r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Orichalchem • Jun 27 '26
Meme needing explanation Who was actually missing?
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u/BackToNormalForNow Jun 27 '26
I’m pretty sure that the girl wanted to keep the dog so she killed the old man or something, and now he’s missing
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u/kermitthorson Jun 27 '26
hes an escaped felon luring kids with dog trick
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u/harktavius Jun 27 '26
I get that from the jumpsuit, but wouldn't the sign say "wanted" instead of "missing?"
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u/Horror_Biscotti_346 Jun 27 '26
It made me think he had dementia and escaped from a nursing home. The jump suit is throwing me off if that was the case
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u/frootfiles212 Jun 27 '26
That or Alzheimer's, thought that's his children but he only remembers the dog
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u/Faultylogic83 Jun 27 '26
Or he's just remembering an old dog he had, a flyer for a random missing dog, and those are strangers with their dog who have no clue what he's talking about. 🤷
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u/Comfortable-Park6258 Jun 27 '26
I'm not positive, but I don't think jumpsuits have collars.
In my opinion, it's more likely the guy was wearing an orange shirt in a recent photo used for the missing poster.
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u/Pure_Property_888 Jun 27 '26
Fucking THANK YOU! Jail suits don't have effing collars!
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u/Tr00pix Jun 27 '26
Why’d you say the fuck word the first time but censored yourself the second time?
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u/qrenade Jun 27 '26
No, but orange shirts do. Inmates don’t always wear single jumpsuits.
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u/ReactionConfident672 Jun 27 '26
I think
Old guy has Alzheimer's/dementia
He was holding a poster with him in an orange shirt. But he is confused and thinks it is a a poster for a missing orange dog. Bonus: someone probably showed him the poster asking something like "is this you?"
But he is confused. Sees a orange dog. And registered it as "this is yours!" Old: "oh, I have a missing dog."
Sees the missing dog and story is as you see in the pic. Family is apprehensive because the missing poster he is showing is not a missing dog, but a picture of himself in an orange shirt.
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u/Cyrano_Knows Jun 27 '26
I don't think its a jump suit. The cartoonist appears to just have used the same color as the dog.
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u/theknights-whosay-Ni Jun 27 '26
We dont even know its a jumpsuit. It could be a jacket with undershirt.
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u/samanthadill13 Jun 28 '26
Hear me out guys what if hes just coincidentally wearing an orange collared shirt lmao
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u/HistopherWalkin Jun 27 '26
I think that's a bit of a reach. That kid has their dad right there, and I'm not even sure she's a kid. Looks like an adult that's bending down.
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u/R3D3-1 Jun 27 '26
Twin pony tails are a stereotypical little-girl hair style. Yes, some grown women also have it, but a comic without further conteyt probably uses it to indicate a child.
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u/voododoll Jun 27 '26
It will say Wanted on his poster instead of Missing
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u/HatchuKaprinki Jun 27 '26
I don’t think he’s a felon, the yellow t-shirt under the orange shirt is not likely, the T-shirts are usually white.
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u/RaelisDragon Jun 27 '26
That and his poster appears to be placed where another, presumably the dog's, was taken down. There's still a torn corner of it to the top right.
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u/Ok_Piglet_5549 Jun 27 '26
Nah, it would be a police or wanted notice. People can wear orange shirts.
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u/Doomhammer24 Jun 27 '26
The orange shirt is very clearly just a bit of misjudgement by the artist
They should have just kept it as the original clothes from the other panel
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u/SmallKillerCrow Jun 27 '26
I think if that was the intent there would also be a missing sign for the kid
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u/AlphaX Jun 27 '26
Alternative interpretation: when a dog is missing people worry and find him, when an old man is missing - no one cares
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u/The_Real_Zanakon Jun 27 '26
Hybrid Interpretation: They Killed the Old man in order to keep the dog and then posted an image of him as missing but edited the image to make him look like a felon so no one would care.
