In the modern age of the internet, the perception of Garfield has always been super weird. Mostly out of freakish, bizarre and unique interpretations of the exploits of Jim Davis. Be is Lasagna Cat or I'm Sorry Jon, it seems that if you want to make something super bizarre, Garfield is the perfect franchise for it. But here's the thing. Garfield has always been weird. The internet community merely adopted the weirdness. Garfield was born in it, molded in it. And I think no part of Garfield lore best exemplified that than Garfield and Friends.
Running from 1988 until 1994, Garfield and Friends was an animated adaptation of not just the titular Garfield, but his friends, as in U.S. Acres, the other Jim Davis cartoon that never really succeeded where Garfield did. Not even an ounce. Honestly, I find people are rough on the U.S. Acres segments as they had their moments and could be just as bizarre as Garfield, even more so at times. You see, instead of just staying to the traditional formula of the Jim Davis comic strips, Garfield and Friends focused much of its comedy on meta humor, fourth wall breaking jokes, self referential gags and even some digs at the general formula of the series itself. Garfield being fat, Jon's life being hell, Odie existing, Nermal being annoying, the standard stuff.
Garfield and Friends was always a wild card. Sometimes you'd have more structured stories closer to the formula of the strips, then you'd have a short with Garfield and Odie joining a knockoff X-Men group and wanting to go stop off at a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon for some pizza. Or then you'd have a short where the entire episode is parodying the David Letterman top ten lists. A definite chaotic feel holding much of the energy from cartoons like Duck Amuck. So, in other words, there's plenty of weird episodes to choose from. But today we're talking about "The Horror Hostess" the two Garfield shorts from the penultimate episode of the series. Why this one? Let's see just why as we review this thing.
