'Doppelgänger' is fun to say
August 23, 2022 12:47 PM Subscribe
This NYTimes story about doppelgängers is really fun, the photographs that prompted it are fascinating and the science is interesting.
"The picture series, “I’m not a look-alike!,” was inspired by Mr. Brunelle’s discovery of his own look-alike, the English actor Rowan Atkinson."
Oh no.
THAT took a tragic turn.
posted by MrJM at 12:59 PM on August 23, 2022 [6 favorites]
Oh no.
THAT took a tragic turn.
posted by MrJM at 12:59 PM on August 23, 2022 [6 favorites]
I had a doppelganger at a previous job. I never actually met him but several people that knew me did and were always quite confused. I think it's unlikely that we actually looked more than superficially alike and much of the confusion was that we had similar and unusual hairstyles (blue ponytails with the front half of our heads shaved) and actually shared the same first name.
The unusual nature of those coincidences was more than enough to have me a bit concerned!
posted by cirhosis at 1:20 PM on August 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
The unusual nature of those coincidences was more than enough to have me a bit concerned!
posted by cirhosis at 1:20 PM on August 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
I...don't think any of the pairs in the photo link look that much like one another. *ducks*
posted by Gadarene at 1:22 PM on August 23, 2022 [10 favorites]
posted by Gadarene at 1:22 PM on August 23, 2022 [10 favorites]
This one going around Reddit the other day was pretty good. And the reply was even better.
"There are 3 of you guys at every brewery."
posted by JoeZydeco at 1:25 PM on August 23, 2022 [12 favorites]
"There are 3 of you guys at every brewery."
posted by JoeZydeco at 1:25 PM on August 23, 2022 [12 favorites]
My doppelganger got on a bus I was riding, started walking back, saw me, and exited the rear door. NOT TODAY!
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 1:29 PM on August 23, 2022 [19 favorites]
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 1:29 PM on August 23, 2022 [19 favorites]
Save it for Queen Doppelpopolis.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 1:50 PM on August 23, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by Parasite Unseen at 1:50 PM on August 23, 2022 [3 favorites]
When I moved out here and I was at the DMV, someone came up to me and asked if I went to high school with them (I went to high school una different state). Then I needed to wait two weeks to get my license mailed to me, while they had printed my wife’s up and given it to her immediately.
So I’ve got at least one really strong doppleganger out here—I wonder if I’ll run into them at the farmers market one day.
posted by thecaddy at 2:17 PM on August 23, 2022
So I’ve got at least one really strong doppleganger out here—I wonder if I’ll run into them at the farmers market one day.
posted by thecaddy at 2:17 PM on August 23, 2022
"Your Doppelgänger Is Out There and You Probably Share DNA With Them"
Probably?! I'd be very surprised if I didn't!
posted by bigendian at 2:28 PM on August 23, 2022 [5 favorites]
Probably?! I'd be very surprised if I didn't!
posted by bigendian at 2:28 PM on August 23, 2022 [5 favorites]
Years ago, my out-of-town boyfriend was at a party, presumably drunk, and called me up to let me know he'd found my doppelganger. I was really excited to meet her, but alas, we really didn't have any resemblance to each other. She was blonde and had brown eyes (not my color) and that was about it for resemblance. I can only chalk it up to beer goggles.
posted by jenfullmoon at 2:39 PM on August 23, 2022
posted by jenfullmoon at 2:39 PM on August 23, 2022
“Dr. Esteller also suggested that there could be links between facial features and behavioral patterns, and that the study’s findings might one day aid forensic science by providing a glimpse of the faces of criminal suspects known only from DNA samples.”
Uh-oh. 🚩
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 2:46 PM on August 23, 2022 [13 favorites]
Uh-oh. 🚩
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 2:46 PM on August 23, 2022 [13 favorites]
> I...don't think any of the pairs in the photo link look that much like one another.
agreed. siblings, perhaps
posted by Clowder of bats at 2:52 PM on August 23, 2022
agreed. siblings, perhaps
posted by Clowder of bats at 2:52 PM on August 23, 2022
There was a period of time a few years back where apparently Bill Murray and I looked alike. My wife disputes this but I had people should his name out at me all the time - someone in the office had him as her desktop background and people would ask why she had my photo on the computer. A few years prior to that people were convinced I looked exactly like Jimmy Fallon.
