Calvin and Hobbes Comics About Socially Awkward Kid

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No, I specifically said:

"I am not in any way implying that the character of Calvin is autistic. I do not think he is. All I am saying is that there is usually something in the character of Calvin that every reader can identify with."

^^^oops I guess I was inserting my impressions onto him then.

Not at all. My perceptions are merely my own. You are free to interpret the characters as you wish, as am I. That is the beauty of it. Perhaps you think Calvin is on the spectrum. Perhaps you interpret him differently to how I do. My opinion is not the defining opinion. The defining opinion is that of each and every individual reader.

I honestly don't think the tiger humor came through. I love the duplicator, and there's a funny old movie, Multiplicity, with a similar concept.

Poor Susie. LOL. Maybe Calvin's a little jealous and a little scornful at the same time, since from his point of view, Susie has no fun.

I tried the main page of that wiki but my phone was so sluggish when I tried to read it. I'll try the individual pages though.

Poor Calvin only tried to do what his mother said LOL.

I like Calvin because he's creative and does his own thing. I can relate to that, especially as a kid.

there is more than a bit of him in me.

^^The joke is that Calvin was expecting to transform into a ferocious, wild, realistic tiger, not a tiny, fuzzy, adorable version of Hobbes.

I didn't think about that for some reason. I feel silly now. LOL. I was thinking of a little cardboard box, and actually, I never thought about whether ferocious tigers had any fuzzy bits. Animals can be ferocious but still can have soft fur.

I was also wondering if Calvin turning into a mini Hobbes was a mistake on your part or Calvin's, because he was Tiger Calvin.

OK, this is about the point where my friends would tell me I'm overthinking this. I'll stop driving you all crazy now.

do you have a good picture now?

Are you referring to the one that Kuraudo777 posted about Calvin using his cardboard box to turn himself into a tiger?

If so, I think that this might be one of those stories where the humour is unfortunately very visual. I will do my best to explain why it is funny to sighted readers.

There are four frames. In the first frame, the tiger Hobbes is drawn standing upright observing a large empty cardboard box that is open at the top but has been turned upside-down and set on the floor and has had the word "transmogrifier" hastily scrawled onto the side of it. An upwards-pointing arrow has been drawn on the side of the box to indicate that it needs to be positioned upside-down. From what transpires in later frames, the reader deduces that in this first frame, Calvin is hidden underneath the cardboard box and some sort of mysterious high-tech mechanism is taking place while Hobbes waits outside as a patient observer. In this first frame, Hobbes is pictured directing his words towards whoever is inside the box, and saying to it "so you're a tiger now?" A voice comes from inside the cardboard box saying "Yes. Let me out".

This part is funny to me for several reasons. First, the cardboard box is empty except for Calvin being inside it, so it would presumably be very light. It would therefore be easy for Calvin to pick the box up himself and let himself out. There is no actual need for Calvin to ask Hobbes to let him out. The box has not been welded to the floor and it is not closed and is made of light cardboard material. To let himself out, all Calvin would need to do is easily push the box upwards himself. But he is exercising his imagination to presumably pretend to himself that his cardboard box is some sort of high-tech metal chamber with a sealed door that can only be opened from the outside, so Hobbes has to let him out.

Secondly, it is so hilariously implausible and impossible that you could turn a cardboard box into a highly advanced piece of technological equipment simply by writing things on it. In Calvin's imagination, he can turn his cardboard box into anything at all, simply by writing a new title on it. His cardboard box becomes anything he wants it to be by means of writing a new title on its side. According to his logic, if he wanted, he could turn it into a time machine, by simply hastily writing on it "Time Machine" and then it would magically become a time machine. It is never specified precisely how this amazing technological process is achieved and I find it hilarious that he never actually manufactures any actual new parts or adds any additional accessories to the box. Some children might spend hours painstakingly adding imaginative accessories made out of empty toilet rolls or cereal boxes, but in Calvin's case, his special box is always, without exception, pictured as a plain cardboard box that simply has some form of writing on it to announce what it has now become. So the only way Calvin ever adapts his cardboard box to turn it into something else is to write a new title on it. It's like he is hastily stating "I hereby declare this box to be a transmogrifier" and so now it is. I suspect that the reason that Calvin does not ever make actual time-consuming modifications to the cardboard box is because he is too lazy and impatient to do that. He wants results NOW. So he just quickly writes on the box what he wants it to be, and then it becomes that thing (albeit only in his own imagination). The silly pretentious pseudo-scientific names that he makes up for his pretend machines are also hilarious. As far as I am aware, the word "transmogrifier" is a made-up word that doesn't really mean anything at all.

