Jon Arbuckle

Jon Arbuckle
Garfield character
First appearance	Garfield comic strip (June 19, 1978)
Created by	Jim Davis
Portrayed by	Breckin Meyer (Live Action Garfield films) Joel Rifkin in Garfield Live
Voiced by	Sandy Kenyon (voice in Here Comes Garfield) Thom Huge (voice in all other 1980s and early 1990s appearances) Wally Wingert (CGI Garfield films, and The Garfield Show)
In-universe information
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Occupation	Cartoonist
Family	Garfield, Odie, "Mom", "Dad", Doc Boy, Grandma, Drisilla and Minerva, Aunt Gussie, Uncle Waldo, Aunt Orleen, Sometimes Nermal
Spouse	Dr. Liz Wilson
Relatives	"Doc Boy" (brother), Tony Arbuckle, Long John Arbuckle, Bob (uncle), Judy (cousin), Tammy (niece), Stevie (nephew), Ned (uncle), Roy (uncle), Bill (uncle), Ed (uncle), Orpha (aunt), Lillian (aunt), Trupy (aunt), Zelda (aunt), an unnamed great-great-grandmother
Age	1978 ~ Present
Birth Date	July, 28 1961

Jonathan "Jon" Quentin Arbuckle is a fictional character from the Garfield comic strip by Jim Davis. He has also appeared in the animated television series Garfield and Friends, the computer-animated The Garfield Show, and two live-action feature films.

A nerdy and clumsy man, Jon is the owner of Garfield and Odie. He converses with Garfield and is often the butt of his jokes. In the animated Garfield and Friends, he was frequently portrayed as being incredibly gullible when faced with unscrupulous salesmen and rather dumb in general. On The Garfield Show, however, he's portrayed as being smarter, but still a little gullible.

Background

Jon's birthday is July 28, 1961 (the same month and day as that of Jim Davis). Jon tells Garfield that he is 29 years old in a December 23, 1990 strip (he makes a joke that he would be 30, but he was sick a year). However, in the episode "T3000" he is described as 23.

In the animated show Garfield and Friends, we learn that Jon has an Italian ancestor whose name was Tony Arbuccli. Some episodes of the show suggested that Jon and his pets live in Muncie, Indiana, which is also where Jim Davis lives. Jon wears contact lenses, his eyes are green, and his favorite music style is polka (a preference that he shares neither with Garfield nor with any other character). His personal will states that he wishes to be cremated and have his ashes spread over his accordion. He can play accordion, guitar and bongos, and sing, though his singing and musical skills are far from good. Jon Arbuckle's favorite color is red, and he likes decaffeinated coffee, chocolate-chip cookies, and unleaded gasoline. Jon believes in God, or at the very least seems to believe in hell, based on a 1988 strip in which after Garfield steals his steak, Jon remarks, "You won't think these things are so funny when the devil is sticking his pitchfork into that king-sized hiney of yours." According to one episode of Garfield and Friends, Some of his "fun" ways to cure boredom are buying new socks, clipping his toenails, or playing "Guess the Burp" with Garfield. Jon was raised on a farm, and occasionally visits his mother, father, and his brother, Doc Boy, who lives on the farm. Jon's brother, is portrayed as an equally geeky man-child, who hates being called "Doc Boy" but puts up with it. Jon also is known for referring to his parents' home as "The Farm". Jon's house is a yellow ranch with blue shutters.

Jon acquired Odie when Lyman, an old friend of his (and Odie's original owner) moved in with him and Garfield. After a few years, Lyman disappeared from the strip, never to be heard from again. The book Twenty Years and Still Kickin', which marked Garfield's twentieth year, included parodies of how Lyman left such as, "Had lunch with Jimmy Hoffa and then...".

Despite his somewhat timid and honest nature, Jon is sometimes shown to be quite assertive on Garfield And Friends. For example, in "Lemon Aid", he single-handedly haggles with Mr. Swindler to get his car back for the price Swindler paid to take it. While, in "Super Market Mania", Jon scolds the crafty owner of an oversized supermarket for charging so much. He also showed a tendency to be a miser as Garfield mentions how Jon passes out seeing the rates on a parking meter and Jon trying to perform a appendectomy on himself to save money.

Jon was voted #1 on "The Most Depressed Comic Book Characters" on the Best Week Ever blog.

Dating

Since July 28 2006, Liz has fallen in love with Jon despite his geeky personality. Before then, there was a constant struggle for Jon in trying to ask Liz out on a date. Jon has tried to have dates, but either they go wrong or the girl says no.

Career

In the earlier strips, he makes his living as a cartoonist, but since then readers haven't seen him at work. The TV series Garfield and Friends does show him several times as a cartoonist. In Garfield Rolls On, Jon does go to a cartoonist convention. His occupation is likely still that of a cartoonist on The Garfield Show, as in the episode "Family Picture", he draws a sketch of a photograph that he wants to take as Liz's birthday present. In the strip from May 2, 2010 Liz tells her parents Jon is a cartoonist, thus confirming his occupation.

Origins

The name Jon Arbuckle came from a 1950s radio commercial for Yuban coffee.

Other media

• Jon was voiced by Thom Huge in Garfield and Friends and several animated television specials. Breckin Meyer portrayed Jon in the live-action films. In Garfield Gets Real, Garfield's Fun Fest and Garfield's Pet Force he was voiced by Wally Wingert. Wally also provides Jon's voice for The Garfield Show.
• In both live-action films, Jon has a powerful right hook which he uses to knock out the main antagonist. This is in direct contrast to his weak strength in the original comic strips.
• In an episode of Futurama, the forehead of a giant "Jon" balloon from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade becomes a hot air balloon to raise Fry, Leela, and Bender to the surface world.
• Arbuckle: Garfield through Jon's eyes is a daily webcomic in which fans send a redrawing of a Garfield strip with Garfield's thought bubbles removed. As creator Tailsteak puts it,

The comic changes dramatically when one removes the thought bubbles.

"Garfield" changes from being a comic about a sassy, corpulent feline, and becomes a compelling picture of a lonely, pathetic, delusional man who talks to his pets. Consider that Jon, according to Garfield canon, cannot hear his cat's thoughts. This is the world as he sees it. This is his story.

• Similarly, Garfield Minus Garfield removes all the other characters completely and simply features Jon talking to himself. Fans connected with Jon's "loneliness and desperation" and found his "crazy antics" humorous; Jim Davis himself called Walsh's strips an "inspired thing to do" and said that "some of the strips work better than the originals".
• An Arbuckle Thanksgiving and An Arbuckle Christmas have taken the two holiday video specials and digitally removed Garfield and Odie, leaving Jon as the lead.