Wednesday, June 07, 2006

How Can Jon Hang ANYTHING Off His Tiny Nose?


Jon Arbuckle: painfully self-aware of his own problems, totally oblivious to his goony behavior and its impact on others.

Garfield: not at all an expert on how to get along with people, and demonstrating no interest in the opposite sex whatsoever, but still willing to mock others for their social failures.

Why, it's a friendship dynamic made for the comics page!

Jon tells us about the wacky, gross shit he pulled at the restaurant, but we aren't privy to witnessing the scene. Lately Garfield has tended to go for the verbal description of a crazy sight-gag, whereas in the '80s Davis would more frequently show us Garfield with a banana in his mouth, tomatoes in his eyes and two celery stalks poking out his ears, pretending to be a Martian. I chalk this evolution to the gradual winnowing of Garfield to its elemental core: a guy and a cat at a table.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would've liked to see Jon trying to hang a spoon on his nose. It would probably take up an entire Sunday strip.

Flu-Bird said...

Maybe slices of lemon over his eyes to look like LITTLE ORPHAN ANNIE would help

Nyperold said...

A mystery that smells real good. Right, Jon?