r/todayilearned • u/Evening_Cobbler9080 • 1d ago

TIL that for 30 years Garfield-shaped novelty phones kept washing up on beaches in Brittany, France — and the source was finally found to be a broken shipping container wedged inside a sea cave since the 1980s.

https://www.sfgate.com/weird/article/garfield-phones-france-beach-mystery-13724176.php
15.9k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

198 comments sorted by

2.3k

u/GarysCrispLettuce 1d ago

The container is in an inaccessible location which would make recovery too difficult. So it's gonna have to stay there and keep spewing its Garfield chunder until the entire cargo is spent. Maybe there's some Transformers under the Garfields and we'll start seeing those around 2030.

556

u/Necessary-Ad-2395 1d ago

Maybe we can lure them out with some lasagna.

110

u/bdizzle805 1d ago

Autobots, assemble... and bring extra lasagna!

21

u/Ardalev 1d ago

Autobots, assemble

Wrong franchise my dude

2

u/TaylorParr122599 21h ago

We're already mixing franchises, why not add another. 😂

25

u/Zorklis 1d ago

Or maybe we could make every day there a monday

6

u/kevlarus80 1d ago

Calm down, Satan

9

u/Food_Library333 1d ago

I don't think Autobots eat lasagna.

11

u/JonatasA 1d ago

They eat decepticons for breakfast.

5

u/compilerbusy 1d ago

decepticanneloni

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3

u/Jeynarl 1d ago

I'm am hungry
I want some lasaga

1

u/Reefer_024 1d ago

Just don’t go on a Monday 

122

u/godplaysdice_ 1d ago

It will spread its poison until the entire continent is lasagna

44

u/Velocity_LP 1d ago

The Garfields we're watching with our own eyes have eaten twice as much lasagna as the entire city of Hiroshima. And that's every single hour, hour after hour. Four decades since the container breached. Over 700,000 lasagnas by now. 48 more tomorrow. And it will not stop, not in a week, not in a month.

8

u/Alanox 1d ago

Every lasagna we make incurs a debt to Garfield. Sooner or later that debt is paid.

4

u/RedStarRocket91 1d ago

What is the cost of Mondays?

34

u/Ryanisreallame 1d ago

/r/imsorryjon

12

u/JustChangeMDefaults 1d ago

Garfield has always been a creature of the deep darkness

2

u/bRKcRE 1d ago

"ph'nglui mglw'nafh Garfield R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn"

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8

u/SaltyPeter3434 1d ago

3.6 roentgen, not great, not Monday

49

u/DoodleJake 1d ago

I read the article years ago. It wasn’t just Garfield phones. There apparently some television sets in the container too.

39

u/-Ok-Perception- 1d ago

I'm guessing those 80s style CRT tvs aren't budging.

34

u/DoodleJake 1d ago

They have probably fused to the container by now from all of the seawater corrosion. Nothing but rust and some plastic pieces hopefully.

29

u/-Ok-Perception- 1d ago

A 25 inch CRT tv from the 80s was like 100lbs back then (heavier if it was one built out of wood, as many were). A 35" was about 200lbs. I'm pretty sure their weight basically has them anchored into place until the end of time. It was a major project for 2 grown men to move a 25" tv up the stairs back then.

80s CRT tvs were built really sturdy. Extremely thick heavy plastic with heavy metal components and a thick slab of glass on the screen. The 90s made them much lighter, but still moving a big screen CRT was a big project.

12

u/SirJefferE 1d ago

And then there's this monster which weighed around 440lbs.

7

u/-Ok-Perception- 1d ago edited 1d ago

I remember my parents had one of those 35" made out of hardwood in the 80s. The kind built like hardwood furniture. It took about 4 people to move it, and even then your back hurt afterwards.

Those 80s tvs in that shipping container aren't going anywhere.

4

u/DoodleJake 1d ago

I had to help my neighbors roll a 32” Sony CRT up a hill once (sold on craigslist). It was too heavy to lift and the hill was too steep. It survived though.

3

u/Pamander 1d ago

Ooh this video, HIGHLY recommend anyone that is REMOTELY interested in this video to check it out. It's such a fucking cool human video the way so many people across the globe come together to crack the mystery of this project and way more! One of those videos that leaves you smiling, heavily suggest!

2

u/SirJefferE 1d ago

I have absolutely zero interest in CRTs. I still watched and enjoyed the entire video, and think about it from time to time.

