this Peanuts cartoon

[madhair60]

this is fucking brilliant, isn't it? every single panel is funny.

1) ludicrous conversation opener from Linus
2) the slight zoom-in enhancing the "drama" of Linus' even more ludicrous reasoning
3) fucking harsh but hilarious snipe from Lucy
4) linus completely no-selling it and saying something even stupider, the held shot making his completely ignoring her rebuke even funnier

please tell me at least one of you agrees that this is fucking great.

[Brian Freeze]

I agree, its fookin great.

I was in Carnforth 2nd Hand bookshop on Monday and there were something like ten peanuts books for £2 each. That strip above is making me regret not buying any of them.

[bgmnts]

I like 'they say'.

[Lemming]

Yeah it's ace. Schulz was fantastic at the direction stuff you mention, the zooms and the perfect pacing of dialogue in each panel.

Lucy's one of the best comic strip characters ever. I love the recurring theme in the 50s ones where she'd insist on some absurd shit until Charlie Brown began to manifest physiological symptoms of extreme stress.

Spoiler alert

[close]

[famethrowa]

Wonderful, and quite "modern" comedy for way back then? Love those little pointless, no-stakes exchanges.

Wondering if anyone can dig up my all-time fave, Charlie Brown and another kid go into the newsagents, mess up all the magazines, and then on the way out they say "wow, the shopkeeper really glared at me! Maybe they're not feeling well today...."

[bgmnts]

I have never read any Peanuts so I don't know many things about these characters, but for some reason I feel there is a sense of weird genius in that waffle.

I wonder what is on the telly that has bored him to the point of saying it? Feels quite real to me.

[shiftwork2]

Gullies are in fact quite dangerous and they should be filled in.

[Clive Dogshit]

Yeah it's great.

"It's hard to sleep at night surrounded by your stupidity" is such a good line.

I love Peanuts.

[NoSleep]

I was a big fan of Peanuts; used to read the paperback collections of the strips all the time. That was some decades before I knew anything about the analysis of comedy I find on CaB; I just found it funny. Occasionally there's be a panel that would cause uncontrollable laughter, wherever I might be at the time. It could have been something one of the characters said or perhaps just an expression on one of their faces. Good to see the strips upthread; it's inspired me to seek out more.

It's interesting to see madhair (in particular) breaking this Peanuts strip down in detail in this way, as I find Merry Hell has the same effect on me regularly.

[poodlefaker]

Yeah it's ace. Schulz was fantastic at the direction stuff you mention, the zooms and the perfect pacing of dialogue in each panel.

Lucy's one of the best comic strip characters ever. I love the recurring theme in the 50s ones where she'd insist on some absurd shit until Charlie Brown began to manifest physiological symptoms of extreme stress.

Spoiler alert

[close]

Some of these ^^^ could be George and Elaine (esp. "DONT ANSWER! I know just what you're going to say and YOU'RE WRONG!")

[Wezzo]

I read every single Peanuts cartoon across six months last year, about three months' worth a night before bed, across the 26 "Complete Peanuts" volumes. Would recommend to anyone, so many inspired moments. Basically anything with Lucy and Charlie is gold.

[Andy147]

Wonderful, and quite "modern" comedy for way back then? Love those little pointless, no-stakes exchanges.

Wondering if anyone can dig up my all-time fave, Charlie Brown and another kid go into the newsagents, mess up all the magazines, and then on the way out they say "wow, the shopkeeper really glared at me! Maybe they're not feeling well today...."

www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1952/06/22

[madhair60]

"the druggist is awfully fussy", when your dealer won't take ETH am I right guys?

[Old Nehamkin]

Was flicking through one of the collections from the 70s recently, this one really made me laugh:

[Magnum Valentino]

Aw SHIT. This thread is going to cost me a FORTUNE.

[Shaxberd]

Was flicking through one of the collections from the 70s recently, this one really made me laugh:

I love how casually weird this is.

