The internet is very upset that Bernie Madoff looks like George Washington. Could it be because it's like being made love to by a woman with the same mannerisms as your mother? We investigate.

• January 9, 2009: The First Documented Reference is Made: "I saw a picture on Google News that caught my attention in that it made him look eerily like George Washington. "
• February 26, 2009: Blogger wonders if anyone else notices resemblance: Maybe investors trusted him simply because he looks like the Father of our Country!
• March 6, 2009: Staten Island commenter notices the same thing. The seventh seal has been unbroken, the dead are rising, the end of the world is near.
• March 11, 2009: Appearance of First Video Mashup Youtube mashup: Interestingly, in this one Madoff is simultaneously both Washington and Ben Franklin.
• March 11, 2009: NBC Washington commenter Emory Humdorf notes, "The strange irony is that he bears a striking resemblance to George Washington.The strange irony is that he bears a striking resemblance to George Washington.
• March 12, 2009: The very next day the same irony is noted by NYT commenter: ironically, he kinda of resembles the guy on the one dollar bill in this picture…
• March 13, 2009: Sensing the zeitgeist, Gawker overlord Nick Denton commissions Steven Dressler to create two portraits. (See below)
• March 14, 2009: The official history of the Geo. Washington/Bernie Madoff similarity is published on this website, thus validating the meme as a true social phenomenon.
• March 15, 2009: Joshua David Stein is offered six figure book deal to write a blog-to-book book about Madoff and Washington tentatively entitled, "George Washington and Bernie Madoff: They Kind of Look Alike." to be put out by Knopf.

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  [Photos: Top: DarthAbraham/Flickr] Middle: Steve Dressler did the two top good ones. Bottom: I did the kind of crap bottom one. If anyone knows how to make a layer look like an engraving in Photoshop, I'd welcome any tips.]

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