Pope Idol

I put together the image of John Ratzenberger as the Pope as a joke. It was really just a moment of inspiration when I heard the name of the new pope over and over. Certainly I had heard of Cardinal Ratzinger before, but the increase in media mentions sparked the parody.
Now, it seems, some actual news outlets were reporting that John Ratzenberger had been named Pope. Incredible! That is so absurdly surreal that I can barely believe it. First for the irresponsibility of those news outlets (although it is in part due to their urgent efforts to distribute information immediately) and second for the coincidence with my own little effort at humour.
A quick and disorganised perusal of various weblogs, forums and sites around the WWWeb reveals many folks that share this misunderstanding. There are even other people that have made composite photos. Although mine is the best that I have seen, if I do say so myself.
And I thought I was being dreadfully creative. Ah, well. As I wrote in a previous post, there is nothing new under the sun.