Western Animation / The Garfield Show

Yes, they're looking right at you.

Another animated series based on the comic strips of Jim Davis, this time produced in France by Ellipse Animation. Unlike Garfield and Friends, however, this series was CGI-animated, and without U.S. Acres, Davis' less-known comic strip which was also featured in Garfield and Friends. The series was launched in 2009. It had numerous 11-minute episodes and half-hour specials during its run, but Cartoon Network eventually stopped airing the show.

The titular lazy, orange-furred feline, Garfield, makes his return to the TV screen, with wacky hijinks galore. His owner, Jon Arbuckle, and the long-tongued yellow dog, Odie, are also main characters.

Full episodes can be found on the official YouTube channel.

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This series provides examples of:

#-M

• 30 Minutes, or It's Free!: Garfield exploits this to Vito's Pizza in the episode "Great Pizza Race" to keep feeding himself for free. And he would have gotten away with it... if it weren't for the fact that Jon was taking Liz to Vito's on a dinner date. The episode ends with Garfield and Odie, after being busted, having to wash dishes — which were a lot due to Garfield's scheme — at Vito's Pizza as reparation, while Vito monitors in person.
• Absurd Phobia: "Fraidy Cat" mentions a lot of ridiculous fears in Dr. Whipple's commercial for curing people of their phobias, including a fear of people named Sid, a fear of sitting on a grilled cheese sandwich and a fear of moving with your family to Peru and subsequently getting a job as a toboggan salseman. At the end of the episode, Garfield uses Dr. Whipple's invention to make Nermal afraid of being too cute and Dr. Whipple afraid of being in a cartoon.
• Adaptational Jerkass:
  • Unlike earlier incarnations, this Nermal has a far more insufferable ego and annoys Garfield intentionally.
  • Jon recently seems to have suffered from this. Mostly justified, considering he had to deal with Garfield's antics.
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • Garfield in comparison is slightly more benevolent than in the comics, while still a gluttoness snarker, he goes out of his way to help people more and bullies Jon and Odie a lot less. Most of the individuals Garfield does victimize are far more provocative than in the comics (see above).
  • Liz is also far less grouchy and sarcastic, more on par with her character in movies. Justified because she admitted her love for Jon in the 2006 strips.
• A Fool and His New Money Are Soon Parted: When Jon encounters a massive amount of money, don't expect him to keep it at the end of the episode. Both times have him lose it over being stolen by a fraudulent investor or not even exist due to a sauce stain on a nearly-winning lottery ticket.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot:
  • "Night of the Apparatuses" has Jon buy a computer program to run his house, who ends up falling in love with Jon and turning the appliances against Jon when she gets jealous of Liz.
  • The T3000 is a robotic dogcatcher that eventually proves to be overzealous, to the point that he goes after stray animals for the most minor of offences.
• All-CGI Cartoon: The first Garfield animated series to be completely CGI.
• Alternate Continuity: In spite of also being in CGI and having the central characters played by the exact same voice actors, this show isn't in the same continuity as the Garfield Animated Movie Trilogy, as the animated films established that the Garfield cast live in a world of comic strip characters, while this series takes place in its own world.
• Anchovies Are Abhorrent: Many times, Garfield makes it clear he doesn't like anchovies on pizza. One episode also features a race of alien for whom anchovies are toxic.
• And I'm the Queen of Sheba: "Freaky Monday", where Garfield and Odie have their minds switched by an alien, at one point has Garfield in Odie's body try to explain his plight to Arlene. Arlene doesn't believe that Odie is Garfield, remarking that if this is the case, then she's the Queen of England.
• And Knowing Is Half the Battle: There are short segments based on the show, having Garfield instruct child viewers to stay safe in the sun, don't ingest poison, be careful on the Internet, etc. Admittedly, it is strange to hear Garfield tell kids to eat fruits & veggies or get plenty of exercise.
  • At least with Heathcliff, they had him acknowledge his hypocrisy:
  • "Now, if only I could just follow my own advice."
  • The PSAs can be considered out-of-continuity as in show Garfield often makes no secret that his lifestyle is unhealthy but he makes no attempt to change it.
    Harry: You can't beat me, you're out of shape!
    Garfield: Twenty pounds of pasta a day will do that to you...
  • In "Gravity of the Situation", Garfield stops the show mid plot to deliver an educational message about gravity, and then he assures the viewers not to worry as they won't do another one "until next season or maybe the one after that"... only to follow it with a completely inaccurate portrayal of zero gravity.
  • In "Unfair Weather", Jon gives a quick summary of how weather works; this prompts a confused reaction from Odie, and Garfield explains to him that "[this is] the educational part of the show".
• And Your Little Dog, Too!: Quoted by Al the Dog Catcher when promising to catch Garfield.
• Animal Sweet on Object: In "Odie in Love", Odie, not being very smart, falls in love with a dog brush. Garfield gets tired of this, so he steals the brush and throws it in the garbage bin, which deeply saddens Odie.
• Animal Talk: As in the comics, most of the animals can communicate with each other (exceptions can occur), but most of them can't talk to humans. Though as in the comics the trope is averted from time to time due to Rule of Funny.
  Garfield: I can explain! Well if I could talk I could explain...
  • Also when Liz gets turned into a mouse in "Every Witch Way", she gains the ability to communicate with Garfield and company.
    • There are often times when Garfield and some other animal characters can communicate with humans, mostly when they're behind the scenes or doing an educational episode.
• Animated Actors: Several episodes portray Garfield and the others as in-universe actors, examples including "Laugh in a Can" (where a laugh track is added to the show against Garfield's wishes), "The Golden Lasagna Awards" (which has Garfield run an awards ceremony and Nermal ticked that Garfield appears to be winning every award) and the "Glitter Gulch" special (where the cast acts in a Western movie directed by Nermal).
• Anthropomorphic Zig-Zag:
  • Odie can spend whole episodes walking and acting like a normal dog, and in others be almost as apt as Garfield, walking and gesturing like a human with opposable thumbs all of a sudden.
  • Garfield himself does the opposite, standing on his hind legs for the most part but occasionally he stands on all fours - making his arms and legs equal size and his paws look less like human hands and more like an actual cat.
  • Nermal also gains a similar digitigrade body structure during a song where he quite fittingly sings "You gotta get in touch with your wild side."
• Antidisestablishmentarianism: One of the items the rats steal in the "Rodent Rebellion" special is a trophy a woman earned for spelling the word antidisestablishmentarianism correctly.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In "Nice to Nermal," Garfield decides the cruelest thing he should do to Nermal is not sending him into outer space or even feeding him to the sharks, but instead making him watch televised golf games.
