WEBVTT - Peanuts (the comic) Part II 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:07.200 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:11.200 --> 0:00:14.040 Hey, and welcome to the Peanuts Cast. I'm Josh, there's 0:00:14.120 --> 0:00:16.680 Chuck been sitting in and this is part two of 0:00:16.760 --> 0:00:22.600 two the Deuce, as we call it sometimes, about stuff 0:00:22.600 --> 0:00:24.160 you should know about Peanuts. 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:27.000 That's right. If you remember where we left off, Charlie 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:30.600 Brown had just murdered Snoopy and was on the run 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:35.600 from the law. No, of course not. We had made 0:00:35.680 --> 0:00:37.800 up and surely no one's going to listen to this 0:00:37.840 --> 0:00:40.840 one first, but just to catch you up, we covered 0:00:40.840 --> 0:00:44.400 most of Charles Schultz's early life, the birth of Peanuts, 0:00:44.400 --> 0:00:47.400 and we had gotten up to Snoopy character wise, and 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:50.440 here we go with that little black and white beagle 0:00:50.520 --> 0:00:54.160 that is probably the weirdest comic character of all time. 0:00:55.640 --> 0:00:59.160 Yeah, and we said before he was based on Schultz's 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:02.280 dog Spike, who apparently could eat razor blades without getting sick. 0:01:02.560 --> 0:01:06.240 He had another dog, know that. I guess Spike ate 0:01:06.319 --> 0:01:10.040 razorbikes And they were like, oh, okay, he's good. That's 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:12.200 what he was in Ripley's believe it or not, for 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:16.080 eating razor blades, yeah, not getting sick. He had another 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:21.160 another dog named Snooky. Snooky and then just like the 0:01:21.520 --> 0:01:26.280 Jersey short character. And then apparently his mom suggested that 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:28.440 as she was dying that if the family ever got 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:31.800 another dog, they should name it Snoopy, like s n Upi, 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:35.240 which apparently is a term of endearment in Norwegian. So 0:01:35.280 --> 0:01:38.160 you put all those together, you mix them up, put 0:01:38.200 --> 0:01:42.679 him in a blender, blend it, and then regret that 0:01:42.760 --> 0:01:44.760 immediately you've got Snoopy. 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:51.240 Yes, Snoopy was a black and white beagle who slept 0:01:51.240 --> 0:01:54.280 on top of a doghouse. Yeah, apparently that came around 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:56.560 in fifty eight. For the first few years, Snoopy actually 0:01:56.920 --> 0:02:00.000 slept in the house and if you wonder why Snoopy, 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:02.160 he was on top of the house so you could 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:05.960 see Snoopy right. Very weird to have a cartoon drawn 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:08.799 inside of a doghouse, So it was just sort of 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:14.519 a utilitarian decision. Snoopy was, like I said, one of 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:17.840 the weirdest character in comics, I think, because Snoopy had 0:02:18.000 --> 0:02:24.440 and my favorite thing about Snoopy was this weird fantasy 0:02:24.480 --> 0:02:28.040 life that Snoopy lived where he had these alter egos. 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:29.919 I think there were more than one hundred Snoopy alter 0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:33.160 egos that range from being a world famous it was 0:02:33.160 --> 0:02:37.080 always world famous, usually a world famous tennis star. He 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:41.520 was a world famous surgeon, an attorney. The Fierce Vulture 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:45.160 is one of my favorite alter egos, a famous, world 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:49.560 famous author. Joe Cool was one I wasn't super into. Actually, 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:50.799 it was probably my least favorite altar. 0:02:51.040 --> 0:02:54.240 That's funny. My grandma called me Joe Cool because I 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:57.680 sent her a card once as a kid and identified myself. 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:00.360 I think I signed it as Joe Cool. It really 0:03:00.400 --> 0:03:02.200 called me Joe Cool from that moment on. 