Garfield was born June 19, 1978, in the kitchen of Mamma Leoni's Italian Restaurant to his mother, and his unnamed father, 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. However, unlike the majority of his family, even his parents, who were rodent preying "mousers", 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. On August 19, 1978, when Jon came to the pet store, he had to choose between Garfield, an iguana, and a pet rock. In the November 14, 1978 comic strip Jon quoted, "I love cats. I wanted a cat... So what do I do? I go to the pet store and ask for a cat. What do they give me?... A lasagna with fur and fangs."
Personality
Garfield is an overweight anthropomorphic orange tabby cat noted for his sheer laziness, sarcasm, arrogance, selfishness, 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, frequently by the electronic scale which he 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, though at times it is not clear whether Odie actually is stupid or not. 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. Despite his sometimes selfishness and sheer laziness, Garfield loves both Odie and Jon nonetheless, as well as his beloved teddy bear Pooky, which is frequently seen in his arms or close to its owner. If he were a human then he would be despicable.
Further Reading
Mischievous Habits
Jon often gets calls from neighbors about his cat destroying their flowerbeds or harrassing them.
His hatred towards spiders almost always results with them being whacked with a rolled newspaper or stomped by his foot. He occasionally does the same to other insects such as flies (in some strips, he is shown to hate flies more than spiders).
He likes to eat ferns and other types of flowers. Liz once said that the reason Garfield eats Jon's houseplants is because he is so out of shape that plants are one of the few things that can't outrun him, Garfield resents this weirdly. Some strips feature common flowers talking to each other, only to be eaten by Garfield in the end.
Besides kicking Odie off the table, when outside, Garfield enjoys teasing other dogs; they are usually chained up or smaller in size than Garfield. However, he occasionally faces the misfortune of the chain/rope not being securely tied (resulting in Garfield being chased and/or injured by the dog), or the dogs are not as small/weak as they seem. He also likes to torment Herman Post, the mailman, but Herman occasionally gets the last laugh. Next to Odie, Jon is his favorite person to prank. When Jon is asleep, Garfield often goes to extreme measures to wake him up -- whether it be hopping on his stomach, waking him with a goblin's mask on his face, throwing his bed out of the window with him in it, frightening Jon, knocking him off the bed after play
ing the radio and talking like a drill sergeant with Odie playing the cymbals, or even attempting to throttle him (as he does in some early strips), Garfield always seems to have the upper hand on Jon's sleeping habits.
Garfield's other favorite pranking victim is Mrs. Feeny. He loves to prank her, and abuse her little dog. This makes her hate him.
On January 8, 2009, he was elected into the bad habit hall of fame. Afterwards, he crumpled up the certificate and tossed it behind him.
Who ever [phrase] should be dragged out into the street and shot: said whenever he´s angry at someone.
I'm standing on him: whenever Garfield appears taller than usual
We're bachelors, baby: A phrase Garfield started saying when Jon would be lazy about thinks like cleaning. First used after Liz became Jon's girlfriend.
Feed me: said when he wants to be fed. (This is actually the second thing he said on his very first comic strip.)
Rat Fink daisies
This does not bode well
Pizza
Vito
No anchovies!
Lasagna
Eat your heart out, [person]
I'm not overweight. I'm undertall.
Hey, you're not exactly ms. (phrase) yourself lady!: Not said as much as others but it is commonly said When he feels like he's being insulted
I hate ______. : used when something "disobeys" what Garfield wants it to do.
The plot thickens: said when something funny happens with Jon (like accidentally showing a scar to a police officer when he thought he was showing it to a nurse).
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