History Trivia / Garfield

** For that matter, Paws Inc. [[DisownedAdaptation doesn’t mention the film much either]]. The only extensive mention of it was in a book, “Lights, Camera, Hairballs: Garfield at the Movies” which was mainly made as promotion for the sequel. Besides that, they’ve ignored the movies in the years since. What complicates things more is that now Paws Inc. is owned by Viacom, the movie is now in the hands of a different studio entirely, which is now under ownership of Disney.

* FollowTheLeader: Jim Davis developed a book format for the first ''Garfield'' compilation, which featured very wide pages to accommodate the three-panel strip horizontally as it appeared in the paper, as opposed to being vertically stacked like most comic strip trade books of the day. This wide-page format came to be known as the "Garfield format". Many other comic strips soon followed suit with their own books, including ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' and ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot''. {{Iron|y}}ically, since 2001, ''Garfield'' itself no longer uses the Garfield format for its compilations, and the earlier "Garfield format" compilations have been republished in a more standard style.

* {{Padding}}: There are quite a number of Sunday comics with a gag that could easily be done in the usual 3 panels, but are stretched out over 6 - 7 panels with unnecessary scenes. [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2020/08/02 Take this one]] for example.

* TheWikiRule: [[http://garfield.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page The Garfield Wiki]].

** For that matter, Paws Inc. doesn’t mention the film much either. The only extensive mention of it was in a book, “Lights, Camera, Hairballs: Garfield at the Movies” which was mainly made as promotion for the sequel. Besides that, they’ve ignored the movies in the years since. What complicates things more is that now Paws Inc. is owned by Viacom, the movie is now in the hands of a different studio entirely, which is now under ownership of Disney.

** 2018 is Garfield's 40th Birthday. Nothing special about the birthday itself, but a special anniversary book called "Age Happens: Garfield Hits The Big 4-0" was released. The book contains a collection of every birthday comic strip to be released and features fan art from both fans and comic artists alike, along with an intro by BigNameFan Creator/LinManuelMiranda.

