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Tear Jerker / Peanuts

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Peanuts has a very well-known reputation for being surprisingly depressing and melancholic compared to other comic strips, especially when it comes to poor ol' Charlie Brown, who makes his misery very clear.


General:

  • Snoopy, Come Home is such a tearjerker fest, it has its own page here.
  • Charlie Brown's failures at something become expected after a while, and are typically Played for Laughs, but when you keep seeing it for decades, and even up to the strip's end, you tend to really feel disappointed.
    • One of the most heartrending examples is one of the simplest – when Charlie Brown is at a bench at lunch all alone and sees the Little Red-Haired Girl and he can't get the nerve to approach her:
      Charlie Brown: It's stupid to just sit here and admire that little red haired girl from a distance. It's stupid not to get up and go over and talk to her.
      [stands up]
      Charlie Brown: It's really stupid! It's just plain stupid; so why I don't I go over and talk to her?
      [sits down in utter personal defeat to the point of tears]
      Charlie Brown: Because I'm stupid.
    • Notable in this category is the 1969 storyline in which the Little Red-Haired Girl moved away, and Charlie Brown was depressed not only because she was gone, but because he was never able to work up the courage to even tell her goodbye. Not even a ski vacation he took with Linus and Snoopy not long afterward provided any respite from his heartache... because guess whom he saw at the ski resort?
      • She apparently did move back at some point, though it was never explicitly mentioned when or why.
  • The strip where Peppermint Patty tells Linus how she broke down crying when seeing the Little Red-Haired girl is devastating, especially since that's all that happens in that particular strip; there's no punchline or "smiles-through-the-melancholy" comfort to ease how unhappy she is:
    "I stood in front of that little red-haired girl and I saw how pretty she was... Suddenly I realized why Chuck has always loved her, and I realized that no one would ever love me that way... I started to cry, and I couldn't stop. I made a fool out of myself, but I didn't care! I just looked at her and I cried and cried and cried... I have a big nose and my split-ends have split-ends, and I'll always be funny-looking and I think I’m going to cry again..."
  • Lucy has often made no secret of the fact that she wished she were an only child or at least had a sister. In a 1959 story arc published shortly after Sally's birth, this hurt Linus so deeply that he decided to run away from home (though he didn't get far because he wasn't allowed to cross the street alone). While Linus often has his own clever way of dealing with his sister, seeing how badly Lucy hurt his feelings this time is tough. In the final strip of the arc, Lucy, seeing Linus in tears, apparently realizes she went too far, and actually apologizes to and comforts him, saying, "We're part of the same family... brother and sister... blood relatives." The heartwarming moment doesn't last, because her next words are: "No matter how you look at it, I'm stuck with you!"
  • The 1966 storyline in which Lucy and Linus' father got a new job and the family had to move away - especially when Linus gives Charlie Brown his blanket to remember him by. Even Schroeder seemed to miss Lucy. As it turned out, though, Mr. Van Pelt changed his mind about the job and the family moved back just a few days later.
  • The Sunday strip that ran one day before the last daily strip. This is the final appearance of Peppermint Patty and Marcie, and it's impossible to not read meaning into the final exchange between them:
    Marcie: Everyone's gone home, sir. You should go home too, it's getting dark.
    Peppermint Patty: We had fun, didn't we, Marcie?
    Marcie: Yes sir, we had fun.
