5 (Peanuts)

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The following is a list of all notable secondary characters in the American comic strip Peanuts. Begun in 1950 by Charles M. Schulz, Peanuts saw several secondary characters come and go throughout the strip's fifty-year run.

[edit] 555 95472

555 95472, or 5 for short, debuted in the September 30, 1963 strip, and appeared occasionally until August 16, 1981. A boy close in age to Charlie Brown and Linus van Pelt, 5 had brown spiky hair, and he wore a shirt with the number 5 on it. 5 was given a numerical name by his father, who was upset over the preponderance of numbers in people's lives, although when questioned, 5 clarified that this was not his father's way of protesting, it was his way of "giving up." 5's twin sisters are named 3 and 4 (two black-haired girls who appeared occasionally until the mid-sixties.), which Charlie Brown said were "nice feminine names". 5 also played for Charlie Brown's baseball team; it is conjectured that 5 played third base, since 5 is scorer's shorthand for the third baseman. His last name, 95472, was taken from the ZIP code for Sebastopol, California, where Schulz lived at the time and which must also be where 5's family lived when his father decided to give his children numbers instead of names. 5, 4, and 3 all appear in A Charlie Brown Christmas where they have non-speaking roles, but demonstrate distinctive 1960's dance moves during the dancing scene. 5 also has an accent on the number 4 in his surname. His teacher often mispronounces his name such: she puts the accent on the 2. Although the comic never actually says so, it can be presumed that his parents are named 1 and 2.

[edit] Joe Agate

Joe Agate is a bully from camp who plays marbles. He tricked Rerun van Pelt by pretending to show him how to play marbles and took them away, including Re-Run's grandpa's prize shooter. Charlie Brown took responsibility and played against Joe to win back Re-run's marbles and his grandpa's shooter. Snoopy dropped a bowling ball on his feet in He's A Bully, Charlie Brown when he was wondering what Snoopy would do with his bowling ball. He was voiced by Taylor Lautner and appeared in the last Charlie Brown special, He's a Bully, Charlie Brown.

[edit] Crybaby Boobie

Crybaby Boobie was a female character who first appeared on September 5, 1978. She usually wore a polka dotted tennis dress, and her specialty on the tennis court was whining about how everything was unfair except when she won a game (hence her name, "Crybaby"). The only thing that seemed to quiet her down was a punch from Snoopy or being told to shut up by Molly Volley. She is rarely shown with a face, rather she appears as a large open mouth with hair coming out each side, as if she has her head tilted back so as to complain very loudly. She had a brother, Bobby, who was more sedate than she was; and she had a huge fan in her stage-door mother, who often honked her car horn whenever Crybaby made a good shot. Almost any time a character hears her name mentioned, their reaction is "Crybaby Boobie???"

Her last appearance was in the summer of 1999, in a match against Snoopy.

[edit] Emily

Emily was a female character who first appeared on February 13, 1995. She usually dances with Charlie Brown when he seems to need a mood lift. Sometimes Snoopy comes along with Charlie Brown, which usually leads to a premature end to Charlie Brown's visits with Emily. After Emily's first appearance in the strip, it was revealed that she was nothing more than a figment of Charlie Brown's imagination. However, she did appear a few more times in the strip through 1999, though the question of whether Emily was a real or imaginary person was never actually resolved.

[edit] Eudora

Eudora was a female character who first appeared on June 13, 1978. In her first appearance, she befriended Sally and eventually developed a similar crush on Linus. Once, Eudora played on Charlie Brown's baseball team, taking the outfield spot next to Lucy van Pelt, supplanting Frieda in that position. Eudora wears a beanie hat and has straight long hair hanging down underneath. She may be the only character who is as prone to mental lapses as Sally (i.e. doing a book report on the TV Guide) and she even joined Linus in the pumpkin patch at one time to wait for the Great Pumpkin.

Eudora's last appearance was in 1987, nine years to the day after her first appearance.

[edit] Faron

Faron was Frieda's cat, who appeared in a total of about one week of comic strips in 1961. Faron was a lazy, "boneless" cat who never walked because he preferred being carried everywhere, draped over Frieda's arm. Faron only spoke once ("Meow", causing Snoopy to jump into the air in fright). Faron's final appearance was a Sunday strip in which the running gag was Frieda trying to get someone to hold Faron while Freida went to the library; the last to end up holding the cat was poor Snoopy. Frieda made occasional subsequent appearances, but never with Faron again.

