Garfield Minus Garfield (Image Heavy)

Bunny · 2012-05-05 11:37:52

The actual Garfield strips can be pretty funny. Davis can be hilarious from time to time, but I feel like most of the time while I'm reading Garfield my emotion is mild amusement.

Justice4243 · 2012-05-05 11:39:26

That sums my opinion up pretty well.

I'll cut it some slack, because as it already been said, after so many years of doing this EVERY day, I'm sure the comedy well is a tad shallow.

Gelzo · 2012-05-05 11:41:07

The wealth of comics on the internet is so grand that I can't be upset about newspaper comics not meeting my standards.

Justice4243 · 2012-05-05 12:11:20

This one gave me an idea:

Here's the strip from my Birthday:

...Dang, why couldn't I have been born a day later.

Justice4243 · 2012-05-05 12:13:47

Although, on further reflection. That's one strong paper bag, and John must not have a great idea of the weight of a paper bag...

ProfessorGator · 2012-05-05 13:46:29

Davis can be hilarious from time to time, but I feel like most of the time when I'm reading Garfield my reaction is more mild amusement.

You know, I wasn't quite sure how to sum up my thoughts on the actual Garfield strips at first, but this is a pretty good way to describe it. I actually don't mind this mild amusement most of the time, but I can see why it would be nice to have a change in the formula now and again.

This is my birthday strip:

Mildly amusing, but appropriately enough, I do kind of wish my birthday comic could've been something a bit more exciting.

Gelzo · 2012-05-05 13:53:21

Here's mine.

Justice4243 · 2012-05-05 13:53:37

It took me a while to realize that in my birthday strip, the bellybutton is suppose to look like an eye.

^Heh, that might be the best one, yet.

The bar is not SUPER high, mind you...

Tre · 2012-05-05 14:00:05

This is mine.

Justice4243 · 2012-05-05 14:01:55

This is a real strip...

Let's take some notes, in Garfield, people just leave buckets of pork chops lying around, roaming packs of hungry wolves roam the streets, buildings are left in such disuse that anyone could fall into an empty elevator shaft, and said shafts may contain rabid shaft badgers.

Garfield is terrifying.

Tre · 2012-05-05 14:04:05

Not to mention this is considered normal.

(I still kind of find the original strip pretty funny. It was my favorite offline comic strip for a while until I discovered Calvin and Hobbes.)

Fossilmaiden · 2012-05-05 14:04:43

Mine:

ProfessorGator · 2012-05-05 14:04:50

^^^I find the original strip and the Square Root of Minus Garfield version about equally funny.

^The coloring of the shaded part makes Jon look like he got a very weird sunburn.

Justice4243 · 2012-05-05 14:07:58

^^ Panel five was pretty funny.

Also, moved to media.

Tre · 2012-05-05 14:25:55

This one is funny if you know the song.

Haven · 2012-05-05 14:26:05

Gelzo · 2012-05-05 14:46:22

That is most excellent.

Viani · 2012-05-05 14:47:20

^

I don't see the joke in that one

Gelzo · 2012-05-05 14:49:04

It's Homestuck minus Kanaya during her most dramatic scene.

TheMightyAnonym · 2012-05-05 15:09:34

Relevant:

Justice4243 · 2012-05-05 15:20:46

Interesting that many strips work with a caption and single panel.

Justice4243 · 2012-05-05 15:41:22

Real Garfield:

Icalasari · 2012-05-05 19:16:27

^ Last strip would have worked better without that dialogue in the third panel

Salix Babylonika · 2012-05-05 21:08:40

this is the best square root of Garfield, it's apparently based on an image the submitter had in his head upon waking from a dream.

Icalasari · 2012-05-05 21:12:47

My birthday strip

Icalasari · 2012-05-05 21:16:46

And this is amusing:

The author writes:

Idea came from original strip 2004-11-04.

Although Garfield is frequently seen sleeping at daytime, his nighttime behaviour is rarely shown. This comic tries to fill that gap, by looking at Garfield's actions during the night. Many all-black-panels were first generated, but they were considered not interesting. The all-black comic has already been done in other webcomics, and does not add any information on Garfield's inner feelings. After six hours of intensive observations, Garfield was suddenly awake. This comic shows what followed then.

In the first panel, Garfield, the intellectual that he is, took this chance to consider his sleeping habits. This hyperbolic statement shows his good self-knowledge. The unaware reader might think that Garfield is not so smart, as it is obvious from the all-black environment that it is night. However, Garfield is more experienced in sleeping and waking up than anybody else, so Garfield knows that opening your eyes is not a smart thing, as it might make other persons aware that he is awake. At this moment, the reader thinks that he has more information than Garfield, because the reader knows that it is night. In reality, more is happening. Garfield chose not to acquire that information. Moreover, Garfield chose to display his ignorance about the current time, by thinking it aloud. The reader, living in a world where displaying your ignorance is sometimes frowned upon, might wonder why Garfield shows his ignorance about something trivial. Why didn't he just open his eyes? Why did he show his ignorance? These questions are still open at the end of the panel.

In the second panel, Garfield has deduced that it is night. The reader and Garfield now have the same information. How did Garfield get this information? It is clearly not from visual stimuli, otherwise Garfield's actions in the first panel would have been stupid. Garfield must have had other input that gave away the fact that it is night. Because no other input is shown, it can only be the absence of input that allowed Garfield to correctly deduce the fact that it is night. The second question that remained from the first panel can now be answered: Garfield thought about his ignorance, to see if there would come some form of feedback. During daytime, Jon would have given a sarcastic reply. The absence of that reply allows Garfield to correctly conclude that it is night, without having to open his eyes. And that answers the first question from the first panel: Garfield didn't open his eyes, because he knew that there was a better way to find out if it was day or night.

