Does Hobbes ever do anything that Calvin himself could not do?

Question

So this question got me thinking that, except for pure Calvin fantasy (i.e. Spaceman Spiff, where nothing is real), is there ever a comic where Calvin claims Hobbes did something that Calvin could not have possibly performed himself? This one comes close, but Calvin could have tied himself up

Note that we don't have to see Hobbes having done it, just that it would have been very difficult or impossible for Calvin to have done it.

Tied up again...http://www.toptenz.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/calvin-tied-up-570x189.gif — Valorum, Apr 05 '17 at 19:13
@NKCampbell Nah. I'm looking for those moments where you know that Calvin has to have done it... but you have no idea how. Basically Bill Watterson winking at the audience — Machavity, Apr 05 '17 at 19:45
@Machavity - Putting mom's shoes on a high shelf; https://i.stack.imgur.com/TSEAw.png — Valorum, Apr 05 '17 at 20:08
Leaving Hobbes's true nature purposely ambiguous cuts both ways: Just as Bill Watterson never wrote in anything proving Hobbes was only a stuffed animal, he also never wrote in anything proving he was something more. — MartianInvader, Apr 05 '17 at 21:06
Calvin doing things which seem to be impossible to pull off alone are not necessarily proof that Hobbes is real. It can be a joke of how many surprising and unexplained things a 5 year old child can do. I've seen small children find hidden things and crawl into places I wouldn't have thought possible before. — vsz, Apr 05 '17 at 21:45
@Valorum That's actually a much better answer than the current one. — Drew, Apr 05 '17 at 21:56
Related (cross-site): http://literature.stackexchange.com/q/621/481 — Shokhet, Apr 06 '17 at 02:46
@Valorum Ah, good one. I've spent the last 20 minutes specifically looking for Hobbes doing things that Calvin couldn't reach, mostly unsuccessful. Nice find. — Jason C, Apr 06 '17 at 04:24
@JasonC - You are, of course, welcome to add it to your answer if you so desire. — Valorum, Apr 06 '17 at 06:30
You almost deserve a downvote for having the audacity to suggest that there's a possibility Hobbes isn't real... :-) — Steve Ives, Apr 06 '17 at 07:40
Hobbes is real inside the comic strip. It's the comic strip that isn't real. Ceci n'est pas un pipe. — pjc50, Apr 06 '17 at 10:06
Personally, I like to believe Hobbes is real, but pretends not to be as a running prank on Calvin; it's pretty consistent with the rest of their relationship to suppose so. — user70585, Apr 07 '17 at 06:14
How about when Hobbes helps him push the car out of the garage? http://assets.amuniversal.com/9f011340deca013171a6005056a9545d and http://assets.amuniversal.com/a0573b70deca013171a6005056a9545d — Bob Jones, Apr 07 '17 at 07:42
Calvin is the master of imagination. His transmogrifier and dinosaur/Spaceman Spiff adventures are legendary. I think, then, that Hobbes is very likely part of Calvin’s imagination as well. Any event that supposedly occurs between the two that couldn’t possibly have occurred if Hobbes weren’t real could simply be chalked up to Calvin’s imagining that entire scenario. I think this is the most-likely scenario, given Calvin’s vivid imagination and the fact that no one else sees Hobbes as anything but a stuffed animal. — Ham Sandwich, Nov 22 '17 at 04:35

Jason C · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-06T06:08:22.110

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A pretty compelling one is this strip, where Calvin had no opportunity to take the cookies without Susie noticing:

I also find it interesting that "real" Hobbes appears in the second pane.

Then there's this one, where Calvin would probably have some serious difficulty getting that high up a tree while holding a water balloon on his own, but more convincingly, Calvin is shown leaving the water balloon at the base of the tree before he climbs:

There's also a few where it's unlikely Calvin did something. There's the tied up one in the OP, for example. There's also this one, where Hobbes probably stole a piece of cake:

There's this one, too, which, assuming it happened as shown, would be very strange if Hobbes wasn't involved:

There's some honorable mentions as well, although I didn't feel they were strong enough to explicitly mention above. They hint at things done by Hobbes to Calvin but one could imagine Calvin doing them to himself:

Hobbes knocking Calvin backwards at the door
Hobbes throwing a water balloon at Calvin, and dragging a full kiddie pool
Hobbes makes a clay tiger at the same time that Calvin makes a clay bowl, and Hobbes' is much higher quality
Hobbes carries Calvin on his shoulder and puts him in a tree, then tickles his feet
Hobbes places Calvin in a large rain barrel, and Calvin appears to not be happy about it
There's a lot of other examples along these lines if you look around (this is a good source, for example).