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:07.520 But the really weird one was the Flying Ace alter ego, 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:13.359 in which Snoopy was a was an air airplane fighter 0:03:13.400 --> 0:03:17.880 pilot from World War Two that had an ongoing I 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:20.080 was about to say beef, but just ongoing battle with 0:03:20.160 --> 0:03:23.760 the Red Baron fighter pilot from Germany, and that became 0:03:23.840 --> 0:03:28.520 a big hit song in nineteen sixty six. It was 0:03:28.520 --> 0:03:31.399 a novelty song by the Royal Guardsman that hit number 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:35.320 two in the United States, Which is I mean I 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:38.480 had this forty five that It was a time and 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:40.880 we've talked about some famous novelty songs in the past, 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:42.880 but it was a time when a novelty song could 0:03:42.880 --> 0:03:44.600 be like a legit number one hit. 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:48.680 Yeah, or number two at least. Yeah. So that flying 0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:50.800 Ace thing. One of the things that Peanuts is known 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:54.520 for is it was genuine, generally not political. It was 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:57.720 much more universal than that. It wasn't so narrow as 0:03:57.760 --> 0:04:00.760 to like discourse on politics. 0:04:01.200 --> 0:04:01.360 Right. 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:05.960 But during the Vietnam War, and Charles Schultz, remember he 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:08.560 was a veteran of World War two, very proud veteran, 0:04:09.240 --> 0:04:13.480 and during the Vietnam War he gave official approval for 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:18.240 the Air Force to use Snoopy as a mascot in Vietnam. 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:21.360 And at the same time, as it became clear that 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:25.719 the United States strategy and involvement in Vietnam was just 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:29.920 a catastrophe and disastrous and being led by people who 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:35.719 were completely amoral, even Charles Schultz became dissatisfied or against 0:04:35.720 --> 0:04:38.400 the Vietnam War, and he used the World War one 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:42.640 Flying Ace to comment on the Vietnam War like there 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:46.360 was it went as it became as overt as there's 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:49.200 there's one where Snoopy as World War one Flying Ace 0:04:49.240 --> 0:04:53.160 has cursed the stupid war, and eventually it even spilled 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:56.960 out from the flying Ace. There's there's strips where Lioness 0:04:57.040 --> 0:05:00.839 and Charlie Brown are discussing the prospect of being drafted. 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:04.360 I mean, like he got pretty anti war as a 0:05:04.360 --> 0:05:07.480 matter of fact during the Vietnam era, which was really 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:10.719 out of character for not just him but also for Peanuts. 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:14.240 But like that, I think that just kind of goes 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:18.400 to show how unpopular the Vietnam War was that even 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:23.800 Charles Schultz, this conservative methodist World War Two veteran, was 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:26.080 speaking out against it through his characters. 0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:30.120 Yeah, I think Franklin's dad was in Vietnam during the 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:33.440 comic strip exactly. Yeah. And by the way, I think 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:35.200 I said world War two instead of World War One. 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:38.560 So in choke correction, Oh did you say too? I'm 0:05:38.600 --> 0:05:41.320 sorry I didn't correct you. I really know that I 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:45.960 missed the chance. Hey, you mentioned Joe Cool. There was 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:48.720 an offshoot of Joe Cool from the nineties, wasn't there. 0:05:49.680 --> 0:05:50.400 I don't know was here. 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:53.080 Yeah, you gotta gotta mention Joe Grunge. 0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:55.159 I wouldn't run for Joe Grunge. 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:57.520 I wasn't either, But I mean, I'm aware he existed. 0:05:58.120 --> 0:05:59.280 I wasn't aware he existed. 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:00.000 Well, now. 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:04.760 That's good. Sounds like he rolled with the times. So 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:07.640 Snoopy had a family. We mentioned Spike. He had a 0:06:07.640 --> 0:06:12.520 whole litter that he was born with, Spike, Bell, Marbles, 0:06:12.920 --> 0:06:16.680 olaf Andy, Molly, and Rover, and Spike was the one 0:06:16.760 --> 0:06:19.680 that I love. Spike became he became like arguably a 0:06:19.720 --> 0:06:23.440 main character in the in the nineties basically, but he 0:06:23.480 --> 0:06:27.640 debuted in nineteen seventy five and was you know, he 0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:30.280 always had that hat on, and he had those whiskers 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:32.919 that sort of looked like a little beat nick mustache. Yeah, 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:35.760 and he lived alone in the California desert and he 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:39.279 was usually by his big cactus, and it was just 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:42.520 he was he was sort of an altar of Snoopy 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:43.480 like in demeanor. 