10:39 <@cortex> You know, there remains in Garfield continuity an unsettled question of whether or not Jon can in fact understand Garfield's thought balloon statements.
10:40 <@cortex> Jon seems to react to Garfield's statements with (what one might generously call) comic timing -- which suggests a degree of understanding that belies the notion that Garfield is mutely speaking only to himself, or to the audience.
10:40 <@cortex> And yet there are frames wherein we see either or both of the following:
10:41 <@cortex> (a) Garfield makes explicit, non-thought-bubbled noises of onamonapeaic (sp?), non-verbal nature, including both cat sounds (e.g. "meow") and nonsense noises;
10:41 <@cortex> (b) Jon expressly states confusion about what is happening, why Garfield and/or supporting characters and props are present, etc.
10:42 <@cortex> Often, where (b) is evidenced, it is difficult to state *definitively* that Jon cannot in fact understand Garfield -- his expressions of confusion may be a reaction to situation rather than lack-of-dialogue, or he may merely be dim
                or surprised enough not to communicate effectively.
10:43 <@cortex> Still and all, though, it seems there is considerable ambiguity in the strip on this front, rarely addressed and never resolved.
10:44 <@cortex> I therefore propose a theory: a Garfieldian Dimensional Bifurcation.
10:46 <@cortex> The thesis being that what we see when we read Garfield is not a single continuity, but rather two (or more?) parallel strips with essentially the same properties excepting for specific fundamental variations.
10:47 <@cortex> This theory would also help to explain the odd repetitions notable in the strip over time -- these are not jokes recycled per se, but rather are jokes manifesting with some degree of temporal lag in different Garfield Dimension
                (henceforth 'garfieldimensions' or simply 'garfdefs').
10:48 <@cortex>
10:48 <@cortex> I am so high right now.