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Calvin and Hobbes: Difference between revisions
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[[File:xBookOneBordered1280x1024-2_3125.jpg|frame|Admit it. Your childhood was like this at some point.]]
{{quote|''"It's a magical world, Hobbes ol' buddy... Let's go exploring!"''
|'''The final strip'''}}
What happens when you take the unpredictable panel layouts and [[Mind Screw|surreal nature]] of George Herriman's ''[[Krazy Kat]]'' and [[Winsor McCay]]'s ''[[Little Nemo]]''; the lush art, [[Cast of Snowflakes|distinct characterizations]] and [[Satire|biting satire]] of Walt Kelly's ''[[Pogo (comic strip)|Pogo]]''; and [[Slice of Life|the comedic]] [[Life Isn't Fair|but hard truths of life from]] ''[[Peanuts]]'', throw in a dash of [[The Golden Age of Animation|classic cartoon]] [[Zany Cartoon|slapstick]], and fuse them all together into one comic?
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** Unlike some aborted arcs though, this one actually got a conclusion. He just didn't let it run as long as he originally planned.
* [[Actually Pretty Funny]]: Once Calvin combed his hair, put on Dad's glasses and said "Calvin, go do something you hate. Being miserable builds character". Dad was not amused, but Mom burst into laughter.
* [[Adaptational Jerkass]]: In-universe, if Calvin or Hobbes do a story based on life, it will have this:
** Calvin tried to ask for his father's sponsorship of his self-published newspaper, in exchange for ''not'' doing a comic strip called Dopey Dad. From what we hear, Dad raised such a ruckus that Calvin and Hobbes have to draw the comic discreetly.
** Calvin also wrote a bedtime story about how "Barney" locked his dad in the basement forever for being cruel. We don't actually see what Barney's dad did to deserve it, but he is clearly based on Calvin's dad, who is unamused.
** Subverted when, for a short story assignment, Hobbes wrote an account of how Calvin tried to use time travel to get out of doing the writing. Even though the whole class laughed at Calvin since he read it aloud without checking what it was, he grudgingly admits that Hobbes didn't lie, while yelling at his friend for being too honest. Mrs. Wormwood also gave Calvin his one and only A+, praising his creativity.
* [[Adaptational Personality Adjustment]]: Calvin ''thinks'' that he does this when taking up his various alter-egos. Tracer Bullet is an alcoholic detective that regularly skirts bills and courts dames for their cases, Spaceman Spiff is gutsy and adventurous while facing aliens, and Stupendous Man is a mild-mannered hero in civilian form that takes on evil. No one else in the real world buys it, including Hobbes.
* [[Adjacent to This Complete Breakfast]]: Calvin's favorite cereal qualifies as this. With a name like Chocolate-Frosted Sugar Bombs it'd have to be.
** Lampshaded in the strip:
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* [[Book Dumb]]: Calvin even uses the "[[Urban Legend|Einstein had horrible grades]]" defense, bragging that his "are even worse!"
* [[Book and Switch]]: Calvin hides comics inside his text books.
* [[Bottle and Switch Episode]]: Bill Watterson goes all out for extra stories in the treasury collections. He said that he would use watercolors to set the mood.
* [[A Boy and His X|A Boy and His Tiger]]
* [[Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs]]: Calvin at first wanted to collect bugs. Then he wanted to collect stamps. He decides on stamped bugs.
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* [[The Chew Toy]]: Calvin. Moe, Susie, and Hobbes are always beating him up, even when he does nothing to deserve it.
** Although, Susie hardly ever attacks Calvin unless provoked, so in Susie's case he almost always deserves it. In stark contrast, Moe beats up Calvin almost always when he has done nothing. Hobbes, of course, tackles him at the end of every school day when he walks through the door, and while he's usually the voice of reason he can sometimes be as big a [[Jerkass]] as Calvin ''to'' Calvin, and get away with it because he's bigger and has claws.
* [[Collectible Cloney Babies]]: Lots of merchandise is tied-in with Calvin's favorite cereal, Chocolate Frosted Sugarbombs.
