Woodstock



''Woodstock knows that he is very small and inconsequential indeed. It’s a problem we all have. The universe boggles us…Woodstock is a lighthearted expression of that idea."'' Charles M. Schulz on Woodstock

Woodstock is a character in the Peanuts comic strip by Charles M. Schulz. He is best known as Snoopy's sidekick. He is named after the 1969 music festival in New York state. He first appeared in Peanuts in 1967 but did not have a name until mid 1970.

History
Snoopy started befriending birds in the early 1960s. His bird friends appeared occasionally, and, unlike Woodstock, looked like actual birds. Woodstock made his debut, in 1966, when one of Snoopy's bird friends made her nest on Snoopy's stomach. After the mother bird left and did not come back, Snoopy decided to care for the birds until they hatched (which proved to be very difficult). When the eggs hatched and the baby birds flew away, one bird, who eventually becomes Woodstock, had a lot of trouble flying. The undertalented bird stayed by Snoopy and his doghouse. At first, Snoopy was annoyed by the winged pest, but eventually warmed to him.

The bird was named Woodstock on June 22, 1970. Since then, Snoopy and Woodstock have been close friends. Snoopy even became friends with Woodstock's friends, who do not look like normal birds either. Woodstock and his bird friends together form Snoopy's Beagle Scouts.

Woodstock joins in many of Snoopy's fantasy games. The pair sometimes argue but they always hug and make up and their disagreements are quickly forgiven and forgotten.

Species
Snoopy has often wondered what type of bird Woodstock is. Snoopy attempts to identify him using his Guide to Birds. The birds which Snoopy suggests and Woodstock attempts to imitate are: crow, American bittern, Caroline wren, rufous-sided towhee, yellow-billed cuckoo, Canada goose, warbler, and a mourning warbler. Snoopy finally gives up trying to figure it out, and hurts Woodstock's feelings by saying, "For all I know, you're a duck". Snoopy takes it back with a quick hug, at which point it becomes clear that it does not matter what type of bird Woodstock is; the only important fact is that he is Snoopy's best friend.

Woodstock is sometimes assumed by Peanuts readers to be canary due to his resemblance to Tweety Bird but has never been named as such in the strip.

Schulz never definitively answered the question of what type of bird Woodstock was supposed to be.

Gender
Schulz originally considered the bird to be a female but changed his mind after naming it in June 1970. In an interview in 1987 Schulz said; "I had been reading the Life magazine article about the Woodstock festival and I had the little bird in the strip. It was a she and she was Snoopy's secretary and I was doing secretary jokes quite often so then I thought Woodstock would be a good name for this bird and also, it will get the attention of these people that liked that kind of thing. Suddenly she was not a secretary; she became Woodstock, the boy. It just happened. But that's what's good about a comic strip - you can just do it."

In the Norwegian translation of Peanuts the bird is named Fredrikke - a female name - and it is always referred to as a female.