One of the best and most beloved hallmarks of the “weird internet” was Lasagna Cat, a YouTube series of shorts by Fatal Farm that almost defies description. The 90-second clips were ostensibly live-action recreations of classic Garfield comics, until they suddenly ... weren’t.
This week, after an almost 10-year hiatus, Lasagna Cat has returned, and it’s quickly reclaimed its throne as one of the strangest, most internet-y online exclusives out there.
The short video above, called “1 (800) 591-3274,” is more like a trailer for Lasagna Cat’s eventual return, borrowing elements from action teasers for something wonderful, hilarious and bizarre. Garfield’s owner, the classic nebbish Jon Arbuckle, is forced to call the toll-free number to help bring the series back officially. (The number actually works, and it’s totally worth dialing.)
Whether that actually plays out as promised remains to be seen. The trailer pledges that Lasagna Cat’s full-fledged return will include music from such celebrated artists as Kenny G and Kraftwerk, as well as the cult classic Nintendo game Mother 3. It will also have plenty more of moody, live-action Garfield and his put-upon owner.
It’s possible that the new season of Lasagna Cat will take on a different format than that of its original incarnation. The original series of 26 episodes all followed the same setup. Actors playing Jon, his dog Odie and the lasagna-loving Garfield (in a frightening, big-headed costume) would stage and recite lines from Jim Davis’ classic newspaper comics, with an absurd laugh track concluding the skit.
That was strange, if simple enough, but the interludes that always followed were what really distinguished Lasagna Cat as an internet oddity. Check out this episode for a great example. Why does Garfield suddenly end up in a pitch-perfect Final Fantasy 6 parody? It’s really not clear, but that’s what makes the video so wonderful.
Other episodes conclude with music videos, disturbed reworkings of the preceding skit or other absurdist pieces of performance art. Lasagna Cat doesn’t have any sense of logic, internal or otherwise. It’s weird for the sake of being weird — and it’s not clear if that will be as striking in 2017 as it was back in 2008. We’re pumped to find out, though, and hopefully sooner than later.
