History ComicStrip / Peanuts

* FrustratedOverheadScribble: An upset and dejected Charlie Brown has been drawn with a speech bubble with only a thick scribble of frustration as he walks away from Lucy.

--> '''Lucy:''' How can the world be getting worse with me in it? Ever since I was born the world has shown a distinct improvement! I make the world better! I am a positive force! ''[threateningly, to Linus]'' SMILE! ''[Linus complies – [[TheUnSmile sort of]]]'' See? With me around, everyone is a lot happier!

* HappinessIsMandatory: Lucy invoked this with Linus in one Sunday strip from the early 1980s.
--> '''Lucy:''' How can the world be getting worse with me in it? Ever since I was born the world has shown a distinct improvement! I make the world better! I am a positive force! ''[threateningly, to Linus]'' SMILE! ''[Linus complies]'' See? With me around, everyone is a lot happier!

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** If you look closely at a letter envelope in ''Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales'', it lists the town as "Sparkyville, USA". ("Sparky" was Schulz's nickname.)

While it's got a large cast, the stars of the strip are a boy named Charlie Brown[[note]]whom Schulz named for a fellow instructor at the Art School of Minneapolis[[/note]] and his pet beagle Snoopy.

* JustEatGilligan: Charlie Brown's team invariably wins when he isn't playing, and Linus in particular is shown to be a much better pitcher than Charlie Brown. Somehow the logical conclusion never seems to occur to him or anyone else.

* JustEatGilligan: Charlie Brown's team almost invariably wins when he lets someone else pitch. Somehow it never seems to occur to him or anyone else to have him play some other position.

* AssInALionSkin: Snoopy has a penchant for pretending to be various other kinds of animals -- including an alligator, an anteater, a bald eagle, a [[BatOutOfHell bat]], a beaver, a songbird, a boa constrictor, a cow, a cricket, a [[EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs dinosaur]], an elephant, a giraffe, a [[ExtremeOmniGoat goat]], a gorilla, a [[BoxingKangaroo kangaroo]], a [[KingOfBeasts lion]], a moose, a mountain lion, a [[StubbornMule mule]], an [[TheOwlKnowingOne owl]], a partridge (in a pear tree), a pelican, a [[EverythingsBetterWithPenguins penguin]], a {{piranha|Problem}}, a [[BearsAreBadNews polar bear]], a prairie dog, a rabbit, a {{rhino|Rampage}}ceros, a {{sea monster}}, a [[ThreateningShark shark]], a [[CountingSheep sheep]], a [[PantheraAwesome tiger]], a vulture, and a wolf.

It launched [[Franchise/{{Peanuts}} the franchise of the same name]]. This includes a series of animated TV specials, feature films and some regular TV series, beginning with the classic ChristmasSpecial ''WesternAnimation/ACharlieBrownChristmas'', that have been annual mainstays on American network television for more than half-a-century. Today, most of the productions are exclusively available on Creator/AppleTVPlus, which is also producing original series and new specials for online viewing.

** Subverted in one series of strips. Sally prepares for a Christmas pageant in which "I come out and say, 'Hark!', then Harold Angel starts to sing." Everyone assumes that she's simply confused by the name of the song... until a kid named Harold Angel actually shows up.[[note]]NamesTheSame: Hopefully, not ''that'' [[Film/AngelHeart Harold Angel]].[[/note]]

* DenserAndWackier: Whilst the strip evolved from its more lighthearted roots into a grittier and more brutally honest commentary on American childhood/society by the mid-[[TheFifties Fifties]], the increasing popularity and merchandise (much of which involved cuter and more cuddly depictions of the cast than the strip itself initially displayed) surrounding the strip ultimately both forced Schulz to [[LighterAndSofter tone down]] the strip to fit a wider reading demographic whilst simultaneously finding his incentive to write darker plotlines eventually reduced (thanks to the [[RealitySubtext comfortable lifestyle]] the strip's major success had afforded him). This led to a return to a more lighthearted and gag-driven approach by the early [[TheSeventies Seventies]] with the addition of previously unseen surrealistic elements such as the [[WhenTreesAttack Kite-Eating Tree]] (to the extent where it was drawn with a [[ManEatingPlant mouth]] in later appearances), a [[SapientHouse sentient school building]] (complete with thought bubbles), and a heavier focus on an [[AnthropomorphicShift increasingly]] humanoid Snoopy (whose {{Cloudcuckoolander}} tendencies were exaggerated while shedding their darker and more realistic underhangings from the early days).

