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Garfield / Tropes A to C

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    A 
  • Abhorrent Admirer: One 1987 strip portrayed a dog as having a crush on Garfield (who hates dogs).
  • Aborted Arc: Many storylines end like this, especially the ones where Garfield, Jon and Odie take a trip. They always go out of their way to make a strip or two preparing or heading to their destination, but by Sunday they're suddenly back home as if nothing happened. If the story spans more than one week, the Sunday strip will continue the storyline instead.
  • Accidental Truth: In one comic strip, Garfield tells Odie there's been a dog food recall as an excuse to steal his food. Then Jon reads in the newspaper that it really was a dog food recall.
  • Achievements in Ignorance:
    • Odie was once able to climb a tree because he didn't know he couldn't.
    • Odie once hung in a upside-down hammock. Garfield said he's successfully doing that because Odie's too stupid to understand gravity.
  • Acid Reflux Nightmare: Garfield has had several after eating leftovers late at night. For instance, a 1988 strip leads to him dreaming that he slept for 50 years and woke up to a world where cats are hunted for food.
  • Acquaintance Denial: In one strip, Jon asks about Irma's ribs and she says they're ticklish. When Jon clarifies that he's talking about beef ribs, Irma claims to have never tickled a cow and Jon says it's a fun experience. Garfield says, "I'm not with this man."
  • Acrofatic: For such a ball of lard, Garfield is surprisingly athletic when he wants to be, being able to run extremely fast and even beat up other animals and even people! Some readers have theorized that all those diets Garfield has endured over the years were partially successful.
  • Actually Pretty Funny:
    • That one Monday Garfield falls into a sinkhole in his own house, even he can't help but be amazed at Monday's originality.
    Garfield: Cool! A sinkhole, right here in the kitchen!
    • Jon tells Garfield in one strip that the universe doesn't revolve around him because it's too long a trip. Rather than maul Jon like he usually does, Garfield compliments him on the zinger.
  • Added Alliterative Appeal:
    • The 10-24-1999 strip saw Garfield destroying daisies, maiming marigolds and mauling mums.
    • In a strip where Pooky goes missing:
    Garfield: Aha! Could this be a telltale trail of teddy bear hair? Even if it isn't, that was a pretty nifty bit of alliteration.
    • "Welcome to Binky Burger. I'm Binky's Buddy, Biff."
  • Adoption Diss: In the June 26th, 2002 strip Jon reads in a book that cats and lions are in the same family, takes a long look at Garfield... and decides that the latter must be adopted:
    Jon: You must be adopted.
    Garfield: Hey!
  • Aerosol Spray Backfire: Jon corners Garfield and triumphantly tells him it's time for his flea spray... then proceeds to spray a huge cloud of it in his own face.
  • Aesop Amnesia: At least twice, Garfield became so fat his feet couldn't reach the floor. And yet as soon as he slimmed back down, he went right back to his gluttonous ways.
  • Affectionate Parody: Jim Davis sometimes uses Jon's family to poke fun at his own Down on the Farm roots. Jon's father is depicted in one strip at being amazed by an indoor toilet, while in another he breaks Jon's sink after trying to pump the faucet.
  • Affectionate Pickpocket: Garfield has done this to steal food from people's pockets on at least two occasions.
  • Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Odie begs to Jon for food (with Puppy-Dog Eyes, to boot) in this strip. Garfield is shocked that it works.
  • Air Guitar: Jon plays air guitar in the April 26, 2015 strip. Garfield counters with Air Lasagna.
  • Alien Abduction:
  • Alien Animals: One strip suggests that cats are invaders attempting to subjugate humanity, and that they are responsible for certain seemingly-mindless actions of dogs and lower-class humans.
  • All Cloth Unravels:
    • Garfield only pulls on a thread from Jon's pants, but the shirt somehow unravels, too, leaving Jon naked outside.
    • Garfield once tried to unravel his way out of a Homemade Sweater from Hell in this manner, only to have Jon's mother re-knit the sweater immediately, catching up to him by the third panel.
