Starting in 1978, Jim Davis’ Garfield has become one of the most successful media franchises of all time. Not only does Garfield boast a host of TV and movie adaptations and a vast array of merchandise, but the original comic is the most syndicated strip on the planet, enjoyed for decades by fans all over the world. In this piece, we’re looking back 40 years at the funniest Garfield comics from April 1984.

April 1984 saw a few running gags, with Garfield and Jon going on vacation and Garfield launching an investigation into who stole his stuffed bear Pooky (Jon took it away to wash it.) We’ve ranked the month’s top ten comics that just turned 40, but remember to stick around and cast your vote in our end-of-article poll for the funniest Garfield comic from April 1984.

10

Jon Makes Garfield Miserable

Published April 16, 1984

Like many cats, Garfield is often depicted as mercurial – often given to sarcasm and disdain for those around him, but at other times excitable and loving. While this strip doesn’t offer fans much of a belly laugh, it does solve the longtime mystery of Garfield’s temperament – he’s a naturally happy cat who’s constantly being dragged down by his melancholy owner.

Jon being a tragic figure hasn’t gone unnoticed by Garfield fans, and this idea underpins the tribute comic Garfield Without Garfield – a series of comics that remove Garfield from Davis’ strips, making it so that Jon is talking to (and reacting to) himself. The surreal results may re-focus the reader’s attention on Jon’s misery, but the comic is still working with something that’s present in Davis’ comic, where the everyman cat owner is unlucky in love and often loses his carefully prepared meals to his pets.

9

Jon Goes Golfing

Published April 30, 1984

In this strip, Garfield and Jon are ready to go golfing, right up until Garfield sees what his owner is planning to wear. Making fun of golf apparel is a classic gag, as the sport tends to go hand-in-hand with particularly colorful outfits. This is partly because of traditional dress codes, with strict rules about what competitors can wear. Indeed, even players as big as Tiger Woods have questioned restrictions like not being allowed to wear shorts on the PGA Tour.

Jon lives up to this proud tradition with an outfit that – while not actually breaking any rules on the golf course – is unquestionably garish. As funny as Garfield’s response is, the premise of the comic is probably its funniest element – the idea that Jon makes a habit of taking his cat along when he goes golfing.

8

Jon and Garfield Watch a Horror Movie

Published April 1, 1984

In this oversized Sunday comic, Garfield, Jon and Odie watch a scary movie, but none of them are actually brave enough to watch the ending. Yet again, poor Jon finds himself being beaten up by Garfield (and bitten by Odie) despite the fact they all hid at the same moment. However, no matter what movie the trio were watching, there’s no way it was scarier than Garfield‘s own brief foray into horror.

Garfield has a couple of famously dark comics. The first – published in October 1989 – depicts Garfield waking up in an empty house, revealing that his life with Jon is a hallucination brought on by starvation and neglect. The 1984 comic Garfield: His 9 Lives – drawn by a variety of artists – includes the story ‘Primal Self’ (from Davis, Jim Clements, Gary Barker and Larry Fentz), where a cat named Tigger is possessed by a shadowy cat demon and attacks its elderly owner.

7

Garfield Predicts the Apocalypse

Published April 2, 1984

Garfield’s hatred of Mondays is one of the strip’s most iconic running gags (tied with his passionate love of lasagne). Here, he reveals that it’s gotten so bad he can actually sense when it’s Monday, speculating that when the world ends, it will be on his most hated day. Given this level of hatred, fans may be surprised to learn that Garfield was originally characterized as loving Mondays, with one 1979 comic beginning with the declaration, “Oh, goody. It’s monday morning.”

The comic explains that Garfield loves Mondays because – unlike Jon – he doesn’t have a job he has to rush to or any responsibilities. Sadly, years of Monday mishaps soured Garfield to the first day of the week, and by 1984, he was reduced to predicting the end times.

6

Jon Lectures Garfield on Being More Mature

Published April 12, 1984

Jon fits another major fashion mishap into one month, as Garfield stifles a chuckle at his owner’s white bunny slippers. To make matters worse, Jon is pontificating on taking life a little more seriously when Garfield notices his footwear, totally undercutting his point.

