History Fridge / CalvinAndHobbes

** Similarly, Calvin misbehaving or disrespecting Rosalyn isn't ''entirely'' unjustified - at least from a child's perspective. Rosalyn at first gave Calvin a chance, but after he misbehaved, started coming over ''with'' the assumption that he was going to misbehave. [[ThenLetMeBeEvil So he does]]. In her final appearance, she actually talks to him on his level, offers him a reward rather than punishment, and shows she is willing to play his game by respecting him as an equal - even getting him to go to bed. It's actually not the only time she does this - the only time she had ''success''. Earlier, she had offered to pop some popcorn for Calvin, but he didn't hear that this time she was trying to be more polite to him because he went out the window.

** Also crossed with FridgeHorror, remember that the ''one'' time Moe had to face consequences, he vowed revenge against the one who reported him (Calvin [[OhCrap clearly looking fearful]] as this is said). Another reason Calvin didn't bother to tell anyone the baseball kids mercilessly tormented him might have been knowing that, since one kid ''begged the coach for permission to hit Calvin with a baseball bat'', ratting them out would very likely result in him facing ''[[EnfanteTerrible worse]]'' [[DisproportionateRetribution treatment from them as payback]].

* Falling into FridgeHorror as well, the [[TearJerker/CalvinAndHobbes baseball arc]], Calvin gets [[KidsAreCruel harshly bullied by the kids]] and [[AdultsAreUseless the coach not only neglects to stop it]] but [[KickTheDog flat out calls him a "quitter"]]. ValuesDissonance aside, if he told his parents, they'd likely respond with apathy and/or his father would [[CatchPhrase once again]] tell him [[MiseryBuildsCharacter "it builds character"]]. Even then, Calvin has a characteristic distrust of authority anyway, so all things considered, it's no surprise he didn't tell anyone other than Hobbes.

* [[https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1992/11/27/ This strip]] implies that Miss Wormwood smokes and that Calvin's been driving her to go through two packs of cigarettes a day. Given that she's five years from retirement, she may not even live to see it happen.

* Calvin makes repeated claims of being a genius. We're supposed to laugh it off, but if you look at some of the school assignments he's given, there might be a grain of truth to it. Many of the school assignments he's given are far above what a normal six year old would be expected to do (When's the last time you saw a first grader being asked to write a biology report about bats?), so it's possible Calvin in an accelerated class, and he actually ''is'' BrilliantButLazy, emphasis on "lazy".

* In the [[TearJerker/CalvinAndHobbes baseball arc]], Calvin gets [[KidsAreCruel harshly bullied by the kids]] and [[AdultsAreUseless the coach not only neglects to stop it]] but [[KickTheDog flat out calls him a "quitter"]]. ValuesDissonance aside, if he told his parents, they'd likely respond with apathy and/or his father would [[CatchPhrase once again]] tell him [[MiseryBuildsCharacter "it builds character"]]. Even then, Calvin has a characteristic distrust of authority anyway, so all things considered, it's no surprise he didn't tell anyone other than Hobbes.

** Or Calvin really is getting bullied and beat up at school and the other kids either don't care, don't want to be targeted next, or are part of the bullying...or all three, since Calvin doesn't seem to have any other friends. The bus driver likely doesn't want to get involved. Back when the strip came out, there were no "zero tolerance" rules and bullying was usually ignored as part of "growing up". [[RealLife Any victim of bullying will tell you that such things were/are still horrifyingly common and adults often turn a blind-eye.]]

* The Mars arc may be {{Anvilicious}}, but it's actually [[SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped a more useful and relevant lesson for Calvin]] than the standard GreenAesop if you think about it. In a one-shot strip, Calvin complains about global warming, prompting his mother to wryly comment how he wants to be chauffeured everywhere that's more than a block away. Calvin has enough of a sense of social responsibility to be concerned about problems with the environment, but not enough to realize how he contributes to them, so the Mars arc was a nice wake-up call for him regarding the latter.--@/Valiona