  • All Just a Dream:
    • Word of God is that the 1989 Halloween story arc is this, although some readers continue to have their own interpretations.
    • In one strip, Garfield discovers a bottomless pan of lasagna. He's not happy when he realizes it was just a dream.
    • Jon got a date and asked Garfield to pinch him to be sure it wasn't a dream. It was, and he screamed.
  • Alliterative List: Jon lives by three words. "Live, laugh, love".
  • Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Arlene is about as pink as a bottle of Pepto-Bismol.
  • Ambiguous Syntax:
    • In this strip, Jon tells Garfield "Eat that or else". Garfield takes it as an offer, rather than a threat, and chooses "else".
    • Jon once told Garfield, "We are going on a diet." Garfield starts questioning the implications behind this statement... implications that aren't obvious, that is.
      Jon: I don't think I'm getting through to him.
  • Anal Probing: "Dang Earl, yer bein probed!"
  • Anchovies Are Abhorrent:
    • There is one strip where Garfield is pretending to be a shark, and attacks a pizza in a feigned "feeding frenzy". His game is ruined in the last panel where he spits out the bite he took and says "Yuck! Anchovies!"
    • By the time of a later strip, Garfield likes pizza with anchovies. Jon and Odie don't.
  • And a Diet Coke:
    • Occurs in this strip.
    • Inverted in this one, in which Garfield is given a lasagna that's low calorie and one-third fat. He requests two more.
    • In this early 1990 strip, Garfield looks over Jon's cereal wanting it. Jon retorts that Garfield's already eaten 12 donuts, 6 pancakes, 1 pound of ham and a quart of milk. Garfield asks just what kind of point Jon is making.
    • In this strip, the "healthy breakfast" at Irma's Diner has four eggs, pancakes, waffles, bacon, sausage, ham, fried potatoes... and a sprig of parsley.
    Garfield: Gotta have the daily requirement of vegetables!
  • And Then What?:
    • In one strip, Garfield is being chased by a dog and wonders what the dog would actually do if it catches him. So he turns around and surrenders to the dog, asking it what it's going to do now. The dog then starts a waltz with Garfield, with an irritated Garfield demanding that he gets to lead next time.
    • In another one, a mouse tells Garfield mice would rule the world some day. Garfield asked "Then what?" and the mouse said they'd then live in people's house and eat cheese. Garfield was unimpressed by the answer.
    • An insect said someday they'd rule the world. Garfield asked "Then what?" and the insect hesitated before saying they'd "crawl on stuff".
  • And There Was Much Rejoicing: Ellen's reaction when Jon tried the sympathy angle by claiming he only had one week to live.
  • And This Is for...: Garfield clobbered Odie and said "That's for not being a cat." Later on, Garfield realized it was wrong on his part to Clobber Odie for not being a cat since it wasn't Odie's choice. Garfield then kicked Odie. "This is for being a dog."
  • Animal Jingoism: The traditional cats vs. dogs rivalry is played straight on many occasions between Garfield and Odie and all the other dogs he interacts with, but it's also repeatedly subverted. Garfield and Odie can get along perfectly well when they feel like it. One particular strip involves what looks like a large, angry barking dog chasing a terrified Garfield, but in the last panel they stop to catch their breath as a despondent Garfield tells the dog that they'll never catch the ice cream truck.
  • Animals Lack Attributes: None of the animals are anatomically correct, but in a family-friendly daily newspaper comic strip, would you really expect them to be?
  • Anthropomorphic Shift:
    • Garfield originally started out looking more like a real-life housecat, but thanks to Art Evolution, he became extremely humanoid during the mid-1980s.
    • This was lampshaded in two strips. In one, Jon asked Garfield where the cookies in a jar went. After getting no response, he said, "For a cat who walks on his hind legs, you don't speak much!"
    • In the other, Jon told him that cats can't walk on their hind legs. Garfield said, "I didn't know that," and then, to Jon's shock, started walking on his front legs.
