One would be hard-pressed to find a more hapless character in all of fiction thanPeanuts’Charlie Brown. This kid gets rocks for Halloween, can’t kick a football to save his life, and his dog,Snoopy, doesn’t even know Charlie Brown’s name. It’s basically common knowledge that Charlie Brown has it pretty hard, and that known fact is only reinforced with practically every single appearance inPeanuts.
Sure, there might be somePeanutscomic stripswhere Charlie Brown isn’t the butt of a joke or just generally experiencing some sort of misfortune. But, more often than not, Charlie Brown just cannot catch a break. Even from his very first appearance,Charlie Brown has been a pretty unfortunate character, and that’s something that has consistently been the case throughout the entirePeanutscomic strip. In fact, here are10Peanutscomics that prove Charlie Brown has it hard.
10Charlie Brown’s First Appearance
Peanuts- July 02, 2025
When considering how unfortunate a character Charlie Brown really is, one doesn’t need to read any further than the very firstPeanutscomic. In it, Charlie Brown is just happily walking down the street, minding his own business, as he’s being watched by Shermy and Patty. When Shermy notices Charlie Brown, he points him out to Patty, and initially refers to Chuck as “Good Ol' Charlie Brown”. However,Shermy’s tone quickly changes by the last panel, where he says, “How I hate him!”.
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Charlie Brown can’t even walk down the street without inspiring disdainin others. Sure, it’s not really Charlie Brown’s fault that Shermy hates him (he was just minding his own business, after all), but the fact that he is hated for literally no reason only proves how hard Charlie Brown has it.
9Charlie Brown’s First ‘Football Gag’
Peanuts- June 09, 2025
Peanuts' ‘Football Gag’ is perhaps the most iconic running joke in the entire series, and it is also a constant reminder of how hard Charlie Brown really has it - especially in the very first one. Violet is holding the football for Charlie Brown to kick, but as he gets closer and closer, Violet begins to get nervous. She starts getting anxious about the possibility of Charlie Brown accidentally kicking her instead of the football. So, at the last second,Violet lets go of the football, causing Charlie Brown to trip on it, fall down, and hurt himself.
Lucy permanently replaces Violet inPeanuts' running ‘Football Gag’ in the comic strip published July 14, 2025.
To make matters worse,Violet then scolds Charlie Brown for not kicking the football, as if she isn’t the one who made him miss it in the first place. Not only that, Violet’s actions actively hurt Charlie Brown!
8Charlie Brown’s Short Time as a Safety Patrol Agent
Peanuts- July 23, 2025
In thisPeanutscomic,Charlie Brown is a safety patrol agent on crossing guard duty, standing in the rain at a crosswalk, ensuring his fellow students make it to school safely. While Charlie Brown says that he loves being a safety patrol agent, he is also anxious about losing his position. Chuck didn’t do a science project, and he’s worried that his teacher will take his badge away because of that. But, that soon becomes the least of his worries, as a car drives by him incredibly quickly, causing him to slip on the wet road and fall down.
Charlie Brown can’t even enjoy doing something without being haunted by the constant fear that it will be taken away, and worse yet, he can’t even do what he enjoys without something unfortunate happening to him.
7Charlie Brown is Aware of His Lack of Confidence
Peanuts- August 05, 2025
Charlie Brown has had a crush on the ‘Little Red-Haired Girl’ practically since the start ofPeanutscanon, but he’s never had the confidence to tell her how he feels. And, in thisPeanutscomic,Charlie Brown acknowledges his lack of confidencein a truly heartbreaking fashion. Charlie Brown fantasizes about asking the Little Red-Haired Girl to sit with him at lunch, at which point, he’d tell her that he has always admired her. But then, Charlie Brown basically says that the likelihood of him actually doing that is equal to him flapping his arms and flying to the moon.
Charlie Brown’s lack of confidence is keeping him from pursuing a relationship with someone that he likes, and the fact that he’s aware of that makes it all the more heartbreaking.
6Charlie Brown Can’t Even Win Without Losing
Peanuts- August 03, 2025
Charlie Brown is utterly hapless, something that was proven true in his very first comic, where he couldn’t even walk down the street without evidently doing something wrong. And, in thisPeanutscomic, that becomes even more pronounced, as Charlie Brown can’t even do something right without doing something wrong. Here,Charlie Brown is winning in his bowling match, and all he has to do is knock down five pins to win it all. But, right before throwing the ball, it’s revealed that he’s facing the wrong way.