• Attractive Bent-Gender: "Glenda and Odessa" has Nermal becoming smitten by Garfield after the latter got dressed up by Jon's Bratty Half-Pint nieces. Luckily for Nermal he never finds out the truth.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite Garfield bullying Odie for the most part, he does care for him deep down and is even willing to put himself in harm's way to rescue him.
  • Most definitely highlighted in "A Gripping Tale" where Odie causes Garfield to lose all of his precious donuts and Garfield still ventures into the sewer to save him from the giant squid.
    Garfield: [peering into the sewer] Don't worry Odie! I'll get you out of there! I won't abandon you! [runs off then comes back] And while you're down there, keep an eye out for my donuts!
  • Also Garfield towards Jon. Despite Garfield's mischievous antics he does look out for Jon whenever he can.
  • To a lesser extent Nermal. While Garfield makes it clear he hates Nermal, from time to time he will actually help Nermal out.
    Garfield: Nermal, you know how I'm always telling you to leave? Well this time it's for your own good!
• Bait-and-Switch: A crooked shopping network's method, using Exact Words to be marginally legal. An example is a portable cooling device that Jon buys turns out to be a giant ice cube.
• Banana Peel: The episode "The Write Stuff" has Garfield vexed by his show making ham-fisted attempts at being more serious due to the show's new writer Samuel W. Underburger being a humorless stoic (a flashback Underburger narrates shows that he hasn't laughed since he saw a man slip on a banana peel when he was eight years old). The episode's plot is driven by Garfield attempting to get Underburger to laugh so he can gain a sense of humor and incorporate gags into the show instead of derailing it with his misguided efforts to make the show more grounded in reality. None of Garfield's attempts at getting the writer to laugh work, but Underburger ends up laughing for the first time in years anyway when he slips on a banana peel himself.
• Berserk Button:
  • Don't call Nermal mangy.
  • Don't try to make Garfield exercise either. You wouldn't like him when he's angry.
  • Don't call Neferkitty "Fuzzbutton".
  • Don't refer to Jon Arbuckle's brother as "Doc Boy".
• "Better if Not Born" Plot: The episode "World Without Me", where Paddy the Leprechaun tries to show a depressed Garfield that his existence makes all the difference in the world, initially makes it look like everyone is better off without Garfield, as Jon and Odie are shown to live in a mansion and Arlene is shown to be Bruno's girlfriend, but the episode later subverts the trope and becomes closer to a straight example of It's a Wonderful Plot. Garfield later finds that his absence would've made it possible for the Space Lasagna race to invade Earth (only preventing this timeline's version of the pasta aliens from succeeding by asking Paddy to temporarily make him exist in the alternate reality), Jon and Odie feel lonely without a cat around, Arlene doesn't really love Bruno and would rather have someone else as her boyfriend and Vito's pizzeria has gone out of business without a regular customer with an appetite as big as Garfield's. In spite of how the other characters are shown to be worse off without Garfield, their plights aren't the reason Garfield's existence matters; the end of the episode has Paddy reveal that if Garfield didn't exist, neither would this show.
• Better than a Bare Bulb: Starting with the second season, most of the show's humor consists of Lampshade Hanging and the lack of a fourth wall.
• Big Eater: Garfield (as usual).
• Brainwash Residue: In the episode Bewitched: Bewitched & Bewildered, after everyone in the world who was turned into toads gets turned back into humans and Garfield, Odie and Jon are at the table eating dinner, Jon suddenly catches and eats a fly using his tongue, making Garfield and Odie concerned. However, Mrs. Cauldron then appears beside them and tells them not to worry, as the remaining toad-like attributes should wear off in around half an hour.
• Bratty Half-Pint: Three of them: Jon's twin nieces Druscilla and Minerva, and Mrs. Ferret in "Ferret Food".
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: In the episode, "Filthy Fugitives", while chasing down Garfield and Odie so they can take a bath, the butcher Mr. Gizzard accidentally dumps a bucket of water all over Aunt Ivy. The furious aunt chases him down, as she shouts:
  "You idiot! You moron! You idiotic moron!"
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Followed to a tee with Garfield.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall:
  • In the 2nd season, Garfield completely tosses out the 4th wall, completely aware that the show is in its 2nd season and that everyone is part of a TV show.
  • In fact, there's an episode where Squeak can effectively predict the future because he's watching the episode (it's a rerun, but no one realizes it). It involves him catching up to himself and helping Garfield pretend to be psychic. Unfortunately, he accidentally deletes the episode when Garfield is about to prove his powers to the public.
• The Bus Came Back: Lyman (from the comic strips, he was originally Odie's owner before vanishing in the 80s) finally returns in the 4-part episode "Long Lost Lyman", where his long absence is fully explained.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • The mailman, Herman Post.
  • Naturally Jon and Garfield as usual, albeit not quite as much as in the comics.
• By the Lights of Their Eyes: Garfield and Odie when they get stuck inside the "TI-D 7000"
• Canon Foreigner: Eddie Gourmand, Dr. Whipple, Aunt Ivy, Drusilla and Minerva, and Vito Cappelletti, the Italian restaurant/pizzeria owner were all created for this cartoon and did not exist in the original comic strip.
• Captain Colorbeard: The "Against All Tides" special mentions a pirate named Purplebeard, whose fate is eventually revealed when the cast get eaten alive by a whale and find Purplebeard's skeleton during their efforts to find a way out.
• Captain Obvious: Jon gets called out as this in the following:
  [Jon notices Garfield and Odie stuck in a tree]
  Jon: Garfield! Odie! You're stuck in a tree!
  Garfield: And the grass is green, Captain Obvious.
• Cargo Ship: In-Universe, in "Odie in Love" Odie falls in love with a brush. Something that bothers Garfield.
• Carnivore Confusion: Though it's never actually shown onscreen (i.e. an intelligible creature ending up as another's lunch), predation is just treated as a fact of life for the most part. Though mostly the animals that are considered prey can't actually talk like Garfield and co.
  • One instance would be in "Turkey Trouble" where Jon wins a turkey for Thanksgiving and Hilarity Ensues when it turns out he won a LIVE turkey.
    Jon: If you want roast turkey, it's easy Garfield. You go put it in the oven.
    Garfield: At least it's fresh. [noticing the turkey eating his food] Hmm, my dinner seems to be having lunch...