  • Apathetic Pet: Garfield is probably the Trope Codifier of the comic strips. An apathetic fat orange cat that only thinks about himself and usually ignores his owner (Jon Arbuckle), at least until he gets fed... or Jon is eating something.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
    • In the August 10, 1978 strip (in which Odie's name is revealed), Garfield compares him to various historical disasters: the Hindenburg, the Titanic, and the Edsel.
    • "What's new, Garfield?" "Well, King Kong is on the roof batting down airplanes. The entire planet is being ravaged by brain-eating aliens... but more important, my dish is empty."
    • "Birthdays bring you lots of things... Gray hair. Bad eyesight... Creaky joints. Ear hair, aches, pains, bad teeth... Sigh... And cake!"
    • Another one that occurs while Jon's watching a soap opera:
      Jon: I have some bad news, Garfield. I ran out of your favorite cat food.
      Garfield: I'll survive.
      Jon: Odie chewed up your scratching post.
      Garfield: Big deal.
      Jon: And Frank left Marcia for Stephanie.
      Garfield: (dramatic expression) HOW COULD HE?!
    • "Why do people expect us cats to eat mice? This mouse could be somebody's mother. This mouse could be a deacon in its little mouse church. And one of the fuzzy sucker's bones might get caught in my throat."
  • Art Evolution: A rather extreme example, as Garfield has gone from having a huge body and beady eyes, to having a huge head and a body that looks like a basketball with legs. Just look at his face alone.◊ The art evolution even predates Garfield, as the short-lived predecessor Jon features a slightly different face for Jon, a lumpier and un-striped Garfield who has enormous jowls and a marking on his tail, and an Odie (then named Spot) who resembles an oversized Chihuahua more than anything else.
    • Lampshaded heavily in a 25th-anniversary arc where 2003 Garfield meets 1978 Garfield.
      2003 Garfield: So I was you, huh?
      1978 Garfield: A long time ago.
      2003 Garfield: How did I see out of those itty-bitty eyes?
      1978 Garfield: First explain how you stand on those two spindly legs.
    • Further lampshaded in that year's birthday strip where we see not only 1978/2003 Garfield, but also 1978/2003 Jon and Odie.
  • Artistic License – Animal Care:
    • Real cats are lactose intolerant and garlic and onions are both poisonous to cats. In real life, feeding a cat with lasagna would eventually kill it (that may explain why Garfield is overweight, though).
    • Chocolate is also toxic to cats, yet Garfield is shown to enjoy chocolate in many forms.
    • Jon tried to put Garfield on a diet at times. These diets exclude meat and proteins in general. As cats are carnivores, giving them only vegetables is not good for them.
    • Garfield hates raisins. Grapes and raisins are very toxic for cats, as they cause kidney failure to them.
    • At times, Jon tried to get another pet with a bird or a fish. Cats often try to eat them, so they don't make good pets is you have a cat. Not to be surprised if Garfield tries to eat them (and often manages to).
  • Ascended Meme: Jim Davis not only approved of Garfield Minus Garfield, he also contributed a few to the book.
    • For 2024’s April Fools’ Day, the official Garfield Instagram account temporarily rebranded to a Garfeldi one.
  • Aside Glance: Occurs in the final panel of nearly all the comics, often as a reaction to a particularly stupid line or action.
  • Ask a Stupid Question...: Jon asked if Garfield would sleep all day. Garfield then checked his social calendar. He said he'd have a high tea with the Queen of England but had no appointments for that day so he slept and Jon mentioned the trope's name.
  • Ass Shove:
  • Astonishingly Appropriate Interruption: In one strip, Jon begins a phone call politely, only to yell threatening things at Garfield for stealing his food yet again. Needless to say, Debbie thought the yelling was directed at her.
  • Attack Backfire: This strip had this happen to Garfield, with Jon Comically Missing the Point of what Garfield was actually trying to do.
  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever:
    Colonel Exposition: Don't make me shut off the wi-fi!
    Garfield: That's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
  • Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Garfield was grateful for the trope when a dog that was chasing him suddenly decided to chase the mailman instead. The dog then decided to chase a squirrel instead of the mailman.
  • Attention Whore: Garfield practically wrote the book on this.