* RecycledScript: Some gags have been repeated in the strip's 30+ year history.
** Many of the early ''Garfield'' gags, including the first strip from June 19, 1978, were recycled from ''Jon'', a strip that Davis did in the ''Pendleton Times'' in 1976 which included early versions of Jon and Garfield.
** The [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2009/12/05 December 5, 2009]] strip had a similar punchline to [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2003/12/10 December 10, 2003]].
** For a less recent, but more exact example, [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2001/12/03 December 3, 2001]] was recycled into [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2002/12/07 December 7, 2002]]. That's right, only ''a full year'' later.
** Both the strip for [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1984/04/18 April 18, 1984]] and the strip for [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1995/03/21 March 21, 1995]] have the punch line of Garfield "packing" the refrigerator for vacation.
** [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1985/08/16 August 16, 1985]] (a daily strip) was recycled into [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1998/07/19 July 19, 1998]] (a Sunday strip), with a secondary punchline added. It was also used as a ''ComicStrip/{{US Acres}}'' strip [[http://www.platypuscomix.net/otherpeople2/hamsitup23.JPG here]].
** The [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1983/11/30 November 30, 1983]] strip had a similar punchline to [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1981/12/15 December 15, 1981]].
** Take [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1993/06/23 June 23, 1993]], subtract the neighbor's mail, add Garfield looking into the wallet, and you'll get [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2001/01/01 January 1, 2001]]. Happy New Year.
** Not as big as the above examples, but it seems rather odd that the strips published on [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1991/06/07 June 7]] and [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1991/06/29 June 29]] of 1991 (barely three weeks apart) would both have the same basic gag.
*** The RemixComic makers of ''Webcomic/SquareRootOfMinusGarfield'' [[http://www.mezzacotta.net/garfield/?comic=498 didn't let that one go unnoticed]].
** A cross-media example: ''WesternAnimation/TheGarfieldShow'' episode "Fame Fatale" and ''Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties'' have the same basic plot of Garfield [[PrinceAndPauper switching lives with a British doppelganger]].
** The [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1981/05/19 May 19, 1981]] and [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1996/06/03 June 3, 1996]] strips have got pretty much the same punchline.
** [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1987/07/21 July 21, 1987]] and [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1995/03/11 March 11, 1995]] are almost exactly the same.
** What Garfield [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1979/08/16 does]] to Odie's [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1983/02/21 nose]].
** The [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2008/10/29 October 2008]] was similar to the ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'' episode ''Fair Exchange''.
** [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2005/03/31 March 31st, 2005]] has pretty much the same idea as [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1997/10/10 October 10th, 1997]].
** [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2011/07/25 July 25, 2011]] has the same gag as [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2009/11/09 November 9, 2009]], right down to the dialogue. That one is so blatant that it provides the trope's page image.
** Crossing over with RunningGag, [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1983/06/27 June 27, 1983]], [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1983/07/04 July 4, 1983]], [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1983/07/16 July 16, 1983]], [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1983/07/18 July 18, 1983]], [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1983/07/25 July 25, 1983]] and [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1983/08/01 August 1, 1983]] all contain the exact same premise and first two panels.
** [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1993/05/07 May 7, 1993]] and [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2010/05/11 May 11, 2010]] have the same gag.
** [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1995/11/26 November 26, 1995]] and [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1996/03/10 March 10, 1996]] both end with the same joke.
** The December 1984 arc of Garfield re-meeting his family was recycled from the 1983 special ''Garfield on the Town''.
** [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1978/08/14 August 14, 1978]] was recycled into [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1980/01/23 January 23, 1980.]]
** The Christmas special took a punch line from a 1980 strip ("Why, just look at me. I talk to cats!").
** [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2001/12/07 December 7, 2001]] was recycled into [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2003/12/21 December 21, 2003.]]
** An AnimatedAdaptation example: The ''Garfield and Friends'' episode ''The Legend Of The Lake'' has a throwaway gag where Garfield says "This is a statue honoring Buttons, who set the world record for horse swallowing when he swallowed one horse. Tied for second place is everybody else in the entire world." Decades later, in the ''The Garfield Show'' episode ''Up A Tree'', a KentBrockmanNews reporter makes the exact same joke, but with "hippopotamus biting" instead of "horse swallowing".
** [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2002/06/18 June 18, 2002]] was recycled into [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2003/06/11 June 11, 2003.]]
** [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2011/09/06 September 6, 2011]] was recycled (word-for word) into [[http://www.mezzacotta.net/garfield/comics/1120_1.png April 18, 2012]]. PAWS Inc. soon realized the recycling and issued a [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2012/04/18 replacement]] strip.
** [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2012/07/03 July 3, 2012]] is similar to [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2007/05/15 May 15, 2007]].
** [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1979/06/25 June 25, 1979]] has the same pictures as [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1981/07/21 July 21, 1981]] but different dialogue.
** Take [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2006/08/20 August 20, 2006]], replace the box of packaging pellets with a pile of leaves, and you've got [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2010/11/14 November 14, 2010]].
** [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1996/11/28 November 28, 1996]] was recycled into [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2011/04/20 April 20, 2011.]]
** [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2001/08/07 August 7, 2001]] was recycled into [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2001/09/06 September 6th 2001]] about a month later.
** [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2012/02/07 February 7, 2012]] and [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2013/11/10 November 10, 2013]] have the ''exact'' same punchline, only the latter is stretched out to a Sunday strip length and adds the two of them drinking pop.
** [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1987/09/01 September 1, 1987]] shares the same punchline as [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1998/09/08 September 8, 1998.]]

** After the death of Lorenzo Music, Garfield has been voiced by several other voice actors, most notably Creator/BillMurray in TheMovie. Creator/FrankWelker is his most recent replacement. Music himself was an Other Darrin, having replaced Scott Beach from the ''Fantastic Funnies'' animations.

* ThePeteBest: In the very first animation that aired on ''The Fantastic Funnies'' (1980), adapting five newspaper strips, Garfield was voiced by Scott Beach. Starting with ''Here Comes Garfield'', Lorenzo Music was his voice actor for all the animated adaptations until his death in 2001.

