The eleventh episode of the second season of Garfield and Friends.
Post-Opening Sequence Line: "Sell your remote control, I'm the best thing on!"
Maine Course
Jon gets a lobster to cook from the "Lobster on Wings" service, and when he, Garfield, and Odie can't bring themselves to cook him, they end up keeping him as a pet, naming him Therm. When Therm becomes homesick, Jon, Garfield and Odie go to a beach in Maine to set him free.
No Laughing Matter
A fleet of aliens from the planet Clarion come to Earth to drain it of all its humor, viewing it as a powerful weapon. Orson and his friends use jokes from Roy's joke books to try to defeat them.
Attack of the Mutant Guppies
When Nermal gets a pet guppy, Garfield tells him a scary story about radioactive mutant guppies who live in the sewers. Garfield soon finds out that the mutant guppies are real after all, and has to find a way to defeat them.
"Maine Course" provides examples of:
- Adopt the Food: Jon discovers the lobster his relatives sent to his door for him to cook via the "Lobster on Wings" service is still alive. No one in the Arbuckle house has the will to cook him, but the local aquarium won't take him, as they already have too many courtesy of other "Lobster on Wings" customers. Jon names the lobster "Therm" after the dish Lobster Thermidor, keeps him as a pet, and grows fond of him. But eventually it's noticed that Therm isn't feeling good and hasn't eaten since his arrival. Plane tickets are purchased and Jon, Garfield, and Odie release Therm at a beach in Maine, where he happily heads into the ocean.
- Hypocritical Humor: When Garfield, Jon and Odie set Therm free, Garfield remarks "Aw, who needs a lazy, self-centered ungrateful pet like that anyway?" Garfield has all of those personality traits.
- Red Live Lobster: In this episode, Jon gets a lobster to cook, but the lobster turns out to be alive, so they decide to not cook him. The lobster is notably red.
- Shout-Out: Jon tries to disguise Garfield as a human child to get him into an airplane and later a hotel without any extra trouble. The disguise includes Charlie Brown's iconic shirt, causing Garfield to remark, "Good grief!"
- Simple Solution Won't Work: When neither Garfield nor Jon can bring themselves to cook Therm, Jon first tries to send Therm back, but decides against it because someone else would eat him. He then tries to call the aquarium to see if they will take him. Unfortunately, the aquarium already has more than enough lobsters thanks to the other "Lobster on Wings" customers trying to donate them.
- Unsuccessful Pet Adoption: When nobody in the Arbuckle house has the will to cook Therm, they decide to adopt him as a pet. However, Therm becomes sick and hasn't eaten since his arrival, so Jon, Garfield and Odie to go Maine to release Therm into the ocean.
- Walk the Plank: Garfield does this to Therm in an attempt to get him into the stewpot so Jon can cook him. By the time Garfield has Therm cornered, he can't bring himself to finish the job, and neither can Jon.
"No Laughing Matter" provides examples of:
- Banana Peel: The aliens arrive to steal away the Earth's comedy, since it's considered a deadly weapon for their race. Orson and his friends try everything to make them laugh in order to get rid of them, such as jokes, slapstick humor, and even a singing segment about the joys of humor, but nothing works. Finally, with their time almost up, Roy accidentally slips on a banana peel he threw away seconds ago, making the aliens (literally) burst with laughter.
- Take That!: Wade is asked what the world would be like without humor. His response? "A lot like cable television!"
"Attack of the Mutant Guppies" provides examples of:
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: In Garfield's story, children would get rid of their guppies by disposing of them in the sewers, and exposure to toxic waste would cause the guppies to mutate and grow. He and Nermal discover that the Mutant Guppies are real near the end of the episode.
- Call-Back: When Garfield finds the Mutant Guppies are real after all, he decides to check and see if it's all a dream by running back into his house and see if he's asleep in his bed. This is a reference to a previous episode, "The Binky Show" when Garfield learns it was all a dream by running home and seeing himself asleep.
- Crossover Punchline: This episode ends with the Mutant Guppies fleeing into the sewers and being swept to the river when Garfield tries to eat them. In the following U.S. Acres Quickie, the Mutant Guppies pop out of the well where Orson collects water and Wade makes a wish, scaring the pig and the duck out of their wits.
- Growling Gut: When Garfield hears the Mutant Guppies growling, he mistakes it for his stomach growling.
- Real After All: Nermal can't sleep because he keeps thinking about Garfield's story, which Garfield admits that he only made up to scare him. When Nermal demands that Garfield take him to the sewers so they can see for themselves whether or not the Mutant Guppies exist, the two find out that the Mutant Guppies are real after all.
- Shout-Out: In the U.S. Acres Quickie following this episode, after the Mutant Guppies scare Orson and Wade away, one of them suggests to the others, "Let's go see if we can get a guest shot on the Muppet Babies."note
- Wishing Well: The U.S. Acres Quickie following this episode has Orson collecting water from a well. When Wade asks Orson if he could make a wish in the well, Orson tries unsuccessfully to tell him that the well isn't for making wishes, it's for collecting water. Wade eventually manages to convince Orson to let him make a wish, and as he tosses in a coin, he wishes that nothing else would ever scare him. Just then, the Mutant Guppies pop out of the well and scare Orson and Wade.