* I first read ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' when I was nine, and thought it was quite funny. In the twenty years since, I've reread the series many times, and it feels like every time I do, another strip makes sense, or I notice a double meaning where I didn't see it before. That comic is an entire showroom of fridges.
** I just realized that both characters are named after Renaissance philosophers. That is some heavy stuff for a comic strip.
** See LateToThePunchline, but a lot of comics also only make sense when you take into account the time in which they were written; Calvin's self-centeredness as a critique of attitudes in TheEighties, his taste in comic books and movies being a jab at the then-ongoing [[UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks Dark Age]], and so on. To a kid born after 2000 reading this, they're probably going to be even more confused, but still laughing at timeless gags.
*** I'm not sure the comic books are supposed to symbolize anything; Watterson openly says he hates comic books in the 10th anniversary collection.
*** To be fair, just because he doesn't like comic books doesn't mean he wouldn't use them symbolically. Not all symbolism is positive.
** In the story where Calvin was in the class play about nutrition, he told his mom that he'd be playing "a great dramatic role" that would leave the audience ''in tears''. He was playing ''[[StealthPun an onion]]''. I only just realized the hidden joke there... Bravo to Mr. Watterson, especially if it was intentional.
*** It almost certainly was the entire point of the punchline...though it wasn't exactly obvious to me at the time either.
* It just hit me that Calvin is the epitome of the ByronicHero.

* One Sunday strip has Calvin pondering the nature of humanity, wondering whether humans are inherently good or evil, or just crazy and do things for their own reasons. He happens to be doing so while (badly) steering a sled down a snowy slope, all while Hobbes is telling him to pay attention. After the inevitable crash, Hobbes picks "crazy." His namesake, Thomas Hobbes, believed that human nature is driven by an individual's base desires and instincts, which could be seen as "crazy" by someone of a different mindset. The strip sums up Hobbes' philosophy in a nutshell.

** Nope. "No one can prove I did that!!" Pretty easy to prove he did that...
** This is not the NoodleIncident, not by a long shot. Firstly, Watterson had said he would never depict it in the strip. Secondly, for a kid who produced a safety poster called "Be Careful or Be Roadkill," graphically illustrated it using chunky spaghetti sauce, and was then indignant that his poster lost the contest, this troper hardly thinks Calvin would be so embarrassed by this instance as to deny that it happened or to claim that that no one could prove he'd done it.
** In one strip, Calvin mentions he 'cooked some noodles' as a visual aid about his five-minute presentation about the brain. Said five-minute report, Calvin being Calvin, consists of words: 'To begin with, brain is part of central nervous system. Now I'll pause for a few moments, so you all can write that down.' Nothing is ever heard about the rest of presentation, nor is the paper bag with noodles seen. Of course, if this was in any way related with THE noodle incident, limits of the ImplausibleDeniability would have to be somewhat stretched even in the Calvinverse.
* Remember that arc where Calvin's house was robbed while his family was away? One wonders why it concluded simply with Calvin griping to Hobbes about how their television was stolen, instead of the happier ending where [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments Calvin's Mom goes to sleep understanding the family is safe and that's all that matters]]. Then it occurs: (A) this is "Calvin and Hobbes", so it's rather their story and (B) In a way, it ''is'' a happy conclusion to the arc. As long as Calvin has something to complain about, things are [[ExactWords back to normal]] and all's right with the world once more.

* The arc where Calvin locked Rosalyn out of the house started when he was (as always) sent to bed early. This time, she got upset when she overheard him bringing up the time he threatened to flush down her science notes. Calvin's antics that night made Rosalyn flunk the test which explains why she took it out on him.
* The story arc where Calvin tries to weasel out of writing a story for school by picking it up from the future seems like it might be incredibly paradoxical at first, but it actually flows together quite well. The 6:30 Calvin doesn't know about the implications of time travel, the 7:30 Calvin is older and wiser from having gone through the whole adventure and is able to explain it to him, and the 8:30 Calvin is merely keeping up appearances to ensure a StableTimeLoop is in effect, since he knows that the 6:30 and 8:30 Hobbeses will write the story themselves and save him all the trouble.

