Garfield is turning 46 this week, with everyone’s favorite orange tabby celebrating his birthday on Wednesday, June 19. Ever since the first Garfield comic strip appeared in newspapers on June 19, 1978, creator Jim Davis has marked the lazy cat’s birthday each year on that date. Thanks to his enduring popularity around the world, Garfield has celebrated more birthdays than the oldest cat to ever live (which made it to 38, according to the Guinness Book of World Records).

In most years, the days immediately preceding or following the June 19 strip will also center around Garfield’s birthday. Sometimes he’s dreading the prospect of growing another year older. Other times, he’s excited about the upcoming day when everyone celebrates him with presents and cake. The past four decades have seen no shortage of old-age jokes and comics about Garfield’s love of cake and other sweet treats. Here are the 10 funniest comics celebrating Garfield’s birthday.

10

Garfield’s Lasagna-Shaped Cake Inspires Love

2009

For many years, Garfield’s veterinarian Liz was the subject of an unrequited crush that his owner Jon harbored for her. Every visit for a yearly check-up would see Jon trying to put the moves on Liz, often to be met with insults (or worse, in the case of one infamous Garfield strip).

After a couple of decades, Jon eventually won her over in 2006 and the two have been an official couple ever since. As this strip shows, she’s not only a perfect match for Jon, but for Garfield as well. By making him a lasagna-shaped cake, Liz shows that she truly knows the best way to Garfield’s heart.

9

Garfield’s First Birthday Kicks Off a Decades-Long Tradition

1979

After its debut in 1978, Garfield quickly captured the public’s attention and affections. When one Chicago newspaper decided to stop running the strip, more than a thousand readers sent in letters demanding it be reinstated. To celebrate the fat cat’s popularity and success, Davis marked the comic strip’s one-year anniversary with a comic that established June 19 as Garfield’s official birthday and kicked off one of the strip’s longest-running traditions.

The first birthday strip that Garfield would run is a simple joke that gets to the core of the character. While he loves cake and being the center of attention, the one thing he possibly loves more is messing with his pal Odie. Garfield’s wishes may not come true every year, but it did this first year when his cake ends up on the poor pooch’s head.

8

Garfield Looks Back on His First 10 Years

1988

Birthdays are a time when people tend to reflect on their lives, and for Garfield it’s no different. His 10th birthday happened to fall on a Sunday, allowing him to mark the occasion with more room and full color. Looking back on the past decade allows Jon and Garfield to acknowledge how much they have (and haven’t) changed in that time, with a series of snapshots charting the evolution of their designs over the years.

One notable thing about this strip is that it contains one of the last appearances of Lyman, Jon’s former roommate and Odie’s original owner. Though he was originally introduced as someone for Jon to talk to, Lyman disappeared from the strip when Davis realized that Garfield could serve that purpose. His appearance here marks the first time he’d been seen in the strip since 1983. Outside of a cameo when his face appears in a newspaper in a 2013 strip, Lyman has not been seen since.

7

Garfield Gets an Unappetizing Birthday Surprise

2002

Many scientists believe that cats were first domesticated because of their ability to hunt mice and other rodents. This is one instinct that has definitely not been passed down to Garfield. He has no problem beating up Jon, Odie, Nermal or the mailman, and will often smash any spiders that he comes into contact with. However, Garfield is content to leave the mice in his house alone, and has even established something of a friendship with many of them.

The mouse in this birthday strip manages to pull off the impossible by presenting Garfield with a cupcake that even he does not want to eat. It’s not exactly clear what this mouse’s intentions are in popping out of a cake dressed as an exotic dancer. But the sight is enough to make Garfield lose his appetite.

6

Past & Present Garfields Thank the Reader

2003

Jim Davis and the artists at Paws Inc. will often mark Garfield’s major milestone birthdays, including publishing special collections on his 20th, 25th, 30th and 40th anniversaries. Like the strip that ran on Garfield’s 10th birthday, this comic celebrates a big year by looking at the past and how much Garfield, Odie and Jon have changed since they first appeared 25 years prior.

