Anyone who was born in the last century is aware of one of the best comic gags of all times. A proud and determined young boy has a goal of kicking a football. He’s not worried about distance or direction – his goal is simply to kick the ball. Like a good leader or manager, he 
knows he can’t accomplish this goal alone and will need help (additional resources). So he seeks a helper (holder) so he can accomplish his goal of kicking the ball. A young girl volunteers to assist him. The boy knows that his helper is unreliable, but he hopes against hope that she will be dependable enough, long enough, to help him achieve his goal. But alas, she is not. So he not only doesn’t achieve his goal, but his failure often leaves him worse off than he was before, often injured and more dejected. And yet, he continues to hope that she will change her behavior so he can accomplish his goals. Of course, I’m talking about Charles M. Schultz’ Peanuts characters: Charlie Brown and Lucy Van Pelt.
Business management schools have made a fortune using this scenario to drive home the point of: picking the right resources to accomplish tasks and getting employee buy-in on organizational goals. But the basic question remains: why do Charlie Brown and Lucy Van Pelt have this toxic relationship?
Believe it or not, it’s her revenge against him for something he did to her back in 1953. Before 1953, Lucy was an able, if not competent assistant, but she was not the first one Charlie Brown asked to help him in kicking the ball. That honor went to Violet in 1951 who was never asked again to help. (Click on any below picture to see the comic at the GoComics website.)
November 14, 1951
A year later, on November 16, 1952, Lucy agrees for the first time to hold the ball for Charlie Brown to kick and to his regret she does EXACTLY as he asks. However, she clearly wants to be helpful and displays no malice toward him or his goal.
That relationship changes, however, on October 18, 1953. Lucy is trying, without success, to kick a football. Charlie Brown, who displayed an occasional streak of meanness in the early strips, yells and belittles her for not being more successful in her efforts. He tells her that she’s hopeless and she should go home. He embarrassed her in front of Schroeder – the love of her life. She does go home and their relationship is never the same afterwards.
The gag doesn’t appear again until three years later on December 16, 1956. It would, however, afterwards run annually for the next 43 years cementing its legacy. Every thing that happens in the 1956 comic is the template for future ones. Charlie Brown wants to kick the ball. Lucy promises not to pull the ball away, but both we and Charlie Brown know that she will and she doesn’t disappoint either of us. For the next 23 years, Lucy Van Pelt exacts her revenge against Charlie Brown for his 1953 single act of meanness. Is it any wonder that Lucy made money with her psychiatrist booth and Charlie Brown as her primary patient?
However, all is not completely hopeless for Charlie Brown and Lucy. In 1979, Charlie Brown becomes seriously ill and Lucy promises him that if he’ll recover, she’ll never pull the ball away again. He does recover and she keeps her promise and doesn’t pull the ball away. But, Charlie Brown missed the ball anyway and nearly breaks Lucy’s hand. The next day’s strip show an angry Lucy with a huge bandage on her hand and arm. She will never waiver again on humiliating Charlie Brown for the remainder of the 20 year run of the strip.
August 2, 1979.
When Charles Schultz ended the strip on February 13, 2000, he’d already left it up to the readers to decide whether or not Charlie Brown finally got to kick the ball. The final football gag appeared on October 24, 1999. Again, Lucy was going to hold the ball for Charlie Brown to kick, but her mother calls her away to lunch. She tells her little brother, Rerun, to take her place and hold the ball. Rerun doesn’t tell her (or us) whether or not Charlie Brown actually accomplished his goal of kicking the ball, but I’d like to think after 43 years of trying that he did get the kick away and that it was long and true. But knowing Charlie Brown, that probably wasn’t the case.
The Charlie Brown/ Lucy Van Pelt relationship remains at the center of one of the best comic gags ever written. But, it’s not completely one–sided. Lucy is not so much the villain in these tales as she is the heroine getting revenge on the person who humiliated her when she was younger. When seen in that light – Charlie Brown is just getting what’s coming to him.
More information on the history of the Peanuts football gag can be found on the Peanuts wiki. All of the Peanuts strips by Charles M. Schultz can be found at GoComic starting here.