At its inception the internet was a respectful, civilized place where people could share high quality ideas and values with others all around the world. Professional and collaborative global communication was just about to lead to a modern-day renaissance. That is, until the cats got involved. Based on no research, it is assumed that 72% of the internet is now made up of cat content and thanks to their penchant of pushing things off the table, our internets is now rolling in the gutter. While we profess to be the dominant lifeforms on this planet, in actuality, we’re all living in the shadow of Garfield. We have reached a new renaissance but it is not the one we pursued.
There’s a quote from Nietzsche: “the essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.” But instead of gratitude, what if he really meant to write cattitude?
The darkest recesses of the internets is populated by twisted horror Garfields called I’m Sorry Jon. A more wholesome Garfield, Realfield takes Jim Davis’ majestic cat and edits Garfield as a realistic looking orange feline to let us know, Garfield is just like us. A more avant garde movement called Garfield Minus Garfield has this to say of their art:
Garfield Minus Garfield is a site dedicated to removing Garfield from 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.
There is also Garfield the Musical (A Garfield Parody) in which grassroots artists wrote, acted and sang an entire Garfield play fit for Broadway.
In the revolutionary youtube channel of Lasagna Cat, Garfield comic strips are reenacted with live action actors culminating in the youtube video called Sex Survey Results which truly embraces madness over the course of its almost 5 hours of footage.
Then you’ve got your Graffold, your Gramfel, your Scumfield, your Gorefield, your Garfielf, Your Swol Garf, your Gay Garfield, your Ghazt, your Donglicthy Garfield, your Sonic Garf, your Gardfuel, your Cringerfield, your Barfield, your Garkov, your Hetfield, your Simbafield, your Gaturro, your Megaman Battlenetwork Garfield, your Chainsawman Garfield, your Garfbert, your Gilbert Garfield, anti liberalism Garfield, arm the working class Garfield, Square Root of Minus Garfield, Fieldgar, Super Garfield Bros, waifu Garfield, Jesus Garfield, Kung Fu Garfield, and the list goes on and on like the infinite potential layers of a lasagna.
Painters have easels, sculptors have clay, carvers have wood, children have paper plates and elbow macaroni but true artists have Garfield. Jim Davis didn’t create a cat. He created a mirror to the human subconscious. Look at your reflections, be honest with yourself, like Garfield, you too would like more sleep and hate mondays.
When Nietzsche said ‘If you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you” one can’t help but think he was referring to Garfield.