Thanksgiving (America’s Version) is on Thursday. One of the many traditions around this time of year is watching the Peanuts Thanksgiving special—you know the one. It’s most famous for the bit of Lucy holding the football for “Chuck” Charlie Brown to kick, and yanking it away at the last second every time and causing him to fly up and fall on his back. Chuck never learns; he falls for it several times, and the audience says “Oh how does he keep falling for it?”
This scene is so famous that “It’s like Charlie Brown and the football” (or some variation thereof) has come into common American parlance for a situation where you observe someone make the same mistake over and over again, but they can’t figure out why.