Bully in Calvin and Hobbes A minor character in Calvin and Hobbes is named Moe. He is a bully at Calvin’s school who always seems to be beating up or threatening Calvin. He serves as one of the show’s key villains.
Bully in Calvin and Hobbes
The school Calvin attends has a bully named Moe. His typically one-word responses are written in all lowercase. Moe is “every jerkk I’ve ever known,” according to Watterson. Moe, the strip’s minor antagonist, is also the only major character that is never shown in a sympathetic light.
Stephan Pastis, the creator of the 2000s comic Pearls Before Swine, has said that Bill Watterson and Calvin and Hobbes are two of his primary sources of inspiration. In particular, the Zeeba Zeeba Eata crocodile fraternity is modeled after Moe and even uses the same font.
History
Cal and Hobbes fans will recognize Moe as a regular sidekick. Every time he shows up, he either beats Calvin up or threatens to kill him. Moe first appears early in the strip and was established right away as a heartless, ruthless villain (Bill Watterson calls him “every jerkk I’ve ever known”).
Moe is a recurring character in Calvin and Hobbes, but he hasn’t evolved much over the years because his only motivation is to threaten and harass Calvin into giving up his belongings (such as lunch money or, in one tale, Calvin’s truck).
Appearance
Moe is frequently depicted in public with a raised fist, brown jeans, and a black T-shirt. His shaggy brown hair falls over his eyes. His nose is really big. Although Moe is only six years old, Calvin says he already uses a razor. It’s been said, “Never argue with a six-year-old who shaves.”
Moe was probably a lot older than Calvin, and he probably got held back more than once. It’s interesting to note that the typeface used for Moe’s speech bubbles is a handwriting style. His statements are written in sprawling, childlike handwriting (with no capitalization of letters that don’t need it), which may be indicative of Moe’s sluggish speaking and/or low IQ.
This is supported by Calvin’s audience comments; for example, Moe’s language has been described as “monosyllabic,” which is only partially inaccurate. It’s as if “Duh” is his go-to expression.
Characteristics
Moe is the only one of the main characters who can drive Calvin to complete and utter resignation via sheer force of will and physical compulsion. When he does try to fight back, Calvin mostly makes fun of Moe with slang that the bully doesn’t know.
It appears that this gives Calvin some sort of pleasure. Cartoonist Calvin informs Moe that his “simian countenance suggested a heritage exceptionally rich in species diversity” in a panel where Moe is “shaking down” Calvin for lunch money. “What,” Moe asked.
Calvin gave up his cash and said “All right, here it is. That’s worth twenty-five cents.” On another occasion, Calvin inquired of Moe, “Are your maladjusted antisocial behaviors the outcome of your insane pituitary gland?” A little bit later, Moe gave a simple response "To which the audience answered, “What?” before Calvin asked, "Isn’t he fantastic, folks?
All of us should offer him a large hand! ". Moe boasts that he will “beat up Calvin in gym class” regularly, but we’ve only seen him do it once. To illustrate how often Moe refers to Calvin as “Twinky,” I’ve included some dialogue between the two characters.
Quotes
- “All right, Twinky here’s that ball.” Moe making his debut and asking Calvin for a ball.
- “Twinky, you only have two commas left to live. Then we’ll do some sort of physical activity, and I’ll make you into a hamburger casserole!” To Calvin, from Moe
- You’re going to die during lunch, Twinky. “I’m sorry, Calvin,” Moe tells Calvin.
Dialogue of Bullying
'Moe: Twinky, I’m interested in that truck.
The item belongs to Calvin, not Moe. I had it with me from the house.
Moe: Give me the truck, I asked for it.
Moe, you can’t just grab something from people because you’re bigger, Calvin warns.
(Moe threatens to strike Calvin as he picks him up.)
Moe: Don’t give it to me; I’m not taking it. If you give it to me, we’ll both be happier.
(Carson appears in the next panel; Moe and the vehicle have disappeared)
Calvin: That’s very sweet.
Summary
Calvin and Hobbes fans will recognize Moe as a regular sidekick. Moe first appears early in the strip and was established right away as a heartless villain. His statements are written in childlike handwriting, which may be indicative of his sluggish speaking and/or low IQ.
Secondary characters in Calvin and Hobbes
Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson’s comic strip, is famous for its diverse cast of recurring characters. Calvin’s classmates share space with monsters and aliens straight from his wild imagination.
Calvin’s family
As far as the strip is concerned, Calvin’s parents are only essential in their capacity as Calvin’s mom and dad, hence Watterson has never revealed their identities. They, like Hobbes, provide contrasts to Calvin’s outlook and philosophy.