0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:47.200 Yeah, yeah, for sure, but Snoopy. It's not like Snoopy 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:52.280 was high strung or uptight. He was different. They were 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:54.599 very different, though, But I'm not sure how one was 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:56.480 a foil to the other. I think they were just different, 0:06:56.520 --> 0:06:56.719 you know. 0:06:57.279 --> 0:06:59.479 Oh, I don't think there were foils. I think yeah, 0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:04.239 And I think Snoopy, I mean, I think he was precocious. 0:07:04.680 --> 0:07:06.520 But again, it almost felt like a spin off within 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:09.840 the old thing, within the within its own thing, because 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:13.400 he and Woodstock were commonly you know, I mean He 0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:15.559 would interact with the other characters, but he was often 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:16.960 doing his own thing, right. 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:20.360 Yeah, like you said with Woodstock, do you I have 0:07:20.400 --> 0:07:21.960 a question for you. When you were going up? Did 0:07:22.000 --> 0:07:23.720 you have the Snoopy snow cone machine? 0:07:24.440 --> 0:07:29.160 I did you, lucky kid, I'm pretty sure either that 0:07:29.280 --> 0:07:30.600 or a friend did. I can't remember. 0:07:30.680 --> 0:07:34.920 That stuff was addictive, those those plays fun. Yeah, same here. 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:36.640 I had access to one, but I had to like 0:07:36.880 --> 0:07:40.680 go play at somebody's house to get a Snoopy snow cone. 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:42.760 I don't think that. Maybe I didn't have one, or 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:44.840 if it was, it was a hand me down. I 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:46.560 know one thing for sure. My parents didn't go out 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:48.800 and buy me that thing new right. 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:51.240 They got it out of the yard sale and it 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:54.080 hadn't been washed out from the last time. Probably, So 0:07:54.960 --> 0:07:57.560 there's I got one other little piece of Snoopy trivia, 0:07:58.040 --> 0:08:02.160 all right. Snoop Dog he was nicknamed by his mom 0:08:02.360 --> 0:08:05.160 because she thought that he looked like Snoopy as a 0:08:05.200 --> 0:08:05.640 young man. 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:08.920 I could see that totally on. 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:11.320 Once you hear it, you're like, oh my god, he 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:12.720 does kind of look like Snoopy. 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:16.320 Yeah, that's very cute. Yeah, I agree, And Snoopy the 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:18.360 Dog loved smoking some wheat. 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:22.320 I don't know. I think that might have been Woodstock, 0:08:22.360 --> 0:08:24.520 who I say we talk about real quick, you want 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:25.640 to sure? 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:28.840 I mean Woodstock. We talked a little bit about Woodstock 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:33.000 in the Woodstock episode because Woodstock was named for Woodstock. 0:08:33.080 --> 0:08:36.520 Because June twenty second, nineteen seventy is when Woodstock the 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:40.720 bird got its name. I think it he was around 0:08:40.720 --> 0:08:42.600 in the cartoon before that but didn't have a name, 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:45.600 And there were other birds in the cartoon that preceded Woodstock. 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:51.160 Yeah, and when they finally debuted Woodstock's name, it's Snoopy 0:08:51.880 --> 0:08:54.320 hanging out on the roof, and I guess Woodstock had 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:57.720 been around for a while. And he said, Harry thinks 0:08:57.960 --> 0:09:00.640 I finally found out what that stupid birds name is. 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:05.160 You'll never believe it. And apparently it was absolutely based 0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:05.959 on Woodstock. 0:09:06.400 --> 0:09:06.600 Yeah. 