For decades now, French beaches have weathered a strange kind of plague. Since the 1980s, shards of orange plastic phones have been washing ashore—relics of an old novelty phone forged in the shape of Garfield, the most beloved cat in the U.S. Just five years ago, the lost shipping container that had set these creatures loose was found in a cave. Unfortunately, it was already empty—meaning, as far as this ongoing environmental issue was concerned, the cat was already out of the bag.
As absurd as the image of French beachgoers stumbling on an endless tide of Garfield phones might be, it also feels deeply symbolic. Love him or hate him, Garfield is inescapable. As far as comics go, he’s America’s biggest export: Guinness World Records has Garfield on record as the most-syndicated comic across the globe. Put his face on anything, and it’ll fly off the shelves. Just ask his creator, Jim Davis, who actually stopped selling those suction-cup Garfield plushies for five years following their initial debut because after just two years, they’d sold so well (to the tune of 225 million plush cats) that he feared overexposure. America’s national bird might be a bald eagle, but if we could elect a mascot, this fat cat would win by default.
As longtime fans know, this week’s new Garfield movie is just the tip of the furry iceberg when it comes to this cat’s cultural empire. There’s the original syndicated comic, the book compilations, 12 (twelve!!!) TV specials that helped save primetime cartoons, the unforgettable TV series Garfield and Friends (which taught a certain subset of millennials, including yours truly, about the joys of sarcasm), Garfield’s Pet Force (both the 2009 movie and the early-reader Scholastic novel series), and, of course, the live-action 2000s movies starring Bill Murray. No matter what your preferred medium might be, this orange tabby has probably already infiltrated it.