* One thing about the Rosalyn arc where Calvin and Hobbes attempt to escape out his window with a BedsheetLadder I realized just now: when she scolds him, he responds with a Nazi salute and saying "Jawohl, mein Führer"... whereupon Rosalyn grabs the front of his shirt and asks him "Care to repeat that little comment?". Rosalyn's explicitly stated to be a high school student in the comic, so it's likely she learned about [[UsefulNotes/NaziGermany Nazis]] in class at some point and understandably took offense to what he said.
* [[BewareTheNiceOnes Susie has a tendency to knock Calvin into next week]] [[TheDogBitesBack in retaliation for his jerkish behavior]] but in an earlier arc, his insults were enough to reduce her to tears. [[CharacterizationMarchesOn Aside from happening at an earlier point in the comic strip]], her initial lack of violence towards him could've been by virtue of not knowing him too well yet but overtime, she got more and more able to do her homework on him in order to figure out how best to dish it back to him. Even in some earlier strips, there were developing signs of it in that Susie once threatened to have him physically sent to the principal's office quick enough that he'd have gone through a time warp and she sent a pinecone he threw back at him with a lacrosse stick. In other words, Susie ''really'' TookALevelInBadass.

* In the [[TearJerker/CalvinAndHobbes baseball arc]], Calvin gets [[KidsAreCruel harshly bullied by the kids]] [[AdultsAreUseless and the coach not only neglects to stop it]] [[KickTheDog but flat out calls him a "quitter"]]. ValuesDissonance aside, if he told his parents, they'd likely respond with apathy and/or his father would [[CatchPhrase once again tell him]] [[MiseryBuildsCharacter "it builds character"]]. Even then, Calvin has a characteristic distrust of authority anyway, so all things considered, it's no surprise he didn't tell anyone other than Hobbes.

** The Umbrella, as Calvin himself states, can be used to achieve limited gliding by acting as a parachute, but it can also come in handy to both keep one dry during a rainstorm and act as tarp to protect against the sun's rays.

*** In fact, I read it as Hobbes being more spooked at the real-world scenario Calvin is describing than Calvin's own callousness. It's hardly the only time Calvin's "play" is used by Watterson to deliver a political statement.

* A strip has Calvin's mother ask what happened to a kid that mocked Calvin for bringing a stuffed tiger to school. His response: "Hobbes ate him." Calvin -- of course -- believes Hobbes did, and the fact seems to be no one mocks Calvin about that. Assuming Calvin isn't just making that up, that leaves us with two options: If Hobbes ''is'' real, that means he ate a kid. If Hobbes ''isn't'' real, that means Calvin might have done something really gory to said kid.
** This might even explain why Moe is so scared when Calvin invites him to take Hobbes later -- he remembers what happened to the last kid who messed with Calvin's "teddy bear." Though it's worth noting that in later strips, Calvin rarely takes Hobbes to school, as evidenced by the "pouncing on him when he gets home" RunningGag. It's possible the opportunity just doesn't come up very often; maybe, if Hobbes isn't real, Calvin threw him on somebody and gave him a real scare.
*** Read that arc again, Moe refused to take Hobbes because he thought [[spoiler:Calvin was setting him up to get in trouble and get sent to the principal.]]
** I always figured maybe the kid got in trouble for picking on Calvin, and then moved/got expelled, and Calvin (fallaciously) bragged to his fellow students that Hobbes ate him so Calvin wouldn't be picked on anymore.
** Not likely. Aside from throwing snowballs or water balloons and relatively harmless pranks in general, Calvin isn't shown to have violent tendencies to the point where he ''should'' be viewed with concern. Plus, he often cannot hold his own against Hobbes, Moe, Rosalyn and even Susie Derkins.

* If you interpret Hobbes as a figment of Calvin's imagination, then how do you explain Calvin getting beat up whenever Hobbes pounces on him? Oh no... Don't tell me Calvin is ''scratching himself up''.
** I once saw someone who wrote that they couldn't read Calvin and Hobbes anymore since they realized that meant that Calvin was really getting beat up at school.
*** That doesn't make any sense, because that would mean he rides the bus home in that condition, which means that the other kids and the bus driver would notice.
*** It could just be the results of Moe beating Calvin up at school.
** It's possible that he manages to rough himself up play-wrestling with Hobbes and rolling around on the ground even though Hobbes is really just a stuffed toy that can't actually fight back.
*** This. We see several cartoons of Susie and Calvin's mom actually watch him wrestle in the dirt with Hobbes, not to mention that Hobbes often needs stitches after their fights.
*** This. I've known several very imaginative kids who would often get dirty and scratched up when fighting some imaginary enemies. And would roll around in the dirt pretending to wrestle some bad guy or other when they were playing at being super heroes or spys or ninjas.