In the second frame, the tall, lean, lithe tiger Hobbes is easily lifting up the cardboard box to reveal what is concealed underneath it. (In Calvin's imagination, what Hobbes is presumably doing at this point is entering the secret PIN code to unlock the sealed door to the secret high-tech metal chamber that is hidden underground in the secret bunker. Or something like that. But all that is really happening is that Hobbes is lifting up a cardboard box that has been sitting on top of Calvin).

In the third frame, the cardboard box has now been placed back into its original position and Calvin has now emerged from it. The tall, lean, athletic, impressive tiger Hobbes is now standing frowning down in perplexity at a hilariously tiny, stumpy, cute, dwarf-like, underwhelming tiger that is Calvin. The humour of this lies in the contrast in height between the two, and the fact that the reader is so used to seeing the only tiger in the comic strip as the very tall and athletic Hobbes, but we are now suddenly being presented with a tiny stumpy version of this tiger in the form of Calvin, who is usually drawn as a small stumpy boy, but has now suddenly been turned into a small stumpy tiger.

Calvin's plan has backfired. He and his tiger Hobbes are often getting into physical fights and because Hobbes is so much taller, more physically fit, and more athletic, Calvin was probably sick of getting beaten all the time in their play fights, so he was presumably hoping that his new machine would turn him into a tiger that was an equal match for Hobbes so that he could win some of their play fights and they could do tiger things together. However, all that the machine has done is to keep Calvin's original proportions. He is indeed now a tiger, but he is a pathetically tiny one in comparison to Hobbes. So he is not going to be a very even playmate for Hobbes, and is probably not going to be able to do all the things Hobbes can do that Calvin is envious of, such as climbing trees effortlessly.

In the fourth frame, Hobbes says "words fail me" and Calvin says "I'm disappointed too, but keep in mind that transmogrification is a new technology". The reason I find this part funny is because transmogrification is not a technology at all. It's just a thing that exists inside Calvin's imagination. Calvin is making it sound as though if he keeps trying and gives his technology a few more tweaks and puts in a few more months in the lab doing a few more experiments, he might be able to turn himself into a taller tiger. But in reality, there is no lab. In reality, there is no technology. There is only a cardboard box. The only "modification" Calvin is ever likely to make is to perhaps hastily cross out the word "transmogrifier" on the side of his box, and amend it by writing "super height-boosting transmogrifier" instead. That would ensure that next time he turns himself into a tiger, he would end up being a taller one.

This time around, Calvin forgot to specify how tall he wanted to be, so his experiment turned out wrong. I wish the cartoonist would write a second story in which Calvin successfully turned himself into a taller tiger and had an equally matched fight with Hobbes, but that wouldn't work because then it would lose all the humour. Part of the reason Calvin and Hobbes are so funny together is because Calvin is so short and Hobbes is so tall. And part of the reason that Calvin's cardboard box adventures are so funny is because the results of his scientific experiments never turn out the way that he predicted or intended. So if the cartoonist wrote a story in which the technology actually turned out the way Calvin wanted, it wouldn't be the same kind of humour.

LOL thanks for that, Thumbhole. It's definitely funnier in context, with the mismatched tigers and the non-technological technology. I think "transmogrify" is a magical word but Calvin doesn't see it that way apparently. You are quite good at analyzing these comics.

Not your fault. I think people forgot to specify to you that the cardboard box in question is a large one. At least, it is large from Calvin's perspective, but bear in mind that Calvin is quite small because he is only six years old. The box is large enough for Calvin to crawl inside it and hide himself. He always goes inside the box while he is carrying out one of his imaginary scientific experiments to turn himself into something else.



