Bit of debate here in the office about terminally cute **Nermal ** from the Garfield cartoon (I know… I’m as embarrassed as I should be about this).
I’ve always thought Nermal was a little cute boy kitten, but several coworkers think it’s a girl.
In the old cartoon TV series, it was voiced by a girl… but in the movie, Nermal was an adult siamese voiced by a guy.
Anyone here on my side? Has this ever been answered?
I always thought Nermal was a girl.
I always thought Nermal was a boy.
Nermal’s a boy. With eyelashes*. He’s quite effeminate, though, isn’t he? I think it’s part of his “cute” schtick. Boys aren’t “cute” in general unless they have girly characteristics, otherwise they’d be “macho”, or something.
ETA: Garfield was totally my kinda humour when I was under 6 years old. I remember very clearly Garfield referring to Nermal as a he on many occasions, which is the only reason I say it with any amount of certainty. See below for why it stood out to me.
I always thought Nermal was a girl but I’m pretty sure pronoun use in the comic itself makes Nermal out to be a boy.
Check it. Nermal’s a boy.
Yeah, he always struck me as the cat equivalent of one of those Victorian boys with fancy clothes and long golden locks and a gigantic lollipop whose parents never let them outside to play.
If that makes sense.
I believe that’s called the Little Lord Fauntleroy getup.
And I agree.
So did I. This belief was justified when I heard the voice of Nermal on Garfield and Friends. It was now confirmed when I checked Wikipedia and found the voice of Nirmal is a girl.
I came in here to express my thoughts on how stupid a question that was and to state that Nermal is obviously a girl.
I’ll be over here eating my pie. Carry on.
Nermal is a boy’s name. The reason why I know this is because a former coworker named her son that. She was from India and was not familiar with Garfield. She was highly offended when someone told her.
My favourite Garfield: garfield minus garfield: Archive
On Nermal’s second appearance in the strip, Garfield refers to Nermal as “he”.
Mainly I think Garfield is the most consistently, abominably unfunny mainstream cartoon; I can’t understand why anyone cares about it enough to ask a question.
Evidence points to the runt being a male.
Uh, which one? There are dozens.
I always thought Nermal was a cossetted boy cat.
This is the definitive response, since it comes from the official Garfield Web site. I like the final paragraph of the Nermal text:
That’s harsh- there are dozens of mainstream comics equally unfunny as Garfield, but with less kid appeal- Broom Hilda, Beetle Bailey, Marmaduke,Hi and Lois, Momma,etc… Id like to see someone argue that any of these is more funny than the others,with examples of it’s “more funnyness”
So are the voices of Bart Simpson, Ralph Wiggim, Todd Flanders, Database, Kerney and Nelsen Muntz—all voiced by Nancy Cartwright
Boy, from my memory.
ETA: asked and answered
It is sort of a collective, cumulative effect. 