  • Author Appeal: There is a definite point in the comic's long run when you will notice that most of the (human) females begin to be consistently drawn with huge breasts, butts, and lips. Some strips, such as this one, draw women in a Non-Standard Character Design.
  • Autocannibalism: Hinted here, combined with in-universe Fridge Horror.
  • Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: They may give each other a hard time, but Jon and Garfield really do care for one another. Jon even went so far as to throw out a potential girlfriend (literally) when she told him she was allergic to cats and forced him to choose between her or Garfield. Garfield and Odie also qualify.

    B 

    C 
  • Call-Back: This strip features Jon bringing back the time Garfield used to walk on all fours and asking if Garfield forgot how. Trying to prove Jon wrong, Garfield tries to walk on all fours again, only to THUD on the floor.
    Jon: A little rusty, Garfield?
    Garfield: You didn't see that.
  • Canine Confusion: Odie is yellow with brown ears and a black spot. No breed of dog has such a color combination. The closest thing in Real Life is beagles, which are a combination of black, brown, and white.
  • Canines Primary, Felines Secondary: Inverted. Whenever he and Odie show up together, Garfield the cat tends to have the spotlight.
  • Canon Immigrant: Garfield's family first appeared in the special Garfield on the Town. That special was later reworked into a 1984 storyline where they appeared in the comic.
    • Binky the Clown was first seen in Garfield's Halloween Adventure before appearing in a 1986 storyline about Garfield and Odie getting lost and joining the circus (although one earlier strip had Garfield wondering where the Binky the clown show was).
  • Can't Stand Them, Can't Live Without Them: Garfield and Odie's relationship, to a tee.
  • Can't You Read the Sign?: In the March 25, 2024 strip, Garfield notices a sign high up on a tree and so climbs up the tree in question to check it out... only to discover after the fact that the sign reads "NO CLIMBING". Oops.
  • Captain Obvious:
    • In one strip, Jon says this:
      Jon: (While pointing to a bird feeder.) This is called a bird feeder, Garfield. (He starts putting birdseed inside it.) And this is called putting birdseed in the bird feeder.
    • One time, Garfield did the following: waking up, stuffing his face, kicking Odie, sleeping in front of the TV, eating a fern, and going to bed. And in the process he basically told the audience what he was doing.
  • Cartoon Cheese: Shows up often when the mice are involved.
  • Casanova Wannabe: Jon is an excellent cringeworthy example — until his Relationship Upgrade with Liz.
  • Cash Lure:
  • A Cat in a Gang of Dogs: Inverted, Odie is the only dog in a gang of cats.
  • Catapult Nightmare: Garfield has had several.
  • Catching Some Z's: Usually it's only a single Z in a speech bubble variation (although some early strips play it straight).
  • Cats Are Mean: Could probably be the Trope Namer. Not that the trope is deployed consistently, but Garfield's Comedic Sociopathy is probably one of the series' most frequent recurring aspects (although at times he also demonstrates the capacity for great kindness).
  • Cats Are Snarkers: Garfield, of course.
  • Cats Love Laser Pointers: An exploited example takes place in the April 29, 2012 strip, where Garfield chases a red dot caused by a laser pointer until he goes splat off a table, and the strip ends with the culprit being a spider exacting payback on the cat.
    Spider: Revenge is mine!!
  • Cat Up a Tree: Often happens to Garfield. As he puts it, cats are the world's greatest tree climbers, but the world's worst tree climber downers.
  • Ceiling Corpse: They weren't dead, but Garfield once duct-taped his neighbor's little dog to the ceiling above her phone, and when she called Jon about the missing dog, indicated that he should tell her to look up.
  • Censorship by Spelling:
    • One of Jon's attempts while on the phone with Liz:
    Jon: I know a place with a great B-U-F-F-E-T.
    Garfield: Make it a table for T-H-R-E-E.
    Liz: What did you get Garfield for Christmas, Jon?
    Jon: I got him a C-A-T T-O-Y. (whispers) He's right here.
    Garfield: I wanted a J-E-T S-K-I, you D-O-R-K.