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:11.200 And there is a an author named Michelle Abate who 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:16.880 wrote a book on Charlie Brown and like analyzing Charlie Brown, Blackheads, Beagles, 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:20.600 and sweet Baboos, New perspectives on Charles M. Schultz Peanuts, 0:09:21.000 --> 0:09:26.800 where Michelle says like Woodstock represented the younger generation, like hippies, 0:09:26.960 --> 0:09:29.560 like straight up hippies, that's what Woodstock represented. They were 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:33.720 Woodstock was a like innocent and naive and just kind 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:36.840 of childlike and having fun and doing doing their own thing. 0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:42.040 And then like even more r Kinley, the fact that 0:09:42.040 --> 0:09:46.000 when Woodstock spoke, the only person that could understand Woodstock 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:49.360 was Snoopy and the reader can't. It's just these little 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:50.800 kind of chicken scratch lines. 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:53.800 You remember that, yeah, or Woodstock scratch. 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:57.920 So Michelle Obate makes the case that Charles Schultz, in 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:01.079 some way, shape or form, is making commentary on how 0:10:01.120 --> 0:10:05.320 the older generation can't understand the younger generation. But for 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:10.199 him that was just kind of like an unusual, an 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:13.599 unusual nod, a kind nod to the younger generation to 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:16.959 a lot of people his age and from his his 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:21.440 his political bent, didn't think very highly of but apparently 0:10:21.440 --> 0:10:21.800 he did. 0:10:23.280 --> 0:10:26.679 All right, that's one of those that's like what I 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:31.800 was taking English classes in college when I was like, okay, yeah, 0:10:31.920 --> 0:10:32.640 if you say so. 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:36.360 It's analysis, it's interpretation, like yeah, all that stuff. You 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:38.120 can make a pretty good case for it. You can 0:10:38.200 --> 0:10:43.280 also you could also say like it's almost like a 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:44.080 fan theory. 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:47.400 Yeah, well I think it's for sure is. But that's 0:10:47.440 --> 0:10:48.680 just what commentary is, right. 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:51.480 I think, well, it's a fan theory in an academic 0:10:51.520 --> 0:10:52.560 book form. 0:10:52.760 --> 0:10:54.880 Yeah, exactly. That's the only thing that separates fan theory 0:10:54.920 --> 0:10:58.760 from just printing it in a book or typing right. Right. 0:10:59.120 --> 0:11:04.000 But suppose there's one other thing more than once Snoopy 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:09.240 refers to Woodstock as a hippie bird. Yeah, did that 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:10.360 persuade you even further? 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:14.200 No? No, no, I didn't think he wasn't non hippie, but 0:11:14.240 --> 0:11:19.360 the whole like the generational chicken scratch representing like I'm 0:11:19.360 --> 0:11:20.120 just not sure about that. 0:11:20.160 --> 0:11:22.160 Okay, I gotcha, But I love it. 0:11:22.200 --> 0:11:25.240 I love talking about that stuff. I do too, So 0:11:25.800 --> 0:11:28.560 do you like talking about Peppermint? Patty and Marcy love it? 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:31.000 A lot of people love it because a lot of 0:11:31.000 --> 0:11:34.120 people it's sort of, you know, has become one of 0:11:34.120 --> 0:11:37.280 these burdon or anythings where they're like, hey, listen, Peppermint, 0:11:37.280 --> 0:11:41.679 Patty and Marcy are clearly gay young girls who just 0:11:42.000 --> 0:11:44.880 maybe don't know it yet, and there's always been you know, 0:11:45.240 --> 0:11:51.040 fan speculation about about that. And I think you know, 0:11:51.280 --> 0:11:54.240 that's fine, that's all well and good. Charles Schultz himself 0:11:55.000 --> 0:11:58.520 was interviewed in nineteen ninety seven and said that, you know, 0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:00.760 he understood that people talk a lot about that, but 0:12:00.840 --> 0:12:04.440 he said sexuality to him just wasn't relevant to the 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:07.760 comic because they were just children. And that's not to 0:12:07.800 --> 0:12:10.200 say that a child, you know, can't be gay, but 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:12.559 he was like it was the kind of thing that 0:12:12.600 --> 0:12:15.199 didn't enter his mind. I don't think he was like 0:12:15.320 --> 0:12:17.480 offended or thought it was weird that people would speculate 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:20.040 about that, But it doesn't sound like that was his 0:12:20.160 --> 0:12:24.640 bent when he drew this very sort of classic