10 Funniest Peanuts Comics That Just Turned 60 (& Exposed the Hilarious Secret of Snoopy's Doghouse)

Summary

• Peanuts comic strips, created over 70 years ago, remain relevant and beloved today for an audience of all ages.
• A look back at the original comics reveals the 10 funniest strips that just turned 60 years old, showcasing timeless humor.
• The charming and humorous adventures of Snoopy and the Peanuts gang continue to entertain with relatable moments and lovable characters.

Peanuts is one of the most famous comic strips ever. Running for 50 years in newspapers around the world, it’s still one of the most beloved series for an audience of all ages. Considering the Peanuts kids were created over 70 years ago, it’s amazing how relevant they are today.

With a popular show on Apple TV, and another animated movie on the horizon, it’s worth looking back at the original comics that started the franchise. While they are set in stone, our reflection on these comics changes as society continues to move forward, taking on new aspects. The collection below is made of the 10 funniest strips that have just turned 60 years old, published in June 1964.

10 Lucy Has a Strange Pitching Strategy

June 12, 1964

Lucy loves Schroeder, Schroeder loves Beethoven, and yet, both have to play baseball. While Charlie Brown is usually the team’s unlucky pitcher, he lets Lucy have a shot at it this season. Unfortunately, with Schroeder as the catcher, Lucy abuses her opportunity by calling him to the mound to sneak kisses. The setup here is that Schroeder is ranting to the team manager, Charlie Brown. The reader thinks he’s complaining about Lucy’s lack of skill, or bad strategy. But he’s actually complaining about schoolyard sexual harassment.

Lucy has almost always been the weakest member of Charlie Brown’s baseball team, even being shown up by Snoopy. In one comic, she did actually hit a home run, but for similar reasons to her baseball skill here: she was promised a kiss from Schroeder if she could do it.

9 An Unwanted Guest Comes Over for Drinks

June 17, 1964

Summer is a wonderful time for sun, outdoor drinks…and bugs. Snoopy, generally being an outside dog, knows this all too well, as seen here, with a bug in his water dish. He blows it out of the way, then almost apologizes – it’s not because it’s a bug, necessarily, just that the bug was an unexpected guest in his drink. Snoopy is often seen “chatting” with other neighborhood animals, so it makes sense that he would have sympathy for a bug, even if he doesn’t want it around.

Snoopy has often been shown to be a picky eater, disliking what Charlie Brown brings him, unless his master behaves like a fancy waiter when presenting his supper dish. Right after this comic, it’s possible Snoopy kicked in the door of the Brown house and demanded fresh water.

8 Snoopy Remains Vigilant

June 15, 1964

This comic has readers guessing all the way to the punchline. Snoopy looks around suspiciously, yawns, and then says he has to watch out whenever he yawns. What could he mean by that? Will the cat next door attack if it thinks he’s sleeping? Nope, it’s something even grosser than getting a bug in his water dish: last time he yawned without looking, a bird dropped a worm in his mouth. Now he needs to be vigilant, even when he’s feeling a little sleepy.

This comic somewhat echoes something you can imagine a parent telling their child when asking them to behave: “Don’t yawn like that, or a bird will drop a worm in your mouth.” Peanuts was for all ages, but impressionable kids read it every day and might have picked up the lesson.

7 Give These Birds an Inch, and They Take a Mile

June 6, 1964

In the first comic from this month that hints at the depths of Snoopy’s doghouse, he lets some birds hide inside from the rain. (The storm doesn’t seem to bother Snoopy himself, who is still sleeping on the roof like usual.) Shortly after they’re safe inside, however, sounds can be heard from inside, and Snoopy grumbles – he was fine with giving them shelter from the rain, but now they’re playing with his billiards table.

The suggestion that he would even have a billiards table is funny on its own, but it’s heightened more by trying to imagine where he would possibly put it inside the dog house. In the same way that Snoopy has a rich inner life full of alternate identities (Joe Cool, the World War Flying Ace, etc), he also has a rich indoor life we never see.

6 Snoopy vs. The Sprinkler

June 14, 1964

The previous comic shows that Snoopy doesn’t mind getting wet, which may explain why he is standing in the way of the sprinkler here. He’s excited about his hot dog summer, but underestimates how strongly the sprinkler hits him. Dazed, Snoopy gets splashed a few more times before Charlie Brown shuts the water off, less to save Snoopy and more because the lawn has been watered. However, Snoopy counts this as a triumphant win over the sprinkler, blowing a raspberry at it before he goes about his day, refreshed and hydrated.

