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| “ | GARFIELD!!! | „ |
| ~ Jon's catchphrase in The Garfield Show. |
| “ | Bwahahahaha! Did you really think you could defeat me, wretched fool?! | „ |
| ~ Jon while playing a game – his most famous quote. |
| “ | Now, where could my pipe be? | „ |
| ~ Jon's other most famous quote. |
Jonathan Q. "Jon" Arbuckle, or more commonly known as Mr. Arbuckle, is the deuteragonist of the Garfield franchise. He is Garfield and Odie's owner and best friend, and Liz Wilson's boyfriend.
Portrayals[]
- In Here Comes Garfield, he was voiced by Sandy Kenyon.
- In Garfield and Friends, he was voiced by Thom Huge.
- In the two live-action films, he was portrayed by Breckin Meyer.
- Since Garfield Gets Real, he is currently voiced by Wally Wingert.
- In the 2024 animated film, he is voiced by Nicholas Hoult, who also portrayed young Beast in the X-Men franchise, Jack in Jack and the Giant Slayer, Nux in Mad Max: Fury Road, and R.M. Renfield in Renfield.
Personality[]
A nerdy and clumsy man, Jon is the owner of Garfield and Odie. He has been portrayed as being extremely pathetic in the world of dating and coolness, constantly striking out when trying to get dates with women. This has been partly due to his ridiculous pick-up lines (said to a woman in the grocery store: "You must be today's special, 'cause you're making me hungry!" This explained the genosha salami in his ear.) and loud flashy outfits. Jon is the primary fodder and conversation partner to Garfield and is often the victim of his jokes. In Garfield and Friends, he was frequently portrayed as being incredibly gullible when faced with unscrupulous salesmen and extraordinarily dumb in general. Jon Arbuckle is a guy. He is similar to Garfield, they are both hungry and loyal. Sometimes he is lazy and self-centered just like Garfield.
Jon teased his brother when he simply called the name his brother hates as "Doc Boy".
He was (possibly still is, due to it never being contradicted) a cartoonist, but this reference has not been seen, since the early days of the comic strip. Whatever his occupation is, Jon still manages to make enough money to keep Garfield in lasagna—no easy feat. Often, Jon, as well as Garfield, gets bored, and comes up with "fun" ways to cure boredom, as he was speaking (such as buying new socks, clipping his toenails, or playing "Guess the Burp" with Garfield). He first appeared on June 19, 1978 in the first ever Garfield comic strip.
In The Garfield Show, Jon can be mean, incompetent, misguided and incredibly dumb, and he always forces Garfield to go on a diet so that Garfield can be healthy and skinny just like all the other cats. Jon cares very much about Garfield, and Jon becomes much less of a total idiot and much more redeemable as of Season 4. He always gives 10 lasagnas to Garfield for sending him to Dr. Whipple and doubting him that he eaten the pie (which is actually eating by a little wolf)
In other media[]
- Jon was voiced by Sandy Kenyon in the first animated television special (Here Comes Garfield), and by Thom Huge in all later specials and in Garfield and Friends. Breckin Meyer portrayed Jon in the live-action films. In Garfield Gets Real, Garfield's Fun Fest and Garfield's Pet Force he was voiced by Wally Wingert. Wally also provides Jon's voice for The Garfield Show.
- In both live-action films, Jon has a powerful right hook which he uses to knock out the main antagonist.
- In an episode of Futurama, the forehead of a giant "Jon" balloon from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade becomes a hot air balloon to raise Fry, Leela, and Bender to the surface world.
- Arbuckle: Garfield through Jon's eyes is a daily webcomic in which fans send a redrawing of a Garfield strip with Garfield's thought bubbles removed.
- Similarly, Garfield Minus Garfield removes all the other characters completely and simply features Jon talking to himself. Fans connected with Jon's "loneliness and desperation" and found his "crazy antics" humorous; Jim Davis himself called Walsh's strips an "inspired thing to do" and said that "some of the strips work better than the originals".
- An Arbuckle Thanksgiving and An Arbuckle Christmas have taken the two holiday video specials and digitally removed Garfield and Odie, leaving Jon as the lead.
- Ironically, Breckin Meyer is allergic to cats, and that was just a rumor. But he would take allergy shots to be around cats.
