Separated at birth, usually phrased as a question, is a light-hearted media device for pointing out people who are unrelated but bear a notable facial resemblance, implying that they are twins who were separated soon after being born and presumably adopted by separate families.
The title "Separated at Birth?" was a trademark of Spy Publishing Partners, the publishers of the now defunct Spy Magazine, a monthly publication that published satire, humor, and investigative journalism from 1986 to 1998. The magazine would pair two carefully selected photos of two unrelated famous persons and the juxtaposition would highlight their physical similarities to humorous effect.
There were several Separated at Birth? books issued around the same time, with whimsical comparisons such as Mick Jagger vs. Don Knotts as the fictional film character The Incredible Mr. Limpet
Famous quotes containing the words separated and/or birth:
“The doctrine of those who have denied that certainty could be attained at all, has some agreement with my way of proceeding at the first setting out; but they end in being infinitely separated and opposed. For the holders of that doctrine assert simply that nothing can be known; I also assert that not much can be known in nature by the way which is now in use. But then they go on to destroy the authority of the senses and understanding; whereas I proceed to devise helps for the same.”
—Francis Bacon (1560–1626)
“The condition that gives birth to a rule is not the same as the condition to which the rule gives birth.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)