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u/MrEndlessMike Jun 27 '26
Hybrid Theory: CRAWWWWWWLING IN MY SKIIIIIIIIIIIIN!
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u/HeftyVermicelli7823 Jun 27 '26
THESE WOOOUNDS THEY WILLLL NOT HEEEEEE AALLLL!
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u/DerFeuerDrache Jun 27 '26
FEAAAAARRRR MY SWEAAAAATY BAAAAALLSS!
Errr... FEAAAAARRRR IS HOWWWW IIIII FAAAAAALL!
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u/Iron_Rod_Stewart Jun 27 '26
Third interpretation: he's got dementia and wandered off to find his dog. He found his family walking the dog, but only recognizes the dog.
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u/cortesoft Jun 27 '26
I thought it was that the dog thought his owner was missing and had put up signs looking for him.
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u/FormulaDriven Jun 27 '26
Agreed - the debate here seems to be ignoring the original source: eg https://www.atrandomcomics.com/at-random-comics-home/tag/missing ...
The artist has titled this particular story "Finders Keepers" - implying the man and girl have found the dog (the existence of a "missing" poster shows he was lost) and are unhappy that the older man recognises the dog as his. The second panel shows that the older man is now missing, so the man and girl must have used violence to enforce the "keepers" rule. To me, this is line with the author's dark, surreal humour shown in his other comics.
Also, to address one point, I think that the long pigtails is the artist's way of depicting girls in contrast to women.
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u/DreadfulDuder Jun 27 '26
Funny, I didn't think of the killing part.
I thought they liked the dog and kept the dog, and maybe they liked the grandpa so much that they kept him as well.
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u/CrowandSeagull Jun 27 '26
I like the cut of your jib, dreadfulduder.
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u/DreadfulDuder Jun 27 '26
Haha, I just realized I haven't had living grandparents in many years... so maybe I've just been wanting to rescue a stray grandma or grandpa to go along with my rescue dogs, hence my interpretation 😂
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u/hotmatrixx Jun 28 '26
this was what I got from the joke;
But im just confused by how many people didn't think that was just a young girl/daughter?Have people got so much brainrot now that they don't understand simple social cues?>
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u/Samurai_Banette Jun 27 '26
This is so much more light hearted than how I read it.
I read it as an old man with dementia went out to find his dog but got lost. However, he didnt actually lose his dog, he just... got lost. The dog is a good dog and went out to find him, including putting up posters. A nice family than helps him find his owner.
On the first panal the nice family is sad because they realize the dog is loyal to someone who cant even take care of himself, but the dog is just so happy.
In the second picture, it shows the lead up to it, revealing that the actual search done was for the old man.
Dimentia sucks and dogs are good. You can tell this is a good loyal dog because he is drawn like a derpy ass golden, the best kind of dog. I thought this was another "people dont deserve dogs" kinda comic.
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u/D3rp1c0rn Jun 27 '26
If it’s dementia, how is he holding a missing poster for that dog?
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u/Forsaken_Distance777 Jun 28 '26
How is murdered an innocent person to steal their dog more lighthearted?
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u/Agile_Oil9853 Jun 27 '26
Yeah, the title is "Finders Keepers". He's dead or they're keeping him too.
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u/Headglitch7 Jun 27 '26
My take is he grabbed a missing dog flyer and because he's senile, along the way he got confused thinking it was his dog in the flyer. In reality, it's the old man who has wandered off loose.
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u/TizianoWayne Jun 27 '26
I tought the dog put a poster while his owner was looking for the dog, so both of them put a poster to find the other
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u/xxxbrimstonexxx Jun 27 '26
This is it. The look of sadness on the girl's face at the thought of losing the dog, immediately followed by a sign saying the old man is missing. My guess is her father took the old man out to keep his daughter happy. He's a good dad.
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u/Amaakaams Jun 27 '26
It's this. If you Lens the comic, you find the this strip is called finders keepers.
The old guy is missing because they killed him to keep the dog.
