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When people say this kind of stuff, I always wonder if it's post-hoc rationalization. "Oh...so you don't like Garfield? Well, ummm, it wasn't meant to be funny anyway, I WIN!" Doesn't Tommy Wiseau claim that The Room was meant to be a comedy now?
I didn't know how much of Jim Davis' motivations were commercial ones. It seems very at odds with folks like Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson: > For years, Watterson battled against pressure from publishers to merchandise his work, something that he felt would cheapen his comic. He refused to merchandise his creations on the grounds that displaying Calvin and Hobbes images on commercially sold mugs, stickers,…
1. John was such a clueless loser
2. Garfield got so enraged at Nermal
3. Odie kept bouncing back
This was not a deep humor. It’s the kind of humor where you see a dumb, funny video on the internet, snort a laugh, and move on, completely forgetting it ten seconds later.
These guys did an amazing job with Garfield: https://www.youtube.com/user/lasagnacat I especially love: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_NeqMAAsBk
In its reading, there is usually a "surface level" joke that isn't particularly funny, but some visual detail of representation will point to a hidden meaning that is usually pretty vicious.
See i.e. http://permanent-monday.blogspot.com/2010/05/movable-feast-h...
I always found Garfield hilariously downright funny. Maybe that's why most people don't get my sense of humour.
Comedy isn't universal at all: I'm sure there are people who don't find Robin Williams funny. With Garfield, there are several layers to the strip, and the more of them you understand, the funnier the strip gets.
I think you have to ...
1) Understand the role of each character;
2) Empathize with Garfield (easy to do, he has many common failings);
3) Feel like cats in general are lazy, eat the same thing, somewhat anti-social, and prone to melodrama (i.e., be a cat owner);
4) Feel superior to Jon, as everyone else in the comic does, but also find him lovable (having a dorky dad helps);
5) Appreciate absurdity
...for the humor to translate.
Here's a random comic I chuckled at : https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1986/03/22
The foundations of humor are certainly present in this strip, regardless of how much the reader knows about Garfield. It is absurd (a cat crying and watching a sad movie) and incongruous (turns out, he's not watching a movie at all; his reaction is not proportional to the situation). But I think what elevates the strip is the repetition of Garfield's struggle with diets and how Jon always tries (and fails) to cheer Garfield up, combined with the fact that Garfield acts exactly like real-world cats do (crying for attention/food).