Unbounded

I remember when I was a kid, I would dash home everyday after Kindergarten and would glue myself to the TV, for a good half hour. Why? It’s because RPN 9’s showing a new episode of Garfield and friends. Yup, that cynical cat was a big part of my childhood weekdays (Not as big as Snoopy though). Good times.

Tonight I got a fascinating link from Sansan that re-contextualizes the comic strip by Jim Davis. It’s the same Garfield comic strip only that Garfield’s muted out. As a result, we get to see an absurdist humor that focuses on Jon talking to himself.

Let’s take this premise and back it up a bit; it intrigued me to deconstruct the comic strip and to show to you a new level of pathos that’s beyond anti-humor.

When you inject realism to the strip (through a certain extent), such as removing Garfield’s thought bubbles, the lighthearted gag of a cynical rotund cat that makes fun of his bumbling owner drastically changes to an appalling picture of a lonely, pathetic, and delusional man who talks to his ordinary lazy pet cat.

A man talking to himself is sad, but a man talking to a cat, whom he acquired solely for the purpose of companionship who could never care is sadder.

Never have I realized that Jon’s life is so sad and empty. This validates my suspicion that Jon has depressive and bipolar disorders, and is suffering from Schizophrenia.

*****