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Jon Arbuckle

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This article is about the character. For the comic strip, see Jon (comic strip).

Jonathan Q. "Jon" Arbuckle (born July 28, 1951)[2] is the tritagonist of the Garfield franchise, and was once the main protagonist of the comic strip Jon.

Background

Jon Arbuckle was born to farm-owners Mr. and Mrs. Arbuckle. He also has a brother whom he always calls Doc Boy, much to his brother's annoyance.

Jon Arbuckle young

Jon Arbuckle young (April 27, 1990)

When he attended high school, he was nicknamed "Carpface" by the other students. He was once college roommates with Lyman. On June 19, 1978, he adopted Garfield in a pet shop.[3]

Garfield and Jon play an odd pair who are comedic or unusual. Garfield is often, but not always, normal. Jon, meanwhile, has very awkward habits, usually related to curing his boredom, speaking random aspects of philosophy, ruining or complaining about his chances of getting a date, or complaining about unfortunate events. In most comics, Garfield will provide a punchline that is usually supposed to be the primary sentence of the comic. Jon sometimes delivers the primary sentence in strips more about Garfield performing a solo act.

Jon manages to make enough money to keep Garfield with food, which is no easy feat. Jon, as well as Garfield, frequently get bored, normally coming up with "fun" ways to cure boredom, such as buying new socks, clipping toenails, or playing "Guess the Burp" with Garfield.

Jon is an easy prank target for Garfield, either played when he is awake or asleep. A recurring gag in The Garfield Show is Jon being afraid of mice usually screaming at the sight of them. In the comic strip, he chases mice and urges Garfield to catch them.

Diets

Since Garfield is capable of eating large quantities of food, Arbuckle has put Garfield on several diets over the years. Jon is shown to be harsh during diets, seen as he will not allow Garfield to go off his diet. Jon has at least dieted with Garfield twice.

In The Garfield Show, Jon has been tricked by Garfield commonly of times. This usually makes Jon feel bad and gives in into giving Garfield food. Sometimes, Jon has threatened not to feed Garfield unless he does a certain task.

In 20 Years & Still Kicking!: Garfield's Twentieth Anniversary Collection, Jim Davis stated in an annotation that his reading audience has always demanded comic sequences where Garfield has to go through a diet, or else they complain.

Physical appearance

Jon is a tall and skinny adult man with light skin and curly, messy brown hair with a black mullet. While he wears shirts of different colors, he is most frequently seen in his signature powder blue polo top. He also wears dark blue pants (in older appearances, he wore black pants) and brown shoes. In Garfield and Friends, he often wore brown pants with a darker blue shirt.

In the November 22, 1985 comic strip, RX-2 states that Jon weighs 175 pounds and is 6 feet tall.

He is often seen wearing suits when he goes on dates. The suits are often composed of clothing items with patterns such as polka dots, plaid, and stripes, and usually have bright, clashing colors.

In the May 18, 1992 comic strip, it is revealed that Jon owns contact lenses, but it is unclear how often he wears them or why he needs them. In the April 29, 2017 comic strip, Jon's eyes are shown to be green.

Personality

Over the years, Jon Arbuckle has been portrayed as a nerdy, clumsy, and very pathetic man.

Prior to 2006 (when Jon and Liz finally became a couple), Jon constantly struck out when trying to get dates with women. This has been partly due to ridiculous pick-up lines, lack of social skills, and his entire wardrobe of incredibly ugly, flashy outfits. On Friday nights, when unable to get a date, he would invite Garfield to partake in his ridiculous Friday night "festivities" like "Connect the Freckles". Other times, he would merely stare at his phone, desperately waiting in vain for a woman to call him.

Even after forming a relationship with Liz, Jon still behaves pathetically. Under some unusual circumstances, Jon frequently embarrasses himself, and Liz, while out on dates: this often results in Jon getting permanently kicked out of the restaurant. Jon will often present Liz with a ridiculous idea of some sorts, or offer to play a tune on his accordion. Garfield will frequently turn to Liz and encourage her to "escape" while she still can. Jon does many other unintelligent activities, such as looking in an auto parts store for Liz's Christmas present.[4]

Jon is also quite incompetent, such as by forcing both shoes onto one foot out of boredom, falling down the basement stairs after mistaking the basement door for the front door, and trying to use the electric can opener during a power outage. Once, Garfield ate Jon’s new fish and placed a potato in the fishbowl. Jon fed the “fish” for two weeks after that, before finally noticing it had been replaced with a potato. In Garfield and Friends, he is often gullible, usually when faced with unscrupulous salesmen, no matter how obvious the scams may be.

