# Hobbes was just plain terrible
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hobbes-was-just-plain-terrible/937595
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** comic-strips
**Created:** [March 10, 2021, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hobbes-was-just-plain-terrible/937595 "2021-03-10T08:04:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 6
### Author:  [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2021, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hobbes-was-just-plain-terrible/937595/101 "2021-03-12T23:46:44Z")
For those curious about a female perspective on the Calvin and Hobbes dynamic, I give you “Hobbes and Bacon”, which is fan art based on the idea that Hobbes was passed down to Calvin’s daughter.
[https://m.imgur.com/gallery/tUzAL](https://m.imgur.com/gallery/tUzAL)
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2021, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hobbes-was-just-plain-terrible/937595/102 "2021-03-13T02:00:29Z")
That’s great! Thank you!
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2021, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hobbes-was-just-plain-terrible/937595/103 "2021-03-13T02:04:40Z")
Yeah, loved it.
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### Author:  [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2021, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hobbes-was-just-plain-terrible/937595/104 "2021-03-13T18:03:40Z")
Interesting Calvin married a girl who looks an awful lot like his mom.
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### Author:  [@abcdefghij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abcdefghij)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2021, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hobbes-was-just-plain-terrible/937595/105 "2021-03-13T18:12:34Z")
Particularly given the juxtaposition of the first two frames in the second strip, I was wondering if it was Susie.
Personality is different, but maybe Calvin grew up and discovered Susie wasn’t so boring after all.
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### Author:  [@CardboardBoxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CardboardBoxx)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2021, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hobbes-was-just-plain-terrible/937595/106 "2021-03-13T18:21:14Z")
Yes, that blatantly says that these people are the same. It is obviously Susie.
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### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2021, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hobbes-was-just-plain-terrible/937595/107 "2021-03-13T18:43:47Z")
I find the very last panel somewhat disturbing.
How did this guy not get sued???
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### Author:  [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2021, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hobbes-was-just-plain-terrible/937595/108 "2021-03-13T19:05:03Z")
It’s obviously Susie - the little girl’s first words mention Mr. Bun (Susie’s stuffed friend).
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2021, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hobbes-was-just-plain-terrible/937595/109 "2021-03-13T19:17:14Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#):
>
> How did this guy not get sued???
Probably because of the parody exclusion. Parodies are allowed under fair use.
Bill Watterson may also have preferred not to draw attention to it through the Streisand Effect.
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2021, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hobbes-was-just-plain-terrible/937595/110 "2021-03-13T19:49:09Z")
This needs to be acknowledged. Good job, and a nice deep pop culture reference. (Monster-a-go-go, I believe, One of H G Lewis’ masterpieces.)
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2021, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hobbes-was-just-plain-terrible/937595/111 "2021-03-13T20:08:40Z")
I noticed that. I wonder if Watterson did the same thing since he says he modeled Calvin’s mom after his own.
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### Author:  [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2021, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hobbes-was-just-plain-terrible/937595/112 "2021-03-13T20:49:57Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#):
>
> > [@LSLGuy](#):
> >
> > I expect women find C&H cute but ultimately annoying as there aren’t any good roles for the females young or old.
>
> Oh, hell no. I completely identified with Calvin. I was a lot like him as a child. And I had a brother who was a lot like Susie. In children under about 8, genders are not that relevant.
I completely agree. I had an active imaginary life as a child, and I identified with Hobbes, too. 😉
> [@running\_coach](#):
>
> Cleary is still alive at age 104!
oh, good for her! I like Blueberries for Sal, too.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2021, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hobbes-was-just-plain-terrible/937595/113 "2021-03-13T22:14:01Z")
Blueberries for Sal was Robert McClosky (who also wrote/drew Make Way for Ducklings, One Morning in Maine, and several other beloved picture books), not Beverly Cleary.
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### Author:  [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2021, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hobbes-was-just-plain-terrible/937595/114 "2021-03-13T23:26:33Z")
I assume that as a one-off, and then another one-off years later, it is fairly safe.
If they had started up a new published series based on these characters, that would probably be a whole different story.
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### Author:  [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2021, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hobbes-was-just-plain-terrible/937595/115 "2021-03-14T02:22:33Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> Blueberries for Sal was Robert McClosky (who also wrote/drew Make Way for Ducklings, One Morning in Maine, and several other beloved picture books), not Beverly Cleary.
oops.