    Peppermint Patty: Nobody shook hands and said "Good game".
    • The last new Sunday strip, which is also Sally's final appearance, has a similar wistfulness. Charlie Brown is cleaning their mailbox for a love letter he knows will never come, when the rain returns…
      Sally: Aren't you going out to get the mail?
      Charlie Brown: Not while it's raining. When it's raining, the only letters you get are the ones that say, "I never want to see you again!"
      Sally: You seem to know a lot about love letters.
      Charlie Brown: If I ever got one, I don't know what I'd do…
    • And of course the final comic strip ever made. Of all the top Cash Cow Franchises in the world, "Peanuts" was the longest running of any of them that had a definite end. Schulz always thought the comic would outlive him and it did... by one day.
  • The ending of the "Baseball Game" sequence in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, where Charlie Brown writes to his pen pal about the baseball game he lost, only to mournfully write a new letter with a completely different subject while he fights back the tears.
  • Any time Charlie Brown is the victim of bad luck. For example, Charlie Brown not getting any valentines, not getting an egg from the "Easter Beagle", being unfairly blamed for losing the homecoming game, and having his dream girl stolen from him twice (the first time by Linus, the second by Snoopy). It becomes bittersweet when he actually DOES win a motocross race.
  • The occasional references to Peppermint Patty's Missing Mom. A self-described "latchkey kid," she frequently loses sleep waiting for her dad to come home, causing her to zonk out in class, according to Jean Schulz. Charles Schulz never specified whether her mother was dead or simply missing from her daughter's life; to a query on why she can't stay with her mother while her father is out of town, she replies with a simple, "I don't have a mother, Marcie!"
    Marcie: I think I'll go home and paint my tongue black.
  • Most of the strip's storylines put Charlie Brown through the wringer, but a few stand out as exceptionally cruel. One of these is the two-week arc in which the gang, egged on by Linus, decide to throw him a testimonial dinner to show their appreciation for all he does as the manager of their baseball team. When Charlie Brown gets the news (via a phone call from Peppermint Patty), he's so surprised and delighted ("I'm smiling!!!") that he looks, in Sally's words, "like [he] just swallowed a chocolate cake." At the eleventh hour, however, the kids realize they're being hypocritical—they all think he's a terrible manager and player and they can't say otherwise and maintain their integrity. They proceed to call off the dinner moments before it begins, leaving Charlie Brown (in the last panel) besuited and alone at a table, surrounded by balloons and streamers.
    Charlie Brown: I would have enjoyed even a hypocritical dinner.
  • In one series of strips, Peppermint Patty and Marcie invite Charlie Brown and Snoopy to play a type of hide-and-seek called "Ha Ha Herman." As Patty and Marcie search for the hiding Charlie Brown, Marcie asks Patty if she likes him; a flustered Patty denies it, asking how anyone could be in love with "boring, dull, wishy-washy Chuck"...right next to the bush Charlie Brown is hiding in. Cue a heartbroken Charlie Brown emerging from the bush and leaving with Snoopy, as a horrified Patty desperately tries to explain herself. The next few strips reveal that both a depressed Charlie Brown and a guilt-ridden Peppermint Patty have taken to their beds because of what happened.
    Charlie Brown: Ha ha Herman... *sigh*.
  • In a 1960 September arc, the Peanuts gang find out that a freeway is to be built through Snoopy's doghouse, meaning that they'll most likely bulldoze his home down. In one of the strips, it only features Snoopy lying awake at night, worrying about losing his house.
