Comments on: Is this Louie/Charlie Brown parody hilariously depressing or just depressing? Or hilarious?

By: Karen Sylte-Munson

Karen Sylte-Munson — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 16:15:00 +0000

Wow. A lot of people don’t understand the genius of “Peanuts” at all. That’s really interesting! I mean, I had no idea this particular comic strip/animated cartoon flew so far over some people’s heads. I’m not going to even attempt to write about why “Peanuts,” in its heyday, was right up there with the best of the best comics/cartoons ever done. But I will say that if you think that all the characters were just “depressed fuck-ups” then you are missing the larger point that, in fact, ALL people are exactly that. And yet, we continue to try to find meaning and to try to forge relationships with one-another. And sometimes we succeed.

This parody didn’t work for me, BTW. Too reliant on overused stereotypes throughout.

By: Girard

Girard — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 12:11:00 +0000

The fact that they were so bleak is part of the reason why the Peanuts stuff is emphatically not crap. Kids’ media (or popular media in general) with an honest, relatable emotional core is so rare, and the loud, stupid and obnoxious (e.g. Scooby Doo) is so prevalent – there’s reason why Schulz is lauded as the master of the comic strip, and why the TV specials remain perennial favorites.

By: Girard

Girard — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 12:08:00 +0000

Yeah I mean, I know it’s a dicey game trying to take on two of the most uncontested genius exemplars of their respective forms, but this video fell far, far short of the mark. Total tonal misfire that missed any of the melancholia present in either Peanuts or Louie, and went in for sophomoric, Seth McFarlane-style “‘dark’ ‘edgy’ subversion of cherished childhood property” tropes (which, of course, uses a middle-school notion of what is ‘dark’ or ‘edgy’…).

By: Dean Putney

Dean Putney — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 09:46:00 +0000

Thanks for nailing this. I felt like this was a promising Louie/Peanuts intro followed by lazy “Charlie Brown grew up and everything is awful” jokes, completed with a Louie-esque credits sequence. There’s a pretty decent amount of unrealized potential here.

By: Stefan Jones

Stefan Jones — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 06:25:00 +0000

OH . . . oh . . .

He’s the guy who writes / draws Clarissa.

That . . . THAT is a depressing comic. A molecule thick candy coating of funny around a heart-rending core of sadness and anger.

By: CognitiveDissident

CognitiveDissident — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 02:40:00 +0000

Where’s Sally?
(I hope that she wasn’t one of “bodies” that Linus mentioned.)
Also, Linus could be on “Hoarders” if he survives the holidays.

By: Kimmo

Kimmo — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 02:38:00 +0000

Now you mention it… yeah.

Hopefully someone will be inspired by your comment to do a more fitting Charlie/Louie mashup.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 01:13:00 +0000

I assumed that it was driven by parents who could show it to their children and say, “Look at the crap that we had for entertainment, so shut up and be grateful for Scooby-Doo.”

By: TheOven

TheOven — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 01:10:00 +0000

This is pretty much what I thought of the original Charlie Brown and gang; depressed fuck-ups. Why or how they ever got animated is beyond me.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 23:32:00 +0000

Every Charlie Brown special is horribly depressing. Weren’t they supposed to be?

By: CaptainPedge

CaptainPedge — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 22:36:00 +0000

LOL MARCIE AND PATTY ARE LESBEEEEEUNZ! SO ORIGINAL!

By: Rezeya Montecore

Rezeya Montecore — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 22:31:00 +0000

I really wanted so much more from this, but it felt high-schooly and perfunctory. :(

Didn’t do a thing to capture the awkward tenderness that makes Charlie Brown and Louie both so damned funny and profound. They had a great concept and ruined it for me with the gay jokes and stock pessimism — not because those things are inherently awful to joke about, but because they’re so obvious and boring in this context. (By contrast, I love Louie’s poker-game conversations about homosexuality. Those actually strike me as provocative and sincere.)

Being crass isn’t enough on its own, you know? I think they could’ve made a much better short by keeping the grown-up kids at more subtle and plausible levels of fucked-up. Serial-killer Linus isn’t nearly as interesting as the neurotic kid we had in the first place. :)

By: signsofrain

signsofrain — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 22:01:00 +0000

Btw THANK YOU for linking this. I’m on page 145 and it’s just blowing my mind over and over again.

By: Henry Pootel

Henry Pootel — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 21:17:00 +0000

Are you kidding? With that ending? I call that hilarious victory!

By: Matthew Petty

Matthew Petty — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 21:11:00 +0000

I like the credits. (and all of it)

By: Deidzoeb

Deidzoeb — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 20:55:00 +0000

Q: In the Peanuts newspaper strip, which character said he wanted to stand out in the rain until he caught pneumonia and died?
A: Trick question. At least three of them did. Charlie Brown, Linus and Snoopy at different times over the years. (Maybe others. I haven’t read them all.)

Which is to say, the kids were already depressed and depressing. That’s one reason why it resonated so deeply with kids and adults over the years. … Until the 80s, and Schulz blew it with all the crap about Snoopy’s siblings. Ugh.

By: royaltrux

royaltrux — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 20:53:00 +0000

I think its worth it now and then.

By: signsofrain

signsofrain — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 20:47:00 +0000

I was… oops! Darn… so it’s just a little short they showed? I thought I might find more of this type of thing. Oh well, I’ve still been meaning to watch Robot Chicken ;)

By: royaltrux

royaltrux — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 20:40:00 +0000

If you are implying that you think Robot Chicken made this, they did not.

By: signsofrain

signsofrain — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 20:32:00 +0000

Here is a much better Weapon Brown link. After I clicked yours it took me 3 more clicks to reach readable comics.

By: signsofrain

signsofrain — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 20:24:00 +0000

Okay, full series of Robot Chicken is gonna hit my torrent queue because of this. Thank you. I’ll probably buy the show too, in a few months once the Christmas budget hit is past.

By: vrplumber

vrplumber — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 20:21:00 +0000

Family Guy did it ;)

By: Jorpho

Jorpho — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 20:16:00 +0000

It's going to be hard to top the Robot Chicken "It's the Great Pumpkin" parody. (It still seems to be on Youtube.) And speaking of parodies, the way, waaay over the top Weapon Brown webcomic recently finished its four-year run, concluding with its epic post-apocalyptic showdown between Weapon Brown and CALv1n.