The seventh episode of the first season of Garfield and Friends.
Post-Opening Sequence Line: "The Garfield Guarantee; no giant robots or annoying little blue people."
Weighty Problem
Jon buys a talking bathroom scale that evaluates the user's weight for their height and predicts their fortune. After dealing with the scale's snark, Garfield is told that he is 20 lb overweight (or 9 inches undertall) and will be splutted. One Pie in the Face later, Garfield decides to tamper with the scale so that it declares Jon to be 50 lb overweight. A shocked Jon decides to go on a strict diet and exercise regimen, recruiting Garfield to keep him to the former (which he does willingly) and join him in the latter (which he does much less willingly).
But Jon's attempts to exercise - jogging, a weight machine, an aerobics record - all end in Slapstick misfortune for him, so Garfield decides to have pity on him and return the scale to its normal settings... but not before the scale predicts he's about to get more exercise. Sure enough, when Jon steps on the scale, he is told he is the correct weight for his height, and his fortune is that he will punish Garfield for tampering with the scale. The scale proceeds to accurately predict the chaotic chase around the house and into the sunset that ensues, before proclaiming, "And they lived heavily ever after."
The Worm Turns
Orson is reading a book in his waller while wearing an inner tube. He gets out to greet the viewer by letting the air out of the tube, causing him to fly off into the distance. When he lands, he can’t find his air pump, but he ignores that and then goes to find Wade.
While Wade is sleeping under a tree, Roy sneaks up with Orson’s air pump and blows Wade’s inner tube up to an enormous size. When Wade wakes up, he concludes that he has shrunk, and he jumps out of the inner tube and runs off in a frenzy. Orson tells him that he hasn’t shrunk, but he doesn’t listen. After Roy reveals that he was playing a prank, Orson begins to explain Roy’s normal antics but is interrupted when the viewer suggests that Booker is worm hunting. Orson then explains why Booker doesn’t chase worms any more.
Booker is continually chasing worms and singing about how much he hates them and what he’ll do to a worm if he catches one. He then sets a rope trap for the worm, but the worm tricks him into getting caught in the trap himself, and eventually he is hanging in a tree calling for help. After a few hours, the worm comes back and cuts the rope, freeing Booker from the tree. He then grabs the worm and is seemingly about to eat it, but he kisses it instead.
Wade asks Orson if he thinks the friendship between Booker and the worm will last, and Orson assures him that it will. Booker then walks by singing about how much he likes the worm, but he soon starts to hate it again and chases after it.
Good Cat, Bad Cat
As Garfield enjoys his morning coffee, Jon tells him he's expecting an important package and asks Garfield not to engage in his usual torment of the mailman. As Garfield settles down for a nap, his shoulder devil shows up to tempt him into kicking Odie off the table as a prelude to annoying the mailman. Garfield's shoulder angel tries to intervene, only for the shoulder devil to fire him off to Mexico from a cannon, leaving Garfield free to kick Odie off the table in front of a shocked Jon.
Jon reflects on Garfield's tendency toward mischief as he prepares to mow the lawn with his riding mower. Garfield's shoulder devil persuades him to tamper with the engine, but not before firing the shoulder angel off to Italy in a rocket when he returns from Mexico. The mower goes berserk, dragging Jon all over the garden until it crashes; when confronted, Garfield feigns ignorance. Just then, the mailman appears; while he is making a delivery, Garfield hops into his handcart and finds Jon's package, only to drop it on the cart's brake, sending him on a wild ride that inevitably ends in disaster.
After the irate mailman hands both the package and Garfield ("Both third class!") over to Jon, the latter vents his frustration at Garfield's behaviour, but he says he's still his cat and opens the package to reveal a gift for him: a personalised coffee mug. Garfield's delight turns into rage against his shoulder devil when the mug crumbles into pebbles thanks to the damage from being dropped, and he and his shoulder angel chase the shoulder devil into the sunset, leaving Jon more confused than ever - and sparking a visit from his shoulder devil and shoulder angel over whether or not to get rid of Garfield.
Garfield's opening line contains examples of:
- Take That!: Garfield's line in this episode is "The Garfield Guarantee: No giant robots or annoying little blue people."
"Weighty Problem" contains examples of:
- Chased Off into the Sunset: Jon angrily chases after Garfield at the end of the episode, after learning that Garfield tampered with the talking scale into making him think that he needed to lose extra weight.
- Diet Episode: One of many in the series.
- Mythology Gag: The "lettuce leaf" to "Half a lettuce leaf" gag was used previously in A Garfield Thanksgiving, but at that time Jon did it to Garfield. Here, Garfield does it to Jon as an alternate-continuity form of payback.
- The Stool Pigeon: The talking scale rats Garfield out by telling Jon that Garfield tampered with it.Garfield: Ratfink scale!
"The Worm Turns" contains examples of:
- A Day in the Limelight: For Booker.
- Artistic License – Biology: The “wife” worm is seen knitting something, but this is impossible, considering the worms clearly do not have hands.
- Bigger on the Inside: The inside of Sheldon's eggshell is like a whole room to him. In this episode, he has a microwave inside it and enough space to hang pictures on the walls. When he attempts to do the latter, it results in his shell partially cracking due to the nails piercing it, but it didn't come off nor did any part of him become more visible.
- Mythology Gag: Roy inflates Wade’s floaty, just like he did in a 1987 strip.
"Good Cat, Bad Cat" contains examples of:
- Big Ball of Violence: Between Garfield's good side and bad side.
- Bill... Bill... Junk... Bill...: Garfield's evil side influences him to annoy the mailman by jumping into his mail cart. While he's there:Garfield: Bill... bill... bill... you may have already won 17 million dollars... hmm, Mrs. Castanetti's new dentures are in, nothing much... hey, here's that package Jon was waiting for. Wonder what's in it.
- Exact Words: Jon tells Garfield not to bother the mailman today, as he's expecting an important package. Garfield assures him that he won't, since he has bothering the mailman booked for tomorrow. Today, his plan is to bother the garbageman.
- Good Angel, Bad Angel: The episode has Garfield being goaded into misbehaving by a shoulder devil and a shoulder angel telling him that he must obey Jon. At the end of the episode, Jon is shown to have his own angel and devil, with Devil Jon telling Jon to get rid of Garfield and Angel Jon telling Jon that he shouldn't get rid of Garfield.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Due to listening to his shoulder devil and messing with the mailman, Garfield's new personalized coffee mug ends up getting shattered to pebbles. The same goes for the shoulder devil who realizes he's in for it with Garfield and his shoulder angel.
- Take That!: Garfield rhetorically asks his shoulder devil what happens to liars. Devil Garfield answers that liars report the weather on TV.
