thanks for replying!
Also, the guy who voiced Garfield in Garfield and Friends also did the voice of Venkman in The Real Ghostbusters. I think he left the latter after a few seasons though.
I first found Garfield in a bookstore when I was a kid. I was browsing (hard to believe, but in the 80s, kids actually roamed freely) and found Garfield at Large. Supposedly I amused the staff because I couldn't stop laughing.
Commercialized or not, Davis has always been a very approachable and sweet person. I've never heard of him turning down an autograph, or ever being rude to a fan of Garfield. His reaction to Garfield without Garfield is just a very Davis reaction.
what, using it to get more money? Garfield the flamethrower!
thats what a good businessman would do. make you feel nice seems to be part of the plan
It's definitely smarter to be nice than not, it's just a matter of willpower sometimes for some people.
A complete opposite of Bill Watterson, who is a sour recluse who spurns his fans. Davis always saw Garfield for what it is, a simple, inoffensive, universal way to make money. He makes no bones about it and has had a wildly successful career because of it. Watterson made art, Davis makes commerce. Calvin and Hobbes means more but Garfield has had its role as well.
Zy: Yep. And that role was to make Davis money.
It occurred to me while watching this video: Why would Garfield hate Mondays? He doesn't have a job!
Spoony Quine I’m guessing because his slave (Jon) goes to work on Monday?
relatability?
Also, the Monday gags had morphed into something like Garfield is just cursed by Mondays. Once, the comic strip had a full week of Mondays. Another comic had a land mine in his breakfast. Some are pretty surreal.
www.gocomics.com/comics/lists/1720946/garfield-mondays-comics
@@soupsgord No John works from home, it's explained that Monday is a reminder that everyday is the same boring routine to him.
WE hate Mondays. Relatability.
@@soupsgord Jon is a cartoonist, as I recall, one that works at home.
The juxtaposition between Davis and Watterson couldn't be more stark. And it seems both are living their own happy lives.
@Jess Hanks yeah me too
Davis hasn't drawn or Written Garfield since 1999. He just runs the business and lets others do it for it him.
@Jess Hanks the wrongness is in polluting the world with billions of pounds worth of cheap plastic crap merchandise, based on a soulness and empty cartoon designed only to make money, so you can live in a million square foot mansion with 45 bathrooms.
@Jess Hanks Uh not really considering that's the exact opposite of all my goals, values and the way I live my life.
@Jess Hanks What are you talking about? Jim Davis's materialistic pursuit of merchandising money didn't happen? Jim Davis is a hack. Bill Watterson was right.
“You know how I can tell a candy bar is too small? I can finish it.” -Garfield. Garfield will always be funny.
To boring people
@@Ricky_Spanishh If you found Garfield unfunny,therefore, presumably,unentertaining,why would you watch the video or read the comments? Hmm.
@@toniaansaldo8140 Because the video's title is: 'Why is Garfield unfunny?' If they agree with this, it's perfectly fine. And it's coming from someone who likes Garfield, he was a huge part of my childhood.
Garfield could eat the candy bar from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and not think he's full.
@@toddnolastname4485 Cats can't actually eat chocolate. He'd probably die before he finished.
“Nobody had created a popular comic about a cat.”
I can name three that came before Garfield:
Felix the Cat
Fritz the Cat
Heathcliff
did not garfield came in 1978 while heatclif was in 1980 though? i love both of them though and find them finyy no matter what others say garfield is stil my fav comic
Kratosx Heathcliff made his debut in 1972.
@rvidal0001 Felix the Cat was awesome.
Felix was awesome. But Garfield had something other fictional cats didn't: he was fat and lazy, very much like many real house cats.
Sylvester
I loved Garfield as a kid.
Very deadpan humor if you read it with the right internal inflections.
Same, it always used to be my favourite strip as a kid.
Jay Croker Yep, I was offended when they said it wasn’t funny
Same. I felt as a kid it was really funny, but I was also very depressed bc of long term illness. The sarcasm, dead panning, and searing observations were funny and relatable to me, and was a great strip I liked forward to.
Agreed loved Garfield as a kid
The library at my elementary school had a lot of the collection books. I spent hours reading those things.
Bill Watterson's refusal to license Hobbes (from Calvin and Hobbes) makes a lot more sense now.
He even went as far as to state that he didn't want Hobbes to become another Garfield. Takes a special kind of true integrity to turn your back on potentially millions of dollars. Although, had he spent more time on drafting licencing agreements instead of drafting comics, one may find that Watterson's objectively better writing would have suffered and the comic wouldn't be as fondly remembered today.
Haven't bothered reading Garfield since the '90s. Still pull out Calvin and Hobbes books... in fact, just yesterday.
They’re just two different approaches. I find each admirable in its own way.
Michael Ingling I think you will find that someone who just wants to make money, doesn't have what it takes to be a succesfull artist and therefore doesn't make any money. So in order for Davis to make money, he actually needs to be a talented and skillful artist.
What is bad about wanting to make money? As long as you aren't screwing other people over to make it. It's not like he is Wal-Mart, where he is driving other comic strip artists out of business.
I was a fan of both comics and the difference is Calvin & Hobbes reflects on life with thoughtful commentary (while they are rolling dangerously down the hill for example lol). It's more thoughtful and reflective about life, while also very fun.