    Snoopy: I just KNOW that this is the end! Those bulldozers will be here first thing on Monday morning to wipe me out! The night is dark and I am lonely... there are so many things I've left unsaid... so many things left undone...
    • Thankfully, he finds out that they won't start work until 1967, which actually doesn't happen.
  • The 1990 October arc involving Marcie's forceful parents.
  • One strip in 1966 shows Charlie Brown waking up to smell smoke in the air, right as Snoopy starts banging on his door. He rushes out to find... Snoopy's doghouse up in flames. All he can do is hold a deeply upset Snoopy.
    Snoopy: My books! My records! My pool table! My Van Gogh!
    Charlie Brown: Good grief!
    • The very next strip is even worse; the first three panels are of Snoopy inspecting the burnt-out shell of his former home, while the last one is of him crying.
    • A few strips later, its discovered that Snoopy lost everything in the fire. Possibly including his pinking shears.
  • The story arc in 1969 in which Linus's favorite teacher, Miss Othmar, was terminated following a teacher's strike. The poor kid was completely devastated.
    Linus: Snoopy, I'm crushed... they've fired my favorite teacher. I've never felt so depressed in all my life... what can I do? [walks away, head bowed down in despair]
    Snoopy: I was going to suggest howling at the moon...
    • The way he reacted to Miss Othmar's replacement, interestingly, was very much like the way many kids with a deceased parent react when their surviving parent finds a new life partner: he's snide and sarcastic at first, but soon realizes that the new teacher likes him in spite of this. Still, there's one more sad moment, when the new teacher picks Linus to pound the blackboard erasers outside:
      Linus: [forlornly] My memories of Miss Othmar are going up in chalk dust...
  • It's perhaps an overstatement to call it a tearjerker, but there is a joke where Linus confesses that he feels uncomfortable reading the New Testament epistles because he feels that he is reading someone else's mail. It makes you wish for a scene where his church's reverend could reassure him that the epistles are open letters meant to be read by as many people as possible and the various apostles would likely be pleased to see such a talented boy take the trouble to read and practically memorize them.
  • A week of strips in 1962 has Snoopy strike up a one-sided "friendship" with a snowman near his doghouse, only for the sun to come out and melt it. Snoopy's reaction is written exactly like the reaction of a real person to the unpreventable death of a loved one, and the fact that it's only an inanimate object is the only thing that keeps it comedic at all.
    Snoopy (to the sun): Don't melt him! He's my friend! He's a good guy! Please don't melt him!! Please! He's never hurt anyone in his life! Please! Please!
    • The following month, Snoopy gets a new snowman neighbor with the same coal eyes and carrot nose, and explains that he's reluctant to strike up another friendship after seeing other snowmen melt away: "I can't stand the agony... the terrible sense of loss... I've been hurt too often." After he decides to risk making friends anyway, the sun immediately comes out and melts this snowman too, leaving Snoopy in tears as Charlie Brown and Linus watch from indoors:
      Linus: Poor Snoopy.. I see he's lost another friend. It's too bad, he's so sensitive.
      Charlie Brown: Uh, huh... but I notice he wasn't too sensitive to eat the carrot!
  • A Sunday page from 1975 starts with Snoopy playing a seemingly harmless prank on a sleeping Woodstock, moving his nest from a tree to a fence post. It turns into an absolute gut punch when Woodstock recounts (with Snoopy translating for us) the dream he had when Snoopy moved his nest:
    "I dreamed that my mother had come back to the nest and that she and I were flying through the air together, and I was so happy... Then I woke up... my nest was sitting on a fence post... My mother really hadn't come home... I was all alone!"

