Every member of the Peanuts gang contributes to the comic strips’ lasting legacy and comedic success. Indeed, Peanuts is as beloved and timeless as it is because of its characters. It doesn’t need a new gag in every strip to be funny. Peanuts lets its characters carry the narrative, and the humor comes naturally from there. While the likes of Charlie Brown and Snoopy are obvious standouts, one of the funniest members of the Peanuts gang is unarguably Lucy.
Lucy basically plays the part of the gang’s resident ‘know-it-all’, but not in a way that’s too insufferable, mostly because Lucy is regularly (hilariously) wrong about whatever topic she claims to know everything about. In fact, that’s the punchline of one particular ‘Lucy joke’ that was published in September 1954, which is why it’s as funny now as it was when it first came out – and it’s far from the only one. Here are 10 of the funniest Peanuts comics that just turned 70!
10 Pig-Pen Will Do Anything to Keep from Getting Clean (Including Getting Clean!)
Peanuts – September 6, 1954
One day, Patty decides that enough is enough when it comes to Pig-Pen always being dirty. She stomps over to where Pig-Pen is playing in a sandbox, saying that she’s going to give him a bath herself. But, when Patty sees him, she finds that Pig-Pen has already taken a bath. However, the comic then changes perspectives, and shows that Pig-Pen only cleaned half of his body, while the other half was as dirty as ever.
Pig-Pen has stated in the past that he regularly takes baths, he just prefers to be dirty. So, when someone is trying to get him clean (like Patty in this comic), Pig-Pen has to take creative measures to keep himself dirty. And, in this case, that includes getting clean!
9 Charlie Brown Takes Extreme Measures When He Doesn’t Feel Included
Peanuts – September 1, 1954
Violet and Patty are planning to throw a party, and after creating an invitation list, they let Charlie Brown know that he isn’t invited. Rather than accepting the fact that he isn’t wanted at the party, Charlie Brown freaks out. He screams at Violet and Patty that they had better invite him, otherwise he’ll bomb their houses with fighter jets. After Charlie Brown’s outburst, Patty and Violet change their minds, and decide to invite Charlie Brown after all.
It seems his outlandish threats worked, as Violet and Patty would rather have Charlie Brown at their party than risk getting blown to smithereens by his fighter jets (which he obviously doesn’t have). Clearly, Charlie Brown takes extreme measures when he doesn’t feel included, and this time, it actually paid off.
8 Charlie Brown Has a Pretty Bleak Outlook on Growing Up
Peanuts – September 7, 1954
Charlie Brown and Violet are sitting together on a curb, and Violet asks him what he wants to be when he grows up. Charlie Brown pauses for a moment, and then replies, “You mean I got a choice“. Charlie Brown had seemingly never given this particular question any thought before, assuming that he’d just fall into a predetermined career after he’d finished school. That’s a pretty bleak outlook on growing up, especially for a kid.
Usually, a child will give someone who asks this question a number of ‘dream jobs’ that usually stem from their current interests. But, Charlie Brown doesn’t, implying that he doesn’t really have any interests that he’d want to dedicate his life to, and he doesn’t really care what career he ends up with, which would be pretty sad if it wasn’t so hilarious.
7 Linus Has Always Been Smarter than Charlie Brown, Even as a Toddler
Peanuts – September 12, 1954
Charlie Brown is watching Linus one day, and decides to show the toddler how to build a house of cards. As Charlie Brown tries to demonstrate, he keeps fumbling the cards, and can’t even manage to stack three cards on top of each other. Then, Charlie Brown finally gets it, but when he turns to show the toddler, he finds that Linus had built an impressive house of cards without Charlie Brown’s help. Chuck walks away in a huff, muttering about how he hates “smart-alecky kids“.
Linus has always been something of a sounding board for Charlie Brown, someone who seemed to have all the answers, or at least some great advice, whenever Charlie Brown was down. And, as shown in this early Peanuts comic, it seems Linus was always smarter than Charlie Brown, even as a toddler.
6 Lucy Always Has All the Answers (Even If They Don’t Make Sense)
Peanuts – September 13, 1954
Charlie Brown approaches Lucy as she’s staring at the ground, watching a group of ants. When she notices him, Lucy comments to Charlie Brown that she thinks ants are stupid because “They don’t even know I’m watching them“. Charlie Brown then challenges that assertion, asking Lucy, “How do you know they don’t know?” and Lucy replies, “They don’t look up!“.
Simply because the ants don’t obviously acknowledge her, Lucy thinks that they’re stupid, applying human logic to a bug that doesn’t need to ‘look up’ to know someone is watching it. The leaps in her logic are utterly hilarious, showing that Lucy really does have an answer for everything – including why ants are ‘stupid’ – even if those answers are totally absurd.