  • Chalk Outline: Jon did it to Garfield for laughs.
  • Characterization Marches On: In the early days, Garfield acted more like a regular cat, compared to the more humanlike behavior of later comics. Jon, on the other hand, was more like the average cat owner, displaying none of the weird eccentricities he later came to possess. Also, the relationship between Jon and Garfield was completely opposite to what we see today, with Jon acting as the straight man to Garfield and Jon making the sarcastic quips about Garfield's sometimes weird behavior.
  • Childhood Brain Damage: Jim Davis opens the comic's 20th anniversary book by claiming, "I was born July 28, 1945, in Marion, Indiana, and was promptly dropped on my head - which explains my lifelong desire to become a cartoonist."
    • A few strips imply that Jon is so dumb because of several head injuries he suffered from growing up on a farm.
  • Childish Pillow Fight: In one strip, Jon challenges Garfield to a pillow fight. Garfield easily defeats him with a pillow stuffed with a giant chicken's feathers.
  • Choosy Beggar: In one story arc, a starving Garfield is looking for something to eat. He wanders into a store. He then leaves, still groaning, "Food! I gotta have food!" and it's revealed that he went into a health food store.
  • Christmas Carolers:
  • Christmas Episode: From the 2000s on, Davis has taken to devoting the entire month of December to Christmas-themed strips. Trudged into Christmas Creep in 2008 where the first Christmas-themed strip was released the day before Thanksgiving.
  • Christmas Light Chaos: The comic has used this trope many times:
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Lyman. once it became apparent that he was The Artifact (he was originally brought in to give Jon someone to talk to). Arguably one of the most iconic examples in the funny papers. Although he appeared in a photograph in the newspaper Jon's reading three decades later.
  • Circling Saw: Used in some of the strip's wackier moments:
    • It first happened in this comic, where Garfield wakes up and realizes he is about to face this fate, leading him to the conclusion that it must be Monday.
    • In this comic, Garfield tries to get into the fridge by sawing a hole in the floor underneath it, but either his calculations are off or Jon moved the fridge.
    • In this comic, Garfield saws a hole in the table to steal Jon's food. Jon realizes the danger and quickly takes his plate off the table, but Garfield simply pulls Jon through the hole instead.
    • In this comic, Garfield uses this trope to steal Jon's hamburger, and later the ketchup.
    • An interesting variation happens in this comic, where instead of the hole being sawed underneath Garfield, it's being sawed in the ceiling above him so the dog sawing the hole can jump down on Garfield.
  • Clark Kenting: Parodied. As an excuse not to chase a mouse, Garfield claimed he "didn't recognize him in those glasses".
  • Clip Show: June 19, 1988, the 10th anniversary strip. This strip is also the last personal appearance of Lyman (look at the logo box).
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Irma, the eponymous diner waitress of Irma's Diner. Jon sometimes wanders into this as well, making comments such as "I think my toes are jealous of my fingers because they get to point at things." Garfield himself had his moments in the strips (before he got Flanderized into a full-time Deadpan Snarker).
  • Clown Car: Jon says his Uncle Clarence was a circus clown who retired last year and "thirty of his buddies came to his retirement party in one car".
  • Clutching Hand Trap:
    • Happened to Garfield with a cookie jar in a 2002 strip, but he subverts it by breaking the cookie jar on Jon's head, instead of just simply letting go of the cookie that he wanted.
    • Jon got both of his hands stuck in pickle jars (as did his date) in another strip.
    • Garfield gets his hand caught in an olive jar in an early strip.
  • Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere: Every time Garfield goes on a diet.
  • Comedic Sociopathy: Especially in the earlier years, much of the humor comes from Garfield's abuse of almost everyone he meets, usually just for his own amusement. Jon, Odie, Nermal, spiders, dogs on chains and the mailman are frequent targets. Garfield is on the receiving end sometimes too.
  • Comic-Book Adaptation: Garfield finally got a comic book in 2012 through BOOM Studio, written by Garfield and Friends writer Mark Evanier. One of the covers was drawn by MAD stalwart Al Jaffee!