Specials:

  • Why, Charlie Brown, Why?: It tells the story of a pretty little girl named Janice, who not long after becoming friends with Linus, is diagnosed with leukemia. Linus is especially hit hard as he has gained feelings for Janice, and is scared over whether she will survive her illness. Throughout the show, Janice suffers a number of health setbacks, endures bullying from a classmate (who until he is told to walk a mile in her shoes refuses to understand her illness) and a Lack of Empathy from Lucy (she "fears" that Janice's illness will spread similar to how the common cold does) and jealousy from her two older sisters, who are healthy and feel ignored. Eventually, there are tears of joy as Janice returns to school with a full head of long, blonde hair — she had lost her hair earlier due to chemotherapy — and seemingly in full health again. The special ends there, but it leaves her future to the imagination of the viewer. Either Janice will remain healthy, or her cancer will eventually come back, or most tearjerking of all, it may be that she isn't cancer-free, but that her illness is terminal and that she and her parents have decided to stop treatment, knowing that death is imminent. Indeed, Janice is a one-time character who is neither seen again nor referred to in future specials.
  • Life Is a Circus, Charlie Brown: Charlie realizes that Snoopy hasn't come home and later watches him board a cart as the circus prepares to leave town. Made even worse when he calls out to Snoopy but the gate slams shut before he can escape. Snoopy's reaction sells it, as does Charlie saying "Dognapped!"
    • Later on, Snoopy and Fifi run away from Polly. Fifi decides to stay with the circus because it's her life, leaving Snoopy to board the bus alone and heartbroken.
  • Peppermint Patty's ice skating competition in "She's A Good Skate, Charlie Brown" qualifies as both this and a Heartwarming Moment. She's almost in tears in the skating rink because the cassette was broken and she's unable to properly start, but then Woodstock starts whistling on the microphone to provide the background melody she needs, right before she's disqualified. And then she gives the performance of her life. You Go, Girl!, indeed!
  • And then there was that one special where the kids are in a graveyard near a World War I battle site, and Linus recites the poem "In Flanders' Fields" as they look around at the field of poppies and crosses, and Linus asks, "What have we learned, Charlie Brown?"
  • A Charlie Brown Christmas. "That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown."
  • There's a Saturday Night Live animated short where Jesus (having intentionally spoiled a variety of cheesy/warped Christmas TV shows) returns to a modern day city. He walks around, seeing various grim things — a hooker, a greedy televangelist, etc. — and looks more and more despondent. Then, he comes up to a store window with TV's... and one is playing the scene from A Charlie Brown Christmas where Linus explains what Christmas is all about. A single tear rolls down Jesus' eye, and then He does the Peanuts "Happy Dance".
  • The scene in Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown where Snoopy gets lost and wanders around howling occasionally is unexpectedly sad. Because lost pets are sad, even when they're anthropomorphized cartoon dogs.
  • Happiness Is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown (the 2011 Direct to Video film) adapts a well-known story arc in which Lucy turns Linus's blanket into a kite — and it winds up drifting away. The arc had previously been adapted into a segment of the 1983 special It's an Adventure, Charlie Brown, but in this version the filmmakers show the kite gliding over the school, over a tree-covered hill... and, later, out to the ocean, where it lands in the water and is bashed by the waves. Between this and Linus's palpable sense of loss, it's remarkably tearjerking.
  • In You're in the Super Bowl, Charlie Brown, just as Linus is about to win the Punt, Pass and Kick contest, a new player shows up at the last minute, and it's none other than Melody-Melody! This shocks both him and Charlie Brown as they thought she wanted to see them play. Melody ends up doing a fantastic job and blows Linus' score away, leading her to win the contest. This greatly upsets Linus who ends up telling Charlie Brown he was in love with her before having a mental breakdown. As Melody comes to accept her prize, she brags to Linus about how she'll be at the Super Bowl before biking away, leaving Linus heartbroken.
    • Just watching Linus's harrowing reaction to Melody-Melody's betrayal is really depressing when you think about it: his love isn't the best; his favorite teacher ran with her boyfriend before he could her a box of candy, his short-lived romance with Truffles was thwarted by both Snoopy and Sally and Lydia just annoys the heck out of him, and he put a lot of value and trust in Melody, only to find out she was just playing him. It doesn't take until the next special for him to finally get his happy ending.

The Snoopy Show:

  • The first segment of the episode, "Better Off Beagle", starts off lighthearted as Snoopy performs a magic show for his friends. His final trick involves Snoopy seemingly transforming Woodstock into a Tennis Ball. But things take a disastrous turn after the show when Snoopy is seemingly unable to transform Woodstock back. His panic slowly turns to grief when Snoopy assumes the worst, and his reaction is just HEARTRENDING. In fact, he spends almost HALF of the segment crying. It’s not even played for laughs here. Luckily at the end, Snoopy finds out that Woodstock is alive, and that he didn’t turn him into a tennis ball in reality. Still, watching a grief-stricken Snoopy unable to stop bawling over the apparent loss of his friend is really hard to watch.
  • In the first segment of "Thank Goodness for Beagles," Snoopy reminisces about his puppy days with his family, realizing how much he misses them. This realization causes him to sob.

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