Watched “Great Pumpkin” last night (as I do every year). Made me wonder WTF Chuck did to deserve that, among the other indignities he’s endured.
Nothing, of course. He represents the times when things go against us for no discernible reason.
A common theme of Chuck Schulz is that bad things happen to good people. Simple as that.
If you read Peanuts as an adult you realize that Charles Schulz was a very depressed man who hated the characters he created, except for Snoopy.
I imagine they felt his head was gettin’ too big.
I never read Peanuuts because it depressed the hell out of me. I identify a little too closely with CB.
Someday somebody’s going to ask us what lieu ever did to anyone… 
He didn’t hate them. He *was *them. Well, Lucy was his first wife.
But Charlie Brown, Linus and Schroeder were all Charles Schulz.
I agree, and anybody who thinks it’s funny that Lucy repeatedly pulls the football away I regard with distrust.
But the good people don’t let that stop them. Charlie Brown still tries to kick the football, Pig Pen doesn’t mind being dirty, Linus keeps his blanket despite the peer pressure, they keep playing baseball, waiting for the Great Pumpkin, and hoping the Little Red Haired Girl would notice them. It’s that eternal optimism and hope that made it work.
Now that I’m not on a phone I can post a bit more of a substantial response.
Charlie Brown was sort of a stand-in for the author. Chuck Schulz was shy and not good at the sorts of things that kids did (sports, etc) so that’s reflected in Charlie Brown. In many ways it was his way of saying “the American success story is bullshit, so I’m going to tell it like it is.” (my phrasing)
By the way, this was the first Peanuts strip.
Ha ha, damn. It’s like that, huh? I regard that person as someone who wasn’t much of a Peanuts fan, and enjoyed the slapsticks of Charlie being suckered and falling down -or- if it turns out they are a Peanuts fan, then yeah, evil harpy who hates freedom.
I think I parsed your statement but it’s time to go home so just in case I will give you the hairy eyeball to be sure.
And wish you a good weekend, too. 
The kite, don’t forget the kite in the tree. It’s not just people, it’s nature itself.
The explanation is that the Brown family is cursed, and no doubt deservedly so. One of CB’s ancestors did the wrong thing to the wrong supernatural being and the family has been paying for it ever since.
Clearly CB’s parents have had so many horrible things happen to them that showing them in a comic strip would violate all rules of decency.
Run away Little Redheaded Girl. Run away. You don’t want to be part of this family.
They recently reran an old Peanuts strip that reminded me how good–and dark–it was in the '60s:
Sally is happily jumping rope, then stops and bursts into tears. Linus runs up and asks what happened, and she tells him, “I don’t know–I was jumping rope, and everything was fine . . . And then I was just struck with the *futility *of it all.”
There are stories that suggest that the continuing functioning of the universe requires being mindlessly cruel to an innocent child. Charlie Brown is that child. If he ever experiences true prolonged happiness the universe will explode.
I saw that one. I almost cut it out and put it on the fridge.
No evil eye! I’m mainly in agreement with you, but tend to give the person the benefit of the doubt, and assume they were just laughing at Charlie falling down, and never really paid too much attention to Peanuts. If they did, though, and still didn’t think Lucy was the devil, they’re invariably bad people who should not be allowed near small children or animals.
He was a downer. You are a kid, you are trying to have fun and here it comes the depressive gloomy kid always talking about how sad he feels.
Admit it, you would hate him too.
Anyway, really, he didn’t have it that bad. He had a best friend, a smart dog and was a bit of a leader within his group. Of course he’s the main character, so we only get to see his bad moments, but I’m pretty sure that Lucy bullied everyone, not just him.
Peanuts actually brought the term “Depressed” into popularity.
If anybody is a fan of Peanuts, or just interested in a good biography, I highly recommend “Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography.” It does a great job of showing interspersing actual Peanuts strips throughout the narrative to show how what was happening in Shulz’s real life was filtered into the comic.