peanut gallery

{{Short description|Term for inexpensive seating in a theater}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2016}}

File:Howdy Doody peanut gallery circa 1940 1950s.JPG peanut gallery, late 1940s–1950s]]

A peanut gallery was, in the days of vaudeville, a nickname for the cheapest and ostensibly rowdiest seats in the theater, the occupants of which were often known to heckle the performers.{{Cite web |last=Rowland |first=Ian |date=April 1999 |title=What's the origin of the expression 'peanut gallery'? |url=http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1538/whats-the-origin-of-the-expression-peanut-gallery |access-date=March 28, 2013 |website=The Straight Dope |authorlink=Ian Rowland}} The least expensive snack served at the theatre would often be peanuts, which the patrons would sometimes throw at the performers on stage to convey their disapproval. Phrases such as "no comments from the peanut gallery", "quiet in the peanut gallery", or "throwing peanuts from the gallery" are derived from this term. According to Stuart Berg Flexner, the term owes its origin to the United States' segregated South as a synonym with the back seats or upper balcony where the black members of the audience sat.{{Cite book|last=Flexner|first=Stuart Berg|year=1982|title=Listening to America: An Illustrated History of Words and Phrases from Our Lively and Splendid Past|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rsxWAAAAMAAJ|publisher=Simon and Schuster|page=438|isbn=9780671248956}} The racial element of the term's origin is disputed, however, and absent from the Oxford English Dictionary and others.{{Cite web|url=https://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2015/03/origin-phrase-peanut-gallery/|title=Is "Peanut Gallery" a Racial Term?|date=March 13, 2015}}{{Cite web|url=https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/peanut-gallery|title=PEANUT GALLERY | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary}}

In 1943 the Howdy Doody children's radio show adopted the name for its live audience of children.{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Andrew F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JbOsI9RG8fYC&pg=PA129 |title=Peanuts: The Illustrious History of the Goober Pea |publisher=University of Illinois Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-252-02553-2 |page=129}} Howdy Doody is most remembered for its later transition to television, which included the Peanut Gallery audience, then on camera. "Peanut gallery" may have been the source of the name for Charles Schulz's comic strip, Peanuts,{{Cite book |last=Michaelis |first=David |title=Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography |publisher=HarperCollins |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-06-621393-4 |location=New York |page=219}} a name Schulz bitterly resented and never understood.{{Cite web |title=Frequently Asked Questions: The Peanuts Comic Strip |url=https://schulzmuseum.org/about-schulz/frequently-asked-questions/#toggle-id-1 |access-date=2021-06-24 |website=Charles M. Schulz Museum |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181021151559/https://schulzmuseum.org/about-schulz/frequently-asked-questions/ |url-status=unfit |archive-date=2018-10-21}} Schulz had wanted to keep the name of his previous strip, Li'l Folks. However, United Features Syndicate pointed out that that name was too similar to other strips such as Little Folks and Li'l Abner.{{Cite book |last=Inge |first=M. Thomas |title=Charles M. Schulz: Conversations |date=2000 |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |isbn=1-57806-304-3 |location=Jackson |page=146}} Thus, Peanuts was chosen.

A similar term was introduced to Brazilian football by coach Luiz Felipe Scolari. He called Palmeiras' complaining audience that sat in the closest seats "peanut gang" ({{langx|pt|Turma do Amendoim}}).{{Cite news |date=2009-11-09 |title=Felipão criou o apelido "Turma do Amendoim" no Palmeiras; leia trecho |language=pt |trans-title=Felipão created the ‘Peanut gang’ nickname: read passage |work=Folha de S. Paulo |publisher=Folha da manhã |agency=Folha Online |url=http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/esporte/ult92u649799.shtml |access-date=2013-03-28}} C. J. Dennis's poem "The Play" from Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, recapitulating the suicide scene from Romeo and Juliet, ends bathetically with "Peanuts or lollies!" sez a boy upstairs."{{cite web|url=https://allpoetry.com/The-Play- |author=C. J. Dennis |year=1914 |title=The Play (from Songs of a Sentimental Bloke) |access-date=19 September 2022}}