Deep thought: Happy birthday, Jack Handey!

Jack Handey is a real person, and just to prove it, he got himself born 60 years ago today.

Even Wikipedia agrees that “Handey is a real person, not a pen name or a character,” so happy birthday, Mr. Handey.

I think a lot of people may not believe he’s real because they have never seen him.

Fine. Go look at him then.

Satisfied? And remember — that image is coming straight from The Only Official Deep Thoughts Site.

The site also notes that “No Deep Thoughts may be reproduced on websites without permission.”

The warning is not stopping everyone. I don’t have any hard numbers, but I would have to guess that Jack Handey is one of the most copyright-violated writers on the entire Web.

In fact, if you run a search at YouTube, you’ll find that a lot of Jack Handey material has been appropriated by youth groups at churches for cleverly-named events like “Sunday Night Live.”

Wouldn’t it be funny if ultimately Jack Handey went to heaven for entertaining so many people with his funny thoughts, and those church youths went to hell for violating the intellectual property rights of Jack Handey?

Okay, maybe not hilarious — but just sort of fittingly ironic?