Brian vs. Snoopy

Yet another X v. Y comparison blog. Two white dogs from two different times. This is more a comparison of "Peanuts" vs. "The Family Guy" using Brian and Snoopy as the common link.

 Snoopy, from "Peanuts". Never talks, just walks around doing human stuff, including his Red Baron act. Clearly he’s intelligent, but his silence seems less like an attribute of being a dog – because he doesn’t act like one – than some arrogant contempt for the children around him, even his own "master", Charlie Brown., who he never accompanies as a dog does his master. His real friend is Woodstock, the little yellow bird. Charlie Brown is more like his caretaker than his friend (similar to cats’ views of their owners).

 I never liked "Peanuts". The humor and issues were dry and existentialist, the equivalent of a cloudy, rainy day with nothing to do. The children are self-absorbed and precocious; Charlie Brown, the main character, experiences little more than grief and frustration. These do not appear to be happy children, although they’re not poor or abused, more like simply bored with a dull, meaningless existence devoid of any excitement, fun or joy, children deprived of the innocent joy of childhood because they’re trapped in a boring world created by a sadistic cartoonist with nothing important to say.

 Lucy’s behavior is particularly obnoxious. Not only her stupid little psychiatric help stand (what is such a thing doing in a strip for children?) but her constant taunting of Charlie Brown with the football. Each time he’s sure she’ll pull the football away at the last moment, and each time she manages to persuade him that time it will be different (for a different reason) yet each time she does exactly the same thing. Ultimately her point seems to be, "I always pull it away at the last moment, you should know it by now and ignore whatever particular rationalization I give you". It’s a cruel game for her. If these were adults she’d be making sexual advances at him and always pulling away after he bought her dinner and brought her back to her place for "coffee" – a nightcap, a pleasure, she will never give him. What is this stupid insanity doing in a children’s comic?

 Fortunately, Lucy is repaid by Schroeder, who consistently rejects her advances, which are explicitly romantic in nature. Is he gay? Or more likely, he simply doesn’t like her – hardly surprising given her petulant arrogance and thoughtless cruelty. Perhaps there is some measure of justice in the Peanuts universe.

 The jazz music (Vince Guaraldi) is somewhat appropriate: it gives the cartoon an additional quality like the characters were cynical French beatniks smoking cigarettes in a coffee house. So much is absurd: Linus’ unsuccessful stalking of the Great Pumpkin; the swiss cheese ghost costume; the pathetically small Christmas tree. No one gets what they want: Charlie Brown doesn’t kick the football; Lucy doesn’t get Schroeder; Linus doesn’t see the Great Pumpkin, etc. Nothing happens.

 Brian, the Griffin family dog from "Family Guy". He can talk! He can drink! He can date stupid girls! And hell, he’s much smarter than Peter. He actually talks to Peter, Lois, Stewie, and the others. He’s arrogant, but not annoyingly so (this is Stewie’s angle). Aside from Lois, he’s probably the most well-adjusted member of the Griffin household. Unlike Snoopy, he doesn’t remain silent and aloof from all the humans around him, as if they’re beneath him; he’s an active member of the household.

 This show is, well, interesting. The bizarre tangents are entertaining (though it’s a bad habit that gets old quickly), and it certainly brings up alot of very delicate issues and deals with them in a tasteless – but nonetheless humorous – way. Though from this perspective South Park has them beat: all well and fine to bring up a topic (homosexuality, racism, homelessness, handicaps) for discussion, but once you’ve done so, what are you going to say? Or are you simply doing so to shock people and get credit for broaching the subject (Marilyn Manson’s angle)? With South Park at least a statement is made, a position is taken. Not only do they bring up the issue, they address it – in a colorful and bizarre fashion. By the time the episode is over you can perceive the message. I suppose I’d resent it more if I didn’t agree with it so often. "The Family Guy" is a step below that. "The Simpsons" are somewhere in between.

 In this case, though, the only "child" is Stewie, as intelligent as the Peanuts kids but considerably more twisted. Apparently Brian is the only one who can communicate with him, as the other characters consistently ignore whatever blasphemy he spews out. I find him mildly entertaining but mostly unlikable, unlike Brian who is imperfect but about as decent as any of these Quahogg people are going to be – an imperfect world full of imperfect people, to put it mildly, but certainly far more entertaining and comic than the Peanuts world. The others are mischievous in a mildly endearing way, like cute children who get into trouble. Peter is by far the worst. Quagmire is debauched, the buddies are just kinda there, and Meg and Chris are not that interesting. Put me down as being a fan – with Brian as my favorite character.