Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for May 12, 2024

Hobbes isn’t asking for too much.

Lots of people today act more like animals.

A honey badger or a Komodo dragon would disagree with you!!

“Animals listening” is an anthropomorphic generalization. Animals may react to people, but they don’t listen to abstract ideas or expressed thoughts. Some animals like that you feed them and take care of them and interact with them, but that’s not the same as a conscious liking of you as a person. They’re simply reacting to stimulus. A hungry bear, lion, or tiger is going to eat you, and your “friendship status” would be meaningless to them. This was shown in a horrific video showing what happened to a man who tried to be “friends” with grizzlies. One of them ate him and his girlfriend because it was starving. Calvin can imagine Hobbes behaving any way he likes.

Calvin is SO right! Rabbi Harold Kutchner wrote in his book “When Bad Things Happen to Good People”, that, unlike animals who act purely on instinct, humans have the capacity to choose between good and evil, and many choose the latter. IMHO, that makes animals superior to humans.

Sometimes you have to settle for people who’ll ingratiate you for a piece of your money…

Many animals will kill one that doesn’t fit in, that doesn’t follow the group norms. There’s that.

If you want friends, you have to be one.

Minor detail, but that’s life.

Ahhh, my favorite shot. The back of Calvin’s head!

Once again, Bill Watterson has Calvin expressing his own thoughts. This isn’t always the case, of course. He sometimes has Calvin express thoughts that he strongly disagrees with and has either Hobbes, Dad or Susie ridicule them.

He certainly shares Calvin’s view about animal companions being superior to human companions. In his introduction to Calvin in “The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book”, Watterson explains that one of the things he shares with Calvin is a preference for animals over humans. In his introduction to Hobbes, he explains that he sees Hobbes as “more animal than human”.

In today’s reprint, Hobbes shows part of his human side in the way that he reacts to Calvin’s praise. It is Hobbes’s human side which Calvin finds annoying.

So many truths touched on in this one! Especially about needing more money! Animals and most Humans just act on their it stinks; not reason…

To quote the late and great Steve Irwin: “Crocodiles are easy, they just try to kill and eat you. People are harder. Sometimes they pretend to be your friend first.”

“True friends are hard to come by, I need more money” That was a funny line

Hobbes definitely knows the way to break an extended self-pity tirade. Good move. Hope my friend never discovers the reason for the frequency with which I have ’sneezed’ or ‘coughed’ to break off the conversation.

Aww, c’mon Calvin…is a tuna fish sandwich so much to ask? You’re not the easest kid in the world to like!

Some animals like you the way you are, others would prefer to add a little salt and pepper

Anyone besides me notice how (at least in this strip) “THBPBTPTH” is the same sound he makes when he’s giving the raspberry?

Like People, Animals have a group that expresses their feeling on humans: AETH.

It is like the true meaning of PETA, but means “Animals Eating Tasty Humans”.

Animals Like Humans just fine- they taste great!

Unless, of course, the animals are hungry and happen to be a predator. Then they’re not so nice.

Of course, animals are sometimes conditional.

Where did Hobbes have that hanky?

With Hobbes, you never know.

I love the 1st and 2nd panels. Cracked me up.

Large cats must be different from domestic cats. :)

Hobbes is a cat.

Where does Hobbes keep his handkerchief?

WHERE IS THE BREAK-IN ARC

Many do not require seasonings when they eat you.