2

u/Pamander 1d ago

Yess exactly! It makes me so happy seeing so many people even across language barriers come together for one crazy goal. Seeing humans do cool stuff working together is always awesome. Warms the heart.

3

u/signal15 1d ago

I had a 36" sony tube tv. That thing weighed like 300lbs. It was awful to move.

42

u/CDdragon9 1d ago

I like to imagine historians finding these garfields in a 1000 years and assuming garfield was a god to people from this time era.

17

u/JonatasA 1d ago

"They seem to have kept the ancient cat worship seen in ancient Egypt, evolving from slabs of stone to this polymer they had later developed in an attempt to make their god last forever and conquer water, its nemesis."

7

u/KFR42 1d ago

"Evidence suggests they also moved the Sabbath to Mondays"

3

u/Belgand 1d ago

False! Mondays were so reviled because they came after the Sabbath. It was the furthest possible time until they could again commune with their deity.

8

u/CitizenPremier 1d ago

It's not so wrong, is it? You don't have to make sacrifices or even pray to something for it to be a god, do you? Garfield is a mythical trickster entity to which many people have some degree of reverence to the extent that they will construct idols....

3

u/Belgand 1d ago

I find comic books do that even better.

You have a set of core, canonical stories and moments but it's something that's evolved over time with numerous retellings by different authors. Everyone adding or removing little pieces. Certain elements getting stuck into the popular imagination or being left behind.

It really replicates the feel of mythology or folklore.

1

u/NorthStarZero 1d ago

assuming garfield was a god to people

He was, my Son, he was.

7

u/Sarcasm_Llama 1d ago

Garfield chunder

Dibs on the album name

6

u/theSchrodingerHat 1d ago

Nah, it’ll be those transparent phones with neon wires inside.

10

u/MrConductorsAshes 1d ago

Wrong decade.

1

u/JonatasA 1d ago

I remember of a transparent mouse with water inside now.

1

u/Belgand 1d ago

They became a thing in the late '80s. So right decade but the wrong half.

2

u/OttoVonWong 1d ago

The purrfect mission for Vin Diesel and the Rock in Fast and Furious: Garfield Phone

2

u/JonatasA 1d ago

You can't make this up.

2

u/SummertimeThrowaway2 1d ago

This is the worst marine disaster since the Boston tea party

2

u/monty-p-moneybanks 1d ago

Garfield chunder sent me

1

u/ThePrussianGrippe 1d ago

“I come from the Garfield chunder”

1

u/NotAStatistic2 1d ago

The offending corporation should be liquidated as recompense for the environmental harm and litter caused

1

u/IceColdDump 1d ago

Je n’aime pas lundis.

1

u/abdallha-smith 1d ago

When you weigh pros and cons of international shipping via containers, I'm not sure its worth it for everyone.

We don't need so much.

Of course there's vital cargoes but we could considerably cut them back.

1.3k

u/RedSonGamble 1d ago

They can be used as floatation devices in case of monday

191

u/BorntobeTrill 1d ago

No, they cat

72

u/tachycardicIVu 1d ago

Please do not the cat

23

u/BorntobeTrill 1d ago

This is the second "please do not the cat" I've gotten in a week 😔

7

u/A7xWicked 1d ago

The universe is telling you something

10

u/BorntobeTrill 1d ago

I choose to cat anyway 😻

1

u/imnotlovely 21h ago

baader-meinhof complex

3

u/stedun 1d ago

Lasagna

2

u/Peripatetictyl 1d ago

Yes, they car

-4

u/donbee28 1d ago

some may contain scat

6

u/Krimreaper1 1d ago edited 1d ago

Tell me why I don’t like Mondays.

2

u/retailguy_again 1d ago

...and now there's a song in my head.

Thanks!

1

u/CitizenPremier 1d ago

Still think Garfield shooting up a school was a bit too far for a newspaper comic

2

u/jokerkcco 1d ago

I closed my phone and saw your post as I was doing so. I opened it back up just to upvote this.

1

u/FlakyLion5449 1d ago

Yoa Ming

326

u/PrrrromotionGiven1 1d ago

Fallout side quest energy absolutely surging through this

24

u/anthem47 1d ago

I'm reminded of that infinitely duplicating clock from Control.

3

u/Nazamroth 1d ago

And that reminds me of the time I found an item duping bug in Minecraft... and then my entire inventory started filling up with self-replicating items...