Gotta hand it to him, despite only creating Garfield for money and being such a businessman, Davis seems like a decent enough guy.
Don't many of us work for money? As Garfield goes, it's early stuff was actually very funny with lots of good observations made by a self-aware slob who drives his owner mad. By the later stripes, certainly by the 90's it was really going through the motions though.
Davis makes comic strip with what he thinks are good jokes, but has no marketability. Decides to add marketability when he creates his next comic strip. This Today I found out guy "Since he was into marketability, that means it was the only ingredient." Video criticizing incredibly popular comic strip, is great click bait. Mr. Today I Found Out, is all about marketability.
@@coda821 One could argue that everything people pay money for (on an wide scale) is created for marketability.
Or one could argue that the level of skill and craftmanship makes something saleable.
I bet he would never made it that big if not for his previous failed attempts, you can have the best idea ever and it would not sell if you do not have the skill to put it into an product you can sell, I know plenty people who are very very skilled but do not understand that marketability is not an bad thing, or makes them an "traitor to the art" but just an skill of knowing what people like
@@pouncepounce7417 True, True. But the header of this video claims that Garfield was not about comedy. That's means he's claiming that it's all about money, and that we were duped into believing it had anything to do with wanting to make people laugh and enjoy themselves. I agree with you totally, that's why I disagree with this video. It's entropic. I've known plenty of people who will strip the notion of altruism, from anything loveable, and call it just business. They call ppl gullible for believing in any kind of altruistic motivation. Whether it's intentional or not, that's what this video is doing.
@@coda821 The title is clickbaity, sure, but i think in an way true that the comic is more observational than plain humor.
Many comics back then where humor pure, slapstick, Garfield is more an characterstudie that happens to be funny.
And it is refreshing that someone goes out straight with "yeah i like earning money with the stuff i produce"
Right on the nose of the artists who have million dollar mansions but are all about the "art" and "commercialism is bad, mkay?"
I always liked Garfield. It was simple, relatable and the Finnish translator always gave it a melancholic twist that fuelled my love for sarcasm.
Kaadutin paistettuja papuja ympäri katsomassa Autoja 2 teattereissa ja musta teini huusi "tämä nigga syö pavut" ja kaikki nauroivat. "
That wasn't the Finnish translation. That was Garfeild. Davis was melancholic and sarcastic. This bloke's opinion is garbage.
SRoFV fueled*
@@themaggattack The original American version is like that too.
It's not common that a piece of media is created for the sole purpose of selling merchandise, and even rarer for the creator(s) to admit it.
You know, just to avoid the obvious comments...
1. I said "it's not common," not "it never happens" or even "it's rare". Yeah, a lot of 80's cartoons (Transformers, He-Man, My Little Pony, etc) were made solely to sell toys, but they're the exception. Also, it's worth noting that modern incarnations often have other motivations behind their creation, which brings me to...
2. I said _solely_ to sell toys. The reason shows like Steven Universe, Dragon Ball, and Spongebob stay on the air is because they have merchandising and franchise potential, but there are other reasons that they were created.
3. I know that this isn't going to stop anyone from listing the examples I mentioned as though a few counterexamples disproved "It's not common".
Aww, I wanted to reply with number 1. I do agree that it's very rare for someone to be this honest about just wanting to make money.
Anime tho
I am mollified!
I thought this is the definition of advertising? TV ads are media created for marketing only. Remember PC vs Mac? Funny media to sell Macs? Or the Energizer Bunny? Funny to sell batteries?
So Garfield is just an ad masquerading as a comic strip. So that makes Garfield just like any advertisement with the exception that it is not being inserted into newsprint as an ad. The newspapers should charge Davis for the column inches to run his ad every week.
Garfield holds a special place in my heart. I had a rough time of it as a kid and one of my uncles, who is like a second father to me, introduced me to Garfield to get me to laugh. For over a decade we shared our love of Garfield and while I'm not as big a fan as I used to be, I still have a little set of Garfield paper clips my uncle gave me one birthday and a little Garfield figurine I got in a Christmas stocking. I will never give them up. Garfield helped me through my parents very ugly separation and the complete upheaval of my life as a result.
Garfield divorce
And yet Gary Larsen did well with bugs and snakes, cows, chickens and cavemen. With no recurring characters.
because he was actually funny, that's the difference
The Far Side ruined Garfield for me. In the back of my mind it bothered me that Garfield was popular. Why?
It's relatable... Oh well I'll never need to think on it again!
I used to buy The Far Side daily calendar for my dad for years. I miss that comic.
Don't compare stale lasagna jokes to anatidaephobia. That was just too epic.
One could say that Professor Jenkins and his duck were recurring characters, even if only a few times.
I LOVE his reaction to Garfield Minus Garfield. A lot of creators react to that kind of thing with hurt feelings and attack lawyers but it's always done out of affection and love for the work! I remember back in the early 00s when writers threatened to sue fanfiction websites for 'copyright infringement'. I actually wrote to one of the writers and explained what fanfiction was and she said she would tell her lawyers to stop.
The original 2D animated movies and Saturday morning cartoon were the best things about the Garfield franchise. They didn't last, but they also didn't overstay their welcome. RIP Lorenzo Music, a performance and a voice that can never be replaced.
They tried to replace him with Dave Coulier, on TRGB. It sounded stupid. Lorenzo was the voice of Venkman.
