3972: Garfield Plus Social Distancing
| Garfield Plus Social Distancing |
 Made by: Andrew Askew |
Explanation[edit | edit source]
This strip addresses social distancing, a measure intended to limit the spread of the then-recently declared COVID-19 pandemic; this strip encourages the practice by visibly deleting all instances of Jon and Liz but retaining their speech bubbles, implying that Jon and Liz are far enough apart to curb a potential spread of COVID-19 between the two. It is unknown whether Garfield himself is far enough away from either Jon or Liz for social distancing to be effective in this particular instance; this can be an important detail, as there have been a number of nonhuman instances of COVID-19 contraction.
As this strip addressed a key safety measure of the then-ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this strip was fast-tracked through the queue; the original Garfield strip was published only five days earlier.
The author writes:[edit | edit source]
This comic seems right for the time, as we should be keeping social distance, and Garfield's response can go either way: either the original punchline or the fact that Jon should keep his distance due to current circumstances. Anyway, I hope all of you are staying healthy and keeping safe out there.
Original strip: 2020-03-29.
Transcript[edit | edit source]
Liz {offpanel right}: Hmmmm...
Jon {offpanel left}: What are you doing, Liz?
Liz {offpanel right}: Reviewing my appointments for tomorrow
Liz {offpanel right}: Let's see... I have a delousing... A cataract surgery...
Liz {offpanel right}: A root canal... A hip replacement... An ear cropping... An abscess lancing...
Liz {offpanel right}: And then a date with you!
{beat panel}
Garfield {facing offpanel left}: I'd reschedule
