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Every panel is funny today. Every beat is a perfect measure, musical in precision.

"Uh, Liz?" is such a shitty opening for a come-on; it's unusual because it's real and recognizable, unlike Jon's usual gooniness which is an over-the-top placeholder for our own awkwardness.

"Yes?": Really, it's Liz's expression. "Uh, Liz?" is only two words, but they're so exact they can only mean one thing: you're gonna get totally, earnestly hit-upon. For whatever motivations of her own, Liz is happy about this, and that promise is what will fuel this joke. Because sometimes all you have to say is "Uh, Liz?", witness the scrunched expression of panic and cornered dismay. And that expression, my dear ones, is not funny in the least.

Jon, Panel 2: Jon and Garfield's poses are unwavering today, but the shades of meaning are like a rainbow. Well, a three-color rainbow. Here the eager confidence chills in Jon's chest, and though they're the same circles and dots, I swear I can see them glaze over with sick green fear.

Liz, Panel 2: And yes, Liz's face registers the shift between thinking Jon is sweet and deeply weird, but the sudden retraction of her hand from Garfield's back seals the deal: she wants so little to do with Jon that even touching his cat feels wrong.

Liz, Panel 3: There's not much space in Garfield for timing, but the disappearance of Liz is sudden enough for a laugh, and evocative. Did she run? No, she backed away slowly.

"I choked, didn't I?": Could be Jon blacked out in panel two. Could be he is in denial. Could be he wants confirmation because he really has no idea if Liz's terrified escape is success or not. Could be Jon doesn't even know what reaction he wanted. I'm happy with any of the above, because the laugh-aloud is Jon's frozen grimace and wide-eyed terror at what he's done. Hooray!

Garfield's punchline: Yeah, I laughed again.

Don't worry, not every Garfield ends in cold-blooded murder. Some end with a live animal inside a character.

The last two days have featured Garfield interacting with another talking animal. On first glance, today's strip makes more sense than yesterday's joke which relied on a dog being illiterate, but a cat being able to read. Here, Garfield gives the set-up ("There's a great big world out there")... but since it's not his own punchline ("Your stomach IS fat!"), I can't figure out what he was trying to tell the fish in the first place.

Nor do I know why if Jon continues to insist on buying fish, he not only refuses to put them in aquariums of the proper size, with rocks in the bottom, but puts them on the same table where Garfield's meals are eaten.

here's a little advice about Garfield:

Ignore everything Garfield says. Read the comic as if the only one saying anything is Jon. Then it becomes a bizarre portrait of a lonely man who talks to his cat, and is twice as funny/sad

That actually does make it funnier

I'm gonna do this in the Globe every day this week and report back.

Geg, these were truely a fine moment for you. Bring 'em back.

This has got to be the third or fourth time RM has talked about garfield this year guys. It was Reid who suggested reading just what Jon says, right?

best beard the white house has ever seen.