When given the prompt in my Theory Of Knowledge class to take the prompt used and create something original utilizing it I decided to create a three panel absurdist dark humor Garfield comic focusing on Jon. I deeply enjoy Garfield as a theory, not necessarily just the comics themselves but the vast cultural impact Garfield has has. The community that has build around it, which includes the very much darker sides of its fan creations. Things like Gorefield, or more existential things like focusing on Jon as a miserable character. Throughout it all there is that absurdist humor, this is taking a silly comic about a fat cat that hates mondays and twisting it into something more. That in itself carries an inherent sense of humor. Now of course explaining a joke often takes away from it greatly, it makes it significantly less funny but there is a 400 word minimum which means that I get the chance to indulge and talk more about my lifelong fixation on Garfield the cat. Jon as a figure is a tragic one, he’s often made fun of for his quirks and behaviors, for the longest time he is unable to get along with women and is shown to have very little friends. Garfield constantly harasses him and pushes him around which on one he is of course an over exaggeration of real life cats that seem to have little to no care for their humans but with Garfields obvious heightened level of sentience that makes things almost more sadistic. Garfield is shown to mentally be on about the same level as a human therefore his torment is on a human level. Jon is a punching bag to his whims in a lot of the comics and that theme persists in a lot of fanworks. Jon is shown consistently to be lonely, and his pets not always to be tormentors but the sole loving forces in his life. The beings that give him meaning since he has to take care of them. My comic implies something much more melancholy, the loss of those precious pets. Maybe they ran away, or even something darker, and all that’s left is Jon. This is similar to a concept in the fandom called Garfield without Garfield. A phenomenon where Garfield is taken out of comics along with his speech bubbles, often times it can be humorous but more then that it showcases the absurdity of Jon’s life and presents him as a sad lonely man often talking to himself or lamenting on his life. Without a punchline, he is a sad man and even then is showcased as such a mess that he remains funny.

There is a sense of security That comes with hiding away From the things that creep and crawl lurking in the corners A blanket pulled taut overhead You are cut off from the rest of the world You can’t see it, but it can’t see you you pray it stays that way Your breath is hot and heavy But still you dare not peek Opening the covers even for air Lets it know that you’re still there You wonder if it is still in the doorway Perhaps it’s hanging over you Just waiting for you to peek Before it decides to devour you It is too dark in your bedroom You didn’t have time to make out It’s likely horrid shape before hiding You can’t help but imagine A gaping maw of pointy teeth Spindly fingers as sharp as razor wire Surely hovering right over your head Ready to grab you the second you slip up Night after night the beast torments you For days you were paralyzed with fear Hidden under the thin sheets Until you found yourself getting used to it Your shoulders relaxed a little more nightly Sleep came easy, less racked with terror You got used to the routine nature Of your nightly brush with death Until your visage shattered You pulled them over your head And the monster did not stop It slowly pulled the covers back You are face to face with the dark The creeping void that consumes you And it opens its maw and begins to laugh It delights in your horror Why didn’t your safety measures work? What broke the spell keeping you safe? It looked closer taking in your misery “The blanket never did anything”

The movie that has had the greatest impact on my life is a recent one, the 2022 film Everything Everywhere All at Once. Everything Everywhere All at Once is a movie that combats nihilism, it speaks to the very human worry that nothing in life matters and tells the viewer that IF nothing in life matters then everything matters. The small things like filing taxes with a person who dearly loves you or introducing someone to your family can truly deeply matter. Everything Everywhere All at Once is a long movie, just from the hour count alone someone might expect it to be a drag but instead it’s a fast paced anthology following an Asian American family that transcends generations. As an Asian American it felt empowering to see a version of myself on screen, yet simultaneously it so deeply told a story that anyone can understand. It takes absurdity and utilizes the medium of film to showcase it, rapid colors and costume switches as well as cinematography that highlights certain motifs like circles throughout the entire film. As someone who can struggle with a pessimistic worldview, with everything going on and as someone who faced a school shooting recently it can feel as if there’s a certain futility to my day to day life. Attending school, eating three meals a day, moving on with everything feels almost mundane and yet nerve wracking. The more normality there is the more it can feel like it doesn’t really carry any weight. This film presents the idea that it does matter, Everything Everywhere All at Once is a love letter to life. To hone in more on the specifics of my personal connection, I relate a lot to the family dynamics of the film. The mother daughter relationship between Evelyn and Joy hits really hard as someone with a similar relationship to my own mother. Generational distances as well as cultural upbringing’s varying between being raised in America since birth and moving to America. Joy is an member of the LGBTQ community as I am, she struggles with her identity not because she feels any confusion on her own behalf but because of her mothers lack of understanding. This feels poignant to me as someone who feels my own mother doesn’t wholly understand my own identity and finds myself facing an emotional divide between our understandings. Joy and Evelyn find reconciliation in the film, it is in the midst of fighting and tricky relationships, but through it all their love for each other pushes change. They are what matter to each other, therefore they’re worth adapting for as hard as that is, and i’m not embarrassed to admit that I wept as Joy spoke her mind and Evelyn put in the effort to embrace her daughter for who she was. It’s for all those reasons and a myriad more that I could never put into words, despite being such a recent film, that Everything Everywhere All at Once has been the most movie with the greatest impact on my throughout all that I’ve seen. I would highly recommend it to anyone and everyone, everywhere all at once.