Peanuts has been an icon of American culture for over half-a-centruy. Practically everyone is familiar with its characters, especially Charlie Brown and Snoopy. First published in the 1950s, the ’90s proved to be the last decade Peanuts had new comic strips – but up until the very end, creator Charles Schulz’ strip didn’t miss a beat, delivering the classic humor it became synonymous with.

The 1990s saw the continuation of many fan favorite running gags, such as the crummy Peanuts baseball team, Peppermint Patty and Marcie’s misadventures in class, and Lucy’s unrequited adoration of Schroeder.

As a result, Peanuts stayed true to the aspects and components that made it the beloved and widely read pop culture staple around the world – a legacy that has continued unabated in the decades since. Among these strips from 1994, readers will find perfect encapsulations of what made Peanuts great until the very end.

10

I Have A Weird Team

April 21st, 1994

Lucy is a terrible baseball player. She’s bad even compared to absymal players Charlie Brown and Snoopy, showing just how awful at the sport she is. In fact, she is often designated the worst player in the entire team if not the entire Peanuts league. Harsh words, but true nevertheless. She is so bad at baseball that it would seem like a miracle if she were to ever do something right in the sport. Crazily enough, Lucy finally catches a fly ball, helping her team for once instead of harming them.

Her catching of the ball is miraculous even in her own mind, resulting in her saying a bible phrase about rejoicing when good things happen. Charlie Brown would not expect Lucy to say a bible verse on the baseball field but her incredible catch prompts her that she just can’t help herself, even if she does come across as weird to her fellow player and team manager.

9

What’s That Supposed To Mean?

April 12th,1994

Sally, much like her big brother Charlie Brown, has her eccentricities. One of which, and a common joke of Peanuts, is Sally coming up with new philosophies, which are usually just general sayings or mottos. Her new philosophies are usually to the annoyance of those around her, especially Charlie Brown. During the ’90s, her philosophy evolved into the somewhat confrontational, “What’s that supposed to mean?”.

While it is definitely an unexpected choice, she demonstrates that it actually is a usable response. Even when Charlie Brown says that he won’t say anything to her, her philosophy still manages to work, showing that she may be on to something with her catchphrase. While Sally may feel comfortable with her philosophy for now, it is just a matter of time before she decides on a new one.

8

The Answer Is Six

April 26th, 1994

Marcie and Peppermint Patty are one of several dynamic duos in Peanuts. They help each other out all the time, even if they have their occasional squabbles. They may be opposites, but it comes in handy for school. Marcie is studious, book smart, and loves to learn while Peppermint Patty is very much none of those descriptors.

Therefore, Marcie is able to help her struggling buddy in class when she is called on, which happens a lot. Although, Marcie’s help does not always go off without a hitch. One instance where there was a slight hiccup was when Marcie tried to whisper the answer to Peppermint Patty, but took way too long to get to answer, to the point that Peppermint Patty actually started to fall asleep, necessitating Marcie to spit out the final answer for her pal to say to the teacher.

7

That Was Exhausting

April 29th, 1994

Snoopy lives a pretty carefree life. He can do basically whatever he wants, whenever he wants, living the good life as a dog with a nice owner. Charlie Brown and Linus, being humans, wonder what it would be like to be a dog and not have any responsibilities before Linus posits that barking would be work for them. Snoopy, being the lazy dog he is, gets exhausted after one bark, satisfying Linus’s hypothesis.

Snoopy may be a dog, but he is an incredibly lazy one, being not the best representation for canine-kind. As cute and interesting as Snoopy may be, he would definitely not be classified as doing any sort of work. The only kind of work he could be considered to do is write rejected magazine stories, which is not exactly physically taxing (though, mentally and emotionally taxing is applicable).

6

You’ll Always Be A Dog

April 13th, 1994

Snoopy and Lucy have their own complicated love-hate dynamic. They annoy each other to no end and say biting things to each other but at the same time they genuinely care about each other and Lucy has even said that “happiness is a warm puppy“, referring to the one and only Snoopy. While they have their good times, this 1990s comic shows them on a downswing, obviously at odds.