** One early arc had Calvin going through a higher cereal intake than usual to send off four box-tops, in exchange for a propeller Beanie. While Calvin normally loves the cereal, he was feeling sick from it since Hobbes couldn't eat that much and his parents refused to help on principle. And after all that, plus waiting for the beanie, having to assemble it, and breaking a part that his dad had to fix, the beanie didn't even ''fly''.
** In another standalone strip, you could collect up to five trinkets from the cereal boxes if you bought enough of them. Calvin said while he can eat the cereal fast, eating more than this three to four bowls a day makes him wired.
** Calvin notes while eating cereal that there's ''another'' box-top campaign for Buzzy the Hummingbird. We don't see an arc of this one.
* [[Colony Drop]]: Imaginary version during one of Calvin's daydreams. Spaceman Spiff uses his [[Flying Saucer]]'s grappling hook to drag one uninhabited planet into another "[[For Science!]]!"
* [[Comic Book Time]]: Despite the passage of summer holidays, Christmases, etc., Calvin and his classmates never age. Lampshaded by Calvin's father at one point:
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* [[Declarative Finger]]: Used frequently by at least Calvin and his dad, and by Hobbes, who provides the page image.
* [[Deface of the Moon]]: Calvin imagines himself doing this at one point.
*[[Didn't Think This Through]]: Calvin’s mom points out to Calvin that due to him locking her out of the house, she wouldn't be able to help him if something terrible happened like a house fire.
* [[DIY Disaster]]: Done in two strips: One where Calvin floods the kitchen, the other getting bad enough to where it ''floods the entire house''. The next strip after even makes a [[Continuity Nod]] saying Calvin's dad didn't give dessert because he flooded the house.
* [[Do a Barrel Roll]]: He's done it in fantasies involving airplanes. Another time, he walked through the snow to make the message "do a barrel roll" visible to airplanes.
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* [[Eleventy-Zillion]]: When Calvin is having trouble with his homework, Hobbes tells him that the problem requires calculus and imaginary numbers, such as "eleventeen" and "thirty-twelve". (Imaginary numbers are a real mathematical concept, but this isn't how they work.)
* [[Extremely Overdue Library Book]]: This trope was averted.
{{quote|'''Calvin''':"This library book was due two days ago! What will they do? Are they going to interrogate me and beat me up?! Are they going to break my knees?? Will I have to sign some confession???"
'''Mom''': "They'll fine you ten cents. Now go return it."
'''Calvin''': "They way some of those librarians look at you, I naturally assumed the consequences would be more dire."}}
* [[Eye Shock]]: Usually with several extra pairs of eyes jumping out of shocked characters' heads.
* [[Face Palm]]: A common reaction to Calvin's shenanigans.
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{{quote|'''Calvin:''' I know it's [[Department of Redundancy Department|redundant]], but otherwise it doesn't spell anything.}}
* [[Fun with Flushing]]: Calvin has an elaborate strip where he flushes a toy boat down the toilet. In another one, he and Hobbes dip the dangling paper from the roll into the toilet and flush it. At one point, Calvin himself [[Pint-Sized Kid|gets into the toilet bowl]], flushes himself around in circles, and then informs his mother that he'd finished his "bath."
* [[Gambling Game]]: The duo play poker often. Hobbes thumps his tail when he gets a good hand; this usually gets Calvin to fold.
* [[Generational Trauma]]: Played for Laughs the few times it's mentioned. When Calvin misbehaves at the doctor's office because he hates being sick in the summer and fears his deadpan pediatrician, his mother remarks that she hopes Calvin has a kid one day as bad as he is. Calvin says snarkily, "Yeah that's what Grandma says she told you." Given that Grandma is a [[Deadpan Snarker]] as shown by her way of getting Calvin to write thank-you letters for any presents that she sends, it may explain a lot about why Mom is so uptight.
* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: "I don't care. We're not having an anatomically correct snowman in the front yard."
