1983: 5th Birthday Special: Early Surprise
| 5th Birthday Special: Early Surprise |
 Made by: Joe Mucchiello |
Explanation[edit | edit source]
In the original strip, Jon and Odie were attempting to surprise Garfield in bed, and were shocked to find Pookie... and also to find Garfield bursting out of the cake.
Here, they actually are trying to surprise Pookie, so when they see him, they can go straight from the "Surprise!" to birthday wishes in an otherwise replicated panel. The joke, of course, is that they're making a big production about surprising an inanimate object (that Jon, at least, knows full well is inanimate).
Additionally, the author removed the title panel and shifted the other panels accordingly, also removing the "shocked" panel in addition to the final panel. This actually brings it more into line with the old "two-row" Sundays than the more modern "three-row" Sundays -- like this originally was -- which often had a gag in the title panel and a first panel that could generally be thrown away without hurting the joke.
The author writes:[edit | edit source]
Happy Birthday Pookie!!
Original strip: 1983-06-19.
Transcript[edit | edit source]
Jon: {to Odie} Sssh.
Jon: This is the perfect surprise. It's much too early for Pookie to be up.
Jon: He's a year older today, you know.
Jon: Surprise! {rips blanket off Garfield's bed to reveal Pookie}
Jon: Happy birthday, Pookie!
Trivia[edit | edit source]
- In a wonderful coincidence, Pookie (originally written as "Pooky") was discovered in a drawer in the strip for October 23, 1978, 36 years to the day before this SRoMG strip was published.