When I was a kid, I really believed it was Bill Murray voicing him in the cartoon. I was shocked when I found out it was Lorenzo.
@@gddesigner
Heyyy...
Yeah; definitely bill Murray-esque
😆😆
“If you build it they will come...”
“Build what? Who will come?”
“Suction cup cats... they stick to your car...”
Dude....totally killing me. Reminds me of my mom frustrated with the interior of my windshield. I cannot clean glass for the life of me. While she was inside my truck cleaning it, I flung myself to the glass of the side window and screamed "Look ma, I'm Garfield". Totally scared the crap outta her. She should of expected it. When I was 10 and we were driving on the highway I was sitting behind her as a passenger, knocked on her window and screamed "someone's at the window"! I am paying for it now....I have a 13 year old son with the same prankster humour...so love it!! 😁🤣🤣
Lynx Integra It’s two o’clock in the morning and laughing at the paragraph you wrote of torturing your poor mom.
I bet you guys do that “remember that time when I/you.....” all the time.
Or the novelty Garfield phones that keep washing up on a French beach.
Both my cars have suction cup Garfields in them
In 5th grade (around 1994) I went on a field trip to Davis's Paws studio, because one of my classmates parents worked at the studio as a woodcarver. The studio is literally in the middle of nowhere in Indiana. It's kind of incredibly humble settings for such a massively successful pop culture phenomenon. Davis has never forgotten his roots, I think.
The studio employs woodcarvers?
@@klutterkicker They did in the 90's. No idea about now.
I guess my surprise is because I've never seen a Garfield woodcarving, but there must have been enough to employ full-time carvers.
@@klutterkicker There was a Garfield merchandise store at the Mall in Muncie, IN (not far from the studio) and I remember seeing some wood carved items there, along with stuffed animals, prints, paintings, and housewares. This was mid 00's, and I don't think the store is still there, but I always wondered if my classmates dad had made those items, but I have no idea.
@Madam Atom, Rad I was in 5th grade in 1994 also. Good times.
Mid~Late 80's I had the worst wreck of my life on a three-wheeler. I was wearing a t-shirt with a picture of Garfield riding Odie and using his ears like handle-bars. The shirt had "Easy Rider" printed just below the image. For a few years, I had scars that matched the holes in that shirt. I continued to wear the shirt because I liked the irony.
Better than Garfield is the strip/book GARFIELD WITHOUT GARFIELD. In it, Garfield is removed from the strips, and Jon is left talking to himself. It becomes a surreal exploration of depression and other neuroses.
Did you catch the last bonus fact? Simon said they contacted the person who did Garfield without Garfield, who assumed it was to-be told to cease and desist, and they said, no, they wanted to collaborate with him. I think that’s pretty cool.
I agree. Davis and Co. were very cool about G w/o G.
Arbuckle dated for a long time in the strip.
I actually prefer Realfield, in which Garfield is still in the comic, but as a real cat who doesn't have lines or distinct expressions. It has a similar effect, but doesn't reach as much by making Jon appear to talk to a nonexistent entity.
I think it's actually called Garfield Minus Garfield
The Three Steps to Writing Garfield Comics:
-take any joke
-make the punchline "lasagna"
-repeat for 40 years
You havent read much garfield I take it
You missed the step where you laugh all the way to the bank while making much more money than most of us will ever see.
The earliest Garfield comics actually had more variety and creativity. I know because my family had collections of the oldest Garfield comics, where Garfield is much more fat, and the jokes aren't repetitive yet.
Herman Cillo now where could my pipe be... 🧐
💨🚬
The cat has gone into philosophy and game shows in several comics and a few animated shows, and most of them can be recognized through him wearing a bathrobe, sitting in an armchair and "smoking" a bubble pipe. Spoiler, he inhales with the pipe.
Another thing that makes Garfield hilarious, in my opinion, is the drawings. The visual comedy is very good.
Now I want to read Gnorm Gnat!
Same here.
This. The editor reply was common typical editor of the 70s and 80s who think their opinion represent the rest of the world. Thanks to the advent of the internet Gnorm Gnat will have its audience without stupid meddling of one old editor guy/lady who live in Missouri or Nebraska or Maine or wherever and never know other people outside his/her community. Bugs are treated like shit for way too long and now people realize how important they are, especially bees.
First, Lorenzo Music = Animated voice of Garfield
Then, Bill Murray = Peter Venkman in live-action Ghostbusters.
and then, Lorenzo Music = Animated voice of Peter Venkman
and finally, Bill Murray = Voice of CGI Garfield in live-action movies.
Gazorpazorp-f*ckin-fieeeeeeld
My friend smuggled all his drugs into Burning Man by putting them in a baggie,, then slipping it into the middle of a fresh baked lasagna, which he then froze solid. The dogs couldn't smell anything, so he got in without a problem...and when the lasagna thawed, he had food for days, too. His new nickname was Garfield 😁
I’m more surprised that there are drug dogs at Burning Man.
@@PatTheBatmanFan yeah I don't believe that part at all lmao
My mom loved Garfield. She'd take as many children as she could so she didn't feel self-conscious at 65. Mom loved cats and I think that love spilled over to Garfield. Thanks Garfield for making mom laugh.
