Snoopy

''Snoopy’s whole personality is a little bittersweet. But he’s a very strong character. He can win or lose, be a disaster, a hero, or anything, and yet it all works out. I like the fact that when he’s in real trouble, he can retreat into a fantasy and thereby escape."''

Charles M. Schulz on Snoopy

Snoopy is one of the main characters of the Peanuts comic strip by Charles M. Schulz. He is very well known, even more well known than Charlie Brown, and may be among the most recognizable comic characters in the world. He is Charlie Brown's pet beagle, and is owned and cared for by Charlie Brown, although at times it is not clear who is in charge. Snoopy is blessed with a rich, Walter Mitty-like fantasy life.

History
Snoopy first appeared in the October 4, 1950 strip, two days after the strip began. Schulz originally planned to call him "Sniffy", but found out that name was used in a different comic strip. He then changed the dog's name to Snoopy. The name first appeared on November 10, 1950.

Snoopy has some little bird friends, the most loyal of which is Woodstock. Snoopy also has seven siblings, Spike, Belle, Marbles, Olaf, Andy, and two others named in the special "Snoopy's Reunion" as Molly and Rover. These eight puppies were born at the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm. Snoopy has recalled his family going to the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm's chapel every day, and being part of a fifty-beagle choir. He also taught Sunday school there, a fact Charlie Brown sometimes forgets. He went to school at the Ace Obedience School.

Snoopy loves root beer and pizza, hates coconut candy, gets claustrophobia in tall weeds, and is deathly afraid of icicles dangling over his doghouse. One of his hobbies is reading Leo Tolstoy's epic novel War and Peace at the rate of "a word a day". Snoopy also has the uncanny ability to play fetch with soap bubbles, and can hear someone eating marshmallows or cookies at a distance, or even peeling a banana. Snoopy is also capable of disappearing, like the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland, as shown in an extended strip, whenever Charlie Brown reads the book to him. ("Grins are easy. Noses are hard. Ears are almost impossible."). Two things Snoopy dislikes are listening to balloons being squeezed and cats.

According to the movie, Snoopy Come Home, at an early age, Snoopy was taken in by a girl named Lila, but when she was unable to keep him, he was returned to the farm, where Charlie Brown picked him up. This fact came to light when Lila was in the hospital and wrote to Snoopy, asking him to come and visit her. Linus did some research and learned of this, sharing his information with Charlie Brown when Snoopy returned.

Snoopy appears to like Charlie Brown. Once when Charlie Brown came home from camp, Snoopy made a welcome home banner and was waiting outside Charlie Brown's house with cake. However, the banner said "Welcome home, Round-headed Kid." Snoopy often referred to Charlie Brown as "the Round-Headed Kid" not out of spite, but simply because he could not remember his name. In the Peanuts animated television specials, the voice of Snoopy was provided by Bill Melendez, later by Frank Welker.

Personality
Snoopy is a genuinely happy dog. A running gag with that in the strip, is that he would do a "happy﻿ dance" which annoys Lucy, because nobody can ever be that happy, but Snoopy just thinks Lucy is jealous that she can't be as happy as he is. The only thing that upsets him, is a lack of supper.

Snoopy also loves sleeping, and being lazy, a trait which often annoys Frieda. Snoopy often lays on top of his doghouse, and sleeps, sometimes all day long. Charlie Brown once referred to him as a hunting dog, for he always hunts for the easy way out of life.

In the final years of the strip, Snoopy's main human contact, when not indulging his fantasy lives, was with Rerun van Pelt. Younger than the other children, Rerun dealt with his loneliness and lack of his own dog by persistently asking to borrow Snoopy from Charlie Brown. Snoopy alternated between refusing to leave the house and agreeing to play with Rerun on his own terms, such as having Rerun push him on a stroller or pull him on a sled. While he also showed genuine affection for Rerun, Snoopy sometimes reacted indignantly to being treated as a common dog. One incident, in which Rerun called him a "puppy dog" while playing with a stick, saw Snoopy drop the stick off a cliff and declare, "I am not a puppy dog."

Development
In the very early years of Peanuts, Snoopy acted like a regular dog, but gradually, became more like a human than a dog. Snoopy was a silent character for the first two years of his existence, but on May 27, 1952 he verbalized his thoughts to readers for the first time in a thought balloon.

Schulz once said that the best idea he ever had in the strip was to move Snoopy from inside his doghouse to the rooftop. Preceding that, there was a gradual evolution of the character, from something like an actual dog to an anthropomorphic character, more like typical cartoon animals.

Snoopy did many impressions. His earliest impression (a bird) was on August 9, 1951. Starting November 17, 1955, his impressions really began. He did impressions of Violet, a pelican, Lucy, a moose, Beethoven and Mickey Mouse. He would also pretend to be other animals, including a snake, rhinoceros, lion, and vulture. But his eccentricities did not stop there.

