Sign of the Apocalypse: "Garfield" is Hilarious

Look, you'll either get this, and think it's funny, or you won't. 

If you don't:  No problem.  You probably had a happy childhood.  We can still be friends and stuff. 

If you do:  I love you.  You are my people, and I am yours.  Your childhood was not so easy, but that's okay, because we now have each other.  We are BFF, regardless of your free will. 

The irony is, I've never -- ever -- laughed at a "Garfield" strip.  But now there's a whole community of "de-Garfers", doing a worthy work:  They simply remove everything Garfield "says". All his thought balloons are deleted, and remarkably, the strips become priceless. 

The rhythm is pitch-perfect.  And rhythm, unlike a surprise punch line, is always funny.  That's why the caveman commercials are worth watching over and over and over. 

Anyway, like I say, you may think it's stupid.  But my whole family and I can just stare at all of them and laugh, and laugh, and laugh.  We've got some problems.

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Comments

[amy]

I love coming to this blog, because I always leave feeling like maybe I DON'T waste as much time as other people.

Did you see the one where Odie tackles Garfield (always my favorite scene) and when asked what happened, in the de-Garfed version, Garfield just points up? I believe there's a pastor out there who could do a whole sermon on it.

[Joel]

Dang! I thought you were serious. I just wasted three minutes of my precious life looking for the laugh. Garfield is stupid no matter who fills in the bubble.

[Brant]

I *am* serious. I can't stop laughing when I look at the whole collection.

They're all hilarious now. I could preach on it, too: "Garfield", the strip, has been redeemed.

So how would you rank your childhood, there, Amy, Joel? Peaceful and happy, or a struggle...? I'm curious about my thesis: Difficult childhood = appreciation for this.

[Chaotic Hammer]

These made me laugh uproariously. Seriously.

But now I feel dirty. Maybe I only laughed in response to your suggestion that they are funnier this way.

I don't recall ever actually laughing at the original strips.

Explain what you mean by "difficult childhood". I think I'm in denial about certain aspects of my childhood. I was a strange outsider, never comfortable in the popular social circles, if that's what you mean...

[Shawn]

I figured it out, all this truely does is make the Gardfield Comic Strip a reality show,

or strip,

or whatever it would be called.

But I call it rather entertaining in the unexplainably lamest of ways.

[Dan]

I literally laughed out loud uncontrollably at all of those. Brant, you're my hero.

[Dan Ray]

Ugh...

Those are not funny.

You just need to read all 20-however-many Garfield books there are in a row... Then you'll get it. Garfield rules.

[thecachinnator]

The potato chip one had me a mile away. I'm loving it.

[amy]

My childhood was difficult in that "why does this kid have such an obsession with the Muppets when the rest of us are watching Growing Pains" kind of way. Living in my own little world of subtle, sometmes dark humor - bored with the laugh tracks and predictable punchlines. Any laughs at mainstream humor were merely a false, feeble and desperate attempt to be part of the "cool crowd", a goal which I abandoned when I realized I couldn't have it both ways. I could not have my muppet humor and be "cool" at the same time. I classify this as muppet humor.

So, "difficult?" maybe not. By most standards it was the Brady Bunch. But different? Probably.

[Monica Battaile]

1) I love them all.

2) I've read them all.

3) Yes, I did laugh. Especially at the potato one.

[truevyne]

It's unforgivable. You just reminded me, after 28 years of trying to forget, that in 8th grade, I used to draw Garfied doing things (sailing, sun tanning, surfing) on every spelling test I took in Mrs. Hamil's class. She wore a giant bun, drove a VW bug, and claimed she went to Woodstock. In those days, I thought she was talking about Snoopy's friend, BTW.

[Landon]

Man - you all must have had it pretty rough. See, Dan Ray is right. Garfield rules. He acheives a subtle sarcasm, a cool wittiness, that only an overweight cat could acheive.
And to find amusement in the savage defacing of these jewels of wit betrays some very deep emotional scarring, or anti-social tendencies or something.
To carry forward the cave-man commercial analogy (the cave-man commercials also rule), it would be like removing all the cave men's lines - making them just stare blankly in response to the anti-caveman bias that surrounds. How sad. How very, very sad.
Read the original garfield books - all of them. You may yet find healing.

