2102: Mother Goose and Grimm plus Garfield

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Mother Goose and Grimm plus Garfield
2102.png
Made by: Edwin Chee, Sloublues


Explanation[edit | edit source]

This strip is essentially a compilation of Mother Goose and Grimm strips that feature references to, or cameos of characters from, the Garfield mythos up to the end of November 2013.

This strip first ran on Square Root of Minus Garfield three months and two weeks prior to the debut of iToons; given its lack of actual Garfield-related material, there is a decent chance that this strip may have been considered better fit for iToons had that feature existed when this strip was first submitted.

The Mother Goose and Grimm website, itself a rare instance of a comic strip whose dedicated website is still extant (as of this writing), does have a comic strip viewer among its features; however, it does not have a method to permanently link to a specific strip, the likely reason why none of the original Mother Goose and Grimm strips have hyperlinks. GoComics also carries Mother Goose and Grimm and has a method to permanently link to specific strips, but their archives of that strip only go as far back as November 2002, does not carry any Sunday strips prior to 2017 (conversely, only Sunday strips are carried from 2017 through 2022), and also has a sizable gap with no available material at all between and including 2009 through 2016; as such, only the 2004-02-03 strip can be easily permanently linked among all of the credited strips.

The author writes:[edit | edit source]

A user in the forums by the name Sloublues suggested in the "Other Newspaper Comics to Use for SRoMG" topic that a number of Mother Goose and Grimm had Garfield as a cameo. He or she also provided a link to the official Mother Goose and Grimm website. Soon after that, I found another link to a comic search website to search for more Garfield references (that unfortunately doesn't have a Garfield search engine). The search engines are reliable, which makes it easy to find the strips where Garfield has a cameo, and on one strip, Jon. A few others were trickier to obtain since they didn't reference Garfield, but together with TVTropes, the list is more complete.

Essentially, Mother Goose and Grimm is a strip about the titular Mother Goose the anthropomorphic goose and Grimm the dog, but Grimm stars more often, and he has two other animal friends named Atilla the cat and Ralph the other dog. Grimm goes on all sorts of surreal adventures, sometimes even outside the boundaries of his world. It's a strip that references what's new or current, so it's a strip that is contemporary. Of course, it also references other fictional characters, including Garfield.

The result is that the four main characters show up on at least one strip, and it also features single-panel strips, middle-of-the-story strips, and general humour strips, both with and without the main characters, so this compilation is a good general representation of the strip (besides the Garfield references, but that's because it's on a Garfield-theme site). One thing that is not there is a strip that fractures fairy tales, because a strip named after Mother Goose and the Grimm Brothers is required to have them.

I was surprised at one time that this strip begat an animated show, though it was considered to be of lacklustre quality.

Original Mother Goose and Grimm strips: 1994-09-12, 1997-04-17, 1999-04-09, 1999-10-12, 2004-02-03, 2006-10-29, 2009-11-13, 2010-05-25, 2010-09-24, 2012-10-20, 2013-05-13, 2013-11-11, 2013-11-12.

Transcript[edit | edit source]

(Strip 1)
Simon: {Singing} Well, Hello, Mrs. Robinson.
Garfield: I hate Mondays.
{Text box at bottom right reads "Simon and Garfield"}
(Strip 2)
Grimm: Stunt double? What do you mean I have to be a stunt double?
Mr. Hendin: We can't allow our top strip characters to do dangerous stunts. So you stand in for them.
Sgt. Snorkle: {Offscreen} Beetle, come here!
Mr. Hendin: {Hands Grimm to Sgt. Snorkle} Here he is Sgt. Snorkle.
{SFX: THUD POW CRACK}
Grimm: {Flattened} Egk
Mr. Hendin: Good, now hurry up... Garfield's about to stuff Odie in a blender!
(Strip 3)
Jon: {Carries a bowl of dog food} Odie, here's your dinner, Odie, Odie..
{Grimm arrives at the scene}
{Grimm looks around}
{Grimm imitates Odie by sticking his tongue out, raising his ears and wagging his tail}
{Jon has a surprised look}
(Strip 4)
Atilla: These are great disguises.
Grimm: Nobody knows who we are!
Clown: {Grabs Grimm and Atilla} Hey, hurry up you two, in the clown car!
{Grimm and Atilla are in the clown car with other clowns}
Grimm: {Flattened on the car window from the inside} I suddenly feel like a Garfield stick-on.
(Strip 5)
Doctor: Grimmy, this is going to knock you out so we can do the procedure.
Doctor: Things might seem a little odd for a second, but trust me....
Doctor: {Turns into Garfield} ...everything's just fine.
Grimm: Nurse!
(Strip 6)
{Atilla takes a Cat in the Hat mask out of a box}
Atilla: Mom got me a "Cat in the Hat" mask for 15 dollars.
Grimm: {Holds a box} Some guy sold me a "Garfield" mask for just 10 cents.
Grimm: {Wears a mask of James A. Garfield in front of a host} Trick or treat.
(Strip 7)
Grimm: {Shakes Ralph by the neck} Ralph, this parallel universe stuff is real. I keep jumping randomly into new and bizarre worlds.
Grimm: If I could just stop and relax on some warm and sandy beach.
Grimm: {In Garfield's litter box} Well, this is awkward.
Garfield: Ahem.
(Strip 8)
{Atilla holds a cup of coffee while wearing Garfield slippers}
Grimm: Will you take those off? You're freaking me out.
(Strip 9)
Atilla: Here's my dream team... Sylvester, Garfield and Heathcliff.
Yellow Cat: No way... Felix can lob one 80 yards.
{Text box at bottom right reads "Fantasy Hairball"}
(Strip 10)
Grimm: What are you watching?
Mother Goose: A history channel show about presidents.
Grimm: When did he grow that ugly beard? Did they serve lasagna at his inauguration? Was Odie his vice president?
Mother Goose: Grimm, president Garfield and the cat are two different people.
(Strip 11)
Ralph: {Looks at a laptop} This says President Chester S. Arthur took over for Garfield after he died. That's just wrong.
Grimm: Why?
Ralph: Why? Why? Chester A. Arthur couldn't hold a candle to Garfield.
Chester A. Arthur: {In a small bed with head exposed} I hate Mondays.
(Strip 12)
Grimm: Hello Mister Billionaire.
Ralph: No, I thought money would make me happy, but it didn't, so I gave it all to Attila.
Grimm: Attila?! Why? What'll HE do with it?
Ralph: He said he needs the money for cosmetic surgery, that will bring him a lifetime of fame and happiness.
{Atilla now looks like Garfield}
Grimm: Attila?
Atilla: {lying on his stomach in a box bed with "Atilla" on it} I hate Mondays.
(Strip 13)
{Atilla still looks like Garfield}
Grimm: Attila, I can't believe you had cosmetic surgery to make yourself look like Garfield. You are a complete idiot.
Atilla: We just picked up 2000 more papers.
{Grimm imitates Odie by sticking his tongue out panting. He suddenly have brown ears.}