'Garfield' in Race Controversy!

Opinion Journal :Best Of The Web Today ^ | June 15,2004 | James Taranto

[Redcoat LI]

'Garfield' in Race Controversy! A discussion thread on the Internet Movie Database (all quotes are verbatim) features accusations that the new movie "Garfield," which apparently depicts the 20th president as a cartoon cat, is racist.

"Anyone notice that Garfield has black stripes, but his owner is white?" asks a reader called setht_1. "Makes you think." When another reader asks for elaboration, setht_1 replies: "The stripes are black, the owner of the cat is white. It doesn't take a genius to see the implications."

Achievist elaborates further:

Garfield is orange, which implies that he represents the prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, i.e. making fun of muslim fighters because this is a comedy. The black stripes represent scars caused by torture with hot metal rods (see: Abu Ghraib prison), which sends the wrong message to kids, many of who will grow up to serve in the US army. He's also overweight, lazy, selfish and loves lasagna, which represents a racist stab at all americans of italian origin.

Who could've ever imagined that a film based on a 26 year old cartoon strip about a cat could have so many implications and controversial hidden messages?

Not everyone agrees, though, that "Garfield" is racist. "What in the hell does all this have to do with racism?" asks hutcj:

OK so Garfield has orange stripes SO WHAT????? how does that make it a racist movie? You wanna talk racism go watch All In The Family for S#@!$! sake!!.

The other day Slate's Chris Suellentrop wrote that the film is "the kind of product that Garfield creator Jim Davis likes to attach his product's name to: Predictable, unfunny, and eminently forgettable." Davis, Suellentrop maintains, fears "the backlash that's created by white-hot success"--the "intense loathing by [a] minority" of "almost any mass-market culture-industry icon."

"Through careful brand management," Suellentrop argues, Davis has "largely managed to deflate the naturally occurring cultural counterattack."

Until now.

[South40]

"Anyone notice that Garfield has black stripes, but his owner is white?" asks a reader called setht_1. "Makes you think." When another reader asks for elaboration, setht_1 replies: "The stripes are black, the owner of the cat is white. It doesn't take a genius to see the implications."

And it doesn't take a genius to see setht_1 is an idiot.

[FourPeas]

Wow. Some people really DO have way too much time on their hands.

[AQGeiger]

Garfield is orange, which implies that he represents the prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, i.e. making fun of muslim fighters because this is a comedy. The black stripes represent scars caused by torture with hot metal rods (see: Abu Ghraib prison), which sends the wrong message to kids, many of who will grow up to serve in the US army. He's also overweight, lazy, selfish and loves lasagna, which represents a racist stab at all americans of italian origin.

This guy's been smoking a bit too much weed. The "Garfield" comic strip has been around for probably almost thirty years. And while Garfield does look a little different from when the strip was first created, he's always been an orange cat with a bit of black who loves to eat lasagna.

[Williams]

I'm confused. We're now discussing one post on an Internet movie forum as newsworthy?

[JoJo Gunn]

Leftists are fantastically paranoid.

Garfield actually was a comic invented by COINTELPRO.

[The South Texan]

Some people have too much time on their hands.

First it was Shrek that was gay or a homophobe. now Garfield is a racist.
I saw the movie this weekend with my kids and saw nothing racist about it.
Can we all just have a laugh without looking for subliminal stuff?

[muawiyah]

To the red/green colorblind part of the population, Garfield's stripes may well be red and not black.

Obviously that brings in other socio-biological and ethnic questions ~ like is that "red" for meat, and cats are carnivores after all, or does it have to do with third-world primitive tribes using red ochre, or maybe it has to do with First Nations people?

Being blue colorblind I had not previously noted that Garfield was orange. I thought he was kind of dirty gray. So, thanks to some normal person I now know what's going on ~ Garfield is orange ~ simply amazing ~ never imagined it before.

[My2Cents]

The stripes are black, the owner of the cat is white. It doesn't take a genius to see the implications."

This is a correct statement. A genius would see no implications. Only a moron would see any implications.

[Sofa King]

Either that or a troll.

[JoJo Gunn]

Site Nannies© by and large are a confused lot, typically not recognizing when posters are commenting on one excerpt from the Best of the Web.

[KarlInOhio]

And it doesn't take a genius to see setht_1 is an idiot.

Or a smartass who likes rattleing peoples' cages.

Odie was used to threaten prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.

[South40]

And Garfield's also yellow; does that mean he's French?

[MadIvan]

Garfield is orange, which implies that he represents the prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay

That or these other famous orange characters -

Regards, Ivan

[steplock]

"We're now discussing one post on an Internet movie forum as newsworthy?"

No! We are discussing a CARTOON movie! ;>) Much better than having to deal with left-wing-radical-extremist-actors!

[Caipirabob]

FOOLS! All of you! Garfield is the "secret mascot" of the Arian nation of dumpy white middle-aged men! We have only to wait for the "secret signal" which may or may not be secretly encoded into the final credits of this film, upon which all dumpy white middle aged Arian males will rise off of their cottage-cheese like butts and raid the nearest Krispy Kreme!

Well, it's a start for world wide conquest.

PS: The secret password tonight is "pillage", as in I shall pillage the local Krispy Kreme tonight".

Power! My brothers...and watch out for Seth_1, he's onto us!

[BeAllYouCanBe]

"I shall pillage the local Krispy Kreme tonight"

Watch out for the French Crullers at Krispy Kreme, I think their called that because of the swirls. These donuts will cause you to speak in an unusual Frog voice and having found this out the hard way know it is a Gaulist plot to neuter us red-blooded-American-MEN.

[usadave]

"Anyone notice that Garfield has black stripes, but his owner is white?" asks a reader called setht_1. "Makes you think." When another reader asks for elaboration, setht_1 replies: "The stripes are black, the owner of the cat is white. It doesn't take a genius to see the implications."

My neighbors, who are white, must really be racist. Not only do they own a black dog, but they also drive a black car!

[Nowhere Man]

My neighbors, who are white, must really be racist. Not only do they own a black dog, but they also drive a black car!

My aunt used to have a pure white cat and a pure black cat. I made that point once and she quipped a quick joke saying, "I believe in segregation in having a white and a black cat." B-) I busted out laughing. Sadly my aunt passed away in 1995 but the white cat, she was deaf, had one blue eye and a green eye, passed before that but we inherited the black cat, a Burmese cat named Muffin.

[Lion Den Dan]

This crap is brought to you by some of the most vicious, mean spirited bastards in the world.