In one of the first and most memorable Peanut In the storyline, Charlie Brown renamed himself “Mr. Spaceman”, a visitor from Mars – and in the process, he developed a surprisingly different dynamic with his usual counterpart Lucy van Pelt. This hilarious recurring arc took up much of March 1955, which means these Peanut cartoons are approaching their 70th anniversary.
Charlie Brown’s transformation into a Martian was precipitated by Peanut strip on February 28, 1955, in which Patty – not Peppermint, but rather, Peanut Original Patty – stated that “You’ve never been anything but good old Charlie Brown… and that’s all you are now… and that’s all you’ll ever be, just good old Charlie Brown!“
Like he used to do, “Good old” Charlie Brown was left questioning the meaning of existence – and the next day, Mr. Spaceman made his debut.
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“You’re from Mars, you say? Where is that?”
First published: March 1, 1955
Peanut humor has a reputation for simplicity, and in part this can be attributed to strips like this one – that is, those that appeared at the beginning of longer “arcs” in which author Charles Schulz worked out a joke over the course of successive cartoons animated. Like any multi-part story, the opening chapter should feature a significant amount of preparation. Here, readers are introduced to Charlie Brown’s new Martian personality – represented by a glass helmet atop his head, with two antennae sticking out – at the same time as Lucywhich asks where exactly Mars is.
“Right up there,” says Charlie Brown, pointing to the stars. It’s not exactly an “out of this world” joke, with the strip largely deriving its humor from the vision of Peanut familiar protagonist suddenly wearing a space helmet and calling himself an alien. More than that, though, it does the essential work of establishing that premise, so that Charles Schulz can play with the idea for the next month.
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“Are you afraid of astronauts, Patty?”
First published: March 2, 1955
In this strip, Charlie Brown – as the “man from outer space” – finds Patty, whose review instigated this whole fantasy of being a visitor from another world. Along with Lucy, she is portrayed as being “not at all” a little afraid of an extraterrestrial visitor. In truth, they both snort simultaneously into the astronaut’s glass helmet, fogging him up and letting him sigh in a suspiciously Charlie Brown-like way.
In his new alien persona, the former Charlie Brown didn’t exactly get off to a great start with his colleagues – but in the next few strips, Lucy would at least prove willing to play along with his astronaut identity, playing along with her astronaut identity and steadily. becoming more invested in your make-believe scenario.
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“Feet first?”
First published: March 3, 1955
Lucy begins to take a more active interest in Spaceman this Peanut panel, asking how he traveled from his home planet to hers, giving Charlie Brown the chance to expand the narrative of this persona he’s creating. “I jumped!“, he replies, without hesitation, causing her to look up and wonder about the distance between Mars and Earth, before responding with a follow-up question: “Feet first?”
In this way, Charles Schulz takes his main character’s flight of fancy and draws in a second character, mirroring the way the neighborhood kids do exactly the same; Often a make-believe scenario starts with one creative child, but over time, others will find themselves involved in it, just as Lucy does here.
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“No one on Earth has a head like that!”
First published: March 4, 1955
In this panel, Charles Schulz brings the first “act” of the Mr. Spaceman arc back to Earth, presenting a classic Peanut joke in the process. Naturally, this comes at Charlie Brown’s expense, as Violet explains to Lucy that she believes Spaceman really is from Mars – because “no one on Earth has such a round head!“
The spherical nature of Charlie Brown’s head has, of course, been the subject of many Peanut strips over the years, and this feels like the punchline that Schulz was constantly aiming for when he first introduced the joke a few panels earlier. Each previous cartoon is increasingly funny, with this one striking a particular chord in the reader because of the way it returns to a familiar beat: Charlie Brown’s head.
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Interlude: Snoopy also plays an astronaut
First published: March 22, 1955
Over the next few weeks in March 1955, Peanut the status quo seemed to return to normal as, without any explanation, Charlie Brown abandoned his astronaut gimmick. On March 22, however, there was an inexplicable return – in this wordless panel, which shows Charlie Brown throwing his space helmet in frustration after Snoopy runs around wearing one of his own, except with a much more elaborate antenna.
