Pig-Pen (Peanuts)
| Pig-Pen | |
|---|---|
| Peanuts character | |
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|
| First appearance | July 13, 1954 |
| Last appearance | September 8, 1999 Happiness Is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown (2011 Television Special and Movie) The Peanuts Movie (2015 film) |
| Voiced by | Geoffrey Ornstein (1963–1966) Gabrielle DeFaria Ritter (1966–1969) Christopher DeFaria (1969) Chris Inglis (1971) Tom Muller (1974) Carl Steven (1984–1986) Brandon Taylor (1997) Corey Padnos (2000) Jake Miner (2003) Shane Baumel (2011) AJ Teece (2015) Drake Sanchez (2016) |
| Information | |
| Gender | Male |
| Family | Unnamed parents |
"Pig-Pen" is a character in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz. He is a young boy who is, except on very rare occasions, very dirty.
"Pig-Pen" is a nickname, invariably written in quotation marks in the strip. In the character's first appearance on July 13, 1954, in a strip directly parodying the first chapter of Lord of the Flies, he declares, "I haven't got a name ... people just call me things ... real insulting things." If he does have a real name, it is never mentioned. In a 2000 Gallup Poll "Pig-Pen" was found to be the fifth most popular Peanuts character.
"Pig-Pen" is known for his perpetually filthy overalls and the cloud of dirt and dust that follows him wherever he goes. When he takes a deep breath (to sing, for example), the dust rises briefly around him. He sometimes refers to the cloud that surrounds him with pride as the dust of ancient civilizations. He cannot seem to rid himself of the dust for more than the briefest of periods — indeed, in spite of his best efforts, it appears that he cannot stay clean. He is referred to in an early strip as the only person who can get dirty while walking in a snowstorm. Nevertheless, on rare occasions he has very briefly appeared clean, and hence unrecognizable. Once this was in order to impress Violet, of whom he was a bit fond. On another occasion (September 6, 1954), he managed to keep one side of his body clean and presented this clean side to Patty, causing her to believe that he was completely clean.
Once, after bathing and dressing in clean clothes, "Pig-Pen" stepped outside his house, and instantaneously became dirty and disheveled, whereupon he declared to Charlie Brown, "You know what I am? I'm a dust magnet!" On another occasion, "Pig-Pen" decided it was important to have clean hands, but after failing to wash them, realized that he had "reached a point of no return."
One notable exception is an earlier strip where he gets caught in a brief but heavy rainfall, and while trying to seek shelter, the storm ends, revealing him to be clean. He responds with disdain, stating that "in one minute the rain has washed away what took me all day to accomplish".
Though "Pig-Pen" is proud of his uncleanliness, Charlie Brown is the only other Peanuts character to unconditionally accept "Pig-Pen" for who he is, even defending "Pig-Pen's" uncleanliness in one strip (which was re-used in A Charlie Brown Christmas):
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