Twice is nice! Right?
A comic trope in which either the two last panels of a strip each contain a punchline, or the last panel contains double the punchlines for double the fun.
This sometimes takes the form of crossing the line twice. The penultimate panel is often a sight gag or Take, and if this is true, then the last panel may add a spoken punchline to this. Conversely, the spoken punchline may be in the penultimate panel with a Wild Take or Gross-Up Close-Up added as the second punchline.
Related to Escalating Punchline. For webcomics, Alt Text is frequently used as a way to convey the second punchline.
Examples:
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Comic Strips
- Often used in Pearls Before Swine, especially in the pun strips, in which the first punchline in the penultimate panel is a contrived pun after a long setup, with the second in the last panel being someone, usually Rat, reacting with annoyance or going straight to Stephan Pastis to complain.
- Calvin and Hobbes: Bill Watterson was fond of these, with Hobbes adding another punchline on the far right of the last panel, often a mockery or lampshade hanging on what Calvin was saying.
- Doonesbury was the first newspaper comic strip to regularly use this, and was directly or indirectly the inspiration for most modern uses.
- The "two punchlines in last panel" variation is frequently seen in Cul-de-sac.
- In Political Cartoons an additional punchline / comment is sometimes supplied by an Author Avatar drawn in the last panel or in the bottom left. Currently satirized by The Onion's "Kelly"
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Web Comics
- Sometimes in Questionable Content, as seen here. In one case, a double punchline is given after a pair of Silent Scenery Beat Panels.
- In an example from Bob and George, after Bob revives from unconciousness off panel, when he actually appears in the penultimate panel of the next comic, he is wearing a ridiculous girly costume. The final panel has him making a reference to the prior Halloween comic, which is where the costume originated.
- Cat and Girl uses a fairly standard size format for its comics, but sometimes there will be an extra panel or two drawn in grey that adds a punchline.
- Many Webcomics (including The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, xkcd and Achewood) will include secondary punchlines in hover-over Alt Text. Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal and Amazing Super Powers go a step further, including an entire bonus second-punchline panel. The former by hovering over a red button at the end of the strip, and the latter by clicking a hidden question mark at the comic's side.
- Achewood often has multiple punchlines strewn throughout the strip.
- Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal: There's an entire bonus second-punchline panel accessible by hovering over a red button at the end of the strip. Many of the main strips also have multiple punchlines, especially from the time before Zach started drawing voteys. Lampshaded in this strip, which had three punchlines in the main strip, and then got a votey drawn years later saying nothing but "Do you really want another punchline, you greedy bastard?"