I had all of the Calvin & Hobbes books (or at least all the cartoons—some were collections of two books) by the time I was about 15 years old, and I've made it a tradition to read through the entire series chronologically every other year or so. I'm amazed at how year after year I can find new strips to laugh aloud at and other ones that bring tears to my eyes as I read the same strips at different points in my lifetime.
Despite my lifelong love for Calvin & Hobbes, there are still some strips that—even after all these decades—I just don't get. Going through the series this time, I decided to compile all the strips I don't understand here with a request for anyone who knows* they understand a strip to explain the humor or punchline of it to me in the comments below.
For the strips that are part of a longer story arc, I've put contextual information in the text that appears when you hover your mouse cursor over the picture. I look forward to your enlightenment!
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*Please do not speculate. I've done plenty of that over the years. I want to know if it's something obvious I'm missing or if there's some context you can point out to clear it up.
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7.
#2: Hobbes was bartering, he does not want get less money, so he compromised not to be too hypocritical
ReplyDelete#3: idk, I thought it was a play on those relationships and maturity problems kids don't understand
#4: I suppose it was a long drive
#5: Calvin bought the squid and was gonna do something messy with it
#6: They chickened out
#7: Denial of reality
#8: Calvin wants to seem "holier than thou" so he intentionally tortures himself with bad food just to get Santa's favour.