What is the meaning of the saying from the peanut gallery?

Question

What is the meaning of the saying from the peanut gallery?

Answer 1

This is the upper level of a theatre.  The cheap seats, from which shells were tossed at performances deemed unsatisfactory. The peanut gallery has been extended to include the "unwashed public."  The hoi polloi. Also, children being children.

Answer 2

The peanut gallery was the "cheap seats" in Vaudeville theaters. The poorer, and crasser, lower class sat in those seats and heckled the performers. Today it can be heckling, but it can be anything that is unfavorable to the speaker, e.g. supports his opponent in an argument. The aren't directly involved in the "performance" but they butt in and disrupt it.

Answer 3

the "peanut gallery" refers to a small group of fans on a stage of a TV show, usually young kids