What Is 'Cadmium and Lead Garfield Mug'? The 1980s McDonald's Collectible That Could Induce Brain Damage Explained

Nearly 40 years after the release of a McDonald's limited edition Garfield mug, cup owners are realizing that their beloved artifacts may have been giving them lead and cadmium-induced brain damage. The innocuous-looking cups, which were distributed in the 1980s, feature Garfield saying, "It's not a pretty life but someone has to live it!" among other quotes.

However, internet users only realized that the drawing was painted on the cups using lead and cadmium sometime in the late 2010s. Here's how the story unfolded, with Lead And Cadmium Laced Garfield Mug owners finding each other and bonding over the revelation online.

Where Does The Caldmium And Led Garfield Cup Come From?

In the 1980s, U.S. McDonald's outlets distributed limited edition cups featuring Garfield cartoons by artist Jim Davis, distinguished by the year 1978 printed on them. These cups largely flew under the radar until an October 11th, 2019 post by product safety blog Lead Safety Mama.

The blog issued a warning about the cup containing over 1,000 times the legal limit of lead and 150 times the legal limit of cadmium. Lead is a dangerous element that was outlawed in the U.S. in 1978, while cadmium is an illegal known carcinogen.

The warning was reposted to X (formerly Twitter) by user @stumblebee in April 2022, gathering tens of thousands of reposts.

How Did Garfield Cup Owners React To The News?

A day after @stumblebee's post went viral on X, Redditor /u/laterment made a post to /r/TIFU saying that he had been using the lead-painted mug to drink his morning tea for several years. The post gathered over 27,000 upvotes in two years, with the user assuring people that he likely doesn't have brain damage due to an unbroken laminate seal over the paint.

How Did The Lead And Cadmium Garfield Mug Become A Meme?

Internet users began joking about how long the news about the mug flew under the radar and the strangeness of the fact that not only did a massive international conglomerate use lead paint in widely distributed mugs, but people inadvertently drank from it for years.

---

For the full history of the Garfield Lead Paint McDonald's Mugs, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.