About

Garfield Panel Replacements refer to a series of memes in which a panel of Garfield comics is either replaced with a panel from another comic, or is removed. Originating from a viral Twitter post claiming that Garfield comics can be improved by cutting out the last panel, the format gained spread in 2019 and 2020 through activity of several gimmick Twitter accounts, with the account Deflated Garfield becoming particularly popular.

Origin

On January 7th, 2019, Twitter^[1] user @vivaceharmony tweeted a cropped Garfield comic strip by Jim Davis originally published^[2] on February 26th, 1980. In the the post, the third panel of the comic was cropped out, with @vivaceharmony writing "garfield comics can be substantially improved by cropping off the third panel" (original comic and the tweet shown below, left and right). The tweet received over 4,400 retweets and 15,600 likes in two years.

The tweet was widely circulated online in the following months. On February 3rd, 2019, Redditor^[3] A_Magic_Potato reposted the tweet, gaining over 10,000 upvotes in six months. On the same day, Redditor^[4][5] huntermunts created /r/2panelgarfield subreddit for the purpose of posting cropped Garfield comics (examples^[6][7] shown below).

Spread

On August 26th, 2019, comic artist Manuel Alvarez created gimmick Twitter^[8][9] account @GarfieldPipe, posting random Garfield comic strips with the last panel replaced with the last panel of the Garfield comic originally published on July 27th, 1978,^[10] known as "Garfield Pipe Strip" (original strip and meme examples shown below).

In the following months, the gimmick account went viral online. On October 17th, 2019, AV Club^[11] posted an article about the account. As of October 14th, 2020, the account had over 32,100 followers.

In 2019 and 2020, the trend was continued with the creation of gimmick Twitter accounts @DabGarfield^[12] (Dab Garfield, panel created based on 11/03/2017^[13] and 11/19/2017^[14] strips), @yeetgarf^[15] (Garfield Thrown Out the Window, panel from 03/29/1981^[16] strip), @flatgarf^[17] (Deflated Garfield, edited panel from 03/24/1993^[18] strip), @jonarbucklegrave^[19] (Jon Dies, edited panel from 10/28/1982^[20] strip) and @GarfieldGraph^[21] (Garfield but the Middle Panel Is Censored, panel from 10/28/1982^[22] strip), As of December 18th, 2020, the accounts had over 7,100 followers, 85,000 followers, 35,700 followers, 7,900 followers and 9,900 followers, respectively.

Related Memes

Deflated Garfield

Deflated Garfield refers to a panel from a 1993 Garfield comic strip in which Garfield plants an inflatable Garfield decoy to act as a decoy for his owner Jon Arbuckle, with Jon panicking and thinking that Garfield is unwell when the decoy springs a leak. The panel gained viral spread in October 2020 as a part of Garfield Last Panel Replacement memes, with @FlatGarf gimmick Twitter account popularizing the meme.

Garfield Minus Garfield

Garfield Minus Garfield is a webcomic strip created by Dan Walsh. The comic takes previously published Garfield comic strips and erases the character of Garfield, leaving Garfield's owner, Jon Arbuckle, to interact with himself. Garfield's removal from the strip alters the tenor of the original comic, making Arbuckle appear paranoid, depressed and lonely.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References