[edit] The Goose Eggs

Austin, Leland, Milo, and Ruby appeared in 17 strips of a 1977 storyline in which Charlie Brown ran away from home to flee the United States Environmental Protection Agency after taking revenge on a Kite-Eating Tree. He soon found himself coaching a baseball team of diminutive toddlers: Milo and Leland, half Charlie Brown's height, were two years old, while "the two biggest" on the team, Austin and Ruby, might have been three. They always addressed Charlie Brown as "Charles" and respected him as a wise elder, something he was completely unused to. The team was named the "Goose Eggs" after the baseball term for a zero score. The story ended when the visiting team turned out to be Charlie Brown's original team from home (Lucy: "We can't play them! They're too little! We'd step on them!") and it was revealed that the evidence against him was destroyed in a storm.

[edit] Lydia

Lydia was a female character who first appeared on June 9, 1986 (although months passed before readers found out that Lydia was her real name, as she had a habit of calling herself by different names (such as Melissa, Anna, or Olivia) depending on the day). Her normal sitting place was behind Linus, and for a long while answered his inquiries with the phrase "Aren't you kind of old for me?" Eventually Lydia developed a crush on Linus, but only after Linus started ignoring her in much the same way he tried to do with Sally.

Once she declared that her name was Jezebel, only to abruptly change it to "Susan" after Linus told her about the Biblical Jezebel and her gruesome death.

[edit] Miss Othmar

Miss Othmar served as Linus's teacher starting in the late 1950s. As with most adults in the strip, Miss Othmar was never seen. Linus developed a long-lasting crush on her. As a result, Linus held her in unreasonable esteem, which made his discovery that she earned a salary for her profession a crushing disillusionment he tried to rationalize away.

Eventually, Miss Othmar married, assuming her married name of Mrs. Hagemeyer; Linus, however, continued to call her Miss Othmar, and other characters in the strip began referring to her as Miss Othmar again as well.

Miss Othmar talks briefly to Sally in the TV special You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown.

[edit] Poochie

Poochie was a female character who first appeared on January 7, 1973. She was almost the first person to adopt Snoopy but was distracted by an English Sheepdog while Snoopy was fetching a stick Poochie threw; Snoopy held a grudge against Poochie for this for years afterward. In her sole physical appearance in the strip (she had been mentioned by name in previous strips), it was also revealed that it was she who had first started to call Snoopy's owner Charlie Brown.

[edit] Roy

Roy was a male character who first appeared on June 11, 1965. Roy first meets Charlie Brown in camp, where Charlie Brown quickly befriends him. He meets Linus van Pelt at camp the following summer. He later introduces Peppermint Patty to Charlie Brown and his friends. Roy was Peppermint Patty's closest friend until Marcie entered the picture.

He disappeared in the comic strips in 1970s.

[edit] Royanne

Royanne was a female character who first appeared on April 1, 1993. Royanne, who claimed to be "Roy Hobbs' great-granddaughter", was a pitcher on the opposing team when Charlie Brown hit a game-winning home run. Showing up later that summer, she is again pitching when Charlie Brown hits one of her pitches for an Inside-the-park home run. Later that summer, Royanne confesses that she let Charlie Brown hit those home runs because she liked him; Charlie Brown retaliated by informing her that "Roy Hobbs" is a fictional character.

[edit] Joe Shlabotnik

Joe Shlabotnik is another recurring character who, like most adults in the strip, remained unseen. Shlabotnik is a baseball player whom Charlie Brown admires. Apparently Shlabotnik is not a very skilled player (according to one strip his lifetime batting average is .004), as it is often noted in the strip that he has been sent down to the minor leagues (Charlie Brown tried to write a letter to Shlabotnik after one such incident, and was so upset that he broke down crying and was unable to finish the letter). He once was made manager of a team known as the "Waffletown Syrups", but was fired from the job after his only game as manager ended in disaster when he called for a squeeze play with nobody on base (although Charlie Brown did get him to autograph a foul ball he caught in the stands after the game, even though his aim was so poor he hit Charlie Brown on the head throwing it back to him).

Charlie Brown has been seen attempting to purchase or otherwise acquire various Shlabotnik memorabilia. In one of the most famous Peanuts comic strips (which to this day a blown up copy is on display at the Topps Company) which took place in the early 1960s, Charlie Brown spends five dollars (a substantial sum of money for a child at the time) on 500 one-card penny packs of baseball cards hoping to get one of Shlabotnik. With Lucy watching, Charlie Brown opens all the packs and does not get even one Shlabotnik. Lucy then buys one penny pack and to Charlie's dismay, finds the one and only Shlabotnik inside. Charlie then tries desperately to trade for the card (including several Hall of Famers like Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays) but Lucy refuses because "she thinks he's kinda cute". Later however, she throws the card in the trash because he "wasn't as cute as she thought he was".

Other miscues include a failed attempt to meet and dine with Mr. Shlabotnik at an all-star athlete's banquet to which he was invited. Unfortunately, Shlabotnik didn't show up (it turned out he had marked the wrong date, event and city on his calendar). Shlabotnik also was invited to a testimonial dinner for Charlie Brown, but couldn't make it (he'd gotten lost en route from his day job at a car wash), thus cancelling the dinner. And Charlie Brown also had a newsletter dedicated to Mr. Shlabotnik that only lasted one issue.

