Is This Peanuts' Funniest "Great Pumpkin" Storyline? (That Time Linus Was Declared A "False Prophet," Explained)

The Great Pumpkin is one of the most beloved aspects of Peanuts lore, with the gag spanning nearly the entire history of Charles Schulz's legendary comic strip – but the 1977 arc where Marcie joined Linus on his vigil in the pumpkin patch, only to be "deprogrammed" from her belief in the Great Pumpkin afterward, might be the funniest instance of the bit ever.

The Great Pumpkin was first referenced in 1959, nearly ten years into Peanuts time in publication. From then on, it became a staple of Charles Schulz's fall stories, appearing almost-yearly on or around Halloween.

In fact, over the next four decades, the Great Pumpkin was only absent seven times, with three of those years coming in the 1970s. In 1977, however, Charles Schulz wrote a Great Pumpkin storyline that was Peanuts at peak hilarity, a six-day arc that remains at the top of the list when it comes to Schulz's Halloween Peanuts comics.

Linus Being Declared A "False Prophet" Was The Pinnacle Of Peanuts' Great Pumpkin Jokes

First Published: October 31 To November 5, 1977

"I've decided I need something to believe in," Marcie tells Linus in the Halloween 1977 Peanuts strip, as she joins him to await the arrival of the Great Pumpkin – which, in typical Marcie fashion, she misnames as the "Great Grape." The next day, Linus wallows in another year without witnessing the Pumpkin's appearance, but Charlie Brown is more curious about Marcie's absence. "Her parents came and got her," Linus morosely explains, hilariously adding, "she's being deprogrammed!" Over the next several days, this bit would escalate to the point of Linus gaining a reputation as a "false prophet."

Peanuts has a certain reputation for lighthearted, even innocuous humor – but the more readers return to Charles Schulz's work, it becomes clear that the author had a strange, at times borderline absurd sense of humor. This is a sterling example of that; what makes this 1977 arc perhaps the best Great Pumpkin storyline in Peanuts history is how it uses the long-running joke in a way that was unique up to that point, and was arguably not rivaled in subsequent years.

That is, in this sequence of cartoons, Charles Schulz used the familiar Great Pumpkin premise –​​​​​​​ Linus waits for the mythical being to arrive, only to be perennially stood up – to put two of the Peanuts Gang, Linus and Marcie, in a totally unexpected situation. Schulz's use of terminology like "deprogramming" and "false prophet" was contrasted with the childish nature of the characters and their circumstances, and the dissonance between the two is what makes this such a laugh-out-loud Peanuts arc.

Marcie's Huge Role In The Great Pumpkin's Funniest Joke Grew Out Of Seeds Planted Years Earlier

First Published: November 1, 1973

One of the most underappreciated things about Peanuts is its sly sense of continuity; Charles Schulz had a strong memory for previous jokes and stories, and he would often reintroduce concepts or character traits years after their initial introduction and take them in new directions. That was the case with Marcie's 1977 Great Pumpkin storyline, which built on her role in the 1973 iteration of the gag – in which Linus furiously corrected her for incorrectly calling it the "Great Squash." In this way, her 1977 arc starts as a callback, but then Schulz pushes it forward, to uproarious results.

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When Marcie reappeared in the November 2, 1977 Peanuts strip, she explained to her best friend Peppermint Patty how unpleasant it was to be "deprogrammed" – and the next day's strip was when she matter-of-factly explained to Linus that her parents had called him a "false prophet." Again, the humor of the strip comes from its mixture of gravity and levity; Marcie's off-panel parents are obviously treating this as a grave situation, yet the tone of these Peanuts panels remains as lighthearted as ever, which serves to make the language being throw around even more ridiculously funny.

The term "deprogramming" is used when describing individuals who have been rescued from cults, while the idea of the "false prophet" is deeply tied into Western religion. There is immediate humor in the way these concepts are casually thrown around by the Peanuts characters; this is another thing that makes this a stand-out Great Pumpkin story, because it is the most direct confrontation of the religious undertones of Linus' desire for the arrival of the Pumpkin – something implicit in the joke from its inception, but not always tackled head on in this way.

The Great Pumpkin Might Have Peaked In '77 – But It Remained A Fixture Of Peanuts Until The End

First Published: October 30, 1977

Peanuts' Great Pumpkin jokes were always amusing, but the 1977 storyline was the bit at its most over-the-top. It was also the last extended Great Pumpkin arc until the early 1990s, and is certainly the strongest example of Schulz using the Pumpkin to put his characters in an unusual context. The way it envelops multiple characters, using each of them to deliver a satisfying joke, adds to its appeal. Linus, Marcie, and then Sally – as she skims the Bible, to see if Linus is named a false prophet – all have strong character moments during this short arc.

The Great Pumpkin may never have reached this height again, but it continued to be an essential part of Peanuts toward the end of every year, right up until 1999, the final year of the strip. Even decades later, the Great Pumpkin is one of the things that is most synonymous with the legacy of Peanuts, especially when it comes to Linus as a character. Readers who sample Peanuts' Great Pumpkin panels from over the years will find lots to love, but will be hard-pressed to come across anything that surpasses this 1977 series of comics.

The Great Pumpkin's Legacy Is More Closely Associated With Animation Than The Original Comics

Of course, the impact of Peanuts on pop culture can't fully be discussed without mention of the franchise's legendary animated specials, which helped take Charles Schulz's work to the next level in the 1960s and 1970s. Among the most well-received was 1966's It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown – released eleven years before Schulz produced his best iteration of the joke on the page. That means the 1977 "false prophet" arc came at the peak of Peanuts popularity, when an entire generation of new readers had already been raised on the animated version.

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In other words, the 1977 Great Pumpkin storyline was a product of Charles Schulz being creatively adventurous, at a time when he was especially secure in the knowledge that his dedicated –​​​​​​​ and continually increasing – legion of fans understood and appreciated his humor. More than just the best of this particular ongoing joke, these panels represent the dexterity of Schulz's humor, and the surprising places that Peanuts isn't always remembered for going to, but routinely explored throughout its fifty years in publication.

Peanuts

Created by Charles M. Schulz, Peanuts is a multimedia franchise that began as a comic strip in the 1950s and eventually expanded to include films and a television series. Peanuts follows the daily adventures of the Peanuts gang, with Charlie Brown and his dog Snoopy at the center of them. Aside from the film released in 2015, the franchise also has several Holiday specials that air regularly on U.S. Television during their appropriate seasons.