Every once in a while I like to share my enthusiasm for some old-fashioned American pop culture with Sophia, who didn’t move to this country until she was an adult, and missed out on such important bonding experiences, like watching reruns of The Brady Bunch after school. Unfortunately, my attempts at getting her to love what I loved usually strike out. She thought Star Wars was ridiculous. She found the Wizard of Oz — get this — a little boring.
Last night, it was time to introduce her to the Peanuts gang. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving was on TV. Even though it is one of the gang’s lesser holiday specials (the Christmas one is the best), how can anyone resist Charlie Brown? Uh… well…
First of all, I forgot how SLOOOOOWWWLY these cartoons are paced. Even I was hoping for Homer Simpson to jump into the frame and create some drama. I cannot imagine today’s hyper kids watching these gentle, rather unfunny holiday shows.
Sophia was confused with the characters from the start.
Scene 1 — Charlie Brown is being tempted to kick the football by Lucy.
Sophia: What’s going on?
Neil: Charlie Brown will try to kick the football and Lucy, the girl, will take it away. It’s a running gag.
Charlie Brown falls on his ass.
Sophia: That wasn’t very funny.
Neil: Well, it used to be.
Sophia: Really?
Neil: Well, I guess it was never really that funny.
Scene 2 — Linus enters Charlie Brown’s home.
Sophia: You know, I was wondering — why is Charlie Brown bald?
Neil: I have no idea.
Sophia: Are you sure he isn’t an old man?
Neil: He’s a kid.
Sophia: And what about this guy — his friend?
Neil: Linus?
Sophia: He looks like he has hairplugs.
Neil: That’s just how he was drawn. He’s a kid also. Look, he carries around a blanket.
Sophia: Why?
Neil: Uh, it’s a security blanket. It’s complicated. He’s intelligent, but he’s anxious.
Sophia: Like you?
Neil: No. Not really.
Sophia: Is this also supposed to be funny?
Neil: Sort of. Not ha-ha funny. Gentle funny.
Sophia: These are just weird characters.
Scene 3 — Snoopy enters Charlie Brown’s home.
Neil: That’s Snoopy. You’ve heard of him, of course.
Sophia: No.
Neil: You’ve NEVER heard of Snoopy?
Sophia: Is he a spy?
Neil: A spy?
Sophia: Why is he called Snoopy?
Neil: I don’t know. But he’s like the most popular character. He was on t-shirts and things!
Sophia: Does he talk?
Neil: No, he doesn’t talk.
Sophia: So, what makes him so popular?
Neil: He’s cool.
Sophia: ?
Scene 4 — Peppermint Patty calls Charlie Brown on the phone and invites herself over for Thanksgiving dinner. She says she is bringing Marcie and Franklin.
Sophia: Is that a man?
Neil: No, that’s Peppermint Patty. She’s a tomboy.
Sophia: No way, that’s a man.
Neil: No, it’s a girl.
Sophia: Wow, she is so butch.
Marcie enters.
Sophia: And there’s her girlfriend.
Neil: It is not her girlfriend! That’s Marcie. I don’t remember much about her.
Marcie calls Peppermint Patty “Sir.”
Sophia: You see! She is a man!
Neil: She’s not. Marcie just calls her “Sir.”
Sophia: This is one freaky show!
Franklin enters.
Sophia: Is he the one black character?
Neil: Yes.
After A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, there was the “world premiere” of a new Charlie Brown cartoon, but I shut it off the minute I saw Snoopy doing Tony Hawk stunts on his skateboard. Charles Schultz would NOT have Snoopy on a skateboard.
Sophia: So, you really watched these cartoons all the time?
Neil: I used to love the Peanuts.
Sophia: What did you love about it?
Neil: I think I related to Charlie Brown.
Peanuts characters by Charles Schultz/United Media
Sophia just keeps getting more endearinger and endearinger with every blog post.
this is very ……… cool
In honor of Charlie Brown the rest of my comment will be spoken in Peanut adult language:
Wou wu wou-wou-wou. Wou-wou-wou-wou wou wu wou-wou wou. Wou wou wu wu wou!
They are very slow-moving cartoons. I LOVE Snoopy, though. I love the drawn cartoons, though, bc then I can read them as fast as I want.
You need to lock here in a room with a dozen essential Americana 101 videos and not let her out till she sees them all.
I too came over as an adult but I grew up westernized. If she’s from the Eastern Bloc(?) then they did not have a whole lot of access to American culture.
Interesting multi-cultural exchange!! Sophia, no worries girl, it made a lot more sense in 1973. Neil, adorable pics, Schultz would have loved sketching you! much peace & love to you both, JP
Neil, thanks for this warm and funny post at a Thanks-giving Time.
I am like sophia, coming to this country when I was already an adult, so I missed out on a lot too pop culture wise. But Peanut, I enjoy immensely, although when D told me the story about Lucy tricking Charlie Brown in the football kicking, I was like Sophia,,,that does not sounds very funny…This brought back heart-warming memories……and that adorable picture of yours.
It’s pretty well-established in the comic strips (and cartoons, I believe) that Patti and Marcy both had a thing for Charlie Brown.
And I feel like such a dork for remembering this.
I used to love Charlie Brown (and I have never set foot in the USA), but that was when it was a comic strip in the newspaper. I suspect it was never meant to translate well to television.
My love is also from Ukraine and I introduced him to Charlie Brown specials a couple years ago too and he LOVES them! In fact, I think we are going to netflix all of them one of these days.
I used to live off of the Peanuts comics. In third grade, I pretended I was sick one day just so I could stay in bed and read Peanuts. The other day I picked up a Special Edition of Peanuts at Barnes and Noble whilst browsing and found Charlie Brown depressing and Snoopy with a personality you would expect a 30-year-old who still lives with his parents to have. Alas, it still drew me in. Only this time, none of them made me laugh.
OMG the tears are running down my cheeks. The Marcie-Peppermint Patty liason just never occurred to me, how could I have been so blind?
Thank you for making me genuinely laugh for the first time in weeks.
Neil Charles Schultz would NOT have Snoopy on a skateboard.?
You’re wrong there. Snoopy has been on skateboards since the 70′s. There are several toy Snoopys on skateboards. And, I think the credits of the cartoon list Charles Schultz as a producer, which means this thing might have been in production before he passed on. In any case. there is a link to the actual skateboarding bits in question.
Thank you, Kilwag, for setting me straight. I appreciate it.
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I can’t help but to think that some of this was made up. I mean why would she ask if Peppermint Patty was a man? Wouldn’t one assume she’s a boy and not ask about it the first seeing it? Especially with the “sir’s.” A lot of the other stuff were things that Peanuts gets criticized for.
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I have to admit, I never got the Brady Bunch, they scare me. O.o Though I have to admit the only part in the movie they made afterwards was the whole car jack scene. That being said, I wouldn’t say Charlie Brown and the gang are boring. I’ve never found ‘em boring or unfunny.
That being said, to this day Charlie Brown and the gang are part of a comic that has some of the most outlandish ideas ever put to print. I mean the great Pumpkin, Lucy with a knife killing the pumpkin that Linus just carried into the house and of course there are the adults who are always beyond comprehension. Though I suspect that has more to do with CS, and the fact that the comic strip was started in a completely different era from what most of us grew up in.
That being said, I say ye should introduce her to Dr. Seuss next.
I got a rock! Heh.
Hilarious! I do think it is at this point only airing for the adults. I don’t think that the kids actually like it. It is just that we all are so attached and sentimental about childhood shows.
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