{"version": "1.0", "type": "rich", "title": "I\u2019m pretty sure Peanuts is the apex product of the midcentury American canon, and more specifically the Charlie Brown holiday TV...", "author_name": "kontextmaschine", "author_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "provider_name": "kontextmaschine", "provider_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "url": "https://kontextmaschine.com/post/135921361503/", "html": "

kontextmaschine:

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I\u2019m pretty sure Peanuts is the apex product of the midcentury American canon, and more specifically the Charlie Brown holiday TV specials.

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Like, A Charlie Brown Christmas, 1965, the first one.

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Coca-Cola commissioned a 30-minute animated film with a jazz soundtrack based off the breakthrough comic strip repackaging depressive cynicism for kids. The plot is that the protagonist is depressed and so his psychiatrist tells him to conduct religious rituals to gain a sense of purpose but no one\u2019s even taking the rituals seriously so they don\u2019t work and the climax is literally straight-up King James Bible verses about our savior Jesus Christ reminding them to take the Christmas rituals seriously, at which point everyone is happy.

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And America was like \u201cyes, correct, this is so correct that we want to incorporate it itself into our national-popular Christmas rituals every year\u201d, like the Swedes and their Donald Duck thing.

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In fact, how about more like that, let\u2019s reenchant every holiday in the civic canon with this vision of Protestant reserve in the face of failure. Let\u2019s do Halloween, let\u2019s do Thanksgiving, let\u2019s do Election Day, Valentine\u2019s Day, let\u2019s\u2026 GAINAX made a Charlie Brown holiday special in 2002? What the fuck.

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Let\u2019s do Easter, come the \u201870s let\u2019s do Arbor Day (that one didn\u2019t catch on)\u2026

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