Indeed that man is a legend
@@spacemanx9595 it's true; they don't have dogs at the gate, but cops post up all along the little rural highways that lead there...if you get pulled over for any reason at all they will find some excuse to search your car. Fines for drug citations are a huge revenue generator for that little county, and who can blame them?? You basically have all these rich hippies coming through every year; why not make some money off them??
Garfield and Calvin and Hobbes are my top two favorite comics. Loved them as a kid. I also remember watching Garfield and Friends on Saturday mornings. Those were the days...
❤❤
Well comic strips in the so-called “funny pages” are almost never actually funny, unless your name is Gary Larson or Bill Watterson, you’re probably not making anyone actually laugh out loud.
As a kid I could never understand how strips like Rex Morgan MD, Steve Canyon, and Terry and the Pirates were so popular. Now that I'm older, I still don't. (But I've definitely gained an appreciation for Milton Caniff's artwork!)
There are three kinds of comics. The first are the really funny ones, created by people who understand the comic medium and really want to do something with it. The second are made by people trying to be the first, but without the understanding of, passion for, and/or respect towards comics to pull it off. The third is trying to tell a serialized story, which probably worked better when more people read newspapers (and their comics) daily.
What about
Hagar the horrible
Mother Goose and Grim
Get Fuzzy
B.C.
Zits
The Boondocks
Andy Capp was funny as well. Too bad most people think of hot fries first when he is mentioned.
Wizard of Id. Pure gold.
If you have ever owned (actually lived with) 6 cats, Garfield is hillarious and relatable.
I adore Garfield for it's sarcasm and similarities to real life. He's still my favorite comic character to date
Garfield may not have been meant to be funny, but I will never not laugh hysterically at the Sunday strip that has Garfield drinking 47 cases of soda and then blasting Jon and Odie out of the house with a nuclear burp.
Man i remember that one.
I burst out laughing remembering it. Last time I read it was over a decade ago and I still remember it... He certainly did hit the nail from time to time.
For some reason I always laugh at the one where he has the dream he keeps eating until he's big enough to eat Jon, then he keeps growing until he eats the world. Something about the nonchalant attitude as he throws his owner into his growing gullet and Jon just doesn't seem to care. ^_^
I think my favourite Garfield comic is a really simple non-sequitur gag:
Scene: Garfield watching TV.
TV Announcer: "Now a word from our sponsor:"
Sponsor: "Sasquatch"
TV Announcer: "And back to our show..."
The first one I remember was when I was around 8, Garfield and Odie had a shouting match and Odie shouted Garfield's stripes off. Then Garfield is picking his stripes up off the floor and saying "You win"
In order to understand the humor of Garfield you have to own a cat.
NOW WHERE IS MY PIPE?
Yes
Never really cared much for cats but still liked Garfield.
You don't really own a cat. They consider you to be Staff.
@@seldonwright4345 I really wonder if other people's cats really act like that, or if the people are just repeating a meme. I've never met a cat that acted like its humans were just staff.
Was it intentional that the midroll ad is set at the moment Simon mentions "squeezing every dime possible out of it"? If so, bravo on a great hidden joke. If not, bravo on accidentally creating a great hidden joke.
Certainly it's possible for ads to be generated based on words spoken in the video. Most TH-cam videos have internal transcripts for the purpose of subtitles.
I didn't get my ad then...
SAM OVENS
What ad?
@@GaryCameron780 I think he was commenting more on the timing of the ad, not the particular ad itself.
I've loved Garfield ever since I was exposed to the comic in the early 90s, and I took it to the next level in '94 as a kid who loved art. I used to mimic the art styles of Calvin & Hobbes, The Simpsons, and even old Disney stuff. When I saw the Garfield art style, I fell in love with its crisp, iconic, and clean look. I'd draw Garfield over and over, recreating entire books, color and all. The style was so fun to draw, and I always appreciated how honest Davis was about his work. The humor was mostly chuckle generating, but occasionally would have some really great gems, all of which were completely relatable.
I never knew Schultz solved the feet issue, and I had wondered about that transition.
Few comics/cartoons have ever captured my interest regarding the technique/style of the illustrations. I would say one of the most brilliant comics' art styles is the comic "Mutts" in that the simplicity of the drawings is bare bones, yet conveys so much in the execution. I also loved "Zits," which was very reminiscent of Calvin & Hobbes. Then, of course, there's "The Far Side." Probably the funniest comic strip with some of the ugliest drawings, yet they're somehow a good ugly. Like, REALLY good. I never could replicate The Far Side in my time drawing; always looked off model somehow.
Garfield, though, like The Simpsons, has a style that others can easily reproduce with a bit of practice, which makes me wonder if Davis formed that style with the intention of getting others to replicate the style on his behalf. He certainly didn't try to hide how to draw Garfield, as one of the earlier books actually has step-by-step "how to draw Garfield" illustrations.
In the end, whether you're a Garfield fan or not, there's no denying Jim Davis knows his stuff.
Glad someone else appreciates the Zits art style. It's incredibly expressive. I remember a panel of Pierce going wild on the drums that I could practically hear... an incredible thing to achieve with a single image!
I really liked Get Fuzzy - probably because I had a Siamese cat of my own. I would often snip the strip and replace 'Bucky' with my cat's name, 'Simon', and leave them as little notes for my husband from Simon. I've still got one hanging on our fridge. Simon passed away in April of 2021 at age 20. It still wasn't enough time. Glad I found this video and comment though and it sparked some happy memories.