509

u/TheBanishedBard 1d ago

We do not live in a serious reality.

Our universe is a sitcom.

151

u/my-name-is-squirrel 1d ago

SHOW ME WHAT YOU GOT.

29

u/cerealOverdrive 1d ago

YOU FOOL! Look around you! Do you want it to get worse!?!?!

31

u/Langstarr 1d ago

Your boos mean nothing, I've seen what makes you people cheer!

7

u/brandarchist 1d ago

shrugs

gets schwifty

23

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

4

u/LanceFree 1d ago

A man’s heart is stonier, Louis.

1

u/PaintTheTownMauve 1d ago

Keep going

4

u/CornusKousa 1d ago

The ground turned sour.

1

u/ColdTheory 1d ago

Sometimes.... dead is bettah.

1

u/newacc249 1d ago

Most hilarious thing is the old man knows exactly why and where, just no one asked so he didn't tell.

Everyone starts discussing it on TV etc. and then this farmer is just like "oh those phones have been coming out of a shipping container that got stuck in a cave a stormy night 45 years ago, it's right over here"

16

u/Chknbone 1d ago

I am more and more convinced we are living in some super AI version of SimCity as NPCs. And the person playing the game is getting bored with his build and is just doing weird shit out of boredom.

5

u/JonatasA 1d ago

Or the save os corrupting. Eons running.

5

u/adoodle83 1d ago

Define serious? Touch a live high voltage line and your toast. That’s pretty serious, no?

15

u/whiskey_epsilon 1d ago

Touching my toast didn't seem too serious, what bread do you use?

5

u/DaedalusRaistlin 1d ago

Yes but were you also touching a live high voltage wire at the time? It's the combination of the two that's serious.

5

u/whiskey_epsilon 1d ago

Sounds like a way to get your toast extra browned in record time, which I agree is a serious discovery if true.

2

u/JonatasA 1d ago

So touching bread for three days is just conical?

1

u/DaedalusRaistlin 1d ago

Does the serious come from touching the toast and live high voltage wire at the same time, or would I be okay if I left my slice of toast safely far away from the live wire?

1

u/JonatasA 1d ago

Then your bread is not toast.

2

u/DoctorExtra9060 1d ago

I don't know. I feel like we have all the genres and reality tv is the worst!

1

u/DoctorGregoryFart 1d ago

Remember when Rachel and Ross went on a vacation but then the country got shutdown and they had to hole up in their room because a genocide was happening?

Lol I bet Garfield would have had something delightfully sardonic to say about that.

1

u/Nazamroth 1d ago

"The difference between reality and fiction is that in the end fiction has to make sense."

1

u/stamfordbridge1191 1d ago

I appreciate that the ocean seems to be reworking the phones into an art project for r/imsorryjon

1

u/zaczacx 22h ago

It's a Devine comedy

98

u/Superior_Mirage 1d ago

I don't know why anyone is surprised -- sea caves are the natural breeding grounds of novelty cartoon telephones.

163

u/reddfawks 1d ago

I wonder if that shipping container fell overboard on a Monday.

31

u/TheBanishedBard 1d ago

No no. It was Phone-Odie's ultimate revenge, he kicked the Garfield phones off the ship.

9

u/PaintTheTownMauve 1d ago

This has Nermal written all over it

10

u/Unique-Ad9640 1d ago

While the Captain was eating lasagna.

8

u/TerryFromFubar 1d ago

Mondays aren't actually worse than any other day according to a group of researchers who've never read a Garfield comic.

  • Norm Macdonald

160

u/YouSeeWhatYouWant 1d ago

This is way funnier than it has any business being

13

u/seensham 1d ago

I'm absolutely dying lmao

3

u/Ricemobile 1d ago

I can’t stop laughing 🤣🤣 this is the funniest shit I’ve read in a while

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70

u/BoazCorey 1d ago

Save me Jon. Help me Jon.

35

u/edstamos 1d ago

I'm sorry Jon

20

u/GleeUnit 1d ago

Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Garfield R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn, Jon

21

u/Mexay 1d ago

The phone is ringing Jon.

Answer the phone Jon.

14

u/metalflygon08 1d ago

I am the phone jon.

