Shout Out / Calvin & Hobbes: The Series

Shout Outs from other Calvinverse works are to be put here.

---

Series-Wide

• The opening cribs wholesale from Garfield and Friends and SpongeBob SquarePants.
• The numerous times Calvin & and the others spork movies that are proclaimed to be pretty pathetic in-universe, it seems quite a bit like Mystery Science Theater 3000. They even make multiple references to it in other parts of the show.
• Socrates' transmitter scenes are very similar to Harry's transmitter scenes from 3rd Rock from the Sun.
• Possibly unintentional, but Brainstorm was shown with one big eye, both of them Fish Eyes, in his earlier appearances. This seems like more than a coincidental resemblance to many of Rare's main villains.

Season 1

• "The Black Turning Funnel" parts 1 & 2 take gags from this◊ Garfield comic and Hank the Cowdog, respectively.
• "Home UnAlone", both in name and in the traps that Calvin sets up.
• "Calvin's Batman Adventure":
  • "And let that be a lesson to you, Mr. Supercalafragilisticexpealedoses!"^note This is not actually how it's spelled.
  • "Bye, bye, birdy. I'll remember you all in therapy."
• "Confessions of a Prank-Loving Tiger" has Calvin calling a skunk "Rosebud".
• Calvin demands Judge Judy in "The Case of the Rogue Water Balloon".
• A Missing Trailer Scene from the bonus chapter recreates a scene from 3rd Rock from the Sun, in itself a Shout-Out:
  Hobbes: You gonna call?
  Calvin: GHOST BUSTERS!
  Hobbes: YOU FOOL! IT'S THEIR BUSIEST NIGHT!

Season 2

• Socrates, upon being sucked into a time vortex in "Time Terror":
  "I DON'T THINK I'M IN KANSAS ANYMORE!"
• From "It Will Build Character":
  Calvin: (describing where they're going) Well, you've heard of Dante's Inferno, right?
  (Andy and Socrates nod)
  Calvin: Well, that's where we're going.
  • Socrates' Talking In His Sleep is Reference Overdosed in itself:
  "ZZZ-SMICK-NIGGLE-FRAKENBERRY-ZZZ! ZZZ-REGIS-KATIE-AL-ZZZ! ZZZ-DREW, LEWIS, KELLIE, OSWALD, MIMI-ZZZ! ZZZ-JOHN, PAUL, GEORGE, RINGO-ZZZ! ZZZ-GREG, WAYNE, COLIN, RYAN, KATHY, CHIP, BRAD, DREW-ZZZ! ZZZ-GARFIELD, ODIE, JON, ARLENE, NERMAL, LIZ, POOKY-ZZZ! ZZZ-ERIC, DONNA, KELSO, HYDE, JACKIE, FEZ, RED AND KITTY-ZZZ! ZZZ-JON, ROB, ED, STEPHEN, SAM, JASON, DAN, NATE, STEVE-ZZZ! ZZZ-DICK, SALLY, HARRY, TOMMY, MARY, NINA, DON, DUBCECK-ZZZ!"
  • And when he gets thrown at a tree, he sees stars, checkers, and little pink elephants with umbrellas.
• From "A Day at The Office", we have "Do I look unsure to you?", accompanied by what the narrator outright calls "the most disgusting face ever".
• Jack leaves at one point in "The Great Halloween Heist" to watch Comedy Central.
  • Not long after, this exchange occurs:
  Jack: How'd it go, Frank?
  Dr. Brainstorm: Shut up, TV's Jack.
• After riding a garbage can in a tornado in "The Falling Sky Part 2", Hobbes notes:
  "Aunty Em? Aunty Em? Are we still in Kansas?"
• "Insanity is in the Air":
  • "Remember that one episode of Twilight Zone where-"
  • "Ya know, I could probably sum this situation up by discussing a few episodes from The Outer Limits."
  • This exchange:
  Andy: What do you think I've been talking about for the past few hours!!
  Calvin: Well, it had to do with Gamera vs. Zigra. I know that.
  • Later, the boys watch Jimmy Neutron.
• Calvin's attempt to bug Susie in "A Club's Blow" includes singing this gem:
  "WHO LIVES IN A PINEAPPLE UNDER THE SEA! SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS! THEY TRY TO SURVIVE THE WRATH OF PEARL! JUST AN EVIL GAL WHO WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD! IT'S TIME TO PARTY FOR GARFIELD AND FRIENDS! HIY, HIY!"
• Upon deciding to take up being a superhero in "Super Calvin", Calvin declares that he will save the fifth dimension from monkey people!
• After Sherman's been convinced the vet is evil in "Sherman Goes to the Vet":
  "AAAHH! I'M NOT GOING TO THE VET! THIS IS A BUGHUNT, MAN! A BUGHUNT! GAME OVER, MAN! GAME OVER! WHAAAAAAAAHH!"
• In one of the marathon framing segments (the one that introduces A Day at The Office):
  Socrates: "Imagine if you will, a character obsessed patent attorney being hired for something that has absolutely nothing to patents! He doesn't know it, but soon this man will be pulled into the deepest regions of the Calvin and Hobbes: The Series zone! Now then.."
  • A later segment has Andy and Sherman reenacting the Thunderdome joke with Socrates.
• "The Alien Huntress":
  • One of Jack's lines, "I wonder if Charlie Brown could use a robot". is taken from this◊ Garfield strip.
  • Calvin ends up describing SpongeBob SquarePants' appearance to Galaxoid and Nebular.
  • And then there's this:
  Brainstorm: Oh no! I hope Superman hasn't discovered my secret hideout!
  Jack: I seriously doubt that he would waste his time here.
  • Sheila does a Captain's Log while walking with Calvin.