I have know idea what’s going on. I think I just looks Irish.
posted by misterpatrick at 3:09 PM on August 23, 2022
I have know idea what’s going on. I think I just looks Irish.
posted by misterpatrick at 3:09 PM on August 23, 2022
Neat--kinda reminds me of Exactitudes (previously, kinda).
posted by box at 3:11 PM on August 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by box at 3:11 PM on August 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
I get mistaken for people's friends who look just like me all the time! It happened a lot in college. People would ask me things I had no answer to: "Hey, when's lacrosse practice?" "Do you have the worksheets for the geology homework?" (Still not sure if that indicated one doppleganger or two)
Add in the fact that I have lived in mostly the same geography my whole life, and have worked in customer-service intensive fields where I meet tons of people: I also stand a good chance of being recognized by people who know me from a different context.
And a further wrinkle: I'm terrible with names.
My "carrying on a conversation til we figure out where I know you from" game is STRONG!
posted by SaharaRose at 3:41 PM on August 23, 2022 [5 favorites]
Add in the fact that I have lived in mostly the same geography my whole life, and have worked in customer-service intensive fields where I meet tons of people: I also stand a good chance of being recognized by people who know me from a different context.
And a further wrinkle: I'm terrible with names.
My "carrying on a conversation til we figure out where I know you from" game is STRONG!
posted by SaharaRose at 3:41 PM on August 23, 2022 [5 favorites]
Speaking of buses, a number of years ago, I was on a bus in San Francisco. I stood up to get ready to get off, turned to face the back of the bus, and there about two rows back was my doppelgänger, really spooky to see. I looked at him and he looked at me, and I quickly got off the bus. Definitely a weird experience.
posted by njohnson23 at 3:46 PM on August 23, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by njohnson23 at 3:46 PM on August 23, 2022 [3 favorites]
I have a doppelgänger in Austin. We strongly resemble each other, long dark hair parted in the middle, long faces and overbites. However she always looks sad/mad and I always look happy; together we look like Comedy and Tragedy. We both worked at hippie retail stores and many people were confused.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 3:46 PM on August 23, 2022 [10 favorites]
posted by a humble nudibranch at 3:46 PM on August 23, 2022 [10 favorites]
I discovered my doppelganger in high school. I was in the drama club and we received a publication about high school dramatics in the US. In one there was a photo of my apparent twin somewhere up in Oregon. Not only similar in appearance but also in interests...
posted by jim in austin at 4:01 PM on August 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by jim in austin at 4:01 PM on August 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
This is the main plot of Jupiter Ascending, just saying
posted by cali at 4:09 PM on August 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by cali at 4:09 PM on August 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
Poe:
"In truth, the ardency, the enthusiasm, and the imperiousness of my disposition, soon rendered me a marked character among my schoolmates, and by slow, but natural gradations, gave me an ascendency over all not greatly older than myself; -- over all with one single exception. This exception was found in the person of a scholar, who, although no relation, bore the same Christian and surname as myself; -- a circumstance, in fact, little remarkable, for, notwithstanding a noble descent, mine was one of those every-day appellations which seem, by prescriptive right, to have been, time out of mind, the common property of the mob. In this narrative I have therefore designated myself as William Wilson -- a fictitious title not very dissimilar to the real. My namesake alone, of those who in school phraseology constituted "our set," presumed to compete with me in the studies of the class -- in the sports and broils of the play-ground -- to refuse implicit belief in my assertions, and submission to my will -- indeed to interfere with my arbitrary dictation in any respect whatsoever. "
posted by doctornemo at 4:44 PM on August 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
"In truth, the ardency, the enthusiasm, and the imperiousness of my disposition, soon rendered me a marked character among my schoolmates, and by slow, but natural gradations, gave me an ascendency over all not greatly older than myself; -- over all with one single exception. This exception was found in the person of a scholar, who, although no relation, bore the same Christian and surname as myself; -- a circumstance, in fact, little remarkable, for, notwithstanding a noble descent, mine was one of those every-day appellations which seem, by prescriptive right, to have been, time out of mind, the common property of the mob. In this narrative I have therefore designated myself as William Wilson -- a fictitious title not very dissimilar to the real. My namesake alone, of those who in school phraseology constituted "our set," presumed to compete with me in the studies of the class -- in the sports and broils of the play-ground -- to refuse implicit belief in my assertions, and submission to my will -- indeed to interfere with my arbitrary dictation in any respect whatsoever. "
posted by doctornemo at 4:44 PM on August 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
I’m a not-thin bald dude with a beard and glasses and stretched earlobe piercings and a lot of tattoos, and my clothes usually lean lumberjack and/or bear. It’s a type. I say ‘yeah, a lot of guys look like me’ with some regularity, even though most of them probably don’t.
