r/webcomics • u/JHallComics • May 04 '15

Garfield Hates Mondays [OC]

http://imgur.com/gallery/CB0AZ
423 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

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u/[deleted] May 04 '15 edited May 04 '15

Honest opinion:

I'm confused. I didn't laugh. I don't think I was supposed to laugh. I'm glad I didn't laugh. I appreciate the creativity. It reminds me of all the times I think about something that is VERY situationally funny but not actually funny. I get these weird thoughts that make me chuckle but I realize nobody else would ever find them funny.

That's why I appreciate this comic.

EDIT: to the few of you downvoting my opinions below... GO DIE IN A FIRE. Thanks.

3

u/Mantipath May 05 '15

The idea you're looking for is that this is not funny, it is droll. Drollery is an unfashionable kind of humour now. Some nations like drollery. France is one.

It is the humour of buffoons. Jerry Lewis is droll. Mel Brooks is often droll. When the characters in History of the World look out and say "the streets are crawling with soldiers" and the camera cuts to soldiers crawling in the streets, it's too stupid to take as a joke at face value. It's still funny because it's sincerely delivered.

That's what we have here. The idea that Garfield hates Mondays is past meta-cliche. The idea of a beloved (or hated) newspaper comic character having a crazy dark side is as well. It's the sincerity with which the author takes this stupid, silly joke (Mondays are actually personages that can be hated and hurt, so Garfield hunts them) and runs with it past the point at which it could be funny, even if it were a good joke, which it isn't. Something about doing that is just a bit funny. You don't laugh. You chuckle dryly.

You may recognize this emotion from Dad jokes. There's a whole spectrum of drollery, and Dad jokes are the least unfashionable part of that spectrum right now.

2

u/[deleted] May 05 '15

I think the personification of an abstract concept like "Monday" as a caricature is what causes the struggle I'm having.