Garfield / Tropes P to S

P

• Painting the Medium: Bugs "speak" in smaller letters, except in Sunday strips.
• Pants-Free: Jon.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: In the educational webtoons, Garfield's Professor G disguise just consists of him putting on glasses.
  • After getting caught trying to eat a pizza, Garfield disguised himself as the pizza. Jon didn't fall for it.
• Paranoia Gambit: "Just playing with your paranoia."◊
  • "I love mental games."◊
• Parental Incest: Played for laughs, albeit creepily, here◊.
• The Parody Before Christmas: An arc from 1983 has the song's original lyrics printed at the top of each comic. Garfield makes commentary about the poem in each panel. The story arc revolves around Garfield meeting Santa while he's delivering presents. They get along well.
  Narration: The children were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of sugarplums danced in their heads
  Garfield: Now gimme a vision of lasagna.
  Narration: And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap, had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap
  Garfield: This is my kind of story.
• Paying Their Dues: invoked Garfield says this is what his fence act is.
• The Peeping Tom: Here◊ is proof that Garfield and Odie are voyeurs.
• Phone-in Game Shows: In a 1988 Sunday comic, Garfield is listening to a radio game show. The question asked is what sound a "felis domesticus" makes. Garfield quickly dials in and meows, getting the question right. However, since he can't actually speak, he is unable to tell the show hosts who he is and where he lives to redeem his prize.
• Picky Eater:
  • Garfield does NOT like raisins.
  • Squeak, once◊ seeing a mousetrap, tells Garfield, "A nice Camembert or a creamy Brie would be well worth going in after...but that Processed American Cheese is an insult to my palate!"
• The Picture Came with the Frame: "Only Jon would carry around the picture of the girl that came with the wallet."◊
• Pie in the Face: The "Splut!" pies, which make that noise when they hit Garfield.
• Pineapple Ruins Pizza: The September 8, 2023 strip has Garfield consider breaking up with Arlene when she apparently admits to liking pineapple as a pizza topping.
  Arlene: Garfield, a lot of us like pineapple on pizza.
  Garfield: (covers ears) Lah! Lah! Lah! Lah!
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Those who have been around long enough will know that Jon is supposedly a cartoonist. It was mentioned in the first strip, and his drawing board was seen in some early strips. The only times it's been mentioned after that is the storyline in 1984, where Jon goes to a cartoonists' convention, Liz describing Jon to her parents in the May 2, 2010 strip, and the strip from August 2, 2015. That's right; his job went unmentioned in the strip for twenty-six years.
  • In the TV series his job is a focus of several episodes. And one of the comic book stories involve him trying to come up with a new comic book idea.
• Place Worse Than Death: Garfield has often tried to get rid of Nermal by mailing him to Abu Dhabi.
• Plea Bargain: Parodied at this strip.
  Jon: Santa knows when you've been bad.
  Garfield: Maybe I could cop a plea bargain.
• Pluto Is Expendable: "The planetarium called... Your stomach is replacing Pluto as the ninth planet!"◊
• Politically Correct History: Parodied in a 2010 strip, which had a TV show featuring cowboys solving their disagreements by playing tag.
• The Pollyanna: Jon would have to be one to put up with everything he goes through. Garfield mistreats him constantly and sometimes very cruelly, the women he'd try to ask out before finally getting Liz for keeps would use harsh jokes to reject him (and even Liz herself wasn't very kind over the years), and he doesn't have a lot to show for the life he's led. But he keeps his head held high, finds delight in anything he can, and has only occasionally felt bothered enough by his lot in life to let it show over the years.
• Pop the Tires: Garfield, in one strip, slashed the tires on a donut truck in order to eat its contents.
• Pose of Silence: In two separate strips, a waiter at a coffee shop has leaned toward Jon while covering his mouth with his palm to tell him that Jon's girlfriend (actually Garfield) oughts to shave without no one else being the wiser. Of course, since Garfield is a cat and has finer hearing than humans, is perfectly able to hear him.
• Possession Presumes Guilt: The December 7, 1980 strip has Garfield eating all of Jon's fern but the last leaf, which he puts in Odie's mouth. Jon subsequently yells at Odie instead.
• Posthumous Collaboration: The calendar and merchandise line Garfield Visits Rockwell, which adds Garfield to some of Norman Rockwell's Saturday Evening Post covers.
• Potty Emergency:
  • "He'll find out how bored I am if I don't get to a litter box soon."◊
  • The October 17, 2021 strip has Garfield and the Big Vicious Dog excuse themselves and run off-panel. When they return to resume the Big Vicious Dog barking at Garfield, the dog explains that he drank a lot of water this morning and Garfield explains that he drank a lot of coffee, implying that they had to temporarily stop to relieve themselves.
• Pounds Are Animal Prisons: A 1981 story arc had Garfield being sent to the city pound, which was portrayed this way. (He escapes when Fluffy, another cat there, smashes him through the wall) It was even parodied in one of the strips:
  (the gate slams)
  Garfield: How did I get into this fix? One minute I'm free as a bird, then I'm in the city pound. Where did I go wrong? I'm just a number here, I've almost forgotten what it's like on the outside. It's not right to cage a wild animal! These four walls are closing in on me! I can't take it anymore!