posted by box at 5:49 PM on August 23, 2022
posted by box at 5:49 PM on August 23, 2022
So, I am a pansexual who finds humans of all kinds attractive, whether I am attracted to them or not. I spend a lot of time—and have as far back as I remember, so, like, when I was four—being sort of amazed at the beautiful people around me. If you are a person who, for any reason, has trouble believing that anyone would find you attractive and simply take pleasure in looking at you, well, hit me up. We'll meet up for coffee and I'll gaze at you appreciatively. If we become friends, you will get used to me greeting you with, "Wow, you look great!" every time we meet, unless I'm really trying to keep a lid on it because it makes some people uncomfortable, and that is the last thing I want. Nonetheless, I'm usually thinking it.
My point is, there are very, very few human beings that I simply cannot find any beauty in at all. Like, I've seen maybe two in my whole life?
One of them was, for awhile several decades ago when we were both very involved with the local lesbian community, the only person I was routinely mistaken for when out and about. "Hi, Amy!" women would say to me in the bookstore, the grocery store, the food co-op, the vegetarian cafe.
Fortunately, I have a sense of humor about these things.
There was absolutely nothing wrong with "Amy," by the way. She was a perfectly nice person whom I liked a great deal, and she was by no means unattractive. She just somehow managed to be that vanishingly rare person whose features, build, hair, smile, etc, managed to not ping my attractiveness sensors at all.
posted by Well I never at 7:03 PM on August 23, 2022 [6 favorites]
My point is, there are very, very few human beings that I simply cannot find any beauty in at all. Like, I've seen maybe two in my whole life?
One of them was, for awhile several decades ago when we were both very involved with the local lesbian community, the only person I was routinely mistaken for when out and about. "Hi, Amy!" women would say to me in the bookstore, the grocery store, the food co-op, the vegetarian cafe.
Fortunately, I have a sense of humor about these things.
There was absolutely nothing wrong with "Amy," by the way. She was a perfectly nice person whom I liked a great deal, and she was by no means unattractive. She just somehow managed to be that vanishingly rare person whose features, build, hair, smile, etc, managed to not ping my attractiveness sensors at all.
posted by Well I never at 7:03 PM on August 23, 2022 [6 favorites]
I've had the somewhat-discomfiting, somewhat-oddly-sweet experience of having a complete stranger come up to me in tears because I reminded her of her deceased brother that much.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:48 PM on August 23, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:48 PM on August 23, 2022 [3 favorites]
As I get older I have the peculiar experience of seeing someone I haven't seen for years... And then realising it can't be them because that person would not be a teenager / in their early 20s any more.
posted by Zumbador at 10:14 PM on August 23, 2022 [12 favorites]
posted by Zumbador at 10:14 PM on August 23, 2022 [12 favorites]
A handful of years ago I ran across the Doppelgänger of an old friend. Actually this seems to happen more and more, that I’ll be somewhere and see someone who looks like someone I knew - invariably, these two people are separated by a continent (Europe vs North America) and sometimes a couple decades.
The instance above was especially poignant - my friend is a particular, Eastern European looking guy - which makes sense as his forebears all cam from Eastern Europe, driven out by various historical paroxysms (Nazis and Stalin mostly). His father‘s whole extended family were murdered - he went to America alone, orphaned. The father found success, had children etc, but the idea was the past was barren and yet here was as powerful a refutation of those genocidal aspirations as you could hope for. I kinda gawked at this doppelgänger - luckily I was far enough away that I wasn’t noticed but it was heavy.
