Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for November 24, 2019

Dodge ball — giving the class bullies a chance to get a good grade.

Has anyone ever come up with a name for that other kid with Moe?

I remember flash cubes.

Calvin, it builds character.

dodge ball in gym class was the best !

Mission failed.

In the 1950s I recall the ‘pack’ ganging up on bullies if they slammed the weaker players. An unwritten rule on the playground.

At least Calvin kept most of his clothes on unlike Charlie Brown.

I never played any version of dodgeball in school or summer camp. I always wormed my way into being the referee—-every single time!

I love the Spaceman Spiff and Stupendous Man episodes. They really let Watterson show off his tremendous cartooning talents – use of color, rapid-fire action, imagination…. The expressions on Spiff’s face in the third and sixth panels are priceless! Bill W., we hardly knew ye.

I was like a baseball batter -if the ball came close I would claim I had been hit and was praised for being a good sport. We did not have gym clothes for PE until jr high.

I knew one bully in school. I got him in gym class playing soccer. Everytime we got in a kicking match with the ball I would be kicking him In shins instead of ball.

Um, where is Calvin’s head?

Plus when Mo speaks, it’s in a different font…

I am seriously surprised dodge ball is even still legal. My memories of this in school are nothing but violent and prone to injury. But I guess if football and boxing is legal, dodge ball would be considered a walk in the park.

One does occasionally wonder about our society.

I dunno … I was a kid in the dark ages, and the balls we used in dodge ball were those squishy red ones, and they didn’t really hurt. We certainly didn’t use hard soccer balls (as pictured here?).

I was a wimp, and dodgeball was probably the one thing in gym class I did do tolerably well at. Wimps get good at dodging anyway ;)

It looks like Moe’s friend should be saying “Mongo likes Dodge Ball; Mongo happy”.

Muck Monsters of Mordo? …I have some nominations

One micromip = .621whiskers.

The only thing dodge ball ever taught me is not to play dodge anything. Ever.

we had an assortment of volley balls, and basketballs.

My dad’s old Xbox 360 account is named SPACEMANoSPIFF.

Dodgeball – Darwinism at it’s most brutal.

In the second cell…is that an Instamatic camera? With one of those four shot flashcubes?

“misses by mere micromips”: In computer speak MIPS means Millions of Instructions Per Second (IPS). The conventional meaning of “micro” is one millionth. So, reworded, the phrase reduces to “misses by mere IPS”. Now, for the phrase to make sense we need a way to measure distance in terms of IPS.

Flash cube on the camera in panel 2. Haven’t seen one of those in decades.

Dodgeball built character though, and toughened you up! I wasn’t a bully, and I LOVED playing dodgeball in 5th grade!

Lots of alliteration in today’s strip. "Spaceman Spiff; Muck Monsters of Mordo; etc. My favorite is “A fiery flash of fatality-flare misses by mere micromips!” ☺

I wonder how many of today’s readers know what a “flashcube” is (second panel). Hint: I’m not talking about the lights on top of a police car.

So, Moe’s buddy is smart enough for normal lettering?

People get hurt in every sport or physical activity. I was a skinny asthmatic kid but I loved the thrill of dodge ball. Only times I got hurt at recess/P.E. was getting pushed into the pole and knocked out in basketball and being dropped by a line-drive to the stomach while pitching softball.

Gawdafukkinmighty, what a bunch of POOSIES! I was the class nerd who HATED gym class, but dodge ball/bombardment was one of the things I actually LIKED!

Calvin doesn’t enjoy any activity with any other kid.

I always hated Dodge ball in P.E. We always had to be the “skins” and they used basketballs that hurt like hell when you got hit.

If you can dodge a wrench …

Get out of Dodge!

Great situational awareness training.

You have to have a lot on the ball, to come out ahead, in that game.

In my high school it was seniors versus freshmen every rainy day. Our sadistic coach enjoyed the spectacle. It finally ended when one of the freshmen was injured and taken to the hospital.

It builds character.

I’d like to line up all the commenters calling us who hated dodge ball ‘pussies’ and let them take a couple hits from my class bully.