Moe

From The Calvin and Hobbes Wiki

Moe
First appearance:	January 30, 1986
Last appearance:	November 20, 1995
Other characters

Moe is the resident bully at Calvin's school, who prefers to call Calvin "Twinky".

[edit] History

Moe is a recurring character in Calvin and Hobbes. He is a bully in Calvin's school and seems to beat up or threaten Calvin every time he appears. Moe appeared early in the strip, is merciless and has no capacity for kindness. Although Moe had made many appearances in the strip, his character has changed little over the years since his primary purpose in the comic is to threaten and bully Calvin.

[edit] Appearance

Moe is usually seen with black pants and a T-shirt. His hair is shaggy and covers his eyes. His nose is quite large. Calvin mentions that he is the only six-year-old who shaves.

One unusual characteristic is the handwriting font used in Moe's speech bubbles. His words are written in a sprawling, childish scrawl which suggest Moe's slow speech patterns and/or level of intelligence. Calvin's observations to the audience support this; he once described Moe as "street wise," meaning he "knows what street he lives on."

[edit] Characteristics

Moe seems to be the only character capable of frustrating Calvin to the point of absolute resignation and operates solely through brute force and physical coercion. Calvin's rare attempts to retaliate have mainly consisted of mocking Moe with words the bully can't understand. Calvin seems to take a certain delight in this. In one strip showing Moe "shaking down" Calvin for lunch money, Calvin tells Moe that his "simian countenance suggested a heritage unusually rich in species diversity." "What?" Calvin hands over money and concludes with, "Never mind. That was worth 25 cents." Another time Calvin asked Moe, "Are your maladjusted antisocial tendencies the product of your berserk pituitary gland?" Moe responded a while later, with a mere "What?" and Calvin announced to the audience, "Isn't he great, folks? Let's give him a hand!" Calvin's mother is often shown calling the school to notify them on Moe's bullying, although it only made Moe return 25 cents to Calvin because some person had squealed on him and "it'll be a dark day if I ever find out who!" Another time in the strip, Hobbes is brought to school and Calvin successfully psyches Moe out by daring him to touch Hobbes. Calvin thinks Hobbes is scaring him; Moe thinks that the dare is some sort of trap to let the teacher catch him stealing and get him in trouble. Moe also isn't used to hearing a normal question as seen when he says to Calvin: "Hey, twinky! Thats my favorite swing!" Calvin replies: "Yes I am Moe. What about it?". Moe stupidly stands there with a mere: Uhhhh......

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Moe (Calvin and Hobbes character). The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with The Calvin and Hobbes Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.