Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for September 26, 2024

Then mom is turning it off!

Calvin is annoying mom on purpose

Mom: I guess that means we don’t need the real tv anymore.

Just like Humana

No off switch either….

If Cal’s right, then Mom might just ‘spin the dial’ to flip the channels for fun.

I wonder if his opening monologue will be as funny as Johnny Carson’s were.

Just like a former national politician who managed to get the television he owed affiliated to all three networks.

Not very suppotive of the arts, bad momma.

How Orwellian.

Hilarious.

bring back johnny carson.

I just realized how this dates this particular bit with todays streaming tv

Cool beans! Calvin has his own streaming channel.

Song sung to the tune of Patty Duke Show theme.

What are “networks”?

Put it on mute.

This arc reminds me of the book 1984. Here is one quote that might explain the connection.

“The voice came from an oblong metal plaque like a dulled mirror which formed part of the surface of the right-hand wall. . . The instrument (the telescreen, it was called) could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely.”

Robin Williams had a joke about TV in those days, “If the President is making a speech, your whole evening is screwed, he’s on every channel”. So, Calvin really could grow up to be President.

Heeeeeeeeeeeere’s Calvin…

……….he loves that attention!!!!!

Unfortunately there’s no way to turn it off, either.

Can’t read “what an audience” without hearing it in Jimmy’s voice.

Did they have ‘reality shows’ in the 90’s? Calvin may have been ahead of his time.

Mom may prefer the soap operas … so off to the bathtub Calvin

But Mom really wants to change the channel.

Anyone else getting “The Outer Limits” introduction vibe?

Switch to The Learning Channel. You know he won’t be there.

Shades of George Orwell

If comic strip characters only have 3 fingers… do they only have 3 toes?

Just like it used to be when the President was on.

I wonder what tune he is singing with those lyrics?

Okay, where my official TV jammer built by Steve Wozniak? (Yes, the Apple, Inc. co-founder did build a TV jammer while attending University of Colorado in 1971. Hilarity ensued. You can read about it in his autobiography, iWoz.)

So is this a talk show then? Who are his guests?

Of course Calvin has his own theme song.

Who’s the kid who’s in-es-cap-a-ble on your TV?

C–A–L! V–I–N!

That’s me, that’s me, that’s me!

This strip NEVER fails to crack me up!

For a while as a kid I imagined I was always on TV, but more like The Truman Show, living my ordinary life, but knowing it was a show and aware I had no privacy, with a voiceover announcing transitions between segments (and station breaks when I went to the bathroom). I didn’t enjoy it at all but it was a hard mental habit to break once it somehow got started.

Ah, he’s running as the incumbent.

Calvin’s show on all the networks? Just like the Emergency Alert System!

I’m reminded of when Peter Griffin later tried a similar stunt, except with his cardboard TV monitor he pretended he was watching TV, with everything he sees being a show or channel to him, since he accidentally cut off Quahog’s TV service and was going through withdrawal.

Hi Oooooooooohhhh!

If Calvin is in communist countries, he can be on ALL the channels

Over to ESPN7 for CALVINBALL!!

I wonder if Calvin has had the idea to have pledge breaks?

He’s lucky she would never go Elvis Presley on his TV performance

This strip was ahead of its time, the same show on all channels. Happened in the 2000s before the switch from analog to digital when in a lot of Metro areas a lot of the local channels merged into the same station.

And he can’t be cancelled.

He must be a political commercial.

The boy has learned well from Rodney Dangerfield. “What a crowd, what a crowd. I’m alright now, but yesterday…”

Kinda cute mother-son duo.