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### Author:  [@DKW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DKW)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2021, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hobbes-was-just-plain-terrible/937595/116 "2021-03-14T03:46:14Z")
Change of plans. Too much to wade through. Some…interesting perspectives, which I guess was the best I could hope for. I think I’ll just quit while I’m ahead.
There is one last point I’d like to make, which is that while numerous comic strips have had terrible characters, in the main there’s never been any illusion _about_ them being terrible. Garfield is lazy, greedy, and abusive, Dagwood Bumstead is incompetent and gluttonous, Lucy Van Pelt is overbearing and disturbingly violence-prone, the Lockhorns are walking dead, Cathy is nuts, etc. (On a side note, absolutely recommend [this site](https://joshreads.com/); his humor and depth of knowledge in the face of constant bad art is truly something to behold.) I never felt a need to point any of it out _because it’s been done numerous times,_ and the creators themselves have no illusions. Every time I read anything about Calvin and Hobbes, it’s magic, friendship, the innocence of youth, playfulness, hopes, dreams, and I ask myself, does **anyone at all** realize that Hobbes treats Calvin like utter crap? Who would want to be in Calvin’s position, having to take beatings, take insults, take BS, take bad advice, take condescension, and never being able to pay any of it back, and worse, have literally no one else in the world understand what you’re going through?
But at some point you just have to leave the mystery unsolved and move on to other things, so, thanks for the replies, everyone. (Similar to my “Am I the only person in the damn world who realizes how unpleasant Beavis and Butthead is to watch?” period, which you can search for on this board if you’re truly a glutton for punishment. Come to think of it, that was _also_ a product of the 90’s.)
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### Author:  [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2021, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hobbes-was-just-plain-terrible/937595/117 "2021-03-14T05:43:20Z")
> [@DKW](#):
>
> I think I’ll just quit while I’m ahead.
If you’re ahead when every single other poster disagrees with you, I wonder when you’d be behind?
(Okay, okay, I know, it’s just an expression.)
Still, it’s unusual to have such wide agreement about anything in CS.
> [@DKW](#):
>
> But at some point you just have to leave the mystery unsolved
The mystery of why you’re the only person in the world who is right, and everybody else is wrong? 😀
Seriously, though, you’re fully entitled to your opinion, but perhaps you should think about how your experiences have shaped your views of human interactions to be different from those of most people.
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### Author:  [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2021, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hobbes-was-just-plain-terrible/937595/118 "2021-03-14T11:48:28Z")
> [@DKW](#):
>
> I ask myself, does **anyone at all** realize that Hobbes treats Calvin like utter crap? Who would want to be in Calvin’s position, having to take beatings, take insults, take BS, take bad advice, take condescension, and never being able to pay any of it back, and worse, have literally no one else in the world understand what you’re going through?
I think you are misreading Hobbes. Let me just take one point, the beatings:
My daughter used to “attack” me when we were reunited. She would run at me and hug me, with so much force that I warned her not to do that to my grandmother, because I was afraid she might literally break my grandmother’s bones.
It was just that she was physical and enthusiastic. She was expressing her love. THAT’S what Hobbes is doing when he greets Calvin. And Calvin isn’t a frail old lady, he’s a sturdy boy. He adores the attention and enthusiasm.
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2021, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hobbes-was-just-plain-terrible/937595/119 "2021-03-14T11:55:40Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#):
>
> I think you are misreading Hobbes. Let me just take one point, the beatings:
>
> My daughter used to “attack” me when we were reunited. She would run at me and hug me, with so much force that I warned her not to do that to my grandmother, because I was afraid she might literally break my grandmother’s bones.
>
> It was just that she was physical and enthusiastic. She was expressing her love. THAT’S what Hobbes is doing when he greets Calvin. And Calvin isn’t a frail old lady, he’s a sturdy boy. He adores the attention and enthusiasm. -
> **[Hobbes](https://calvinandhobbes.fandom.com/wiki/Hobbes)**
>
> Hobbes, named for philosopher Thomas Hobbes, is the deuteragonist of the comics. He is Calvin's stuffed tiger and best friend, who, from Calvin's perspective, is a live tiger and real as anyone else in the strip. The interplay between the two title...
> ### Origins
>
> Watterson based some of Hobbes’ characteristics, especially his playfulness and attack instinct, on his own pet cat, Sprite.
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### Author:  [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2021, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hobbes-was-just-plain-terrible/937595/120 "2021-03-14T12:27:48Z")
The comic is _Fight Club_.
Hobbes is Tyler Durden.
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