** For that matter, Paws Inc. doesn’t mention the film much either. The only extensive mention of it was in a book, “Lights, Camera, Hairballs: Garfield at the Movies” which was mainly made as promotion for the sequel. Besides that, they’ve basically ignored the movies in the years since. What complicates things more is that now Paws Inc. is owned by Viacom, the movie is now in the hands of a different studio entirely, which is now under ownership of Disney.

** Thomas Lennon turned down the role of Happy Chapman because of scheduling conflicts with ''Series/Reno911''.

** The website www.coffeequick.com was briefly up just to see how many readers would look it up in the strip where Garfield visits a site by that name (the domain has since been bought by a coffee maker company). Back then, the site would take you to a Garfield official game called [[https://garfield.com/games/bean-me Bean Me!]] that involves you giving Garfield a variety of coffees to help wake him up.

** Thomas Lennon turned down the role of Happy Chapman because of scheduling conflicts with ''Reno 911''.

* CriticProof: In spite of very negative reviews from film critics and poor reception from the comic strip's fans who complained that ''Garfield'' wasn't mean for live-action, both films did very well at the box office. The sequel in particular saw massive success in China.

* EditedForSyndication: The October 20, 2002 strip [[http://www.mezzacotta.net/garfield/?comic=2799 originally]] quoted Creator/RobertFrost's "Nothing Gold Can Stay", but replaced it with [[https://garfield.com/comic/2002/10/20 original dialogue]] for the book and online reprints due to the poem still being under copyright at the time (the copyright has since lapsed in the United States and in countries where copyright expires 50 years after the author's death).

** [[https://garfield.com/comic/1988/06/19 June 19, 1988]] is Garfield's 10th birthday. Jon and Garfield proceed to look through a photo album and see images of the last ten years. [[CreatorCameo Jim Davis]] even makes a cameo.

** Most online archives inexplicably omit the first and fifth panels from the February 22, 1981 strip, as [[http://www.mezzacotta.net/garfield/?comic=1097 pointed out]] by ''Webcomic/SquareRootOfMinusGarfield''. Garfield.com has [[http://garfield.com/comic/1981-02-22 fixed the strip]], but [=GoComics=] still has those two panels missing.

** The [[http://garfield.com/comic/2009-12-05 December 5, 2009]] strip had a similar punchline to [[http://garfield.com/comic/2003-12-10 December 10, 2003]].
** For a less recent, but more exact example, [[http://garfield.com/comic/2001-12-03 December 3, 2001]] was recycled into [[http://garfield.com/comic/2002-12-07 December 7, 2002]]. That's right, only ''a full year'' later.
** Both the strip for [[http://garfield.com/comic/1984-04-18 April 18, 1984]] and the strip for [[http://garfield.com/comic/1995-03-21 March 21, 1995]] have the punch line of Garfield "packing" the refrigerator for vacation.
** [[http://garfield.com/comic/1985-08-16 August 16, 1985]] (a daily strip) was recycled into [[http://garfield.com/comic/1998-07-19 July 19, 1998]] (a Sunday strip), with a secondary punchline added. It was also used as a ''ComicStrip/{{US Acres}}'' strip [[http://www.platypuscomix.net/otherpeople2/hamsitup23.JPG here]].
** The [[http://garfield.com/comic/1983-11-30 November 30, 1983]] strip had a similar punchline to [[http://garfield.com/comic/1981-12-15 December 15, 1981]].
** Take [[http://garfield.com/comic/1993-06-23 June 23, 1993]], subtract the neighbor's mail, add Garfield looking into the wallet, and you'll get [[http://garfield.com/comic/2001-01-01 January 1, 2001]]. Happy New Year.
** Not as big as the above examples, but it seems rather odd that the strips published on [[http://garfield.com/comic/1991-06-07 June 7]] and [[http://garfield.com/comic/1991-06-29 June 29]] of 1991 (barely three weeks apart) would both have the same basic gag.

