October 31, 2015

Man gets on a plane, sits down, sees that sitting next to him is a man who looks just like him.

No, it wasn't his long-lost twin. It was just a man who happened to look hilariously identical.

29 comments:

Patrick said...

It really isn't that surprising. Hipsters have done a good job of making themselves look exactly like other hipsters. Someone could probably break hipsters into 10 or so strands. Probably less.

Phil 314 said...

And the space-time continuum didn't unravel?

RMc said...

El Rotten Crotch?

JHapp said...

Just a click away is the phrase "Swishy in my satin and tat". Under what circumstances would a person so self describe?

bleh said...

Ah, twin strangers. The fact that these guys met on a plane and those two girls met at college suggests that there are many, many other people on the planet who could also be their doppelgängers, and that's not even considering people who are a generation or two older or younger. Some people have more common or neutral features than others.

Remember that homeless guy with the golden voice who sort of looked like Obama?

JHapp said...

We are no more than 1 year year away from "google face" (search).

Big Mike said...

@Rob, that's my first reaction, too.

@Althouse, yes, with well over seven billion people living on earth it only stands to reason that somewhere out there there is a person who looks pretty much the same as Big Mike (poor bastard!) except maybe he's an inch or so taller or shorter and maybe ten pounds heavier or lighter and maybe has a mole or birthmark under his clothes. Somewhere out there there's another woman who resembles you. She's not married to Meade and doesn't teach Con Law, but physically you could be twins. I like to refer to this phenomenon as "the other law of large numbers": given enough random trials sooner or later anything -- no matter how unlikely -- is 100% certain to happen.

M Jordan said...

Based on their smiles I'd say they have similar personalities, too. Which leads to the question, how much do looks mold you?

jr565 said...

The guy on the left looks a lot like a guy I went to college with. Absent the beard.

William said...

They have similar beards. That's a big part of the resemblance..

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

What a lovely Twitter handle.

Big Mike said...

(Actually, more like 99.9999 ... 9% certain to happen. The number of nines to the right of the decimal point depends on the number of random trials you conduct and the number and variability of the features you measure.)

Michael K said...

Time to exchange DNA.

Bob Ellison said...

This used to happen all the time to Lon Chaney, especially on Halloween.

walter said...

" I'd say they have similar personalities, too. Which leads to the question, how much do looks mold you?"

Or how much personality drives self adornment choices...head and facial hair being 2 of men's main distinguishing characteristics...bigger beards disguising even the shape of a face.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Does anyone know for a fact that they're not related?

Fernandinande said...

Wow! What are the chances of that never happening?

Achilles said...

If you take hair on the head and mold it one way you can make a lot of people look the same. Shave either of those beards and they aren't the same.

On the other hand the smiles are controlled by muscles that have many differences in placement/angles that are determined genetically and their smiles are very similar. The one on the left is carrying a higher body fat % but I don't think body fat collects on the bridge of the nose like that. His nose is a bit more protuberant.

Ann Althouse said...

Maybe the interesting thing isn't that people look alike but that people are looking for their lookalikes and celebrating when they find them (perhaps because the internet gives them an easy way to celebrate the fun).

MayBee said...

My son works in a high school where there is a photo case with former students who served in WWII. He sent us a picture of one of the guys, who looked exactly like my son. He said it was weird, seeing that picture and thinking at first it was a picture of himself.

It's weird when you see someone who *you* actually think looks like you, or really resembles someone you know well. First of all, because there are so many intangibles when it comes to recognition, and you know your own looks so well, that seeing yourself in others is mind-blowing. And for the second scenario, your feelings toward the person you know kind of transfer to the person you just met who looks like them.

One of the crazy aspects of the human experience.

MayBee said...

These guys even have similar teeth.

David said...

Time for some DNA testing.

eric said...

The good news is, you can look like that and still be happy.

Achilles said...

That guy 2 rows back is not only creepy, he looks just like that actor in that movie I can't remember.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Blogger Michael K said...

Time to exchange DNA.

While I'm a big fan of the mile high club, it takes a pretty serious narcissist to see someone who looks just like you and have your first thought be lets have sex!

You're a sick man, Michael K

JML said...

A number of years ago at a truck stop the cashier asked me what I was hauling this time. I told her I wasn't a trucker, and she replied, "You look just like a driver I know - I could of swore you was him." I told her he must be one damn fine looking man.

Largo said...

"I told her he must be one damn fine looking man."

Nice. :)

BarrySanders20 said...

A problem in eye-witness identification. Especially cross-racial.

Tom said...

I don't want to be the husband of @elrottencrotch, do you?