Since its inception, the internet's surreal sense of humor has grown at a near-exponential rate. From cat memes, to remixes of lost educational media, to dropping something from a famous franchise out of context – something the X Peanuts Out of Context (Peanuts.

An older strip from Lucy van Pelt asking Charlie Brown the very strange question, "Can I put my hand in your glass of milk?"

Lucy's oddball question, and Charlie Brown's uncharacteristically irate response, have charmed the internet as only the strangest content seems to be able to.

As Always, Context Is Everything

Lucy's question itself is funny, but Charlie Brown's response makes the hilarious. He says no, but also repeats the whole phrase back to her, shouting, "You keep your dirty hands out of my glass of milk!!" The entire situation seems like it wouldn't make any more sense even back in context, which is what caught the imaginations of the many people who have reposted the image in the past few days. Even within the full context of the strip, this moment is unusual for Lucy – or at least, the character she would become. Originally appearing on June 16, 1952, this strip was from very early in Peanuts' run.

Lucy had only been introduced three months earlier, on March 3, 1952, and her character wasn't yet fully formed. She was originally more of a wide-eyed little kid, in comparison to Charlie Brown, Shermy, and Patty. In one of her first Sunday strip appearances, she speaks like a toddler, and takes bites out of Charlie Brown's vinyl records. Two weeks before this strip was published, Lucy was showing off to Charlie Brown that she could stand on one leg, begging, "Watch me! Watch me!", and tormenting him by throwing a bug at him as he tried to read a book.

They Grow Up So Fast

In this context, Lucy asking to wash her hands in a glass of milk makes a little more sense. The first Lucy and Charlie Brown football gag occurred five months after this, beginning to develop Lucy closer to the character she would come to be, though not entirely. In the Sunday, November 16, 1952 strip, Charlie Brown asked Lucy to hold the football, and she was unsure, but went forward, wearing a helmet. In the first try, she pulled back the football, but not out of malice – she said it was because she thought Charlie Brown's shoes might be dirty, and didn't want to get her new football dirty.

When Charlie Brown told her to just hold the football tight, so he could try again, Lucy followed directions – and held the football down so tightly that Charlie Brown tripped and fell over it. While he lied on the ground, embarrassed, Lucy was very proud of herself. Lucy's younger brother Linus first appeared on September 19, 1952, as a baby too young to sit up by himself. He grew up in real time, subsequently walking and talking by 1956. In this time, Lucy becomes a very commanding older sister, finally beginning to solidify the bossy personality Peanuts readers would come to know her best for.

Source: @PeanutsNoCont