I'm no artist, but to me the drawings of The Simpsons looks easier to replicate than Garfield
I actually had the pleasure to meet Jim Davis in person. He was a very friendly, very humble man whom I felt I could talk to for hours. He was also a fellow Hoosier, like myself.
Own up if you own at least one piece of Garfield merchandise.
I own a mug with a garfield handle. It must be at least 35yrs old. And it survived many household declutterings😆
I used to have the Garfield mug. I'm not sure where it is anymore. I used to have it at work and I used to put pens in it as a pen holder. I will have to look and see if I still have it. I packed all my stuff from working stuck in a box
I set out a few years ago to digging through secondhand toy bins looking for a good Garfield plush toy, and found one in great shape! I'm still very pleased about that, AND having found an 'Opus' from Bloom County wearing his Christmastime 'Basselope antlers' which is in excellent shape and still has a Dakin-brand tag with a little story about the Basselope! These things really do make me happy. This reminds me I want to get the Bloom County book which mimicked the cover of Springsteen's big hit-collection album from around 1989, and had a record inside of 'Billy and the Boingers' featuring 'Bill the Cat' on lead vocal. I hated Bill the Cat as a child but around age 10, I began getting the jokes of the strip and liked it hugely.
Nope, not one. I do have several of the Calvin and Hobbes books. I even have a few Pogo books.
I was given a Garfield bin from my parents when i was a teenager. I still have it. I am in my early to mid fifties.
Ship Creek I got a Garfield stuffed toy as a Christmas gift from a childhood friend. It’s awesome just Garfield sitting on all 4’s with a smile.
What? I always thought a sarcastic, lasagna eating cat was pretty hilarious. Especially in combination with Jon's failing love life and Odie's idiocy.
Garfield used to be really funny.
Not so much anymore.
"Here comes Arlene. Better suck in my belly and throw out my chest" *Arlene walks by glaring at Garfield's massive protruding belly, as he has sucked in his chest and thrown out his belly, but with as sexy a look as he can muster... *Garfield facepalms "Backwards, dummy!"
Preach.
@@teamcybr8375 are you sure it wasn't just funny when you were younger? I know it's that way for me, as i got older it became unfunny.
JoJo Tk That is very true. The older you get, the more you have seen. The more you have seen, the less there is of "new" things to tickle your funny bone. More and more it is, "Been there, done that."
@ 5:43 "Garfield is an International character. Therefore, I don't even use seasons. The only Holiday I recognize is Christmas."
*Garfield's Halloween Adventure: 1985*
*Garfield's Thanksgiving: 1989*
You never saw those.... Never....
...in the voice of W. C. Fields:
Anyone who loves lasagna and procrastination, can't be all bad.
Oh my god man, this kinda opens the door for a whole new interpretation of Garfield that would probably work extremely well for most of his material. Awesome connection.
I would procrastinate more, but I never get around to it.
Note on Audible: If you sign up and already have an Amazon account you cannot cancel and delete the Audible account without both losing any books you have bought and having your Amazon account deleted as well. I did the 30 trial and know and have the emails from Audible to prove it. I found out the hard way and hope this helps others.
you need more likes
Ummm why would you delete your Audible account? Just cancel your subscription. Done. I’ve canceled my audible numerous times and never lost my amazon account.
audible is a subscription from amazon. You just cancel the subscription basically. Don't delete the account because of course you would be deleting your amazon account as its from amazon lol
So if you were told you could not delete your Instagram account without deleting your Facebook account also that would be OK? It would not be for me. Facebook acquired Instagram just as Amazon acquired Audible but they are treated as two separate entities. Amazon do not tell you both are forever linked when you sign up. I am also fairly sure this goes against GDPR. We are supposed to be in control of all our data held by others and be able to delete it.
Well, it may not apply to Instagram/Facebook, but it does apply to all of Google. And TH-cam used to be a separate company too.
I am from his area. I was lucky enough to have dinner with him once, and he was a complete gentleman. It was a great evening, and before we got up to leave, he turned over a paper menu and drew a Garfield cartoon for my young son. Well done, Mr. Davis.
"Garfield" was pretty funny at the peak of its fame from about 1988 to 1995, when Jon was getting lots of laughs with his "nerd" behavior and the strip as a whole got more zany and surreal. Garfield's ability to "talk" without moving his mouth was always amusing to me, and I still smile whenever I think of Binky the Clown! I'm glad Davis licensed Garfield, because I got a lot of joy out of the merchandise.
3:20 well then he didn't research very hard, because there were in fact at least 2 popular feline comic strips that pre-dated Garfield; there was Felix the Cat as a comic strip in 1923, and Heathcliff in 1973. So nobody +2 had invented a cat character by 1978.
Agreed. Also, one of the first comic strip super star was Krazy Kat by George Herriman (1913-1944)
Don't forget Fred Flintstones kitty!
I think what he meant was, that no one was currently creating comic strips of a cat (as he was going through current papers to find what worked). Market unfilled; filled it: profit.
heathcliff, heithcliff, no one should...terrorise his neighbourhood...
Not to mention Fritz.
"Never go back for seconds, get it all the first time."
Garfield on food.....
