Calvin Peeing Meme — Secret Origin!

By: Joshua Glenn
March 7, 2013

NOTE: This is one of the 25 most popular posts ever published at HILOBROW.

We love to hate the “Calvin Peeing” decals that began to appear in the back window of cars, and on the back panel of pickup trucks — i.e., Bill Watterson’s spiky-haired comic-strip character Calvin pees on a company’s name or sports team’s logo, while grimacing wickedly — some years ago.

The original image, or so we’ve been led to believe by Watterson himself, was of Calvin filling a water balloon at a house faucet. Even though, in this image, Calvin’s pants are pulled up.

Nobody knows how the meme started, or why the beloved fictional character Calvin was chosen for this vile purpose. But the image did look like Calvin…

However! The other day, while browsing a Russian website featuring old propaganda maps, I noticed something odd at the bottom of this 1870 French map:

What is spiky-haired Sardinia/Corsica doing, with that evil grimace on his face? He’s dropped his pants! He’s peeing!

Mystery solved. The “Calvin Peeing” meme was inspired not by Calvin, but by a 19th century French satirical mapmaker’s caricature of Sardinia and Corsica. Or — more precisely — the “Calvin Peeing” meme is a mashup of the Sardinia-Corsica meme (I’m assuming this is just one of many examples out there, waiting to be discovered; I’d compare it to the “What Me, Worry?” kid meme) and Watterson’s comic strip character.

UPDATE: Also see the 1930s-era comic strip OOR WUULIE.

***

Calvin Peeing Meme — Secret Origin!

Categories

Tags