"In the end, Garfield? Nothing ends. Nothing ever ends."

March 25, 2014 12:27 AM

You may already be familiar with Garfield Minus Garfield (mefi post), weirder variants like the currently inactive Garfield Minus Plus (James) Garfield) (and my personal favorite: Garfield minus Garfield's Thoughts.) Now there's Garfield Minus Jon (Arbuckle) Plus Jon (Osterman).
posted by kagredon (22 comments total)

Thank you for reminding me of the existence of Garfield minus Garfield. Actually, I probably originally found it on mefi.

I think my favorite Osterman so far is "I feel blue....I know! I'll treat myself to a new pair of sweat socks!"
posted by quincunx at 1:14 AM on March 25, 2014

Well, my favorite Garfield variation is the free-form crowd-sourced and officially irrational Square Root of Minus Garfield, with a wide assortment of visually altered, remixed, mashed-up and rewritten strips, updated every day for almost 5 years, with a current backlog of three months of submissions and no end in sight.

I mention this only because I have contributed a few dozen 'Square Roots' myself. (I particularly enjoy mixing up with other comics or rewriting punchlines to make them somewhat funnier)
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:35 AM on March 25, 2014 [2 favorites]

I've always liked the Random Garfield Generator.
posted by JoeZydeco at 4:48 AM on March 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

I own cats. Therefore, Garfield Minus Garfield's Thoughts is just my daily life.
posted by juniper at 4:49 AM on March 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

1 Garfield + 2 Garfield + 3 Garfield + 4 Garfield + 5 Garfield ... = -1/12 Garfield
posted by ardgedee at 4:56 AM on March 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

I'm waiting for Garfield Minus Plus (James Garfield) Minus Jon (Arbuckle) Plus Fatty Arbuckle.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 5:45 AM on March 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

I keep wanting to post this but thinking it will get utterly hated so here it is in a comment: Garfbert.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 6:49 AM on March 25, 2014 [2 favorites]

I think Bloom County was first with that James Garfield joke, but can't find the strip.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:21 AM on March 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

I never get tired of these. I don't remember which post-modern Garfield art project it was, but my favorite involved all of the characters complaining about the existential horror of their lives, and then slowly devolved into depraved, interspecies orgies. Fun stuff.
posted by Saxon Kane at 8:05 AM on March 25, 2014

Metafilter: complaining about the existential horror of their lives, and then slowly devolved into depraved, interspecies orgies.
posted by Fizz at 8:14 AM on March 25, 2014

Little-known fact: the ultimate goal of physics is to write an equation that explains the Universe and can fit on a T-shirt, and consists only of variations on the Garfield comic strip.
posted by BrashTech at 9:17 AM on March 25, 2014

my favorite involved all of the characters complaining about the existential horror of their lives, and then slowly devolved into depraved, interspecies orgies.

I'm pretty sure I posted that here on MeFi, but I'd forgotten all about it.
posted by Wolfdog at 9:37 AM on March 25, 2014

I really liked the random strip generator that was taken down because of copyright complaints.
posted by NoraReed at 10:10 AM on March 25, 2014

The James Garfield-as-Garfield Bloom County was in the "exciting copy of the Bloom Picayune" that came inside Tales Too Ticklish To Tell.

I don't remember any of the other comix parodies (maybe a Wizard of Id?) but child Earthtopus remembers the ad for the "nose bra".

Edit: Here's the nose bra, at least.
posted by Earthtopus at 10:12 AM on March 25, 2014

Although it seems I was wrong! I feel like a real Bud Riley.
posted by Earthtopus at 10:13 AM on March 25, 2014

Yeah, it wasn't in the Picayune insert, it was an actual strip.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:31 AM on March 25, 2014

As always when it comes up, I must raise that I really don't like Garfield Minus Garfield. Taking the cat out of the picture entirely changes things too much, makes Jon into a hallucinatory lunatic. The first one of these Garfield edits I ever saw was one that, like Garfield Minus Garfield's Thoughts, simply removed all of Garfield's thought bubbles. Since Jon can't hear or see those anyway, it's presenting the events of the comics in the form that they exist from the perspective of Jon or another present observer. It reveals Jon to be the sad, lonely person that he is, talking to his cat as though it talks back because he's that starved for human interaction, but he's not insane and it doesn't portray him so.
posted by kafziel at 10:41 AM on March 25, 2014 [2 favorites]

The Bloom County-shaped hole on the Internet is baffling.
posted by Earthtopus at 10:55 AM on March 25, 2014

There's something to be said about a comic that can have most of its content removed and still be funny on some level.
posted by tommasz at 10:56 AM on March 25, 2014

Also, the Lasagna Cat videos are totally worth watching.
posted by to recite so charmingly at 11:49 AM on March 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

Oh my god, Lasagna Cat. Thank you for reminding me of its existence. Comedy gold.
posted by tickingclock at 7:13 PM on March 25, 2014

The Bloom County-shaped hole on the Internet is baffling.

That hole is conveniently Achewood shaped, in my opinion.
posted by codacorolla at 5:55 PM on March 26, 2014