Jonathan Quentin "Jon" Arbuckle; born July 28, 1950) is the main human character from the Garfield comic strip by Jim Davis, and the tritagonist of The Garfield Show and Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, protagonist of Garfield and Friends, and deuteragonist of Garfield: The Movie. He is present in all branches of the Garfield franchise except a few video games. He is the deuteragonist of the comic strip and is rarely absent. He and Garfield provide most of the dialogue on a regular basis, though he is one of the two whose dialogue is in speech bubbles, compared to Garfield always having thought bubbles.
He has a very large family, especially consisting of uncles and aunts. Jim Davis based much of himself onto Jon Arbuckle, such as that Jon has the same birthday as Jim Davis, and is also a cartoonist like him.
Double Act with Garfield
Garfield and Jon play an odd pair and take turns who is comedic/unusual. Garfield is often but not always the normal man while Jon does very awkward habits especially 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. Usually Garfield will provide a punchline that's supposed to be the primary sentence of the comic, however sometimes Jon provides the primary sentence.
Jon Arbuckle young (April 27, 1990)
Putting Garfield on a Diet
Garfield is capable of eating large quantities of food: fried chicken, hot dogs, pepperoni pizza (or pizza with everything), cheeseburgers, bacon, donuts, spaghetti, ice cream, cookies, candy, cheese and most of all, lasagna. Because of this, Jon will frequently put him on a diet. In all diets, Jon isn't seen allowing Garfield to go off his diet. At least a few times, Jon dieted with Garfield together.
In the Garfield Show, however, Jon is tricked by Garfield dozens of times. Sometimes the fact Garfield needs to diet is not even needed, and Jon is just making it up. This makes Jon feel very bad and guilts himself into giving Garfield food.
Creator Jim Davis stated in the 20 Years and Still Kicking book, featuring his annotations on several comic strips and background history, that his reading audience have always demanded comic sequences where Garfield has to go through a diet, or else they will complain.
Personality
A nerdy and clumsy man, Jon is the owner of Garfield and (after Lyman left) Odie. He has been portrayed as being extremely pathetic in the world of dating and coolness, constantly striking out when trying to get dates with women. This has been partly due to his ridiculous pick-up lines and loud flashy outfits. Jon is the primary fodder and conversation partner to Garfield and is often the victim of his jokes. In Garfield and Friends, he was frequently portrayed as being incredibly gullible when faced with unscrupulous salesmen and extraordinarily dumb in general for a human. But, he has some moments of brilliance like putting out decoy Christmas presents, taking out the kitchen light bulb, nailing Garfield into bed (this happened twice), opening a soda can that was shaken by Garfield so Garfield gets sprayed, and sawing a hole in a table and Garfield's bed to trick Garfield into thinking Odie is sleeping in the bed, when Garfield is about to go to bed, so it seems that he simply does not choose to think most of the time. He also whines a lot (according to Garfield) and there is some evidence to show that he does.
He is a cartoonist by profession, as established in the first strip, the television cartoons Garfield and Friends, and The Garfield show and later by Liz (much to her parents shock).[1] Jon still manages to make enough money to keep Garfield with lasagna -- no easy feat. Often, Jon, as well as Garfield, gets bored, and comes up with "fun" ways to cure boredom, as he was speaking (such as buying new socks, clipping his toenails, or playing "Guess the Burp" with Garfield). He first appeared on June 19, 1978 in the first ever Garfield comic strip. His birthday has been revealed to be July 28 (which is the same as Jim Davis, the comic strip's creator). On December 23, 1980, Jon jokingly tells Garfield that he is 29 years old, claiming that he would have been 30 but he was sick a year. Jon can be mean. Jon cares greatly about Garfield, however.
To Garfield, Jon is an easy target for pranks, however once he nailed Garfield into bed and nailed his bed to the roof as retaliation for Garfield putting a lizard in his shoe. A recurring gag in the strip is that Jon seems to be afraid of mice. Sometimes he screeches like a car when he sees one. In "The Garfield Show" Jon is often spiteful towards Garfield and Odie when he punishes them, (most likely due to the misery they put him through). Jon does nothing to stop Drusilla and Minerva from playing dress up with Garfield and Odie.
Nicknames
- 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
In other countries
| 'Country' | Character's Name | Character's voice |
| Hungary | Jon Arbuckle |
Pusztaszeri Kornél (in the first dub of Garfield and Friends) Czvetkó Sándor (in the second dub of Garfield and Friends, in Garfield Gets Real and in Garfield: Pet Force) |
|
Mexico |
Jon Bonachon |
Adriano Castillo (in the first dub of Garfield and Friends) Jorge Araneda (in the second dub of Garfield and Friends) |