Who says Twitter is pointless? Okay, okay, put your hands down. Still without it, I wouldn’t have learned about the website “Garfield minus Garfield” (via @collegepolitico’s twitter feed). It’s at once brilliant and idiotic, sad yet mirthful, revealing yet a complete waste of time. I give it 18 months before there’s a college course on it.
Update: Great Odin’s Raven! Now I’ve learned, again via twitter (@shanecarley to be specific), that there’s a website Garfield as Garfield featuring the 20th president. Now that’s ridiculous!
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Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYeah, Twitter is awesome for catching up an all the memes from 2008! Amazing!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSssh, nobody tell him about 3eanuts:
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Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMr. Goldberg, have you considered getting a job?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI prefer Lileks's "Great Zeus's Testicle" . . .
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse>"Yeah, Twitter is awesome for catching up an all the memes from 2008! Amazing!"
No kidding. I blogged about it at Dirkworld on Feb. 28, 2008 when it had been going only a little while. It was when the original explanation was up:
Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolor disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against lonliness and methamphetamine addiction in a quiet American suburb.
They pulled the meth reference then and have trimmed it further until it now reads:
Garfield Minus Garfield is a site dedicated to removing Garfield from the Garfield comic strips in order to reveal the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle. It is a journey deep into the mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Garfield Minus Garfield" is merely the latest spin on "Arbuckle", which precedes it. "Arbuckle" leaves in Garfield but removes Garfield's thought/speech balloons, the point being to drive home how insane most of the actual "Garfield" cartoon is when you consider that Jon can't/shouldn't "hear" what his cat is thinking. By removing the balloons, you end up with tons of cartoons that don't make sense where Jon is venting a response to a cat who has not said anything. ("Arbuckle" used to be the comic strip with the balloons photoshopped out, but copyright issues stopped it and now the series is done by redrawing the Garfield strip: External Link
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