    Jon: I'm sorry Garfield, I don't have the heart to end that little turkey's life and neither do you.
    Garfield: I hate it when Jon's right. Fortunately it doesn't happen very often.
  • And another instance would be in "Mother Garfield" where Garfield claims he stopped eating birds because "they were too much work, too many feathers and not enough drumsticks." He then gets the urge to takes up bird chasing again but then reconsiders and instead tries to prevent a family of Bluebirds from being eaten by the stray cat Harry.
  • Also mice are one of the few things that Garfield won't eat (along with "most healthy foods, anchovies on pizza, Jon's meatloaf, chicken salad sandwiches and raisins"). According to Lucky, it's "because they're his friends and they don't taste like lasagna". While other cats have no problem with eating mice, in a Wile E. Coyote fashion we never see them catch any.
• Cassandra Truth: Usually Garfield falls victim to this.
  • "It's true! If I didn't know any better I wouldn't believe me either!"
  • In "Curse of the Weredog", Jon refuses to believe Garfield when Odie goes all Hulk and wrecks the house, and takes away Garfield's lasagna. Only when Jon hears Professor Bonkers' diagnosis on the news (and when he takes a closer look at the damage Odie did on the furniture) does he apologize to Garfield and they go to the Professor for a solution.
• Cats Are Snarkers: Garfield, of course.
• Catchphrase: Garfield has a few:
  • "Big fat hairy deal."
  • "Get me an attorney named Murray!"
  • "I'll worry about it later..."
  • (usually after he gets called “fat”) "You're not exactly supermodel material yourself."
• Chase Scene: Being a cartoon show, this cartoon has more chase scenes than anyone can count (which is really saying something).
• Christmas Episode:
  • "Caroling Capers" has Garfield attempt to go caroling on Christmas Eve in exchange for food, only to fail miserably and see Nermal and Odie having better luck at it.
  • "Home for the Holidays" is a half-hour episode that concerns Garfield having to help several homeless animals find new homes to prove he cares about the Christmas spirit.
• Clock of Power: In "Time Master", Garfield finds a stopwatch that is able to freeze time when used.
• Con Man:
  • Dr. Whipple, a recurring villain who tries to convince people to buy his products. Which normally involve serious animal abuse.
  • Also Bernard Scamberry from "Virtual Mailman".
• Contemporary Caveman: "Iceman" has a frozen caveman thawed out and falling in love with an unattractive woman who drives an ice cream truck.
• Coattail-Riding Relative: When Garfield manages to win 30 gazillion dollars and buys a mansion, he receives a visit from a bunch of similar looking orange cats who claim to be his cousins, and were glad to find out they had a rich cousin. But Garfield affirms he isn't related to and doesn't know any of them.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: "Master Chef" has Garfield go on a quest to find Vito Cappelletti's mentor Giuseppe Essquissito and get him to cook a batch of his lasagna due to being dissatisfied with Joe's Frozen Lasagna and hearing that the lasagna Giuseppe made is regarded as the best lasagna ever made. After getting Giuseppe to reunite with Vito and learn that his apprentice has perfected his craft of cooking in spite of being one of his worst students, Giuseppe reveals that he sold his recipe to the makers of Joe's Frozen Lasagna and Jon learns that he had forgotten to remove the plastic from the lasagna when he cooked it for Garfield and Odie. Had Jon known that he was supposed to remove the plastic when cooking Joe's Frozen Lasagna, they would never have gone to Vito's and heard about Giuseppe's lasagna.
• Counting Sheep: The episode "Silence of the Sheep" involves three sheep attempting to get Garfield to sleep by counting them. This fails to work because Garfield had earlier drunk 92 cups of coffee. Because of their failure to get Garfield to sleep, the sheep are fired by Mr. Sandman and then decide to make everyone else in town fall asleep in hopes that this will convince Mr. Sandman to rehire them. Mr. Sandman enlists Garfield's help to get the sheep back and the episode ends with Garfield finally sleeping by counting lasagnas.
• Cute Kitten:
  • Nermal. And he never lets you forget it.
  • "The Art of Being Uncute" features Garfield in a situation where he's surrounded by cute cats identical to Nermal; all having won Cutest Cat Shows in their respective countries.
  • Spumoni's cat form certainly counts.
  • Also "Little Angel" is perceived as one, though it turns out he's MUCH older then he looks.
    Harry: He's not an incredibly cute kitten. He's older than you even. Only cat I know who's old enough to shave. But he's bad news.
• Cut a Slice, Take the Rest: In "The Pet Show", after Garfield helps Odie win the lasagna prize in a competition, Jon tells Garfield to give Odie his fair share. Guess what Garfield does next?
• Deadpan Snarker: Garfield, as expected.
• Demoted to Extra: Arlene, despite being present in the intro sequence, shows up only in a handful of first-season episodes and is thus far absent in the second season. She has made some more appearances since then, having larger roles in some of the specials but it still doesn't help that other recurring characters have made more appearances than her.
• Depending on the Writer:
  • Dr. Whipple, Harry, Bruno, Nermal and many others range from being a supporting character to an antagonist depending on the episode.
  • Vito is often a very ambiguous character, either highly appreciating Garfield for saving his business on a regular basis or determined to prevent Garfield from stealing his lasagna or pizza.
  • Jon often falls into this as well, being a Nice Guy in most episodes, but in others, can be very aggressive.
• Diamonds in the Buff: Neferkitty only wears jewelry, though cats don't usually wear clothes to begin with.
• Didn't Think This Through: In the episode "Land of Later", a race of sloth people living underground come up with a plan to take over the surface world by using a device to enslave humanity after turning them into procrastinators. One of the sloth people points out to the king the most blatant flaw in this plan (i.e., that humans who have no interest in getting anything done would make rather useless slaves). The king concedes the point, but simply decides that he'll undo the effects of the device after the sloth people have taken over.
• Distaff Counterpart: Nermal is seen dancing with an identical cat to himself (but pink) in "Stealing Home".
• The Ditz: The "Mean Machine" special features a scene with two guys who are so dumb that they can't even figure out what 3 + 8 is without consulting an electronic device.
• A Dog Named "Dog": One recurring character is a Rottweiler who is actually named Rottweiler.
• Dogs Are Dumb: Played with more compared to the comics. Odie, while still with his brain-dead moments, is toned down compared to his comics counterpart, leaning more as a Cloud Cuckoo Lander who is sometimes more observant of things than even Garfield.
  Garfield: I can get away with this because as you may have noticed, dogs aren't particularly bright.
