SADNESS—CHARLIE BROWN AND JON ARBUCKLE.

Posted on January 2, 2009 by Philip

SADNESS—CHARLIE BROWN AND JON ARBUCKLE. The strongest memory I have of Charlie Brown is of him sitting on a curb for four identical panels of a strip. The first three are wordless; the fourth panel gives Charlie a balloon with the words, “If only McCovey had hit the ball two feet higher.” The strip appeared a couple months after the end of the 1962 World Series and referred to the last play of the seventh game. The three panels in a strip from the GARFIELD WITHOUT GARFIELD book are also identical, showing Jon with his chin supported by his hand. The first panel has a balloon with Jon saying “Do you have any unfulfilled dreams?” The other two panels show Jon, without any words. At the bottom of the page in the book is the original strip with Garfield, and his point of view, restored: Garfield appears looking at Jon in all three panels. In the second, a balloon for Garfield says, “Oh, sure.” In the third, “There’s the one about the 12-foot chocolate eclair.” I now feel that the difference between Jon and Charlie Brown is the cat. (Snoopy doesn’t perform the same function in PEANUTS, perhaps because he doesn’t enter into, or comment on, Charlie Brown’s life).

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3 Responses to SADNESS—CHARLIE BROWN AND JON ARBUCKLE.

  1. Mary Jane Schaefer says:
    January 15, 2009 at 11:41 AM

    Garfield is a sardonic commentator. He’s funny because he’s such a downer. Snoopy, on the other hand, is the Life Force. Ever see his dance in honor of the coming of spring. Go, Snoopy.

  2. Lee says:
    June 22, 2012 at 6:27 PM

    The (real) depressing Garfield comic I posted here was included in this page full of wacky theories about children’s cartoons. The site had this hilariously sad take on Peanuts:

    All of Charlie Brown’s friends are imaginary. You know how every time he attempts to kick the football Lucy holds, she pulls it away and he trips over himself? The reason the football is always “pulled away” is because there is no football…and there is no Lucy…

    Charlie Brown is a young boy in a low-income family. He has no real friends or siblings. He has his real dog Snoopy, who really isn’t friendly towards him, so his “imaginary” snoopy goes on adventures and has his own exciting life as an excuse to why he doesnt bother with him.

    Ever notice how most of the holiday episodes are gloomy? It’s because that’s how it really is, but in the end they always turn out good…in his imaginary world that is. Not receiving letters on Valentines day, receiving rocks on Halloween, getting a skinny dying tree for Christmas…that’s all real…the ends of those episodes are what he makes up in his imagination.

    Ever wonder why you never hear the adults speak normally? It’s because that’s what Charlie thinks of what adults say. It’s gibberish he doesn’t understand. At his age, he doesn’t know what the words “loan” or “bankrupt” or “foreclosure” means. So in his imagination all adults speak in a silly non-understandable voice.

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