Shaggy & Scooby Are Basically Twins

As the wise Pongo once observed from a cozy bay window bench, dogs and their owners occasionally veer into twin territory. Beloved characters Scooby and Shaggy truly-doo-be-doo-be-doo seem to be cut from the same groovy cloth. The long-running animated franchise's resident goofballs are tall, lanky, and sport patchy facial hair on their similarly shaped chins. But the similarities doesn't stop at physical appearance: Scooby and Shaggy from Scooby-Doo boast nearly identical temperaments.

No, this phenomenon isn't unique to Scooby-Doo or to Walt Disney animated classic 101 Dalmatians ; it happens in the real world, too. (And yes, there is research that supports this. To quote the Bill Nye The Science Guy theme song, "Science rules!") As fun as it is to pinpoint which traits your neighbors share with their canine companions, let us take it back to the cartoon universe for bit, shall we? Let us zero back in on the dynamic dog/owner duo from Scooby-Doo. After a couple hours of research (and yes, my "research" involved revisiting a bunch of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! clips on YouTube), I reached the following conclusion: Shaggy is the Homo sapiens version of Scooby, and Scooby is the Great Dane version of Shaggy.

I organized my findings into a handy-dandy Venn diagram. The next time you feel like wondering exactly how much these interspecies besties have in common, this graph will help you figure it out faster than you can say, "Scooby snack!"

Image: Hanna-Barbera Productions; Dawn Foster/Bustle