It's kind of frighteningly perfect:
She helped him up. “Look, I’m sorry about that. You try it again and I’ll hold it real steady this time.”
“O.K., Lucy. I’ll do it on more time, but that’s it. You hold it this time, got it?”
“I promise,” she said.
He dusted himself off. God o mighty, his ass ached! He walked a little ways away and Lucy set up the old football again. He took a deep breath and a running start. He could see she was holding it tight. He was really going to kick the shit out of that old football! He threw his leg forward with all his might and Lucy yanked the football away just as he kicked at it. He landed on his ass again.
“AUUUGGGGHHH,” he said again.
Lucy laughed and laughed and left with the football. Charlie laid there and groaned. Good grief, he thought. What a cunt.
(Via Ed Rants)
This is excellent.
I read a lot more Peanuts than is probably healthy when I was growing up. My Dad had all of the collections in these ancient taped together paperbacks. What a horrible comic.
Seriously, going back and re-reading them is extraordinarily depressing. Almost every character involved was loathsome in one way or another. Even Woodstock somehow managed to be unpleasant.
Posted by: Gabe Volpicelli | 26 July 2007 at 01:44 PM
Shocking. Meanwhile, Josh and I have been buying the hardback collections as they've been re-released. THEY RULE.
Posted by: Leila | 26 July 2007 at 03:36 PM
I dunno, I just vividly recall being disturbed by the very very early ones from 1950 when they were either ~4 years old or still infants. I think one of the very first strips ever featured the lines "Good 'ol Charlie Brown" as he's walking by and then "How I hate him!" once he was out of earshot. What the hell? I also remember him getting regularly punched by that (not Peppermint)Patty girl and desperately wanting to see him stand up for himself just once and always being disappointed.
My beef with Woodstock is different. He has always irritated for reasons that I have never been able to explain properly. I sometimes felt like he was taking advantage of Snoopy and was just generally ungrateful.
I'm not trying to knock the strip as I do think it was genius. I just find it to be profoundly depressing.
Posted by: Gabe Volpicelli | 27 July 2007 at 10:11 AM
Oh, it was TOTALLY depressing. And real. That's why I loved it.
Then, in the later years, it all went downhill.
Posted by: Leila | 27 July 2007 at 03:25 PM