First Things First…
I’ve seen this a million times. Probably every Thanksgiving season for the last 20+ years. I think it’s the funniest of the three Garfield holiday specials. And it never, ever gets old.
6 Things I Like
6. A Voice Chip with a Cruel Streak
“Rosebuuuud.”
RX-2
I know it’s wrong, but I love the scale ribbing Garfield for being fat.
It’s funny, though—Orson Welles feels like he would’ve been an outdated reference even in 1989. But it doesn’t matter, because the scale relentlessly holding onto the bit even after it gets smashed to smithereens completely sells the joke.
5. Sparking His Lady Friend
“Well, what are you just standing there for, boy? Get in there and spark your young lady friend.”
Grandma
Jon’s “on the fly” method of entertaining Liz to kill time while Grandma salvages dinner is by giving a history lesson about the origins of Thanksgiving, and its place in cultures around the world.
We hear about October Thanksgiving in Canada, and Labor Thanksgiving Day in Japan, and Harvest Home Day in England, and President Lincoln declaring Thanksgiving an official holiday in 1863.
Through it all, Jon simply can’t read the room. He doesn’t notice Liz’s boredom, even after she falls asleep. Yet his childlike enthusiasm for this topic totally charms me.
(But I still want to know what Thanksgiving looks like in Bolivia. I’ve been living with this cliffhanger all these years!)
4. Garfield’s Diet
“Gee, I’ve been on this diet only 10 minutes and I can tell I’ve already lost something: my sense of humor.”
Garfield
I can’t fail to include Garfield’s diet. It doesn’t last long, but the one meal we see Jon give him isn’t even a full piece of lettuce—it’s half a leaf of lettuce.
Of course, it’s up to Odie the Fierce, the new diet monitor, to enforce the diet. He guards the refrigerator and the cookie jar—not to mention the flour, sugar, and salt jars, too.
And, in one of my favorite scenes in the special, Garfield weasels his way out of the diet and into a simple regimen of moderate exercise by pantomiming every ailment Liz says it’s possible a diet can cause due to vitamin deficiency—listlessness, irritability, nervousness, uncontrollable twitching, dementia, and difficulty breathing.
3. The Jon Arbuckle Dating Method
“Okay, I can take a hint. I’ll just stand here quietly. I’ll just stand here and hold my breath until you say you’ll go out with me.
Jon Arbuckle
There’s so much funny stuff going on when Jon asks out Liz. For one thing, in a special filled with great one liners and line deliveries, maybe my favorite is Garfield, when Jon starts holding his breath, saying sarcastically…
“Oh, that’ll impress her.”
For her part, Liz completely no-sells Jon’s effort as he turns bright red. She just casually and professionally gives her diagnosis of Garfield.
And Jon’s pathetic display, which he keeps up for an admirable amount of time before turning ghost white and practically passing out, is funny.
Now, I don’t actually believe his tactic is good. It’s not okay to not take no for an answer, or to pressure someone into going on a date with you—especially while they’re at their job.
But you have to admire Jon’s courage. He just asks Liz out right off the bat. And he doesn’t let rejection discourage him in the slightest. This is not someone who’s in his own head, overthinking exactly what to say.
2. Prep for Success
“It’s Thanksgiving, and I have a dinner date with a dreamboat. Which reminds me, she’ll be here in about three hours. So I better get the old turkey out of the freezer.”
Jon Arbuckle
Jon’s prep, for both Thanksgiving dinner and his date with Liz, are shit shows of the highest order.
His solution when he realizes he should’ve taken the turkey out of the oven 24 hours ago?
Just make the oven a little hotter.
When he reads in the instructions for preparing the turkey, “Rub butter on skin,” what does he do?
He rubs it all over his own skin.
His idea of side dishes?
Tossing a bunch of raw veggies into a bowl and pouring water over them.
And where are the potatoes, Jon? Sweet? Mashed? And what about the stuffing?
Prepping for his date is slightly more successful, if only because he eventually does what he needs to do.
I think he manages to shave—but not before cutting himself the moment he puts the razor to his face, right after talking about taking control of his destiny, which prompts Garfield to ask…
“Ever consider putting someone else in charge of your destiny?”
And he finally lands on a brown suit—I guess that’s his idea of dressing as himself—but not before running the gamut of options, from Disco Jon, to the high roller, to the rugged individualist, to Popeye.
1. Grandma to the Rescue
“Have cooking utensils, will travel!”
Grandma
Grandma is missing from the Halloween special, but she bursts into this one like a bat out of hell!
Everything about Grandma is perfect—from her supernatural ability to fix Thanksgiving dinner in about three minutes, to her questioning whether Jon is even feeding Garfield because he’s looking a little thin (when Liz just put him on a diet because he’s too fat), to her directive Garfield should give Liz about not blowing it with Jon, despite what an imbecile Jon is…
“You tell that young lady of his that she couldn’t find a better man than Jon, and she better not blow it, or she’ll have to answer to me.”
Garfield sums up Grandma and her effect on everyone around her perfectly…
“They just don’t make them like that anymore.”
0 Things I’m Mixed On
1 Thing I Don’t Like
1. “Perfect” Day for a First Date
It always bugged me, just a little, that when Liz finally agrees to go out with Jon, he’s like, “Great! Thanksgiving tomorrow! My house!” and she’s cool with it.
He doesn’t ask her if she already has plans, or what her family is doing, or anything like that. That’s the one thing I wish they would’ve worked into the story. Like, maybe Liz lets it slip somehow that she’s going to be alone for Thanksgiving.
Tim Matassa