** The [[http://garfield.com/comic/1981-05-19 May 19, 1981]] and [[http://garfield.com/comic/1996-06-03 June 3, 1996]] strips have got pretty much the same punchline.
** [[http://garfield.com/comic/1987-07-21 July 21, 1987]] and [[http://garfield.com/comic/1995-03-11 March 11, 1995]] are almost exactly the same.
** What Garfield [[http://garfield.com/comic/1979-08-16 does]] to Odie's [[http://garfield.com/comic/1983-02-21 nose]].
** The [[http://garfield.com/comic/2008-10-29 October 2008]] was similar to the ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'' episode ''Fair Exchange''.
** [[http://garfield.com/comic/2005-03-31 March 31st, 2005]] has pretty much the same idea as [[http://garfield.com/comic/1997-10-10 October 10th, 1997]].
** [[http://garfield.com/comic/2011-07-25 July 25, 2011]] has the same gag as [[http://garfield.com/comic/2009-11-09 November 9, 2009]], right down to the dialogue. That one is so blatant that it provides the trope's page image.
** Crossing over with RunningGag, [[http://garfield.com/comic/1983-06-27 June 27, 1983]], [[http://garfield.com/comic/1983-07-04 July 4, 1983]], [[http://garfield.com/comic/1983-07-16 July 16, 1983]], [[http://garfield.com/comic/1983-07-18 July 18, 1983]], [[http://garfield.com/comic/1983-07-25 July 25, 1983]] and [[http://garfield.com/comic/1983-08-01 August 1, 1983]] all contain the exact same premise and first two panels.
** [[http://garfield.com/comic/1993-05-07 May 7, 1993]] and [[http://garfield.com/comic/2010-05-11 May 11, 2010]] have the same gag.
** [[http://garfield.com/comic/1995-11-26 November 26, 1995]] and [[http://garfield.com/comic/1996-03-10 March 10, 1996]] both end with the same joke.

** [[http://garfield.com/comic/1978-08-14 August 14, 1978]] was recycled into [[http://garfield.com/comic/1980-01-23 January 23, 1980.]]

** [[http://garfield.com/comic/2001-12-07 December 7, 2001]] was recycled into [[http://garfield.com/comic/2003-12-21 December 21, 2003.]]

** [[http://garfield.com/comic/2002-06-18 June 18, 2002]] was recycled into [[http://garfield.com/comic/2003-06-11 June 11, 2003.]]
** [[http://garfield.com/comic/2011-09-06 September 6, 2011]] was recycled (word-for word) into [[http://www.mezzacotta.net/garfield/comics/1120_1.png April 18, 2012]]. PAWS Inc. soon realized the recycling and issued a [[http://garfield.com/comic/2012-04-18 replacement]] strip.
** [[http://garfield.com/comic/2012-07-03 July 3, 2012]] is similar to [[http://garfield.com/comic/2007-05-15 May 15, 2007]].
** [[http://garfield.com/comic/1979-06-25 June 25, 1979]] has the same pictures as [[http://garfield.com/comic/1981-07-21 July 21, 1981]] but different dialogue.
** Take [[http://garfield.com/comic/2006-08-20 August 20, 2006]], replace the box of packaging pellets with a pile of leaves, and you've got [[http://garfield.com/comic/2010-11-14 November 14, 2010]].
** [[http://garfield.com/comic/1996-11-28 November 28, 1996]] was recycled into [[http://garfield.com/comic/2011-04-20 April 20, 2011.]]
** [[https://garfield.com/comic/2001/08/07 August 7, 2001]] was recycled into [[http://garfield.com/comic/2001-09-06 September 6th 2001]] about a month later.
** [[http://garfield.com/comic/2012-02-07 February 7, 2012]] and [[http://garfield.com/comic/2013-11-10 November 10, 2013]] have the ''exact'' same punchline, only the latter is stretched out to a Sunday strip length and adds the two of them drinking pop.

* FanNickname: Dark Deity Garfield, Deep God Garfield Garf-Sothoth, Garfthulhu, [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Calamity Garfield]], [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos etc.]] for the EldritchAbomination version of Garfield that tends to appear online.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Davies was forced to change Odie's ears from black to brown by the publisher because they apparently made him look too much like [[ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}} Snoopy]] [[ViewersAreMorons somehow]].

** After the death of Lorenzo Music, Garfield has been voiced by several other voice actors, most notably Creator/BillMurray in TheMovie. Creator/FrankWelker is his most recent replacement.