tomboy 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:28.320 character who was very good in athletics, who was called 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:30.840 sir By Marcy, which was always very funny to me. 0:12:32.200 --> 0:12:35.160 But either way, two great characters. One of the favorite 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:39.720 things for me with Peppermint Patty was how she would 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:45.160 invert names. She called Charlie Brown Chuck. She did the 0:12:45.200 --> 0:12:49.160 opposite for Lucy. She called Lucy Lucille. I think at 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:54.719 one point maybe it Schroeder calls her Patricia, which was 0:12:54.760 --> 0:12:57.240 a little spin on that. But that's just a fun 0:12:57.280 --> 0:12:59.959 little character thing that I always really enjoyed. 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:04.120 I always loved Peppermint Patty's voice in the TV specials. 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:07.200 Yeah, same, it was perfect. 0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:10.760 Yeah, So there was a little strip or a little 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:13.840 period of strips where Charles Schultz, who had by this 0:13:13.880 --> 0:13:17.880 time befriended Billy Jean King, as Title nine was being 0:13:18.480 --> 0:13:21.360 passed or was being discussed whether it should be passed 0:13:21.440 --> 0:13:26.600 or not. Which was which allowed equal or demanded equal 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:32.200 funding for women's sports? And I guess just college, right. 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:34.720 I'm pretty sure it was just college and there was 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:36.720 more to it, but I think it was about equal 0:13:36.760 --> 0:13:40.199 opportunities and funding for college athletics. 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:43.480 Right, which is nuts because we're talking about the nineteen 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:47.719 late nineteen seventies. Isn't that crazy? But anyway, Billy Jan King, 0:13:47.880 --> 0:13:50.079 who was a champion tennis star, was also a champion 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:54.160 of Title nine, and being her friend and supporter, Charles 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:58.440 Schultz drew some Peanuts strips basically using Peppermint Patty as 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:01.360 a stand in. And a lot of people are like, see, 0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:03.600 Billy Jean King was gay. She came out in nineteen 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:07.240 eighty one, so of course Peppermint Patty was and that's 0:14:07.280 --> 0:14:09.360 what Charles Schultz meant. But no, he was using her 0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:13.680 as a stand in for a woman athlete, as Billy 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:16.640 Jean King was. And in that strip they're talking about 0:14:16.679 --> 0:14:19.960 how Peppermint Patty is going to show all the men 0:14:20.040 --> 0:14:22.120 that she can do anything they can do, and maybe 0:14:22.160 --> 0:14:25.160 even better, and she's great at sports. And then I 0:14:25.200 --> 0:14:28.600 think somebody asks Lucy, who's standing there, what she's going 0:14:28.680 --> 0:14:31.000 to do because she's no good at sports, and Lucy 0:14:31.080 --> 0:14:34.240 goes speak out so loud that Charlie Brown is doing 0:14:34.280 --> 0:14:36.800 like a summrsault mid air. And that was just perfect 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:40.360 because you had Peppermint Patty, you had Lucy doing her thing, 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:42.960 and then you had Charlie Brown kind of standing in 0:14:43.040 --> 0:14:46.840 for the bystanding rest of us, who are now going 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:50.320 to be moved by the by the arguments in favor 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:51.040 of title nine. 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:56.080 Pretty cool, amazing, So some more Peppermint Patty stuff. She 0:14:56.400 --> 0:14:58.840 was one of three characters who did not go to 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:00.760 the same school as the rest of the Peanuts gang. 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:05.960 Peppermint Patty and Marcy and Franklin lived unquote at the 0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:10.040 other side of town, so they sort of represented They 0:15:10.040 --> 0:15:14.480 never came out and said it, but they represented not 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:19.160 poor children, but it was definitely the other side of 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:25.040 town type of situation, like they had broken homes, they 0:15:25.040 --> 0:15:28.080 were they didn't get to go to the same school. 