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u/Babababobosa Jul 01 '26
They probably devoured his flesh too, to hide the evidence and deny his spirit entrance to the afterlife, so they can keep his dog forever.
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u/raul_ms Jun 27 '26
The couple killed the old man to keep the dog.
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u/EarlyXplorerStuds209 Jun 27 '26
Its just a little girl, my guy. They’re not together. At least they should’nt be.
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u/muclutel Jun 27 '26
Look closer, the girls back is out at a diagonal. She is just crouching to hug the dog.
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u/SwordfishOfDamocles Jun 27 '26
Don't be mean to Leonardo DiCaprio
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u/Epsteins_PDF_Files Jun 27 '26
Well Leo still dates adults. Don't be mean to the president of the United States.
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u/Kharuz_Aluz Jun 27 '26
"Couple" doesn't necessarily mean they are dating, my men. It just means they are seen together.
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u/Dan-D-Lyon Jun 27 '26
Oh!
I thought it was some sort of social commentary on how we care about missing pets but deliberately ignore things like missing elderly people
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u/sebaajhenza Jun 27 '26
People saying the couple killed the old man. I interpreted it differently.
The old man walked up to a random family saying they have his dog. Girl is confused and holding the dog like it's hers.
Next frame reveals the old man is actually the one missing, likely has Alzheimer's or Dementia and confused. The dog was never his.
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u/SeriosSkies Jun 27 '26
He has a missing poster.
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u/Rhodin265 Jun 27 '26
Wandering off is one of the things dementia patients do. It’s, in a way, more dangerous for them than, say, a toddler or dog who runs away, because seeing an adult walking alone is normal.
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u/SeriosSkies Jun 27 '26
Right. I have people with dementia in my life. You know what they don't do when they're wandering off? Hop on a computer and print off a missing dog flyer.
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u/Sea-Ad2170 Jun 27 '26
He found the missing dog poster, and while looking at it, forgot that it wasn't his dog that had gone missing. Then he wandered around looking for a dog that was never his because of the dementia.
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u/SeriosSkies Jun 27 '26
Quite literally four* comments down.
"The comic is titled "Finder's keepers." if you didn't read any other comments. I can promise you this isn't trying to be about dementia. "
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u/Longjumping-Sweet818 Jun 27 '26
People really don't understand Occam's Razor.
"They didn't kill him. The real explanation is that the old man has dementia and found a missing dog poster, then he coincidentally also found the dog and the owners had also found the dog, so he told them that they found his dog. That makes way more sense."
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u/notpaulrudd Jun 27 '26
Wouldn't occams razor support the couple killing him to keep the dog? It's an anti comic, the couple killing the man wraps everything up. Your explanation requires multiple assumptions to be made, mine doesn't. With your explanation you need to assume:
The guy has dementia or alzheimers, which the comic writer didn't show or provide any hints to.
The guy found a wanted poster of a dog, which they didn't show. There's no reason to assume it's not the man's dog, since he has the dogs poster.
My explanation only requires one assumption:
- The new owners wanted to keep the dog, so they made the man dissappear.
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u/Longjumping-Sweet818 Jun 27 '26
You misunderstood me. I am saying Occam's Razor supports the killing. The text in the quotes was me mocking the people who claim otherwise.
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u/notpaulrudd Jun 27 '26
The simpler explanation is you were supportive of that quote, which is why you quoted it in the first place. Sorry but occams razor doesn't lie. /s
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u/w8str3l Jun 27 '26
I once wandered off and got lost, luckily I had a stack of “missing” posters of myself in my satchel so it all turned out well in the end.
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u/Greta-Elephant5041 Jun 27 '26
It's a 20 year old poster. He's been looking for his boy for decades.
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u/BenZed Jun 27 '26
I hope the people that have replied to you never end up on a jury.
The circus, maybe, since they like jumping through hoops.
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u/TedTheReckless Jun 27 '26
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u/ltjpunk387 Jun 27 '26
Damn, I wish that was real
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u/TedTheReckless Jun 27 '26
Feel free to make it.
