The "Calvin and Hobbes" Noodle Incident, Explained (As Best As We Can)
Fans have theories. We have context. Here’s what we know about what went down during the Noodle Incident.
In the “Calvin and Hobbes” strip that ran on Sept. 14, 1990, Calvin’s mom walks into his room to discover he’s frantically packing a suitcase. “Lies!” he exclaims, seemingly out of the blue. “Everything Miss Wormwood said about me was a lie! … She told you about the noodles, right?”
“What noodles?” his mom asks, innocently (but also suspiciously—this isn’t her first rodeo, after all).
We didn’t know it at the time but this running bit, soon dubbed “the Noodle Incident,” would become one of the murkiest, most mysterious storylines in “Calvin and Hobbes” history, prompting multiple fan theories and speculation.
We likely assumed that the next day creator Bill Watterson would reveal exactly what Calvin was referring to, but nope. The strip moves on for three months. It isn’t until Dec. 12 that Hobbes mentions “the Noodle Incident”—it’s a “if you know, you know” allusion, which could easily be ignored or confuse a reader not paying close attention.
So what’s the explanation here? What awful thing did Calvin do (or, as he claimed, get framed for) that made him so panicked that he needed to get out of Dodge?
The short answer: We don’t know.
The long answer is only found in theories. We can all agree on some givens:
- This seems to be the worst thing Calvin has ever done. None of his mischief haunts him quite the same way as the Noodle Incident.
- It’s clear the incident happened at school, since he immediately mentions Miss Wormwood.
- Calvin maintains he was framed.
Some fans on social media think that the incident occurred two years prior to his panic-packing afternoon. Calvin starts his day preparing to “go for the gusto,” but comes back home dejected and defensive. Hobbes mentions that sirens were heard around noon, but Calvin doesn’t “want to talk about it.”
Other readers are more literal, claiming that the Noodle Incident goes even further back to April 22, 1987. Calvin has prepared a report on the brain, which he tactically represents with cooked noodles in a paper bag. Noodles … at school … it fits the bill, right?
Still others are sure that the Noodle Incident is another name for the equally cryptic “salamander incident” mentioned in December 1987.
Regardless of its origins, the Noodle Incident comes up again only in hindsight. It’s mentioned by name in May 1992 when Calvin’s “Pulitzer-worthy” cover-up story impresses Hobbes, and it’s likely alluded to in June 1994 with another hint: worms in his dad’s … what?
Watterson brilliantly closes the loop on this storyline on Christmas Eve 1995, just a week before the final “Calvin and Hobbes” strip ran. Santa’s second-in-command elf is reviewing Calvin’s (likely hefty) dossier. “Ohhh yes, the ‘Noodle Incident’ kid,” Santa says. “He says he was framed, and we’ve had trouble verifying the particulars,” the elf replies, adding perhaps most presciently: “Accounts seem to vary.”
And that’s exactly where we end up: with varying accounts. The truth is, we will never know precisely what happened—and that’s by careful design. In The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book, Watterson writes that “Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooie (like ‘the Noodle Incident’ I’ve referred to in several strips) is left to the readers’ imagination where it’s sure to be more outrageous.”
After all, if there’s one thing Calvin, Hobbes, and Bill Watterson are best at, it's sparking our imaginations.