But Watterson left it intentionally vague, so as with all questions related to Hobbes' existence, we can never be 100% sure.

edited Apr 06 '17 at 06:08

answered Apr 06 '17 at 03:19

Jason C

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I also find it interesting that "real" Hobbes appears in the second pane. At that instant Susie is actually looking away from Hobbes. He's a stuffed toy in pane 3 where he's arguably within her field of view again. : ) – Grimm The Opiner Apr 06 '17 at 09:13
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Well, I'd argue that in your 2nd example, anything between "C+H+ballon on the ground" and "C+H+ballon on the branch" could be Calvin's imagination. Still, it does not explain how he climbed that high with two things in his hands. Also, in the 3rd one, it could be Calvin eating a piece, so I believe this one does not qualify. – yo' Apr 06 '17 at 10:34
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@yo' Yes, that one is borderline (I tried to emphasize by stressing unlikely). Basically, I'm pretty sure you can come up with a non-Hobbes explanation for all of the strips, defaulting to "Calvin imagined the entire scenario" if needed (especially for situations with no witnesses). So the best we can do is sort of rank them by how "difficult" a non-Hobbes explanation is (e.g a stray animal could have eaten Susie's cookie, or maybe she never had cookies and she imagined that, too, etc.). IMO the cake one is sort of in the middle of that range. The "runner ups" are on the low end. – Jason C Apr 06 '17 at 14:10
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Robot Chicken has a pretty relevant and funny take on it. – Jason C Apr 06 '17 at 14:13
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I'd argue that there's a minute or two not shown between panels 3 & 4 of the first example, and the fourth example is Calvin blaming a wipeout on Hobbes (and blowing it out of proportion in his imagination). – Matthew Read Apr 06 '17 at 15:27
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@MatthewRead Yes. See, that is a valid argument, but one that I consider to be "difficult" (which wasn't the greatest word). By "difficult" in my previous comment I essentially mean the amount of out-of-pane assumptions you have to make about the universe in order to explain the events. All of these are explainable to varying degrees, and totally plausible explanations (like yours) can be given for, afaik, all of the strips. It's indicative of Watterson's skill and the ambiguity is one of the fundamental reasons why these comics are so magic. We can only judge them in a very fuzzy way. :) – Jason C Apr 06 '17 at 15:32
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In fact, I'd go so far as to claim that if you ever found a Calvin & Hobbes strip that showed, without a doubt, Hobbes doing something that could not be explained with any number of assumptions (barring the catch-all that the comic itself is fiction, of course), then this would have been a rare mistake on Watterson's part that we could almost just discount as an error. Even in my examples in this answer, I could not definitively argue that Hobbes must have intervened / performed an action, I can only argue that it strongly appears as such within the confines of the panes. – Jason C Apr 06 '17 at 15:36
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the irony, i think, is that the only one (in my mind anyway) that could not have been done by Calvin is where he appears to be tied up in such a way that he could not have done all of it himself - yet, in this instance Hobbes strongly implies in the final panel that Calvin did do it all himself! – Apr 06 '17 at 19:16
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In the tea party strip, I think you're missing another possible explanation. After all, Hobbes isn't the only apparently stuffed animal present... – Kenster Apr 07 '17 at 19:46
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@Kenster I didn't mention it, but that's the explanation I prefer as well. I very vividly remember reading that strip years ago and totally thinking "Dammit, Susie! Why can't you see that Mr. Bun isn't as innocent as he appears???" -- Actually, I was always really sad that there was never a Susie and Bun spin-off. In the Calvin & Hobbes universe, Susie is as isolated as Calvin is. I always wanted more. – Jason C Apr 08 '17 at 03:05
No for me on the first example. But all the others are excellent. Have a 100th vote. – gef05 Apr 08 '17 at 06:31
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I'm frankly unconvinced by all the examples where only Calvin and Hobbes are present. The only one that comes close is the clay figurine, since it's later seen by Calvin's mom (but even then it could still have been made by Calvin and weirdly denied later). – E.P. Apr 08 '17 at 16:38
@E.P. Lack of witness ones are tough. That was one of the primary qualities of my "runner ups", but the two that I included in my examples were ones that I personally felt were stronger for other reasons, but this whole thing is very fuzzy, and very personal I think. I believe every reader can find a few that are convincing to them and a few that aren't, and I think it's a lot of fun looking. PS Funnily enough, the clay figurine in my list isn't actually seen by Calvin's mom later, that's a different clay figurine in a series that starts at http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1992/06/22. – Jason C Apr 08 '17 at 16:49
(One of my points being: I could probably put together a list of examples such that many people would find at least one mostly convincing example, but that's a bit beyond my abilities. It's fun to try to find ones that work for you and ones that don't. Check out Doug R.'s answer for counterpoints to almost all of the ones I mentioned here.) – Jason C Apr 08 '17 at 16:52