Quotes[]
| “ | Doc Boy! Doc Boy! Doc Boy! | „ |
| ~ Jon's catchphrase towards his brother. |
| “ | This is for stealing my dog, and my cat! | „ |
| ~ Jon standing up to Happy Chapman. |
| “ | I'm taking my cat home. Thank you very much. | „ |
| ~ Jon taking Garfield home when realizing he was tricked by Dr. Whipple. |
| “ | Garfield. I wanna say again how sorry I am I sent you to that terrible doctor. | „ |
| ~ Jon offering Garfield lasagna when apologizing to him for sending him to Dr. Whipple. |
| “ | Jon: Are you trying to eat the cake I made? (gasp) Bithday Cake Monster: (growl) Jon: Huh? Garfield: Actually, it's the other way around! Jon: It's...it's...it's...it's... |
„ |
| ~ Jon entered the kitchen and realized with horror that he had made his cake for Odie's birthday a monster because of his changing the channel by mistake and that Garfield explained the opposite to his owner in order to make him realize the truth. |
| “ | I don't know how this happened! I did everything the guy on the TV cooking show said! | „ |
| ~ Jon's tragic mistake, exposing to his horror that he created the Birthday Cake Monster instead of following the Eddie Gourmand's cooking show. |
| “ | Somebody has to stop it! | „ |
| ~ Jon ordered Garfield and Odie to defeat the Birthday Cake Monster in order to correct his culinary mistake. |
| “ | Garfield, you did it! | „ |
| ~ Jon thanking Garfield for defeating the Birthday Cake Monster alone without being saved or helping. |
Trivia[]
- Jon had a cousin named Leonard who claimed to be kidnapped by aliens. Jon says "The aliens, of course, denied everything." to which Garfield replies, "Okay, now I'm frightened. Are you frightened?"
- Jon Arbuckle is similar as Garfield. Both are hungry and lazy. Sometimes, he is lazy and self-centered.
- Jon Arbuckle is based on Jim Davis the man who created Garfield.
- Jon also had a dog as a child named "Scraps" who chased a stick into a thresher. Garfield says that he lived up to his name.
- Other known relatives include:
- Great-uncle Norbert, a color-blind electrician (who had trouble with red and black wires and an interesting hairstyle).
- Great-uncle Floyd, who drove a dynamite truck that was apparently blown up.
- Uncle Buford, a lifelong bachelor due to the fact that he had three arms.
- Uncle Enos, the state champion apple corer. Garfield remarks that he has six fingers, probably from an apple core.
- Uncle Ed, a very gluttonous and rude uncle who had a bigger appetite than Garfield and was the main antagonist of the Garfield and Friends episode The Thing That Stayed Forever.
- Aunt Edna, who is the strict wife of Uncle Ed. Edna felt sympathy for Jon being treated miserably by Uncle Ed and took him away at the end of The Thing That Stayed Forever.
- Shannon, Jon's teenage niece who speak's "valley".
- Kenny, another one of Jon´s nieces, who had a facelift.
- Other relatives that little is known about include cousins Oscar, Zoroaster, Phadrig, Isaac, Norman, Henry, Emmanuel, Ambrose, Denny, and great-great-aunts Veronica and Relda, and aunts Sabrina and Daphne.
- Kys Garfield.
- The most common meal that Jon is seen eating is mashed potatoes, peas, and meatloaf. Garfield almost always steals it from him because he seems to enjoy it more or as much as cat food, which is usually the only thing Jon feeds him.
- He was played by Philip Mitchell, Thom Huge, and Breckin Meyer (in the live action films). He is currently voiced by Wally Wingert.
- There is an ongoing comic strip beginning in 2008 entitled "Garfield Minus Garfield" in which Jon is the main character featured and most of the other characters have been removed. In the strip Garfield is depicted as Jon's imaginary friend who only he can see. A running gag has Jon appearing to be talking to himself or having sudden mood swings making him appear insane, or sometimes depressed and seemingly suicidal. Jim Davis is a fan of the strip and sometimes contributes to the site.
- In "Here Comes Garfield" Jon was played by the late Sandy Kenyon.
- Jon and Garfield are like Charlie Brown and Snoopy. Jon is not good at anything and zero cordination.
- Jon's screaming and yelling for Garfield is much similar to Dave Seville's screaming and yelling for Alvin Seville.
- Tank (known as Tonguç in the Turkish version), one of the anti-villains of the Turkish adults franchise Bad Cat (known as Kotu Kedi Seraffetin in the Turkish version) was one of the main inspirations for his role as stereotypical owner's pets, but there is a difference between these two characters.
- Jon has a heroic personality, despite being clumsy, cowardly, weak, calm, voluntary and joyful, although he is a polite and careful owner of his two pets (although Garfield is a normal cat) and has a low level of discipline, although Garfield is intended for a children’s audience.
- Tank has a villainous personality, despite being is smart, fearless, strong, mad, arrogant and hot-tempered, although he is an abusive and negligent owner towards his only pet (although Shero is an ill-bred cat) and has a strong level of discipline, although Bad Cat is intended for a adult’s audience.
- However, Tank can be considered as an evil counterpart of Jon Arbuckle.
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 Heroes
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