Cartoonist Daryl Cagle, I believe, coined a phrase in editorial cartooning for the real-life scenario when five separate editorial cartoonists end up doing the exact same joke on the topic-of-the-day: “The Yahtzee”.
As I’m finding out from readers this morning, the setup of today’s strip was already tackled — and tackled funnier — by the strip xkcd.
As a cartoonist, when you accidentally go to the same concept like that, my gut tells me the only intellectually honest thing to do is acknowledge the first cartoon as soon as you find out about it. It’s bound to happen after 3,000 Sheldon strips, but it’s an embarrassing bummer nonetheless.
My apologies to Randall Munroe, the creator of xkcd. You got there first, and you tackled the topic way funnier.