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:32.880 I remember when Franklin visits visits Charlie Brown's neighborhood for 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:36.480 the first time, he sees the psych booth, he sees 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:39.440 snoopy on the house, and the great Pumpkin has talked 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:43.040 about and he leaves the neighborhood and say to go home, 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:46.440 and said, this neighborhood has me shook. So it was 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:52.040 definitely like a demarcation line for Marcy and Franklin and 0:15:52.040 --> 0:15:57.720 Peppermint Patty. And also Peppermint Patty her mom was, I 0:15:57.760 --> 0:16:00.760 guess dead, like they never said, she said, but she said, 0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:03.560 my mom's not around. Oh really she lived. Yeah, she 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:06.920 lived with her father only, which was a very different 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:09.600 thing for a comic back then. And one of my 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:12.640 favorite things is even though we never hear parents speaking 0:16:12.640 --> 0:16:15.960 to things, there are references to things parents say. And 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:20.080 Peppermint Patty's father always called her a rare gem, which 0:16:20.080 --> 0:16:22.440 I thought was very sweet. It is sweet because she 0:16:22.600 --> 0:16:23.680 wasn't very smart. 0:16:24.000 --> 0:16:27.560 So yeah, Peppermint Patty was. She was groundbreaking in a 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:29.720 lot of ways in that. So, yeah, she was a tomboy. 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:34.160 She her she was the daughter of a single parent, 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:37.680 her child of a single parent, and then on top 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:40.680 of that, she was one of the first comic strip 0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:46.080 females who didn't who like made her own way, Like 0:16:46.160 --> 0:16:47.960 she didn't need a man. She wasn't there to support 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:50.680 the man like Blondie did, Dagwood or anything like that. 0:16:50.960 --> 0:16:53.720 She was just her own person, making her own way 0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:57.120 by her own terms. And that was another groundbreaking thing. 0:16:57.240 --> 0:16:59.280 I think she came along in nineteen sixty six and 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:01.040 people hadn't done that before. 0:17:01.800 --> 0:17:04.240 Yeah, she had a crush on Charlie Brown, as did Marci. 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:08.359 Marci was very soft spoken and shy. She was very smart. 0:17:09.320 --> 0:17:11.200 In fact, she's the one I think that points out, 0:17:11.240 --> 0:17:13.720 like I feel kind of bad for Peppermint Patty because 0:17:13.720 --> 0:17:17.680 she was written so unintelligently. Yeah, like her teacher gave 0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:19.359 her a plaque at one point for being in the 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:23.200 D minus Hall of Fame. Yeah, and she didn't realize 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:26.880 Snoopy was even a dog until nineteen seventy four. What 0:17:27.480 --> 0:17:29.760 when Marcy pointed out She used to say he was 0:17:29.760 --> 0:17:32.640 a funny looking kid with a big nose. So they 0:17:32.640 --> 0:17:35.840 write her really like not very intelligent. And I always 0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:38.639 felt bad for Peppermint Patty, but Marcy was always her 0:17:38.720 --> 0:17:41.600 loyalist friend. I don't know if I said, but also 0:17:41.600 --> 0:17:46.119 had a crush on Charlie Brown and my favorite cute 0:17:46.119 --> 0:17:49.280 thing ever because Marcie was the opposite of Peppermint Patty. 0:17:49.320 --> 0:17:50.880 You know, she was smart and she was not good 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:54.480 at sports, whereas Peppermint Patty was the jock, and Marci 0:17:54.600 --> 0:17:57.879 called the Super Bowl in one comic the Splendid Bowl. 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:03.640 She is pretty great. She didn't have a last name. 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:07.760 Peppermint Patty's last name was Reichardt. Marcy never had a 0:18:07.840 --> 0:18:12.200 last name, and some people said that the reason why 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:15.600 is because that allowed her to be just kind of 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:19.720 this whatever Charles Schultz needed her to be or say 0:18:19.920 --> 0:18:24.600 or do. But I think very quickly Marcy's character took 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:27.720 over and probably constrained Charles Schultz in a lot of 0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:31.560 ways because she was just a weird little kid who 0:18:31.800 --> 0:18:35.720 had just her own set of understanding of the world 0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:37.879 that didn't really fit with anybody else's. It was just 0:18:37.920 --> 0:18:40.840 totally hers. And like I said, Charles Schultz was once 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:46.400 asked like, why does Marcy call Patty Peppermint Patty, sir? 