I keep watching this strip and wonder more and more why that man ever got married and had children. It must have been to make him look better to his boss at work.
My son had one story that he had to have every night, no matter what other story I read. I can still quote that story even after all these years and he is a very good reader.
The look of the impending doom on Calvin”s face that Dad actually might not read his favorite story in Panel 3 almost brings me to that same place and I find myself wanting to hear the story too…
When my youngest brother was small (he’s 14 years younger than I) he loved “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” I read it to him so often that I actually memorized it. It’s been 30 years and I can still recite it. Fortunately I like it so it wasn’t horrible to reread it a dozen times.
When my daughter was two, we were on a trip. She kept after us to tell her the story of Goldlilocks. Her mother and I kept insisting that we didn’t know the story. So - she proceded to tell the story to us - pausing every so often to ask, “Do you remember it, now?” She told us the whole story.
Jeez… When Calvin finally acts like a “normal” kid, Dad’s still not happy. He’s actually kinda cute here. Dad… your’e gonna miss these moments later. Be careful. And remember when your’e in your retirement home saying “Son, Pleeease!”
Calvin only asked for that story to see Dad squirm.
In answer the comment a ways up where they wondered: “Why dad ever got married and had kids?” I’m willing to bet that even the Dugar’s would have stopped at one if their first had been like Calvin. I don’t blame Dad for his lack of patience with the heathen one bit.
I would suggest re-reading it and using phonetic punctuation this time – ala Victor Borge. I used to do that with my daughter and she laughed to the point we had to change her diaper! (‘course that gets old in a hurry too)
At least you finally did ONE THING that made Calvin happy. Now RIP IT AWAY, like an old Band-Aid. Jeez.
If they follow this one up with the series, what happens instead is a riot. Except to those who still can’t (more like refuse to) understand this at all.
My grandmother told me stories taken from old-country superstitions about ghosts, ghouls, vampires and so on. Some of them made me cry. As my children grew up, I told them the stories but had mercy and modified them somewhat until they were old enough to hear the whole, bloody thing, acted out with stomping footsteps, dragging coffins, and eerie voices. It was fun. Now I’m scaring the daylights out of my grandchildren. But we also jointly read Roald Dahl, Tolkien, and Sendak together. Kids like the ewwww factor, but it’s mostly about training imagination.
I think this is rather sweet! People are always posting their low opinions of Calvin’s parents and here we have an example of a father who not only takes the time to regularly read his child to sleep but also to do so with voices, sound effects and perhaps a bit of interpretive dance! (and it’s clear that he does this repeatedly!)
I wonder how many “real” parents can claim to put forth near as much effort!
I have–and Hobbes was the philosopher John Hobbes. Calvin was known for his strict, straight-laced theology and observance, while Hobbes was known for his ideas on the Social contract that rescues us from a life like an animal: nasty, brutish, and short.
If Dad didn’t want Calvin to sleep for about a week, all he had to do was start reading him Dante’s Inferno and show him the original Dore woodblock illustrations. I read that book when I was a little kid and can to this day, nearly 60 years later, recall what the illustrations looked like….
@sjoujke: Hamster Huey and The Gooey Kblooie is just the title of a story invented by Watterson. He never said what its content was..so its up to your imagination :D.
What I don’t understand is what he means by “gooshy sound effects”..can somebody please help? (I thought I read somewhere about gooshy things and there it had to do with dead bodies..but I’m definitely not sure about it!)
gooshy sound effects are, well, sounds that are gooshy.
No, I think they sound gooey and sloshy.
Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooie is like “the Great Noodle Incident”–better and more horrific since it’s left up to the imagination of the reader. Like Alfred Hitchcock in his films. Once you have to show the blood and gore, it’s just not as good.
Yah, 51 comments today …
but 66 comments (almost all of which were there 24 hours ago) yesterday!
People have been getting all excited since the Watterson interview appeared, with the link posted in the comments on 2/01 and 2/02. Together with a 2005 interview (to which there’s a link in the comments on the new interview’s website), this makes 3 interviews Watterson has given since he was drawing Calvin. That’s about 3 more than J.D. Salinger ever gave …
@Patcharchman… “coincidental”, perhaps “improbable” but not “ironic”. Don’t take it personally, Janis Morissette and most of the English speaking world get it wrong too.
For example, it would be “ironic”, if your mistake was made by an english teacher. If that english teacher was named “Huey”, that would be a coincidence.
margueritem about 14 years ago
Aw, com’on, dad!
ben_david about 14 years ago
Calvin ought to just recite it to dad.
esquiremtf about 14 years ago
Just wait ‘till dad’s had enough, remakes the story on the fly, and townsfolk go searching in vain for Huey’s head! One of Watterson’s all time best!