Couple years later I saw my old friend again and told him the story, about seeing his doppelgänger : the only difference is that the double was probably 20yrs younger and still had a full head of hair …
posted by From Bklyn at 4:08 AM on August 24, 2022
The instance above was especially poignant - my friend is a particular, Eastern European looking guy - which makes sense as his forebears all cam from Eastern Europe, driven out by various historical paroxysms (Nazis and Stalin mostly). His father‘s whole extended family were murdered - he went to America alone, orphaned. The father found success, had children etc, but the idea was the past was barren and yet here was as powerful a refutation of those genocidal aspirations as you could hope for. I kinda gawked at this doppelgänger - luckily I was far enough away that I wasn’t noticed but it was heavy.
Couple years later I saw my old friend again and told him the story, about seeing his doppelgänger : the only difference is that the double was probably 20yrs younger and still had a full head of hair …
posted by From Bklyn at 4:08 AM on August 24, 2022
This is a challenge for my face blindness. I think using pairs of people like this would be a very interesting method of researching aspects of prosopagnosia.
posted by b33j at 4:47 AM on August 24, 2022
posted by b33j at 4:47 AM on August 24, 2022
Neat--kinda reminds me of Exactitudes (previously, kinda).
posted by box
Exactly! I was going to link to the Exactitudes photos, which I still find both fascinating and disturbing, but I'm glad to see that this is already known by someone else here.
posted by Termite at 4:54 AM on August 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by box
Exactly! I was going to link to the Exactitudes photos, which I still find both fascinating and disturbing, but I'm glad to see that this is already known by someone else here.
posted by Termite at 4:54 AM on August 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
I had a doppelganger at a previous job. I never actually met him but several people that knew me did and were always quite confused. I think it's unlikely that we actually looked more than superficially alike and much of the confusion was that we had similar and unusual hairstyles (blue ponytails with the front half of our heads shaved) and actually shared the same first name.
Hold it. HOLD IT. You never met this guy, but people told you another person with a specific BLUE and partly shaved hairstyle AND your first name, was working at the same company? I think your chain may have been yanked!
posted by Glinn at 6:22 AM on August 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
Hold it. HOLD IT. You never met this guy, but people told you another person with a specific BLUE and partly shaved hairstyle AND your first name, was working at the same company? I think your chain may have been yanked!
posted by Glinn at 6:22 AM on August 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
I have previously mentioned my own doppelgänger story. I have a friend, Yanna by name, who has a twin sister. Yanna moved a half-hour away early in the Plague Times and I have not seen her in a couple of years now.
Perhaps a month ago I thought I spotted her in the street not far from my house, but at a second look, this woman (who looked remarkably like her) had bare and blank arms, while Yanna has a tattoo or three. My initial reaction then was that it must be her sister, but then I recalled that she also has some ink, so this could not have been her either.
All this passed through my head in maybe one second, and a transcript of my thought process would be thus: “Hey, is that Yan — no... maybe it’s... no, it can’t be her either. Looks so much like her, though: it’s like Yanna has a twi— a triplet!”
I mentioned this to Yanna, and her reaction was, “Christ. Two of us is plenty.”
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:30 AM on August 24, 2022 [2 favorites]
Perhaps a month ago I thought I spotted her in the street not far from my house, but at a second look, this woman (who looked remarkably like her) had bare and blank arms, while Yanna has a tattoo or three. My initial reaction then was that it must be her sister, but then I recalled that she also has some ink, so this could not have been her either.
All this passed through my head in maybe one second, and a transcript of my thought process would be thus: “Hey, is that Yan — no... maybe it’s... no, it can’t be her either. Looks so much like her, though: it’s like Yanna has a twi— a triplet!”
I mentioned this to Yanna, and her reaction was, “Christ. Two of us is plenty.”
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:30 AM on August 24, 2022 [2 favorites]
"There are 3 of you guys at every brewery."