Deacon · Answer 2 · 2018-03-21T12:50:14.413

No.

In the examples provided, as well as every other strip that I can find, there's nothing inconsistent with a young child who has a very vivid imagination. My personal opinion is that when Hobbes does many of the things that Calvin credits (or blames) him for, Calvin is actually pretending that he's Hobbes.

The issue in the comic strips is that, when we see the "living" Hobbes, we're either seeing the other reality that nobody else sees (in which case Hobbes really is alive and is Calvin's active co-conspirator), or we're inside Calvin's imagination, in which case, how much of the rest of the scene is also his imagination? Note that the fact that it's his imagination doesn't make it any less real, but it's a subjective reality, rather than an objective one.

We don't know that Calvin didn't have the opportunity to take the cookies; he could just be very very sneaky.

I've watched children, while pretending, do things equally as elaborate to set up a simple scenario and then maintain that their imaginary friend helped them, they "flew up here," or given any of a dozen other explanations. Again - if Hobbes is real, then he helped. If Hobbes is pretend, then what else is pretend in the scene?

Simple deflection. Who's to say that Calvin didn't sneak in for a piece of cake earlier and then pretend (even to himself) that Hobbes did it.

Somebody else commented that this could just be an elaborate explanation for a wipeout. Makes sense.

Rationalization for falling down, or what he imagined (wished?) would happen to Suzy.

Agreed. But not impossible. When I was around 10, I used to manage to do it to try to teach myself how to be an escape artist. Not quite THAT elaborately, of course. Note that I'm not saying that Calvin ISN'T real, just asking whether,if Calvin is pretending, what else in the scene is pretend? — Deacon, Apr 07 '17 at 19:23
I like this counter-analysis very much. See this comment and the following ones for discussion precisely along these lines. As I mentioned there, the best we can do is essentially rank them by the amount of out-of-pane assumptions we need to make about the universe to explain them. All the strips have potential explanations if you make assumptions, worse case you can default to "Calvin imagined the whole thing". This was part of Watterson's magic. — Jason C, Apr 08 '17 at 03:15

score 36 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 05 '17 at 19:00

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In the following cartoon strip Hobbes presses the button on the outside of Calvin's Duplicator.

Given the position of the button, there's simply no way that Calvin could have pushed it himself, from inside the machine.