Season 3

• "Dr. BrainChill Part 1" has the aliens watching Seinfeld.
• "Department Store Horrors" has Calvin briefly dressing up as Pajama Sam.
• From "RIP Calvin":
  Calvin: (on meeting their future selves) "That's not possible. Those people are adults. Looks like our show has been spliced in with Star Trek or something."
• "Pranking the Ghosts": Socrates mentions watching a weird video tape and then getting a call from some guy telling him he had seven days to live.
  • He brings it up again in "Black Rain".
• Part of Calvin and Hobbes' conversation in "Hypercube":
  Hobbes: "So... the Borg are a hive mind, right?"
  Calvin: "I think so, yeah."
  Hobbes: "So did the show's writers goof when Captain Picard got the name 'Locutus of Borg'? Because that is incredibly un-Borg-like, right?"
  • Hobbes later pretends to be "the elephant thing" from The Lord of the Rings.
  • After crashing their sled:
  Calvin: "Darkness? It is I, Pajama Sam! I have come to vanquish you!"
• "The Five Calvins" is really just "The Five Doctors" under a "Calvin and Hobbes" filter.
• When trying to describe the things he's done in "New Year, New Disasters", Andy ends up describing Red Dwarf episodes instead. This is lampshaded.
• Evil Jack (from "62 Percent More Evil") is a walking Cliché Storm, having an Exorcist Head and quoting The Little Mermaid (1989), among other things.
  Sherman: Only steal from the best!
• In "Electronic Invasion":
  Calvin: (upon several buzzers going off) ACK! WE GOT MOVIE SIGN!
  Hobbes: Wrong show.
• "Robot's Day Out".
• The narrator outright describes Shadow's crawling up a ledge shortly after being freed from his prison in "Thunderstorm" as The Grudge-like.
  • Calvin's Batman Gambit is a homage to the Red Dwarf episode "Quarantine".
  • Then there's this:
  Dr. Brainstorm: DON'T GET USED TO THIS SORT OF THING, CALLY! I'LL GET YOU, AND YOUR LITTLE TIGERS AND BOY AND HAMSTER AND CD PLAYER, TOO!

