Garfield

Garfield is the titular main and primary protagonist of the long-running franchise of the same name, created by Jim Davis. He is currently voiced by Frank Welker

History
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 when he was born and having a strong liking for lasagna since his birth. Ever since then, it has always been his favorite food. However, the owner of Mamma Leoni's Italian restaurant had to choose between keeping little Garfield or closing down his restaurant due to a lack of pasta, so Garfield was sold to a pet shop. On 19 the very same day he was born, when Jon came to the store, he had to choose between Garfield, an iguana, and a pet rock. In the November 14, 1978 comic strip Jon quotes after Garfield scarfs down his tray of lasagna, "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."

Mischievous Habits
Jon often gets calls from neighbors about his cat destroying their flowerbeds or harassing them. His hatred towards spiders 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. Some strips feature common flowers talking to each other, only to be eaten by Garfield in the end. 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. 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 playing the radio and talking like a drill sargent 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. In the January 8, 2009 comic strip, he was elected into the bad habit hall of fame. Afterwards, he crumpled up the certificate and tossed it behind him.

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, 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, 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. 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. If he were a human then he would be despicable.

Quotes (From Garfield and Friends, Comics and The Garfield Show)

 * "Nice Touch."
 * "I Hate Mondays."
 * "Rats!"
 * "Big Fat Hairy Deal."
 * "Who ever [phrase] should be dragged out into the street and shot."
 * "We're Bachelors, Baby!"
 * "Feed Me."
 * "Rat Fink daisies!"
 * "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!"

Likes

 * Lasagna
 * Pizza
 * Eating
 * Sleeping
 * Kicking Odie
 * Odie
 * Tormenting Jon
 * Scratching curtains and furniture
 * Eating Jon's plants
 * Harassing mailmen
 * Pooky
 * Eating Jon's goldfish and birds
 * Befriending mice
 * Coffee
 * Pretending to chase mice to trick Jon
 * Food
 * Talking
 * Squashing spiders and insects and other arthropods
 * Burping loudly
 * Insulting dogs
 * Tormenting his neighbors, particularly Mrs. Feeney

Dislikes

 * Mondays
 * Raisins
 * Spinach
 * Dogs
 * Spiders
 * Mice as food
 * Liz (until Jon fell in love with her)
 * Rain
 * Birthdays (Actually, he says "It's really the aging that curdles my cheese")
 * Diets
 * Baths (This was only shown happening for the first couple years)
 * Leashes
 * Birthday Nightmares
 * Some vegetables
 * People who know that he hates Mondays
 * Medicine