  Cat: You've only been here two minutes.
  Garfield: I know, but this is my first shot at a prison scene.
• Power Outage Plot: A 1984 arc deals with a power outage in Jon and Garfield's house. The two talk and sit around in the dark with only their eyes visible. When the power comes back on, Jon jinxes it and it immediately turns back off. However, this storyline is abandoned in the next strip.
• Precious Puppy: Odie. In Kaboom Garfield #14, Odie was even called adorable twice.
• Precision F-Strike: Quite mild compared to most examples of this trope, but Davis got a lot of letters for having Garfield say "sucked" in a 1990 strip. This was the only instance of the word being used in the comic.
• Preppy Name: Garfield lengthened his name to "Garfield Horatio, III, Esq." and got a dish big enough to write it on.
• Pretty Fly for a White Guy: Jon in 2003-04-06, in one of his misguided attempts to attract women.
• Primal Chest-Pound: In one strip, Garfield pounds his chest to show he's tough enough to eat a "he-man burger".
• Produce Pelting: Happens frequently to Garfield when he's singing on the fence. He once had a watermelon thrown at him.
  • A watermelon? Psh. Remember Booga-Booga's wonderful scout troop? Only bloody currency is GIANT STONE WHEELS.
  • Garfield once dodged every fruit the audience tried to pelt him with and asked what they'd do. Someone hits him with a smartphone with a virtual banana.
• Projectile Kiss: Odie gives one to Garfield, who's standing Under the Mistletoe at the time, in the December 22, 2022 strip. Garfield reacts by furiously wiping his mouth.
• Projectile Toast: Seen quite often:
  • November 19, 1982, as the result of Garfield hating the toaster.
  • August 21, 1994, as the result of Jon "fixing" the toaster...
  • October 28, 2003 gives us a toaster that hates Jon. And it turns out to be possessed by an evil spirit.
  • Inverted on August 10, 1986, where Jon turns the toaster upside-down to prevent Garfield from stealing the toast. The toaster becomes projectile and smacks Garfield in the head.
• Prophecy Twist: This strip: Garfield read this from a fortune cookie fortune: "Today you will be whisked away to a large white building where all you have to do is lie in bed all day as lots of people pay attention to you and bring you food". As Garfield said it sounded "too good to be true", he failed to notice he was about to fall from the table.
• Protagonist Title
• Puny Earthlings: Garfield is called a "puny earthling" by a pair of invading aliens. Unfortunately, for them, they're snowmen in the middle of summer.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: In the August 4th 2013 comic, Garfield does this to Liz for a snack...and she does it right back at him. Garfield's response? He gives HIS food to her and tells Jon "She's good."
• Pyrrhic Victory:
  • In this strip, Garfield resists Jon's attempts to force him to exercise. Jon still succeeded in dragging him around, and even repeatedly smashed Garfield's head into a table multiple times, but then Jon gives up and declares Garfield won. Garfield actually agrees he won, but it's an empty victory.
    Garfield: An empty victory. But a victory none the less.
  • In a 1993 strip, Garfield and Jon are fighting over one muffin. They angrily get into a fist fight over it, with Garfield ultimately knocking out Jon unconscious, though Garfield also suffered major bruises himself from the fight. He takes a bite out of the muffin, only to realize it's a raisin muffin.
  • A September 17th, 2000 strip has Garfield and Jon challenge each other to a hot pepper contest. Garfield could not handle the Peruvian Death Pepper and releases flames, so he declares Jon the winner. All Jon got from it was an Ash Face.

R

• Rage Against the Heavens: One strip◊ sees Garfield looking at Odie and getting progressively more annoyed at how cheerful he is. The fat cat delivers a speech about how Odie is "too happy" and, by the end, is screaming skyward: "Who could possibly love a grinning idiot like you?" It immediately starts raining on everything except Odie. Garfield's response? "YOU STAY OUT OF THIS!"
• Raised by Wolves:
  • In a week long Garfield storyline Jon fell in love with a woman in a rec center who had been raised by wolves, as it turns out she had only been in civilization for a week and she had tendencies like scratching her head with her foot, messily devouring her food, trying to bite off her foot when her shoe was too tight, and howling at the moon.
  • Garfield once met a cat (Ed) who was raised by squirrels. Before they met, Ed didn't know the meaning of "ground". And neither his "mother" did. Ed has the habit of storing birds for winter. When the tree branch where Ed and Garfield were stiing on fell, Ed had the first chance to walk "sideways". Odie was the first dog Ed ever met and Garfield explained to him cats were supposed to fear dogs albeit Garfield doesn't remember why.
  • Jon's cousin Earl after being accidentally left at a rest stop. He went missing for years and eventually sent a postcard claiming to "have acquired a taste for small game".
• Rake Take:
  • "There's the first rake in the face."
  • "It just wouldn't be autumn without our little traditions".
  • One of the bad things happening to Jon in this strip.
• A Rare Sentence: Jon and Garfield are eating salad when Jon says, "Hmmm, interesting lettuce." After a Beat Panel, Garfield says, "There's a phrase you don't hear every day."
• Read the Fine Print: Garfield sees three signs in this strip: "Danger", "Beware of the...", and "Fine Print!". The last one has a long text with a small font size.
