Category / Synchronicity

by EditorM

A squirrel in the hands is worth one on the dog

To finish up a (sort-of) week of synchros, we have this interesting pair from Mark in Boston, who says “I can’t say as I have seen much squirrel-carrying at all, ever, in the comics, until this past Sunday.”

Mark also sent a scan or picture of his physical paper, showing these actually adjacent. The Rose is Rose is good material for the discussion earlier this week about differences in layout and “extra” panels. And the Bliss is also an interesting case of oddities of publication schedule: this one was on GoComics and Bliss’s own site as 1/8, a date which can also be (more or less) made out in the drawing itself. But the newspaper for some reason printed it on 1/16 — and we have confirming evidence of that! —

by EditorM

Where did they put that “Add New Post” button?

OK, pay attention because there might be a quiz on this!

First off, Phil Smith III sent in this Brewster Rockit as a CIDU. “I was OK until the last panel,” he writes, “and have NO idea what it’s supposed to mean?!”

And I couldn’t make sense of the last panel as a punch line, either.

Meanwhile, DanV sent in both the above Brewster Rockit and the Betty below as a synchronicity pair.

“Two different ways of experiencing the same situation,” writes DanV, “I confess I’ve had both of these things happen to me. :) Not a laugh out loud, more of a rueful chuckle.”

What could he mean, I wondered; how are these the same joke? Oh wait, aha! The Brewster joke is not in the final panel, but the penultimate. Oldbot and, uh, Bub have done the parallel sort of oblivious overlooking.

That leaves the final panel of Brewster unexplained. Well, which Monday does he mean? Is he making it sooner or later? I don’t know, and I’m even more tired of writing this than you are of reading it…

by EditorM

Out, damned spot!

No, not a curse on the cartoon family dog — that would have taken a capital letter. Just an expression of upset over laundry problems.

At any rate, that seems to be the thematic connection for this synchronicity from Todd Tyler.

Todd also provides this paper scan and says “This synchronicity is made much worse by the location of Doonesbury and FBOFW as they were printed in the Delaware News Journal today.”

(Notice the layout differs between GoComics as above and this paper edition. Must play havoc for those comics that try to use fourth-wall tricks, like people climbing down from one panel to another!)

by EditorM

Non-synchro

An acknowledgement of using the same joke, about four years later, when the similarity was pointed out. From “Monster Picnic” in June 2021 (hat tip to Why Evolution Is True blog in 2022 where I saw it):

And by David Borchard in The New Yorker in 2016:

Monster Picnic acknowledged Borchart’s priority in this Twitter thread (see replies too):
by EditorM

Second-order synchros of LOLs

What I mean by “second-order synchronicity” is that Arthur was struck by two different synchro pairs on the same day.

“Barney & Clyde matches with MGG:”

“And Close To Home matches with Off the Mark:”

“Neither are exact matches, but both immediately caught my eye.”