* AluminumChristmasTrees:
** Besides the {{trope nam|er}}ing artifacts in ''A Charlie Brown Christmas'', there's an early strip where Lucy tries to make Schroeder jealous by claiming she prefers more modern music and Snoopy comes in with an accordion to play "polkas, schottisches, and waltzes." At the time this was a straight reference, while in reprints it looks as though it's a gag on how Lucy and/or Snoopy are out of touch.
** The character José Peterson represented a MeltingPotNomenclature joke at the time, as the idea of someone with a Swedish father and Mexican mother seemed like a bizarrely unlikely combination -- it wouldn't be seen as that remarkable in the modern US.

* DropInCharacter: Every character can be at any other character's house at any time, even Snoopy. Lucy may irritate Schroeder, but she's constantly at his house leaning on his piano.

* ContinuityReboot: ''Happiness Is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown'', a 2011 DirectToVideo film from Warner Premiere, is this to the original run of animated specials and series. An adaptation of strips that had previously been adapted in TheEighties, it focuses on the core cast from TheSixties (save for a Woodstock cameo in the opening sequence), dials back Snoopy's slapstick and SpotlightStealingSquad tendencies, doesn't try to be [[WereStillRelevantDammit "relevant"]], disregards the strip and specials' ArtEvolution in favor of the '60s-era designs, and is quieter and more melancholy than most of the later adaptations. (In other words, it ''could'' coexist with ''WesternAnimation/ACharlieBrownChristmas'' and ''WesternAnimation/SnoopyComeHome'', but not with ''It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown'').

* RefrainFromAssuming:
** The iconic instrumental theme song isn't called "Peanuts" or "Charlie Brown". It's actually called "Linus and Lucy".
** Also, The Coasters' 1959 hit song "Charlie Brown" has nothing to do with ''Peanuts'' (despite the growing popularity of the comic strip at that time and the signature line "Why is everybody always pickin' on me?" being something the ''Peanuts'' character likely would have wondered or said). Songwriter Jerry Leiber said he just chose the name "Charlie Brown" because of its simplicity.

** Charlie Brown was a lot more confident and assertive, filling the role of ThePrankster and (comparatively) the TagalongKid as opposed to a perpetually depressed ButtMonkey. His shirt also lacked its trademark zig-zag during the first two months of the strip's run.

** Lucy was a wide-eyed, cute little {{Cloudcuckoolander}}, who [[ThirdPersonPerson spoke in third person]] and appeared to be toddler-aged, almost nothing like her later bossy, crabby, mean self.

* FunnyAfro: A plot line in the mid-70s had Peppermint Patty enter a skating competition. She decides to get a new hairstyle from Charlie Brown's dad, who thinks she's a boy and gives her a short cut. She decides to wear a wig to cover it which turns out to be a afro. After the competition, she gives it to Snoopy as payment for skating lessons.

** The short-lived '80s character "Tapioca Pudding" was a TakeThat to MerchandiseDriven franchises like ''WesternAnimation/StrawberryShortcake''. Her father works in licensing and is planning to put her likeness on lunchboxes and countless other knickknacks. Which is also an example of HypocriticalHumor, when you remember just how much ''Peanuts'' merch there is (and if anything there was even more back when that comic was made), but the difference was that ''Peanuts'' established itself as a comic strip first, instead of being created solely for merchandising.

* JustEatGilligan: Charlie Brown's team invariably wins when he lets someone else pitch. Somehow it never seems to occur to him or anyone else to have him play some other position.

* GagWords: Starting in the late 70s, "Zamboni".

* StatingTheSimpleSolution: Linus, in [[http://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1963/01/27 this 1963 strip]].