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:51.280 And apparently his response was, I have no idea. Marcy's 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:52.639 a very strange little girl. 0:18:54.040 --> 0:18:56.159 Again, he's a condo it I mean, it wouldn't surprise 0:18:56.200 --> 0:18:57.360 me that just popped into his head. 0:18:57.440 --> 0:19:00.199 Yeah, for sure. And I hadn't realized this, but a 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:03.760 lot of Asian American kids took Marci to be Asian American. 0:19:04.760 --> 0:19:05.119 Weird. 0:19:05.240 --> 0:19:08.399 Why, I don't know. I'm not sure. I guess, I 0:19:08.440 --> 0:19:11.280 don't know. Maybe I don't know. I have no idea, 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:13.120 but I saw that in several places. 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:16.040 All right, well, that feels like a good time for 0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:18.600 a break. Oh yeah, sure, all right, Well we'll come 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:22.119 back and pick up with Franklin, one of my favorite characters, 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:22.679 right after this. 0:19:39.000 --> 0:19:40.600 Softly jaw. 0:19:44.480 --> 0:19:52.679 Soft all right. We mentioned Franklin before is when it 0:19:52.760 --> 0:19:54.159 being one of the only three that didn't go to 0:19:54.240 --> 0:19:57.879 the same school, lived in a different neighborhood. Franklin is 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:01.919 very famous, obviously for being the first black Peanuts character, 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:06.919 and that happened for a very purposeful reason. In nineteen 0:20:06.960 --> 0:20:09.800 sixty eight, there was an LA school teacher named Harriet 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:13.320 Glickman who wrote a letter to Charles Schultz. This was 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:17.200 just after Martin Luther King Junior had been assassinated, and 0:20:17.240 --> 0:20:20.720 she said, you know, we need to overcome quote the 0:20:20.760 --> 0:20:23.840 vastie of misunderstanding, fear, hate, and violence, and I think 0:20:23.840 --> 0:20:26.680 you should you should draw a black character for Peanuts. 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:29.040 I think that would be a big step forward, in 0:20:29.080 --> 0:20:33.640 a big move. And Chultz initially declined, and it wasn't 0:20:33.680 --> 0:20:35.800 because he didn't want to, but he said that he 0:20:35.840 --> 0:20:38.440 thought it might be sort of to patronizing a move, 0:20:39.520 --> 0:20:42.600 but then thought the better of it after you know, 0:20:42.720 --> 0:20:46.159 a little bit more thought and some advice from Glickman's 0:20:46.160 --> 0:20:50.080 neighbor who was a black man. His name was Kenneth Kelly, 0:20:50.760 --> 0:20:53.040 and he said, you know what, I see what he's 0:20:53.040 --> 0:20:56.200 saying about being patronizing. So if you're gonna do it, 0:20:56.800 --> 0:20:59.280 just do it in a very casual way. Don't make 0:20:59.280 --> 0:21:02.280 it some big revel lutionary stand. Just all of a sudden, 0:21:02.400 --> 0:21:04.400 have this black kid in there. And that's what he did. 0:21:04.520 --> 0:21:08.960 Yeah, And doing that like that would have this twofold effect. 0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:11.440 One it would keep Charles Schultz from having to make 0:21:11.560 --> 0:21:15.040 like a big social statement, but two, it would also 0:21:15.400 --> 0:21:18.120 just show how utterly normal black kids and white kids 0:21:18.160 --> 0:21:21.560 commingling was that there wasn't even any commentary about it. 0:21:21.560 --> 0:21:24.800 It's just this new character who Charlie Brown met happened 0:21:24.800 --> 0:21:27.960 to be black. That was it, and that's how it happened. 0:21:28.000 --> 0:21:30.080 They met at the beach when Charlie Brown was on 0:21:30.160 --> 0:21:32.160 vacation with his family and. 0:21:32.960 --> 0:21:35.359 Can I read the comic strip? Yeah, go ahead, all right, 0:21:35.359 --> 0:21:38.359 it's four panels. Charlie Brown's on the beach shirt off. 0:21:38.960 --> 0:21:40.600 He's got a shirt off. You gotta take your shirt off. 0:21:40.800 --> 0:21:41.680 It was already off. 0:21:42.200 --> 0:21:44.840 Okay. So Franklin comes up with a beach ball and says, 0:21:45.000 --> 0:21:48.360 is this your beach ball? Second panel, Charlie says, hey, yeah, 0:21:48.440 --> 0:21:51.040 thank you very much. Franklin says, I was swimming out 0:21:51.040 --> 0:21:54.359 there and it came floating. By third panel, my silly 0:21:54.440 --> 0:21:57.240 sister threw it in the water, and Franklin says, I 0:21:57.240 --> 0:21:59.399 see you're making a sand castle. And it's kind of 0:21:59.440 --> 0:22:02.800 a crooked tower. And in the last panel, Franklin says 0:22:02.840 --> 0:22:05.480 it looks kind of crooked, and Charlie said, I guess 0:22:05.560 --> 0:22:08.080 maybe it is where I come from. I'm not famous 0:22:08.119 --> 0:22:12.680 for doing things right, just quintessential Charlie Brown. 0:22:12.840 --> 0:22:14.440 I acted all that up. By the way, you guys 0:22:14.440 --> 0:22:15.800 just couldn't see it. 0:22:15.800 --> 0:22:17.280 It was great, but it was a very sweet way 0:22:17.320 --> 0:22:21.399