Jon is also considered to have bad taste in music. Despite the genre being "dead," he still likes to dance to disco music.[5] He is also quite fond of polka and accordion music. Despite playing for years, Jon has proven himself to be a terrible accordion player. He is bad at singing, often getting his mouth forced and sealed closed by others, especially when out caroling around Christmas time.[6]

Jon has a yearly tradition wherein at the end of winter, he dresses up in a daisy costume to perform his interpretive dance titled "Dance to Spring". Sometimes, this includes a song. He often states that this performance is dedicated to "Mister Spring" or "Mister Springtime". In the March 22nd, 2015 comic strip, it is revealed that Jon also owns a bee costume in case something prevents him from finding or wearing his daisy outfit.

Jon tends to be immature at times. According to Garfield, he whines a lot, which is sometimes demonstrated. He reads pop-up books (calling them “fascinating”), wears bunny footie pajamas (even when he goes out to get the mail and/or newspaper), and owns teddy bear boxers. In numerous strips he tends to be wishy-washy and has a hard time making simple decisions, such as deciding what ice cream flavor to get. Every year at Christmas time, he and Doc Boy still enjoy being read “Binky, the Clown Who Saved Christmas” by their father.[7]

Jon has had occasional moments of brilliance, such as putting out decoy Christmas presents, taking out the kitchen light bulb, nailing Garfield into bed, spraying Garfield with a shaken soda can (which was shaken by Garfield), sawing a hole in a table and Garfield's bed to trick Garfield.

In The Garfield Show, Jon is a little more intelligent than his other incarnations, although he can still be easily duped at times. He can often be spiteful towards Garfield and Odie when he punishes them. Notably when they seem to be picking on Nermal, who is oblivious towards his true nature, when they are trying to get back at him for something that is offensive to them. While he mostly defends Nermal, it is shown that Jon also has his limits with him. In "Family Picture", Jon ended up tying Nermal (and his neighbor) with rope after the cat photobombed their picture too many times. Most of his punishments involve giving Garfield and/or Odie cat/dog food instead of food humans eat. When this happens, Jon will sometimes torment them by teasing them with his food. Jon does not seem to stop Drusilla and Minerva from playing dress up with Garfield and Odie, as he believes they enjoy it. In "Very Very Long Night", he forbids them from doing it, mainly because he was annoyed and trying to sleep.

Likes and dislikes

Likes

  • Writing comics
  • Cooking and baking
  • Going on dates with women (Liz exclusively since 2006)
  • Polka
  • Dancing and singing
  • Garfield
  • Odie
  • Nermal
  • Ordering Garfield to do chores and to not touch food he is not supposed to eat
  • Sudoku puzzles
  • Terrible costumes
  • Games
  • Calling Garfield "fat"
  • Putting Garfield on a strict diet
  • Taking Garfield to the vet
  • Drusilla and Minerva
  • Liz Wilson
  • Training Garfield to get rid of mice
  • Calling his brother Doc Boy
  • Disco music
  • Accordions
  • His sock collection

Dislikes

  • Garfield trying to eat his meals or plants
  • Garfield mistreating Odie
  • Garfield trying to mail Nermal to Abu Dhabi
  • Garfield scratching his furniture and his curtains
  • Garfield refusing to eat mice
  • Liz or any other women rejecting him
  • His pets making a mess
  • His pets misbehaving
  • Mice
  • Spiders
  • Garfield's antics
  • Garfield's extreme weight
  • His pets refusing to play with Drusilla and Minerva, due to their extreme hyperactivity
  • Being called names

Nicknames

Arbuckle has been called countless names over the years (most being in high school).

  • Zit
  • Bean Brain
  • Clown boy
  • Carp Face (His school friend Wheezer calls him this, it is also his nickname in his yearbook)
  • Geek Boy
  • Dork Boy
  • Lame Brain
  • City Slicker
  • The Shimmy King[8]
  • Sissy Boy[9]

Television appearances

Garfield Specials

Garfield and Friends

The Garfield Show

Jon appears in all episodes of The Garfield Show except "History of Dogs", "Iceman", "The Bluebird of Happiness", "History of Cats", "Black Cat Blues", "The Superhero Apprentice", "Fitness Crazed" and "Problems, Problems, Problems".