❤😆❤
I always thought that Jim Davis just had some old-fashioned and vanilla sense of humor, and that's why I didn't like Garfield. Now I know he's actually a marketing genius. The fact that he collaborated with the 'Garfield Minus Garfield' creator says a lot about how self aware the guy is regarding the original Garfield strip and his willingness to capitalize and find a way to market to people who don't even like Garfield.
It's beyond me how someone could not like Garfield.
I don't like Garfield because there's nothing really clever about it. Every strip is essentially Jon being an awkward geek, Garfield being lazy and sarcastic, Odie being and idiot, etc etc. Sure, any set up could be turned into excellent comedy, but the strip never really does that, it just sticks to the same mundane formula day in and day out.
I really liked Garfield when I was young, but then found him boring by the time I was 11 or 12. And listening to this video, it makes perfect sense. Very simple jokes that require no context are good for little kids, but have very little to offer once your sense of humor requires something more complex.
No he has a very deadpan, very sarcastic and cynical sense of humour. This video is also pretty inaccurate on Jim's intentions. All he said was he wanted a character with wider appeal than Gnorm Gnat. The "it was all for merchandise" angle on it comes from a single article over 40 years old that the newspaper retracted because it was rife with inaccuracies and moved quotes around from his interview to make it seem like he was all about the merchandise money.
Aside from that single interview that the newspaper admitted to being flawed, he's always said that he wanted a character that would be well liked. If you read Gnorm Gnat, the humour is identical despite what this video claims. Dry, cynical and sarcastic. So I don't buy the conclusions based on a single retracted interview personally. Jim Davis isn't even the one who merchandised Garfield, the original syndication and licensing company was, and when he took control he attempted to stop all merchandise. It was his experience with his creation being out of his input and being heavily commercially exploited that meant he could advise Bill Watterson on what to look out for in contracts to avoid that happening to him. Not something a supposed obsessive merchandising machine would do. He's always maintain that when he got control of the brand, he attempted to stop all merch but couldn't because of existing contracts. He decided that "the cat was out of the bag" and continued with it but exercised heavy control over what merch could be made with everything needing his personal approval. This idea he was always about heavy merchandising and a kind of commercial genius is one he's always fought against and documents back him up. But that's the story that's on the net and videos like this just perpetuate it.
Garfield strips have had me in absolute tears of laughter. There are some I just find so hilarious I can barely speak when I remember them. It's not vanilla, it's just deadpan and sarcastic and not everyone picks up the right inflection for the characters so it falls flat for some. Davis himself says that the country that finds the strip itself the funniest is The UK because that kind of deadpan sarcasm is second nature to them.
Garfield wasn’t suppose to be funny
In Norway Garfield is called Pusur, a combination of the words "pus" (cat) and "sur" (grumpy) - the original grumpy cat!
Sourpuss is a common English idiom.
@@DrWhom Ah ok! English is my third language, so I didn't know
Garfield is totally OG Grumpy Cat
Excellent bit about Sparky insping Garfield to stand on 2 big feet!! :D
DON'T TALK ABOUT MY GARFIELD LIKE THAT
It’s hilarious as hell. I laughed a solid ten minutes at one of the Sunday issues. Not all are winners, but some are pretty cute-certainly lightyears funnier than Marmaduke or Heathcliff.
Watch "the pipe strip"
I recommend Belvedere books. They rank up there with Garfield. Extremely funny.
My favorite Sunday Garfield was the one where his owner Jon got zapped and fell off his ladder just changing a light bulb. It reminded me of a totally incompetent electronics technician I once worked with. I made it the background on my computer desktop for years, and he never seemed to notice it.
I think Garfield is hilarious, probably because I have cats. I never felt the urge to buy any of the merchandise, though. Maybe it's a cultural difference in humor among the Brits as to why this guy doesn't like it.
My favorite one is so simple that one doesn't expect it.
Jon and Garfield are just chilling, leaning on their elbows, bored out of their minds; then Jon says "We need to do something exciting". Next panel, Jon says "On three: One... Two... Three." Final panel, the only difference is which elbow they're leaning on.
Even back when I was a kid, my whole life in fact, I don't think I've laughed for ten minutes about Garfield in total. Most Garfield strips were worth a little monosyllabic "hah" if that.
3:18 "Nobody creadited a popular comic about a cat"
Heathcliff: Am I a joke to you?
1st thing I thought.. heathcliff started in 1973
The Far Side was better than the rest.
I prefer Calvin and Hobbes, but I do love the Far Side
@@detronbrian I came here to say basically the same thing.
@@TooLameToDie As did I.
I think "The Far Side" was the best comic ever. Funny almost every day-And with only one panel. A lot of people would probably agree. It even had it's own page in my local paper (The New Haven Register-Connecticut. It was with the horoscope and advice columns). Set it apart from the other comics,a class by itself.
I hated how bulbous all the characters were, they also looked like they were straight outta the 50’s, 60’s with their ugly triangle glasses, the humor was hot or miss, mostly miss for me
I can recall at least 3 occasions when Garfield made me laugh out loud, and I have found him amusing all along. I guess that is the 'relatable' part. Whatever, it worked.
of the thousand times i've seen a garfield comic.......yes. maybe I have laughed three times.
