Last year I found a streaming app that had the 1980s Garfield cartoon running, and I ended up getting back into that for a while.

I found it to be a fascinating glimpse into those times. Like all of the pop culture references were obviously quite dated, but 40 years later and a lot of them still stand on their own. The comedy style was a snapshot of the zeitgeist from the era, surely not novel at the time, but a reflection of the time. It’s interesting to see how much of that comedy style has carried forward and even evolved over the decades. Sarcasm, featured heavily. Self-deprecation. Almost surreal absurdity. Did Garfield shape the comedy world as much as the comedy world shaped it?

Oh yeah, and I definitely turned out gay. But I guarantee you it wasn’t the 10/10 hotties that John Arbuckle was pulling or anything related to Garfield himself. It was entirely Nermal. Grew up living my entire life thinking Nermal was a girl, only to realize that in my recent re-watch that Nermal’s pronouns are he/him. These woke ass shows have been woking kids up since the dawn of time.