  Garfield: Okay, now I'm intimidated.
• Readings Blew Up the Scale: Jon's calculator blew up trying to keep count of the calories Garfield takes in.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: Jon was once deported to Mongolia, for some reason.
• Red Herring: The video game Garfield: Big Fat Hairy Deal involves Garfield using various items from around his house and the neighborhood to rescue Arlene. Some of these items have an actual use, but others are just there to refill Garfield's hunger meter (if it depletes too much, he eats whatever he has on hand). If Garfield eats an important item, the game becomes Unwinnable by Design.
• Relationship Upgrade: Liz has gone from occasionally and begrudgingly dating Jon to his full-fledged (and willing) girlfriend.
  • Their kiss on the night they finally got together may be quite a shock for readers until you realize they've kissed before, around 24 years ago.
• Relax-o-Vision: This strip◊.
• Remember the New Guy?: Jon's aunt Gussie. Also most of Garfield's family, who appeared only in one week of strips and Here Comes Garfield without ever being mentioned again (except for his mom, who showed up in one other strip).
• Remote Control Ruckus: In this comic, Jon and Liz end up fighting over the TV remote, with Garfield and Odie enjoying the show while eating popcorn.
• Repeat After Me: Garfield uses Odie as a ventriloquist's dummy to make this exchange: "Say hello to the people, dummy." "Hello to the people, dummy."
• Repetitive Audio Glitch: This◊ strip.
• Retcon: Two big ones. Odie was originally Lyman's dog, and Nermal was originally Jon's parents' kitten. Now the former is treated as if he were Jon's all along, and the latter is just a neighborhood cat who wanders in to torment Garfield.
• Retroactive Wish:
  • Garfield was sick of his hiccups and wished they'd just disappear. After they did, Garfield claimed to be sick of Odie.
  • Garfield demanded respect. When Jon showed up saying he respected garfield, Garfield smacked himself saying he could have demanded a pizza.
  • Inverted: Garfield's outside and hopes it doesn't rain, so it rains. He then walks back inside shouting "I hope we don't have any fudge!"
• Reverse Psychology:
  • When Jon told Garfield to go away, Garfield dared Jon to make him do it. Jon then told Garfield to stay and Garfield left.
  • Jon tried to use it to keep Garfield from clawing a couch. It backfired.
  Garfield: Reverse reverse psychology.
  • Jon told Ellen she'd have to beg if she wanted him to go out with her and she laughed. "So much for reverse psychology".
  • One time◊, Jon told Garfield that it isn't time to get up. Garfield ends up getting out of bed to protest.
• Riddle for the Ages: When Jon got stuck on a wall and asked for Garfield's help, he told Garfield not to ask how it happened.
• Ridiculous Counter-Request:
  • One strip has Jon having this conversation with himself. He wishes Garfield wouldn't attack the mailman, and when Garfield does just that, Jon adds on that he also wishes for a million dollars and a new car.
  • Another strip has Jon feeling depressed and wanting Garfield to cheer him up.
    Jon: I could use a hug!
    Garfield: I could use a Lamborghini but you don't hear me whining.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Nermal
• Ridiculously Loud Commercial: This strip, which includes a Snuggie reference.
• Right Behind Me: Jon speaking about Liz.
  Jon: Garfield, Liz may be my special "one". Sure, she may tell lame jokes and her nostrils twitch when she's angry, but she may still be the "one".
  Garfield: The "one" is right behind you, big mouth, and her nostrils are twitching.
• Right Way/Wrong Way Pair: Jon and Garfield respectively are this. Garfield indulges in junk foods, laziness, sleeping all day and even crudeness or bullying while Jon engages in proper diet and exercise and is mostly a kind, compassionate person. Garfield is obese while Jon is ideal weight (a 1985 strip specifies he's 6'0" and weighs 175 lb).
• Rimshot: In a series of strips from July 1985, Garfield introduces "Mr. Skins" (Odie) as an assistant to his fence act. Naturally, this doesn't go over very well:
  Garfield: I knew a dog who was so ugly, he had to—
  Odie: (TIDDY-BOOM!)
  Garfield: Let's talk timing.
  (later)
  Garfield: I knew a dog who was so ugly, his fleas wore dog collars!
  Odie: (Tiddy-boom! Tiddy-boom! Tiddy-boom! Tiddy-boom! Tiddy-boom!)
  Garfield: Padding our part, are we?
• Ring-Ring-CRUNCH!: Garfield has destroyed plenty of alarm clocks.
  • In one strip, he destroys a clock, then a phone, and finally smashes an ice cream truck.
• Rip Van Winkle: Rip van Garfield, the story of a catnap that lasted 50 years.
• Road Trip Plot: Garfield and Jon (and sometimes Odie) often embark on this.
• Rodents of Unusual Size: Garfield has, more than once, faced a mouse bigger than he was.
  • There's also the legendary Matt the Rat.
• Rooting for the Empire: In-universe examples:
  • In a February 1983 arc, Garfield rooted for a film's Big Bad (a lion) who was wreaking havoc on a native village.
    Jon: Good! They shot the lion! What do you think of those apples, Garfield?
    Garfield: Big deal. At the gun it was "Villagers: 1, Lion: 42".