• Dogs Hate Squirrels:
  • In the episode, "Up a Tree", we see that Garfield's favorite past time is watching Odie be thwarted nonstop as he chases the squirrels in their backyard. Eventually though he actually catches one of the squirrels who runs into a tree. This makes him actually take pity on the little guy and he eventually makes friends with him and the other squirrels. When Garfield later comes and scolds them for making peace and ruining his pastime, the squirrels give him a Humiliation Conga.
  • In a later episode, "Where's Odie", Odie ends up running off while chasing a squirrel. By the time Garfield finds him, he's in a cabin with an old man who thinks he's his lost dog Spot.
• Don't Explain the Joke: Garfield is especially guilty of this. Just one example would be the Diegetic Soundtrack Usage in "Unfair Weather".
• Downer Ending:
  • "King Nermal", which ends with Garfield and Odie injured, and Nermal getting to stay even longer.
  • Also "Everything's Relative" where all the attempts to get rid of Aunt Ivy fail to the point her twin sister shows up to double the pain.
  • "Not So Sweet Sound of Music". It starts out with Jon getting his old accordion, the sounds from which annoys Garfield (according to Garfield, accordion ranks #2 in the world's most terrible instrument — #1 goes to bagpipe). Garfield spends the whole episode trying to get rid of it, which he succeeds in doing but also ends with him getting accidentally injured (not to mention Odie soon finds the accordion anyway). When Jon goes to the local music store upon finding out the accordion is damaged at the end of the episode, he ends up having to throw it away — but there's a sale in said music store. Guess what he ends up buying...
    Garfield: No! No! I'd rather have the accordion back! Wait! Stop! HEEEEELLLLPPPP!!
  • "Cat Nap" ends with the revelation that Silent Jack had robbed the house and got away clean while Garfield, Odie and Squeak had mistaken Jon for Silent Jack.
• Dr. Jerk: Dr. Whipple.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: In "Caroling Capers", Garfield tells Nermal and Odie he'll give them singing lessons for ten percent of the food. In the acting business, ten percent of the actor's earnings go to their agent.
• Dream Within a Dream: In "The Amazing Flying Dog", Odie has a dream, of where he has flying abilities much like Superman. He is waken twice by Garfield. After Garfield and Odie talk the second time around, we see Garfield walk downtown, walking unintentionally into cement, a girl poodle tries to help him, but they both get stuck. Odie comes to the rescue with his flying abilities. After a while, we see Garfield wake up frantically. He talks to Odie who is trying to sleep, and as he goes back to sleep, Odie does too once again dreaming of being a super dog.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: In "Stealing Home" Garfield and Odie have their home forcefully stolen by an envious stray cat called Bruno while Jon's out. They trick Bruno into taking his old trashcan home back by convincing him that it's much Bigger on the Inside, which gets him whisked away by trash collectors. Unfortunately Jon comes back early and blames the mess Bruno made, on Garfield and Odie which means they have to go live in another trashcan again. Which turns out leads to a secret luxury lounge where all their friends are throwing a party.
  Garfield: Maybe we might get lucky and Jon won't take us back!
• Easy Amnesia: This happens to Garfield in "Garfield Astray" when a bowling ball drops to his head. A taste of lasagna gets his memories back.
• Elephant in the Living Room:
  • The Kiss Me Girl from Virtualodean.
  • Played with later with a literal elephant in the living room that it takes Jon a few moments to actually notice is out of place.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Almost everyone refers to Neferkitty by her owner given nickname "Fuzzbutton" after her Villain Decay. She will have none of it.
  Heather: I'll name you..."Fuzzbutton"!
  Neferkitty: Ewwww! Fuzzbutton!?
• Engineered Public Confession:
  • Dr. Whipple's first downfall occurs when Garfield tricks him into admitting that his pet training business is a huge con and how he thinks the public is stupid...while the live television audience and viewers are listening to his every word.
  Dr. Whipple: But it won’t work. The public is too stupid to catch on. [Garfield hovers the mic at him] So what if my training program doesn’t work? They still send me tons of money, those idiots. I got a sweet racket going here and you won’t stop me.
  Pulver: Dr. Whipple, they’re hearing you on national television!
  Dr. Whipple: They can’t hear me! I left my microphone on stage!
  Pulver: They can...
  Garfield: [smiling] Do you have any further words for our listening audience, Doctor?
  Dr. Whipple: You miserable little-!
  • Done again in "Depths of a Salesman". In the episode, Garfield, Odie, and Jon get ripped off by the "All Buying Stuff" shopping channel, resulting in Garfield angrily going to the TV station to get a refund. When the owner of the channel, Mama Meany, refuses to give him the refund and has sercuity chase him out, Garfield sneaks back in and uses a functional model of an overly hyped-up tape recorder, called the Awesome Audio Appliance, to record a conversation between Mama Meany and his salesman that everything they sell, including Garfield, Odie, and Jon's purchases earlier in the episode (as well as all of Jon's earlier purchases from the channel), are just cleverly hyped-up pieces of junk. As such, when the salesman attempts to prove the product works, it plays back the conversation neither he or Mama Meany knew had been recorded, thus resulting in Mama Meany forced to give out refunds to everyone who bought stuff from the channel, causing it to go off the air.
  Mama Meany: I never give anyone their money back, and you know why? Because people are stupid. They never catch on that the stuff I sell is garbage!
  Salesman: This Awesome Audio Appliance plays the most beautiful music! Listen!
  [presses play on the appliance]
  Salesman: [on the recording] But basically, it’s another piece of junk.
  [Mama Meany and the guards gasp]
  Mama Meany: [on the recording] Everything we sell on this station is a piece of junk. The idiots out there never catch on!
  [Salesman sheepishly turns the appliance off as Mama Meany facepalms]
  Garfield: I have a feeling they’ll catch on now.
  Mama Meany: I’ll get you a refund, cat! Just get out of here!
  Garfield: I'll go, but there's something else I want.
  [Garfield chuckles as he cracks a devious smile]
  • The "Lasagna Tree" special ends with Garfield exposing Mama Meany again as a con man, this time duping his customers with cheaply-manufactured and horrible-tasting substitutes for real food when the cat uses Eddie Gourmand's robotic cameraman to record Mama Meany gloating about how lucrative his restaurants are while calling his customers idiots for continuing to fall for his scam. The recording is broadcast all around the world, causing causes Mama Meany to go out of business
• The Eponymous Show: This series is called The Garfield Show.
