Being Jim Davis

Look, this is extra-textual, but I'm fairly certain Garfield is in fact singing the Ariel's aria from Thomas Adès' The Tempest. You wanna argue about it? Hit us up on twitter, motherfucker. @beingjimdavis. I'm dead serious. Bring it on.Today's strip

   Little known fact: Biffbop Smackpoke is Spongebob Squarepants' long-lost brother. Why do they have different last names, you ask? I don't know; why are you listening to a podcast about a 40 year-old comic strip?Today's strip

The distinction between responsible moral agents and beings with diminished or no responsibility is coherent, real, and important. It is coherent, even if in many instances it is hard to apply; it draws an empirically real line, in that we don't all fall on one side; and, most important, the distinction matters: the use we make of it plays a crucial role in the quality and meaning of our lives. [...] We want to hold ourselves and others responsible, but we recognize that our intuitions often support the judgement that a particular individual has "diminished responsibility" because of his or her infirmities, or because of particularly dire circumstances upon upbringing or at the time of action. We also find it plausible to judge that nonhuman animals, infants, and those who are severely handicapped mentally are not responsible at all. But since we are all more or less imperfect, will there be anyone left to be responsible after we have excused all those with good excuses?      - Daniel Dennett,

On today's episode, Christopher Winter has VERY strong feelings regarding phonetics which threaten to derail the podcast.   Today's strip

Not really much going on in this one, but we did mention Orson Welles, so that's a pretty decent excuse for us all to re-watch the opening crane shot from Touch of Evil. Man, what a shot!Today's strip

In the first ever BJD supplemental episode, we take a look back at our first 100 episodes and discuss each of our picks for our Top Ten of the first century of Garfield comic strips. It makes for what is by far the longest episode of BJD to date, but hey, if you break it down on a strips-covered-per-episode basis, it's by far our most efficient episode. No contest.Official BJD Combined Top Ten (Official):10. "Jon's Watch" (Monday, August 21, 1978)9. / 8. "Garfield v. Steve Martin" (Monday, July 24, 1978) / "Garfield vs. Annette Funicello" (Saturday, July 29, 1978)7. "Garfield v. Soup" (Tuesday, August 22, 1978)6. "Garfield v. Brigitte Bardot" (Saturday, July 1, 1978)5. "Mud Fence" (Saturday, July 8, 1978)4. "Garfield Meets Coffee"  (Thursday, June 29, 1978)3. "Return of Smoking Garfield" (Friday, July 28, 1978)2. / 1. "Smoking Garfield" (Thursday, July 27, 1978) / "Garfield vs. G. William Miller" (Tuesday, July 18, 1978)

This one is officially a doozy! If the strip continues in the direction it's headed in, pretty soon Garfield will be overtly declining to disavow the KKK and bragging about sexually assaulting Arlene. It's really pretty much impossible that that will not happen at some point. We discuss authorial intent, the unreliable narrator, Archie Bunker, Luis Buñuel, clothing for dogs, and Odie's potential role as a harbinger of drug overdose.All this plus an EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT about the future of our podcast!Today's strip

Jon has a magical shapeshifting blanket and Garfield is improbably unaware of his surroundings. Why this must be the 99th EVER Garfield comic!We argue over just whose bed this is, how many different songs Jon Arbuckle knows (one), and whether Jon's old college buddy Lyman actually committed suicide after yesterday's confusing events or has merely checked himself into rehab. Christopher Winter repeats an amusing anecdote about his cat and we read our FIRST EVER iTunes review!!!Today's strip

So if your problem with yesterday's episode was that we didn't use the word "parsimonious" quite enough, you're in luck! We also reference Occam's razor, Lyman, steak distribution, and Garfield's dog-nature. This one probably would have been over-long, but Jon had a dinner engagement.Today's strip:

In today's episode, we discuss another installment of the popular comic strip Garfield. We speculate about Jon Arbuckle's college years and then for some reason we use the word "parsimonious" a lot. Honestly, that's about it.Today's strip:

Today's strip starts off with Jon Arbuckle and Lyman sitting around drinking coffee. For that reason -- and for no other -- it's actually pretty great.Today's strip:

Our press and our schools cultivate chauvinism, militarism, dogmatism, conformism and ignorance. The arbitrary power of the government is unlimited, and unexampled in history; freedom of the press, of opinion and of movement are as thoroughly exterminated as though the proclamation of the Rights of Man had never been. We have built up the most gigantic police apparatus, with informers made a national institution, and the most refined scientific system of political and mental torture. We whip the groaning masses of the country towards a theoretical future happiness, which only we can.Arthur Koestler, Darkness at NoonToday's strip:

Treatment of Jim Davis in today's episode careens wildly from lavish praise to scornful abuse. So about like normal. Then we talk for a while about whether the tree in this strip is the same tree as a different tree in a different strip. And some other stuff. Whatever.Today's strip:

In today's episode, Chris lies to Jon about Hawaiian lounge singer Don Ho. He lies shamelessly, to no purpose, and in full knowledge that his lie will eventually be caught. Hey, it's 2016 -- that's just how we live now.Today's strip:

"Garfield's a cartoon character. What do you want? He's a cat with stripes. What do you want? What are you gonna do about it?"Truly, wiser words have never been spoken. Also, this one's pretty short, so that's good!Today's strip:

Any readers out there know anything about cars? Would you like to be a guest on this episode? I only ask because we spend several minutes speculating about the make and model of Jon Arbuckle's car, and it would be nice to have somebody on the show who knows what they're talking about in this area. So if you could come on the show before this episode posts, that would be great!VermillionAlizarin crimson Today's strip

Jon and Lyman be talkin' 'bout dogs and cats. True story. But you and I both know the subtext is all about a certain short-fingered vulgarian. We discuss Lyman's piss-poor debating skills, his proclivity for irrational and capricious emotional outbursts, and of course his ongoing failure to RELEASE HIS FUCKING TAX RETURNS. Seriously America, what the fuck did you just do?    Logical fallacies discussed in this episode:     Begging the Question    Affirming the Consequent"The lights are going out all across Europe..."   Today's strip

Darn bugsToday's strip

Hey, y'all remember what Jon Arbuckle's profession is? You do? Wow, that's weird. I mean, think of all the potential wisdom your brain has had to forget in order to retain useless bits of trivia like that, amiright? Anyway, this strip is for you, I guess.If you think about it, it's pretty obvious Davis intended for Jon and Garfield to represent America and Donald T****, respectively.Today's strip

We discuss the scientific reason cats purr (which we both recently learned) for surprising length considering neither of us can remember what it is. I could tell you now but I think it's better if you look it up on your own. We also reference the current political climate in the U.S for what I'm pretty sure is the first time ever on this podcast.Today's strip