  • Comic-Book Time: A weird zig-zagging. Garfield's birthday (and occasionally Jon's) is celebrated in every year, and he complains about getting old. However, none of the characters ever age physically.
    • One should also note that after the 25th anniversary, they stopped listing Garfield's age every year. Possibly because of the fact that a real cat typically only lives within half the time that Garfield's been around. Though they have since gotten around to listing Garfield's age again around 2018.
      • This was even lampshaded by Jim Davis with the title of a retrospective that was released at that time: Garfield at 25: In Dog Years, I'd Be Dead.
  • Comically Missing the Point:
    Jon: This morning I had a bowl of cereal with strawberries. When I turned my back, a mouse ate them. What do you say to that, Garfield?!
    Garfield: We have strawberries?
    Jon: I don't believe it.
    Garfield: Neither do I. Odie just drew to an inside straight.
  • The Comically Serious:
    • Liz, whose job for nearly three decades was to become exasperated by and/or snark at Jon's attempts to woo her.
    • Jon's father, too. He typically was a Grumpy Old Man who was there to complain about the antics of the other characters (though on certain occasions he did get to be silly).
  • Compliment Backfire:
    • A strip shows Jon telling Vet Liz that because animal medicine is a difficult field, she must "have a great mind for a woman." She, offended, responds, "I have a great mind for a MAN." He attempts to flirt by telling her she has "a great body for a man too."
    • Jon's attempt at complimenting Liz doesn't work out as well as he hoped in this strip.
    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!
  • Cone of Shame:
    • Odie once had a dream in which Pooky, Jon, Squeak, Liz, Nermal, and Garfield each wore cones.
    • Garfield and Odie are wearing those cones in July 7th, 2023. Garfield tells Arlene they "don't want to talk about it".
  • Congestion Speak:
    • While he can't talk out loud, Garfield once caught a cold that left him thinking in congestion speak. Lampshaded in one strip where he notes, "I can hardly ebben understad by own thoughts," while looking directly up at the thought bubble over his head.
    • In one strip, Garfield lampshades this trope when he comes down with a cold. He points at his thought balloon and comments, "Loog, eben my thoughts are stuffed ub." Later, when Jon thinks Garfield gave him his cold, he pronounces it as "He gabe me a code".
  • Continuity Nod: "Ah-HA! I knew I still had those old rubber arms!"
  • Contrived Coincidence: Jon gets his head caught in a wastebasket and his hands caught in pickle jars right before his date, then worries what to do because his date is coming at any moment. Turns out she had the same thing happen to her.
  • Cool Old Lady: Jon's grandma, who rides a motorcycle, boogies down on the piano, and is just an out-and-out badass grandma. (Ironically, her daughter is much more old-fashioned.)
    • Also Jon's Aunt Gussie, who, among other details, made a living teaching "slam-dancing", commonly referred to today as "moshing". Yes, you read that right.
  • Couch Gag: Starting on March 29, 1981, Sunday strips have had a logo box on the upper left corner. The title, stars, borders and background of the original logo would rotate colors each week. From that date until March 7, 1982, the "throwaway" panel depicted Lyman, Odie, Garfield and Jon with the wall and table changing colors with each strip. Since July 28, 1985, each Sunday strip has had different logo box artwork.
  • Counting Sheep:
  • Counting to Three: In one 1988 strip, Garfield tried to have Odie do this.
  • Cover Innocent Eyes and Ears: The February 8, 2023 strip has Garfield and Odie watching a television program with a warning that there is strong language. We only hear barks and meows, but Garfield finds the language vulgar enough that he immediately covers Odie's ears. Judging by their eyes, Odie has the same opinion as Garfield.
  • Covered in Kisses: Once on a date, Liz commented that Garfield must've been a cute kitten. Jon replies that he was and whips out his wallet to show her a picture. Liz, at first, appears to be surprised that he keeps a picture of his cat as a kitten in his wallet. When Jon returns home, his face is covered in lipstick as he tells Garfield, "I owe you one."
