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So in December 22nd, 1985, Charles Schulz made this following Christmas themed Sunday panel featuring Linus and Sally. Linus is reading Sally the second chapter of the Book of Luke (from the Bible), and makes a remark about how King Augustus is near-forgotten while Jesus has an entire holiday dedicated to his birth. Then Sally remarks a rather egotistical statement about how everyone loves her, with Snoopy looking shocked. Linus starts walking away and when Sally asks why he isn't finishing the story he says, "I think you already finished it."

This panel always confused me. I know there's some sort of message here, but I never understood it. It's not true that no one paid any attention to Sally when she was born, because Charlie Brown literally ran out of the house screaming "I'm a father - I mean my Dad's a father - I'm a brother! I have a baby sister" With Linus comically telling Lucy "You didn't act that way when I was born."

Later Charlie Brown pretty much throws a party with everyone getting chocolate cigars (including Snoopy) and talking about how proud he is to be a big brother.

Can someone explain this strip?

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North Læraðr
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    Caesar Augustus is almost forgotten? That's a pretty dubious claim, especially given that an entire month is named after him. Of course a lot more people have heard of Jesus than of Augustus, so the point is well taken, but still. – verbose Nov 21 '20 at 02:30

2 Answers2

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I think this is a play on the word "finished". Relevant definitions of "finish" from Google are:

bring (a task or activity) to an end; complete.
"they were straining to finish the job"

kill, destroy, or comprehensively defeat.
"the English men-at-arms finished them off in hand-to-hand combat".

As regards the latter definition, Dictionary.com tells us that

Meaning "to kill" is from 1755

The story Linus is telling has two points to it. In the first, it is a reminder that the original meaning of Christmas is literally Christian. It celebrates the birth of a figure who encouraged charity and humility. In the second, he reflects on the reasons why certain historical figures are remembered and others are forgotten, and how impossible it is to predict.

Sally's reply indicates she has understood neither point. Her focus is entirely selfish and greedy, showing she has no interest in the wider Christian message of the festival. Her narrow statement that "now everyone loves me" shows her ignorance of the point Linus is making about the vast unlikeliness of being remembered or the reasons why a few people are.

She then asks for the story to be "finished" in the sense of the first definition: to be completed. Linus' reply is that she has "finished" it in the sense of the second: she has essentially "killed" it with her total failure to understand its message.

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Matt Thrower
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  • You're quoting the definition for the adjective finished, not the past tense of the verb finish. And I don't think that to finish means to render something pointless. Maybe figuratively, but not the literal kind of definition you would find in a dictionary – b a Jul 04 '19 at 11:49
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    @ba Except ... I did find that literal definition in a literal dictionary. Think about the phrase "finish him" used to denote a command to kill someone: the tense is irrelevant. Sally has "killed" Linus' story. – Matt Thrower Jul 04 '19 at 13:01
  • This isn't about tense, it's about part of speech. 2. "Not able to continue after a failure" isn't the same as "pointless"
    • – b a Jul 04 '19 at 14:05
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    @ba I thought it was you who raised the issue of tense in the original comment? And while I take your "point" about "pointless", I think a little latitude in interpreting the meaning is called for: this is about word-play after all. "Finished it" as in "killed it" by failing to understand its meaning. I'll edit to try and make this clearer. – Matt Thrower Jul 04 '19 at 14:08
  • The definition you quoted was from "finished" as an adjective ("a finished product," "a finished policy"), but the strip uses it as a past tense verb ("you finished it"). I agree that interpreting it can require latitude, especially if this is wordplay, but I just don't think the dictionary definitions are relevant here – b a Jul 04 '19 at 14:11
  • @ba OK, I have edited the definitions to try and make them more relevant – Matt Thrower Jul 04 '19 at 14:20
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    Ahhh this makes sense, thank you! I never realized it was a play on words – North Læraðr Jul 04 '19 at 14:58