Garfield

"I hate Mondays."

- Garfield's catchphrase

Garfield is a fictional character and the titlular feline protagonist from the comic strip Garfield created by Jim Davis.

Garfield was born June 19, 1978, in the kitchen of Mamma Leoni's Italian Restaurant and loved Lasagna the day he was born. Ever since then, it has always been his favorite food. According to his grandfather, he was born five pounds six ounces. (He was out of town at the time, and when Garfield asks how, his grandfather said he heard the scream), surprisingly enough, he managed to fit in a tiny bed. Later in his life, Garfield accidentally runs across his mother again one Christmas Eve, and meets his other grandfather for the first time. 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. In February 2010, another alter ego was introduced called Super Garfield, and his sidekick Odie boy. 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. It was revealed on October 27, 1979, that he doesn’t like raisins. He is 8 years old (PetMatchers).

His birthday is June 19, 1978, the day the first Garfield strip was published.undefinedInterestingly, 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. Garfield got excited because he didn't have to think.undefinedThere was an earlier Blondie crossover on the Garfield strip published April 1, 1997.

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 Jim Davis.

Personality
Garfield is an anthropomorphic orange tabby cat. He loves eating (especially lasagna and pizza is second place), and sleeping. He is teased about being overweight. He is also selfish. For example in one strip his owner Jon stubs his toe and Garfield comforts him, however he says "It's not like it happened to me." In one Garfield and Friends episode, it is shown that there are three things that Garfield does not eat. A snail, a raisin, and fruitcakes. He is best friends with Odie, but torments him occasionally, along with Jon. Garfield is very protective of Jon and he looks out for him as a friend.He hates Mondays, and is often struck by bad luck in Monday comic strips. He is also jealous of a gray tabby kitten named Nermal, often trying to mail him to Abu Dhabi (however, interestingly enough, every time he always uses insufficient postage). Garfield is a nice guy mostly he gets along with anyone.

He enjoys performing at the wooden fence next to Jon's house in the middle of the night, although he is usually critically panned. He can't stand spiders, though he occasionally talks with to without swatting them. He also will play with a window shade but frequently gets rolled up in it. Another favorite pastime is to hang on the screen door usually getting squished when the door opens. Although he doesn't chase mice (unless bribed to do so), he is often seen trying to eat birds (usually without success). He frequently destroys Jon's curtains, chair, and ferns, as well as the flowerbeds of Jon and their neighbor, Mrs. Feeny.

He detests being taken to the vet. In one strip sequence in 1986, their home address is revealed that Garfield, Jon and Odie live in 711 Maple Street. However, in Garfield in Paradise, Garfield's fantasy dream had a cat named Mike say that he's from "Lost Wages" (Vegas), Nevada (this was a fantasy), and in a Garfield and Friends episode of the second season, Jon is running from a Chicago airport. In the TV special Garfield Gets a Life, Jon's car is revealed to have an Indiana vehicle registration plate at the end of the episode, indicating that they live in Indiana. In Garfield Goes Hollywood, while Jon, Odie and Garfield are on Pet Search, the announcer says that they're from Muncie, Indiana. This is possibly because Jim Davis is from Indiana, and Paws, Inc. is located in Muncie.

Garfield has a very active imagination. In the comic strips he often pretends to be a shark, a vulture or the Caped Avenger (a superhero cat and his most well-known alter ego) but these alter egos usually annoy Jon. In one Garfield and Friends episode he was shown to have a great imagination when he imagined himself, by use of a cardboard box, as being in a plane, racecar and life-raft floating on the open sea, in that order and was shown on many other occasions to have a vivid imagination. In the Garfield and Friends episode "D.J. Jon," Garfield is shown to dislike disk jockeys. In the life-raft, he pictured Odie as a savage killer whale. He was also depicted with an imagination in other episodes, including one episode inspired by monster movies where he eventually chases away Jon's date, and in the special Garfield's Feline Fantasies.

He also once said in the episode The Hound of The Arbuckles that he prefers to use his imagination for dreams rather than reading books. The reason being shown in an episode where he reads Robinson Curosue and gets so into the book that he has a hard time snapping himself out of the fantasy, much like Orson from US Acres. Although this does not happen when he reads to others, like when he read Odie "Goldilocks and the Three Bears".

Garfield "speaks" through thought bubbles, and even though other animals can understand him, Jon generally cannot (although Jon is quite frequently shown having what looks like a conversation with Garfield's thoughts and has often guessed Garfield's thoughts verbatim). At rare moments, Jon's reaction imply he's hearing Garfield's thoughts and understand what he is thinking and what he goes through life and he even declares that in one strip. Sometimes, after Jon states what he believes Garfield to be thinking (that he wants food), Garfield corrects him by stating that, for example, his car's on fire.

However in The TV series Garfield and Friends Jon (and other humans) hear Garfield's thoughts much more frequently, even having conversations with them if Jon seems to be "listening." Certain episodes, such as a lecture about Odie, shows the human audience hearing everything Garfield thinks.

Name
Jim Davis has named Garfield after his grandfather, James Garfield Davis, who was named after president James A. Garfield. 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 himself.

Trivia

 * In an interview, Bill Murray stated that he took the role of Garfield because he originally thought the script was written by Joel Coen of the Coen brothers. It wasn't until the recording process, and watching dailies, that he realized that it was written by Joel Cohen, not the same person that he was thinking of.