A couple of similar named characters preceded Joe Shlabotnik the baseball player. A "piano great" named "Joseph Schlabotnik" (note spelling) was mentioned in the 22 February, 1957, Peanuts strip by Schroeder, after which Schroeder admits to having made the name up; and in the 24 November, 1957, comic strip It's Only a Game, a Mr. "Schlabotnic" (note spelling) was the sponsor of a bowling team that placed the phrase "Schlabotnic's Meat Market " in one line that went from the cuff of one arm to the cuff of the other arm on the back of the shirt, leading to the comment "I don't know...maybe we should have put each word on a separate line."

[edit] Thibault

Thibault (pronounced TEE-BO) was a male character who first appeared on June 4, 1970. Thibault is a bully on Peppermint Patty's baseball team. He borrowed Charlie Brown's baseball glove (via a favor for Peppermint Patty), and after the game refused to give the glove back, telling Charlie Brown "I know your kind. You come around thinking you're better than us." Charlie Brown, by this time thrilled that anyone would think of him as superior in any way, let Thibault keep the glove. This shocked Thibault.

He also ran afoul of Peppermint Patty and Marcie after he chauvinistically told her she shouldn't be playing baseball. This infuriated Patty, who told him if he didn't be quiet, he would be shredded by her. After insulting her one too many times, Marcie called a time-out and told Thibault that if he said one word, she would slug him. When he said, "Oh?", Marcie made good on her threat and clobbered him.

[edit] Truffles

Truffles was a female character who first appeared on March 31, 1975. Named by her grandfather after the fungus that grows underground in France, she was the first female who caught Linus's heart. However, Linus' blossoming relationship with Truffles would be thwarted twice; first in 1975 by Snoopy as he and Linus go on a truffle hunt. Two years later, when Linus found her again while on a school field trip in 1977, Sally, who would call him her "Sweet Babboo" for the first of many times to his annoyance, saw to it that his reunion with Truffles was short-lived with an assist from Snoopy. Of course, this infuriated Linus.

[edit] Molly Volley

Molly Volley was a female character who first appeared on May 6, 1977, and was often Snoopy's doubles partner. She had an extremely bad temper and a reputation for beating up others (including other doubles partners). Tired of losing while playing doubles with Snoopy, she eventually refused to be his doubles partner and disappeared from the strip.

[edit] The Cat Next Door

The Cat Next Door (also referred to as "World War II" or merely the Stupid Cat who lives next door) is Snoopy's arch-nemesis. Like the baseball team that plays Charlie Brown's, the cat is never seen (although its arm has appeared briefly). Unlike the team (which can be assumed to change), we are given more insight to the cat's personality, which (coupled with its orange color), make it mildly similar to Garfield. Many strips depict Snoopy teasing the cat from atop his doghouse; usually this results in a huge slashing of his house by the cat, leaving him with only a small fraction of the house to sit atop. While Snoopy prefers to verbally chastise the cat, the cat has much more violent, sometimes sociopathic tendencies, and does not hesitate to respond to Snoopy's insults with violent attacks. At one time, Woodstock was reported to be fighting with the cat next door, causing Snoopy to dive over there to help him. Of course, it was a yellow glove and not Woodstock, but this was the first time Snoopy actually stood up to the cat. Also, at various times, other characters have fought with World War II. Linus van Pelt, when he went over to apologize for the mixup that caused Snoopy to fight him over what was supposedly Woodstock, but was the yellow glove (his quip after being thrashed was, "That's no kitten! That's a thousand pound gully cat!"); and Peppermint Patty when she thought that World War II was Snoopy in a cat costume. It was at that time that the Cat was said to be called World War II.

[edit] The Garage

The Garage is a non-speaking nominal character who has acted as Snoopy's tennis doubles partner. Snoopy is often seen training with the Garage in preparation for their doubles match. Apparently, his best tennis attribute is that "He never foot faults." After one particularly frustrating defeat, Snoopy claimed that he had played well, but "the Garage choked."

[edit] The School Building

The school building where the main characters attend school became a character in its own right when Sally Brown started talking to it in 1975, at first out of spite, but soon forming a close, affectionate friendship. It, or "he", had visible thoughts, and could willfully drop a brick on the head of anyone who gave him trouble. His personality was generally world-weary, and he held a low opinion of the students and faculty. In 1976, the building collapsed, or, as Sally described it, "committed suicide". There were subsequent school building appearances, but it was never made clear whether it was the same one rebuilt or a successor.

[edit] References

• Derrick Bang with Victor Lee; Fifty Years of Happiness, 1999, ISBN 0-9685574-0-8
• Various Cartoons, published in various book including the The Complete Peanuts series.