Mondays are almost no one’s favorite day of the week, but there isn’t anyone who hates Mondays more than Garfield. The cute, slightly persnickety cartoon feline is as well-known for his hatred of Mondays as he is for his obsession with lasagna, but now a new fan theory is turning Garfield’s disdain for the day into something downright heartwarming.
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This last weekend, Twitter user @JamColley posted a unique theory as to why Garfield hates Mondays, positing that as cats don’t have jobs the only real difference between Monday and other days of the week for the feline is that his human, Jon, probably leaves to go to work and Garfield is too proud to admit that he loves and misses Jon when he leaves, instead masking that emotion by professing to hate Mondays.
It’s a touching theory, one that works when it’s considered that there have been times Garfield has been portrayed as being sentimental. Nearly every Christmas Garfield is seen being generous or appreciative of all he has (and in his first Christmas strip, tells the reader that he is spending the day with someone he loves — them). When Jon’s grandmother visits in another strip, Garfield is loving towards her and misses her when she leaves and in perhaps the most emotional Garfield moment, the strip’s 1989 Halloween arc featured Garfield waking up in a terrifying future where he is alone and hungry in an abandoned, broken down home hallucinating Jon and Odie. It mercifully turns out to be a nightmare. Garfield wakes up to find Jon and Odie are real, his home is warm, he is safe, and when Jon asks Garfield if he wants breakfast, the big orange cat replies “Who needs it? I need you!”
However, as some fans were quick to point out, while the idea of a sentimental Garfield hating Mondays because he misses Jon is sweet, Jon doesn’t leave the house to go to work. The very first Garfield strip begins with Jon introducing himself as a cartoonist and includes a panel of him at work in his home. Garfield is also shown over the years being right with Jon in his home office while he works and while @JamColley suggests that maybe Jon closes his door while working, others have pointed out that there is yet to be a door that Garfield can’t conquer. Despite these very valid points, @JamColley is sticking to the Mondays theory and, interestingly enough, this isn’t the first time a Garfield fan theory has gone viral. Last year, fans got into a debate about what gender Garfield is, claiming that the beloved fictional feline was gender neutral. That viral theory ultimately had to be settled once and for all by Garfield creator Jim Davis, who ended up telling The Washington Post that Garfield is, in fact, a male cat and cited his feline girlfriend, Arlene, as evidence.
Maybe Davis will end up weighing in on why Garfield hates Mondays. In the meantime, whatever Garfield’s reason, we don’t blame him for the hate. Mondays are rough. Can we all have some lasagna now?
