There is a perennial, timeless quality to the humor of Charles Schulz’ Peanuts: strips published forty years ago are still funny to this day, with little to no context for the time at which it first came out. By 1984, Peanuts was at its peak, and these selections from May 1984 exhibit the best qualities of the famed series.

Many of Peanuts most memorable gags were familiar by this point in the comic’s history, from Peppermint Patty and Marcie’s odd couple scenarios and the crabby quirks of Lucy. The decade also brought more attention to Snoopy’s siblings, especially Spike, who became a more popular character throughout the ’80s and into the ’90s.

The ’80s may be considered a decade of decadence and greed, but Peanuts remained as wholesome and innocent as ever, staying true to their focus on character and character dynamics, while still keeping things interesting and funny.

10

“Hey Burlap Brain!”

First Published: May 28, 1984

Lucy is a unique individual through and through. She has her own very idiosyncratic take on things, including unsportsmanlike conduct. Rather than typical name-calling, Lucy has the time and creativity to come up with her own, which, given that she spends a lot of time in right field, where no balls ever make it to her, she has a vast amount of unlimited time to think.

Settling on the original insults of “burlap brain” and “garage head” – whatever those mean – Lucy hurls out her pointed remarks with unmitigated confidence. With May being the start of Summer, the Peanuts gang celebrates the season with their not-so-friendly game of baseball. As a result, the comic, despite turning forty-years-old in May, has remained relevant with its emphasis on fun childhood summer sports memories.

9

“Sly Digs Don’t Become You”

First Published: May 30, 1984

Peppermint Patty is no straight A student by any means, with her bad habit of sleeping in class not helping matters either. Due to her slacker-esque habit of napping during lessons, Marcie often has to relay any important information to her friend once she is finally awake. In this one instance, Peppermint Patty’s sleepy time in class was barely tolerated by the teacher, who resorted to having Marcie deliver a paper to Peppermint Patty, calling it her “hotel bill.”

Given how much time she sleeps at school, the teacher wasn’t wrong to deliver her perennially dozing student a funny burn, or as Peppermint Patty would put it: a sly dig. Though, like all adults, the adult teacher is off-panel, readers can imagine her giving the note to Marcie with a mix of mild derision and affection.

8

“No One Likes To Get Eaten By A Guest Speaker”

First Published: May 21, 1984

It can be lonely out in the desert for Snoopy’s brother Spike, living in self-imposed exile in the middle of nowhere. Due to the very limited options for socializing in the remote desert Spike inhabits, he has had to get creative with who he hangs out with. Namely, he has befriended the cacti of the landscape and, perhaps unwisely, coyotes. He even used to live with the coyotes, before he moved away to live by himself after he deemed the ferocious animals guilty of mistreating him.

Regardless, Spike organized his own extracurricular activities, forming the Cactus Club. When Spike thinks over a suggestion of allowing a coyote to be a guest speaker for the illustrious Cactus Club, he wisely decides against it, after giving careful attention to the danger that the predatory animal would pose to the group – namely, himself.

7

“Two Sheep Who Pass In The Night”

First Published: May 26, 1984

Snoopy likes to fantasize that he is a famous writer, and imagines himself as one, despite his stories rarely ever getting published. Amazingly, his lack of success in the publishing department does not deter him from writing. Trying to come up with some compelling prose, Snoopy instead comes up with a strange line about sheep, rather than ships, passing in the night. It could be a mistake by him, but given Snoopy’s eccentricities, it could have also been a line he considers brilliant.

In any case, he reads the line, only to react to what he has typed on his typewriter by crumpling up the paper and throwing it away. Few readers would deny that Snoopy made the right decision by throwing that idea away. Given that his writing is often rejected, his tale of a love story with two individuals who pass “like sheep in the night” arguably would have earned yet another rejection letter.

6

“It’s Still Out There”

First Published: May 15, 1984

Charlie Brown’s baseball team is all around crummy, with Lucy often regarded as one of the team’s, if not the league’s, worst players. As a result, it would be flabbergasting if Lucy were to do something right in a game for a change. When Lucy acts like she has caught a fly ball, Charlie Brown admits that it is something he did not think she was capable of.

