Thibault

Thibault.

Thibault (pronounced tee-bo) is a minor male character in the Peanuts comic strip by Charles M. Schulz and the adversary of both of his appearances (the protagonists being Charlie Brown in the first storyline and Marcie in the second). He first appeared in the strip from June 4, 1970, in which Charlie Brown was very surprised by his unusual name. Thibault is shorter than most of the other Peanuts characters, but in spite of that, he is angry, argumentative, pugnacious, and generally unpleasant, with an angry look and a perpetual frown on his face. He sports a mullet-like haircut and, despite being smaller than most of the gang, he is surprisingly depicted as having sideburns in both his comic strip and TV appearances.

History

Thibault's first appearance in the strip from June 4, 1970.

The storyline in which Thibault was introduced saw Peppermint Patty ask Charlie Brown to come over and lend his baseball glove to a player on her team who does not have one. The player in question is Thibault. After the game, Thibault refuses to return Charlie Brown's glove saying instead, "I'll fight you for it" and later, "I know your kind. You come around here thinking you're better than us." Even after Peppermint Patty threatens to kick Thibault off her team if he does not return Charlie Brown's glove, Charlie Brown himself is delighted that anyone could imagine him as being superior in any way. He is so pleased that he allows Thibault to keep the glove and leaves happily, much to Peppermint Patty's lack of understanding and her outrage. Thibault tells her she sure knows some weird people, so she implies to him that "his funny looking friend with the big nose" is even weirder.

An angry Marcie confronts Thibault in the episode "Snoopy the Psychiatrist" from The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show.

Thibault appears again in the strip from July 30, 1973, when he criticizes Peppermint Patty for letting Marcie play on their team, just because she is a girl. Ironically, he ignores the fact that Peppermint Patty is a girl, too. As a result, Peppermint Patty threatens to "shred him" if he says another word. In the strips which first appeared between August 1 and August 4, 1973, Thibault continually criticizes Marcie, especially for wearing glasses (as he thinks buying glasses for a girl is a waste of money), and finally, kicks dirt on her shoes. Marcie has Peppermint Patty call a time-out, and then the former threatens to "belt [him] right across the chops" if he says one word. When he says "Oh?", Marcie says, "That was one word!" and punches him. Peppermint Patty sarcastically responds with "Nice going, Marcie... You destroyed my second baseman!" Marcie says she is sorry, got carried away and was going to lecture him on the good qualities of women, but hit him instead. Finally she refuses to play anymore because she hates baseball.

The series of strips in which appeared Thibault would later be adapted into a segment for the episode "Snoopy the Psychiatrist" from the first season of The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show. Parts of the storyline were cut out of the segment.

Trivia

• Thibault is one of the many Peanuts characters to appear in the game Snoopy's Street Fair, in which he owns a duck hunt stall.
• Thibault may have let Peppermint Patty off the hook since she appeared boy-like in his mind.