Reminds me of this not-the-onion story: Man Inadvertently Proves That Hipsters Look Alike By Mistaking Photo As Himself
From the article: "What the study found essentially was that when a group of people decide to be different, to do something nonconforming, there comes a point when they all end up adopting the same behavior or the same style," ... Right after the article was published, MIT Technology Review promptly received an email from someone who claimed he was the man in the photo and hadn't given his consent. ... [The magazine] contacted Getty Images, which found that the person who signed the model release was not the person who wrote the angry email.
posted by msbrauer at 6:43 AM on August 24, 2022 [4 favorites]
Reminds me of this not-the-onion story: Man Inadvertently Proves That Hipsters Look Alike By Mistaking Photo As Himself
From the article: "What the study found essentially was that when a group of people decide to be different, to do something nonconforming, there comes a point when they all end up adopting the same behavior or the same style," ... Right after the article was published, MIT Technology Review promptly received an email from someone who claimed he was the man in the photo and hadn't given his consent. ... [The magazine] contacted Getty Images, which found that the person who signed the model release was not the person who wrote the angry email.
posted by msbrauer at 6:43 AM on August 24, 2022 [4 favorites]
I had a doppelgänger at school, she even had a similar name! Those days my life was full of accusations from people who claimed I had ignored them in the cafeteria or on the bus. One day, she approached me, because had a crush on my brother, and she had thought he and I were dating since we were always together during breaks. Now she wanted to make sure her new information was correct, and also ask if if I would mind if she approached him (imagine teen mumimor rolling eyes right back behind the ears).
Anyway, she was a couple of years younger than me more more developed, I didn't get my first period till I was 16. So in the end I grew a whole head taller than her, and the misunderstandings went away.
BTW, my brother didn't fancy her. That would have been a bit creepy, wouldn't it?
posted by mumimor at 6:53 AM on August 24, 2022
Anyway, she was a couple of years younger than me more more developed, I didn't get my first period till I was 16. So in the end I grew a whole head taller than her, and the misunderstandings went away.
BTW, my brother didn't fancy her. That would have been a bit creepy, wouldn't it?
posted by mumimor at 6:53 AM on August 24, 2022
I think your chain may have been yanked!
Ha... possible but it would have been a very elaborate chain yanking.
The initial discovery of my doppelganger happened when the guy who hired me stopped by my desk one Monday and said "Hey you should have told me you were going to be in Orlando last week and we could have flown down together" to which I responded quite confused and boss wondered who he'd been talking to.
Followed a few months later when I went down to said office for a week and some joker sat me at my dopplegangers desk since he was off on vacation and it was open. Queue a whole series of random people (most not in on the joke) stopping by to say hi to me (by name) till finally a coworker cleared my growing confusion up by explaining the situation.
posted by cirhosis at 7:09 AM on August 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
Ha... possible but it would have been a very elaborate chain yanking.
The initial discovery of my doppelganger happened when the guy who hired me stopped by my desk one Monday and said "Hey you should have told me you were going to be in Orlando last week and we could have flown down together" to which I responded quite confused and boss wondered who he'd been talking to.
Followed a few months later when I went down to said office for a week and some joker sat me at my dopplegangers desk since he was off on vacation and it was open. Queue a whole series of random people (most not in on the joke) stopping by to say hi to me (by name) till finally a coworker cleared my growing confusion up by explaining the situation.
posted by cirhosis at 7:09 AM on August 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
There was someone around who was also a dop for my ladyfriend and would come out to parties and confuse the hell out of other guests - they'd come up to her to start a conversation and get two sentences in before realizing they were talking to the wrong person.
I saw my dop at a pho space I frequented once. It was a resemblance so striking that I noticed it immediately, and then got mad - he was exactly what I'd look like if I was three inches taller and 30 pounds lighter. I felt like Danny DeVito in twins - "Whoa, whoa, whoa, you're telling me that I'm the crap?"
posted by FatherDagon at 7:28 AM on August 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
I saw my dop at a pho space I frequented once. It was a resemblance so striking that I noticed it immediately, and then got mad - he was exactly what I'd look like if I was three inches taller and 30 pounds lighter. I felt like Danny DeVito in twins - "Whoa, whoa, whoa, you're telling me that I'm the crap?"
posted by FatherDagon at 7:28 AM on August 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
I had a doppelgänger when I was in university. Occasionally, random strangers would walk up to me and ask me why I was ignoring them. One woman that I ran into at a fast food restaurant had to look at me for a number of seconds before she realized that I was not her chemistry lab partner.
