Being Jim Davis

In the first ever BJD supplemental episode, we take a look back at our first 100 episodes and discuss each of our picks for our Top Ten of the first century of Garfield  comic strips. It makes for what is by far the longest episode of BJD to date, but hey, if you break it down on a strips-covered-per-episode basis, it's by far our most efficient episode. No contest. Official BJD Combined Top...

This one is officially a doozy! If the strip continues in the direction it's headed in, pretty soon Garfield will be overtly declining to disavow the KKK and bragging about sexually assaulting Arlene. It's really pretty much impossible that that will not happen at some point. We discuss authorial intent, the unreliable narrator, Archie Bunker, Luis Buñuel, clothing for dogs, and Odie's potential r...

Jon has a magical shapeshifting blanket and Garfield is improbably unaware of his surroundings. Why this must be the 99th EVER Garfield comic! We argue over just whose bed this is, how many different songs Jon Arbuckle knows (one), and whether Jon's old college buddy Lyman actually committed suicide after yesterday's confusing events or has merely checked himself into rehab. Christopher Winter rep...

So if your problem with yesterday's episode was that we didn't use the word "parsimonious" quite enough, you're in luck! We also reference Occam's razor, Lyman, steak distribution, and Garfield's dog-nature. This one probably would have been over-long, but Jon had a dinner engagement. Today's strip :

In today's episode, we discuss another installment of the popular comic strip Garfield . We speculate about Jon Arbuckle's college years and then for some reason we use the word "parsimonious" a lot. Honestly, that's about it. Today's strip :

Today's strip starts off with Jon Arbuckle and Lyman sitting around drinking coffee. For that reason --  and for no other  -- it's actually pretty great. Today's strip :

Our press and our schools cultivate chauvinism, militarism, dogmatism, conformism and ignorance. The arbitrary power of the government is unlimited, and unexampled in history; freedom of the press, of opinion and of movement are as thoroughly exterminated as though the proclamation of the Rights of Man had never been. We have built up the most gigantic police apparatus, with informers made a natio...

Treatment of Jim Davis in today's episode careens wildly from lavish praise to scornful abuse. So about like normal. Then we talk for a while about whether the tree in this strip is the same tree as a different tree in a different strip. And some other stuff. Whatever. Today's strip :

In today's episode, Chris lies to Jon about Hawaiian lounge singer Don Ho. He lies shamelessly, to no purpose, and in full knowledge that his lie will eventually be caught. Hey, it's 2016 -- that's just how we live now. Today's strip :

"Garfield's a cartoon character. What do you want? He's a cat with stripes. What do you want? What are you gonna do about it?" Truly, wiser words have never been spoken. Also, this one's pretty short, so that's good! Today's strip :

Any readers out there know anything about cars? Would you like to be a guest on this episode? I only ask because we spend several minutes speculating about the make and model of Jon Arbuckle's car, and it would be nice to have somebody on the show who knows what they're talking about in this area. So if you could come on the show before this episode posts, that would be great! Vermillion Alizarin...

Jon and Lyman be talkin' 'bout dogs and cats. True story. But you and I both know the subtext is all about a certain short-fingered vulgarian. We discuss Lyman's piss-poor debating skills, his proclivity for irrational and capricious emotional outbursts, and of course his ongoing failure to RELEASE HIS FUCKING TAX RETURNS. Seriously America, what the fuck did you just do?     Logical fal...

Darn bugs Today's strip

Hey, y'all remember what Jon Arbuckle's profession is? You do? Wow, that's weird. I mean, think of all the potential wisdom your brain has had to forget in order to retain useless bits of trivia like that, amiright? Anyway, this strip is for you, I guess. If you think about it, it's pretty obvious Davis intended for Jon and Garfield to represent America and Donald T****, respectively. Today's stri...

We discuss the scientific reason cats purr (which we both recently learned) for surprising length considering neither of us can remember what it is. I could tell you now but I think it's better if you look it up on your own. We also reference the current political climate in the U.S for what I'm pretty sure is the first time ever on this podcast. Today's strip

The failing New York Times is so dishonest; they haven't mentioned our podcast once even though every American loves it. Sad! Anyway, we talkin' about stuff in this podcast. Mainly Dolly Parton. Today's strip

If you're listening to this podcast and you should happen to be the sort of person who, let's say, is Dilbert creator Scott Adams, I highly recommend skipping ahead to about the 5:30 mark. What's in those first few minutes you ask? Look, it doesn't matter really, nothing too terribly interesting or insightful. Point is, those first five minutes just aren't for you, Scott Adams. They...

We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must - at that moment...

This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted w...

In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true. ... Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every state...

So, y'all following @sarahkendzior  on Twitter? You should do that. Anyway, today's episode features further discussion of Garfield's butthole. People really seem to love it when we talk about Garfield's butthole. Plus, an Alfred Hitchcock reference! That might help you briefly forget that America has descended into a white supremacist fever dream. Today's strip:

Look, I know Michael Moore totally called it this year,  even predicted the critical upper Midwest flip, and most of the rest of us got it wrong, but I still haven't forgiven that slovenly bastard for convincing me to vote for Nader in 2000. I was young and impressionable and he should not have done that! Today's strip:

So have you guys read Masha Gessen's "Autocracy: Rules for Survival" ? Definitely worth checking out. Possibly more important than listening to this podcast. Today's strip:

Hey there. In case you've been wondering why we (Jon and Chris) don't seem at all fazed to have civilization collapsing around us as we happily bullshit about Garfield, it's because Being Jim Davis  has a pretty considerable lag time between recording and publication. Today's episode, for example, was recorded  on Friday, November 4, back before a quarter of the electorate decided that 2...

Today's surprisingly long episode of Being Jim Davis zooms in with laser focus on a number of pressing issues, including the unexpectedly voluminous capacity of Jon's icebox, the old-hollywood inspirations for panel seven's mistaken identity trope, and the cocktail of cynicism and sheer laziness that clearly inspired Jim Davis to run a 'summer heatwave'-themed strip in September. Today's strip