My friend and I have this ongoing argument about the nature of Garfield and Jon’s communication. In the comic strip, Garfield’s monologues take place in thought bubbles, no talking. In the TV show however I maintain that the crazy capers require far more effective communication than interpreting a cat’s body language. Can anyone remember if Garfield really speaks?
In the cartoon he speaks, but not out loud. I think we just hear his thoughts and Jon has to read Garfield’s body language to figure out what he is saying.
I would have to say no. His mouth never moves, and it seems that the communication is rather one-sided. Garfield knows what Jon is saying, and Jon just more or less guesses what Garfield is thinking, or Garfield acts it out. Please remember that Jon is a rather sad individual, and he is probably willing to stare at his cat for extended periods of time while Garfield “does his lines.” The nature of the interaction becomes clear when Garfield “talks” to other non-sad humans, who either ignore or chastise him. When Garfield talks to other animals, though (besides Odie, who is stupid beyond words), the communication seems to mutual. Garfield does, however, sing on the fence at night occasionally, so vocalization is not out of the question. I hope this helps.
There was one particular Sunday strip several years ago where Garfield phoned his local TV station to complain about a weather bulletin interrupting his movie. When the receptionist answered, all that came out was an indignant “MEOW!” and he got hung up on.
VERY early on, Jon was sweeping up some cat hair and asked what he was supposed to do with it. Garfield replied “Make yourself another cat.” We get Jon’s reaction shot, with him thinking “I have the distinct feeling I was just zinged.”
So… no, Garfield does not speak as a human would. Jon does get impressions of Garfield’s thoughts, and since Garfield is now old enough to drink in any bar in the United States and has been living with Jon since Day One, my guess is Jon’s gotten plenty of practice interpreting him.
After having posted this analysis, I can’t help but feel as lame and sad as Jon Arbuckle. God help me.
Strangely, yes, it appears that Garfield cannot communicate verbally with humans, but in at least one other case, he crosses species lines with ease.
More specifically, I remember him having ongoing dialogues with the mouse living in the Arbuckle house. IIRC, he’s had brief exchanges with big, nasty dogs, too. He was never able to get much going with Odie, but as chriszarate pointed out, Odie’s not too bright.
Yet – and my memory of the stacks of Garfield cartoon books I had as a kid is pretty fuzzy – I don’t know that I ever saw him converse with birds, and I don’t think the spiders ever said anything to him.
Garfield can, of course, communicate with other cats. He’s had arguments with his gap-toothed girlfriend Arlene and world’s cutest kitten Nermal.
–Amy
Garfield doesn’t speak to humans at least. There was a strip where there was some quiz question, and the answer was “Meow!” (can’t remember what question would have the answer “Meow!”, except for the incredibly obvious, “What sound do cats make?”, but it wasn’t that.)
Garfield phones up and answers, winning the prize.
“Now, Sir, if you’ll just leave your name and address…”
“Arghhhhhh!”
Mostly, I’ve seen where he cannot talk with Jon.
But there have been strips where Jon responds directly to Garfield’s thoughts. So I think Davis has drifted a bit on the premise of their communication.
In Mother Goose and Grimm, Grimm and the other pets “talk” in thought bubbles, but Mother Goose converses freely. But I guess since she’s an animal too, this presents no problem.
Perhaps Garfield doesn’t actually communicate at all. Perhaps his “thoughts” are all Jon’s imagination and/or interpretation of body language, and the entire strip is seen from Jon’s perspective. That would explain why Jon sometimes doesn’t seem to know what Garfield is thinking, yet other times he can respond directly–Jon just makes the whole thing up.
Of course, this doesn’t explain what’s going on when Jon isn’t in the strip at all, although I suppose it could just be Jon’s imaginings of what goes on while Garfield is away.
More likely, though, is that it’s just a cartoon. I doubt Jim Davis puts as much thought into the specifics as we do. Although it’s something I’ve always wondered about too.
If we purely look at the graphical side of the comic we see that Garfields words are always in thought bubbles, meaning one large cirle to hold words and several smaller to connect to his hear. Jon’s on the otherhand are in speech bubbles, one circle to hold words and a triangle pointing to his head…
Yes. I do.
P.S.
WooHoo!
Sweet Jesus. Don’t you people read?
I have nearly every Garfield book made from before I turned 14. One of them is a short book, about half as thick as the normal compilations. It’s called “Garfield and the disaster” or something similar. It’s a story about a horrible tornado that the animals can feel coming, but the humans have no idea. Garfield races frantically around, trying to gather up all the housepets in the town. They meet in an abandoned theater, where the speech taboo is broken. They discuss (verbally) their plans to save their families from this terrible storm. It is agreed that they will again break the speech taboo long enough to tell their families of the impending doom.
The decision is made, and the animals set out to save the town. There are MANY panels of Garfield speaking directly to Jon, who’s astonished.
Anyways, the storm is over, the town is nearly destroyed, but everyone is okay.
The book ends with a joke about Odie not speaking even after they were allowed to. Something about him being so stupid he can’t even think, let alone speak.
So, the definitive answer is No, Garfield does NOT speak to Jon, save this single story, made late 80’s, early 90’s. I’ll re-read it next time I go home, and get the name.
–Tim
Once or twice it seemed that Jon was catching every word.
But I think that’s just slipup from the thought bubble theme.
Homer, I have that book too. 
Garfield’s Judgment Day, copyright 1990.
Also, “many panels” is somewhat misleading - the book is written with text on one side and a large graphic panel on the other.
Garfield can’t speak. He simply thinks, and we can read his thoughts.
It was explained on one episode of his TV show that we can hear his thoughts there because of a special microphone that can pick up thoughts, but we can’t hear Odie’s thoughts because he’s too stupid for the mike to pick his up.
(Another thought…Garfield is also old enough to drive…scary…)
AmyG, Garfield has talked to the spiders. The spiders have talked to him too.
Dylan_73, the question was what you said…except the announcer used the Latin scientific term for a house cat.
“How do you spell your name, Mr. Arghhhhhhh?”
I clearly remember one strip where Garfield was “yelling” at Jon about something and in the last panel he wonders why he’s holding his hands (he did not call them “paws”) in front of his mouth, since he wasn’t really speaking.
What I wanna know is: Why do his whiskers come out of his ears?
Go to http://www.garfield,com and watch your cursor become a Garfield head!
hehe…I don’t know if this is actually the one you’re thinking of or a different one, but I recall a strip where Garfield has lost Pooky, his teddy bear. He calls for him, “POOOKY!”, then, in the next panel, “Why am I cupping my hands around my mouth?”