April 5, 2000

1:24 AM

"The new direction American cultural discourse is taking..."
This is more sad than funny... Bill Watterson resisted every pressure to sell out, and so a semi-obscene bootleg rip-off is now the way most of America remembers "Calvin & Hobbes".
posted by wendell (8 comments total)

*sigh*
posted by hobbes at 2:11 AM on April 5, 2000

One word: "Wendell". I think he gets the whole Onion thing.
posted by harmful at 8:52 AM on April 5, 2000

(But then, I just got trolled myself, didn't I?)
posted by harmful at 8:54 AM on April 5, 2000

The Onion's humor, at its best, comes out of a wild exaggeration with a seed of uncomfortable truth at the core. Remember the story about things getting "back to normal" at Columbine? The seed of truth in that one was scary... I'm just putting this one in the same category. Seriously! Honest! Cross my fingers.. I mean, heart!
posted by wendell at 9:54 AM on April 5, 2000

*Sigh* again. You said it, Hobbes.

I have loved Calvin for years, and I was delighted when the first sets of window decals came out. I had one of Hobbes on the right side of my pickup and one of calvin in his (time machine / duplicator / transmogrifyer / ...) box on the driver side. I thought they were a great way to show that I identified with the message / values of that excellent strip. I was proud to display that I was a fan of something that I think had and still has a lot of redeeming social value. 'Calvin and Hobbes' is especially impressive when you consider the medium that Bill Watterson was using to deliver his message. Not many comic strips succeed at having deeper meaning without sounding preachy.

I was offended by those bootleg Calvin pissing decals from the moment I laid eyes on them. They associate a genuinely engaging character in such a negative light, that it's hard to imagine someone who had never seen any other version of Calvin picking up one of Watterson's books and learning what the real Calvin is all about.

I hate to say it because I'm usually against litigating things, but the people responsible for these bootlegs should be sued for everything they're worth and more. They are trashing something that they obviously don't have the sense to appreciate. What sucks is that since this article is coming from the Onion, it's almost impossible to tell whether there's any grain of truth to the story that Watterson is finally suing to protect his rights.
posted by CalvinTheBold at 11:03 AM on April 5, 2000

Uh...every single sticker you have with Calvin and Hobbes on it (and t-shirt and mug and &c) is a violation of copyright. If you sue for Calvin peeing, you should really sue for the ones you like. Watterson has never made a single penny from any Calvin and Hobbes merchandise (aside from books, of course).
posted by icathing at 1:24 PM on April 5, 2000

I'm with wendell. The fact that the Calvin piss decals were chosen as fodder for an onion article indicates just how strong an impact they have had on our consciousness. Would the article be funny (at all) if no one knew what decals it was referring to?

Have some diet coke.

posted by ericost at 1:26 PM on April 5, 2000