It’s the great debate you didn’t even know existed… Garfield, one of the most widely recognized cartoon cats of all time, is the lasagna-loving, lazy, Monday-hating cartoon kitty that we can all relate to. But did you ever stop and wonder – is Garfield really a boy?
Garfield and Friends. ©Paws Inc.
Wikipedia locked changes on the cat’s page after the site’s volunteer editors battled over whether the animated cat is male or not. The debate started because the cartoon kitty’s creator Jim Davis told the magazine, Mental Floss, that as a cat, Garfield is “not really male or female.” in an interview for an article called, “20 Things You Might Not Know About Garfield.” So, Wikipedia’s editors were locked in a 60-hour editing war – changing Garfield’s gender back and forth until the site locked the page down!
Why the debate? Well, despite the Mental Floss admission from Davis, one editor noted:
a “cursory search” of the comic strips unearthed dozens of examples in which Garfield is referred to as male: “Arlene refers to Garfield as a ‘him.’” “Jon refers to Odie and Garfield together as boys.” “Garfield thinks to himself he’d ‘make a lousy father.’”
Finally, Jim Davis spoke up and ended the debate. He told the Washington Post:
“Garfield is male. He has a girlfriend, Arlene.”
His previous comments on the subject, he added, had been “taken out of context.”
Whew. Aren’t we all glad that’s been settled??
