Peppermint Patty
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- This article is about Peppermint Patty, the comic strip character from Peanuts. There is a separate article about the York Peppermint Pattie, the mint-and-chocolate confectionery.
Patricia "Peppermint Patty" Reichardt is a fictional character featured in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts. She is one of a small group in the strip who live across town from Charlie Brown and his school friends. Generally displaying the characteristics of a tomboy, she made her first appearance on August 22, 1966. The following year she began coaching a baseball team that played against Charlie Brown and since has had other adventures with him. She calls Charlie Brown "Chuck" and Lucy "Lucille" and is the only character to do so (although Peppermint Patty's close friend Marcie has been known to call Charlie Brown "Chuck" on occasion, she usually calls him "Charles").
Peppermint Patty is noted for her persistent habit of profoundly misunderstanding basic concepts and ideas that most people would consider obvious, leading to her to make a fool of herself for being so stupid. For instance, she probably is the only character in the strip who for a very long time did not recognize Snoopy as a dog, continuously referring to him as "the funny looking kid with the big nose". She also thought a school for gifted children meant that she would get free stuff if she enrolled. Likewise she once confused a dog obedience school with a human one, going so far as to enroll and graduate with the other dogs. It was only later that she found out to her mortification when she used that diploma to justify why she didn't have to go to regular school that she publicly humiliated herself for a meaningless honor. She is widely known for receiving a D− grade on every test or assignment in school, possibly aided by her tendency to sleep through class. This was explained by the fact that her father works late, and Patty is too insecure to sleep until he returns home. Her mother apparently died long ago, for Peppermint Patty has no memories of her.
Patty's constant companion, Marcie Johnson, calls her "Sir". Although in recent years, some readers have hypothesized that the two could be lesbians (referenced on TV Funhouse and Family Guy), there is no evidence for such a claim. On the contrary, one Sunday strip dating back to the 1970s, Patty essentially admitted kind of liking Charlie Brown and, in the same strip, Marcie admitted loving Charlie, so far as to affirming her willingness to marry Charlie Brown.
Charles Schulz named the character after the York Peppermint Pattie, and in response the makers of the candy, Peter-Paul (later Peter-Paul Cadbury) ended up being one of the exclusive sponsors (along with McDonald's) of the Peanuts television specials on CBS in the 1970s.it:Piperita Patty