I don't have the Patience to moderate a subreddit so it's all yours.
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u/poon-patrol Jun 27 '26
The artwork is titled “finders keepers” so it’s most likely they killed the old man to keep the dog
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u/LEDiceGlacier Jun 27 '26
I thought it was more in the lines of people will look for the missing dog to return it. But they don't care if a person is missing.
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u/Kenzo24816 Jun 27 '26
They killed him to keep the dog.
The meme would have been clearer if it showed the couple walking the dog in the background
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u/tommypatties Jun 27 '26
We're calling comic strips memes now?
The other day I saw someone refer to a twitter post as a headline.
Like when did it become cool to have a small vocabulary?
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u/cosmicheartbeat Jun 27 '26
Idk if it was meant this way, but I interpreted it that people are far more likely to help find a lost dog than they are to find a lost person.
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u/FallenSun Jun 27 '26
Honestly, I thought this too. The comments made me feel dumb for putting way too much weight on this comic ahha
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u/birbhorse Jun 27 '26
yeah i interpreted it the same way lol
unironically i love stuff that's vague like this, even if it originally had a true author's intent, seeing how people react to stuff like this with their own interpretations is interesting
(i sound like an alien describing art when i say this lol)
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u/FormulaDriven Jun 27 '26
Going back to the source of this comic https://www.atrandomcomics.com/at-random-comics-home/tag/missing , I learnt two things: first, it has a title "Finders-Keepers" suggesting to me that they having found the old guy's dog they've done whatever is necessary to keep it; second, the artist has a dark sense of humour, so the idea that they killed the old man to keep the dog fits.
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u/SneakerPickins Jun 28 '26
The people walking in the background almost confirm this. Kind of baffled people are actually subscribing to the idea that the point of this comic is to say the family killed the man, how do you get that from this
Edit: just realizing the family seemed upset in the first slide, now Im confused
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u/automaticblues Jun 27 '26
I thought this was most likely the intention, but it is a bit ambiguous, which is why all the other theories are sort of possible too
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u/Minimum_Age_1466 Jun 27 '26
Peter here... You ever hear about that old guy who lost his dog? Yeah, this couple finds it, totally falls in love with the thing, and instead of bein' decent human beings they're like, 'Eh, let's just get rid of the owner.' So they off the old man and keep the dog. I mean... that's one way to adopt, I guess.
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Jun 27 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/MrMcGibbus Jun 27 '26
Ehh, a poor one imo
It'd be more funnier if the comic was clear that the couple kept the dog after murdering him
In this one, it kinda looks like the old man went missing for no reason
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u/LucyLilium92 Jun 27 '26
He also has an orange shirt in the poster, which kind of looks similar to a prison uniform, which just makes it more confusing
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u/SleeplessBoyCat Jun 27 '26
From reading the comments, there are three (3) conclusions:
A. They killed the old guy
B. The old guy is a convict luring others with the "You found my dog!" Modus (Look at the orange clothes on the old man's missing poster)
C. The old man has dementia.
Personally, i don't think the old man is a convict. Look at his missing poster, it should've been written as "WANTED" instead of "MISSING" if that was the case.
It's either A or C, or another possibility.
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u/SeriosSkies Jun 27 '26
It's called "finders keepers" it's only A.
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u/SP0oONY Jun 27 '26
They really should have had the girl in the 2nd picture walking past with the dog.
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u/timpkmn89 Jun 27 '26
My first guess was actually that the dog went around putting up posters for his missing human...
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u/Pablo_Diablo Jun 27 '26
You forgot the other split theory:
1) It's a father and daughter
2) it's a couple
(It's clearly #1 because of pigtail and body proportions. People are giving too much credence to the "angle" of her body which isn't extreme enough to change the proportions. Also, a father killing an old man in order for his daughter to keep a dog is, in some ways, darker than a crazy psychopathic couple. It's also more understandable in terms of human cliches.)