answered Apr 05 '17 at 19:00

Valorum

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^_^ Ah, but was the button actually pushed? – FuzzyBoots Apr 05 '17 at 19:04
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@FuzzyBoots - Of course it was. Or else how could the Duplicator have worked? – Valorum Apr 05 '17 at 19:06
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Well technically we don't know it worked. We can't see what's inside the box. – Roddy of the Frozen Peas Apr 05 '17 at 19:43
I was just coming here to mention a very similar case -- the Transmogrifier. Obviously, Calvin can't control the Transmogrifier while he's inside it! – Hot Licks Apr 05 '17 at 19:49
@RoddyoftheFrozenPeas - The very next strip indicates that his device was entirely successful; https://i.stack.imgur.com/Yf2ln.png – Valorum Apr 05 '17 at 20:05
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But how could the duplicate calvin make further duplicates without help unless it was possible to activate the duplicator from the inside? see http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1990/01/15 – Gorloth Apr 05 '17 at 20:06
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@Gorloth - In the second panel we see him encouraging Hobbes to come upstairs with him. Clearly Hobbes operated the device. – Valorum Apr 05 '17 at 20:07
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@Valorum The first and second panel contain the original Calvin, the third panel is the first clone (number 2) and the newly made number 3. The next comic strip clearly shows that the original Calvin and Hobbes were not in the room at the time of further duplication. – Gorloth Apr 05 '17 at 20:09
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@Gorloth - You're not wrong. I think I've worked it out. The box is pushed up against the wall. By throwing himself against the side, he could theoretically push the button with the wall. – Valorum Apr 05 '17 at 20:15
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An interesting spin on Schrodinger's Paradox -- the cat is outside the box for once! – Wossname Apr 05 '17 at 20:30
Or duplicate #1 made a quick upgrade to the duplicator. – Kyle Strand Apr 05 '17 at 20:31
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I think this falls in the realm of "pure fantasy" that is explicitly to be ignored per OP. – Engineer Toast Apr 05 '17 at 21:11
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No one other than Calvin and Hobbes themselves ever sees proof that either the duplicator or transmogrifier actually work. It's possible that both incidents take place entirely in Calvin's imagination, with him doing some very creative acting for the interactions with other people. – Douglas Apr 06 '17 at 03:10
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Sorry Mr Valorum, but Hobbes pushing a drawn-on button doesn't answer the question for me. It's all in Calvin's mind. What we need is something more physical, like Hobbes lifting Calvin into a tree, and then others wondering how he got up there. Savvy? – Tim Apr 06 '17 at 03:41
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@tim But the entire strip wouldn't necessarily be able to be used as evidence. Take your example - being lifted into a tree - the limb may seem high to calvin but perhaps it's only 18 inches off the ground. As such, like the tiger that is evidently as real as the tree, the strip is drawn according to Calvin's internal interpretation of his experiences. Who knows - maybe Susie's cookies don't actually exist either. So what, exactly, is "evident" and what isn't? If a tree limb drawn too high to climb is evident, then why not a moving, talking tiger? – Adam Davis Apr 07 '17 at 04:54
@AdamDavis: My advice? Just give up. – Kevin Apr 07 '17 at 05:41
@Kevin that's my advice as well, but it seems others are intent on teasing out an objective reality from the strip, so my comment is trying to understand why Tim believes that to be possible. – Adam Davis Apr 07 '17 at 10:59
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@AdamDavis - Ah, but what if Calvin is a figment of Hobbes' imagination? – Valorum Apr 07 '17 at 11:05
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@Valorum obviously I need to study this further. Someone should buy me the complete Calvin and Hobbes. For science! – Adam Davis Apr 07 '17 at 11:09
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@AdamDavis - Purchasing it is the right way to go about it. Getting The Complete Calvin and Hobbes from Torrent might be trivially simple, but it doesn't help the publishing house to earn money – Valorum Apr 07 '17 at 11:17

score 34 · Answer 4 · edited Jun 16 '20 at 09:31

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Eating Tommy Chesnutt:

Calvin could not have eaten his classmate.

edited Jun 16 '20 at 09:31

Community

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answered Apr 05 '17 at 23:51