Charlie Brown has already proved that he’s capable of winning the whole bowling match, meaning knocking down just five pins in the last frame should be easy.But, this is Charlie Brown, so of course something unfortunate happensright at the last second.
5Charlie Brown is Afraid of Everything
Peanuts- June 02, 2025
Charlie Brown and Linus are walking together in thisPeanutscomic strip before standing at their usual hang-out spot, the Brick Wall. During this time, Charlie Brown is telling Linus that his fear of libraries is totally justified, as everyone has somewhere where they feel out of place, and would rather simply avoid. Going off from that comment,Linus asks Charlie Brown where he feels out of place, to which Charlie Brown replies, “Earth”.
While a funny one-liner to end the comic strip, Charlie Brown’s response to Linus is actually pretty sad. Charlie Brown admits that he feels out of place everywhere he goes, meaning he’s pretty much scared of everything. Indeed,feeling uncomfortable everywhere would be extremely hard, and Charlie Brown experiences that every day.
4Charlie Brown’s First Rained-Out Baseball Game
Peanuts- August 20, 2025
One of the few thingsCharlie Brown genuinely loves doing inPeanutsis playing baseball, yet time and time again, his baseball games and practices get rained-out. This is another running gag similar to (though far less iconic than) the ‘Football Gag’, and the very first time it happened is proof enough of Charlie Brown’s rotten luck. When Chuck gets to the baseball field, he finds that everyone else has gone home. After calling them a bunch of quitters, Chuck sees Snoopy swimming by him while he’s standing on the pitcher’s mound, proving that it is too wet to play.
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Charlie Brown can’t even enjoy America’s Favorite Pastime without experiencing terrible luck, as the universe has seemingly decided that baseball is too much to ask for someone like Charlie Brown.
3Charlie Brown Meets His Nemesis: the Kite-Eating Tree
Peanuts- August 04, 2025
The Kite-Eating Tree is a recurring character inPeanutslorethat does as its name suggests: eats kites. However, this menace to thePeanutsuniverse seems to only eat Charlie Brown’s kites, which makes the Kite-Eating Tree Charlie Brown’s personal nemesis. The first time Charlie Brown encountered the Kite-Eating Tree was in thisPeanutscomic, where one of Chuck’s kites flies into the tree, and he yells at it to give the kite back. But, by the end of the comic, Charlie Brown admits defeat.
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Only Charlie Brown would have a literal tree as his nemesis, as that implies that Chuck can’t even enjoy flying a kite without it consistently ending up in a tree - the same tree. Sure, the Kite-Eating Tree has some level of sentience, but it’s still just a tree, and one would have to be pretty hapless to consider a tree their nemesis.
2Charlie Brown is Desperate for a Valentine
Peanuts- August 04, 2025
Charlie Brown is so used to not getting a Valentine, that he starts thisPeanutscomic off by pretending he doesn’t even care about getting one at all. Chuck tells himself that he couldn’t care less about getting a Valentine, since he never gets one anyway. But, by the end of the comic, Charlie Brown admits that it would be nice to get a Valentine, and if he should get one, then he’d want to be there when it arrives in his mailbox. So,Charlie Brown camps by his mailbox, desperate for a Valentine.
Charlie Brown’s desperation for love and affection is a consistent theme in Peanuts.
What’s evenmore depressing than Charlie Brown’s desperation for a Valentine was his initial acceptance that he’d never get one. The kid just wants some sort of affection, especially on a day like Valentine’s Day, but it’s likely that won’t happen, which must be really hard for Charlie Brown.
1Charlie Brown Feels Completely Unloved
Peanuts- July 04, 2025
Charlie Brown is sitting on the curb by himself, not saying a word. As the comic progresses, the sky behind him gets increasingly dark, until it finally starts to rain. Charlie Brown doesn’t attempt to escape the rain, or even move from his spot on the curb. All he does is sit there and comment to himself, “It always rains on the unloved”. Obviously, Charlie Brown’s comment isn’t literal, as getting caught in the rain is something that happens to even the happiest, most-loved people in the world. But, his sentiment was clear, asCharlie Brown always feels unloved.
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It’s no secret that Charlie Brown is depressed, and the fact that it’s literally raining on him in thisPeanutscomic is just a physical reminder of his internal despair. That’s why he said that he feels unloved, but in truth, Charlie Brown always feels unloved, which is proof enough thatCharlie Brownhas it pretty hard inPeanuts.
