>>113174449Jim Davis created Garfield to be as universal and non-threatening as possible. In his words:
>It's a conscious effort to include everyone as readers. Garfield is an international character. Therefore, I don't even use seasons. The only holiday I recognize is Christmas. I don't use rhyming gags, plays on words, colloquialisms, in an effort to make Garfield apply to virtually any society where he may appear.>In an effort to keep the gags broad, the humor general and applicable to everyone, I deal mainly with eating and sleeping. That applies to everyone, anywhere.>The Garfield art is very, very simple. Usually there's a tabletop. Nothing distracts the eye. Hopefully they see the characters, the expression. There's as few words as possible.>By virtue of being a cat, Garfield's not black, white, male or female, young, or old or a particular nationality. He's not going to step on anyone's feet if these thoughts are coming from an animal.The result is that the comic strip comes off as bland compared to things like Peanuts and Calvin & Hobbes. As such, in our awful day and age (where being a witty imbecile on the internet is somehow a thing of value), it's ripe material for parody.
IMHO, the best ones around are in Square Root of Minus Garfield:
https://www.mezzacotta.net/garfield/ 
