Garfield

Garfield is the world's most widely read comic strip, created by Jim Davis featuring the cat Garfield, the less-than-brilliant pet dog Odie, and their socially inept owner Jon Arbuckle. The character is named after Davis's grandfather, James Garfield Davis, who was named after former U.S. president James Garfield.

Themes and Settings

Usually, the standard setting is Garfield standing on a table or floor, always flat. Around 80% of the comic takes place as such. But occasionally, Garfield ventures elsewhere. When Garfield goes somewhere else, he'll usually spend the week in that area (or even two).

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• The TV Chair is one of Garfield's favorite places, where he entertains himself with shows such as Binky the Clown and others. Many of the shows mentioned are absurd and stupid, and give Jim Davis an opportunity to comment on pop-culture.
• Outside, Garfield has confrontations with various characters, such as dogs (more vicious than Odie), birds, worms, and even conscious flowers. "Beware of Dog" signs are abound, and Garfield often tries to torment the chained-up dogs as some kind of revenge. Garfield tries to capture birds in the bird fountain, often unsuccessfully. He finds it a lot easier to capture flowers though, and often eats them.
• Early in the series, Garfield would spend time on the window ledge and always get trapped in the roll-up blinds. This culminated in a two-week storyline in which Garfield, Odie, Jon, two complete strangers, and even a street lamp (Odie had to go) all got trapped in the blinds. This was one of the few storylines in which a Sunday strip was part of the regular story arc. After this, Jon bought Venetian blinds (which Garfield, somehow, still manages to get stuck in).
• The Fence in the Alley is an area where Garfield often tells bad jokes or caterwauls, in an homage to vaudville. Odie joins the act from time to time, once as a ventriloquist's dummy, and once as "Mr Skins," who accompanied Garfield on the drums. Garfield is frequently the target of disgusted fans, who throw shoes, rotten vegetables, and houseplants at him and once burned down his fence with burning arrows (Garfield's temporary replacement, a plastic flamingo, just 'didn't feel the same'). Garfield, however, loves the attention he receives, and once complained that he thought a joke deserved more than a single shoe. He does sometimes get applause from his audience, though one time the audience consisted solely of his mother.
• Up the tree is another area where Garfield often traps himself. Garfield knows not to climb, but ironically can never overcome the urge. A firefighter usually has to save him on the last day of the week. One time, Jon got stuck up the tree trying to rescue him.
• Occasionally, Garfield will be taken to the vet's office, a place he loathes. In this setting, Jon always tries to get a date with Liz, the vet, and usually fails badly, his failures causing Garfield to snicker. At the end of one date, Jon got a kiss, currently his only on-screen kiss in the comic.
• Sometimes Jon takes Garfield to the park. Jon tries to meet girls in the park, but always fails miserably and humorously.
• Vacations are taken by Jon and his pets every so often, usually to exotic places. Early in the series, Garfield had to sneak along in the suitcase, but at some point Jon gave up and took him along as an equal. These are funny because they portray Jon's inability to get along with people normally. They also introduce new scenarios, which are usually rare in this strip.
• The Beach is frequented by Garfield and company, and is another site at which Jon fails at finding girls. Garfield hates the beach simply because it has no TV, and is too hot. This theme will often show up in the summer.
• Irma's diner was visited often early on, but not as much as the series progressed. Irma is a chirpy, but slow-witted and unattractive waitress/manager, and one of Jon's few friends. The food is terrible, and is the center of most of the jokes, along with the poor management.
• The window is a setting showing Garfield looking from inside the house, making comments on events going on outside. Sometimes Jon joins him.
• Jon periodically visits his parents and brother on the farm. This results in comical displays of stupidity by Jon and his family, and their interactions.
• The used car lot is an entertaining scene that parodies the business. Jon always gets conned by the overly clever and sneaky salesman, while Garfield knows it all along. This is paralleled in the used refrigerator store and used christmas tree lot which appear later.
• Other themes include Garfield's week-long interactions with any one minor character, event, or thing, such as Nermal, Arlene, the mailman, the alarm clock, the scale, the TV, Pooky, spiders, mice, coffee, hamburgers (chicken, early on), balls of yarn, rubber chickens, dieting, shedding, pie throwing, fishing, Mondays, Clive (Garfield's invisible friend), lasagna, the "Caped Avenger" (not as often as in earlier strips), sweaters, colds, etc. Some more unique themes are things like "Garfield's Believe It or Don't," "Garfield's Law," "Garfield's History," which show the world, history, and science from Garfield's view. Most of December is spent preparing for Christmas, with a predictable focus on presents. Every week before June 19th, the strip focuses on his birthday, which Garfield dreads. Occasionally the strip celebrates Halloween as well with scary-themed jokes. Jokes are introduced seasonally, with snow-related gags common in January or February and beach or heat themed jokes in the summer.
• One storyline, which lasted a week from October the 23rd, 1989 (possibly to coincide with Halloween, although the 31st actually fell the following week), is unique in that it is not humourous. It depicts Garfield awakening in a future in which the house is abandoned and he no longer exists. This is revealed to have been a dream of some kind, and ends with the narration - another feature unique to this storyline - "An imagination is a powerful tool. It can tint memories of the past, shade perceptions of the present, or paint a future so vivid that it can entice...or terrify, all depending on how we conduct ourselves today."