• "Everybody Laughs" Ending: "Turkey Trouble"
• Evil Doppelgänger: In "Time Twist", Garfield meets a lookalike version of himself who also enjoys eating, sleeping, and annoying small puppies. The only difference is that he turns into a giant monster.
• Evil Lawyer Joke: "The Great Trade-Off" has a Mad Scientist named Dr. Puzzle demonstrate an invention of his to other evil geniuses that can swap personalities. One of the villains expresses interest in using it to swap the personalities of his lawyer and a snake. Dr. Puzzle responds by asking how he could tell the difference.
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Witches, mole people, cat people from another dimension, aliens, robots, a mad scientist neighbor...
• Fat Bastard: Eddie Gourmand, sometimes.
• Four Legs Good, Two Legs Better:
  • The cats usually assume an upright stance but the dogs usually don't.
  • Utilized with Odie, who usually stands and walks upright when in a more intelligent role.
  • Inverted with Garfield, who switches to four legs whenever he is struck by his Feline instincts.
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: Between Garfield and Odie in "Freaky Monday."
• Frisky Ferret: Mrs. Ferret is a hyperactive ferret with an equally hyperactive metabolism. As a result, many people who adopted her from the veterinary Liz returned her immediately and she's a nuisance for Garfield due to always eating his food in the blink of a second.
• The Ghost:
  • The plot of "Cat Nap" involves Garfield hearing a news report about a thief named Silent Jack and mistaking Jon (who had just returned from a rather painful trip to the dentist) for the criminal. The real Silent Jack is never actually seen, not even when Garfield, Jon, Odie and Squeak realize that they've been robbed by the real Silent Jack during their squabble.
  • Nermal is said to have an owner who looks after him when he's not visiting Garfield in "King Nermal", but said owner never makes a physical appearance nor are they identified.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: Expect to see the same characters that might act as antagonists towards Garfield in one episode suddenly become much more friendly/helpful in another. As you can see the line between best friends and worst enemies is very blurred. Even Lamp Shaded by Garfield when talking about his part-time cat pal Harry.
  Garfield: [discussing an earlier episode] Now Harry, he was kinda rotten in that episode. Come to think of it he's kinda rotten in this episode too.
• Grand Finale: The "Rodent Rebellion" special, a four-part episode comprising the entirety of Season 5 which has Garfield, Odie and Nermal trying to defend the city from an uprising of rats who have also framed Jon for committing robberies, serves as the conclusion to this series.
• Grub Tub: In "The Big Sneeze", Jon attempts to cure his sneezing issues by having a nice hot bath, only for Garfield to reveal that the tub is being used for his crab gumbo.
• Halloween Episode: The episode "Orange and Black" has Garfield decide to go trick-or-treating and getting himself in trouble because he decided to go as Catzilla, a jungle cat that had recently escaped from the city zoo.
• Hate Sink: The abrasive Aunt Ivy, who treats everyone (except for the twin nieces) around her like servants.
• Heroic Dog: Odie has his moments.
• How We Got Here:
  • The episode "Jon's Night Out" begins with Garfield trying to wake Jon up as he sleepwalks through a building, and then proceeds to tell the viewer the story.
  • The episode "Little Yellow Riding Hood" begins with Garfield and Jon escaping from a wolf, and Garfield asks the viewer to pause the show, and then tells the viewer the story.
  • The "Rodent Rebellion" special starts with Garfield and Odie being hounded by the police and then starts to explain how the two wound up in that situation.
• Human Mail: Most, if not all of Garfield's attempts to get rid of Nermal involve him mailing the kitten to Abu Dhabi, or in some special cases China.
• Hypno Fool:
  • One episode has Jon suffering from insomnia, so he goes to a hypnotist so he can get some rest. While Jon was supposed to hear a bell in order to get some shut-eye, an accident causes the trigger to be Odie's barking instead. This may not seem bad at first, but then Jon starts sleepwalking...
  • A later episode had Garfield getting hypnotized by Dr. Whipple, to become a hard-working farm cat whenever he hears a horn. Later on in the episode he turns the tables with the same device.
• Hypocritical Humor: In the "Mean Machine" special, Eddie Gourmand encounters his own robot double and derides him by saying that he needs to lose some weight and has a terrible fashion sense. This is rich considering that he's talking to a robot double of himself and is therefore wearing the same clothes as well as being hugely obese.
• Idea Bulb: Garfield gets one in "Land of Hold" but is represented by a fluorescent light bulb as it is an "energy saving idea".
• Incredible Shrinking Man: Nathan, the Mad Scientist kid from an earlier episode, does this to Garfield in a later episode.
• Insectoid Aliens: "Time Twist" introduces a universe where everyone (Jon and Odie included) is a sentient spider, much to Garfield's horror.
• Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube!: "Online Arbuckle" has Garfield create embarrassing videos of his owner Jon, which results in Jon becoming the town laughingstock. After seeing how unhappy the experience is making Jon, Garfield then switches to making embarrassing videos of Nermal, who is initially irate about it, but changes his mind after seeing how popular the videos make him.
• Jerkass: Several minor antagonists, such as Jon's aunt Ivy and Dr Whipple. Also Nermal.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Garfield as with previous animated incarnations. Nermal has his moments as well, particularly in "Into the Wild".
• Karma Houdini:
  • Played straight by Nermal in "King Nermal" (if only one), where he gets away with faking an injury and even gets to continue causing misery for Garfield and Odie after they have been injured for real, though in this case it could be a justified example of Who's Laughing Now? for all the crap he's taken from Garfield in the past.
  • Garfield isn't as lucky in this series, however, partly due to Jon being quick to suspect him — and he's often right.
  • In "Cyber Mailman", Bernard Scamberry steals Jon's millions, and gets away to Brazil.
    • ...leading to a truly wonderfully awful pun when Garfield notes, "Looks like Bernie 'made off' with the money."
  • The criminal Silent Jack in "Cat Nap" doesn't face any comeuppance for robbing the Arbuckle household.
• Karmic Butt-Monkey: Thanks to Nermal's more outright Jerkass behavior in this series, he seems to deserve the crap Garfield puts him through a lot more than he does in other Garfield media.
• King of Beasts: "The Lion Queen".
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: The episodes involving witches. The main characters (except Lucky) end up getting their memories erased by the witches after learning they're real.
• Lighter and Softer: Somewhat less cynical than the comics or even the previous animated installments. Garfield is more genuinely sympathetic, Jon is slightly less of a loser and there are more frequent heartwarming moments.
