JMcAndrew sends a set of related cartoons:
The last two are obviously just different versions of the same joke from the same cartoonist, even if they’re 14 1/2 years apart. I’m not sure if that’s a bad thing or not.
These all remind me of an axiom I was taught long ago as a relationship test: Have lunch at your prospective partner’s house and ask for mayonnaise. If they present Miracle Whip–especially if they aren’t even apologetic about it–RUN.
Miracle Whip is to mayonnaise as carob is to chocolate. As someone else once wrote, “Carob is not an acceptable substitute for chocolate. It is not an acceptable substitute for anything except, perhaps, brown shoe polish.”
Comics I Don't Understand 
The last 2 aren’t just the same joke. They look like the same comic, just reversed, cropped differently, with some details changed.
Bizarro often (always?) does both portrait and landscape versions of their cartoons so newspapers can print them in their preferred format
I’ve never been able to tell the difference between Miracle Whip and regular mayo. But then, I also can’t tell most soft drinks from their diet counterparts, so maybe my taste buds are just whacked.
I don’t really understand the Bizarro situation.
I had heard that Dan Piraro does portrait and landscape versions of the same cartoon to accommodate newspapers.
But I would have expected that he would use the same dialogue, not change it (“It’s the Miracle Whip” vs. “You said Miracle Whip instead of mayonnaise, right?”). And these strips are dated 14 years apart (2003 vs. 2017) so they weren’t expected to be used on the same day in different newspapers.
On the other hand, if Piraro was just recycling a gag in 2017, I would have expected that he would have drawn the waitress and the customer differently from their 2003 designs rather than using the same character designs for both of them.
My childhood Catholic school Friday lunches were Velveeta on Wonder Bread with Miracle Whip. Not one natural food molecule in the whole thing. Plus a Twinkie if I was lucky.
Carob is delicious if you don’t expect it to be chocolate. But I agree that it’s no substitute for chocolate. Neither is white chocolate, or “chocolately” (what Palmers and other cheap brands use – cocoa but with other fats). Nothing really substitutes for chocolate.
I know someone who prefers Miracle Whip to mayonnaise. Some people prefer margarine to butter. Some people prefer “pancake syrup” to maple syrup.
It often has to do with what you grew up on. We didn’t have mayo when I was a kid, but not Miracle Whip either. We had yet another similar product, Spin Blend. After leaving home, I came to appreciate mayo. Of course, then we can get into the Duke’s versus Hellmans (or Best Food) varieties of mayo.
I used to think I didn’t like mayonnaise, but then I realized it was Miracle Whip that I don’t like.
Joshua, one aspect that you seem to be missing is that Wayno had taken over doing the weekday and Saturday editions of Bizarro. Dan Piraro still does Sundays, apparently is like the senior editor who advises and consults with Wayno, and in some ways remains the “proprietor” of Bizarro. Both have weekly blogs where they make other remarks and then reprint and briefly comment on six or seven comics from that week. (Wayno doesn’t blog the Sunday strip.)
It’s there on Wayno’s blog that he often picks one of his six cartoons for somewhat more detailed behind-the-scenes account of what happened in creating it that might be unusual or interesting. And pretty regularly he shows the horizontal and square versions of one of the cartoons.
But indeed, in those cases the two layout versions are more nearly identical than the two in this CIDU post, and of course have the same on-page date! So I entirely agree with you that the “Bizarro runs a square and a horizontal version of each cartoon ” thing is not the best explanation for these two related but differing cartoons.
OTOH neither could it be a random or unintended resemblance. Maybe more an internal tribute or cover?
I have just this year begun to shop for and appreciate the Duke’s difference.
We’ve been proselytized for Mike’s Amazing, which is apparently also local, but I can’t really say if it’s truly “amazing” or not — it’s certainly OK. They claim to be “real” mayonnaise, so I guess they want to make sure you don’t think it is “miraculous”, only “amazing”.
@Mitch4: These cartoons are from before Wayno became the full-time daily cartoonist. The panel and strip versions of this gag are from 2003 and 2017 respectively. Wayno took over as the daily cartoonist for Bizarro in 2018.
Ah, and indeed I should have been able to tell by style!
It is still, to my mind, a little questionable to think of these as two versions of same cartoon, they are too different — relative to how nearly identical they are when Wayno offers a same-day pair. But if not “same cartoon” I could agree to “same gag” as you put it.
Years ago saw a local production of “Annie Get Your Gun”, which included mock western vaudeville acts (a scene in the actual script that’s usually cut as superfluous). A guy in Native American costume did some bullwhip cracking. He was introduced as “Chief Ma-Zo-La and his Miracle Whip”.
I have just this year begun to shop for and appreciate the Duke’s difference.
For those that haven’t tried Duke’s, it has no sugar or lemon juice. So it’s more tangy and less fruity than Hellmans/BF.
It is simple for me – I don’t eat mayo and I don’t eat Miracle Whip (also do not eat mustard or salad dressing and generally not ketchup/catsup).
Husband learned early on that the sandwich will be sent back if the restaurant puts any dressing or most condiments on it (or if he or anyone else does).
And yet – when one day a couple of years ago I apologized to my mom for being a picky eater – she insists I never was. (After first week in school I never ate school provided lunch again as they made you eat everything – even the cole slaw. After that it was a peanut butter (no jelly) sandwich every day.
And since the start of covid – unless we go out for lunch to Wendys (junior burger PLAIN) I have a peanut butter – no jelly, honey or other addition – for lunch as I did back then in school.
How about butter, like the Brits do? I do put that in the inside of a few sandwiches, although not always for those. Examples would be peanut butter or cheddar cheese.
If you look closely at the ketchup bottle in the 2017 Bizarro, you can see a backwards “K”. Also compare the shadow lines on the coffee cup, water glass, and plate. It’s definitely the same image but flipped.