I am Kyle's self-indulgence

Websnark introduced to me the theory that the comic strip Garfield would be vastly improved simply by removing all of the fat one's own dialogue. It's an interesting thought. In the world of the strip, Jon apparently can't hear his cat's thoughts (an illusion that is broken on occasion). Most of the time Jon is just the pathetic target of Garfield's droll remarks. Remove those comments, though, and the strip takes on a slightly darker tone. Jon's antics seem crazier when observed by a truly mute cat.

While many others have already proven the mute Garfield hypothesis, I couldn't resist trying out a few of my own. For most of them the jokes about Jon's behavior are mostly preserved. They're merely rendered more subtly funny by the removal of Garfield's superfluous comments:

My favorite, though, is the following:

In the original, the joke is entirely in Garfield's lines, and Jon reacts to it. Without Garfield's dialogue in the revised version, though, Jon's reaction IS the joke. His change hints at a more internal realization of how pathetic he is, which is much funnier. If you don't believe me, go read Peanuts.