Watterson does, however, occasionally use them to examine adult-relevant topics, such as the trade-offs between work and pleasure, or the annoyances of dealing with rude store clerks and long lines at the grocery store. In addition, Watterson periodically develops the two parents’ personalities.
The family comes home after the wedding to find that someone has broken in and ransacked their house. Throughout several strips, Calvin and Hobbes take a back seat as Mom and Dad process the significance of the recent occurrence.
Watterson’s father was a patent attorney, so Calvin’s father should be, too. He is an avid cyclist and camper who maintains that activities like Calvin’s “develop character” even though they are sometimes undertaken in harsh conditions.
Even though his age is never revealed, when Calvin offers him chocolate cereal he politely declines, saying, “No thanks, I’m trying to attain middle age.” When the house is robbed, Calvin’s father is particularly frightened, marking a rare occasion when Calvin and Hobbes are relegated to a supporting role.
In a confession to his wife, he says, “I don’t think I’d have been in such a hurry to achieve adulthood if I’d known the whole thing was going to be ad-libbed.” The homemaker mother of Calvin expresses frequent exasperation at her son’s antics.
Her husband contends that because she had previously performed a job fraught with stress and irritation, she is more suited to becoming a stay-at-home mom to Calvin. It’s open to interpretation whether or not he was joking.
When she is not scolding Calvin, she seems to enjoy reading and gardening in her spare time. On more than one occasion, she is the one who has to rein in Calvin’s destructive habits; for example, in one Sunday strip, she gives Calvin a cigarette to show him how awful smoking can be.
In another panel, she expresses hope that Calvin will have a child like himself one day so that he can realize what he puts her through, to which Calvin replies that her mother also said the same thing about her.
In most cases, she seems understanding of her son’s friendship with Hobbes, and she even manages to strike up a conversation with Hobbes every once in a while, much to her embarrassment. According to Watterson, the strip’s parents have been attacked since its inception for their lack of patience and sarcasm.
This is especially true of Calvin’s father, who has often reminded his wife that he wanted a dachshund instead of a son.
Other relatives
Uncle Max
In a string of strips from 1988, Calvin’s uncle Max paid a visit. It has been discovered that Calvin’s uncle Max is the older brother of his father.
Calvin’s mother is outraged by his assumption that Max has been in jail to explain why he hasn’t met Max, but Calvin’s father seems to agree with Calvin, saying, “with Max, that’s not a bad guess.” Calvin initially suspected Max was a con man trying to swindle them, so he guessed that Max had been in jail.
Watterson has stated that Uncle Max was supposed to feature in future strips, such as ones in which the family visits Max at his home, but he never did so because he found it odd that Max didn’t know the parents’ real names and because the character didn’t give him enough new material for Calvin.
Max looks like Calvin’s dad in the cartoon, except he has a mustache and no glasses. Both are based on items Watterson sported.
Grandparents
Some strips feature brief cameos from Calvin’s ancestors. Calvin tells Hobbes that his grandfather hates comic strips because newspapers print them too small and they look like Xeroxed talking heads, an excerpt that Watterson chose to reprint in the Tenth Anniversary Book.
Then Hobbes tells Calvin that his grandfather is a comic book nerd, and Calvin reveals that his mom is researching retirement communities for him as a result.
Mr. Bun
Susie’s plush rabbit, Mr. Bun, is a regular at her tea gatherings. Hobbes once referred to Mr. Bun as “comatose,” and the character is never depicted as alive.
This is often done for humorous effects, such as when Susie tries to use Mr. Bun as their baby child while playing “House” with Calvin and Calvin refuses to identify him as a human infant, with the entire strip, including the bunny, drawn in a realistic style.
Rosalyn
Rosalyn, the lone babysitter who can handle Calvin’s antics, is a high school senior and the last of the major recurrent characters to appear. Perhaps the only other character in the strip that Calvin is afraid of is Rosalyn (other than Moe, the school bully).
Watterson was surprised by her aggressiveness and fear of Calvin when she first appeared in the strip, so he continued to feature her in subsequent, more complex plots. Their relationship was defined by Watterson as “one-dimensional,” although in her final appearance, Rosalyn agreed to play a game of Calvinball, making her the only character in the strip to do so (Hobbes was the other).
She is so terrifying to Calvin that he has dubbed her a “sadistic kid-hater” and “a barracuda in a high-school-senior suit,” but in the last Rosalyn story, their conflict is resolved with a game of Calvinball, which Rosalyn ultimately wins.