  • In a 1986 strip, when Jon and Garfield watch a movie about a monster shark that eats Tokyo, Garfield cheers for the shark because "anything that eats everything can't be all that bad."
• Rouge Angles of Satin: Every now and then.
  • "Okay… who waxed the fench?"◊
  • "Your not a sailplane, you know."◊
  • February 22, 1990◊ misspelled Pooky's name as "Pookie." The official site fixed it.
  • July 19, 1990◊ contains the egregious spelling error of "Garfied." Also fixed on the official website.
  • May 11, 2003◊ "Everybody" has the E and R reversed.
  • In this strip◊, Davis and co. left out the first E in "loneliness."
  • Played for Laughs: September 30, 1990◊ with Garfield and Odie as Pat Sajak and Vanna White, respectively, on the Wheel of Fortune set. The puzzle board reads "GARFIEDL."
  • "I can't get my mind off that ham in the the fridge◊".
    • One Square Root of Minus Garfield strip was made only to fix this one, and is otherwise identical. It leaves you looking around for the punchline when you find it after binging on the other strips and getting used to their surreal comedy.
• Rubber Man: "I forgot how far cats can stretch."◊
• Rule of Three:
  • After finding the Italian restaurant where he was born: "It's all gone! Where's the pasta? The people? The pasta? The excitement? The pasta?"
  • Also: "Decorations, presents, caroling, presents, mistletoe and presents. Six things I love about Christmas."
  • Jon has three words to live by: live, laugh, love. Garfield has three words of his own: eat, sleep, repeat.
  • Lampshaded by Garfield in this strip while holding a cup in anticipation for coffee with a disheveled look.
  Garfield: They say bad things come in threes. Well, it's Monday... it's cold...
  Jon: (pouring into Garfield's cup) All we have is decaf.
  Garfield: And there we go.
  • Garfield won't say he sheds a lot, but he's "worn out three vacuum cleaners this year alone". Arlene is impressed.
• Running Gag:
  • Kicking Odie, Mondays, spiders, Spluts. Although the Spluts haven't appeared since the mid-1990s.
  • Later years have 'beware of dog' signs.
  • At least in the 1980s, Garfield would hide in a fern and the first two panels would appear the same, delivering a different punchline every time.
    Jon: Garfield, I know you're in my fern. I can see your tail. What do you have to say for yourself?
  • Also, a number of 1980s strips had Jon saying some variation of "I wouldn't say you're fat Garfield, but...", followed by an extremely insulting joke about Garfield's fatness. Garfield usually attacked Jon in some way after that.
    • In the final strip that had the gag, it was Subverted. Jon says the line, but Garfield stuffs his food bowl in Jon's mouth before Jon can finish the insult and Garfield says "Then don't."
  • Garfield's uncles and aunts.
  • In the late 2000s, a running gag started of Garfield reading letters addressed to "Dear Ask a Dog", with Odie providing some kind of funny response.
  • "Here comes Arlene. She's crazy about me."
  • Garfield singing on the fence at night (and usually getting something thrown at him).
  • For a while, the strip made a running joke out of Garfield suffering "nap attacks", sudden fits of sleepiness, often in the middle of doing something else.
  • Garfield waking Jon up to fix breakfast in various creative ways, ranging from staring him right in the face to tap-dancing on his head to banging pots and pans together to nearly playing a trumpet to having Odie poke Jon in the back with his freezing-cold nose to removing Jon's blanket, coversheet and pajamas in that order.

S

• Sadist Show: Almost all of the humor in the strip comes from inflicted pain on the characters (usually Jon):

  Garfield: Life is funny.

  (Garfield laughs at Jon, who has fallen down the stairs and is lying in a heap.)

  Garfield: For some of us.

• Santa Claus: He occasionally◊ appears◊ during◊ Christmas◊ strips◊. He can be bribed.
• Sarcastic Well Wishing: In one strip, having been put on a diet, Garfield dreams of being reduced to a skeleton and blames Jon for it: "Well, I hope you're happy, Jon. Look what this diet has done to me."
  Jon: You know, Garfield, I think you've lost too much weight.
  Garfield: That's an understatement.
• Saw It in a Movie Once: Jon says that "just because you see somebody doing something in a movie... doesn't mean you can do it" and Garfield wonders why Jon's limping.
• Say My Name: Used often with Garfield.
• Scared of What's Behind You: One Sunday strip featured Garfield going to a zoo, getting into a lion cage, and roleplaying his fantasy of what it would be like if he were a wild animal. At one point he takes a swipe at some patrons, and congratulates himself when they're scared. He does this not noticing the gigantic lion now sitting behind him...
• Scary Stinging Swarm:
  • In the August 16, 2015 strip, Jon picks up some flowers on his way to Liz's house. Unfortunately, some bees show up looking for the flowers. By the time Jon arrives at his destination, his face is full of sting marks and the flowers are ruined.
  • In the November 8, 2015 strip, Jon hears a buzz from his pocket and thinks it's his phone. After Garfield calls his attention to the fact his phone is on a table, he realizes what the buzz really is and runs away in fear.
    Garfield: Aren't you going to answer your bee?