Yukoner about 14 years ago
There is a great value to reading whatever the kid wants. It encourages him to become a reader on his own.
rentier about 14 years ago
Please! Please! Pleeeeeease!
alondra about 14 years ago
This happens in every family. The kid has one favourite and wants that one read all the time. Maybe if you get him some new books dad??
sjoujke Premium Member about 14 years ago
What’s a Gooey Kablooie?
bigCandHfan about 14 years ago
yes… what is the gooey kablooie? and who is huey?
COWBOY7 about 14 years ago
What we won’t (or wouldn’t) do to get the kids to sleep! LOL
Praxsis about 14 years ago
HUEY, DUEY AND LUEY have gone SCREWY….LOL
hlkstr about 14 years ago
Sounds like my son. please daddy pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Ooops! Premium Member about 14 years ago
Dad, look how happy he is. Don’t stomp on the happy!
Ooops! Premium Member about 14 years ago
If you want to add variety to bedtime stories: try having each person (including parental unit) pick a story and rotate who goes first.
Dkram about 14 years ago
One of my nephews did this with a video tape.
\\//_
jrbj about 14 years ago
I keep watching this strip and wonder more and more why that man ever got married and had children. It must have been to make him look better to his boss at work.
mexdr1958 about 14 years ago
Maybe Calvin got too scared after “The disemboweled hand” story, and he just keeps into safe territory…
pamlicorat about 14 years ago
Enjoy it while you can Dad. Soon all he will want are the car keys.
madampresiden12 about 14 years ago
There’s no remaking the story, once they know it by heart. They memorize every word and if you make a mistake they even correct you.
serenasakitty about 14 years ago
My son had one story that he had to have every night, no matter what other story I read. I can still quote that story even after all these years and he is a very good reader.
lewisbower about 14 years ago
Is that a camcorder under the sheet? Come on Dad, do the Happy Hamster hop.
Trainwreck_1 about 14 years ago
The look of the impending doom on Calvin”s face that Dad actually might not read his favorite story in Panel 3 almost brings me to that same place and I find myself wanting to hear the story too…
rshive about 14 years ago
Adults don’t look remotely cool doing the happy hamster hop.
propellermario about 14 years ago
“pleeeeaaase? just one more time? This is the last time!” “ok! fine!” ==1 week later…== “c’mon just one more time? this is the last time!” “FINE!!!”
chubbygirlcomics about 14 years ago
Well, Dad, that’s what you get for a good first performance. The people will always want more….
GROG Premium Member about 14 years ago
And more and more and more and more…
Deezlebird about 14 years ago
When my youngest brother was small (he’s 14 years younger than I) he loved “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” I read it to him so often that I actually memorized it. It’s been 30 years and I can still recite it. Fortunately I like it so it wasn’t horrible to reread it a dozen times.
opa6x57 about 14 years ago
When my daughter was two, we were on a trip. She kept after us to tell her the story of Goldlilocks. Her mother and I kept insisting that we didn’t know the story. So - she proceded to tell the story to us - pausing every so often to ask, “Do you remember it, now?” She told us the whole story.
Captain_Commando about 14 years ago
Is The Happy Hamster Hop anything resembling The Hamster Dance? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3G5IXn0K7A I wonder……..
JTGAM about 14 years ago
Jeez… When Calvin finally acts like a “normal” kid, Dad’s still not happy. He’s actually kinda cute here. Dad… your’e gonna miss these moments later. Be careful. And remember when your’e in your retirement home saying “Son, Pleeease!”
Willows Dream about 14 years ago
Calvin only asked for that story to see Dad squirm.
In answer the comment a ways up where they wondered: “Why dad ever got married and had kids?” I’m willing to bet that even the Dugar’s would have stopped at one if their first had been like Calvin. I don’t blame Dad for his lack of patience with the heathen one bit.
rw1h about 14 years ago
I would suggest re-reading it and using phonetic punctuation this time – ala Victor Borge. I used to do that with my daughter and she laughed to the point we had to change her diaper! (‘course that gets old in a hurry too)
mrslukeskywalker about 14 years ago
At least you finally did ONE THING that made Calvin happy. Now RIP IT AWAY, like an old Band-Aid. Jeez.
If they follow this one up with the series, what happens instead is a riot. Except to those who still can’t (more like refuse to) understand this at all.
lazygrazer about 14 years ago
Just wing it, dad—and if you do it right, your totally mortified kid will never bug you for a bedtime story again.
rgcviper about 14 years ago
“Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooie” … Wow. What a great name for a book. I laughed out loud when I saw that.