I never met him, but someone who knew me saw him and had to look closely from several angles before realizing that he was not me. I'm 62 now; I wonder if we look like each other at all now.
posted by tallmiddleagedgeek at 8:30 AM on August 24, 2022
I never met him, but someone who knew me saw him and had to look closely from several angles before realizing that he was not me. I'm 62 now; I wonder if we look like each other at all now.
posted by tallmiddleagedgeek at 8:30 AM on August 24, 2022
Overheard in a store last month:
"Has anyone ever told you you look just like Liz Cheney?"
Pause.
"Um. No."
posted by BWA at 8:57 AM on August 24, 2022 [2 favorites]
"Has anyone ever told you you look just like Liz Cheney?"
Pause.
"Um. No."
posted by BWA at 8:57 AM on August 24, 2022 [2 favorites]
I met one of my still-good-friends in college because I was a doppelganger for her roommate. She walked up to me on campus and started talking to me about going grocery shopping after class, and then suddenly realized I wasn't who she thought I was. I wound up becoming good friends with her and her roommate.
Her roommate and I were close enough doppelgangers for each other (and had the same hair length and color, and we both dressed like a Delias catalog circa 1996) that a lot of people legitimately thought we were twins, to the point where I was talking to her on campus and a guy I was casually dating rode by on his bike, waved, did a double-take, stopped suddenly, turned around and asked me why I'd never mentioned I had a twin sister.
posted by erst at 9:29 AM on August 24, 2022
Her roommate and I were close enough doppelgangers for each other (and had the same hair length and color, and we both dressed like a Delias catalog circa 1996) that a lot of people legitimately thought we were twins, to the point where I was talking to her on campus and a guy I was casually dating rode by on his bike, waved, did a double-take, stopped suddenly, turned around and asked me why I'd never mentioned I had a twin sister.
posted by erst at 9:29 AM on August 24, 2022
Once upon a time I was visiting Memphis, TN, with some friends, and there was a twins convention. It was already pretty weird seeing doubles everywhere, then we went to a restaurant for ribs and the band ZZ Top was there eating ribs. It took us a while to figure out it was actually them and not more twins. One of them went to the restroom, so I went, too. And that's how I peed with a guy from ZZ Top.
posted by kirkaracha at 9:59 AM on August 24, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by kirkaracha at 9:59 AM on August 24, 2022 [2 favorites]
"The picture series, “I’m not a look-alike!,” was inspired by Mr. Brunelle’s discovery of his own look-alike, the English actor Rowan Atkinson."
I'm glad there weren't pictures of these two because I have a visceral hate for Rowan Atkinson.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:00 AM on August 24, 2022
I'm glad there weren't pictures of these two because I have a visceral hate for Rowan Atkinson.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:00 AM on August 24, 2022
As I get older I have the peculiar experience of seeing someone I haven't seen for years... And then realising it can't be them because that person would not be a teenager / in their early 20s any more.
Kate & Anna McGarrigle's Matapedia. This song kills me every time. Even more when daughter Martha (featured in the song) sings it.
posted by Bee'sWing at 10:29 AM on August 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
Kate & Anna McGarrigle's Matapedia. This song kills me every time. Even more when daughter Martha (featured in the song) sings it.
posted by Bee'sWing at 10:29 AM on August 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
OMG, I have a deleted comment that got flagged to hell or something about cruising the internets for doppelgangers of old friends. I have a small collection of can't possibly be them but looks so much like them that they might as well be them as far as a picture goes. I can show you a non-picture of the girl who gave me the name zengargoyle so many years ago.
My doppelganger is my nephew. My sister once sent me an old picture of me at pre-school age way back when beside my nephew's pre-school picture... for the next couple of decades of videos and such, I just look for the guy who looks like I did back then. And for some random reason Jon Cryer which I didn't really get but in high school.... people said we looked alike. "Duckie" from Pretty In Pink.
Oh I am so just pleasantly amused when I find a doppelganger of some old friend from way back then.
posted by zengargoyle at 10:37 AM on August 24, 2022
My doppelganger is my nephew. My sister once sent me an old picture of me at pre-school age way back when beside my nephew's pre-school picture... for the next couple of decades of videos and such, I just look for the guy who looks like I did back then. And for some random reason Jon Cryer which I didn't really get but in high school.... people said we looked alike. "Duckie" from Pretty In Pink.