** When Calvin asks his father why he got house reign after Calvin was born, his dad remarks that his mom had something to do with it too.
** During a Show and Tell, Calvin [[Exact Words|tells]] the class about his mom being a superhero-by-trade, complete with Wonder Woman-esque attire by his description. Cut to Calvin's mom handing Calvin's dad a letter from the principal about Calvin's report, to which the dad responds, "Wow, show me that outfit sometime."
** After another incident, his mother rants to his father that Calvin wasn't all her decision. His father responds that he offered to buy a dachshund, but she said...
* [[Goofy Print Underwear]]: Calvin has lucky
* [[Gosh Dang It to Heck]]: "Gosh, I've never been a vandal before!" Calvin once noted that he's "[[It Makes Sense in Context|only civil]] because [he] doesn't know any swear words."
* [[Gravity Master]]: Hobbes
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'''Calvin''': Gravity must pull especially hard on tigers.
'''Hobbes''': (''thinking as he sails through the air'') It's an impression we like to cultivate. }}
* [[Great Wall]]: A tiny variant with the snow forts that Calvin and Hobbes make. Calvin makes one that is practically impenetrable and towers high over his tiny six-year old body -- so high that he has to call for help, since he didn't think to create an exit.
* [[Green Aesop]]: Probably the most of any newspaper comic. Some are good, and actually quite funny, but others (mostly from the later run of the strip) descend to almost ''[[Fern Gully]]''/''[[Captain Planet and the Planeteers]]'' levels (see the [[Anvilicious]] entry on this page).
** The best such story arc started with Calvin and Hobbes surprised and enraged to learn that part of the forest they love to play in is in the process of being razed to be the site of "Shady Acres Condos". It gave us the wonderful Hobbes quote, "The only shade I see is from that bulldozer." Another gem is when Calvin asks how humans would feel if animals bulldozed the condos to put in new trees -- [[Gilligan Cut|cut]] to Hobbes in the bulldozer, angrily stating that the driver didn't leave the keys.
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{{quote|'''Mom:''' It's ''your'' fault we don't have a sweet little girl! ''Your'' stupid chromosome! NOT MINE!
'''Dad:''' (thinking) ''...I just live here...'' }}
* [[Harsh Life Revelation Aesop]]: Has so many, you can make a drinking game out of it:
** [[Life Isn't Fair]]. Sure, Calvin may have legitimate points calling out his dad's [[Misery Builds Character]] or the amount of littering and construction around his neighborhood, but he is only six years old. As a result, he doesn't have the power to change as much as he wants. The rules also exist for a reason: he has to take baths because kids get dirty, going to school means getting an education, and early bedtimes mean he isn't cranky (or crankier) in the morning.
** One Sunday strip has Calvin and Hobbes talking about what they would wish for; Hobbes says that he would want a sandwich. Calvin goes that's the [[Stupidest Thing I've Ever Heard]] because he would want wealth and power. The strip ends with Hobbes happily munching a sandwich and pointing out he got ''his'' wish. Calvin scowls, refusing to acknowledge the lesson.
** In another, Hobbes suggests that some philosophers suggest a life of virtue provides more happiness than living normally. Calvin tries it out for a few hours: much to his parents' shock, he does his chores and homework, gives his mother a nice card, and behaves. Then the urge to hit Susie with a snowball overpowers him, so he does so and walks away smiling. Hobbes remarks that "Virtue needs cheaper thrills." As Bill Watterson himself put it in the tenth anniversary comic, humans are wired to seek cheap thrills, and acknowledging this tendency is better than repressing it.
* [[He-Man Woman Hater]]: G.R.O.S.S.
* [[Her Codename Was Mary Sue]]: Calvin's many alter-egos.
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{{quote|'''Calvin:''' Miss Wormwood, could we arrange our seats in a circle and have a little discussion? Specifically, I'd like to debate whether cannibalism ought to be grounds for leniency in murders, since it's less wasteful.}}
** Also the various strips in which Calvin and Hobbes hold deep, thoughtful, philosophical discussions...all while riding downhill on a wagon (or sled) through a forest while catching air that would put a professional motocross rider to shame and often crashing in spectacular fashion.
