You see.. I have a theory after seeing a bunch of Garfield-minus-Garfield, i realized what Jon really was, he is the symbol, an avatar, of the madness of our modern life. Driven to the edge by loneness, the pains of social isolation, the sorrow of solitary confinement in your house in suburbia. He is the embodiment of our society's illness, a self-imposed schizophrenia by our society's callousness. But it isn't about his insanity, for himself, no, he is the collective icon of the rotting soul of humanity itself! Driven mad by the social torment and internalized sadness, he is the collative victim. So we laugh at him, but we laugh out of fear of becoming him, and ultimately, we laugh with him, sense we all are in the same boat BEHOLD OUR FATE! WEEP, AND SYMPATHIZE!