Garfield Minus Garfield

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Reactions to Garfield Minus Garfield (GMG)

  • Many find GMG far darker and sadder than expected, turning a light gag strip into “psychological horror” and existential angst.
  • People relate unexpectedly to Jon’s loneliness and routine; some describe the result as “spooky,” “bleak desolation,” “special kind of sad,” and “poetic Zen.”
  • Others emphasize it’s not just a novelty: it feels genuinely well-crafted and often funnier and more profound than the original.
  • A minority think the core idea could be pushed further by only removing Garfield’s thought bubbles while leaving the cat visible.

Why Removing Garfield Works

  • Several comments argue the tragedy was always there: Jon is already talking at a cat that (to him) can’t talk back, so he’s effectively monologuing into the void.
  • Garfield’s internal jokes mainly serve to distract readers from how depressing Jon’s life is; remove that humor and the strip shifts from comedy to tragedy.
  • Unlike “remove superheroes from a movie,” this edit works because it reveals an existing emotional layer instead of just creating random absurdity.
  • Some note that not all GMG strips are bleak; occasionally Jon is quietly content, which becomes oddly touching without Garfield undercutting it.

Garfield & Comic-Remix Subculture

  • Thread is full of related projects: Lasagna Cat, Garfield Gameboy’d, Garfield musical, horror art like /r/imsorryjon, Realfield (realistic cat), Garfield minus thought bubbles, Garfield Minus Jon, and the Markov-chain “Garkov.”
  • Other comic experiments are cited: Calvin minus Hobbes (with debate over Hobbes’ “reality”), Peanuts with the last panel removed (3eanuts), Nietzsche Family Circus, Time Is a Flat Circus, Square Root of Minus Garfield, and Chief O’Brien at Work.
  • A YouTube documentary on how the internet “did horror” to Garfield is repeatedly recommended.

Subtraction as a General Comedy/Horror Tool

  • GMG prompts comparisons to:
    • Sitcoms without laugh tracks (Big Bang Theory, Friends, MASH), which suddenly feel meaner, slower, or more unsettling.
    • “Star Wars minus Williams,” whose lack of score makes scenes absurd and uncomfortable.
    • Fantasy “minus-host” podcasts (Rogan, Lex, Tim Ferriss) leaving only guests’ answers, or inversions like “Rogan minus guest.”

Creator, Culture, and Nostalgia

  • Commenters highlight that Jim Davis explicitly approved GMG and even co-published a book of it, which many find refreshingly relaxed for a creator of a major IP.
  • This leads into debate about Davis designing Garfield explicitly as a marketable character vs. more “pure” artistic motives, and broader arguments over art, money, and respect for commercial work.
  • Many recall discovering GMG via StumbleUpon and spiral into nostalgia for the “old internet” of weird personal projects and random exploration, contrasting it with today’s algorithmic, centralized platforms—though some push back, noting that the early web also had plenty of toxicity and scams.
  • There’s also discussion of link rot: some old GMG-hosted links now redirect to explicit porn, surprising readers and illustrating how uncared-for legacy domains can degrade over time.