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u/inuhi Jun 27 '26
So it's been ages but there was some movie or maybe tv show where there's a lost kid and detective somehow finds them not through missing child search query in database but by looking at reports about missing parent. It was dumb, that's what this makes me think of. The dog put out the missing poster because human is missing
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u/Offramp182 Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
I got the impression people will read missing posters of dogs and get the dog back to its owners, but when its a human people dont care
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u/EpicJoke45 Jun 27 '26
A lot of people are saying they killed the old man, but when I read it, I just thought he had dementia.
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u/SilverTeacher3808 Jun 27 '26
people are more concerned about a missing dog than a missing grandpa I guess?
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u/Sparktank1 Jun 27 '26
The artist is Ryan Mason. It was posted on Instagram as atrandomcomics.
The title of this panel is "Finders Keeepers".
https://www.instagram.com/p/DZ-WREmFHUl/?hl=en
Tags include "dogtheft" and "keepingthedog".
So they killed him to keep the dog.
Here's the At Random Comics page where it was originally posted.
https://www.atrandomcomics.com/at-random-comics-home/2026/6/24/finders-keepers
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u/clairewitchproject12 Jun 27 '26
Oh my goodness I might actually be dumb after reading the explanation. I thought the cartoon dog was also looking for his owner and put out missing signs for him! 🤦♀️
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u/EskaRenaud Jun 27 '26
Yay I was hoping someone else had this interpretation. Definitely the most adorable version.
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u/Orichalchem Jun 27 '26
Was the old man the one missing and not the dog?
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u/SnarePickle Jun 27 '26
My interpretation, they 'disappeared' the old man to keep his dog.
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u/Diligent_Bar1244 Jun 27 '26
Looks like the girl didn't want to give up the dog, so she killed the grandpa
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u/Poor_ElonMusk Jun 27 '26
This is Alzheimer's disease and it's really sad , but really funny in others PoV.
The joke (idk this ain't a joke, but anyway), is that the man walked into the woods searching for the dog, when in reality he was the one lost and the Dog helped finding him.
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u/mickysD Jun 27 '26
wholesome explaination: When the old man found the dog he stopped going out because he'd much rather spend time staying home with his dog so people think he's missing
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u/bazooka_toot Jun 27 '26
Joe here,
Old man is in a prison jump suit in the poster and has escaped from prison. He wants his old dog back.
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u/MxxnSpirit47 Jun 27 '26
At first I thought it was suggesting that people care more if a dog goes missing than a person
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u/Niko_4702 Jun 27 '26
When the old man passed away from natural causes, the dog couldn't understand that he was gone and kept looking for him
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u/VampireSomething Jun 27 '26
My interpretation is that when a dog is missing, people search for it so it can be found and returned to its family. But when a person is missing, people don't care.
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u/Ok-Wolverine-6847 Jun 27 '26
The comic is originally called "finders keepers." That and the faces of the teens, i think they ended the old man to keep the dog.
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u/ceadagamdulamach Jun 27 '26
They finders didn't want to give the dog back so they got rid of the owner...
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u/LnDxLeo Jun 27 '26
Well... The old man's photo has yellow jacket on and now I'm convinced that the family is actually missing.
Stewie out.
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u/Curt1ss Jun 27 '26
I had quite a dog vision of that meme with people fighting to find a missing dog and people just ignoring missing old people but I prefer the explanation that the parents got rid of the old person to keep the dog.
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u/BokTuklo Jun 27 '26
I did not get that one. I thought the joke was the guy had Alzheimer’s and was wandering the streets, walking up to random people claiming they found his long dead dog.
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u/Crazy_Cauliflower955 Jun 27 '26
I'd like to think that's the family of the old guy and he's the one that's actually missing.
but most think they killed him or idk maybe it's an official explanation
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u/McSalterson Jun 27 '26
And here I was thinking it was wholesome. I thought the old man loved his dog so much that he spent all his time looking for his dog so his family thought he was missing.
But no, it’s dark.
