The thirteenth episode of the fifth season of Garfield and Friends.
Post-opening sequence line: "And don't let your dog watch this show. It's too good for him."
The Cartoon Cat Conspiracy
Garfield, frustrated by the number of cartoons about cats, decides to make his own.
Who Done It?
A trio of dogs named Who, What and Where arrive at the farm, and their names cause confusion for Roy and Wade.
The Picnic Panic
Garfield tries to protect Jon's picnic from a swarm of ants.
"The Cartoon Cat Conspiracy" provides examples of:
- Accordion Man: The cat at the beginning ends up one when he crashes into a wall. Garfield follows suit when put in the same situation at the segment's end.
- Art Shift: The cat and mouse cartoon that Garfield criticizes and later ends up a part of is a take on Hanna-Barbera's art style, complete with their trademark Ring Around the Collar and Wraparound Background techniques.
- Cats Are Mean: Garfield, himself mean personified, points out the flaws consistently in cartoons featuring cats as antagonists. Unfortunately, all of the cartoon studios he tries to talk to about this kick him out when he brings it up.
- Fate Worse than Death: Played with when Garfield begs the network executive not to cancel him, but the executive has other ideas. Garfield at least prefers being the hapless antagonist he criticized than hosting a talk show.
- Oh, Crap!: Garfield, after hearing everyone in the country changing the channel away from his cartoon.
- Overly Long Gag: A Show Within a Show example; Garfield's Sam the Cat cartoon has Sam sleep for 26 minutes. Unsurprisingly, the viewers grow bored of it quickly and change channels.
- Start My Own: Garfield, fed up with his voice not being heard, decides to make his own cartoon.
- Stylistic Suck: Garfield's cartoon Sam the Cat is amateurish at best. Featuring crude artwork, him doing every voice and an extended period of Sam sleeping.
- Wraparound Background: Lampshaded by Garfield when he watches a Hanna-Barbera-style cartoon:"Did you notice how large the living room is? It's about three miles, I figure! And they've run past that same table about 20 times."
- Write Who You Know: In-Universe: Garfield bases the characters in Sam the Cat on himself and his friends; Sam on himself, Sam's Owner on Jon, the Stupid Dog on Odie, and Cute Cat on Nermal.
"Who Done It?" provides examples of:
- Shout-Out: Roy laments the fact that he and Wade are now in a bad Abbott and Costello routine.
- Who's on First?: The trio of dogs' names cause a lot of confusion amongst the farm animals, especially Roy and Wade.
- The reason the dogs are called Who, What and Where is because their father was a reporter who asked a lot of questions, which would also explain why their sister is named "Why".
- Their uncle seems to be called "Forget It".
"The Picnic Panic" provides examples of:
- Alliterative Title: The Picnic Panic.
- Ant Assault: This episode introduces the Singing Ants, who are smart enough to steal and eat the food from Jon's picnic, as well as throw Jon and Garfield into a river.
- The Bad Guy Wins: The ants get away with stealing and eating all of Jon's food. Garfield decides to join them, figuring it's the only way to get food since he can't beat them.
- Bears Are Bad News: While looking for where the ants hid Jon's food, Garfield runs into a cave, then runs out when a bear awakens.
- Cassandra Truth: Given Garfield's reputation as a Big Eater, Jon naturally doesn't believe him when he tells him that the ants stole their food. The ants then proceed to toss Jon in the lake.
- Dark Reprise: The music takes on a more somber tone after Jon gets out of the river and he and Odie decide to go home. However, it becomes more cheerful when Garfield decides to join the ants in stealing food.
- Karma Houdini: The ants recieve no comeuppance for stealing Jon's food or tossing Garfield and Jon into the river. However, Garfield is quick to forgive them and decides to join them just so he can get some food.
- Mobile Shrubbery: Garfield hides in a picnic basket to pretend to be food so the ants will take him to their hideout. However, the ants are wise to his plan and toss him in the river.
- Musical Episode: Nearly all of the dialogue in this episode is sung. The one exception is at the end, when a man who has his food stolen by Garfield and the ants says "That's the second biggest ant I ever saw!"
- Narrative Profanity Filter: When Jon returns to find all of his food missing, Garfield sings "He said a lot of angry things it's best I don't repeat."
- Picnic Episode: In this episode, Garfield, Jon, and Odie go to the mountains for a picnic, only to find their food stolen by the ants. This episode's title card even made the image for the page itself.
- Rhymes on a Dime: All of the dialogue in this short is done in rhyme.
- Scary Stinging Swarm: Garfield gets chased by a swarm of bees when he tries to pursue the ants.Garfield: I thought I saw them hiding right behind a bunch of trees,
But found instead I dove into a hive of honey bees!' - Strong Ants: The ants are capable of lifting heavy objects, be it the food they steal, Garfield in a picnic basket, or even Jon.
