In every world except Garfield's, automatic doors have sensors to protect people from being smashed in their mighty jaws. In Jon's double-barreled dumb-move, he not only managed to injure himself in an impossible way, but wants to twist the focus into a joke about our horrible relationship with technology. It's not that joke. It's a story about Jon's good intentions being squashed under the weight of his zealousness. It's about unnecessary, overwhelming desire to please others, and being thwarted by your own stupidity and inabilities. Jon feels on some sublimated level that his chivalrous intentions are a positive trait, and refuses to acknowledge that the automatic doors of the Garfield world are telling him otherwise.
Garfield, meanwhile, has concocted a coping strategy that leaves his arm unwrenched and ego unbruised: he doesn't try to impress anyone, and pretends he doesn't care about them.
It just hit me:
ReplyDelete"Garfield" is a three-panel comic telling two-panel jokes. That's the secret.
If you take the last panel and remove Garfield's thoughts, it would look as though Jon were yelling at Garfield in a most abusive manner.
ReplyDeleteEvery time I glance over that first panel, I keep seeing Jon's dialogue as "I held a lizard today and wrenched my arm", which makes the dialogue in the final panel totally surreal.
ReplyDeleteI kind of feel like there should be a service, similar to the one which removed all of Garfield's thoughts, or the one that presented three random panels, for removing the third panel of Garfield comics. It would recontextualize the strip wholly. Actually, maybe that should happen for every three-panel gag strip.
ReplyDeleteHave you seen the site that not only removes Garfield's dialogue, but also redraws the entire strip?
ReplyDeleteAhh, the Arbuckle site. One of my favorites!
ReplyDeleteOh man, why have there been no updates since october! Come back! Come BACK!!
ReplyDeleteHe is updating, dude. Most of these October entries came in November.
ReplyDeleteI think Dan Hulton is half-right, but the problem is, most of the two-panel jokes wouldn't be funny at all if told in two panels. The silences are part of the joke, is this episode, self-mockingly points out.
ReplyDeleteOof. I mean, "The silences are part of the joke, as this episode self-mockingly points out."
ReplyDeleteNice observation! It didn't even occur to me that Garfield's "Wait for it" practically screams "pregnant pause" - and that's what Jim Davis wants.
ReplyDeleteAutomatic doors, it took me sometime to think how even Jon could wrench his arm in an automatic door.
ReplyDeleteAfter consderiable consideration, it's a automatic rotating door he was trying to hold open.
Damn Stangl and his business trips.
ReplyDeleteI think the fact that it's be nearly impossible to wrench your arm in an automatic door is part of the joke.
ReplyDeleteDamn, folks, I think this site is dead. Just when I discovered it and made it a part of my daily routine. Wonder why he disappears?
ReplyDeleteHe's always a few weeks behind. Just when you think he's given up, he comes to the rescue.
ReplyDeleteHe also, apparently, has to deal with hatemail both from Garfield lovers and Garfield haters, both of whom don't understand this blog at all.
Merry Christmas... the big fat hairy deal that it is!
ReplyDeletehey, i just got tipped to this blog by my friend ian. you've got to keep it going.
ReplyDeletewe miss the updating!
ReplyDelete<3<3<3
Please come back...
ReplyDeleterandomizer
ReplyDeleteuse with caution
Since both Stangl's other blog and his webcomic are being updated, I think it is safe to say this site is finally dead. However, I would like to thank him for reviving my interest in Garfield. It's been... enlightening.
ReplyDeleteI think we at least deserve an explaination.
ReplyDeleteWe don't deserve anything. You're lucky this blog ever existed in the first place. You should count your blessings! There are children starving in China, and they're not allowed to use the internet!
ReplyDeleteWait a minute... "Enjoy it until PAWS, Inc. inevitably shuts it down." That must be it!
ReplyDeleteGarfield pretend-kills himself today... it was very disturbing.
ReplyDeleteHey.
ReplyDeleteThis blog is so smart and funny. It makes me laugh. I miss it.
hey man if you haven't quit this blog thing you should tell us or something. Hope you didn't I liked this site alot, its very funny.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe it's gone JUST as we were approaching a strip with a gag about Jon's penis. Seriously.
ReplyDeleteAnyone up to start a new Garfield analysis blog?
ReplyDeleteElliot? Anyone?
Damn fine blog while it lasted. Thanks Chris!
ReplyDeletethis blog is just wonderful, I love Garfield, his actitude, color, humor sense, everything... thanks for the good comics.
ReplyDeleteDo you really have a blog where you disect the meanings and joke set-up of Garfield cartoons? Really? I mean, really really?
ReplyDeleteOk.
Whatever tickles your pickle.
How do you wrench your arm in an automatic door?
ReplyDeleteSometimes Jon is an American equivalent of Mr Bean, plus cat. This 'A Nerd in the Door' strip show the kind of very improbable injury Bean would bring on himself, and the same same kind of reaction -blaming the door. Luckily for Garfield, Bean
ReplyDeletelives on the other side of the Atlantic. :)
Why are you not Updating?
ReplyDeleteYou said "Until we die" and I believed you, Chris.
ReplyDeleteSigh.
Damn I really liked this site. Come back man we really need your genus. Hope you didn't die or something. :(
ReplyDeleteThis is the best thing I have seen on the internet in some time. What a shame it appears to have been discontinued.
ReplyDeleteI must join the cacophony of voices calling for a return of this blog. Come back! I only discovered this tonight (6/5/07) through StumbleUpon. It is the most impressive artistic analysis I have ever read online.
ReplyDeleteHILARIOUS! Come back ASAP!
ReplyDeleteNPR just told me that today, June 19, is Garfield's birthday. And I remembered recently having started reading Garfield again for the first time in years... and even visiting his website a few times! Then I wondered why on earth I would have done such a thing. Then I remembered, and re-Googled this blog. And now I'm kinda sad that I don't have months of deconstructed Garfield to catch up on. I guess Monday's not so permanent after all... :/
ReplyDeleteJon is still a dip-wad
ReplyDelete