This talk discusses two analytical calculations relevant for the Standard Model calculation of the muon $g-2$. The first part is the recent derivation of the quark-loop as the first term in a well-defined operator-product expansion for the short-distance part of the hadronic light-by-light contribution, as well as the calculation of the next term. The second part is the calculation of finite volume effects relevant for lattice QCD calculations of the electromagnetic contribution to the lowest-order hadronic vacuum-polarization contribution and the proof they only start at $1/L^3$.