In the third panel, the result of the actions is shown: Garfield is sleeping again. His technique to find out if it is day or night by simply showing his ignorance about the time worked perfectly, and he didn't even need to open his eyes. This comic is another proof of the well-established fact that Garfield is a master in minimising his spent energy.

TheMightyAnonym · 2012-05-06 02:37:04

^That's absolutely brilliant.

My Birthday comic:

A depressingly accurate description of my life.

Icalasari · 2012-05-06 04:18:50

Wow, the newspaper that did this fucked up badly

Most real Realfield ever

And Odie scares me (this is an actual strip, apparently)

Viani · 2012-05-06 04:20:29

I love how Garfield looks when he's in bed, especially his "Fuck I'm Baked" face.

Justice4243 · 2012-05-06 04:27:36

I think Davis is actually REALLY funny and clever. But when you HAVE to come up with a joke every day, the gems get buried under the "mildly amusing" strips.

Plus, I bet if he felt he could experiment with the strip more, WE'D see funnier stuff. Maybe not so much the daily newspaper reading public.

Viani · 2012-05-06 04:28:39

Well as a newspaper reader I find them amusing.

Since they are what they are, and they are good at what they do, instantaneous entertainment.

Like chips.

It may not be a Pizza, but a chip will suffice.

Justice4243 · 2012-05-06 04:40:11

Well, I think we all mostly agree that Garfield is not bad, per se.

Certainly not to the extent the net makes it out to be.

I think, it just has the potential to be something more. And I wouldn't say that's all Davis's fault, or rather, that his hands may be tied on that matter.

Still nice that he actually inserted some plot development with Liz and John, though.

Gelzo · 2012-05-06 04:52:22

I think the part about Garfield that's most frustrating is that there are comics that are a lot better that haven't entered the mainstream.

Justice4243 · 2012-05-06 04:53:59

I'd be angrier at comics like Family Circus, For Better or For Worse, and B.C. before I'd start ragging on Garfield.

Viani · 2012-05-06 04:56:15

the Lockhorns is good.

Gelzo · 2012-05-06 05:02:47

Oh god, Family Circus.

I know it's not especially original or controversial to hate on it, but it's astounding to me how unfunny it is.

lee4hmz · 2012-05-06 05:09:04

I actually really liked FBOFW before the artist went insane (i.e. "back in the 1990s"). Mainly because her style made everyone look cute and huggable. XD

Justice4243 · 2012-05-06 05:09:22

"I know it's not especially original or controversial to hate on it, but it's astounding to me how unfunny it is."

The thing is, it's not original or controversial to hate it because it is BAD. It is a horrible thing. It is a waste of natural resources and slowly draining life from this very planet.

I'm sure their are some Newspaper comic Hipsters who only hate things that are reasonably well liked, but hating Family Circus is sort of like hating Hitler.

Sure, EVERYONE does, but there's a good reason.

Yes, I just compared Family Circus to Hitler. What of it?

"I actually really liked FBOFW before the artist went insane (i.e. "back in the 1990s"). Mainly because her style made everyone look cute and huggable. X"

It went all kinds of crazy. I remember when Something Awful started paying careful attention to the strips. Some really funny stuff came from it.

Gelzo · 2012-05-06 05:17:35

As it happens, I very nearly compared Family Circus to the Holocaust, but then I remembered that the Holocaust has comedic value.

So what went on with For Better or Worse? Is there a detailed list of all the wacko shit? I never really followed it because I didn't like the continuity lockout.

Justice4243 · 2012-05-06 05:25:00

Memory is fuzzy, but I think it turned into this weird idealized version of what the author thought her daughters life SHOULD have been like her daughter had married this particular person that the author really liked.

So...that Family reunions have just have to be awkward as all hell.

A positive aspect, I suppose, is that they can deal with real life events.

A negative aspect is that real life events include people getting old and death...

So...we have comics where a dog dies (heroically, at least...) and the Grandfather has a stroke, and can't walk or vocalize properly, so he cusses at people and says nonsense instead of what he really wants...

Justice4243 · 2012-05-06 06:03:25

I find regular Garfield often outdoes The Square Root of Minus Garfield, even when the later is trying to be funny:

Now guess which is which.

Gelzo · 2012-05-06 06:10:46

I see some of them as more an attempt to be bizarre than funny.

Justice4243 · 2012-05-06 06:55:24

From Something Awful's review of Garfield: A Week of Garfield.

"Speaking of the house, It is pretty damn wacky. The man has a kitchen table every five feet"

You don't read the strip that often, do you?

ProfessorGator · 2012-05-06 08:48:32

Looking back at Square Root of Minus Garfield, there is actually one thing that bothers me about it. Like a couple of people have already said, it does get irritating when certain authors constantly comment on how Garfield isn't "real" humor and how their version is so much funnier. Yes, we know, brevity is wit, you've said that about 50 times already.

That being said, I think I can safely say that overall I like it and regular Garfield about the same.

Salix Babylonika · 2012-05-06 14:17:34

Bunny · 2012-05-06 22:16:47

This is the first one of my threads where people actually care!

This is how I feel about that

Viani · 2012-05-06 23:05:58

you now share sometime wthin me

Garfield Minus Garfield (Image Heavy)

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