You are not overthinking it. It's important to be in possession of all of the information to be able to get the humour. Keep asking questions if there is anything else you don't get, and I am sure people will be happy to oblige and fill you in on important bits.



No, Calvin does not appear to be a fan of magic. His imaginative fantasies indicate that he loves aliens, monsters, superheroes, dinosaurs, and advanced futuristic scientific technology, but he does not appear to be a fan of fairy tales.

Thanks, Thumbhole. At least someone understands my thought process.

Also, there was nothing surprising to me about a little boy becoming a little fuzzy tiger instead of a big ferocious one.

When you say "read it" I presume you mean you have some means of turning text to speech with a robotic voice that reads it out for you. I make this assumption because you have stated that you are blind. So would it help if I copied and pasted the text of some of the Wiki entries onto this thread?

Since you are replying to this thread quickly when people make responses, I presume that your phone doesn't have a problem with reading out the text of threads on this forum, the way it seemingly has a problem with wading through the Wiki entries and trying to read them.

The main Calvin and Hobbes page that Auntblabby posted on the other thread is the most troublesome with my phone. The subpages you linked to aren't as sluggish. And they also describe some of the stories.

I wish more comic scripts were available for blind readers. The Calvin Hobbes comic panel descriptions on this thread are awesome for blind readers, like scripts.

I googled "Calvin and Hobbes blind" and we're on page 2.

Yes, software, called Voiceover, is built in to the iPhone. Voiceover reads text and labeled graphics aloud, but not comics of course.

Some further thoughts:

The biggest talking point of Calvin and Hobbes is the mystery surrounding the fact that Hobbes the tiger is sometimes a real live tiger that is much bigger than Calvin, and at other times, is just an inanimate stuffed toy tiger, than is quite small (much smaller than Calvin).

Hobbes the tiger is depicted as a ferocious, wild, realistic walking and talking tiger whenever he and Calvin are alone. He always helps Calvin with all his plans, and helps him get out of the scrapes he is always getting into. He can open doors, write letters, climb trees, let Calvin out of locked rooms, etc. But as soon as any other people come along, Hobbes goes back to being drawn as a small, lifeless, helpless stuffed toy, that cannot move or talk or help Calvin in any way. The toy version of Hobbes is significantly smaller than Calvin.

As soon as the other people go away again and Calvin is once again alone with his tiger, the toy tiger magically turns back into a huge big real live ferocious tiger again. Most of the time, Hobbes stands upright and adopts human postures and facial expressions. But he definitely has paws with claws on them, not hands. He also has whiskers and striped fur and all the other things any normal tiger would have. He never wears clothes or shoes. He is just a furry tiger. The only difference from a normal tiger is that Hobbes stands upright. But when Hobbes is feeling a bit restless, he sometimes goes all cat-like and goes back to his animal instincts and stops being so domesticated. At times like that, he goes down on all fours and stalks Calvin, like a tiger would stalk its prey in the wild. Then, after stalking Calvin silently and creeping up on him, Hobbes pounces on him for some rough-and-tumble play. This always gives Calvin a terrible shock because these attacks come out of the blue and Calvin always loses the fights, due to being so much smaller and due to not being a ferocious tiger but just being a small boy.

The comic never makes it clear whether Hobbes truly has the ability to turn into a real live tiger when no other people are present, or whether it's just Calvin's imagination. It is left up to the reader to decide.

I'm aware that it's probably just Calvin's imagination but I prefer to think that Hobbes really does turn into a real tiger. It's more exciting that way. But there is no right or wrong way to interpret it. Everybody potentially interprets it differently because the cartoonist does not specify whether Hobbes truly has the ability to turn into a real tiger, or whether it's just Calvin's imagination. That's the beauty of reading: you use your own imagination to embellish on the story and fill in the gaps, so the story becomes your own personal embellished version of the basic story. That means that there are potentially millions of different versions of Calvin and Hobbes, each one slightly different, because each one exists inside the interpretation of each individual reader.

Either it's Calvin's imagination, or his magical ability, or both. Or neither I suppose. Like you, I like the magic of the real tiger and the duplicator and other gadgets Calvin creates on the fly.

I definitely have a better idea of Hobbes now. I mostly ignored him before.