Fun stuff.
bmonk about 14 years ago
And if you don’t read it, Hobbes will write a story…
siredonnthedragon about 14 years ago
Fer Lefer said, about 12 hours ago
Not the hydraulic pump again Dad!
My kids’ favorites were those silly, non-sense 24-pages books from Disney… OMG
Disney is not nonsense. Its better most everything out there
alviebird about 14 years ago
Calvin doesn’t care about the story. He just wants to see Dad make a fool of himself.
Spyderred about 14 years ago
My grandmother told me stories taken from old-country superstitions about ghosts, ghouls, vampires and so on. Some of them made me cry. As my children grew up, I told them the stories but had mercy and modified them somewhat until they were old enough to hear the whole, bloody thing, acted out with stomping footsteps, dragging coffins, and eerie voices. It was fun. Now I’m scaring the daylights out of my grandchildren. But we also jointly read Roald Dahl, Tolkien, and Sendak together. Kids like the ewwww factor, but it’s mostly about training imagination.
Aardvark359 about 14 years ago
I think this is rather sweet! People are always posting their low opinions of Calvin’s parents and here we have an example of a father who not only takes the time to regularly read his child to sleep but also to do so with voices, sound effects and perhaps a bit of interpretive dance! (and it’s clear that he does this repeatedly!)
I wonder how many “real” parents can claim to put forth near as much effort!
bmonk about 14 years ago
I have–and Hobbes was the philosopher John Hobbes. Calvin was known for his strict, straight-laced theology and observance, while Hobbes was known for his ideas on the Social contract that rescues us from a life like an animal: nasty, brutish, and short.
khpage about 14 years ago
If Dad didn’t want Calvin to sleep for about a week, all he had to do was start reading him Dante’s Inferno and show him the original Dore woodblock illustrations. I read that book when I was a little kid and can to this day, nearly 60 years later, recall what the illustrations looked like….
AJCA about 14 years ago
Come on Dad, kids love the sound effects more than the story itself, trust me I have 3 kids that vouch for that, lol
Madruga about 14 years ago
@sjoujke: Hamster Huey and The Gooey Kblooie is just the title of a story invented by Watterson. He never said what its content was..so its up to your imagination :D.
What I don’t understand is what he means by “gooshy sound effects”..can somebody please help? (I thought I read somewhere about gooshy things and there it had to do with dead bodies..but I’m definitely not sure about it!)
bmonk about 14 years ago
gooshy sound effects are, well, sounds that are gooshy.
No, I think they sound gooey and sloshy.
Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooie is like “the Great Noodle Incident”–better and more horrific since it’s left up to the imagination of the reader. Like Alfred Hitchcock in his films. Once you have to show the blood and gore, it’s just not as good.
Patcharchman about 14 years ago
Ironic, listened to Huey Lewis and the News on the way to work, check the C & H and it’s Hamster Huey day.
Rakkav about 14 years ago
Dad does look like Bill Watterson at that age.
littledutchboy about 14 years ago
WOW! there are 51 comments for this strip. A dad reading to his kid strikes a big chord. I think that’s great.
avonsalis about 14 years ago
Yah, 51 comments today … but 66 comments (almost all of which were there 24 hours ago) yesterday! People have been getting all excited since the Watterson interview appeared, with the link posted in the comments on 2/01 and 2/02. Together with a 2005 interview (to which there’s a link in the comments on the new interview’s website), this makes 3 interviews Watterson has given since he was drawing Calvin. That’s about 3 more than J.D. Salinger ever gave …
ratlum about 14 years ago
Dad & Calvin just to normal for a comic strip but bleeep fine to read to day O such memories
the_one_and_only_never about 14 years ago
There is a real children’s book title ‘Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooie’ by Mabel Barr! Check it out!
bmonk about 14 years ago
Except that “book” by Mabel Barr only appeared in 2004, long after these strips were published. It’s a blatant attempt to fill a much needed gap.
Give us the gap back! Leave that hole for us to fill with our imagination!
Vonnegut about 14 years ago
@Patcharchman… “coincidental”, perhaps “improbable” but not “ironic”. Don’t take it personally, Janis Morissette and most of the English speaking world get it wrong too.
For example, it would be “ironic”, if your mistake was made by an english teacher. If that english teacher was named “Huey”, that would be a coincidence.
sunshine_jellybeans about 14 years ago
HAMSTER HUEY!!!!
elchinodewita over 10 years ago
Well, Dad was the first one to introduce Hamster Huey and The Gooey Kablooie , anyway.