Peanuts (Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Charles M. Schulz)

October 1983, and oh gods, now the baseball glove is talking. 17 years still to go, and we are already running out of ideas, it seems.

"Already?" By 1983, the strip had been running for 33 years.

True, it is perhaps not that surprising.

Are there any strips that make you just lose it laughing?

For me it's an early strip when Snoopy eats the only memory of a snowman left, the carrot, Sally's Santa Claus and his rain gear story, and Rerun throwing a ball so hard it went around the world and hit him on the back of the head.

And any of Snoopy's attempts at writing novels.

Edited by lalalei2001 on Oct 24th 2023 at 7:55:18 AM

I'll admit, October 1983 was very funny, with some rather dry self-deprecating humour about the characters, like Spike wryly commenting that he probably shouldn't even ask why people aren't offering him and his cactus a ride, or Spike asking Snoopy how he can stand it around all these crazy people, and Snoopy promptly offering him a ride on his "plane".

Spike is sending girls letters asking for their photographs to add to his collection now. Was this a thing in the 80s? Seems kinda creepy.

I don't think we're supposed to consider much of anything Spike does as normal.

I guess, I was just wondering if this was Aluminum Christmas Trees again.

I don't recall the strip in question; is he writing to regular girls/women, or celebrities? Because people did used to write to celebrities asking for photographs (and in a lot of cases, got them).

It doesn't say, he's just referring to female first names, like Snoopy does sometimes.

Variety has officially announced a new Peanuts animated movie. The director and writers for the Blue Sky movie are coming back and WildBrain is animating.

https://variety.com/2023/film/news/peanuts-movie-apple-tv-1235781653/

Me: Geez, it's not the same not being able to watch any of the Peanuts holiday specials on TV. Thanks for nothing, Apple!

Internet: Apple TV+ announces a new animated Peanuts movie that brings back the director, writer, and art style of the Peanuts Movie by Blue Sky Studios.

Also me: LET THEM COOK.

That's great.

The longer this comic goes on, the less cute this Great Pumpkin thing becomes, and the more worrisome. By 1984, Linus is going door to door handing out pamphlets like a Jehova's witness, and the comic itself also cracks a joke about this.

I also note he has largely dropped the biblical quotation thing by now.

Well, the whole Great Pumpkin bit was Schulz soft-parodying religious proselytizing.

Which is kinda ironic since Linus has been doing that with the Bible as well.

Has he? From what I remember, he quoted The Bible a lot, but it was usually in response to some situation where he felt the quote was appropriate. He didn't go around knocking on doors or handing out leaflets to tell people about Christianity; he only did that with the Great Pumpkin. I don't think just quoting The Bible counts as proselytizing.

If you say so. I guess I'm just not used to people who have Bible Quotes For Every Occasion.

Saw an ad for a special called Snoopy Presents: Lucy's School. I don't know if it's borne out in the special, but the trailer makes it look like Lucy's going out of her way to be inclusive and helpful to people, which is not at all in her character. I haven't seen any of the new Apple + specials, but I can only say I hope they're not trying to sanitize Lucy. She's an overbearing, crabby fussbudget who is often wantonly cruel and so she should stay.

Edited by Robbery on Dec 18th 2023 at 2:08:28 AM

Yeah, that's just turning it into yet another bland children's show.

I really don't get why Rerun was introduced if Charles was just going to use him for the same bicycle gags for years and years and years. How much can you milk the same "my mom drives like crazy" joke?

The Apple TV specials have generally been more feel-good kids show plots featuring the Peanuts cast.

IIRC, the Lucy one in particular is about her trying to act more nice and helpful to get people to like her more, only to ultimately decide she needs to Be Yourself.

Rerun was introduced because Schulz wanted a younger kind in the strip as a contrast to the main cast. As you'll recall, Lucy, Schroeder, Linus, and Sally all started out in the strip as noticeably younger than the rest of the group, only to be aged up over time. Schulz got the idea for Rerun by seeing little kids strapped to the backs of bicycles, so he was actually created with that gag in mind. It struck Schulz how apparently helpless the kids were in that position, and he wondered what, if anything, they might think about while there.

As time wore on, he'd use Rerun for the bicycle stuff, and for any storyline he felt wouldn't work with the older kids. He didn't have many ideas for Rerun in the 80's, but by the '90's, he was using Rerun a lot, to the point where he commented that Rerun had practically taken over the strip, being the subject of most strips not starring Charlie Brown, Snoopy, or Peppermint Patty and Marcie.

Edited by Robbery on Jan 7th 2024 at 10:14:26 AM

Okay, so it's 1986, and a new character is introduced called Tapioca Pudding. Her dad is in licensing, and thinks that her blonde hair and smile and name on things will make him a millionaire. He's basically going to sell his daughter's identity as a brand.

And then it suddenly struck me: oh gods, this is female Donald Trump. I can already see it... Tapioca Tower, New York.

Never heard about Tapioca before, actually.

The blonde hair, the enterprising dad and the successful licensing traits kind of bring mental images of Little Orphan Annie.