• Longer-Than-Life Sentence: Implied in the "Rodent Rebellion" special, where Jon tries to explain that he was framed for the robberies by rats and his lawyer quips that if Jon tells this to the judge, Jon will be lucky if he gets released from jail this century.
• Look Behind You: In the episode "Mother Owl", Garfield distracts Bruno by telling him "Look, the green-eyed distraction bird!"
• Mad Scientist: Dr. Thaddeus Bonkers.
• Magical Flutist: In the "Rodent Rebellion" special, Nermal saves the day by using his flute to herd all the rats in town and lure them to the police.
• Mage Species: The Witches, especially Cauldrons, were not mortals who learned to do magic, but rather a separate supernatural race with inherent magic powers.
• Meat-O-Vision: When Garfield begins to go crazy over trying to complete his bet with Nermal that he can go an hour without eating anything in "The Last Word", he begins to hallucinate Odie as being a hot dog and Nermal as being a cupcake.
• Merit Badges for Everything: After Drusilla and Minerva dress Garfield, Odie and Nermal in scout uniforms in the "Into the Wild" special, the twins remark that the pets should get a merit badge just for being adorable. Nermal retorts that he already has six.
• Metronomic Man Mashing: In "Little Miss Mouse", Squeak's niece appears to be in danger of being eaten by Bruno, but as soon as Bruno confirms that he is a cat, she promptly grabs him by the arm and repeatedly swings him above her to hit him against the ground.
  • In "Fitness Crazed", Squeak's friend Biff also does this to Bruno.
• Mirror-Cracking Ugly: Nermal mocks Bruno for not being as cute as he is in "The Great Trade-Off" and proves it by showing his compact mirror to him, Bruno's reflection causing the glass to crack.
• Moral Myopia: The villains of the "Mean Machine" special are a bunch of robots who attempt to enslave humanity and the inhabitants of planet Sprocket to build more of them. In the end, the robots are beaten and then reprogrammed into being servants, which is essentially also enslavement.
• Multi-Part Episode: This series has a few.
• My Beloved Smother: Petey the Canary feels this way about his owner Betty Wilson who thinks of him as a son.
• Mythology Gag:
  • In the 2nd season, Jon asks Garfield if he'd like to watch Binky the Clown on TV. Garfield responds by saying that Binky is contractually obligated to never show up in this series.
  • At one point Garfield asks if anyone is old enough to remember Binky? Then he says never mind as he didn't expect it.
  • When Garfield takes control of the pet talent show, and is making Nermal do insanely impossible tasks within the space of a few seconds, one of the tasks is finding the Klopman Diamond.
  • Various pictures of Garfield from throughout the years appear throughout the house. Of noteworthy mention is a picture of Garfield's original design in the living room.
  • The episode "Fame Fatale" involves Garfield switching places with a British lookalike named Sir Leo, which is similar to the plot of the second live-action Garfield film Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties having Garfield switch places with his lookalike Prince.
  • "Where's Odie?" has a near-sighted old man mistake Odie for his dog Spot, an allusion to how Odie used to be named Spot in Jon, the prototype version of the original Garfield comic strip.
  • The fantasy sequences in "Pirate Gold" have Garfield and Odie dressed in their pirate costumes from Garfield's Halloween Adventure.

N-Z

• Never Smile at a Crocodile: Subverted with Monique the alligator from "Into the Wild".
• Never Say "Die": Unlike Garfield and Friends, this show is a lot tamer in comparison - therefore this trope is always played straight.
  • One episode even features a ghost cat yet he's never referred to as being dead.
  • "Night of the Apparatuses" subverts this by having Mildred yell "You will all di-!" but getting cut off by her plug being pulled before she finishes.
  • On occasion Garfield averted this.
• Negative Continuity: Other than a few major staples of the series that are present in every episode, each episode seems to be set in its own universe since they disregard anything that came before them e.g. "the Hollow Tree" in Jon's yard only exists in episodes that require its presence, or Jon's neighbors vary depending on the episode. This leads to a lot of Series Continuity Errors when episodes contradict continuity by referencing past events from other episodes.
  • One rather jarring one, is that Jon has twin nieces despite his only sibling being his bachelor brother Doc Boy.
  • In "Which Witch" Mrs. Cauldron is a normal old woman who just happens to be witch-like, but in later appearances she is a witch.
• Nice Guy: Odie and Jon (usually).
• New Work, Recycled Graphics: does this very frequently and it's quite noticeable. Often the same 5 character models will be reused for different roles each episode with little change to their models but very different personalities. The Indian scientist and the balding character that was the "Dr Whipple" that sold a fake animal show posing as an animal whisperer in one episode, are the most reused. Is related to the show's Negative Continuity
  • The balding character went on to be a TV advertised therapist, an abusive elephant owner in a circus act, and many more.
• The Nicknamer: Garfield is sometimes this, usually calling Odie by various nicknames like "Odster", "The Pup", "Bloodhound" etc
• No Celebrities Were Harmed:
  • Frank Welker deliberately channels the late, great Lorenzo Music as Garfield.
  • Dr. Whipple as an evil version of Dr. Phil McGraw.
• No Ending: "It's About Time" ends before we see how Garfield and Nermal restore things to the original timeline.
• No Fourth Wall: It's Garfield, what'd you expect? By the second season, it becomes rare for the characters to not bring up that this show is a cartoon.
• Not Now Were Too Busy Cryingover You: At the end of the episode "Underwater World", Jon is stranded on an island lamenting while they believe that Garfield and Odie had died after falling to the bottom of the sea, while the two are right behind him, Garfield speaks to him and Jon asks them don't comfort them, Garfield counts to three and right after that Jon realizes they are still alive.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: The first time we see Nathan, a kid in the same neighborhood as Jon, he appears quite friendly. Then he turns out to be a nasty Mad Scientist-in-the-making, trying to turn Odie into a cockroach in the very same episode.
• Opening Shout-Out: In the first half of "Unfair Weather" Jon's ringtone is the show's main theme. Garfield even says it sounds familiar.
• Our Werebeasts Are Different: In "Curse of the Weredog", a rare star alignment in the sky causes Odie to turn into a Weredog whenever the full moon is visible. By the end of the episode Odie no longer suffers from this due to the stars rearranging themselves, but then another rare star alignment occurs which affects Garfield...
• Overly-Long Tongue: Odie
• Paper-Thin Disguise: In "Extreme Housebreaking" Harry assumes the fake identity of "Kittykins" and all it takes for Garfield to not recognize him (at least not right away) is an orange wig.