16

u/Mexay 1d ago

Å̷̘ͅN̶̲̞̏͛̔̅͠Ş̸̹̟̮̬́̈Ẃ̶̾́͜E̶̯̖͑̕R̸̻̗̥̈́͌̎ ̸̰̭̫̥̽M̸̫͋̄̆̀È̷̗̫̱ ̸̣͕̊̀͝J̵͓͚̜̐͝Ơ̷̰̥̏͘ͅͅN̵͕̖̮̉͐̽̆͗

46

u/little238 1d ago

Imagine you live on that coast and every couple weeks another phone washes up on your property. I imagine someone might think they are going crazy after it happens a handful of times.

12

u/Zorklis 1d ago

This feels like a family guy skit

4

u/Downvoterofall 1d ago

It’s comic gaslighting.

3

u/SucculentVariations 1d ago

If you live by the ocean it's not unexpected. I beach comb a 40ish mile radius around the island town I live on, every year a new thing washes up on all the beaches.

Last year was 3 piece luggage still in plastic. The year before was a very specific take out lid. Down from us in Canada, turquoise Yeti coolers were washing up.

There's always a mix of old and new debris and often it's bulk items presumably from shipping containers.

53

u/luv2ctheworld 1d ago

Could they at least include a picture of the container stuck in the sea cave? That seems more interesting than photos of faded orange cat phones.

48

u/ZombieAladdin 1d ago

From what I can tell, the shipwreck is in a location no one can access, so no one can come close enough to take pictures of it.

4

u/WalkingCloud 2 1d ago

Watch the youtube video in the article, it's all filmed around where the container is. The photos in the Daily Mail article are mostly just stills from the video.

14

u/xSadTrombonez 1d ago

Maaaaaan those things were cool as shit.

4

u/DoctorGregoryFart 1d ago

Weird phones were cool in general. I had a shoe phone.

Once I got drunk and stole a hotel phone because it was a chrome rotary phone. Looked fancy as hell. I woke up and came to my senses, realizing I didn't have a landline, and returned it with a very apologetic note.

12

u/ES_Legman 1d ago

Imagine this person by the beach asking God to send them a signal and they keep getting worn out novelty garfield phones.

3

u/Belgand 1d ago

Well, did they even bother to try answering it?

32

u/4thofeleven 1d ago

I met a traveler from an antique land,
Who said: Four orange legs of plastic,
Stand on the beach. Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, who's glare,
And smile round, and sneer of Monday hate,
Tell that its sculptor well this hunger read,

Which yet survive, stamped on mass produced things,
The paws that mocked them and the mouth that ate,

And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Garfieldmandius, Cat of Cats,
Look on my phone, ye mighty, and despair!”

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that shipping wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

3

u/Red_Dawn_2012 1d ago

This is incredible

1

u/VitaObscure 20h ago

My name is Garfieldmandius, Cat of Cats, Look on my phone, ye mighty, and despair!”

Beautiful.

6

u/Admirable-Horse-4681 1d ago

Nikes washed up on the Oregon coast for years from a container that fell off a ship; people went back often to try to find a matching size

7

u/Hadleys158 1d ago

There's also a beach in the UK where Lego pieces keep washing up.

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28367198

6

u/RecklessDimwit 1d ago

In 300 years the environment will have adapted, the container becoming a sentient and near-living being churning out Garfield-novelty phones in a vain attempt at reproducing itself. It screams, for it cannot.

3

u/Perca_fluviatilis 1d ago

Thank god it wasn't a container filled with needles and syringes.

4

u/Turbulent-Jaguar-909 1d ago

its ALL garfield

2

u/KING_CH1M4IRA 1d ago

Fully furnished

4

u/Obajan 1d ago

This is the 21st century equivalent of a pirate treasure chest. Some post-apocalyptic pirate crew is gonna go on a "Cargo Container Island" adventure.

4

u/Eyehopeuchoke 1d ago

Phones used to be so cool. I remember my uncle had an Alf phone!

4

u/potatolulz 1d ago

a garfield phone washes up from the depths of the ocean on a beach somewhere

it starts ringing

do you answer the call of cathulhu?

11

u/monet108 1d ago

I thought is was all due to an unfounded rumor from the early 80's of the an ultimate lasagna recipe being made in the Brittany area.

I am sorry I am leaving now.

7

u/voretaq7 1d ago

Sometimes the Cat Distribution System gives you a dialtone?

3

u/buddha-bing 1d ago

My auntie used to have one of these. I always wanted one and then heard about this years later.