Hardest I've ever laughed as a child. In the library at school, reading a Garfield book. 3 panels. Garfield Jon and Odie in the car, first panel normal, second panel turned 35° on its side, 3rd panel normal again with Garfield saying "Congratulations Jon, you ran over a cow." School had to call my mom because they thought I was on drugs
Aw, been reading Garfield since the mid 80s, I still like him...then again I'm easily amused...
redstormfighter29 I wish!
Garfield funny
I live in indiana near where Davis grew up. There's a large statue of Garfield outside the house with a sign it's pretty cool.
He's a Beloved Hoosier, Especially in Fairmont and Munice.
A reminder that Nom Nat is not killed off by a giant foot; in fact, he wasn't killed off at all.
Lol I go to school in Indiana and the whole STATE is a Garfield museum. They have these giant Garfield statues "hidden" all over Indiana and the goal is to get people to try to visit them all, take pictures with them and post them in what is essentially a free advertisement on their social media. My hat is off to Jim Davis!
I grew up on Garfield. I'm sure that's why I loathe everything today.
Might just be the shitty shitty haircut goin on on your head
No your just jaded like the rest of us🤪 i loathe Garfield lol.
Fun fact. For 35 years, on a beach in France, hundreds of Garfield telephones were washing up and it was a big mystery where they were all coming from. A few years ago they finally discovered a shipping container in a nearby sea cave full of them. It's suspected that the container must have fallen off of a ship some time in the 1980s.
I had the great honour of getting to know PEANUTS creator Charles (Sparky as he insisted you call him) Schulz. Garfield (and by association, Jim Davis) was the only topic I heard him say anything bad about. "I hate that darn cat". Sparky resented that Davis stopped drawing the strip for years and had others write it, but still signed his name to it. Sparky drew every detail and lettered all his own work, even late in his life when a heart condition compromised the steadiness of his hand (he just worked on bigger panels so the jagged lines would not show when reduced for print. He would make a great BIOGRAPHIC subject.
Rick Drew loser
He cheated on his wife & rubbed her face in it by including his affair in his comic strips by way of the little red-head girl. I’ve got no respect for Schultz.
@@koobs4549
Is that true?
R Nickerson Sadly, yes.
www.google.com/amp/s/www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/12/charles-schultz-peanuts-cartoons-adulterous-love-letters-auction/amp
@@koobs4549
Woof. I didn't grow up a huge fan, but that definitely makes it worse.
The only thing good about Peanuts is Vince Guaraldi then.
I don't really get this; I always thought Garfield was funny, and still do.
Garfield is sarcastic. That's why he is funny to some and not to others.
Garfield got me to play outside when I was a kid. I hated it.
@@LSSYLondon I always liked it. And I'M sarcastic as hell. Makes sense.👍
Now I feel much better; I just thought that I was the odd one because I always thought that Garfield was one of the funniest Comics ever.
More of a Heathcliff fan than Garfield. At least Heathcliff does stuff in his comics.
I remember laughing at Garfield when I was a kid in the '80s.
All I will say about Jim Davis's work is that, as a kid in the late 80's and early 90's, I had a lot of fun reading both Garfield and US Acres comics and, for that, I am grateful.
Does anybody remember the Garfield And Friends cartoon featuring US Acres? I loved the egg who didn't fully hatch yet and was just legs stocking outta shell lol
"You folks have this backwards, _I'm_ real, and you're the cartoon."
I don’t remember that, but when I was a kid the neighborhood had an Easter egg hunt. For the hunt you had your hard boileds which were basically trash. Our moms would scape them up make potato salad with them. You had your coloreds, those twist-aparts full of candy. Then there were the Prize eggs. They were oversized bronze, silver, and gold eggs which were the ‘ol Legg’s egg shaped container pantyhose came in just painted those colors with a special paint marker from Micheal’s.
And then he hatched one episode into an egg with legs
Sheldon.
"Dogs have literally been bred for centuries to be what humans consider awesome" :-)
Golden retrievers, sure. I don't think anything small and yappy is "awesome", though.
@@DeflatingAtheism Someone did.
@@ahuman4734 Someone was wrong.
@@deathbower If small yappy things aren't awesome I'm in serious trouble then
Uh, Heathcliff was a cat comic predating Garfield.
And Felix the Cat predates them both
Heathcliffe is boss and his crew and his gf Sonya! Much superiored !!! ;]
Garfield was not named for the president. He was named for a man named for the president. I see.
Right?!?!
Davis hasn't even tried to tell a joke in 25 years.
Then Garfield got assassinated in 1881, thus ending forever his love of lasagna & hatred of Mondays. The End.
The first Garfield has nothing to do with the comic.
I had a Garfield doll with the suction cups when I was little.
Sara Makes Art yep me too.
I do not but I remember there was a time when I saw one behind back window of at least one car every day.
I still have one, although it's suction cups don't work anymore. I also have the blanket I forced my parents to buy for me and a whole heck of a lot of his compilations since if you did good in English our school let you buy a free book from the Schoolastic magazine every year.
I have a Garfield stuffed animal... and until it broke, a kind of ugly Garfield gum ball machine.
When I bought my house the previous owner had one stuck to the glass on the door. Turns out it was a load bearing toy. The glass and wood holding it disintegrated when I tried to remove it decades later.
Just because you don't find it funny, doesn't mean it's not funny.
Never realized how much the creator looks like his "Jon" character...
I thought it was because he was assassinated in 1881.