Things you take as given in the set-up:
- a dog can fly like a helicopter by spinning its ears around
- the dog is being piloted by a bird
- a child can understand what the bird is saying

The unexpected/incongruous punchline:
- the bird is a Vietnam War veteran

[Mr Banlon]

Was flicking through one of the collections from the 70s recently, this one really made me laugh:

Is that a reference to Snoopy being an icon to US airman in Vietnam?

[BritishHobo]

I've not long finished a long long read of the collected editions. Schulz's use of reactions and comic timing really is incredible.





Lucy is an absolute standout, but for me Peppermint Patty ended up being my favourite character. In the latter years it feels like she becomes Schulz's favourite as well, almost a second main character - full of all the same anxieties and uncertainties as Charlie Brown. I mean, this strip...



Heartbreaking!

Despite the hoary old "Peppermint Patty and Marcie are lesbians" gag, I'd never realised there's a very long-running thing about both of them being in love with Charlie Brown and competing for his affections, to total obliviousness from the kid himself. Charlie Brown and the little red-headed girl is such a beloved bit of romantic unrequited love, and I think it's absolutely brilliant that the entire time it's going on, Charlie Brown has a red-headed girl who fancies him (and is also as mad on sports as he is) and he just never ever notices, despite being told again and again.



Jesus, look at her face in that final panel.

[FredNurke]

I read somewhere that Schulz said that Charlie Brown and Peppermint Patty end up getting married, though I've never been able to find the source for this.

Anyway, I'm a huge Peanuts fan. Seriously think that as a body of work it's one of the most significant pieces of art of the 20th century (though you might want to impose a stopping point of around 1980).

[bgmnts]

I love this little Linus fella.

Decided to get the classic Peanut collection. 382p of comic strips for 8 quid can't say fairer.

[The Culture Bunker]

I was mad keen on Peanuts as a very young lad - when I started infant school in 1985, I had a Snoopy/Woodstock flask and lunchbox. I must have insisted to my mam on renting 'Snoopy Come Home' about 20 times from Flix (our local video shop).

"NO DOGS ALLOWED!"

A friend got me one of the later strip collections much later on, and, yeah, the quality did seem to drop off some point in the 80s. But even now, those classic era ones still get a good laugh out of me.

[Proactive]

Have to be honest, coming to this from a position of unfamiliarity with and indifference to the characters, this is pretty much on a Fred Basset level of shitness.

[BritishHobo]

Snoopy would fucking destroy Fred Basset. Absolutely destroy the cunt.

[Pavlov`s Dog`s Dad`s Dead]

Have to be honest, coming to this from a position of unfamiliarity with and indifference to the characters, this is pretty much on a Fred Basset level of shitness.

Oh, come on. I mean, I'm coming from a similar starting point, but the first strip in post 17 is genuinely very funny, and as Shaxberd notes, the strip in post 13 is properly weird. There's clearly a lot more to Peanuts than I'd previously considered.

The informed analysis helps, too - I never would have thought about comic timing in the context of a cartoon strip, for example, but once someone points it out to me, like in that third panel, I get it.

[madhair60]

Have to be honest, coming to this from a position of unfamiliarity with and indifference to the characters, this is pretty much on a Fred Basset level of shitness.

fuck off

[mr. logic]

Have to be honest, coming to this from a position of unfamiliarity with and indifference to the characters, this is pretty much on a Fred Basset level of shitness.

Haha, I was thinking that too but didn't want to say.

[Old Nehamkin]

Have to be honest, coming to this from a position of unfamiliarity with and indifference to the characters, this is pretty much on a Fred Basset level of shitness.

Well fair enough if that's your take but what comic strips are you a fan of if you don't mind me asking.

[Sexton Brackets Drugbust]

Some of these ^^^ could be George and Elaine (esp. "DONT ANSWER! I know just what you're going to say and YOU'RE WRONG!")

For a second, my brain processed that as George and Lynne.

[bgmnts]

Well fair enough if that's your take but what comic strips are you a fan of if you don't mind me asking.

Perhaps we need a general comic strip thread.

Had a few 80s Dandy annuals as a kid and thought Brassneck was the tits.

[Proactive]

fuck off

Yeah sorry I was a bit harsh with that.





































I think Garfield's probably a more apt comparison.