Editing Calvin and Hobbes (section)

===Calvinball===
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{{quote box
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| quote = <poem>
Other kids' games are all such a bore!
They've gotta have rules and they gotta keep score!
Calvinball is better by far!
It's never the same! It's always bizarre!
You don't need a team or a referee!
You know that it's great, 'cause it's named after me!
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</poem>
| source = —Excerpt from the Calvinball theme song<ref>[[#CITEREFWatterson2005|Watterson (2005)]]. vol. 3, p. 432. Comic originally published 1995-09-11.</ref>
}}Calvinball is an improvisational sport/game introduced in a 1990 storyline that involved Calvin's negative experience of joining the school baseball team. Calvinball is a [[nomic]] or self-modifying game, a contest of wits, skill and creativity rather than stamina or athletic skill. The game is portrayed as a rebellion against conventional team sports<ref name="CC+H_b2_p268-273">[[#CITEREFWatterson2005|Watterson (2005)]]. vol. 2, pp. 268–273. Comics originally published 1990-04-16 to 1990-05-05.</ref> and became a staple of the final five years of the comic. The only consistent rules of the game are that Calvinball may never be played with the same rules twice<ref>[[#CITEREFWatterson2005|Watterson (2005)]]. vol. 2, p. 292. Comic originally published 1990-05-27.</ref> and that each participant must wear a mask.<ref name="CC+H_b3_p430-433">[[#CITEREFWatterson2005|Watterson (2005)]]. vol. 3, pp. 430–434. Comics originally published 1995-09-04 to 1995-09-16.</ref>

When asked how to play, Watterson stated: "It's pretty simple: you make up the rules as you go."<ref>[[#CITEREFWatterson1995|Watterson (1995)]], p. 129.</ref> In most appearances of the game, a comical array of conventional and non-conventional sporting equipment is involved, including a [[croquet]] set, a badminton set, assorted flags, bags, signs, a [[Hobby horse (toy)|hobby horse]], water buckets and balloons, with humorous allusions to unseen elements such as "time-fracture wickets". Scoring is portrayed as arbitrary and nonsensical ("Q to 12" and "oogy to boogy"<ref>[[#CITEREFWatterson2005|Watterson (2005)]]. vol. 2, pp. 292, 336. Comics originally published 1990-05-27 and 1990-08-26.</ref>) and the lack of fixed rules leads to lengthy argument between the participants as to who scored, where the boundaries are, and when the game is finished.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Philosophical Athlete|last=Reid|first=Heather Lynne|publisher=Carolina Academic Press|year=2002|pages=190}}</ref> Usually, the contest results in Calvin being outsmarted by Hobbes. The game has been described in one academic work not as a new game based on fragments of an older one, but as the "constant connecting and disconnecting of parts, the constant evasion of rules or guidelines based on collective creativity."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Philosophy in Children's Literature|last=Jones|first=Kelly|publisher=Lexington Books|year=2012|pages=112|chapter=Mapping Chris Van Allsburg's The Mysteries of Harris Burdick}}</ref>