I remember a strip from 25+ years ago. Garfield being in a bad mood, Jon comes along, Garfield tells him to go away cos he's in a bad mood. Jon picks him up and gives him a cuddle. Smiling, Garfield says " I hate you Jon"
Maybe the strip the day before had Garfield go out into the rain to be drenched cos it matched his bad mood.
I remember it in black and white tho. 😁
"Yeah well, that's just like, your opinion, man"
Charles Schulz was a very kind, generous man!!
It's pretty amazing to know that Garfield's feet were literally created by Schulz's hand
Yes, a beautiful soul.
I like how you put the single most distinctive, jarring, and out-there strip on screen at 4:30 while talking about how Davis was designing the strip to be as predictable and standardized as possible. For those curious, the strip itself is "No More Mondays?" and is very much worth reading...
I still would love an "authentic" Hobbes plush, and would love to give one to my snarky little nephew with some comic books.
I mean, come on. He's literally a plush tiger. That's not even selling out.
This.
I actually remember the comic strip Heathcliff quite some time before Garfield. Also about a cat, the comic was a single panel gag strip and I always thought of it as the cat version of Marmaduke. Heathcliff comics did come out with books, I bought one in grade school in the late 70's.
Yeah when he said there wasn't any cat cartoons I thought of Heathcliff. Also orange with black stripes.
Even had a full cartoon back in the 80s.
Felix the cat, Top Cat, Fritz.
I remember being in junior high and watching the Garfield holiday specials. The first Christmas that I was living away from home was 1987. I sent out Garfield Christmas cards. I also had these Garfield litter bags for my car. One of my close friends still has a Garfield phone.
I always thought Garfield was funny, but I have a twisted, sarcastic, and snarky sense of humor.
LOL!
Im just making you aware in your commentary you said Jim Davis said there were no cats featured in comic strips before Garfield. That's actually not true. Heathcliff was out a decade before Garfield. I actually liked Heathcliff better. There also was Felix the Cat, starring in cartoons and a comic strip. Just pointing out the errors.
The title is itself funny
A better title would be 'Why is Garfield so relatable'
true. we all are like him Lol
Cats love internet.
I remember when Garfield was tied into Embassy suites in the early 80s.
There is a Jim Davis museum in the house he lived in Fairmount, Indiana. Plus, a museum for James Dean who lived there, and buried at the local cemetery.
4:51 Cats can’t be male or female. You learn something new everyday huh 🤨
Yeah, that was poorly worded. I think he meant they aren't held to the same gender roles that humans are.
Nermal is supposed to be male, but I just can't see him that way. I think it would just be too politically incorrect for Garfield to beat up Nermal and throw him through windows if he were a girl.
6.10.... "being a cat, he's not male or female"... he's not male?
Chris Jackson seems you are the one who is bothered here. Triggered much? Need a tampon and some chocolate with that attitude? I will throw in some primrose oil for that sass for free if you "sod off elsewhere." :D
@@devanyehansen2162
Can you explain the difference between the gender roles of cats ?
And poorly worded ?
He said " being a cat he's not male. . "
I read every Garfield book in my library twice one summer, and had a Garfield (landline) phone.
The Garfield online store was the FIRST website I ever visited as a child, back when the internet had 100 web pages.
I played right into their hands, and I loved it so much I'm not even mad. I still love you Garfield, now to just get my kids to feel the same. 💜😋
_ACKSHULLLY,_ Garfield Jon *DID* put Garfield on a diet, for a weeks' worth of strips starting on October 17, 1987, leading Garfield to complain that a a diet is "DIE WITH A 'T'!"
The title had me like... Oh, hell no.
ALL HAIL GARFIELD!
IKR!
And yes, HAIL GARFIELD.
Sassy Cat simon better watch his back
BLOODY LOVE YOU GARFIELD YOU ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL FAT ORANGE CAT MWAH : * STUNNING MAN
That's telling them :)
Heathcliff, created by Geo Gately, came before Garfield & Jim Davis used many of the same gags as those that appeared in Heathcliff. Accidentally or deliberately?
lets see who wins > th-cam.com/video/KsCgV-XTKlo/w-d-xo.html
It is indeed a common misconception that Heathcliff ripped off Garfield when, in fact, it was kind of the other way around. :-)
I remember watching the Heathcliff cartoons back in the day...always prefered Garfield.
I always thought that Heathcliff was more of a rip off of Dennis the Menace than Garfield. The first line of his cartoon's theme song was "Heathcliff, Heathcliff, No one should terrorize their neighborhood."
@@acousticpsychosis I loved that Heathcliff TV show from '84. It did help that they had Mel Blanc as the voice. I thought it was a much better show than Garfield, which is saying a lot since Garfield only had a few TV specials until his show started in '88 or whenever it was, and the specials clearly were something they could put all their effort into, and they were good but not so good that I'd rather watch the tape of that than a new episode of Heathcliff. The Halloween Garfield special with the pirate ghosts was great though.
My son has a 2 foot tall Garfield and as I watch this there is a giant Garfield head pillow on my bed. Our family adores this grumpy cat. He is sprinkled all over my house. Its like where's waldo but better. My granddaughter enjoys trying to find him in each room!!
I am a Garfield freak! He's my favorite cartoon character! 😄
Poor you.
Morten Bakke STFU
Something about Garfield feels even more genuine to me knowing it was a merch ploy and then consumed most of the author’s time just being that.