One of the most successful comic-book characters ever created, Garfield isn’t exactly characterized by a sense of mystery. The tabby loves lasagna, hates Monday, and can’t resist leveling withering put-downs at his owner Jon Arbuckle. However, there are a few facts about Garfield that have managed to remain little-known despite his international reach, and one is the surprisingly logical reason he’s obsessed with a seemingly random foodstuff.
Created in 1976 for the comic strip Jon, Garfield enjoys continued fame and popularity today, both sincerely and in ironic reimaginings such as the “I’m Sorry Jon” horror meme or the multiple webcomics which remix his original strips to surreal and hilarious effect. Garfield’s inoffensiveness allows his adventures to be enjoyed on multiple levels, especially given bizarre fictional and real-life moments – like the strip in which his life is suggested to be a dying hallucination, or the GarfieldEATS food delivery app – that create spikes of interest whenever they’re rediscovered.
However, unlike Garfield’s hatred of Mondays (which apparently comes from the start of Jon’s work week reminding Garfield of his empty, cyclical existence), his love of lasagna is relatively sweet. As revealed in various comic strips and official Garfield content – most recently a set of facts shared to Twitter by the official Garfield account – Garfield was born in an Italian restaurant called Mamma Leoni’s, wolfing down lasagna because the delicious food was available in abundance. His taste for the meal began then, and persisted thanks to its connection to his earliest experiences. Interestingly for fans of Garfield lore, his love of pasta is actually the reason he met Jon in the first place, as the synopsis to Jim Davis’ Garfield at Large: His First Book explains:
Garfield was born in the kitchen of an Italian restaurant on a winter’s night in 1978, while outside snow fell like grated Parmesan cheese. He weighed five pounds, six ounces at birth – that’s big for a kitten! – and right from the start showed a passion for Italian food. The restaurant owner, forced to choose between Garfield and closing his doors for lack of pasta, sold Garfield to a pet store. Garfield thought he was a goner until Jon Arbuckle walked in the door.
It’s apparently one of the benefits of being able to communicate with his owner that Garfield is able to source his childhood favorite on demand, despite the fact that – as many have pointed out – any cat who ate lasagna in the quantities Garfield enjoys would severely cut down its life expectancy. Of course, Mamma Leoni’s is just the in-universe explanation for Garfield’s unusual fixation on lasagna. In an interview with Huffpost, creator Jim Davis confirmed his reasoning for the choice, saying, “I love lasagne. I thought it would be funny to have a cat who likes lasagne but as it turns out, I hear from people all the time that their cats love lasagne.”
Fitting with fans’ enjoyment of Garfield‘s weirder moments, it turns out the wisecracking cat’s favorite food isn’t just tied to his origin, but is an essential aspect of his backstory, explaining how he came into Jon Arbuckle’s possession. Hardcore fans of Garfield can rest assured that the franchise clearly takes his canon every bit as seriously as they do, while those who always wondered why the iconic feline adores Italian cuisine finally have their answer.
Sources: Garfield, Garfield at Large: His First Book, Huffpost
