Calvin Peeing Meme — Secret Origin!
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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.
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Map is amazing! astute work Josh!
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[riots break out in Corsica and Sardinia simultaneously]
RT @HILOBROW: Calvin Peeing Meme — Secret Origin! by Joshua Glenn: http://t.co/uwuSMga8X9
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Ooooh, fascinating! https://www.hilobrow.com/2013/03/07/calvin-peeing-meme-secret-origin/
Fantastic map and image. However for the origin of Peeing Calvin, omitting Manneken Pis in Brussels (early 17th century) is an oversight.
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The strange roads you go down, Josh, love it.
If you google it quickly, you’ll find that the explanation is that La Corse et la Sardinie is a real Gavroche (street urchin from Les Mis) who laughs at everything. He is holding his sides laughing rather than his dick. However each to hs own!
True that the map’s inscription says that the image is “un vrai Gavroche qui rit de tout” — but the posture, and the pants at half-mast tell another story.
I have also seen, Calvin praying at a cross, adorning truck windows. I suppose he’s sorry for peeing on all that stuff. This also begs the question WWCD?
We added a little more to the myth here.
http://triviahappy.com/articles/the-tasteless-history-of-the-peeing-calvin-decal
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