Sunday, August 06, 2006

The Onion Says "GOINK"


Title Panel: Which is more coveted by Garfield fans across the globe? A meal at Eat? Or one of those salt shakers with the Registered Trademark ® symbol?

Also: Indiana may seem like a boring state, but I don't know of any other that will issue driver permission for housepets to operate vehicles. As Louis Tully said when he saw Slimer driving a bus, "okay... but I didn't know you had your license."

Things That Happen in Garfield Today
-Garfield's cheeks pooch out to a width matching the length of his entire torso minus legs and tail.

-Garfield was planning on eating two entire onions on his hot dog.

-Garfield was either going to eat a raw hot dog or happy to cook a hot dog with several pounds of condiments warming gently in his mouth.

Davis portrays only the moments of jar-dumping, to give the feeling of an uninterrupted, free-flowing waterfall of condiments. The unrestrained joy exhibited throughout the mouth-stuffing process indicates to me that Garfield may not even care that much about the wiener. Is the taste of a single wiener even going to register with a mouthload of all that gunk? This isn't about enjoying a fully loaded hot dog.

Joke logic or no, I think it may be assumed Garfield has no reason to believe Jon is sitting at the table reading the newspaper and has a "spare wiener" in his vicinity. An unclassy double Jon-tendre may be intended, but you don't need me to help you with that (though as a dirty joke, a cat with its cheeks crammed with relish demanding a wiener is admirably weird, repulsive and funny). Consider instead that Garfield has gone out of his way to make sure Jon is aware of his outrageous feat of gluttony, and is trying to gross him out, for reasons of a power dynamic gone totally goink-goink.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

This strip only reaffirms my "Garfield-is-a-god" theory. For not only can he subsist on a diet of anything he gets his paws on, but also appears to have the ability to either A: communicate telepathically with Jon, or B: annunciate clearly, despite the numerous obstructions blocking his enormous gullet.
I know this contradicts Chris' theory that Garfield communicates with Jon through such things as "body language" and "inferred meaning," but come on. He's obviously no mere mortal.

Anonymous said...

One thing that goes sadly neglected by both the comic and this blog is that onions are poisonous to cats. Two whole onions is probably enough to kill him. Garfield surely has some instinctual fear of onions. (My dog won't eat onions and he eats everything.) What I think is going on here is this is a suicide attempt by Garfield, who shows Jon what he is about to eat as a silent plea for help.

Anonymous said...

If Garfield was a god, then he would have the weiner he was looking for. Telepathy does not mean divinity

Anonymous said...

Garfield is the Best, I Love Garfield,
On Facebook I created a page called "Garfield Lovers of America" Various Garfield the cat topics and pictures,
-- Jeffrey Andrew Winters, age 34, New York City, USA

Anonymous said...

Garfield is the Best, I Love Garfield,
On Facebook I created a page called "Garfield Lovers of America" Various Garfield the cat topics and pictures,
-- Jeffrey Andrew Winters, age 34, New York City, USA

Nyperold said...

Probably the meal at Eat. I mean, come on, where else will they spell your name using the various cups, boxes, and cartons that contain the elements of your meal, each marked with a letter of it? I can't think of any restaurant with that kind of service.