Garfield is a fictional character and the title protagonist from the comic strip Garfield created by Jim Davis. The comic strip centers around Garfield and portrays him to be a lazy and fat yet cynical orange male, exotic shorthair cat. He loves lasagna and coffee, and hates Mondays and raisins. Garfield relates to many because of his passion for food, his ability to just eat a lot, and his lack of motivation to work out. Sleep is like his favorite hobby and to him, "Diet is 'die' without the 't'".
Fictional biography
Garfield, as portrayed on the back cover of Garfield At Large.
Garfield was born June 19, 1978, in the kitchen of Mamma Leoni's Italian Restaurant weighing 5 lbs and 6 ounces at birth and loved Lasagna the day he was born. Ever since then, it has always been his favorite food.[1] However, the restaurant owner of Mamma Leoni's Italian restaurant had to choose between keeping Garfield or closing down his restaurant due to a lack of pasta; so Garfield was sold to a pet shop. Later in his life, Garfield accidentally runs across his mother again one Christmas Eve, and meets his other grandfather for the first time.[2] On June 18, 1978, when Jon came to the store, he had to choose between Garfield, an iguana, and a pet rock. In his cartoon appearances, Garfield usually causes mischief in every episode. In June 1983, comic strips introduced Amoeba Man, one of Garfield's alter-egos, yet he was only shown in six strips (June 20–25). In February 2010, another alter ego was introduced called Super Garfield, and his sidekick Odieboy (Odie). Amoeba Man, and Super Garfield are only two of his few imaginary alter egos though, his most common one being the Caped Avenger. And for a very short period of time, Garfield would fall prey to various dogs e.g. Bungee Dog, Warm up dog etc. which would squish him in any direction. It is also given that Garfield uses the "sandbox" on occasion, such as in one 1978 strip, he says he hates commercials because they're too short for a trip to the sandbox.[3] It was revealed on October 27, 1979, that he doesn’t like raisins.[4] His birthday is June 19, 1978, the day the first Garfield strip was published.[5][6][7] Interestingly, on Garfield's 25th anniversary in 2003, several strips were featured with him interacting with the version of him from 1978. Garfield frequently gets into many adventures, such as getting stuck in roll-up shades, sparring with mice, and getting locked up in animal shelters. In 2005, Garfield and Jon appeared in several comic strips of Blondie in honor of their 75th anniversary.[8] Garfield got excited because he didn't have to think.[9] There was an earlier Blondie crossover on the Garfield strip published April 1, 1997.[10]
Garfield was one of the cartoon characters featured in Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue, although he was the only character to be used without the permission of his creator.[citation needed]
[edit]Personality
Garfield is an overweight anthropomorphic orange tabby cat noted for his sheer laziness, sarcasm, and intense passion for food, particularly lasagna. Often throughout the course of the strip Garfield's weight has been poked fun at as an object of ridicule, particularly by the electronic scale which he frequently uses to weigh himself. Garfield usually does not handle insults or commands from the scale (or anybody else) very well, and normally will respond to such remarks with violence or a saucy comeback of some sort, in spite of the fact that the character solely communicates through thought bubbles. Garfield lives with his nerdy, socially awkward owner Jon Arbuckle and Jon's dimwitted pet dog Odie, and derives pleasure from satirically mocking the stupid actions performed by the two of them. Garfield intensely abhors Odie (as obviously expected from the common hatred shared by cats and dogs) and derives joy from causing him physical harm or insulting him, seldom showing empathy for the beagle. Albeit Odie shows Garfield no belligerence of any kind and would never deliberately cause him harm, Garfield despises him nonetheless and is apt to make rude comments based on the utter lack of intelligence displayed by Odie. However, Odie isn't the only target of Garfield's taunts; he frequently pokes fun at Jon as well for his nerdy behaviors and unpopularity with women, along with his tacky, ridiculous fashion sense. However, Garfield cares for Odie and Jon nonetheless, but he especially shows affection for his beloved teddy bear Pooky, which is frequently seen in his arms or close to its owner.
[edit]Name
Jim Davis named Garfield after his grandfather, James Garfield Davis, who was named after President James A. Garfield.[11] According to an interview with Jim Davis in the second Garfield compilation book, Garfield Gains Weight, the name "Garfield" makes him think of "...a fat cat...or a St. Bernard...or a neat line of thermal underwear." Due to the enormous popularity of the strip, many families have named their cats "Garfield" after the famous cat[citation needed].