Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for May 17, 2021

That’s one murder almost every 3 minutes. Forgive me if I have doubts about this study.

Considering how many parents nowadays allow their four year-olds to watch PG-13 movies, that’s more true nowadays than it was in the eighties.

Or not enough crime shows.

no collection of me watching crime shows when I (emphasis on “I”) was six

Please pass…..the remote.

And when they’ll go to school they will have a chance to see them for real.

My folks were pretty conservative about some things. Hm. Most things. Ah. Pretty much everything. For instance, we always decorated the house “for the neighbors” at Xmas time. Maybe 100 person hours or so… (counting “kid-hours”). The local Chamber of Commerce always ran a competition, but we never entered. Two or three years before Sis and I went off to University, the CofC couldn’t STAND it and awarded us 1st place in the “Didn’t enter” category. Kid you not. The prize was a TV. Which sat in its box until only the three youngest (and an exchange student) were living “home”. So I never witnessed even a black and white blurry murder … except in the Westerns my dad took us to for the Saturday matinee.

My son got the same deal from my: We lived in the country where there was neither a TV signal nor cable (heck: We still had a party-line phone in the 70s and 80s). We did have a TV, though… and a VCR. He did get to witness whatever his buddies could see when he had a play date.

There’s a million reasons why that sounds like a made-up statistic!

Poor Calvin, he’s missed a million murders.

And that’s just on the nightly news.

I´ve told you a billion times, don´t exaggerate!

The coyote went over the cliff many times, but he came back in the next scene.

Fake news back in the ’80s?

We didn’t get a TV until I was 15. I missed out on a lot of murder and mayhem.

Well, I suppose that is possible, but I mean really. How many children really watch Murder She Wrote?

The early Calvin reminds me of Buddy Hackett. Sorry, kids, if this makes no sense to you.

Not only was there a murder every week on the Avengers (Steed and Mrs. Peel) but they were committed in a charming, sophisticated English manner.

The channel and volume knobs have changed from panel 1 to 4, is Calvin surfing for more murders? Try 86, Law and Order all day, every day. Or 41, Gunsmoke every afternoon. Or 13, one NCIS or the other all the time.

This has 2 meanings… and I think I know which Calvin is thinking of!

Well, my copy of the national enquirer says that Jim Morrison and Janice Joplin were seen eating at an IHOP and Elvis was the server and the KGB hustled all three of them in an unmarked Skoda.

That does seem high for the mid 1980’s. It might be closer to that now.

When I was six, I didn’t know what murder was. Yes, I had seen in tv programs people get shot but it was never ‘identified’ as ‘murder’. I was close to ‘13’ before I saw a ‘police’ program where it was ‘stated that someone was ’murdered’ ! ! !

Just watch Star Wars. You’ll see billions of people murdered when Alderaan is blown up. Plus however many imperials are on the Death Star when it explodes.

Calvin, if you want to ctach up quick just stream all the episodes in the Walking Dead and it various spin offs.

Heh, I find that article hard to believe as well!

Must be an early strip. The TV is sitting peacefully on its stand.

True. Elmer never did kill Bugs or Daffey.

yes Calvin you’ve been watching the wrong shows

If Tom and Jerry was Itchy and Scratchy, MGM would have a higher murder rate than Kill Bill.

Do reruns get counted twice ?

My mother told me a million times not to exaggerate—but the sad truth is that during a typical child’s TV viewing up to 18 years, he will have viewed 200,000 violent acts and 16,000 murders.https://www.mottchildren.org/…/kids-and-digital-media

I get all my best statistics from GoComics.

Wonder how much evening program of drama’s to westerns did a lot of shootings.

Not that anyone asked or particularly cares, but as much as I smile at the clever strips, like this one, I cringe at the comments trying to make a self-serving political position. I guess no more comments reading from me.

I don’t think Road Runner had any actual murders. Mostly the Coyote injuring himself, but he always came back to life.

I don’t recall any murders on Gilligan’s Island, Brady Bunch or Get Smart.

In a wrong way, yes you have, Calvin.

Back in the early ‘60s, when my baby brother was 4, he was crawling around underneath the TV looking up at it. My father asked him what he was doing. He said “Looking for the drain.” Dad asked “What drain?” My brother said, “The drain to let all the dead bodies out.” That was in the heyday of the TV westerns. My brother was a bit precocious. Most kids don’t make that connection.

TV’s not jumpy today, maybe tuned to Masterpiece on PBS…

Then you should tune into the news…

Are they watching Midsomer Murders?