His revelation turns out to be proven correct, when Lucy admits that she did not catch the fly ball, and it is still somewhere out on the baseball field. Lucy may have fooled everyone, but she ultimately admits that she was only putting on a show. Lucy is good, or at least decent, at many things – like making french fry pagodas, and setting up a psychiatry business – but playing baseball is not one of her talents.

5

“The Answer Was Twelve”

First Published: May 7, 1984

Struggling in the grades department, Peppermint Patty is willing to do anything to get a good grade, except study. While hair ribbons are not usually her style, she thinks that teachers give good grades to girls who wear ribbons in their hair, so she adorns her hair with multiple. Falsely believing that she’ll get a good grade, for once, based on her hairstyle, she learns quickly that she is badly mistaken, when she gets the answer wrong after she is called on.

Instead of coming to grips with reality, she instead focuses on the belief that teachers don’t like students with big noses – i.e., herself – to explain her bad grades. Rather than attributing her classmates’ good grades to the presence of hair ribbons instead of the students underneath the hair ribbons, Peppermint Patty should’ve spent the time studying instead of trying to enact a “hair-brained” scheme.

4

“Laundry?”

First Published: May 2, 1984

There are many adjectives that could be used to describe Snoopy and his brother Spike. One descriptor that would not apply to the beagle brothers, however, is fashionable, mostly because they don’t actually wear clothes. However, Spike does have one piece of attire that he is hardly ever seen without: his hat. Spike makes sure to take care of his hat as well, cleaning it and air drying it.

Given that Snoopy hardly ever wears clothes, and his overall laziness towards anything chore-like, the concept of laundry is absolutely perplexing to the pup, when it comes up after Spike tells him that he has written to him while waiting for his sole piece of laundry to dry. Knowing Snoopy, any laundry he has would be foisted upon poor Charlie Brown, though since Spike is the lone inhabitant of the desert area around Needles, California, his laundry is a one-man job, whether he likes it or not.

3

“What Kind Of Ball Do You Want, Sir?”

First Published: May 1, 1984

Marcie is incredibly bright in multiple subjects, whether it be STEM subjects or the arts. Where Marcie’s knowledge struggles is in sports, in contrast to her best friend, Peppermint Patty. Anything sports and Peppermint Patty has it covered. Given the mismatch between the dynamic duo, Peanuts made full use of their differences and complements to each other in a number of humorous, odd couple comics.

An instance being a comic that just recently celebrated its 40th birthday, where Peppermint Patty is trying to play golf and requires a new ball to which the assigned caddie Marcie responds by giving her friend a soccer ball – not exactly the ball Peppermint Patty had in mind. Peppermint Patty may have had her work cut out for her before on the golf course, but Marcie’s suggestion of a soccer ball would be disastrous, marking Marcie’s one weak spot in her knowledge base.

2

“An Advance On My Inheritance”

First Published: May 11, 1984

For dog lovers and dog owners, they are well aware that taking care of dogs can be a handful. They require attention and, of course, suitable food and shelter. Charlie Brown, ever the responsible young man, recognizes this fact, which has been made abundantly clear to him, as Snoopy can be a bit high maintenance sometimes, especially when it comes to his food and sleeping arrangements. Snoopy overhears Charlie Brown’s outer monologue and decides that now would be a disastrous time to ask for an advance on his inheritance.

While he’s right about it being a bad time to ask for an advance, where Snoopy is a bit misguided is his assumption that his eight-year-old owner has enough money to leave him an inheritance. When thinking about it, it’s also a little dark that Snoopy thinks his literal child owner is going to go before him, making for a weirdly morbid Peanuts strip underneath the lighthearted surface.

1

“This Meeting Is Leaking”

First Published: May 27, 1984

Charlie Brown, despite the abysmal results, tries his best at managing his team. He even goes to the lengths of analyzing the team’s weaknesses and strengths, like their fielding needing more improvement. However, it is hard to see any gains in the team when the members all leave during the meeting, walking out while Charlie Brown is mid-speech. So many members are leaving that Charlie Brown compares it to the meeting leaking.

The only member who stayed besides Charlie Brown is Snoopy, living up to the reputation of dogs being loyal. While Charlie Brown may try and try to successfully manage his team, if the members do not participate, then it is easy to see how the team has managed to stay so bad, for so long. Ironically, the only times the team have actually won games have occurred when Charlie Brown wasn’t there, making their team meeting walkout a little more understandable.