Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for March 17, 2020

Looks like you did a pretty good job, Calvin.

You’re not a proper chimney sweep if you don’t sing and dance.

Somehow it’s Hobbes’ fault.

She was so startled that she scared the plaid off her shirt. Modern chimneys are dangerous. People have died thinking that they could go down a modern chimney.

When I was his age I’d play in the coal bin. I’d get a whippin’ and a bath, and Mom’d run my clothes through the washer… but unless somethin’ else caught my attention, I’d do it again the next day.

If that’s really what happened, Calvin.

Only a kid would spend so much effort to avoid doing an easier task.

“No good deed…uhh…you know the thing…”

It started off as a regular C & H strip, then it got dark!

Superb hiding place. It totally worked.

A little black humour here.

I know, Calvin! She blames everything on you, huh? /s

If Calvin hides in the bathtub his mother will never find him.

Wow. That was like taking an anti-bath before the bath.

oh I don’t remember this one. great effectively a new C&H.

“Chim chiminey Chim chiminey Chim chim cher-ee.”

A chimney, huh? Which reminds me of my most UNFAVORITE memory of babysitting a seven-year-old kid like Calvin when I was a teen: The time I sent him to his room for disregarding his mother’s rules and sneaking out of the house on his own. He was supposed to be watching TV while his mother was out. Instead, he snuck out while I doing the breakfast dishes. He was GONE. I caught him two blocks away on his bike, riding in the street. I caught up with him, snagged his bike, and told him to go home. Out came the most disrespectful, abusive, perverted language I had ever heard. Yes, I sent him to his room. And THEN when I checked on him, I found he had locked himself in the bathroom and was crying out for help. I had to find a way to unlock the bathroom door first. THEN I found him in the under-the-sink cabinet, partway down the laundry chute to the basement. Yes, he was stuck in the laundry chute. I was so scared, so afraid he could suffocate. I grabbed one of his hands—there wasn’t much more to grab, most of him was down the chute. I pulled, and coaxed, and coached him to try to use his legs to help me lift him out, like a climber might use their legs in a chimney climb. Eventually, a grueling, frightening, long while later, I got him out. And his mom, when she found out? She said nothing to him. Nothing. She probably thought I was a monster for sending him to his room.

You all chuckle at this Calvin. Believe me, this one is tame compared to the one I took care of when I was a teenager. And this little Calvin doesn’t have the perverted, pornographic, disrespectful language, either, like this kid had at seven years old had. Just seven years old. I still shudder.

Chimneys do have a way of accumulating stuff. Maybe Mom shouldn’t look at it as dirt; but as “fire residue”. Which I’m told has more status.

“Chim chiminey, Chim chiminey, Chim chim cher-ee…”

That’s surely ONE way to make sure you get a full and thorough bathing/scrubbing. With extra soap. And extra scrubbing.

And since Hobbes is happy with his stripes right where they are, he’s staying at least 6 feet away until that scrubbing is done!

So hilarious – reminds me of why Watterson is considered one of the greats of the daily cartoon world!

At least he didn’t try to hide in the septic tank.

That’s what my girlfriend’s mother said when she came home and saw me for the first time

Love that one! I remember in the original version of Richard Scarry’s “Busytown” CD-ROM game from 1993, in the “Building a House” stage you could have Huckle Cat go up the chimney, and the top half of his head would stick out looking dirty. I made up if Huckle’s mom saw that, she’d probably react like Calvin’s mom did in the third panel!

Calvin’s going to be in trouble if he goes into politics when he gets older.

A kid like that gets washed with the garden hose in the front yard.

You’re also in trouble for doing blackface in this day and age.

he kinda looks like a demon in the last panel