Oh I am so just pleasantly amused when I find a doppelganger of some old friend from way back then.
posted by zengargoyle at 10:37 AM on August 24, 2022
I think the kids looking like their parents is a different thing. Ever so often, I see a 20-something on the street here in my hip neighborhood and think -- oh hi old friend, how are you doing? -- before I remember that I am no longer 27 and that the kid is probably the child of that old friend. Sometimes I ask them and they confirm that they are indeed that child, now adult.
Once, when I was still on FB, I posted a picture of my eldest eating lobster at a fancy restaurant, and a colleague from my then workplace wrote that she couldn't believe how good I looked in that picture. Well, it wasn't me. And I don't really get how someone I saw at least once a month could be mistaken. I wonder how much we actually see each other? Or if we just have a portrait in our memory banks of how we looked when we first met, and apply that every time we meet, regardless of how the other person really looks.
posted by mumimor at 10:50 AM on August 24, 2022 [3 favorites]
Once, when I was still on FB, I posted a picture of my eldest eating lobster at a fancy restaurant, and a colleague from my then workplace wrote that she couldn't believe how good I looked in that picture. Well, it wasn't me. And I don't really get how someone I saw at least once a month could be mistaken. I wonder how much we actually see each other? Or if we just have a portrait in our memory banks of how we looked when we first met, and apply that every time we meet, regardless of how the other person really looks.
posted by mumimor at 10:50 AM on August 24, 2022 [3 favorites]
I'm glad there weren't pictures of these two because I have a visceral hate for Rowan Atkinson.
Even despite the fact that, overall and otherwise, the supremely phlegmatic Bruno Cremer totally ruled in the role, Rowan Atkinson was a surprisingly good Maigret. I myself scoffed at the idea when I saw Atkinson was going to play Maigret -- until I saw him own the role in English. He is a great actor when playing it serious. His sublime Maigret proved this as fact.
posted by y2karl at 11:04 AM on August 24, 2022 [3 favorites]
Even despite the fact that, overall and otherwise, the supremely phlegmatic Bruno Cremer totally ruled in the role, Rowan Atkinson was a surprisingly good Maigret. I myself scoffed at the idea when I saw Atkinson was going to play Maigret -- until I saw him own the role in English. He is a great actor when playing it serious. His sublime Maigret proved this as fact.
posted by y2karl at 11:04 AM on August 24, 2022 [3 favorites]
Also through watching Atkinson as Maigret, I came to find that in retrospect Budapest has been the architectural doppelgänger of early 20th Century Paris for decades of movies and TV series.
posted by y2karl at 11:11 AM on August 24, 2022
posted by y2karl at 11:11 AM on August 24, 2022
My doppelganger is my nephew.
Samety-same. My nephew is fourteen and looks astonishingly like I did at his age (even just started wearing corrective lenses as I did then). Pictures of us at the same age are best distinguished by his having better haircuts*. He and I look far more alike than either of us does with my brother, his dad.
*In my defense, when I was fourteen it was the nineteen-eighties. The hair of that era... did not age well.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 1:07 PM on August 24, 2022
Samety-same. My nephew is fourteen and looks astonishingly like I did at his age (even just started wearing corrective lenses as I did then). Pictures of us at the same age are best distinguished by his having better haircuts*. He and I look far more alike than either of us does with my brother, his dad.
*In my defense, when I was fourteen it was the nineteen-eighties. The hair of that era... did not age well.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 1:07 PM on August 24, 2022
Or if we just have a portrait in our memory banks of how we looked when we first met,
I find this is the case for me. I had supper a few months ago with some friends, both a little younger than I, whom I have known since we all worked together at a cinema in the late eighties. I was a little surprised when they ordered alcohol with their meals because they are both teenagers — no, wait, they both turned fifty recently.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 1:12 PM on August 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
I find this is the case for me. I had supper a few months ago with some friends, both a little younger than I, whom I have known since we all worked together at a cinema in the late eighties. I was a little surprised when they ordered alcohol with their meals because they are both teenagers — no, wait, they both turned fifty recently.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 1:12 PM on August 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
If the person looks like you and is totally evil, they're your doppelgängster (no goatee required).
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 2:31 PM on August 24, 2022
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 2:31 PM on August 24, 2022
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posted by theora55 at 12:48 PM on August 23, 2022 [2 favorites]