  • Crazy-Prepared:
    Garfield: Oh, come on!
    Jon: Uh... Garfield...
    Garfield: Because nap attacks can strike anytime, anywhere, without warning, that's why.
  • Creator Cameo: Jim Davis appeared in the title panel for the 10th anniversary strip.
  • Crossover:
    • Marmaduke appeared at the beginning of a sunday Garfield strip. As Garfield realized the fence he was painting his name on was Marmaduke's, he apologized stating "wrong strip".
    • April Fools Day 1997 saw various United Features Syndicate strips crossing over with one another. This strip's contribution saw Jon and Garfield temporarily moving in with Blondie and Dagwood while they wait for the fresh coat of paint on their house to dry up. (That day's Blondie, in turn, saw Garfield stealing one of Dagwood's famous sandwiches.)
    • This strip features U.S. Acres characters, as does this onenote . This one features Roy and Orson in a line of characters waiting for Jon's mother to hug them.note 
    • In one strip, Garfield walks past a mirror, but instead of seeing his reflection, he sees Snoopy. He chalks it up to it being Monday.
  • Cruel Mercy: One strip has a spider asking Garfield to swat him as he just lost his job. Garfield says no.
  • Crying Wolf:
  • Cuckoo Clock Gag:
    • In this comic, Garfield is sitting next to the cuckoo clock on the chimney mantel, and brags how monday is almost over and nothing bad happened to him all day. Then the clock strikes midnight and the cuckoo knocks Garfield off the mantel.
    • In this strip, Jon says he wonders what time it is. A cuckoo clock is heard off-panel and Jon yells in pain before clarifying that it's three. Garfield comments that Jon stood too close to the cuckoo clock.
    • In this comic, Odie does an impression of a cuckoo clock using his tongue with a cuckoo bird on it.
    • In this comic, Garfield is patiently waiting in front of a cuckoo clock till the cuckoo will come out again. It's left ambiguous whether or not he knows the bird is not real.
  • Cue Card: Jon is using cue cards at a restaurant to sound romantic for Liz while Garfield holds them behind her. Not realizing the last card was Garfield telling him what he wants in exchange for it, Jon says "and I want a big, fat doggie bag for this".
  • Cue the Flying Pigs:
    • Consciously averted by Garfield: "Don't get me wrong, I love dogs. I'd never hurt a dog. And if I'm lying, may lightning... *pause* ... strike the dog next door." (Crack) "Yip!"
    • Jon made a drawing of a pig. Garfield made a better drawing, although his had wings. When Jon complained that pigs didn't have wings, Garfield said they would before Jon outdrew him. Also counts as a Shout-Out as that strip ended with Garfield calling Jon "Pablo".
  • Cue the Rain: Common, especially when the gang goes camping. In a Sunday strip:
    (Jon has just finished mowing the lawn)
    Jon: Finally! All done!
    (It immediately starts raining. It then stops, and the grass automatically regrows)
    Jon: That's just not fair!
    Garfield: Suck it up, mow boy.
  • Cultural Translation: In the Spanish version of the strip, "fudge" is usually translated to "chocolate".
  • Cut and Paste Comic: It's not, but the remarkably regular art style gives this impression◊.
    • The strip began using digital artwork in November 2011, and thus artwork is often reused and modified, pushing it into this trope.
  • Cut a Slice, Take the Rest:
    • One logo box pictures Jon holding a single slice of pizza, and Garfield holding the entire rest of the unsliced pizza over his mouth.
    • A variant, one comic depicts Garfield trying to decide whether to leave one scoop of ice cream or two while he eats the rest.
  • Cute Kitten: Nermal, the world's cutest kitten. (Often qualifies as Cute Is Evil, as he can often be very mean to Garfeld. Also, in one strip it is revealed that Nermal is using coffee and cigarettes to purposely stunt his growth, and claimed to be a midget in another.)
  • Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: One of Jim Davis's favorite gags.
  • Cyclops: The January 16, 1981 strip had Garfield encounter a cyclops dog, which he labeled a "Seeing Eye dog."

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