Editing Calvin and Hobbes (section)

===Art and academia===
Watterson used the strip to poke fun at the art world, principally through Calvin's unconventional creations of [[snowman|snowmen]] but also through other expressions of childhood art. When Miss Wormwood complains that he is wasting class time drawing impossible things (a ''[[Stegosaurus]]'' in a rocket ship, for example), Calvin proclaims himself "on the cutting edge of the ''[[avant-garde]]''."<ref>{{Cite comic|cartoonist=Bill Watterson|title=Calvin and Hobbes|date=October 31, 1990|publisher=Andrews McMeel Publishing}}</ref><ref>{{Cite comic|cartoonist=Bill Watterson|title=Calvin and Hobbes|date=November 1, 1990|publisher=Andrews McMeel Publishing}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=November 01, 1990 |url=https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1990/11/01 |website=GoComics |language=en |date=1 November 1990}}</ref> He begins exploring the medium of snow when a warm day melts his snowman. His next sculpture "speaks to the horror of our own mortality, inviting the viewer to contemplate the evanescence of life."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Watterson |first1=Bill |title=February 21, 1990 |url=https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1990/02/21 |website=GoComics |language=en |date=21 February 1990}}</ref> In later strips, Calvin's creative instincts diversify to include sidewalk drawings (or, as he terms them, examples of "suburban [[postmodernism]]").<ref>{{cite web |last1=Watterson |first1=Bill |title=July 13, 1995 |url=https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1995/07/13 |website=GoComics |language=en |date=13 July 1995 |ref=none}}</ref>

Watterson also lampooned the [[academia|academic world]]. In one example, Calvin carefully crafts an "[[artist's statement]]", claiming that such essays convey more messages than artworks themselves ever do (Hobbes blandly notes, "You misspelled ''[[World view|Weltanschauung]]''").<ref>{{Cite comic|cartoonist=Bill Watterson|title=Calvin and Hobbes|date=July 15, 1995}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Watterson |first1=Bill |title=July 15, 1995 |url=https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1995/07/15 |website=GoComics |language=en |date=15 July 1995 |ref=none}}</ref> He indulges in what Watterson calls "pop [[psychobabble]]" to justify his destructive rampages and shift blame to his parents, citing "toxic codependency."<ref>{{Cite comic|cartoonist=Bill Watterson|title=Calvin and Hobbes|date=January 21, 1993}}</ref> In one instance, he pens a book report based on the theory that the purpose of academic writing is to "inflate weak ideas, obscure poor reasoning and inhibit clarity," entitled ''The Dynamics of Interbeing and Monological Imperatives in [[Dick and Jane]]: A Study in Psychic Transrelational Gender Modes''. Displaying his creation to Hobbes, he remarks, "Academia, here I come!"<ref>{{cite web |last1=Watterson |first1=Bill |title=February 11, 1993 cartoon |url=https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1993/02/11 |website=GoComics |language=en |date=11 February 1993}}</ref> Watterson explains that he adapted this jargon (and similar examples from several other strips) from an actual book of art criticism.<ref name="Watterson 1995">[[#CITEREFWatterson1995|Watterson (1995)]].</ref>

Overall, Watterson's satirical essays serve to attack both sides, criticizing both the commercial mainstream and the artists who are supposed to be "outside" it. The strip on Sunday, June 21, 1992, criticized the naming of the [[Big Bang]] theory as not evocative of the wonders behind it and coined the term "Horrendous Space Kablooie",<ref>{{cite book|title=The Complete Calvin and Hobbes|last=Watterson|first=Bill|publisher=Andrews McMeel Publishing|year=2012|isbn=978-1-4494-3325-3|volume=3|page=287}}</ref> an alternative that achieved some informal popularity among scientists and was often shortened to "the HSK".<ref name="sampson">{{cite book|title=Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe|last=Singh|first=Simon |publisher=Fourth Estate|year=2006|isbn=978-0-00-716220-8|author-link=Simon Singh|title-link=Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe}}</ref> The term has also been referred to in newspapers,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/11/us/calling-big-bang-a-dud-journal-seeks-new-name.html|title=Calling 'Big Bang' a Dud, Journal Seeks New Name|date=June 11, 1993|work=The New York Times|access-date=February 27, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120414044730/http://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/11/us/calling-big-bang-a-dud-journal-seeks-new-name.html|archive-date=April 14, 2012|url-status=live|df=mdy}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3626029/We-are-wandering-stardust.html|title=We Are Wandering Stardust|last=Martin|first=Andy|date=October 17, 2004|work=The Daily Telegraph|access-date=February 27, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100501200955/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3626029/We-are-wandering-stardust.html|archive-date=May 1, 2010|url-status=live|location=London}}</ref> books<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1fKKq44B9ewC&q=horrendous+space+kablooie&pg=PA47|title=Creation, Evolution, and Modern Science|last1=Anderson|first1=Kerby|last2=Bohlin|first2=Raymond G.|publisher=Kregel Publications|year=2000|isbn=978-0-8254-2033-7|access-date=February 27, 2008}}</ref> and university courses.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://supernova.lbl.gov/~evlinder/umass/sumold/subsum.html|title=Cosmology Summary|last=Linder|first=Eric|access-date=February 27, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Moseley|first=Caroline|date=May 7, 2001|title=Faculty Team Serves Up a Slice of the Universe|url=http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pwb/01/0507/3a.shtml|url-status=live|volume=90|issue=27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629083526/http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pwb/01/0507/3a.shtml|archive-date=June 29, 2011|access-date=February 27, 2008|journal=Princeton Weekly Bulletin}}</ref>