Lucy, in a tizzy about something, confronts Snoopy with the intense declaration about him being a dog. While nothing she says is offensive, the way she says it shows that she wants it to be taken as an insult. While Lucy may yell at Snoopy that he is a dog until she is blue in the face, at least Snoopy has Peppermint Patty thinking he is human, albeit a weird looking one.

5

I Stood Here In The Rain

April 19th, 1994

Sally is not the biggest fan of school but having to wait in the pouring rain for the school bus does not help matters. Her frustration about school grows when she sees that what she waited for ten minutes in the rain for was just to learn how wide the Mississippi River is, which she forgets by the next day anyway. Sally’s parents should look into carpooling, before Sally tries to become an elementary school dropout.

Her annoyance is relatable for any child who has had to wait for the bus in inclement weather, instantly knowing how she feels. While Sally is a deep enjoyer of being a kid – being one of the most carefree members of the other usually neurotic Peanuts kids – school and having to wait for the bus are aspects of childhood she can’t wait to get over with.

4

Did You Tell Him?

April 10th,1994

A recurring gag of Peanuts involves Lucy’s unrequited love for the piano-playing, Beethoven-loving Schroeder. Her romantic overtures towards him usually draws a less than enthusiastic response from her love interest, but she does not give up, evident by this baseball-centric Peanuts work. In the middle of their game, Lucy takes the opporunity to not throw a ball at Charlie Brown but a crumpled ball of paper that asks if Charlie Brown asked if he told Schroeder that Lucy thinks he’s cute.

She definitely does not use her time on the field wisely for anyone on the team or (based on how often she gets rejected by Schroeder) for herself. Interestingly, it was always thought that Lucy was horrible at all aspects of baseball, pitching including. Yet, as the comic shows, she actually has a pretty good throw. However, her pitching skills are only decent when it has to do with Schroeder, making her pitching skills widely selective.

3

Some Things Run In The Family

April 8th,1994

Charlie Brown, Sally, and Snoopy are family, with noticeable differences like Charlie Brown’s neuroticism and Snoopy’s nonchalance. There’s also the tiny little difference of Charlie Brown being a human and Snoopy is a dog. They also have their notable similarities as seen in this strip. Charlie Brown has an eternal issue with his kites being eaten or destroyed by trees. This inability to fly a kite without issue runs in the family, as he points out, with both his sister and his pup having their kites crashed into trees.

Either they have some bad luck when it comes to flying kites or they could have chosen a field with less trees. Many times throughout the history of Peanuts, it seems like things can never go Charlie Brown’s way, but when it comes to flying kites, all members of the Brown family get the short end of the stick.

2

I Wonder

April 5th, 1994

Marcie is a deep thinker as well as a devotee of the arts. As much as her best friend Peppermint Patty loves sports, Marcie loves art and academics. Given their very opposite views on all things creative, they tend to look at things like an orchestra performance extremely differently. While Marcie is in awe of the composer and violinist, Peppermint Patty is less enraptured by the musicians and composer and instead more amazed by any possible lightbulb maintenance in the high-ceiling theater.

An intellectual through and through, Marcie always has a deep appreciation of the fine arts, making her a contrast to Peppermint Patty. As a result, their dynamic creates an unlimited amount of humorous comics that highlight their differences in the typical, funny Peanuts way. Once the show is over, it is easy to say that the pair will be walking away taking very different things from the performance.

1

I Can’t Hear You

April 2nd, 1994

Peanuts’s humor tended to focus more on its characters and situations rather than any sort of meta humor. However, while it may have been rare, Peanuts did not avoid comics that broke the fourth wall, as this comic shows. When Woodstock attempts to tell Snoopy something, the wind keeps stopping him from doing so because it blows away the words in his speech bubble, something Snoopy points out.

Embracing their positions as comic strip characters, Snoopy and Woodstock let the reader know that they are also in on the Peanuts world being a newspaper creation. Woodstock may have trouble communicating with others but he can rely on Snoopy always understanding him. Yet, even Snoopy cannot understand Woodstock 100% of the time, making windy weather a problem for Woodstock in many respects. If the wind wipes away Woodstock’s speech bubble, just imagine what happens to it when it rains.