Nearly every “Rosalyn story” has Rosalyn asking Calvin’s parents for money in advance or a pay raise so that she may afford college or compensate for the extra labor required to keep Calvin under control. (She also makes a cameo as Calvin’s swim teacher for the same reason.)
Rosalyn calls Charlie, her lover of at least four stories, to cancel plans she can’t keep. (Chuck hasn’t been seen yet.) On the basis that Rosalyn is sadistic and/or deranged, Calvin may advise Charlie to end his romantic pursuits with her on occasion.
The storyline in which Calvin takes her school papers and threatens to flush them down the toilet served as the inspiration for the collection’s title, “Revenge of the Baby-Sat.” When Rosalyn asks Calvin’s parents for more money to babysit, the conversation usually ends with a minor argument.
Mother to husband in one skit: “Pay whatever it takes to get us out of here for the night.” The father in Revenge of the Baby-Sat asks the babysitter, “Are you sure there’s nobody else in this town ready to watch Calvin?” after handing over the payment and inspecting his empty wallet. A mother suggests, “Maybe you would want to spend a week on the phone?”
Summary
Bill Watterson’s comic strip Calvin and Hobbes is famous for its cast of recurring characters. Calvin’s classmates share space with monsters and aliens straight from his wild imagination. Mom and Dad take a back seat as they process the significance of their recent break-in.
FAQ’s
1. What disease does Calvin have in Calvin and Hobbes?
With the help of her research, she penned the tale of Calvin, a boy born on the last day the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip was ever published. Now, 17 years later, he has a schizophrenic episode in class, during which Hobbes the tiger starts talking to him.
2. Is Calvin and Hobbes about schizophrenia?
Calvin, now seventeen years old, is introduced in the story. He was born on the day that the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip ran its final strip, and he has since been diagnosed with schizophrenia and has begun hallucinating his childhood teddy bear, Hobbes.
3. Why were Calvin and Hobbes Cancelled?
Bill Watterson decided to end his Calvin and Hobbes comic strip. Watterson canceled Calvin and Hobbes for an excellent, if a little out there, reason. The Washington Post claims the artist simply decided that he wanted to depart from his works while they were at their most potent.
4. Did Calvin marry Susie?
Consequently, Calvin opened up to him about everything. He filled him in on how he and Susie met in high school and eventually married when he finished college, on his three children and four grandchildren, on how he made Spaceman Spiff into a best-selling science fiction novel of the decade, and so on.
5. Why do people like Calvin and Hobbes?
The enduring appeal of the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip can be attributed to many factors. Fans continue to adore it even after all these years. In a society that is more commercial than ever, Calvin and Hobbes have done more than anything else to get people talking about art and ideas again.
6. What does Calvin’s dad do?
Watterson’s father was a patent attorney, so Calvin’s father should be, too. He is an avid cyclist and camper who maintains that activities like Calvin’s “develop character” even though they are sometimes undertaken in harsh conditions.
7. Did Calvin ever lose Hobbes?
In the first Calvin and Hobbes novel, after Calvin misplaces Hobbes, he and Susie Derkins encounter a tiger. On the other hand, she was looking the other way at the time.
8. What are Hobbes and Bacon?
Dan and Tom Heyerman, who created the comic Pants are Overrated, are the fans behind Hobbes and Bacon. After publishing their webcomic for over two years, they wrote the cartoon, which went viral, earning them thousands of views from wistful Calvin and Hobbes readers.
9. What disorder does Calvin have in Gully?
Jacob Latimore’s character, Calvin, is bright and intellectual, but he also appears to be schizophrenic or have some other form of mental illness. His mother (Robin Givens) doesn’t know how to help him and can’t even convince him to take his medicine.
10. Why did Calvin Ridley miss the season?
The Atlanta Falcons Calvin Ridley, who was then a rookie, playing against the Cleveland Browns. A suspension has been handed down to Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Calvin Ridley for his involvement in sports betting. The entire 2022 season will pass without him.
Conclusion
A minor character in Calvin and Hobbes is named Moe. He is a bully at Calvin’s school who always seems to be beating up or threatening Calvin. He serves as one of the show’s key villains. His only motivation is to threaten and harass Calvin into giving up his belongings. Moe refers to Calvin as “Twinky” and often refers to him as a “hamburger casserole” Moe boasts that he will “beat up Calvin in gym class” regularly. The homemaker mother of Calvin expresses frequent exasperation at her son’s antics. When she is not scolding Calvin, she seems to enjoy reading and gardening in her spare time.