Season 4

• "Camping Trip Part 2":
  • One of these is lampshaded:
  Calvin: How goes, Gilligan?
  Dad: I liked that show.
  • Then there's this exchange:
  Hobbes: We can't stay here forever? What if Red Dwarf: The Movie comes out while we're trapped here?
  Calvin: Pfft! As if.
• 'The Spirit Room' has the gang dressing up as the various Doctors for Halloween, with Calvin being the 7th, Hobbes being the 4th, Andy being the 5th, Sherman being the 3rd, and Socrates being the 6th. Seems to reflect their personalities a bit.
• The opening of "Dad" is absolutely loaded with these. To wit: Calvin and Hobbes freak out upon realizing they're missing SpongeBob SquarePants, but it turns out it was delayed for a rerun of a Kids' Choice Awards ceremony, where the nominees for an undisclosed award are Ed, Edd n Eddy, Danny Phantom, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and The Simpsons. After Calvin changes the channel, the two discuss catching the last half-hour of Garfield and Friends on Cartoon Network, and then (post-SpongeBob) watch a Doctor Who marathon on BBC America until something else interesting pops up on Nickelodeon.
  • Calvin's dad also talks about Captain Kangaroo.
• "Surge":
  • Calvin wears the Fourth Doctor's scarf.
  Hobbes: (to the viewer) Kudos and handshakes to whoever gets this gag.
  • A lot of bands get brought up - this can overlap with Take That!.
  • The MTM references A Summer of Kings and Juno.
• "Lenny's Diary":
  Hobbes: Whoa. I haven't seen such fashion disasters since John Nathan-Turner^note the producer of Doctor Who from 1980 to 1989 thought question marks were fashionable.
  Calvin: Well, fair play to the actors. Not a lot of men can make punctuation look decorative.
  • Also this:
  Socrates: Well, obviously you'll need me for this! I mean, who else could possibly keep this young man out of trouble and do a better job than me?
  Calvin: I dunno... Alec Baldwin?
  • "Whoa! We've found the legendary Dexter's Laboratory!"
  • Later, Socrates suggests playing Monopoly.
• During "Part Three", when all the electricity in town is going strange, the MTM malfunctions and proceeds to act like HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
  MTM: Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.
  Calvin: Why?
  MTM: I know you and Frank were planning to disconnect me.
  Calvin & Hobbes: (beat) What?!
  • Also:
  Socrates: Well, maybe our mortal enemy is taking a holiday, today.
  Hobbes: Do villains take holidays?
  Socrates: Sure! They do it all the time. Take the villains from Batman, for instance.
  • When Andy tries to figure out his last words, he comes up with "Either these curtains go, or I do."
  Sherman: I think someone already said that.
• In "Socrates Squared", the titular tiger gets awoken by a radio playing "Maybe Tomorrow" by Scooch (a British pop band).^note Incidentally, said song was used as the closing theme to The Littlest Hobo.
  • Sherman later asks, "How exactly are the Wonder Twins, anyway?"
• "Invasion" has a lot of these.
  • Nebular watches The Astronaut's Wife, not understanding it, and Galaxoid mentions Old Yeller and Star Trek.
  • Also, Galaxoid defends Independence Day to King Stor.
  • A panicking Calvin demands that somebody call Oprah, the Sci Fi Channel, and Doctor Who.
  • When the MTM suggests using the Mind Probe, Hobbes remarks "No! Not the mind probe!"
  • Calvin, still panicking, believes that "giant Steven Spielberg-brand War of the Worlds tripods are going to shoot up from the ground and kill us all!!"
  • At the very end, Calvin heads back home, not wanting to miss Tom and Jerry.
  • Also at the very end, Calvin asks the MTM to put on some traveling music. He plays "Holiday" by Green Day.
• "Tales of a Tiger" also has a lot of these.
  • Andy's game in his short involves has a plumber for a protagonist.
  "I'm all for variety, but really."

  • Andy also compares the growing BlueTooth phenomenon to Lando Carlrission's right-hand man, who wore earmuffs.
  • The closing line of Jack's short:
  "Now then, what's happening in Bikini Bottom today?"
  • The MTM's short ends with him sleeping, having stayed up all night watching a Whose Line Is It Anyway? marathon.
• "Our Solemn Hour" is named for a Within Temptation song.
  • One part recreates an exchange from Wakko's Wish:
  "Do you get vertigo?"
  "No."
  "Me neither."
  "Yeah. I've seen that movie three times and I still don't get it."'
  • When faced with angry pirates, Hobbes hopes that they're the kind that don't do anything.

Season 5

• "Dark Laughter Part 1":
  Andy: And people wonder why our landfills are full.
  Socrates: Really? Then it's my duty as a citizen of This Island Earth to make up for that! To the midway!^note This is probably more of a reference to the Mystery Science Theater 3000' movie, which riffed This Island Earth.
• Calvin whistles the Doctor Who theme near the end of "Dark Laughter Part 2".
• "Socratesland":
  • Sherman gets concerned about a worldwide helium shortage thanks to The Daily Show.
  • The manner in which Socrates describes the changing taste of the tablet is very similar to Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory - only he passes out when he reaches blueberry.
  • Calvin calls the Literal Split Personalities "the Tawdry Quirks Come to Life".
  • The dark Socrates shouts "HEEEEEEEERE'S CRATESO!"
  • After the dark Socrates dissipates, Andy remarks "What a world, what a world."
• Subverted in the author's notes in "Temporal Delay" - it was originally named "Terror From the Year 2011", then "2012" (a reference to Terror from the Year 5000, another movie featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000), but was changed to its current title for two reasons: the title would've been dated and there isn't really a "terror" in the episode itself.
• One of "Black Rain"'s plotlines concerns Socrates getting stalked by the Slender Man, and he later freaks out about seeing a guy in a mask and hoodie (who is later revealed to have a knife) - something rather similar to the Marble Hornets character Masky. (It's worth noting that Swing123's YouTube account is subscribed to the series' channel.)
  • Part 4 has the group watching an old VHS, and its contents are a dead-on representation of one of totheark's videos (horrible screeching, shaky footage of forests, strangely punctuated words, and the Operator symbol everywhere).

---

Back to Calvin & Hobbes: The Series

---