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • The December 12, 1993 strip ends with Garfield and Odie both escaping out of Jon's car and trying to hitchhike their way back home because they can't handle Jon's terrible singing while they're in his car.
  • The July 7, 2000 strip sees Garfield react this way when he sees something sawing a bigger mouse hole into the wall.
    Jon: Where are you going?
    Garfield: Switzerland.
  • The September 23, 2022 strip has Liz running away as the result of Jon considering walking around topless due to the day being warm.
    Jon: Where did Liz go?
    Garfield: She leapt out the window, dashed through the backyard, scaled the fence, and raced down the alley.
  • The November 10, 2022 strip has Jon deciding to get rid of the mouse in the house with polka music. Jon being a Dreadful Musician, his polka music succeeds in pushing the targeted mouse and Garfield into leaving the house.
  • The December 13, 2023 strip features a conversation between Jon and Doc Boy where the former tells the latter "Well, technically, yes. If the goat is under the mistletoe, you do have to kiss her".
    Garfield: I'll be leaving for Mars now.
• Self-Deprecation:
  • In-Universe in the November 19, 2004 strip: A TV show's host loves hosting it because it means not having to watch it. Garfield wished to be the host.
  • After laying dominant for twenty-four years, Jon's cartoonist job was used to deliver one with the May 2, 2010 strip, where both of Liz's parents hyperventilate in a paper bag after Liz tells them about it.
  • Garfield says he might get what he deserves someday, but he hopes it doesn't happen.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness:
  • In a 1983 strip, Garfield knocks a Priceless Ming Vase off the shelf and explains, "I know I destroyed a priceless Ming Dynasty vase as an overt expression to communicate my contempt for the politically oppressive doctrines of their early 17th century administration."
  • Later in 1983, after getting trapped in the heat vent: "Forced to spend my remaining days fending for myself in the tin tunnels of the duct work, the solenoid jungle of the wiring system, and the polyvinyl chloride playground in the crawlspace... Hey! I think there's a book here somewhere."
• Serious Business:
  • Triple-Coupon Day. It's almost like a deranged Supermarket Sweep.
  • Garfield decided to re-evaluate his relationship with Arlene because she likes pineapple on pizza.
• Sewer Gator: Parodied in a strip, where Garfield falls into a sewer and meets up with a giant alligator that was in the sewer, along with a canary and a goldfish that have also become giant after ending up in the sewer.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story:
  • One strip has Jon attempt to get Garfield to see the sunrise with him. Unfortunately for him, when he convinces his cat to go outside it turns out it’s raining.
  • Jon's attempt for a BBQ cookout in the July 3, 2022 strip ends up not panning out because... he forgot to put the charcoal into the grill. Cue Garfield starting to order pizza.
  Garfield: *to Odie* Thick or thin crust?
• Shameful Shrinking: Happens to Jon in this◊ strip.
• Shame If Something Happened: Garfield uses this as extortion to get Jon's steak.
• The Shameless: In one strip◊, after Garfield once again eats one of Jon's pet fish, Jon asks Garfield if he has any shame. After pondering on it for a moment, Garfield proudly proclaims he doesn't have any.
• Shaped Like Itself: "The more you learn… the more you, um… learn."
• Shout-Out:
  • The logo boxes in Sunday strips featured many, including ones to Star Trek, The Honeymooners, The Wizard of Oz, Star Wars, The Three Musketeers, The Flintstones, The Phantom of the Opera, Laurel and Hardy, Fantastic Four, Wheel of Fortune, and The Andy Griffith Show. More recent ones depicted him as Harry Potter, SpongeBob SquarePants and the Nyan Cat
  • The logo box to this strip◊ depicts the American Express "do you know me?" ad in which Jim Davis appeared.
  • How many comic book kids can you recognize in the title box of the October 30, 2005 strip?
  • There's◊ quite◊ a◊ few◊ to◊ Peanuts.
  • There is a Krazy Kat background image on the wall in this strip◊.
  • In the April 25, 1983◊ strip, Garfield says Old Yeller is his all-time favorite movie, because "I love movies with happy endings."
  • In February 2, 2011, Garfield said Odie needed to look more menancing. Odie then put on a hockey mask.
  • In May 13, 2012's logo box, Garfield was chasing one of the Angry Birds.
  • In September 12, 1981, Jon woke up to Garfield wearing his (Jon's) reading glasses. Garfield explained it was "all the better to scare you with, my dear".
  • Jon said "last night's date was like a fairy tale". She ran away from the restaurant at midnight and left a steel-toed work boot. Garfield suggested going to the foundry to find who it fitted.
  • Jon was in an "artistic mood" and wanted to start painting. When he asked where to start, Garfield suggested him to "cut off an ear".
    • The same event was referenced in another strip, where Jon reads about it and wonders what he can cut off. Garfield suggests "that last shred of dignity".
  • The ghost of hamburgers past showed up to show Garfield the error of his ways. Garfield ate it and said it "needed more of the ghost of ketchup past".
  • Odie's inner tube looks like Wade's without the duck face. Jon's looks like Wade's with the colors pink and blue reversed.
  • Several to Mickey Mouse, enough for a compilation.
  • Spider Claus says his sleigh is pulled by "six tiny gnats, and a team leader with a bright red light". Garfield asks if the leader is Rudolph.
