Garfield Cartoons

Garfield cartoons feature a hedonistic, food loving and selfish cat. Garfield is both a comic strip and TV cartoon cat. Garfield lives with a cartoonist (a person) called Jon Arbuckle. Garfield's favorite food is lasagna (yeh, I can chime with that) and he also likes damn strong coffee, so strong that it can sit up and bark, to use his language. He also nibbles Jon Arbuckle's fern as a snack. He's a pretty smart cat because he dislikes cat food. I can chime with that too as my cats tend to be picky about cat food - it has to be premium to really get their attention.


Garfield's extreme love of food in a nightmare.

Garfield's love of food leaves him chubby, weighing in at 15 lbs. This is heavier than the average cat, about one and a half times heavier in fact (see largest domestic cat breed). As a matter of interest his weight at birth was that of a slightly light human baby at 5 pounds 6 ounces (average weight is about 7.5 pounds). That is obviously an extraordinary weight. Garfield seems to be in denial or very self assured when he says that he is not fat just "undertall". Like all cats he suffers from "nap-attacks" (cat naps) as he describes them. Cats sleep 70% of the time in real life. Typical of working humans, he dislikes Mondays.

In the Garfield cartoons his dislike (hatred) of dogs and other animals (or at least his desire to chase and get 'em) is often featured. Here are some examples:

Odie --- Garfield humiliates and plays cruel tricks on a dog, Odie. Odie belonged to Jon's friend Lyman. Lyman brought Odie to Jon's house and Odie stayed. This gave Garfield plenty of opportunities to display his hatred of dogs. While Odie just barks at Garfield, Garfield does nasty things to Odie such as dribbling him (like a ball) and then punting (kicking) him, shoving him off the edge of a table, startling him to make him run into something, riding him like a horse and bombarding him with objects such as light bulbs and flower pots.

Nadine --- Nadine is (was) a chicken who ends up in noodle soup.

Hondo --- A puppet belonging to Jon was destroyed by Garfield after insulting him.

Hebie --- A pet frog was eaten by Garfield.

Slippers --- A pet rabbit got caught in a mouse trap with the help of good old Garfield.

Lyle --- Garfield's pet ant was looking interestingly at Garfield's precious lasagna and that was the end of Lyle. Garfield is frightened of spiders, incidentally.

Nermal --- a gray "midget" cat. Nermal is a very cute kitten, which annoys Garfield no end. As Nermal belongs to Jon's parents he is out of bounds in terms of harassment by Garfield instead tries to get Nermal attacked by some feral cats - pretty nasty behavior.

Squeak --- He is a mouse in the Garfield cartoons and he is treated differently by Garfield. This, though, in true Garfield style is due to self-interest. Garfield wants to make sure there are mice to catch in the house in order that he is seen as useful to his owner, Jon.

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Although a confirmed bachelor Garfield has a girlfriend called Arlene, with whom he acts real cool. The problem with him and Arlene is that she likes conversation and he doesn't, which means he tries to avoid her! Not a great relationship then.

Typical of cats Garfield does have a scratching post (a Gucci one no less) but prefers sometimes to destroy Jon's furniture and curtains. His other possessions are a rubber chicken called Stretch and a teddy bear called Pooky. His pastimes include singing while sitting on the fence, which is unappreciated by others, chasing the postman (mailman in USA), swimming in the bird bath, scuba-diving in the punch at parties, swinging on vines pretending to be Tarzan, chasing ice cream trucks - all pretty naughty stuff.

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Garfield's secret identities are:

Amoeba Man --- this is Garfield under a white sheet. When he is Amoeba Man he absorbs, yes, you guessed it, food.

Caped Avenger --- this is Garfield playing a person who "searches out evil wherever it may lurk". What he means is chasing Odie the dog or the mailman!

Orange Beard --- this is a pirate, a Halloween disguise.

Wonder Cat Cadet --- after the television show Wonder Cat.

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Garfield's friends and relatives are:

--- Mother

--- Aunt Evelyn

--- Aunt Reba

--- Uncle Barney who went to the vet one day and came back as Aunt Bernice. This is why Garfield hates vets. This is despite the fact the Jon Arbuckle's vet, Liz, is a Jon's friend.

--- Guido - one of Garfield's cat friends.

--- Fluffy - another of his cat friends.

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Garfield first appeared on 18th June 1978 and appears in at least 2,000 newspapers worldwide. He was created by Jim Davis who named this cartoon cat after his grandfather's name, James A. Garfield Davis. Davis chose a cat for the Garfield cartoons because he thought that there were enough comic strip dogs around. The Garfield cartoons were seen on television in the show Garfield and Friends (1988). These popular and award winning shows included: Here Comes Garfield, Garfield in the Rough (camping with Jon and Odie), Garfield in Paradise, The Garfield Halloween Adventure, Babes and Bullets (a Garfield cartoon with him as a private eye), Garfield Thanksgiving, Garfield on the Town and Garfield: His Nine Lives (Garfield plays a range of characters).

Here are a couple:


Garfield's Halloween Adventure (Part 1)


Garfield's Halloween Adventure (Part 2)

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In the TV Garfield cartoons, Lorenzo Music provides the voice. Garfield's voice is in fact his thoughts as he does not speak. The Garfield cartoons have featured in books (12 at least). Apparently Jim Davis's wife is allergic to cats and so he didn't keep a cat.

Garfield Cartoons to Cartoon Cats