6 Funniest Garfield Comics That Are Aging Like Fine Wine
Garfield is one of pop culture’s most beloved mascots. The character is a globally recognized icon, still capable of moving millions of dollars of merchandise a year worldwide nearly fifty years after Jim Davis’ comic strip first went national in 1978. That’s because Garfield is a timeless creation, and Davis’ humor has aged amazingly well precisely because the author/illustrator wanted his work to have a universal quality. This list offers just a select few perfect Garfield panels that are as funny, if not funnier, today than when they were published. Garfield is one of the all-time greats of American newspaper comics for a reason, right up there alongside The Far Side and Peanuts. The cartoon speaks to everybody, but it speaks with a singular voice that can be imitated, but never fully replicated.
All the strips here either just celebrated, or are about to celebrate 30 years since their publication. These 1996 Garfield cartoons represent the franchise at its height, when Jim Davis was firing on all cylinders and a new generation of readers were discovering the classic comic, perpetuating its legacy indefinitely. And all of them are laugh-out-loud funny, excellent examples of Garfield’s signature wit. It is that dry but punch-packing humor which solidified him as one of the greatest characters in pop culture starting in the ’70s, a distinction that hasn’t changed generations later.
“Garfield, I Think You’re A Bad Influence”
First Published: January 17, 1996
Garfield, January 17, 1996, Jon calls Garfield a bad influence on Odie
Odie was the secret MVP of Garfield, the perfect canine counterpart to the strip’s feline lead. Over time, they came to make an all-time dynamic duo, and in this cartoon, Jon Arbuckle resignedly theorizes that it is because Odie has become more like Garfield over time, and not the other way around. The first panel features the pets munching on junk food together. In the next frame, Jon pops his head in, not to try and stop his pets from binging empty calories, but merely to comment on the situation: “Garfield, I think you’ve become a bad influence on Odie.” In response, Garfield matches Jon’s heavy-lidded stare and says: “Prove it.” Which leads to an outright hilarious punchline, as Odie opens up his mouth and lets out a casual, “Meow.” This does prove Jon Arbuckle’s point, but in a way that is sure to only make him give up even more on reigning his cat and dog’s behavior.
“You Couldn’t Be Lazier If You Tried”
First Published: February 12, 1996
Garfield, Feburary 12, 1996, Jon tells Garfield he couldn’t be lazier
In this Garfield classic, Jon Arbuckle finds Garfield flopped down face-first on the carpet, lying there and doing absolutely, positively nothing with his life. Annoyed at his cat’s ennui, Jon shouts, “You couldn’t be lazier if you tried!” In the second panel, Jon’s gone. Readers can assume he stormed off. Garfield takes a beat, not moving a muscle physically, but clearly processing a comeback in his mind. Which he delivers in the final frame, and it is a total zinger. “You don’t need to try to be lazy, Mr. Expert!” Garfield fires back at Jon, who is long gone, and to his credit, he’s right.
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There’s something oxymoronic about Jon’s criticism. Not to get too philosophical, but Garfield’s point is that if he tried to do anything, including being lazy, he would immediately be less lazy, and therefore, Jon’s got it all wrong.
“I Told Him To Take It Easy 18 Years Ago”
First Published: June 17, 1996
Garfield, June 17, 1996, Jon can’t get Garfield to be more active
This Garfield cartoon is thematically similar to the last one. The theme being Garfield’s savant-level slothfulness. This time, Jon Arbuckle finds Garfield lying prone on his back, eyes closed, not necessarily sleeping, but doing nothing at all. “You can stop now,” Jon says. Garfield doesn’t move an inch. In the last panel, Jon’s shoulders slump in defeat, and he breaks the fourth wall to explain: “I told him to take it easy 18 years ago.” Jon is referencing Garfield’s 1978 debut here, humorously taking responsibility for Garfield’s whole personality in a way that reminds readers Jon is a stand-in for creator Jim Davis. In fact, Jon was originally the main character of Davis’ comic, titled Jon, before Garfield proved himself to be the real star and usurped the comic strip from his owner. Nearly two decades afterward, you can tell Jon Arbuckle, the character is just a little bit resentful of that fact, something Jim Davis, the cartoonist, plays with to great effect.
“Maybe ‘Cute’ Isn’t The Right Word”
First Published: June 19, 1996
Garfield, June 19, 1996, Garfield batting around a ball of yarn with a mallet
In the first panel of this Garfield strip, Jon Arbuckle is lounging in his recliner, and he turns to the reader to say, “it’s cute the way a cat will playfully bat a ball of yarn around.” The next panel is a “smash cut” to a wider shot, showing a wide-eyed Jon in the background, observing as Garfield smashes a ball of yarn with a large wooden mallet. There’s a delightfully evil look on Garfield’s face that implies he might be picturing the yarn as the head of Jon, or Odie, or Jon’s girlfriend Liz, or whoever has annoyed the orange tabby most recently. In any case, he’s evidently having a great time hammering the ball of yarn; the second frame of this strip shows him swinging the mallet, while the “Bam Bam Bam Bam” sound effects in the last panel make it clear he’s going to town on it.
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Consequently, this causes Jon to revise his original statement. “Maybe ‘cute’ isn’t the right word,” he says with body language that equates to a deep sigh. By all accounts, this is a perfectly constructed, A+ Garfield cartoon that holds up flawlessly 30 years after its publication.
“In This Scene You Play The Part Of A Pitiful Goofball”
First Published: August 27, 1996
Garfield August 27 1996, Garfield making a movie starring jon
In this Garfield comic, Jon Arbuckle looks like he’s barely slept, and he’s struggling to function as a human, which is perfect, because Garfield is making a movie in which he’s cast Jon to “play the part of a pitiful goofball!”
When Garfield calls “action,” Jon sticks his finger in his nose, and then can’t get it out. “Cut! Print! That’s a wrap! You’re beautiful!” Garfield the director cries, having captured his subject in his most natural element. Being a doofus. It is an amazing Jon and Garfield moment, where this time Garfield gets to be the animated one and Jon is the butt of the joke. The dynamic between Garfield and Jon could take on different forms, as this small sample size of 1996 Garfield comics alone has shown, but one way or another, the cartoon was usually at its best when Garfield was making his owner’s life harder, rather than easier.
“Bottom Of The Pot Again!”
First Published: November 20, 1996
Garfield, November 20, 1996, Garfield’s coffee melts through his mug
Coffee was one of Garfield’s ongoing obsessions. For a cat who loved to sleep all day, Garfield was a caffeine fiend, taking his coffee black and absurdly strong. This strip illustrates just how strong, when the tabby accidentally splashes some of his java on the floor…and it proceeds to eat through the floor like the Xenomorph’s blood in Alien. To which Garfield grins and thinks: “bottom of the pot again!” It is grade-A hyperbolic humor, which any zealous caffeine consumer can relate to. It is also an iconic example of Garfield casually being an agent of chaos, another huge staple of the comic over its decades in publication.
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As this Garfield cartoon approaches its 30th anniversary, it holds up as a testament to the timeless quality that makes Jim Davis’ work a cultural institution to this day. There are Garfield strips for just about every reader, which is one of the crucial reasons that the strip holds up to this day.
Video Game(s)
Garfield Lasagna Party, Garfield Kart
Created by
Jim Davis
تم النشر: 2026-08-01 12:50:00
مصدر: screenrant.com