  • "Faster than a speeding basset hound! More powerful than an asthmatic chihuahua! Able to leap dingleballs in a single bound! Up on the table! It's a bird dog! It's a plane! It's Super Odie!!" Garfield then kicks Odie off the table and says "Up, up and awaaay!"
  • Garfield describes Pooky as "able to stave off loneliness in a single hug".
  • Garfield is visited by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future. The three of them are afraid of the dead bulb on Garfield's Christmas tree.
  • One strip had Garfield celebrate Isaac Asimov's birthday for the sake of having something to celebrate after the holiday season.
  • The only clue to the movie Jon and Garfield are watching in this strip other than it being something Jon watched back when he was a kid is Garfield commenting that "The flying monkeys are gone now, Jon".
  • A Field of Dreams reference. After luring Garfield, Liz, Squeak, Odie and Arlene with a barbecue, Jon says "If you grill it, they will come".
  • A reference to Highlights for Children's "Creatures Nobody Has Ever Seen" feature, right down to the critter's Achilles' Heel.
  • This strip has Garfield dreaming of a sugar plum that asks whether Garfield wants to dance.
  • Rather fittingly on October 21, 2015, Garfield muses about Time Travel.
  • One strip features Garfield pulling a football as Odie was about to kick it just like Lucy does to Charlie Brown.
  • In the May 18, 1979 strip, when he's unable to move due to gaining much more weight than usual, Garfield gets an idea, curls his tail up into a spring and bounces around on it. Adding more to the connection is that he is orange with black stripes.
  • In June 22, 2023, Garfield watches a game show called "Are you Smarter than a Dog?".
  • In October 30, 2023, Garfield is visited by the ghost of mondays past.
  • In February 11, 2024, Garfield invites some of his friends to perform in front of Jon's security camera, prompting Jon to say that "to Garfield, it's "Neighborhood's Got Talent"
• Show, Don't Tell: Averted pretty hard. Davis has a tendency to set up elaborate gags which are only expressed verbally.
• Show Within a Show: Garfield's fence act.
• Shrunk in the Wash:
  • In the November 4, 1980 strip, Garfield decides to give his teddy bear Pooky a bath, only to have him come out about a third of his original size.
  • It once happened to Garfield's blanket during one of his "Caped Avenger" arcs. As a result, Garfield says the Caped Avenger became the Handkerchiefed Avenger.
• Sickeningly Sweet: In one strip, a scene of Pooky next to a flower quickly evolves into a mass of cute animals, prompting this reaction from Garfield.
  Garfield: Woah, that's even too much for me...
• Side Effects Include...: Parodied in this◊ strip.
• Sir Verb-a-Lot: Jon and Garfield play a medieval themed vídeo game where Jon likes to play as a character named "Sir Whines-a-Lot". Needless to say, he starts whining when he doesn't get to be him.
• Skewed Priorities:
  • Jon was buying a cake when three midgets wearing gorilla costumes burned the place down and ran off with the cash register. The detail Garfield wanted to know about: what kind of cake.
  • Garfield is watching a mystery show on TV.
  Inspector: I have solved the mystery of who ate all the peanuts!
  Another character: But what about the murder?
  Inspector: Oh... that...
• Sliding Scale of Living Toys: Garfield's teddy bear Pooky is at Level 0.
• Smart Animal, Average Human:
  • Garfield the cat and his owner Jon Arbuckle. Garfield is a snarky and clever cat while Jon is a bumbling average human.
  • Sometimes even Odie is shown as being smarter than Jon by beating a video game or a Sudoku puzzle neither of which Jon could solve.
• The Snack Is More Interesting: Garfield often invokes this, prioritizing food over even the most serious emergencies.
  • In one strip, Jon comes running to the house to alert Garfield that while he was buying a cake at a bakery, three gorilla mask wearing robbers set the place on fire and ran out with the cash register. Rather than being amazed Jon escaped without injury, Garfield asks if the cake is vanilla or chocolate.
  • In another strip, Arlene tells Garfield she had a dream that they were having sandwiches until suddenly a bear attacked them but Garfield rescued Arlene and defeated the bear in combat. Garfield asked what kind of sandwiches they were.
  • In a 1999 strip, Jon was mercilessly attacked by a married couple at a salad bar but Garfield just asks Jon what the soup of the day was.
  • In a 1991 strip, Garfield was alerting Jon about giant spiders invading, a 5000 foot tidal wave but then gets distracted by jelly donuts that Jon is eating.
  • In a 2008 strip, Garfield ignored Jon knocking on the door ordering to be let in until Jon announced he had groceries. Garfield then took in the groceries then closed the door again with Jon still locked out.
• Snarky Inanimate Object: A frequent gag in the strip involves Garfield stepping on a talking scale, which would then make some crack about his weight.
• Snooty Sports: In one arc, Jon goes to a mini-golf course and has Garfield come along. Garfield doesn't enjoy it, having to carry the clubs and being embarrassed by Jon's ridiculous golf outfit.
• So Much for Stealth: The spider in this strip.
• Soda Can Shakeup: Provides the page image, and has been used at least 3 times:
  • The page image is from this comic, where this trope happens to Garfield, and the exploding bottle startles Jon.
