So, I am a little late to the party, but last week a major cultural phenomenon commemorated its 70th anniversary. It was on October 2, 1950 that the first ever Peanuts comic strip by Charles Schultz was published in a newspaper. Schultz’s comic has become one of the biggest brands in entertainment, generating $1.3 BILLION in US retail sales in 2015. Not bad for a newspaper comic built around a kid who can’t fly a kite, kick a football, and is constantly upstaged by his dog.
Why does this batch of characters resonate so much? Good ol’ Charlie Brown, Snoopy, baby sister Sally, bossy Lucy, and Lucy’s brother Linus with his emotional support blanket and gift for philosophy and theology. Not to mention Schroeder, Pig Pen, Marcie, and Peppermint Patty, who can’t tell a dog from a kid when she’s standing in the outfield and said dog is playing shortstop.
(To be fair to Miss P., Occam’s Razor would suggest that “the shortstop is a really odd looking human” is a more logical explanation than “the shortstop is a bipedal beagle with opposable thumbs”.)
You might say Peanuts is huge because it’s always been there. That it has become a cultural touchstone by outlasting so many other Baby Boomer Sunday funnies. Is that part of it? Sure, maybe. But that doesn’t explain why parents WANT to introduce the TV specials to their kids, or why new generations keep falling in love with the gang.
I think Peanuts lasts because it revels in the fact that normal is just a setting on the washing machine, that screwing up is a part of life, and that sometimes you just need to lean on a fence with a blank look on your face. Or yell AAAARGGH! at the top of your lungs. It speaks to kids, and also to anyone who still feels like a kid just playing grownup, not sure what’s going on, because the adults in the room all sound like trombones.
Charlie Brown and the gang all have their quirks, faults, and odd beliefs in sentient cucurbita. But they stick together. After all, nobody’s perfect, not even the World War One Flying Ace who made a literary career out of “It was a dark and stormy night”.
That’s what Peanuts quietly tells us. You can be clinically depressed, unable to function without your blanket, or obsessed with Beethoven, but some people will like you and stick with you. Like the sad little tree Charlie Brown and Linus bring back in the Christmas special, all you need is a little love.
That’s why there are billions to be made by slapping those simple line drawings on anything. Because a Peanuts shirt, or mug, or doormat is a symbol of quirkiness and simple joy that can cheer those in the know up instantly. With apologies to the crew at Central Perk, it’s the Peanuts gang that will always be there for you, anytime you want to stop by and have toast and pretzels for Thanksgiving, wait on the Great Pumpkin, or listen to Linus recite the Gospel of Luke from memory.
So happy belated birthday to Peanuts and gratitude to Charles Schutz for giving them to the world. Here’s to 70 more years, the world needs it.
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