*** Maybe one of the reasons Calvin is such an ass to Suzie is because whenever he tries to share his NightmareFetishist interests with her, she threatens to tell the teacher at best and severely blows him off at worst. I always thought the point of their relationship was that they couldn't understand each other's interests and were both insensitive towards each other.

* In the Tracer Bullet arc where Calvin is trying to solve a word problem, Calvin attempts to copy Susie's answer. In Tracer's world, this is translated as the detective heading over to "the Derkins dame" to get information. When Susie refuses to tell Calvin anything, Tracer remarks that somebody "got to her first and shut her up good." The implication seems to be that she was killed.
** Of course not. That means someone told her not to tell the answer to Calvin. Miss Wormwood of course.
** And I think the intended implication within the Tracer Bullet scenario is that she was bribed.

* Hobbes, despite being [[WithFriendsLikeThese Calvin's only friend]], often bullies and torments him. If you accept the [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane interpretation that Hobbes is imaginary]], it makes you wonder if this represents how Calvin [[InferioritySuperiorityComplex truly feels about himself]].

* One Sunday strip had Calvin give a "report" on overpopulation in which [[TheSocialDarwinist he explicitly condones natural selection, specifically calling for the removal of "the weak and stupid"]]. Never mind that it depicted Susie getting ''[[EatenAlive devoured alive by a pack of carnivorous dinosaurs]]'' (via fantasy sequence) but it leads to a horrifying question. Is this an early sign of what Calvin could turn out to be later in life?

** The monsters under Calvin's bed which reaches its peak in "Nauseous Nocturne". Calvin imagines himself getting eaten by monsters and his parents discovering his remains. For added fridge horror, his tombstone reads: "Here lies Calvin, devoured in his bed by a monster. If only we had treated him better", implying his parents knew about it, [[ApatheticCitizen but did nothing to save him]].

** The dart gun could be used to momentarily distract a enemy while he makes a getaway, or be used in a non-lethal weapon fight like a Nerf gun battle.

*** Read that arc again, Moe refused to take Hobbes because he thought [[spoiler: Calvin was setting him up to get in trouble and get sent to the principal.]]

-->'''[[TheStinger Author's Note]]''': [[LampshadeHanging Sometimes my mind goes to weird places when I let it.]] ''Seriously, though - who'' '''was''' ''that guy?''

** At least at first. In fairness to her, Calvin has been a terror to be around for as long as she's known him, and a ManipulativeBastard besides. [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness A sudden change in behavior makes it look like he's up to something,]] which she would absolutely not have. If Calvin really did change his ways, he'd have to be patient in earning her trust... [[HeelFaceDoorSlam but patience isn't exactky his strong suit.]]

*** Calvin isnt actually getting the advanced question we see, they're shown from the standpoint of a six-year old with hyperactivity and what may or may not be learning disabilities, it's funnier to see him struggle with problems even an adult might have issues with than simple, realistic grade school problems.

** The monsters under Calvin's bed which reaches its peak in "Nauseous Nocturne". Calvin imagines himself getting eaten by monsters and his parents discovering his remains. For added fridge horror, his tombstone reads: "Here lies Calvin, devoured in his bed by a monster. If only we had treated him better", implying his parents knew about it, [[ApatheticBystander but did nothing to save him]].

** The monsters under Calvin's bed which reaches its peak in "Nauseous Noctrine". Calvin imagines himself getting eaten by monsters and his parents discovering his remains. For added fridge horror, his tombstone reads: "Here lies Calvin, devoured in his bed by a monster. If only we had treated him better", implying his parents knew about it, [[ApatheticBystander but did nothing to save him]].

* Calvin's father regularly makes him suffer because MiseryBuildsCharacter. This definitely explains why he gives his parents so much Hell, he's ''internalized'' this message and is [[{{TheDogBitesBack}} throwing it back in his Dad's face]]. This could also explain why his mother is so frustrated with Dad, he's unintentionally provoking his son into being an asshole and most of the time ''she's'' [[{{MisplacedRetribution}} the one who has to put up with it]].

*** Maybe the reason Calvin is such an ass to Suzie is because whenever he tries to share his NightmareFetishist interests with her, she threatens to tell the teacher at best and severely blows him off at worst. I always thought the point of their relationship was that they couldn't understand each other's interests and were both insensitive towards each other.