  • In one comic, Garfield tried to prank Jon by giving him a shaken soda can, but a Genre Savvy Jon aimed the can at Garfield when opening it, resulting in Garfield getting sprayed.
  • In this comic, Garfield tries the same prank, and again it seems Jon is going to turn the tables on Garfield instead. But when Jon opens the can, the pressure inside sends him flying backward rather than the soda getting sprayed all over Garfield.
• Sore Loser: Jon reading this letter from his brother: "Maddie Ferguson's pie took first place at the fair, so Mom burned her barn down".
• Sound Defect: Every so often.
  • In one strip, the doorbell only goes "ding-". The person at the door? A man from Ed's Dong Repair.
  • There's also a kick going "Blagoonga!"◊ and a shoe going "Splut!"◊.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Garfield and Odie exchange "meow"s and "arf"s in front of Liz under the belief she can't understand them. She proves them wrong by telling them she's not gaining weight and that's her natural hair color.
  Liz: We vets are multilingual.
• The Speechless: Odie, most of the time. Once, he said "I'm hungry" through Thought Bubble Speech like Garfield, and in Garfield and Friends, he sometimes "barked" short words.
• Sphere Eyes: Suprisingly, they were gained through Art Evolution.
• Spiders Are Scary: In the early comics, Garfield would react with fear and disgust whenever he saw spiders. Starting in the 90s, the spiders would have their own lines, and they turn out to be fairly harmless, though that doesn't stop Garfield from swatting them without remorse. Whether the swatting results in Amusing Injuries or actual death varies from strip to strip.
• Spraying Drink from Nose:
  • Garfield once made Jon squirt soda out of his nose◊. Given a Call-Back in a later strip: his description of this puts Garfield off his food, which is quite an achievement, as Garfield lampshades.
  • When Jon is about to tell what he's going to do to impress his date, Garfield makes a point to finish his soda first so it won't squirt out of his nose.
• Squirrels in My Pants: In this strip◊, Jon gets a gopher in his pants. Again.
• Start My Own: A cat hair left Garfield to start his own cat. Upon getting caught by Jon's vacuum cleaner, he said they didn't tell about that in business school.
• Stealth Insult: Garfield's nod to an old-fashioned insult, being a roundabout way of calling someone a bastard.
• Stealth Pun: This strip's splash panel has Garfield sleeping on a music staff. In a measure that has a rest in it.
• Stepford Smiler: In the May 11, 2022 strip, Garfield asks Odie to cheer up upon witnessing the latter growl angrily. Odie proceeds to growl while sporting a happy expression, wagging tail included.
• Stepping Out to React: Providing the trope image, One strip has Garfield go off-panel to laugh himself sick at Jon announcing his mom got him a date (and Jon is perfectly aware he's being mocked). He does it again as Jon continues his story.
  Jon: Mom fixed me up with a Blind Date tonight. She says she's got a great sense of humor.
  Garfield (turning around and leaving): Excuse me.
  Garfield (off-panel): BWAH-HAHAHA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HAR HAR HAR! Gah-HA! Ha! gasp! snort! WAH Ha! Ha! Ha! *wheeze* cough... cough...
  Garfield (returning): Do continue.
  Jon (angrily): She won first place at the county fair in the pork rind-eating contest.
  Garfield (turning around and leaving): Excuse me again.
• Stock Animal Diet: Much to Jon's frustration, Garfield is disgusted by the idea of eating mice, and often treats them as friends. He once had to cover his eyes while Arlene caught a mouse and ate it. Birds and fish are not as lucky however, since he will gladly eat those (and not just cooked ones either, living ones too). He also likes to eat Jon's houseplants sometimes. Of course, his all-time favourite food is lasagna. Sometimes he talks with whatever he is about to eat.
• Stock Shout-Out:
  • Super Pooky.
  • Ellen reminds Jon of a comic book hero: Clown Boy. Garfield commented: "Who, disguised as mild-mannered geek, Jon Arbuckle..."
• Stock "Yuck!":
  • Jon recalled his family holidays. As an act of magic, his Uncle Joe made the fruitcake disappear. Garfield didn't consider it a great loss.
  • Jon left a fruitcake "out in the yard for the birds". Garifeld notices they're "regifting it to the squirrels".
• Stout Strength:
  • Subverted by Garfield. In one strip, while Jon is flexing in front of the mirror and complimenting himself on his muscles, Garfield immediately flexes what looks like his own immensely powerful muscles. Jon stares at him in shock as Garfield walks away, explaining that he simply "flexed his fat".
  • Garfield did it again in another strip when he ran into Arlene. She continued to stand and watch in amusement, as Garfield struggled to keep up his flexing:
  Garfield: Uh...don't you have somewhere you gotta be?
  Arlene: And miss seeing how long you can hold that pose?
  • Played straight in another strip where Jon and Garfield begin poking each other with sticks and ordering each other to do things. The sticks keep getting bigger until Garfield finally uproots an entire tree and brings it into the kitchen to try and poke Jon with, until he finally tires out and the tree squishes him.
• Strange Minds Think Alike:
  • When Jon told Ellen his life was meaningless without her, Garfield said it's meaningless anyway. Then we learned Ellen thought the same. Garfield said "Great minds think alike".
