When I was a kid, I loved Garfield. I had a Garfield stuffed animal which had a reversible head: one side was a big grin, and the other side was his “blah” lazy face. I got it when I had my tonsils out when I was six or seven, and I rotated the head to express my mood to my parents because I couldn’t talk. McDonalds had a promotion where if you bought a happy meal you could also additionally buy these glass Garfield mugs, with a brand new (!) strip on the side. Being glass mugs they were completely unsuitable for holding hot liquids — the heat would quickly radiate to the handle — but I loved them all the same and for a time insisted that all my beverages, hot or cold, be served in one of these mugs. I had nearly all the books, and Garfield and Friends was the anchor of my Saturday morning cartoon ritual, which began at 6 am.
Over time my love of that lasanga-loving fat cat faded. Today I occasionally read a strip in the newspaper. They’re not funny. Were they ever funny, or is it just a kid thing? I’ve wondered this for quite some time. The Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes can still make me laugh aloud when I read them today, but Garfield… not so much… I can’t even crack a smile.
Reading Boing Boing today I came across this Garfield-branded food retrospective and was transformed back to my childhood. I don’t really recall actually eating any of these snacks, but I can identify with the various “time periods” there… the fruit roll-up phase, the sour candy phase, the cat treats phase. And it brings back to memory how absolutely obsessed everyone was with Garfield at the time. And of course, that Jim Davis is some sort of crazy whore for money.