The charm of Snoopy in Peanuts is that he sometimes acts like a person, but also acts like a dog. He can write a novel in one comic, and the next day be baffled at the sprinkler. These traits make him identifiable, but also adorable.

5 Snoopy Shows Off a New Trick

June 13, 1964

Snoopy was introduced in 1950, but this comic shows that, even at 14, he was still showing off new tricks. As he and Sally are about to pass each other, rather than Snoopy moving over or Sally pausing her jump rope, the two merge temporarily as Snoopy jumps rope in the opposite direction to her. True to the strange world of Peanuts, neither Snoopy nor Sally comments on this moment, as it’s just another normal day in the neighborhood. Of course Snoopy knows not only how to jump rope on his hind legs, but can do it in the opposite direction as Sally as she moves forward.

Despite being the family dog, Snoopy doesn’t interact with Sally as much as he does with Charlie Brown, making this a fun moment between the two. Sally’s oddities are usually talking to her school wall, or waiting with Linus for the Great Pumpkin.

4 Snoopy’s Doghouse Is the TARDIS

June 25, 1964

The depths of Snoopy’s doghouse are once again covered as Charlie Brown asks his friends to help him with some summer cleaning. The reader only sees Linus carrying the back half of a carpet, suggesting another person is carrying the front end of it. Charlie Brown lets Snoopy know he’s sending it out to be cleaned, a chore that Snoopy worries about the cost of.

While there had been jokes before about what, exactly, is inside Snoopy’s doghouse (probably not a bed, since he likes to sleep on the roof), this month leaned heavily on the reveal that it’s bigger on the inside. While Doctor Who had premiered on the BBC just one year before, it’s unlikely that the TARDIS inspired Charles Schulz, and this is a case of simultaneous invention.

3 A Weight Is Lifted Off of Linus’s Tiny Shoulders

June 5, 1964

Some siblings have to make sure they bring each other down whenever they have a chance. Bossy big sister Lucy stands by as her little brother Linus takes joy in the end of the school year. He’s ecstatic at the start of summer, saying that no more classes or homework feels like a weight off his shoulders. Lucy then points out a basic aspect of the Peanuts characters’ design: what shoulders?

Garfield
creator Jim Davis, friend of Charles Schulz, once pointed out that Charlie Brown scratches his head from behind because his short arms don’t reach the top of his head.

The character designs of the Peanuts kids changed a bit in the first decade of the comic, but they always had big, identifiable heads on simple-shaped bodies. To balance their faces, they couldn’t have big shoulders, or they might all look like tiny linebackers. Whatever the reason, not having shoulders might be the next reason Linus turns to his security blanket, even in summer.

2 Lucy’s Unconventional (and Immoral) Pitches

June 11, 1964

As seen in many Peanuts strips, Lucy actually has some great skill at the game of baseball, she just doesn’t have the motivation. This comic reveals that her skills also lie in cheating and illegal pitches. In an actual strategy meeting on the pitcher’s mound, she and Schroeder discuss what type of pitches she should start throwing. First, she asks about a spitball, an illegal throw where a wet ball moves atypically, throwing off the batter. When Schroeder understandably shoots that down, she suggests a beanball, a pitch purposely thrown with the intention of hitting the batter.

As the catcher walks away in exasperation, Lucy mopes that all her best pitches are immoral. With this sort of attitude towards the sport, it makes sense why manager Charlie Brown typically puts her deep in the outfield.

1 Snoopy Needs to Take Out the Trash

June 24, 1964

A major downside to having one’s own TARDIS is that infinite rooms are very difficult to keep clean. As part of Charlie Brown’s summer cleaning, he and Linus dig out all the empty soda bottles within Snoopy’s doghouse. The reader learns that there’s also a staircase inside the doghouse, as Charlie Brown calls out to Linus to watch the stairs. The reveal that there are multiple boxes of empty bottles is the big punchline – Snoopy either has a sweet tooth, or has been hosting too many parties.

At the time of this comic’s publishing in 1964, it was still common to return glass soda bottles for a small refund. With this many bottles recovered, this might be how Charlie Brown pays for the carpet cleaning in the earlier comic. In some ways, Snoopy helped out. While this gag is funny because Snoopy is a dog, the punchline feels relevant to anyone who’s fallen behind on their chores, and feels a little guilty when someone else calls them out on it. This sense of identification is one of the reasons Peanuts has stayed relevant and beloved all these years.