That’s the claim of one Dad on the internet:
Charles Schulz once got a letter from someone disappointed in his strip for pretty much the same reason.
It was for his very first strip (Shermy says, “How I hate him!”), and he got the letter within a few days.
Some people will never understand.
As a father, and a responsible adult, I think there’s only one appropriate way to respond to Mr. Bishop’s concerns:
Wah. Wawawawah. Wawawah wawawah, wah wah wahwa.
ETA: that’s intended to be read as trombone sounds, btw.
I think it can instill trust issues in children who are aspiring to become professional kickers in the NFL.
Yeah, heaven forbid kids should be shown as they really are with each other.
Don’t get me wrong, as an adult I love kids. When I was a kid, I found the behavior of the Peanuts cast toward each other at least realistic, if not a little on the idealized side (there was some actual friendship in there with all the teasing).
Holy crap.
Now, the Charlie Brown Halloween special doesn’t come close to the classic Christmas special, but it has moments.
Maybe he missed it, but the Charlie Brown specials also usually contain a moral and a message. That’s the whole point. Charlie Brown does something, gets called dumb, gets redeemed in some way, kids realize Chuck isn’t such a blockhead after all. The end.
Well, in the Halloween version, Chuck and Linus sort of switch roles, but the same theory applies.
Change the friggin’ channel if you don’t want to watch it.
It also has a dog that thinks he’s a WWI flying ace, isn’t that also bad for kids? It might cause them to do bad things to dogs (or something). Bishop is a dumbass.
Cyber-Dad is missing the point: kids *are *cruel, they *do *bully, and kids already know that. But Charlie Brown shows them how to take it with aplomb and not let it get them down.
I hate the Peanuts comic and cartoons. So, yeah, if I happen upon them on TV by accident I do quickly change the channel.
Who the hell gives out rocks for halloween?
Why doesn’t Charlie Brown run up and kick Lucy in the ribs?
Is Pigpen homeless?
Schulz had issues.
I must have missed the one where Charlie Brown doesn’t let it get him down. Charlie Brown is a walking friggin Prozac commercial in kid form.
Good grief!
Buzz Bishop is a stupid, dumb blockhead.
Snoopy’s WWI flying ace scene used to upset me when I was a kid. I had forgotten all about that until my 4 year old nephew reacted in the same way to it last year.
Peanuts was pretty darn dark at times, with its share of misery, angst, and cruelty.
I’m overjoyed to hear that such things are antiquated and kids today are no longer exposed to them.
The strip has shown him at home - and clean! - a few times but the dirt returns as soon as he steps out the door.
The point I think a lot of people miss is that Peanuts was not a strip about children. The kids in that strip were stand-ins for grown-up personalities, anxieties and weaknesses.
Jeez! Charlie Brown is every kid. That’s the point!
Quoted for truth. I almost never do this but I do not think Peanuts is for kids.
(Of course I loved Peanuts when I was a kid…As does my son.)
Hey, buddy, keep it clean, there are children around.