5 Linus Gets Scooted Right Underneath the Television Set
Peanuts – September 25, 1954
Linus is sitting on the floor in front of his TV, enjoying whatever he has on. Linus is then joined by his sister, Lucy, who sits right behind him and scoots him closer to the set. Then, Lucy’s friend, Patty, comes in and sits behind Lucy, scooting both Lucy and Linus closer to the TV. But, Linus – who was sitting extremely close to the TV from the start – gets scooted a bit too far, and ends up right underneath the television.
Linus is a toddler, and the older kids scoot him out of the way of the TV so they can watch it. It’s something that anyone with a younger (or older) sibling has experienced before, making this comic as relatable as it is visually hilarious.
4 Lucy Never Ceases to Annoy Schroeder
Peanuts – September 27, 1954
As Schroeder is trying to play his piano, Lucy approaches him and comments on the bust Schroeder has with him. Lucy asks Schroeder who that is, and Schroeder tells her (rather snootily) that it’s Beethoven. Lucy then explains that she thought it might be Schroeder’s grampa, and the piano prodigy simply remains silent, or else he’d assuredly lose it on Lucy for her ignorance.
Lucy has had a crush on Schroeder since the start of Peanuts, and Schroeder has made it clear that he has no romantic interest in her. However, that doesn’t stop Lucy from trying to make a connection with him, but every effort she makes backfires. Usually, Lucy will simply interrupt Schroeder while he’s practicing piano, which alone makes him furious. But not even knowing who Schroeder’s all-time hero is is perhaps Lucy’s greatest crime in his eyes, as he’s literally stunned silent.
3 Lucy’s Funniest Peanuts Joke Begins with a Lofty Goal
Peanuts – September 21, 1954
Charlie Brown walks up to Lucy as she’s drawing a line on the ground with a crayon and asks Lucy what she’s doing. Lucy tells him that she’s decided to draw a line clear around the world. Ignoring the absurdity of Lucy’s self-appointed task, Charlie Brown nit-picks how she’s drawing the line, asking if she really thinks she can get the job done with a crayon. But, Lucy had apparently thought of that, saying, “I’ve got an extra one right here“.
Lucy is trying to draw a line around the world, and the only critique Charlie Brown has is that she’s doing it with a crayon. Then, Lucy pulls out a backup crayon, indicating that she had the same concern, and made efforts to ensure that nothing could get in her way. But, the one thing neither of them stopped to consider is that it’s impossible to draw a line around the world, backup crayon or not.
2 Charlie Brown Pokes Even More Holes in Lucy’s Plan to Draw a Line Around the World
Peanuts – September 22, 1954
After Lucy clears up the crayon problem, Charlie Brown comes up with another issue Lucy will run into. Charlie Brown asks, “What are you going to do when you come to the ocean?” to which Lucy replies, “Oh good grief, Charlie Brown. They’ve got bridges, haven’t they?!“. Lucy truly has thought of everything, and Charlie Brown’s constant questioning is nothing more to her than irritating chatter.
Lucy’s frustrated response to Charlie Brown’s more than reasonable question is absolutely hilarious, simply because it’s utterly absurd. There obviously isn’t a system of bridges that connect across the entire world, and Lucy’s complete lack of comprehension of how vast the Earth’s oceans are makes her rude response to Charlie Brown that much more hysterical.
1 Lucy Does the Impossible & Actually Draws a Line Around the World
Peanuts – September 24, 1954
Everyone knows a joke is only as good as its punchline, and in this case, Lucy’s funniest Peanuts joke has the perfect one. Patty and Charlie Brown are standing together near a section of Lucy’s line, and Charlie Brown explains what Lucy’s trying to do. After agreeing that that’s ridiculous, Patty and Charlie Brown note that they haven’t seen Lucy in a few days. Then, Lucy comes out of nowhere and connects the line she’s drawing to its point of origin, and then walks away, leaving Patty and Charlie Brown in a state of utter disbelief.
Lucy literally does the impossible and draws a line around the entire world, which is the perfect punchline to this hilarious joke, as she actually pulls off what’s presented as an absurdly impossible feat. That’s why this is one of the 10 funniest Peanuts comics that just turned 70!
Peanuts
Created by Charles M. Schulz, Peanuts is a multimedia franchise that began as a comic strip in the 1950s and eventually expanded to include films and a television series. Peanuts follows the daily adventures of the Peanuts gang, with Charlie Brown and his dog Snoopy at the center of them. Aside from the film released in 2015, the franchise also has several Holiday specials that air regularly on U.S. Television during their appropriate seasons.