• The Eeyore:
  • A parrot Jon's editor entrusts to Jon in "Parrot Blues" does nothing but gripe about everything negative about life.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Garfield has his occasional kind moments, usually with Odie such as rescuing Odie in "Underwater World"
  Garfield: Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm about to do my one good deed for the day.
  • "Mother Garfield" has Garfield take care of a bunch of baby birds after noticing that their mother hasn't come back to her nest in a very long time (mainly because she was trapped in a garage), and had to protect the birds from Harry, who wants to eat them. The baby birds appear in a later episode and so Garfield goes to great lengths to protect them from Harry.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: For a mouse, Biff, Squeak's cousin, is very strong, being able to take on three cats at once.
• Pounds Are Animal Prisons: Bumbling Animal Control officers: Al and Pete are regular antagonists.
• Predators Are Mean: Chomper the shark from "Underwater World" and the Giant Squid from "A Gripping Tale". Subverted with the wolf from "Big Bad Wolf", who was only trying to protect its young. Averted with Garfield and Odie, played straight with Harry, Bruno, Hercules and other cats/dogs.
• Previously on…: The Garfield story arc episodes do this by showing clips from the previous parts at the beginning.
• The Professor: Professor Bonkers
• Protagonist-Centered Morality: In "Online Arbuckle" Garfield records and uploads a video of Jon having an accident, making him a laughing stock. Garfield later feels bad and decides to fix everything... by humiliating Nermal instead.
• Rascally Raccoon: In "Into the Wild", a trio of raccoons trick Garfield, Odie, and Nermal into switching places with them.
• Real After All:
  • The Zabadu turns out to be a real creature at the end of the "Long Lost Lyman" special.
  • In "The Very, Very Long Night", Garfield, Odie, Drusilla and Minerva get scared from watching a horror film about a creature with tentacles. After Garfield, Odie, Drusilla, Minerva and Jon have all gone to bed, the episode ends with the Creature with the Tentacles turning out to be real.
• Really Dead Montage: "Long Lost Lyman" features a variation that doesn't involve death where it looks like Odie will have to go back to Lyman and Garfield sadly imagines a montage consisting of scenes featuring Odie from previous episodes. It's ultimately subverted because Odie misses Garfield and Lyman allows Odie to continue living with Jon.
• Ring-Ring-CRUNCH!: The theme song opens on an alarm clock ringing next to Garfield, who then punches it off of the dresser.
• Robot Me: The "Mean Machine" special has a race of extraterrestrial automatons attempt to take over Earth by enslaving humanity. Garfield poses a threat to their schemes, so they attempt to eliminate him by creating robot doubles of everyone Garfield knows.
• Running Gag: A scream in the background is heard almost every time the "Bulldog of Doom" is mentioned.
• Rube Goldberg Device: Played straight when Garfield employs one early in an episode to catapult Nermal from a reclining chair into a trash can outside. Subverted toward the end of the same episode when Garfield catapults Nermal from the same chair into a cardboard box outside without using complex contraption.
• Scooby-Dooby Doors: In "Heir Apparent"
• Screwball Squirrel: Odie ends up facing one among a group of four squirrels in "Up A Tree". They settle their differences and become friends by the end of the episode though.
• Self-Deprecation: The "Rodent Rebellion" special has a scene devoted to explaining that rodents and mammals are not the same thing, with a man showing up to inform the audience that the episode's writer needs to go back to school.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong:
  • Several episodes, mostly involving Garfield having to rectify his mistakes earlier (especially if food is at stake).
  • The story arc of the Professor from "Unfair Weather".
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: "Master Chef" had Jon buy Garfield a new type of microwaveable lasagna which he doesn't like. Then hears a story about a cook who can make "the best lasagna in the world". Garfield goes through the whole episode trying to get said cook to reconcile with his apprentice (the pizza cook, Vito) to have it made. When he finally succeeds, the cook reveals he had sold his recipe to be distributed as a microwaveable food...the same one Garfield had dismissed earlier. The reason it tasted bad? He forgot to take the plastic wrapping off the food.
• Shout-Out:
  • Dr. Whipple gets traumatized by the wacky events in an episode enough to fear dogs briefly, during which he sees a dog and runs away shrieking "Who let the dog out?" while the dog he sees barks.
  • To Bernie Madeoff of all people. In "Cyber Mailman", Jon invests all the lottery money he won through future newspapers into an investor called Bernie Scamberry, who outright scammed them and stole all their money under the promise he'd triple their money. Garfield remarks "Bernie made off with all our money!"
  • In "Every Witch Way" and "Bride and Broom", features a witch with a European accent named Winona who's fall in love with Jon Arbuckle and Doc Boy and trying to marry them in Tower of Witchery, a queen of all witches Head Witch turned Garfield and Odie into frogs considered turning them into a "moose and squirrel", and and a raven who keeps saying "never more!".
  • Speaking of witches, the five-part "Bewitched" features a young witch named Abigail and a bat named Bruce.
• Shown Their Work:
  • The mounted dinosaur skeletons from "Bone Diggers" are surprisingly accurate and realistic, for a cartoony show.
  • The Giant Squid from "A Gripping Tale" has its mouth in the correct location (the center of the arms). Said mouth is even a beak.
  • "Farmer Garfield" breaks the "goats eat tin cans" myth and states they actually lick the glue off of cans.
  • In "Little Trouble in Big China", Dingbang explains his name means "Protector of the Country".
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Witches are able to communicate with animals via a translation spell.
• Sphere Eyes: 90% characters play this straight though exceptions do occur such as Bob Wilson and every mouse character.
  Garfield: Look over here with those oversized eyes of yours.
• Stock Audio Clip:
  • And how! The show LOVES this trope to the point where you could make a drinking game for each time you hear a recurring laugh or cry.
  • You can guarantee that you'll hear Garfield's "Hoo-hoo-hoo-ha-ha-ha" laugh used somewhere in EVERY episode.
• Skyward Scream: Garfield does this in "The Last Word", after seeing Nermal with a chocolate Popsicle. Garfield did that because he got indigestion and was unable to eat any solid food.
  Garfield: CHOCOLAAAAAAAATE!!!!
• Step Servant: Played for Laughs in Farm Fresh Feline. Jon drags Garfield to go with him and Odie to help his brother with the farm. They ask Dr Whipple to mesmerize Garfield into becoming enthusiastic about work, so he'll do all the chores while Jon, his brother, the doctor, and Odie have lunch and watch TV. The hypnosis effect ends when Garfield falls from a ladder and he gets revenge by hypnotizing the four into mimicking whatever happens on TV.
