so after writing about calvin the first time, i've been a lot more attentive to depictions of him recently. but i think it's going to be really hard to top what i saw the other day. for starters, we had double-barreled calvin action. yes, that's two calvins, peeing on two separate things. it was on the back of a pickup truck (shocking, i know) on either side of the sliding rear window. right side calvin was peeing on some sort of workers' union. left side calvin was peeing on "baby killing liberals". now, i think that if i were paid to do so and given a few days to brainstorm, i'm confident that i could come up with something more awful than that. but i don't think you could ever get me to put it into print. but here's the kicker of the whole thing (and clearly, my favorite part): calvin is giving you the finger. this is where you need to realize that he is NOT flicking off the words "baby killing liberals", but YOU, the viewer. i love this for 2 reasons. #1 calvin is flicking you off regardless of your political affiliation and/or how you feel about babies. in fact, now that i think of it, when the owner of the truck looks at it, calvin is flicking HIM off (and i guess to be politically correct, i should say him/her, but i think we're way past that point now). and #2 what a great way to take the "passive" right out of the passive-aggressive nature of that kind of political sign. because for the most part, whether or not i generally agree with whatever the message may be, the tone of any extreme political sign makes me feel like the writer is saying "if you're not offended yet, i'm totally prepared to say something about your mom". so! let's cut out the ambiguity and just flick off everyone who reads the sign. brilliant. (shaking head). sigh... for shame, calvin. what would hobbes think?