On April 12, 1957, Snoopy first appeared on Charlie Brown's baseball team, as the shortstop. This was a long running gag in the comic strip.

On June 28, 1957, Snoopy walked on his two hind legs, like a human, for the first time. This soon became so commonplace as to be almost unnoticeable. As the series progressed, Snoopy becomes a more human-like dog. His character is that of a dog who thinks he is a person (or who sometimes forgets he is a dog). In one strip, Sally has to do a report on animals for school, and requests Snoopy's help. But Snoopy was reluctant. "How can I help? I don't know any animals."

Fantasy life
Snoopy has a very big fantasy life. He has many alter egos. His most famous one is The World War I Flying Ace. When assuming this personality, Snoopy would don goggles, a flying helmet and a scarf and climb on top of his doghouse, which he claimed was a Sopwith Camel. The Red Baron, his enemy, like other adult figures in Peanuts, was never drawn in a strip; his presence was indicated through the bullet holes that would riddle the doghouse, and Snoopy's fist-shaking and cries of "Curse you Red Baron" while his "Sopwith Camel" doghouse plummeted to earth trailing smoke. Snoopy has many other alter egos. For instance "Joe Cool", as he put on sunglasses and leaned against the wall doing nothing. Snoopy has also been a famous writer, a bow-tie wearing attorney (who once defended Peter Rabbit), a hockey player, an Olympic figure skater (who used to skate with Peggy Fleming before he became "big time"); a world famous grocery checkout clerk who operated from the top of his dog house in an apron. He even appeared as an astronaut, and claims to be the first beagle on the moon.

Snoopy in other media
Over the years, Snoopy has become the mascot of several different companies.


 * Following the Apollo I fire, Snoopy became the official mascot of aerospace safety, testing and the rebuilding of the Apollo Program, due to his refusal to accept defeat and his "'outside the doghouse' way of looking at things." A series of Snoopy-in-Space ("Astrobeagle") products arrived with this campaign, and originals are still prized.


 * The Apollo 10 lunar module was nicknamed "Snoopy" and the command module "Charlie Brown". While not included in the official mission logo, Charlie Brown and Snoopy became semi-official mascots for the mission.


 * The Silver Snoopy award is a special NASA honor, in the form of a sterling silver pin with an engraving of Snoopy in a spacesuit helmet. It is given by an astronaut to someone who works in the space program that has gone above and beyond in pursuit of quality and safety.


 * A series of postage stamps featuring Snoopy as a World War I flying ace was released on May 17, 2001 in Santa Rosa, California.


 * Snoopy, piloting his "Sopwith Camel" (i.e., his doghouse), is featured in the logo of Charles M. Schulz - Sonoma County Airport.


 * Snoopy is the US Air Force Communications - Computer Systems Control mascot. He can be seen on the Tech Control emblem holding an old analog patch cord above his head as he walks on water.


 * During the Gulf War Snoopy appeared as nose art on several aircraft. He remains a popular image in air forces that still allow crews to customize the appearance of their planes.


 * Snoopy is the name of a U.S. Air Force B-58 Hustler bomber, serial number 55-0665, which was modified to test a radar system.


 * Snoopy is the name of the primary research vehicle of Check-Six.com. *The black-and-white communications caps (formally called a Communications Carrier Assembly) worn as part of NASA spacesuits, carrying radio earphones and microphones, are universally known as "Snoopy caps", due to the resemblance of the white center and black outer sections to the top of Snoopy's head.


 * In 1966, the "Ace" was immortalized in song by The Royal Guardsmen with their hit, "Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron". This was followed in 1967 by "The Return of the Red Baron", in which it is revealed that the Baron survived their previous encounter but runs away when Snoopy challenges him to a duel with pistols, and then by "Snoopy's Christmas", in which the two foes temporarily set aside their differences for a Chr
 * istmas toast, as per the Christmas Truces that occurred during World War I. "Snoopy's Christmas" continues to be played as a holiday favorite on many oldies radio stations. During the 1968 U.S. Presidential election, the Guardsmen released two additional songs, "Snoopy for President", in which Snoopy's bid for the nomination of the Beagle party is tipped in his favor by the Red Baron, and "Down Behind the Lines", which does not mention Snoopy specifically but describes the attempts of a World War I pilot to fly his damaged Sopwith Camel back to friendly territory. In 2006 the Guardsmen recorded a song called "Snoopy vs. Osama" in which Snoopy shifts his focus away from The Red Baron and captures Osama Bin Laden.


 * American insurance company MetLife has used Snoopy as their corporate mascot since the 1980s. Snoopy One, Snoopy Two and Snoopy Three are three airships owned and operated by MetLife that provide aerial coverage of American sporting events, and feature Snoopy as the World War I flying ace on their fuselage