Due to the sarcastic nature of its protagonist, Garfield tends to shy away from earnestness. But even Garfield has to acknowledge that there’s no way he could have made it 25 years without the love and support of his fans. Therefore, instead of celebrating himself, he takes the opportunity to thank his readers, with a little help from his, Odie’s and Jon’s original 1978 designs.

5

Should Have Blown Out the Candles First…

1982

Not every birthday is a huge milestone, but the strip still takes its time each year to celebrate Garfield. This comic that ran on Garfield’s fourth birthday is a perfect distillation of what he’s all about: Garfield loves food, but he doesn’t always think things through. His unceasing gluttony ventures into recklessness when he swallows his birthday cake whole, without even pausing to blow out the candles.

The shocked look on Garfield’s face, combined with the smoke billowing out of his ears (a classic cartoon trope) make this comic funny enough. But what really sells it is the expression on Jon’s face. He’s not concerned or surprised. In fact, he almost looks bored, or even a little annoyed. For Jon Arbuckle, a cat swallowing literal fire in order to get to dessert is just another day.

4

Garfield Accidentally Turns Back Time

2014

It’s a stretch to say that Garfield is grounded in reality, but it tends to stick to areas of life that readers would find somewhat familiar. Sure, he walks upright, has opposable thumbs, and has a very human personality, but these aspects of Garfield are not due to any sort of magic or science fiction. While spin-offs like Garfield’s Pet Force will explore more outlandish scenarios, the daily comic strip tends to keep things relatively “normal.”

That said, it’s still a cartoon, and doesn’t have to play by the rules of real life if there’s an opportunity for a good joke. By changing the year on his calendar, he’s able to turn back time and make himself younger. While it’s cute to get a look at Garfield as a kitten and Odie as a puppy, most readers would likely agree that the image of Jon Arbuckle in a diaper is not one that the strip needs to revisit.

3

Garfield Struggles to Blow Out All Those Candles

1995

Living in a house with a rather dim-witted human and an even dimmer dog, Garfield often sees himself in a high-status position in the strip. But that’s not always the case, and there are plenty of examples of Garfield being the butt of the joke. One regular opportunity presents itself every year around his birthday, when Davis gets to poke fun at Garfield’s ever-advancing age.

The strip has gotten a lot of mileage off the tradition of putting a candle on a birthday cake for every year the guest of honor has been alive. As Garfield has gotten older, the jokes have included his birthday candles crushing his cake or filling the house with smoke. This comic is a classic example. Here, it’s likely his lung capacity has gotten weaker as he’s grown older. Combine that with even more candles on the cake, and there’s no way he’s blowing them out on the first try.

2

Garfield Unleashes His Birthday Present on Poor Odie

1984

Some of Garfield’s birthday strips might comment on getting older or offer a chance to celebrate readers. But others turn to a tried-and-true staple of Garfield’s adventures: good old-fashioned slapstick comedy. Throw in a rubber chicken, and you’ve got the makings of a truly timeless gag.

The birthday present that Garfield receives here is really two gifts in one. First, there’s the rubber chicken itself, which he’ll later go on to name “Stretch.” While Garfield may not play with Stretch as often as he plays with his beloved teddy bear, Pooky, he has been known to bring it out when he wants to annoy his housemates. The second gift he receives is one he’s loved since his first birthday: an opportunity to give poor Odie a hearty smack across the head.

1

Garfield’s Birthday is No Match for Monday

2017

If there’s one thing everybody knows about Garfield, it’s probably the fact that he hates Mondays. While it doesn’t make a lot of sense for a cat to hate one day of the week more than any other, it’s something that Garfield readers connected with early on in the strip’s history. Most people can relate to the frustration of saying goodbye to the weekend and starting another week of work.

In Garfield’s world, not even his birthday can stand up to the scourge that is Monday. A moment of celebration is quickly dampened when a cake slams right into his face. Combining two of the comic strip’s best traditions into one joke, this comic is a great example of why readers have been celebrating Garfield for 46 years and counting.