I kind of get the joke — married life is repetitive — but I think the phenomenon actually has the name “jamais vu” (“never seen). And it’s not so much a variation on déja vu, but its opposite.
Arlo has probably had the feeling that he has lived “that” moment several times in the thirteen years since this strip first appeared,
What I am disappointed at not finding in those Wikipedia articles is one of their “use in popular culture” sections — I have an almost-memory of seeing these discussed in something like Catch-22!
P.S. I also remember learning the word “presque” and having the immediate realization that those places named “Presque Isle” were called that for a reason, as a peninsula can be thought of a an almost-island. (And that seems to also be the meaning of the term “peninsula” too.)
Is the weird art part of the joke?
Is it just me, or does the artwork seem … off? Maybe because it’s from 2007 and he’s changed the way he draws them since then? My first thought was it was a guest cartoonist and the off art style would be pressing the point home of a weird not-quite-right reality.
At his site that Mitch4 linked to another commenter said “was this drawn during your experiments with felt tips, Jimmy? The art is definitely not per usual” and the artist says “Yes, I noticed that. I think I messed up something prepping the art for the Web site, but that’s show biz”.
Mitch4, these were definitely discussed in Catch22. It’s a while since I last read it but I have a vague memory of Yossarian up a tree, naked, watching a funeral but that could just be me conflating two different incidents.
I’m with Nathan on the CATCH-22 reference. I think it was the Chaplain pondering what his unbelievable (to him) sight of the naked Yossarian in the tree could have “really” been explained away as.
Thanks, both of you, for validating that tentative memory!
Wikipedia has been moving away from “In Popular Culture” sections for many many years now, though it’s a slow process.
Comics I Don't Understand 
I kind of get the joke — married life is repetitive — but I think the phenomenon actually has the name “jamais vu” (“never seen). And it’s not so much a variation on déja vu, but its opposite.
Arlo has probably had the feeling that he has lived “that” moment several times in the thirteen years since this strip first appeared,
As CaroZ points out, this “opposite of déjà vu” has been recognized for some time, under the name “jamais vu”. This group of phenomena (including “presque vu” / “almost seen”) are discussed on Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamais_vu . There is a rather longer treatment at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9j%C3%A0_vu
I was pleased to post this same addendum to the comments on the Arlo And Janis site, https://arloandjanis.com/already-seen#comments
What I am disappointed at not finding in those Wikipedia articles is one of their “use in popular culture” sections — I have an almost-memory of seeing these discussed in something like Catch-22!
P.S. I also remember learning the word “presque” and having the immediate realization that those places named “Presque Isle” were called that for a reason, as a peninsula can be thought of a an almost-island. (And that seems to also be the meaning of the term “peninsula” too.)
Is the weird art part of the joke?
Is it just me, or does the artwork seem … off? Maybe because it’s from 2007 and he’s changed the way he draws them since then? My first thought was it was a guest cartoonist and the off art style would be pressing the point home of a weird not-quite-right reality.
At his site that Mitch4 linked to another commenter said “was this drawn during your experiments with felt tips, Jimmy? The art is definitely not per usual” and the artist says “Yes, I noticed that. I think I messed up something prepping the art for the Web site, but that’s show biz”.
Mitch4, these were definitely discussed in Catch22. It’s a while since I last read it but I have a vague memory of Yossarian up a tree, naked, watching a funeral but that could just be me conflating two different incidents.
I’m with Nathan on the CATCH-22 reference. I think it was the Chaplain pondering what his unbelievable (to him) sight of the naked Yossarian in the tree could have “really” been explained away as.
Thanks, both of you, for validating that tentative memory!
Wikipedia has been moving away from “In Popular Culture” sections for many many years now, though it’s a slow process.