Showing posts with label homoerotic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label homoerotic. Show all posts

Thursday, May 06, 2010

Eye of the Tabby


So outsized is Garfield's self-regard that he does not differentiate between the sort of feelings Jon has for his girlfriend and the feelings he has for his pet. Garfield may or may not be half-joking in his eyelash batting and the flirty pose he strikes, ignoring the gulf of aesthetic standards and nature of the relationships. But whether Garfield equates, conflates, confuses, ignores or blurs these separate concepts of beauty, he does so because he cannot conceive that they co-exist, that Jon could appreciate both kitty and woman in different ways. All Garfield sees is that someone else is occupying some of Jon's brainspace, usurping the center of attention, he is not being treated as special and perfect, and in his last line shifts his shame onto someone else.

Here is a case where Garfield's enormous vanity works at odds with his propensity to sloth and gluttony. Garfield does nothing whatsoever to "keep [himself] up," unless we mean that he rigorously maintains a body shape like several water balloons in a fur backpack. These contradictions run deep in Garfield, tentacles rising out of a bottomless pool of aggressive narcissism.

The third joke is that Jon's experience of this conversation is his cat making a weird face at him — possibly he even understands that the cat is flirting with him — which he thinks is "strange." And even if Garfield actually were expressing sexual feelings for his owner, the reality is far stranger than Jon knows, as Garfield seems to be using the Hare Psychopathy Checklist as a lifestyle guide and has gotten halfway through.

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Brokeback MeowMeow


Every human rejoiced when they read the opening panel, right? That is a world-class joke set up.

Let me get this straight: Jon does ask his cat about his lip quality (weird) and does expect an answer (weirder), but does not like to be kissed by Garfield (because it crosses some weirdness boundary? Come on!). I think you're pretty much "asking for it," Arbuckle.

Remind me next time I'm kissing someone, to grab the sides of their face with my tiny claws and pull their cheeks. Also remind me that the noise to make after touching a cat mouth with your lips is "Poo! Poo!" I do not need to be told the noise that smooching makes is "KISS" because I already know.

It's nice that Garfield isn't such a jerk that he refuses to help Jon with his question. Also nice that Garfield concedes that Jon is fairly kissable, which, given Garfield's impossibly high standards for Jon, must mean Jon is a pretty good kisser. Congratulations, Jon. Congratulations.