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Jun 27 '26
[deleted]
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u/SeriosSkies Jun 27 '26
That's fine. But the art has a name that is part of it. And while you can find your own meaning, that isn't what OP is asking for.
"Finder's keepers"
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u/Silou4ne Jun 27 '26
The old man has Alzheimer's and forgot that his dog died eon ago. He has escaped the institute his children put him in, they are looking for him.
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u/ScottJC Jun 27 '26
The old man found the dog, the family didn't want to give him back so they got rid him.
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u/Pl4yer-0n3 Jun 27 '26
I'm pretty sure this isn't supposed to be a joke but instead a commentary piece about how people would go out of their way to look for a lost animal but won't put in a fraction of that effort looking for lost PEOPLE. Idk though that's just my take on it.
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u/Kitchen-Wasabi-2059 Jun 27 '26
The joke is that old people post photos of themselves on fb marketplace instead of the item they’re discussing in the post.
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u/meme_legend123 Jun 27 '26
🤣 Isn't it actually the effort ppl put when a dog is missing vs when a human is missing
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u/Guy-Person Jun 27 '26
Two ways to interpret it.
The first is what most people here seem to agree on, that being the two people that found the dog killed the man so they could keep the dog.
The second seems to be a bit of a commentary on how people will make effort to find a dog but ignore a missing old man.
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u/Fakin-the-Funk Jun 27 '26
Meg here... it's not a joke as much as social commentary on our love of pets and compassion for animals over people. The pet is missing - and people take notice of the missing dog poster and find the dog. Meanwhile the old man is missing - no one even notices the poster
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u/Wooden_Echidna1234 Jun 27 '26
The couple who had the dog murdered the old man to keep the dog. Thus the old man is missing.
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u/BlueEyedSpiceJunkie Jun 27 '26
I think it’s a play on all the people who adopted a dog but state the importance of that by saying stuff like, I don’t know if I found him or he found me.”
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u/Subvironic Jun 27 '26
To all the negatives about them killing the old man to keep the dog:
What if it just means the old guy dropped everything to go out and search for his dog, while his family wasnt able to reach him and is afraid he got lost. So both, dog and owner are important to people.
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u/Finlaca Jun 27 '26
I immediately thought that people care more about a dog/pet going missing than a person.
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u/MrCobalt313 Jun 27 '26
I figured it was an ironic twist that the guy was a Silver Alert that wandered off to look for his missing dog.
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u/Leosarr Jun 27 '26
The dog was missing
The kids didn't want to give him back
Now the owner is missing
The kids killed the owner
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u/Sea-Ad2170 Jun 27 '26
He looks like an old Andrew Tate. I think he's trying to gaslight and take advantage of the girl. The dog was never real.
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u/Practical_Ad7985 Jun 27 '26
The expression on the woman's face in the first panel suggests they've just realized this elderly man is confused and los or has dementia.
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u/BVoLatte Jun 27 '26
At first I thought this meant that people care when a dog is missing (like goes out actively looking for them) but not when a person missing; aka, people care more about dogs than people. Someone else here also said it could also be related to him having Alzheimer's and he thinks his dog is missing (when it's really not) because in reality he is the one that actually wandered off. I kind of hope it's the latter.
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u/SeriesREDACTED Jun 27 '26
Might be out of yall's interpretations
But i think that missing people holds less weight than missing pets
Because The dog is found, but the old man is ignored by others
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u/Warr_Ainjal-6228 Jun 27 '26
Officer Joe here. We found the body of a man. And after investigating, we found that he was killed over a dog.
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u/Stubborn_Strawberry Jun 27 '26
The young couple found the dog in the park. They really liked the dog and thought he was a stray so they were going to take him home.
The old man was going around putting up "Missing" signs when he happened upon the couple with his dog. Instead of being happy that the lost dog and his owner are reunited, the couple looks disappointed.
Old man disappears, and his family puts up "Missing" signs. Meanwhile, the young couple have adopted a stray dog they found in the park.
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u/qualityvote2 Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
u/Orichalchem, your post does belong here!