The image: The Veterans Day edition of "Garfield," Jim Davis' reliably pedestrian comic strip, sparked a rare bit of controversy. In the sequence, Garfield is set to crush a spider, who proclaims that if the lasagna-obsessed cat follows through, "They will hold an annual day of remembrance in my honor, you fat slob!" The next panel shows a spider teacher asking a group of arachnid students "Does anyone here know why we celebrate 'National Stupid Day?'" Many readers saw the strip as insensitive at best, cruel at worst, in the context of the holiday.
The reaction: "Twitter and Facebook are full of comments calling it 'controversial,'" says M. Alex Johnson at MSNBC. But everyone seems to be "speculating that other people will be offended." I "sincerely apologize" for the cartoon, says Garfield auteur Jim Davis in a statement on Go Comics. "It was written almost a year ago and I had no idea when writing it that it would appear today" It had "absolutely, positively has nothing to do with this important day of remembrance." See Thursday's Garfield strip:
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
'Voters know Biden and Trump all too well'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Is the Gaza war tearing US university campuses apart?Today's Big Question Protests at Columbia University, other institutions, pit free speech against student safety
-
DOJ settles with Nassar victims for $138MSpeed Read The settlement includes 139 sexual abuse victims of the former USA Gymnastics doctor