It’s a simple and effective reprise of the joke from earlier in the month, making it clear that neither Charles Schulz nor Charlie Brown have forgotten their time as extraterrestrials. In fact, less than a week after this strip appeared, the definitive sequence of Mr. Spaceman panels hit the newspapers, offering a truly entertaining escalation of the premise.
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“If you’re from Mars, let’s hear you say something Martian”
First published: March 28, 1955
That Peanut The cartoon picks up the Spaceman saga where it left off weeks earlier, as Lucy has now fully embraced the fiction – to the point that, according to the expression on Charlie Brown’s face, he doesn’t even seem to be enjoying LARPing like a alien. .
In the first two panels of this strip, Lucy urges Charlie Brown to “say something in Martian,” and when he finally does, the contents of his word bubble have been erased, to signify an alien dialect. Leaving Lucy more confused than when she first asked, Charlie Brown walks away, but his Martian language and Lucy’s gradual “understanding” of her would continue to play a prominent role in the coming days of Peanut comics.
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“Say something in Martian again for me, will you, Mr. Astronaut?”
First published: March 29, 1955
Lucy has completely taken over Charlie Brown’s game with this strip, in which she officially calls him Mr. Once again, Lucy demands that he speak Martian to her; At first, he obeys with good humor, but when she obviously cannot understand him, he becomes irate and repeats his nonsensical response in a more aggressive tone, causing her to shout back”You didn’t have to scream!“
Although Mr. Spaceman started out as a way for Charlie Brown to escape his own identity, at this point, it’s clear that he’s starting to tire of it – even as Lucy becomes increasingly interested and, at the same time, surprisingly more . respectful towards him, as indicated by the use of “Mr.”
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“What kind of weather do you have up there?”
First published: March 30, 1955
“It’s been kinda gloomy around here lately too” says Lucy, after Mr. Spaceman answers her question in Martian about the climate on your home planet. What makes this excerpt funnier? PeanutMr. Spaceman’s ongoing joke is the way Lucy is portrayed as having quickly learned the alien language invented by Charlie Brown.
Or rather, it’s another level of co-optation of his fantasy; Lucy realized that if he speaks incomprehensibly, she can give whatever meaning she wants to his words. In addition to being a perfect character moment for Lucy, this has the effect of definitively making Mr. Spaceman no longer a new persona for Charlie Brown, but a character played primarily for Lucy’s personal amusement.
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“What do you think of girls here on Earth, Mr. Astronaut?”
First published: March 31, 1955
In the final appearance of the Charlie Brown character Mr. Spaceman he gives his opinion on “the girls here on Earth” in her Martian language, saying something that Lucy translates as “very beautiful.“ Although it relies on the joke that Lucy now “understands” Marciano, there is a delicious note of ambiguity here, as it seems – again, just judging from Charlie Brown’s facial expressions – that he actually means something nice.
Of course, this raises the question of to what extent Lucy actually “learned” Charlie Brown’s fake language. Either way, this drives home the fact that in his short stint as Mr. Spaceman, Charlie Brown legitimately cultivated a different dynamic with Lucy – who would return to giving him his usual laugh the moment he dropped the Spaceman routine. .
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“Oh, I knew it was you all along, Charlie Brown”
First published: April 1, 1955
Finally, in this Peanut cartoon, Charlie Brown “reveals” to Lucy that he was Mr. Spaceman all along – only for her to “reveal” that she knew it all along. As she explains:
I recognized his round head, and his striped shirt, and his round head, and his brown shoes, and his round head, and his dark pants, and his round head, and…
Once again, Charles Schulz closes the book with this recurring joke, bringing a familiar subject full circle. Peanut chorus: the size of Charlie Brown’s head. “All good!!!” he shouts as Lucy catalogs all the ways in which it was obvious he was Mr. Spaceman, putting an end to the character’s brief but memorable spell on Peanut tradition. Although Snoopy is best remembered as the creator of Peanut Guys, this comic strip from 1955 proved that Charlie Brown also had his head in the clouds.