• Stupid Evil:
  • After reclaiming his elephant (which Garfield had been hiding due to the abuse it suffers), Dr Whipple immediately begins tearing into it, threatening to starve it and otherwise make its life hell, right in front of a group of police (who naturally arrest him on the spot).
  Dr Whipple: You can't lock me up like some...dumb animal!!!
  • In the Engineered Public Confession example above, he apparently didn't notice Garfield was holding a microphone right in front of his face.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Eddie Gourmand finds out the hard way that building a cheese theme park 100% out of cheese is a horrible idea due to the smell, attraction of flies and the buildings melting.
  • In "World Without Me" Garfield goes through a It's a Wonderful Plot and reveals that Jon's technically Secretly Wealthy, or would be if not for all his money being used to feed Garfield.
• Tempting Fate: When Odie gets past the first round of a pet pageant (with Garfield's "help"), Garfield expresses confidence that "we can't lose." Then cue the announcer stating that the second round would be a talent contest. Garfield's reaction: "Boy, can we lose."
• Threatening Shark: Chomper from "Underwater World".
• Toilet-Drinking Dog Gag: In an episode where an alien switches Garfield and Odie's bodies, Arlene tries comforting Garfield by telling him to think about how many things he can do as a dog. The first things that come to his mind are chasing his tail and drinking from the toilet, which doesn't make him feel any better.
• Too Dumb to Live: In one episode a mouse refuses to believe that Garfield is nice to mice and doesn't eat them, so he repeatedly tries to get Garfield to eat him just to prove he's right. He's lucky Garfield isn't the kind of cat to eat mice.
• Transformation Discretion Shot:
  • In the episode "Curse of the Were-Dog", when Garfield turns into a were-cat, sounds of him transforming are heard, with him appearing transformed after Jon, Odie and Professor Bonkers run away.
  • In the episode "Prehistoric Pup", when Odie gets stuck in the gum, he gets exposed to to a meteorite that turns him into giant green prehistoric dog. But when he transforms, it is offscreen.
• Translation Convention: The animals all speak English (or the episode's language) to each other, but to the humans, they sound like normal animals.
• Totem Pole Trench: In "My Cousin Petunia" Garfield & Odie attempted to do this to save Drusilla and Minerva from being bullied by Greta.
• Tough Spikes and Studs: Hercules is a tough Chihuahua dog who scares people off and can be a trouble-maker (although he feels lonely deep down). In the first season, he wears a spiky collar.
• Ungrateful Bastard:
  • In "Rodent Rebellion" Nermal helps save the day and Garfield thanks him by mailing him to Abu Dhabi again.
  • Likewise in "True Colors", after Garfield takes a beating from some dogs to save Nermal, the latter responds by saying he's an idiot who should get his head examined, and his hair turning grey.
• Vegetarian Carnivore: Averted with Garfield as he has been known to eat plenty of other intelligible species. Though mice are off the table.
• Villain Song:
  • In "The Lion Queen" special, Egomaniac Hunter Dirk Dinkum sings "Go Away", where he boasts about what a repugnant and horrid scumbag he is. The title refers to the phrase frequently said to him by the people he has tormented.
  • The "Bewitched" special has two Villain Songs.
    • "Be My Ghost", where the ghosts inhabiting the underworld sing about how much they like scaring the living.
    • Varicella sings "Varicella Song" when her plan to turn all humanity into frogs almost succeeds.
  • In the "Mean Machine" special, the antepenultimate part "Robot Rampage" has Master Control sing "That Fat Cat", where he expresses how he must eliminate Garfield to prevent him from thwarting his plan, while the final part "The Robot Rebellion" has him sing "Alarm Song", where he orders his minions to stop Garfield and Odie.
• Walk Through the Camera: Used quite often. These are only some of the examples.
  • "The Big Sleep" after Garfield eats something from the fridge, his belly fills the screen and the scenes cuts to him in bed.
  • "Penny Henny" after Garfield hears about the twins coming, he walks into the camera carrying suitcases.
  • "Pup in the Pound" when Garfield finally tries to look for Odie after being threatened by Jon.
  • "Night of the Bunny Slippers", where Jon invites Aunt Ivy inside.
  • "Odie in Love", where Garfield mocks Odie of his crush. "If you break up with the brush I've got some nice nail clippers for you"
  • "Stealing Home", with Bruno raiding through Garfield's fridge
  • "Land of Hold", with Garfield running away from a bunch of floating phones
  • "The Robot", with the cleaning robot about to grab and suck away Garfield
  • "The Big Sleep", with the owner of the "All You Can Eat" restaurant inviting the disguised Jon inside
  • "Lucky Charm", where a leprechaun realizes someone stole his gold.
• We Want Our Jerk Back!: The episode "Whatever Happened to Aunt Ivy?" has Jon's aunt Ivy try to be nicer to Garfield in gratitude for the cat saving her from falling down the stairs. Garfield eventually finds Aunt Ivy's efforts in being a nicer person to be more annoying than her old crabby self (mainly due to cooking healthier food than he prefers and interrupting his TV time to read to him), so he searches for a way to make Aunt Ivy mean again.
• We Will Meet Again: The T3000 promised to return for revenge at the end of his debut episode, but his only other appearances in the series are a pair of cameos.
• The World Was Not Ready: After his invention which opens a gateway between the fictional world of Television and the real world causing hilarity to ensue, Professor Bonkers feels this way about his own genius.
  Professor Bonkers: Oh dear... It seems the world is not yet ready for my genius.
• You Dirty Rat!: The "Rodent Rebellion" special has the conflict revolve around a bunch of rats overrunning the town and framing Jon for their robberies.
• You Need to Get Laid: In "Meet The Parents"
  Mrs Wilson: [to Jon] This place could use a woman's touch.
  Garfield: So could Jon.
• You Won't Like How I Taste: In "Garfield Gets Canned", Mrs. Ferret attempts to talk Garfield and Odie out of eating her by claiming that ferrets taste like asparagus. When that doesn't work, she then claims to taste like tofu, which is also ineffective as a deterrent.
• Your Television Hates You: In the episode "The Last Word", Garfield makes a bet with Nermal that he can spend the next hour without eating anything and does his best to honor the deal due to Nermal promising to leave him alone for an entire month if he proves he can do it. At one point, Garfield tries to distract himself from his hunger by watching television, but only worsens his hunger due to seeing an episode of Eddie Gourmand's cooking show, a parody of Casablanca that involves Rick and Ilsa sharing a cheeseburger and a commercial for Vito's pizzeria.

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