dual personalities

This picture was taken over 10 years ago backstage at the high school during the production of Girl Crazy. The boy is in the middle flanked by his two best friends. He was in 10th grade in his long flowing hair phase. He and two upperclassmen (not pictured) were the “cowboy trio” who got to sing “I’m Bidin’ My Time” at various times during the musical. They were adorable.

This is the time period when some people got the idea that the boy looked like Andy Samberg.

I can see it. But it drove the boy crazy.

People do this all the time. Sometimes they are on target; sometimes not so much. Something strikes them as similar. People are always looking for a connection, aren’t they? I wonder why that is?

I do it myself. People frequently remind me of my father and also my father-in-law. The classic example of this is Grumpy Old Men (1993), starring Jack Lemmon (my father) and Walter Matthau (my father-in-law).

Jack Lemmon IS my father–the fair-haired skinny wasp in khaki pants right down to the Brooks Brothers porkpie hat. I think he even says, “GodDAMit!”. And Walter Matthau is Bob. They were the quintessential grumpy old men in real life–how wonderful that they made a movie about them.

And a sequel.

As for why we do this, I guess it gives us comfort and makes the world less strange and intimidating. Makes sense to me.