Thanks to Targuman for sending this in, with illuminating comment.
That idea, and its expression as “nothing new under the sun”, is most prominent to our contemporary culture from the book which Targuman (and scholars of the Hebrew Bible) refers to as Qohelet (The Teacher), also known to most of us as Ecclesiastes (The Preacher) — famous for collaborating with Pete Seeger on that song. :-)
Though that is the most familiar source, what are the chances it was actually the first? Hard to say, after several thousand years. However, somebody had to be first. And in that very moment they were making it false, since there was now something new: that very thought.
So that gives a fun-paradox! But … is it really a case of hypocrisy?
Comics I Don't Understand 
I was not able to parse the logo on his chest right away (it sort of reminded me of Prince’s logo, as in “The Demon Formerly Known as Java“), but today’s comic has a much better rendition of “TMCM“.
P.S. The line quoted in the comic comes from Ecclesiastes 1:9, but with regard to “Demon Coffee”, compare Eccl. 6:1, “There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy upon humankind.“
In that song clip, I think Judy Collins gets a little mixed up in the lyrics. For instance there is supposed to be a pairing up of “casting out stones” and “gather stones together” but she switches ideas at the wrong moment and we don’t hear them together.
P.P.S. The strip’s title emphasizes that “coffee” is its sole reason for existence, but there are many other strips that are just as addicted to the stuff, including “Adam@Home“, “Arlo & Janis“, “Cornered“, “Dark Side of the Hourse“, “Foxtrot“, and (of course) “Garfield” (and that’s not even 1/4th of the alphabet). Some of those “coffee” gags are pefectly good (see the links), but the overall frequency does get tiresome.
P.P.P.S. There are obvious reasons why we don’t see jokes in mainstream comics about other addictive substances, like alcohol, crack, or heroin, but there are isolated counter-examples, such as “The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers“, or numerous works by Robert Crumb.
P.P.P.P.S. Immediately after mentioning Robert Crumb, I discovered an obituary for Ted Richards in CSotD.
I can’t agree that TMCM is solely about coffee, or this character’s dependence on it. It’s more generally an exploration of this kind of person, whose angry energy is related to excess coffee consumption only in part as a direct consequence but even more as a metaphor. There are people you can say are like this, without knowing their relation to coffee or any other substance.
@ Danny – If you follow TMCM: have you tried visiting the author’s Substack page? When I did that, I got a fairly nasty certificate warning.
Who’s speaking?
Interesting thought, Stan. The speech bubble tail is sort of pointing to empty space. But I don’t seriously doubt it’s supposed to be the Too Much Coffee Man himself.
The reason that the tail on the dialog bubble is poorly placed is because a number of the recent TMCM comics have been recycled from material that was originally published in 2021. Most have just been colored, and the copyright has been updated to 2023, but in this case, the original comic has been reformatted. Rather than draw a new dialog balloon, it has been cut, reflected, and pasted in new location:
P.S. If one wants to be really snotty, the question wouldn’t be “who?“, but rather which part of his anatomy is speaking. Redrawing at least the tail of the dialog balloon would have avoided all of this drivel.
The words in the balloon have been slightly rearranged. I think I like the older phrasing better, “Whoever first said ..”
I always enjoy this video of the Byrds performing the song. I like the dancers in the background, because they actually have some choreography going on.
The paradox is easily explained. Ecclesiastes (The Preacher) wrote those words at night.
@ zbicyclist – As Andertoons put it:
P.S. Brian in StL – I got the impression that the stage director told them something like “Listen to the music, and make it look enthusiastic, but don’t forget that we have a pair of cameras shooting upwards from ground level, and this is going to be shown on prime time TV.“
They did their slow-mo spins during the “Turn! Turn! Turn!” part, and when the group would do the sudden “full stop” they would halt with their legs spread (careful!) and wait until it started up again. Fairly good synchronization on the movements.
@ Brian – The quality of the synchronization made me wonder whether the group was actually playing (and/or singing) on that stage, or merely lip-syncing to the tape. It’s clear that the audio preserved with the video is the studio version, and was not recorded live.
It was fairly common at the time to lip sync for TV programs, but I couldn’t say specifically.
He’s scary.
They would’ve had to be. What if a caveman ,(cartoon cliche incoming), said that while his neighbor was busy inventing the wheel?