The Kite-Eating Tree is a

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a tradi ...

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

in the ''

Peanuts ''Peanuts'' is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz. The strip's original run extended from 1950 to 2000, continuing in reruns afterward. ''Peanuts'' is among the most popular and inf ...

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics ter ...

created by Charles M. Schulz. In the comics, when

Charlie Brown Charles "Charlie" Brown is the principal character of the comic strip '' Peanuts'', syndicated in daily and Sunday newspapers in numerous countries all over the world. Depicted as a "lovable loser," Charlie Brown is one of the great American a ...

attempts to fly a

kite A kite is a tethered heavier-than-air or lighter-than-air craft with wing surfaces that react against the air to create lift and drag forces. A kite consists of wings, tethers and anchors. Kites often have a bridle and tail to guide the fac ...

, the kite always ends up tangled in the tree. In an editorial from 1964, the '' U.S. Catholic'' stated that Charlie Brown's encounters with the Kite-Eating Tree represent "defeat, but not capitulation" because Charlie Brown "refuses to concede that the impossible won’t someday happen—that he will manage to get the kite in the sky, where it belongs." Schulz considered the tree one of the series' 12 major

set piece In film production, a set piece is a scene or sequence of scenes whose execution requires complex logistical planning and considerable expenditure of money. The term is often also used more broadly to describe a sequence in which the film-maker's ...

s. He created the tree in response to his experiences with kites getting caught in trees, both as a child and when flying kites with his children. He stated that the kite "usually disappears over a period of several weeks. Now obviously the kite had to go someplace, so it seemed to me that the tree must be eating it." In the first series featuring the Kite-Eating Tree, which ran in April 1956, Charlie Brown holds onto the string of his kite in the tree for eight days before having to let go when it begins raining. This instance was cited as demonstrating that the "humor of ''Peanuts'' lies in the extremity of bad luck the characters" face. In a 1977 series, Charlie Brown bit the tree, after which he received a legal notification from the

Environmental Protection Agency A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale ...

. In yet another series in January 1969, Lucy becomes so enraged at Schroeder continually ignoring her that she seizes his piano and throws it up into the tree, which proceeds to devour it. The Kite-Eating Tree has played a part in adaptations of the comic strip, including the musical '' You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown'' (1967) and ''

The Peanuts Movie ''The Peanuts Movie'' (known in some countries as ''Snoopy and Charlie Brown: A Peanuts Movie'') is a 2015 American computer-animated comedy film based on Charles M. Schulz's comic strip ''Peanuts'', produced by Blue Sky Studios and distributed ...

'' (2015). And it is featured as part of a ride at Camp Snoopy, the Peanuts-themed area within Knott's Berry Farm. At the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center, a tree in the courtyard is designated as a representation of the Kite-Eating Tree.

In popular culture

*In the ''

Robot Chicken ''Robot Chicken'' is an American adult animated stop motion sketch comedy television series, created and executive produced for Adult Swim by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich along with co-head writers Douglas Goldstein and Tom Root. The write ...

'' episode "Vegetable Funfest" in the skit "The Time of the Great Pumpkin", a parody of ''

It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown ''It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown'' is a 1966 American prime time animated television special based on the comic strip ''Peanuts'' by Charles M. Schulz. A Halloween special, it was the third ''Peanuts'' special (and second holiday-themed ...

'' where Linus summons the Great Pumpkin using black magic which goes around killing the Peanuts characters in a horror movie fashion. The last survivor Charlie Brown flees to the Kite-Eating Tree which ends up eating the Great Pumpkin, saving Charlie Brown's life and ending the Great Pumpkin's rampage. *Version 3.4.3 of the R programming language was nicknamed as Kite-Eating Tree.

References

{{Peanuts Peanuts characters Fictional trees Comics characters introduced in 1965 Kite flying