[TJ]

Well, I've always found Garfield mildly funny, and occasionally hilarious. I found these strips wildly hilarious, and now I really want to see more! As for my childhood, it wasn't difficult; I was a super-geek, but I liked it that way, and most everything seemed good.

But if I could even *think* of taking a razor blade to a library copy of Garfield to do my own de-Garfing, that's probably evidence that I'm more messed up than I care to admit, no?

[ChestertonianRambler]

I find those absolutely hillarious.

Troubled childhoods are so hard to define. But I certainly had a decent share of struggles, and have always had the problem that I never quite react to things the same way as everyone else.

Mainly, though, I just think I have a very English sense of humor.

[Amy]

I must have had a good childhood, because I find those mildly amusing in much the same way I find them mildly amusing with thought bubbles. Would it be funnier if I had spent a lot of time reading Garfield?

[Amy]

Ok, when I actually clicked through and started reading the others I laughed more.

[Brant]

Let's put it this way:

If your parents got divorced, you're going to think these are funny.

If not, you probably -- probably -- won't.

I think for a non-Brit to develop a British sense of humor comes from pain. Chestertonian, above, may disprove that thesis.

Childhood pain = bizarre sense of humor.

The people I've met who are humorless, with whom I just...can't...find any connection? Loving parents, affluence, the whole suburban nine yards. These people will generally not understand why Garfield is funny when he just continues to shed up there.

This is a way-too-general approach, obviously, but there's something to it, no?

(Brant, anticipating responses: "No, Brant.")

[Ellie]

I read the strips first and was laughing hysterically, thinking to myself, "I don't remember Garfield being this darn funny!" and THEN I read your post. The shedding one was the most hilarious. Still laughing.

I have the same response when I look at Calvin & Hobbes comic strips. I don't even have to read them and I'm reduced to a helpless state of giggling. :D

One question though...it seems like your kids are having a pretty decent loving non-divorce sort of childhood (despite not being raised in the suburbs) - do they laugh uncontrollably at the de-worded versions? What do you make of that?

[RC of strangeculture]

I agree with your thoughts Brant...the comic should have been called Jon.

It's hillarious! I know exactly how I'm going to work this into a blog post soon...look out for some linkage!

[amy]

Well now, Brant - I noticed that you said your "whole family" enjoys them. Are your children bound for the humorless existence you described? Certainly there is a provision for loved kids with bizarre senses of humor? Perhaps such a being is the peak of evolutionary success?

[Brant]

It may disturb, but not surprise, you that I have personally devoted myself to inculcating bizarre, ironic senses of humor in our children.

It has been unrelenting since childbirth for them. But it's paying off BIG TIME now. They are, quite deliberately, hilarious, at least to me.

We have memorized, together, entire Brian Regan ("clean" but relentlessly sarcastic comedian) routines. We recite them in unison.

It has been well worth the effort.

BTW: I'm not crazy on this thesis, or original. You will have a difficult time finding a brilliant comedian who isn't emotionally messed up. I've interviewed a bunch. Colin Ferguson: "You know you've made it, when you're killing, but still miserable."

[TJ]

No, Brant.

My parents were fine; with each other, with God, with us...still are, after more than 50 years together. And I have a sense of humor.

I really do. I insist on it. And surely others will realize it in time.

I'm certain.

I will acknowledge that there was nothing of affluence, and nothing of suburbia.

As for whether you and I could ever make a connection, well, that depends more upon the reality of your accordion skills. 'Til then, let me quote the funniest Garfield of all:

[beat]

[beat]

[beat]

[continue]

[Fay(ola)]

"Childhood pain = bizarre sense of humor."

And cracking up about those things when it's inappropriate to laugh. And then you're laughing by yourself and everyone's looking at you, which makes you laugh even harder.

Another one of your posts that I'd have written exactly as you have, word for word.

And for the record, Garfield and Friends was one of my favorite cartoons growing up. The comic strip was a close second the Calvin & Hobbes. Well, maybe not so close. It's tough to top a stuffed talking tiger.

[Misty Poush]

There's a similar project where people duplicate the Garfield cartoons without the thought bubbles. They renamed it 'Arbuckle'

http://www.tailsteak.com/arbuckle/

[Misty Poush]

Oh, and I should add that when people redraw them, they make it look like an actual cat, so no standing on two legs, etc.