5

Garfield Pranks Odie

Published April 10, 1984

Odie has long acted as Garfield’s foil in Davis’ comics, with the clueless dog often defeating his ‘nemesis’ completely by accident. That pattern repeats here, as Garfield tries to prank Odie with a fake bone, only for the dog to eat it whole. There’s a reason Garfield kicks Odie so often – it’s one of the only ways he can get the upper hand in a way the dog will actually notice.

One surprising fact about Odie is that he wasn’t originally Jon’s dog. Odie first appeared in August 1978, and was introduced as the dog of Jon’s roommate Lyman. Davis stopped depicting Lyman in 1983, and Odie has been depicted as Jon’s pet ever since. However, because Davis never gave an in-panel reason for Lyman’s disappearance, fans have long speculated about where Odie’s owner went. Davis seemingly answered the question in a game on the official Garfield website, Garfield’s Scary Scavenger Hunt, which shows Lyman chained up in the basement, suggesting Jon stole Odie after imprisoning his former friend in a Cask of Amontillado-style betrayal.

4

Jon and Garfield Fly Third Class

Published April 24, 1984

April 1984 saw a multi-strip storyline where – to lift their moods after Jon realizes his gloomy attitude is spreading – Garfield and his owner go on vacation. Sadly, Jon can’t exactly afford the best, leading to the pair staying in a discount hotel and flying third class, where food is thrown in their faces and the airline doesn’t even provide stairs to disembark the plane. We’ve chosen the above comic as the best of the bunch, coming near the beginning of the story and therefore surprising the reader with how surreal the third class section is actually going to be.

As with Jon’s golfing, it’s funny that on realizing he feels like a vacation, he instantly also buys a plane seat for his cat to fly alongside him (but not Odie, who is presumably developing a fear of rejection after also being ditched by Lyman.)

3

Garfield Steals Jon’s Meal

Published April 13, 1984

One of Jon and Garfield’s biggest conflicts is the cat stealing as much food as he can get his paws on. If food is left unattended anywhere in the house – including inside the refrigerator – Garfield will find it in seconds, and even Jon guarding his meals has a low success rate. Here, he tries to set a new rule that Garfield can only claim scraps that fall on the floor, only to be immediately hoisted by his own petard.

2

Garfield vs. Monday

Published April 9, 1984

In another Monday-centric story, Garfield almost makes it the whole day without anything terrible happening, only to be knocked off the mantle by the clock he was using to track his progress. To Garfield’s credit, he really does seem to get into more trouble on Mondays, whether he’s trying to avoid it or just going with the flow. Indeed, Mondays are so routinely terrible for Garfield, he can often tell what day it is specifically because things are going wrong.

However, according to Jim Davis, Garfield doesn’t hate Mondays just because of his bad luck. Interviewed by Huffpost, Davis explained that the reason Garfield hates Mondays is the same reason he originally loved them: he doesn’t have any responsibilities, and so while Monday sees other people rushing to work or school, he has nowhere to go. It seems that over the years, Garfield stopped loving his freedom and started resenting that every Monday is the same. Davis explains:

Garfield does not have a job, Garfield does not go to school and every day is the same. Nevertheless every Monday is just a reminder that his life is the same old, same old cycling again and for some reason even though his life is pretty much the same every day on Mondays specifically, awful things tend to happen to him physically.

1

Garfield and Jon are Bored

Published April 17, 1984

Usually in Garfield comics, the title character is the one with his head on straight. While Odie is foolish and Jon can’t even enforce authority over his pets, Garfield is a sardonic free spirit who gets what he wants – usually to eat a lot and then take a nap. However, this strip puts Garfield in an unusual role, as for some reason he feels like he has to stand beside a brooding Jon, even though it means he’s stuck staring at the wall. It’s a hilariously bizarre situation, but one which is also a cute reflection on Jon and Garfield’s relationship. The two may quarrel, but when Jon is feeling pensive, Garfield sticks by his side, even if it means spending a while with a terrible view.

Those are Screen Rant’s 10 funniest Garfield comics from April 1984, but don’t forget to have your own say in our reader poll, below.

Source: Nell Minow, Huffpost