Garfield Minus Garfield

Yesterday, while at the mall, I picked up the latest issue of Rolling Stone. This month was the "comedy" issue--all about how great comedy is becoming again. Never mind that SNL still sucks, for some reason the good folks at Rolling Stone thinks that things are getting BETTER in the comedy world.

Whatever.

Anyway, on page 43 they have an article about whether or not the "joke" is dead. I have no idea, maybe it is...in fact, after seeing the last few episodes of every sit-com for the past 7 years...YES, the fucking joke is dead.

This article about the joke (possibly) being dead made the argument that the "joke" as we know it is dead, and it's been replaced by irony and awkward/uncomfortable humor. One of the things they site is a website called "Garfield Minus Garfield." I'd never heard of it, but apparently there is a dude who digitally removes Garfield from the popular, long-running strip. Why is this funny? Because it makes John look fucking insane.

Example:



Here is the site's strange mission-statement:

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.

When I was a kid, I liked Garfield. I'm not proud of that, but damn it...I'll admit it. But then puberty hit and I saw Garfield for what it is: a lame, over-commercialized piece of pop culture shit. Garfield is trash compared to The Far Side. It's trash compared to Calvin & Hobbs.

But not Garfield Minus Garfield. It's pure genius. Go take a look, I promise--you will laugh.

One more for the road: