5723: Garfield Odie, Jon Spot

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Garfield Odie, Jon Spot
5723.png
Made by: Polihy


Explanation[edit | edit source]

This strip essentially mixes elements of the original Garfield strip and the original Jon strip that was recycled into it, in a fashion different from that of the earlier 3885: But first we need to talk about parallel universes; notably, the first two panels are unaltered from Garfield, while the third panel appears to be a colorized recreation of Jon. This strip, as a result, has Odie going by both of the names he was given (Jon gave him the name Spot, which was changed to Odie in Garfield).

It is unknown the exact reason why the Spot-to-Odie name change occurred; different reasons are given between different sources, and even between different pages on the same source at times. Even TV Tropes is no help in this regard; their Jon work page implies the name change was to avoid confusion with a character from Boner's Ark, but the Odie tab on their Garfield character page (the "Characters" page link on the Jon page redirects to the corresponding Garfield page) implies the name change was made simply to make the name less generic.

The author writes:[edit | edit source]

Whenever I think about the Jon to Garfield transition, I think about this reused joke. Since Spot (from Jon) has been renamed Odie, Jim Davis decides to be a little clever and makes Neo-Garfield say "They should've named him 'Spot'".

Which Jim Davis had complete control over, so did he regret naming Spot Odie?

We will never know.

[See also #3885. -Ed]

Original Jon strip: 1977-03-05.

Original strip: 1978-08-15.

Transcript[edit | edit source]

Lyman: Odie! Look what you did on the floor!
SFX: Whap! Whap! Whap! {Lyman hits Odie with a rolled-up newspaper}
Lyman: NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!
Odie {simultaneously}: Yip Yip Yip!
{Garfield has visibly changed into a chunkier, more jowly form}
Garfield: So that's why they call him "Spot"

Trivia[edit | edit source]

This strip does not link to a credited Jon strip. Even if it had, the author's notes credited the Jon strip to the wrong date--the strip that was recycled into Garfield 1978-08-15 was actually the 1977-02-03 strip; Jon did not run on 1977-03-05 (and the strip that did run two days prior to that was the strip where Liz joined the staff at Irma's diner). The Jon strip nonetheless can be read here