Trivia

  • Jon's name originates from a coffee commercial.[10]
    • “The name Jon Arbuckle came from an old coffee commercial I remember hearing. I’d also used the name as an ‘expert source’ to add ‘credibility’ to my speeches. When I created the comic strip, the name just seemed to fit the kind of poor sap who would get stuck with a cranky cat like Garfield.” - Jim Davis
  • According to one comic strip, Jon is six feet tall and weighs 175 pounds (~79 kg).[11]
  • Jon's favourite colour is red.[12]
  • Jon's car's license plate number is TB-312.
  • Jon Arbuckle is based on Jim Davis.
  • It has been hinted several times throughout the comics that Jon has a terrible voice when it comes to Christmas caroling.[13][14]
  • In the first Garfield strip, Jon establishes himself as a cartoonist, although he was rarely seen making cartoons. The job was more frequently mentioned in Garfield and Friends. By the late 1990s, Jon's profession is rarely brought up, with at least one exception on August 2, 2015.
  • Jon had a cousin named Leonard who claimed to be kidnapped by aliens. Jon notes that said aliens "denied the whole thing", to which Garfield says, "Okay, now I'm frightened. Are you frightened?"[15]
  • Jon is 37 years old in Garfield: The Movie.
    • On December 23, 1980, Jon mentions to Garfield that he is 29.[16]
    • In The Garfield Show, Jon is described as 22.
    • In "Furry Tales", Jon is supposed to be 20 going on 21.
  • Jon's neighbor had a dog when Jon was a child named "Scraps", who chased a stick into a thresher. Garfield remarked that he lived up to his name.[17]
  • A few comic strips have Jon wearing contact lenses.[18]
  • The most common meal that Jon is seen eating is mashed potatoes, peas, and meatloaf. Garfield tends to steal it from him. The reasons vary, from Garfield preferring Jon's dinner over his own dinner (cat food in a green bowl) to Garfield still being hungry after eating his own dinner.
  • There is an ongoing comic strip that began in 2008 entitled "Garfield Minus Garfield", in which Jon is the main character featured and most of the other characters have been removed. In the strip, Garfield is depicted as Jon's imaginary friend, whom only he can see. A running gag has Jon appearing to be talking to himself or having sudden mood swings, making him appear insane, or sometimes depressed and seemingly suicidal. Jim Davis is a fan of the strip and sometimes contributes to the site.
  • Jim Davis says that Jon cannot understand Garfield's thoughts, but rather his actions. This is because he wanted a realistic cat and not one that talks.
  • On the fourth Friday of November, Jon and Garfield have Candy Cane Karaoke Night.[19]
  • Since Jon's only sibling, Doc Boy, is not shown to be married or have kids, it is unknown how Jon has nieces and nephews, as shown in some of the comic strips, one episode of Garfield and Friends, and The Garfield Show.
  • On December 3rd, 1999, Jon attempted to chat under the name Stephano. As Stephano, he claims to be "very rich and macho." However, no one else on chat falls for this, as they all leave the chat room quickly.[20]
  • Jon's favorite coffee is decaffeinated.[21]
  • Jon has occasionally shown religious aspects of his life, e.g., when shown praying in the April 29, 1987 strip and with his family at dinner in A Garfield Christmas.[22]
  • In the earlier years of the comic strip, Jon could occasionally be seen with a pipe.
  • Jon took his mother to his high school prom. Another year he went with his friend Wheezer.[23][24]
  • Jon owns a daisy costume, which he wears on the first day of spring each year to sing his "Dance To Spring". (sometimes referred to as the "Ode To Spring") One year, Garfield and Liz buried it to stop Jon from performing his song and dance, only for Jon to reveal that he has a bee costume, as a "Plan B".[25]
  • In the DTV films, Jon is shown to have freckles.
  • In "The Big Sneeze", tests diagnosed Jon with allergies to antelope, goldenrod, and grilled asparagus.
  • In "The Big Catnap", Jon's favorite cookies are pistachio and almond with chocolate sprinkles.
  • Jon was stuck in a tree on his eighth birthday.[26]
  • In Garfield on the Town, Jon's phone number is 555-7722.
  • In "The Horror Hostess Part 1", Jon reveals that he graduated from "Obscure Cartoons College".
  • In "Delicious Donut Day", it is revealed that Jon shares his birthday with Herman Post.

References

  1. ↑ Doggone Jon
  2. ↑ https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1980/12/23
  3. ↑ Garfield: His 9 Lives (book)
  4. ↑ https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2010/12/19
  5. ↑ https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2003/06/21
  6. ↑ https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2018/12/23
  7. ↑ A Garfield Christmas
  8. ↑ https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1983/11/27
  9. ↑ https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2010/12/03
  10. ↑ https://repository.duke.edu/dc/adviews/dmbb09122
  11. ↑ https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1985/11/22
  12. ↑ https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1991/11/20
  13. ↑ https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2012/12/08
  14. ↑ https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2015/12/22
  15. ↑ https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2000/05/05
  16. ↑ https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1980/12/23
  17. ↑ https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2000/05/03
  18. ↑ https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1998/01/31
  19. ↑ https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2007/11/23
  20. ↑ https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1999/12/03
  21. ↑ https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1991/11/20
  22. ↑ https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1987/04/29
  23. ↑ https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1992/09/02
  24. ↑ https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1990/04/26
  25. ↑ https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2015/03/22
  26. ↑ https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2001/04/24
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