Wildcard

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Downvoter, care to comment? This precisely answers the question: "Is there ever a comic where Calvin claims Hobbes did something Calvin could not have possibly performed himself? ... Note that we don't have to see Hobbes having done it, just that it would have been very difficult or impossible for Calvin to have done it." – Wildcard Apr 06 '17 at 00:32
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Since this cartoon describes an event that clearly didn't happen, I think it would be ruled out by the "except for pure Calvin fantasy" clause in the question. – Harry Johnston Apr 06 '17 at 01:56
@HarryJohnston, "clearly didn't happen"—how is that clear? Do you think Tommy Chestnut doesn't exist? Or what? (It still answers the question, though; Calvin directly claims that Hobbes did it.) – Wildcard Apr 06 '17 at 02:06
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If a kid had been mysteriously eaten (or had mysteriously disappeared) there'd have been an enormous fuss, and Calvin's mother would certainly have heard of it. Calvin doesn't show any obvious indication of having been traumatized by the event either, though perhaps he's secretly a psychopath. (And I'm pretty sure the intent of the question is to ask about events that actually happened, not just stuff Calvin made up.) – Harry Johnston Apr 06 '17 at 02:11
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@HarryJohnston it seems to me that a great deal of the point of Calvin and Hobbes is that the distinction between made up and real is blurry to nonexistent at best. – Leliel Apr 06 '17 at 02:28
@HarryJohnston, see my comment here. What do you make of the fact that Calvin materialized five worms in his room, that his mom could see? Or do you assume that he actually went out into the garden, dug up the worms, carried them up to his room, and then suffered amnesia about the whole thing—even though none of that is shown in the strip? Your idea of "reality" is too fixed. (cont'd) – Wildcard Apr 06 '17 at 02:37
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(cont'd) The mom's reality is that it doesn't matter where the worms came from, she wants them out of the house. Calvin's reality is he's showing his mom how he handled his troublesome duplicates. Your reality is... what, exactly? @Leliel is right, there are different realities in Calvin and Hobbes and to arbitrarily pick one as the "only reality" and just deny that any other reality could possibly exist just misses the whole point. (This is also true in life, but that's another discussion entirely.) – Wildcard Apr 06 '17 at 02:43
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Suffered amnesia? He's playing make-believe. As for the blurred line between make-believe and reality, that's a reasonable interpretation, but not really compatible with the premise of this particular question. You're welcome (as far as I'm concerned) to directly attack that premise, but it seems to me that your answer just ignores it. – Harry Johnston Apr 06 '17 at 03:08
But if you like, you can consider my original comment to be revised to read "an event that didn't happen from Calvin's mother's perspective". That's enough to rule it out as an answer to this particular question. – Harry Johnston Apr 06 '17 at 03:13
@HarryJohnston, as for "the sort of thing the OP was asking for," I think this comment nails it perfectly. Definitive proof one way or the other will not be found in the strip, and that's why. – Wildcard Apr 06 '17 at 03:14
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As for "playing make-believe," you can say that about the whole strip. But that's your position, not the strip's. You're taking the "adult reality" as objectively factual and more valid than Calvin's reality. – Wildcard Apr 06 '17 at 03:16
And I think you're reading more into the question than is really there. I answered the exact question, which explicitly states that we don't have to see Hobbes do the action Calvin claims he does. – Wildcard Apr 06 '17 at 03:16
I'm taking the "adult reality" as objectively factual in this context simply because I believe that's the intent of the question, and I believe that's the intent of the question because otherwise it would seem rather pointless. But there's no point in debating the OPs meaning, presumably they'll make it clear in due course. – Harry Johnston Apr 06 '17 at 03:21
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The problem I have with this strip is that it's not evident that anybody ate Tommy Chestnut. He could be just fine. – Jason C Apr 06 '17 at 03:29
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I mean obviously Calvin really ate Tommy Chestnut, the little weirdo. But it's okay, Tommy Chestnut never existed. – fluffy Apr 06 '17 at 05:26
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funny that everyone calls poor tommy chesnutt "chestnut". – ths Apr 07 '17 at 09:23
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@JasonC was Tommy Chestnut ever seen again? I don't think so... Boom! Tiger Food! – Stone True Apr 09 '17 at 04:47

score 5 · Answer 5 · edited Apr 04 '18 at 02:47

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Yes. Hobbes unlocks the front door of the house and leaves without Calvin's mom noticing.

Notice the last panel - Calvin sneaks home from school and does not enter the house, as evidenced that his mother has not yet noticed him. It is strongly implied from the wording as well that Calvin has just arrived back from school and has not yet entered the house. Yet, HOBBES IS OUTSIDE.

edited Apr 04 '18 at 02:47

ApproachingDarknessFish

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answered Apr 04 '18 at 02:31

TheAsh

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It's not outside the realm of possibility that he sneaked in and his mom didn't notice him. Teenagers manage to sneak both out and in the house without their parents noticing. When he was younger, there were a few times that one of my sons walked right past me and went to play outside without me noticing. Again - not saying you're wrong, just saying it's certainly possible. – Deacon Aug 05 '21 at 15:17

Does Hobbes ever do anything that Calvin himself could not do?

5 Answers5

No.

Eating Tommy Chesnutt:

Yes. Hobbes unlocks the front door of the house and leaves without Calvin's mom noticing.

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