  • Liz invited Jon to watch a figure skating competition on TV. Jon's reaction from his side of the phone line made Garfield correctly guess it.
  • While deciding what to wear for a blind date, Jon ends up wearing a cowboy hat, a "suave and sophisticated" suit and, from the waist down, sports wear. His date shows up wearing the same style of outfit.
  Garfield: God made two of 'em!
  • When Liz asks if Jon likes her new shoes, Garfield mentally tells Jon to "lie and say yes". After Jon's hesitation, Liz says he's "supposed to lie and say yes".
  Garfield: Play by the rules, dummy!
  • Jon tries to compliment Liz in this strip. Compliment Backfire ensues.
  Jon: Liz, you're not like the other women I've known. You haven't run away screaming.
  Liz: Yet.
  Garfield: She beat me to it!
• Strictly Formula: Downplayed, a large portion of comics (particular in the last twenty years) can be summed up as "Jon says or does something (usually having something to do with how much of a stupid loser he is) and Garfield quips something short and snarky in response (often having to do with him being fat, lazy, or always stuffing his gob with food)". This is almost always in three panels (unless it's a Sunday comic).
• Strip Archive: Every single strip ever is available to read for free on their website. Also, a website allows you to search every single strip (the interface is in Estonian, but the search and transcripts are English.)
• Strong Ants: Garfield was about to take a nap when some ants appeared and he feared they'd carry him away. One of the ants said they'd need heavy machinery.
• Stuffed into a Trashcan: Nermal, at least once.
• Stuffed into a Locker: Wally Sneedhocker used to stuff Jon in the school locker. He became an undertaker.
• Stylistic Callback: The strip marked its 25th anniversary with a Story Arc where 2003 Garfield meets 1978 Garfield.
• Suddenly Shouting:
  • In an early strip:
  Jon: Be careful there, Garfield. Hanging on the drapes can be very painful. 'CAUSE I'M GONNA BREAK YOUR LEGS IF YOU DON'T GET OFF THEM THIS INSTANT!
  • In this one:
    Jon: Some dirty, rotten, low-down, slimy, filthy, disgusting, gluttonous, hog STOLE MY SUPPER!
• Suicidal Lemmings: Garfield once met a mouse with a lemming mother here and here.
• Suicide as Comedy:
  • Garfield tries to stick his head in the oven when Jon considers getting him declawed... only to find it's electric, not gas powered.
  • This strip,◊ in which Garfield attempts suicide, is rather dark for a piece of family-friendly media, much less a newspaper comic strip.
• Superheroes Wear Tights: Invoked when Jon sadly says he "could never be a super-hero" because he doesn't look good in them.
• Supreme Chef: Jon's mother, especially when it comes to baking pies and preparing potatoes. She once prepared a meal with eight kinds of potatoes (her personal best). In fact, eating is one of the two things Garfield actually likes to do at the farm. (The other is leaving.)
• Sure, Let's Go with That:
  • A woman at a park called Jon "Disgusting". Jon and Garfield each claimed she was talking about the other. When Jon suggested she was talking about herself, Garfield said "Let's go with that".
  • Friday night and the phone didn't ring. Jon believed the ringer to be busted and Garfield said "Right, sure, yeah, we'll run with that".
• Surprise Jump: This happens to Jon several times, usually when Garfield scares him.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • In a case that hardly happens nowadays, Garfield attempting an angry call.
  • Here's a very likely outcome of biting into a Dagwood sandwich, where all of the sandwich's contents end up spilling out of the bread slices.
  • In one comic, Garfield captures a bird and tosses it into the air with the intent for it to land in his mouth. It simply flies away, leaving Garfield to berate his own stupidity.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial:
  • "Fib alert! You can't believe Odie! No matter what he says, I did not paint him green! And it wasn't with a two inch horsehair brush!"
  • In this one, Garfield didn't eat "one of those birds that looks kind of like a sparrow, but isn't". He forgot what they're called.
  • In this one, Jon is quite suspicious about how Liz knows what happened to his accordion.
  • In this strip, Jon is carrying two treats and offers Garfield one, saying it "doesn't have a pill in it, of course! That would be silly! Who could imagine such a thing?!". Deeming that denial too specific, Garfield eats the other treat. Jon's laughter suggests the pill was in the one that Garfield ate.
  Garfield: I think I've just been had.
  • Garfield delivers Arlene a letter where she's asked "Isn't Garfield charming and handsome" and says the sender signed it as "Nobody you know".
  Arlene: Nice try, "Nobody".
• Swivel-Chair Antics: Diner stool variant: The reason◊ why Jon and Garfield always sit by the counter instead of at the booth at Irma's Diner.
• Symbol Swearing:
  • One strip had Garfield watching an Uncle Roy episode where he goes to a factory. When Uncle Roy gets too close to a machine, he says "Turn this #%^$ thing off!".
  • This is what happens when Garfield's lips get stuck to popsicle.
  • This occured two other times: This comic◊ where Garfield angrily cusses after a leg cramp forces him to get out of bed, and this one◊ where a woman on a knitting TV show cusses after dropping a stitch. Garfield lampshades it in the latter instance by commenting "Grandma's a colorful old gal".