Peanuts Charlie Brown's Best Friend Linus

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Linus van Pelt is a character in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts. The best friend of Charlie Brown, Linus is also the younger brother of Lucy van Pelt and older brother of Rerun van Pelt. He first appeared on September 19, 1952; however, he was not mentioned by name until three days later. He was first referenced two months earlier, on July 14.

On the various specials, Christopher Shea first voiced Linus Van Pelt in 1965. His younger brother, Stephen, voiced Linus from 1971 until 1975. Various actors (among them Jeremy Miller of Growing Pains fame) have played Linus since then.

Though young, Linus is unusually smart, and he acts as the strip's philosopher and theologian, often quoting the Gospels. He also invented his own quasi-religious being, The Great Pumpkin who (like Santa Claus) mysteriously appears every year, bringing presents. The Great Pumpkin, however, appears on Halloween and only at the most sincere pumpkin patch, which Linus invariably believes is his own. Linus is the only one who believes in the Great Pumpkin. Though he occasionally convinces other characters the Great Pumpkin is real, they always lose faith, while Linus keeps his. In a few comics, Linus is seen wearing eyeglasses because he has myopia.

Security blanket

Perhaps paradoxically, given his advanced intellect, Linus is almost never without his blue blanket (or one of several), which he holds over his shoulder while sucking his thumb. It was in fact he who coined the term "security blanket." Ridicule of the habit is not a major concern for him as shown when one friend, Roy, warned him at summer camp that he would be viciously teased for it. In response, Linus uses his blanket like a whip and shears off a tree branch with intimidating power and notes "They never tease me more than once." The blanket, it turns out, has something of a personality of its own (albeit, a nonverbal one), and it once engaged Lucy in a knock-down drag-out fight.

Possession of the blanket is often sought after by Snoopy, who has used many tricks and subterfuges to relieve Linus of it. Furthermore, there are many stories where Lucy and Linus' grandmother attempt to force him to give up the blanket, only to eventually concede in the face of his steadfast resistance. Linus, in one particularly angry confrontation over the issue admitted that if their mother ordered him to stop, he would comply but no one else would have that authority. As there have been no objections indicated from the mother, she evidently was content to let her unusually intelligent son grow out of the habit on his own. In later strips, Linus is shown with it less and less, and Charles Schulz admitted in 1989 that Linus had finally outgrown the blanket, and it was only in the strip when the humor of a strip was dependent on its presence. In one comic, he suddenly stops sucking his thumb and says "It's a good thumb, but not a great thumb."

 Relationships

Upon her introduction into the strip, Linus had the desire to marry Charlie Brown's little sister, Sally Brown. However, as the strip progressed, he outgrew this idea, while Sally on the other hand fell in love with Linus and calls him her "sweet babboo." Linus in turn has an innocent crush on his school teacher, Miss Othmar (later Mrs. Hagemeyer). In some of the later 90s strips he developed some kind of interest in Lydia, the girl who sits behind him, keeps changing her name and, as Linus is 2 months older than her, asks him, "Aren't you kind of old for me?" (although she keeps changing her name, her name is confirmed to be Lydia, according to the book, Peanuts: A Golden Celebration and the Peanuts Collectors Club website, on the Character Debuts list). He also fell for several different girls in various animated television specials. He also had a crush on a girl called Truffles, who he and Snoopy met whilst looking for the fungi bearing her name.

However, Linus often defuses Lucy's temper through passive resistance and clever use of his intellect, either logically talking Lucy out of hitting him or confusing her into submission. Later in the strip, the pair got a younger brother, Rerun, who looks nearly identical to Linus, though smaller. Coincidentally, this occurred at the same time Lucy kicked Linus out of the house, leading her to cry "A new baby brother? But I just got rid of the old one!"

Linus generally plays second base on Charlie Brown's Little League team; Linus inappropriately stands on top of second base when taking his position. Sometimes, when for some reason Charlie Brown can't pitch, Linus takes the mound and is unhittable to the opposition. Charlie Brown's team always wins games when Linus pitches. Part of the reason is that Linus uses his blanket to sling a fastball at unhittable speeds.

Trivia

* The character said his first words in 1954, and was shown with a security blanket for the first time on June 1, 1954.
* On one occasion his birthday was stated to be November 22, but in another strip he stated he was born in October.
* The term "security blanket" originated from the strip, which insurance companies—including MetLife, for whom Peanuts became the spokes cartoon—used to describe complete coverage.

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 The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show

 This is America, Charlie Brown mini-series

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