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No. 5701: Garfield Immunise Garfield

First | Previous | 2024-12-27 | Latest

Garfield Immunise Garfield

First | Previous | 2024-12-27 | Latest

Permanent URL: https://mezzacotta.net/garfield/?comic=5701

Strip by: Dataphile

{Garfield's large, ominously-smirking face is emblazoned on the back wall, with text beneath it reading "YOU ARE NOT IMMUNE TO HAPPINESS". The word HAPPINESS stands out due to being slightly the wrong size, colour, and sharpness, and because it is not subject to the same subtle looping distortion effect as the rest of the background}
{Garfield stands in the foreground stage right, looking unimpressed, also unaffected by the distortion}
Garfield: I'm immune

The author writes:

It's been a loooooooong time. How have you been?

I'm surprised to find that this particular meme (You Are Not Immune To Propaganda, by Mark Vomit) has never graced the archives in the past six years. While developing some ideas of things to do with it, I made a curious discovery: in the entire history of Garfield since 1978, the word "immune" appears to have only ever been used in a single comic strip, uttered by Garfield himself in a context which is amazingly ironic.

Since I felt unsure whether superimposing a comic panel over a meme was really about the Garfield comic, per se, rather than about the meme, I also adjusted the meme to clearly reference the comic. This actually changes the implication to me significantly! If the text says "propaganda" as it usually does, Garfield's face and thoughts seem to communicate a displeasure that his image has been not only appropriated without his permission, but linked to a statement which attacks both his franchise and his personal pride:

With "happiness", on the other hand, Garfield's scowl serves the same function as it did in the original comic, simply demonstrating his claim to immunity; the slogan in the background is not for him, but a message to you and Jon. His looming totalitarian visage seems to act as his proxy for the emotions he disdainfully withholds, betraying his smugness in reminding you of your susceptibility to such weaknesses as joy and excitement.

Original strip: 2009-08-31.