Lucy and the football

Lucy and the football is a cultural meme about tricking another person repeatedly. It is based on the fictional character Lucille “Lucy” van Pelt in the syndicated comic strip Peanuts, written and drawn by Charles Schulz. She is the main bully and the older sister of Linus and Rerun. Lucy is a crabby and cynical eight-year-old girl, and often bullies the other characters in the strip, particularly Linus and Charlie Brown. She is often referred to as the world’s greatest fussbudget, mostly by her mother.

History
Lucy’s most famous gimmick in her long existence as a character is the one in which she pulls the football away from Charlie Brown right as he is about to kick it. The first occasion on which she did this was November 16, 1952 (Violet unintentionally did the same thing a year before because she was afraid Charlie Brown would accidentally kick her), but unlike subsequent stunts, Lucy first pulled the ball away because she did not want Charlie Brown to get it dirty (he took a second try in the same strip, only to trip over it at the end). Afterward, every year in the fall Lucy would somehow manipulate Charlie Brown into trying again, only to pull the ball away to trick him. One infamous example of this is the animated special It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown, where her actions (she pulled the ball away four times) cost the school football team a win in the Homecoming game, yet Charlie Brown is blamed even though he is clearly not at fault. Charlie Brown did in fact kick the football in the September 12, 1956 strip, but with Schroeder holding the ball.

Cultural relevance
“Pulling a Lucy” with its image and concept of someone always tricking another person to do something with a false promise to not repeat their past behavior, has since become a culturally meme in the United States. Even used in politics to describe the when one poltical group or faction repeatedly promises to work with the opposition, only to have the cooperation break-down as has happened repeatedly since the Republican Party lost control of Congress in 2006, and then the White House in 2008.

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