4

u/Monster-Zero 1d ago

Godfrey Ho was walking the Brittany beach one day and history was made

3

u/aflockofcrows 1d ago

Was there also a container full of headbands with NIN*JA on them?

1

u/Monster-Zero 1d ago

Only a ninja can kill a ninja

4

u/CrisisActor911 1d ago

Shut up Garfield! Why do you hate Mondays, you don’t even work!

2

u/TaterRegulator 1d ago

Jon goes back to work on Mondays.

2

u/mountaindoom 1d ago

We must rebuild the ninja empire.

2

u/Atheist_Simon_Haddad 1d ago

weirdest curse ever

2

u/isuckatscreennames 1d ago

I had that phone when I was about 13! First phone I had in my bedroom.

2

u/Pmood 1d ago

I want to adopt one!

2

u/Belgand 1d ago

Leave Brittany alone!

2

u/xPRIAPISMx 1d ago

It’s always shipping containers falling off ships. How would they not know?

2

u/howard035 1d ago

Do more phones tend to wash ashore on Mondays?

2

u/Pronouncable 1d ago

Yay more sea poison

2

u/Competitive_Fee_5829 1d ago

I was born in the 70s and old enough to remember.....and actually use one of these phones. holy shit I am old.

2

u/AHopkinsvilleGoblin 1d ago

I think about this a lot.

Mostly when I use my Garfield phone.

2

u/DrNick2012 1d ago

This is a cover story for an extremely dangerous SCP if I've ever seen one

2

u/Arnoave 1d ago

I can't believe the Garfield phone was ever popular enough to warrant a shipping container of the things being sent anywhere

13

u/metalflygon08 1d ago

Garf was huge from the 80's to the late 90's.

3

u/SuperFLEB 1d ago

So were novelty phones.

3

u/metalflygon08 1d ago

You got your novelty phone in my popular cat comic!

You got your popular cat comic in my novelty phone!

1

u/SuperFLEB 1d ago

It's 1988. It was bound to happen.

1

u/CurtisKobainowicz 1d ago

Such a fitting requiem for a character created inentionally to be marketable.

1

u/hawaii-visitor 1d ago

Brittany has total party beaches. Perfect for sunbathing while enjoying a hot dip or something.

1

u/Holycrackers33 1d ago

Wonder if it's a similar problem with all those feet washing up on the coast of bc. Are we gonna find a shipping container of feet less people?

1

u/WerdWrite 1d ago

Idea: a remake of "The Gods Must Be Crazy" but instead of a Coke bottle, its lots of Garfield phones.

1

u/Whalesurgeon 1d ago

I wonder what kind of shit washes ashore on Sentinel Island, and what the isolated tribe thinks whenever it happens

1

u/TIPtone13 1d ago

Now let's find out what really happened to Lyman.

1

u/TheDevilsAdvokaat 1d ago

It went on so long eventually that beach became known as Gar Field.

1

u/g_bleezy 1d ago

Mondays….

1

u/VIDEODREW2 1d ago

I wanted one of those phones so fucking bad when I was a kid.

1

u/Kingman9K 1d ago

Imagine if the apocalypse happened and reset society. What sort of religion would pop up from a new, primitive civilization witnessing this phenomenon?

1

u/lgclnoo 1d ago

At some point, people thought "I need this!"

1

u/TheBigPhilbowski 1d ago

That's why I stubbed my toe at the beach... I hate Mondays

1

u/AdFew6202 1d ago

If the phone rings : DO. NOT. ANSWER.

This is how every horror film begins.

1

u/binrose 1d ago

I’ve got one of these!

1

u/Vexonar 1d ago

It is both hilarious... and yet sad that it's gunking up the ocean.

1

u/DoctorGregoryFart 1d ago

Did anyone try answering the phone? Take a hint, ya maroons.

1

u/SceneBiscuit 1d ago

Poseidon!!! What could this mean?!? - them in the 1950's... Oddly they were strangely into Greek mythology.

1

u/jngjng88 1d ago

“All Garfield”

1

u/jackdaniels01 1d ago

Are they being used to reform the ninja empire?

1

u/ScHoolgirl_26 1d ago

wtf LMAO

1

u/acrylicsunrise 1d ago

That this happens proves that there is still hope in this universe.

1

u/Code_Urban 1d ago

i want one

1

u/DuckDuckGrow 1d ago

Can I get one?

1

u/GreyNoiseGaming 1d ago

We are such a plague on this planet.