** Similar to ''[[South Park]]'' or ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'', many of the early strips relied on the incongruity between Calvin's youth and "shock" humor for their impact.
*** "When I grow up, I'm going to be a radical terrorist...I'm going to inhale this can of pesticide..."
*** Calvin threatened to become a psychopath [[Freudian Excuse|if his parents weren't permissive enough with him]].
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** And taken to another level where Calvin's father is frustrated with Calvin wanting to hear the story every night despite having heard it enough to have the whole thing memorized, so he changes it a bit. The only clue we get is a terrified Hobbes asking Calvin "Do you think the townspeople will ever find Hamster Huey's head?"
*** Maybe inspired by [[wikipedia:Emil i Lönneberga|Emil]], who's basically Calvin a hundred years earlier, and has been involved in one incident the narrator repeatedly informs us he or she "Has promised the parents not to talk about."
* [[Take That]]: Bill Watterson has used ''Calvin and Hobbes'' to mock modern art, art criticism, and superhero comic books. Either Calvin uses phrases copied verbatim from art journals to describe his snow men, or his breathless praises of comic books as an art form are interrupted by comments like, "Oh no, Captain Steroid's getting his kidneys punched out with an I-beam!" Take note that Watterson's career peaked during the [[Dark Age]] of western comics, which likely influenced his opinions quite a bit, but as to why he didn't seek out fellow "comics can be art" proponents such as [[Dave Sim]] and [[Scott McCloud]] and join up with the Graphic Novel movement is a complete mystery.
** Watterson directed a few Take Thats at ''[[Garfield (Comic Strip)|Garfield]]'' creator Jim Davis over the years. In a rare 1987 interview, he harshly condemned Davis' comic strip ''[[U.S. Acres]]'', calling it stupid and badly done. In ''The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book'', Watterson extensively discusses why he hates merchandising, and how it robs a comic strip of its heart and soul. He even writes about how a cartoonist risks becoming a "factory foreman", remarking on how he went into cartooning "to draw cartoons, not to run a corporate empire." He disgustedly remarks on how he would have sold out his own creation if he'd done this. Given the context, it was pretty clear who he was talking about. Granted, since Jim Davis stated that he created Garfield for the purpose of making money, and probably didn't intend there to be much of that deeper significance in which Watterson puts so much stock, it's unlikely that Watterson would have liked it anyway.
** Bill Watterson's foreword to Bill Amend's first ''[[FoxTrot]]'' book is basically an extended take that against Jim Davis. For example, Watterson champions Quincy the Iguana for not thinking "the cute thoughts that quickly get most comic strip animals in the greeting card business."
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** But it came in this ''great'' [[Kids Prefer Boxes|box]]!
** Another has the pair on one of their dangerous wagon-riding adventures while Calvin argues that having is much better than wanting, and he can't think of anything he would rather have later than right away. Hobbes says, "Death comes to mind" as the wagon careens off a cliff.
* [[Wants the Work Done for Them]]: Calvin, of course. [https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1993/01/15 "I didn't come out here to ''work!''"] And again [https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1991/02/08 here].
* [[Wanton Cruelty to the Common Comma]]: In the story arc where Calvin pushes his mom's car out of the garage, Hobbes says, "I think ''you're'' mom's going to be bothered."
* [[Warrior Poet]]: Parodied, as Calvin takes his snowball and water balloon fights [[Serious Business|very seriously]]. See quote above at [[Little Miss Snarker]].
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* [[Yes, Virginia]]: Defied. An early strip actually depicts Calvin's parents setting out presents for him on Christmas. Some [[Imagine Spot]]s depict Santa Claus, but there is never any proof given that Santa Claus might be real.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Better Than It Sounds/Comic Books]]
[[Category:Notable Quotables]]
[[Category:Newspaper Comics]]
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