I was reading a newspaper yesterday (which is rare enough itself) and I noticed that "Non Sequitur" and "Pearls Before Swine" both contained the same random and not terribly funny joke as their punchline:
This is really strange. Editorial cartoonists use the same or similar jokes all the time, but that's to be expected. The fact that both cartoonists not only came up with the "bird up for bail" joke, but came up with it at the same time, makes me think that there's some underlying truth to the universe that I'm not seeing.
I should also note that I'm a fan of "Pearls" and I HATE "Non Sequitur." I'm resisting the urge to accuse Wiley Miller, as hackneyed and uncreative as he is, of somehow gaining access to Stephan Pastis' secret unpublished archives and lifting the joke. I'm not saying it didn't happen, I'm just saying I'm not saying it did happen. See?
It's the lawyer jokes of NonSequitor that get you , isn't it?
No, it's the heavy-handedness, the obviousness, and the tendency to forego all auspices of humor altogether and just state an opinion and draw a box around it, even as Miller arrogantly attacks the lack of thought and subtlety in pop media.
Non Sequitur's not funny at all, but it does have those pretty colored pencil Sunday strips (which are still not funny at all). So I have mixed feelings on Non Sequitur. It fails as a comic strip every day of the week, but its images are one of the best things about the Sunday comics.
There was an April Fool's cartoonist's gimmick where, instead of drawing each other's strips as they did for several years, a bunch of cartoonists conspired to do variations on the exact same gag. I think that was this year. This seems like that, only not on purpose... at least, since it's not April Fools, there wouldn't seem to be a reason for it.
I don't understand you people, Non Sequitor is clearly superior to Pearls. (Sorry, honey)
The coincidence is bizarre, particularly since, as Matt points out, it's an obvious and stupid joke.
even more coincidentally odd (perhaps) is that this morning's chronicle has a big article on the cartoonist behind 'pearls before swine' on the front page of the datebook section.
Here is the article Michele referenced. The article mentions relatives of two of our own Cement Whores, one real and one fake.
And here's a bizarre quote from the article:
"Pastis drew comics in junior high, high school and had a strip for the Berkeley Harold as an undergrad at UC Berkeley."
The Berkeley what?