I, personally, don't laugh at this sort of thing.

March 8, 2007 4:24 AM

Barfield is Garfield with banality largely replaced by puerility. As such, it's a tad NSFW.
posted by Wolfdog (38 comments total)

My favorite Garfield remix. (image link)
posted by Sticherbeast at 4:36 AM on March 8, 2007 [1 favorite]

Eerie. It's as if several of the story lines were lifted right out of my cat's life.
posted by hydrophonic at 4:41 AM on March 8, 2007

Maybe I'm too old for these, but I don't get it. There are a few that involve burping or puking, which I "get" even though they aren't funny¹, but most of them are just inexplicable. And not the surreal kind of inexplicable, just....not well done.

¹Not that I don't find burping and puking funny, but the timing and context have to be right.
posted by DU at 4:44 AM on March 8, 2007

11 strips of a Garfield corpse doing nothing = teh win
posted by rxrfrx at 4:46 AM on March 8, 2007

This was awesome.

At first you think, "He's just throwing up. That's not a big deal." Then you think, "Oh wow, now he's farting. How clever." Later on, when Jon and Odie and Garfield are all sucking each other off, you're thinking, "This is fucking wrong, but at least it's Garfield." Then you're waiting for him to get up after he dies. But he doesn't.

In other words, if you were expecting this to be amazing, well, that's a bit like expecting Garfield to be funny.

BRA-fucking-VO!
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 4:50 AM on March 8, 2007 [1 favorite]

Barfield is Garfield with banality largely replaced by augmented with puerility.
posted by Plutor at 5:12 AM on March 8, 2007

Yes, I'd say that's more accurate.
posted by Wolfdog at 5:15 AM on March 8, 2007

You guys should see the under-the-table remixes the artists at Paws did themselves.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:19 AM on March 8, 2007

Sweet. It retained all the depth of the original.
posted by sourwookie at 5:23 AM on March 8, 2007

Of course it's terrible. It's an exercise in terrible. And with so little changed in the original strips—that, I think, is the key. (But I'm maybe overly fond of this sort of thing.)
posted by cortex at 5:36 AM on March 8, 2007

And with so little changed in the original strips—that, I think, is the key.
Yep.
posted by Wolfdog at 5:39 AM on March 8, 2007

That's ten minutes of my life I'll never get back.
posted by Muddler at 5:42 AM on March 8, 2007

I missed it the first time so I'll say it a bit more noticably:
It's not just puking & burping. It changes tone after a while

It doesn't get great or anything, just more interesting
posted by Brainy at 5:57 AM on March 8, 2007

Yeah! there's cat farts, too!
posted by Balisong at 6:17 AM on March 8, 2007

Anyone who wants to get right to the exciting denouement can start here.

I blame Civil_Disobedient for making me investigate beyond the first few panels.
posted by languagehat at 6:21 AM on March 8, 2007

I made it as far as the first few fart joke strips - then I had to stop, there's a student in my office taking a make-up exam, and I didn't want to explain to her why I was cracking up. This is the first time I've laughed at Garfield in my adult life. (Ironic, because it's the juvenile aspect of this that made me laugh!)

Now having read the comments here, I can't stop myself from plowing on to the end of this...
posted by caution live frogs at 6:41 AM on March 8, 2007

cortex: But I'm maybe overly fond of this sort of thing.

I became a dedicated devotee after your post, but the blog has gone fallow. I miss it greatly.
posted by Terminal Verbosity at 6:49 AM on March 8, 2007

I hate to admit it, but this made me laugh.
posted by EarBucket at 6:49 AM on March 8, 2007

I liked it.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 6:52 AM on March 8, 2007

Dude, this is JUST LIKE REAL LIFE with a cat. A+++.
posted by seanmpuckett at 6:58 AM on March 8, 2007

disturbing that this is "JUST LIKE REAL LIFE" with a cat.
posted by ms.jones at 7:09 AM on March 8, 2007

This is fucking brilliant.
It makes Garfield do all the things you wish he did.
Garfield is a degenerate in all the original comics, but now he's a new and improved (and realistic) degenerate!
It reminds me a little of Fritz the Cat.
posted by Count at 7:19 AM on March 8, 2007

Don't like these? Make your own! I'm particularly proud of mine in an earlier thread on the subject.
posted by MrMoonPie at 7:37 AM on March 8, 2007

It kind of built up for me as it went along. But when I hit this one, I started giggling like a leetle school girl.
posted by papercake at 7:43 AM on March 8, 2007

As such, it's a tad NSFW.

Presumably because your boss might start to wonder if he'd hired a moron?
posted by PeterMcDermott at 8:01 AM on March 8, 2007 [1 favorite]

I gotta say, at first I thought this was the worst thing ever.
But around 40, I started to think... well, it's still the worst thing ever, but in a good way.
posted by papakwanz at 8:24 AM on March 8, 2007

I prefer the Garfield remixes with Garfield's thought balloons removed. But even those pale in comparison to the Nietzsche Family Circus or even The Family Circuss.
posted by zylocomotion at 8:29 AM on March 8, 2007 [1 favorite]

I was plowing through that thinking - you know, Garfield made me laugh when I was a kid, but I don't think it has ever since. The story arc at the end I was cracking up on this one though.
posted by MildlyDisturbed at 8:38 AM on March 8, 2007

It reminds me a bit of Sam Henderson's "The Magic Whistle Blows". It starts off stupid and unfunny, then proceeds to really stupid but kinda funny, and by the end it's pure fuckin' genius.
posted by Atom Eyes at 9:47 AM on March 8, 2007

The Aristocat!
posted by staggernation at 10:07 AM on March 8, 2007 [1 favorite]

That was bad, and yet somehow good.
posted by Bugbread at 10:51 AM on March 8, 2007

I enjoyed this.
posted by jefbla at 11:19 AM on March 8, 2007

It had ups, it had downs, but this one got me. And it's the only time I've ever laughed at this strip.
posted by davejay at 11:36 AM on March 8, 2007

Eerie. It's as if several of the story lines were lifted right out of my cat's life.


That's very disturbing. You and your cat must be pretty close.
posted by inconsequentialist at 12:09 PM on March 8, 2007

this is great. it's just like those 'tagline' cartoons from the 20's.

"They'll do it every time"

except replace that with a cat barfing. How will he barf? Ah, that's the story...

hilarious.A++
posted by Miles Long at 12:12 PM on March 8, 2007

Hey, a lifetime without Garfield is a lifetime worth living! Now finally someone killed the obnoxious character. So nice to see. Is there any cartoon with Jim D in it?
posted by Laotic at 3:53 PM on March 8, 2007

farts make me giggle.
posted by Hat Maui at 9:48 PM on March 8, 2007

Today's actual Garfield strip.
posted by Wolfdog at 4:20 AM on March 9, 2007 [1 favorite]