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No. 1632: And I Must Scream

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And I Must Scream

First | Previous | 2013-11-06 | Next | Latest

Permanent URL: https://mezzacotta.net/garfield/?comic=1632

Strip by: David Morgan-Mar

Caption: 1979:
Garfield: We cats are very independent.
Garfield: We need nobody, no time, no where, no way.
Garfield: Isn't that right, Pooky?
{Pooky has a smiling mouth}
Jon: Why the long face, Garfield?
Jon: Look who I brought.
Garfield: Pooky!
Garfield: Camping is more fun with a good friend.
{Pooky has a smiling mouth}
Caption: 1985:
Garfield: Do you know why I love Pooky?
Garfield: It is said we were given two ears and only one mouth so that we can tell only half of what we hear...
Garfield: Pooky has two ears and no mouth.
Caption: 2010:
Garfield: Cheer up, Pooky...
Garfield: Here, I have just the thing...
{Garfield draws a big smiling mouth on Pooky}
Garfield: Better.

The author writes:

What did Garfield do to poor Pooky? When the ill-fated teddy bear first appeared in 1979, he clearly had a mouth, as can plainly be seen.

Some time between then and 1985, Garfield presumably applied some form of insane Doctor Moreau-esque vivisectional surgery on Pooky to remove his mouth. As seen in this 1985 strip, Garfield is now lording it over the miserable, mouthless teddy bear, doomed forever to be incapable of expressing himself with a word, a whisper, or even so much as a smile. Not that he has anything to smile about any more.

The cruelest blow comes in 2010. Wracked by some 25-30 years of pent-up guilt, Garfield feels the need to atone for his horrible crime. His futile gesture with a marker pen serves merely to underscore the depravity within. One can only imagine the unspoken, and literally unspeakable horrors that exist in Pooky's scrambled mind. There is no escape.

[[Original strips: 1979-01-06, 1979-06-14, 1985-06-13, 2010-05-05.]]

Original strips: 1979-01-06, 1979-06-14, 1985-06-13, 2010-05-05.