Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for January 06, 2025

I have a feeling Miss Wormwood won’t like this one.

And he gets an F for that!

“chumble spuzz”, me and the better half use that in place of a curse. Like “go on, you are full of chumble spuzz.” Or “Oh chumble spuzz, I bumped my head!”

THAT’S what they teach in first grade??? Sure different from “See Dick run.”!!

Newton’s Laws can also be applied to human interactions:

1. If you don’t push it, it stays where it is.

2. Things move if you give them a push.

3. If you push on it, expect some pushback.

I’ve always liked how there is an unintentional name drop of a Final Fantasy 6 character in his nonsense!

An insufficient force to change your course towards an F

Calvin himself is a force of nature.

He should have answered, “An object not moving will continue unmoving, and a moving object will continue to move at the same velocity (speed + direction), until a force acts on it to start it moving or change its velocity.”

Reminds me of the SAILOR MOON episode where Ann, the alien pretending to be a schoolgirl, offered an example of poetry on her home planet. (She got a detention!)

“In your own words. Do you have your own words? Personally, I’m using the ones that everyone else has been using. Next time they tell you to say something in your own words, say, “Nigflot blorny quando floon.” -George Carlin

Waka, wonka cognitive!

[bro] yakkety bobby boop eeeeeeeeeee

Newton’s first law of motion? What grade is Calvin in?

“A” for creativity, “F” for correctness.

“Klaatu barada nikto”.

I got the book There’s Treasure Everywhere, one Christmas and lent it to my nephew Stuart to read at our Christmas party. Stuart was born in 1979 which is when Calvin would have been born since he first appeared as a six-year-old in 1985. I know that Calvin is referred to as being six in other years during the strip’s 1985-95 run but Calvin and my oldest nephew were both six in 1985. Stuart enjoyed reading some of the strips at our family Christmas party and then let me have the book back so that I could finish reading it myself. He said that one strip he particularly enjoyed was the one where Calvin was asked to explain something “in your own words” and made up his own words. Stuart would, of course, be a teenager when There’s Treasure Everywhere was published. I think that it was Christmas 1996 when I was thirty and Stuart was seventeen.

F = Force and that is what you getting kid.

‘yakka foob’ was pretty good, but I’m not sure anything can top ‘chumble spuzz’.

Chumble spuzz, indeed.

Makes perfect sense to The Count.

Your own words Calvin not your own language. Sheesh kid. :)

And I’m sure your parents absolutely LOVE the letters your teacher sent home every single day!

Sweet! I’ve never been mentioned in Calvin and Hobbes before!

FUNTASTIC!

Why in the world is this question being proposed to a six-year-old?

Newton’s first law if physics: If it doesn’t fit, get a bigger hammer

Now …..them is ….some……..words!!!!!…..only in a comic strip!!!!

Très bien!

Cal loves loopholes. He can find them where none exist for anyone else.

Your answer is still wrong, Calvin. Your loophole fails.

Calvin lives for those loopholes.

Newton’s first law of motion? Uhhmmm…don’t use the figs that fall from the top of the tree?

Can we quote you on that?

Interesting concept, Calvin, although it will get you a zero.

Wow, Calvin’s in the advanced 1st grade class

Calvin is wording is Authentic Frontier Gibberish! He’s paraphrasing Gabby Johnson’s dissertation.

ready for politics!

Oh wow man I totaly remember Chumble Spuzz, they like backed up the Ramones at CBGB’s, they were awesome! LOL

My life’s aspiration is to find myself in as many places, and find as many excuses as I can, to attain and experience the unadulterated happiness that Calvin shows in the second panel!!

When I was growing up, my father would put a record on during dinner and quiz my sister and me with the challenge to ‘name that piece’. I usually won, but one time, out of sheer frustration, my sister gave the piece a new name, claiming the answer could also include a new name because our father didn’t specifically ask for what the composer named it. She won that time.

Overturning as usual.

If he wants to be even more obscure, he could write it in Klingon

All kids should be back in school today. Best of luck to all parties involved.

It’s not a loophole, it’s an invitation!

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

When did Newton’s theories did become part of first, second, third, or fourth grade curriculum?

Calvin’s parent can let that college fund slide a bit.

That smile in panel 2…. It appears he had an epiphany.

A Calvin in motion is still stupid ! ;-)

“All right, Calvin, now translate it back to English.”

Inertia also applies to unwilling students. It’s funny until you are middle-aged and still working as a barista.

Calvin future lawyer… tax accountant…

Seems like Calvin is going to be an engineer in the future

I’ve never known of 1st graders being asked those type of questions. It’s mostly learning how to write and do simple math.

It just says explain. You don’t have to be coherent!

The Wattoom gazork? I thought the Wattoom zagorked.

Chumble spuzz inspired a nice little comic of the same name about 10 years later.

Like the time I tried using ditto marks on a handwriting practice in 3rd grade.

Is this what they mean when they say “he’s too smart for his own good”?

He got it partially right. Yakka foob mog does equal groog pubbawup. But zink wattoom does NOT gazork to chumble spuzz!

Above his grade level.

If that’s the inertia one I’m surprised that Calvin hasn’t embraced it as a powerful excuse for anything,

You would have gotten by with it if hadn’t ended the phrase with spuzz. At least use an exclamation mark.

The first law, I think it’s every action has an equal and opposite reaction? No, that’s the third law, the first is that an object won’t change it’s motion unless a force acts on it. The second is F=MA

He’s not quite in the same league as J.R.R. Tolkien

Isn’t he six?? Since when do they teach that stuff in first grade?

Never mind Calvin. Mrs Wormwood has given the wrong question paper to you. That one is for the secondary students.

In addition to giving Calvin an F, Miss Wormwood should write a comment on his paper reading, “Gribl nokm groue cluppsiu.”

OK—today’s comic is one of my favorite “C&H” strips of all time. Calvin’s … loopholes (especially chumble spuzz) … made me laugh out loud.