Newt or Schrute: the Quiz

Can you tell the difference between Dwight Schrute and Newt Gingrich? No, you probably can’t.

One of these is Newt Gingrich. Or maybe both. We just don't know.via The Other 98%

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In case you haven’t heard, in his younger days former House Speaker Newt Gingrich looked an awful lot like Dwight Schrute*.

But the eerie similarities surely end there, right? I mean, one of them is mercurial, despised by his colleagues, in love with animals, obsessed with pop culture mythology and modern warfare, and wrapped up in an endless subplot involving a blonde love interest.

And the other one is Dwight Schrute.

Take this short Mother Jones quiz to find out if you can tell the difference between Newton Leroy Gingrich and Dwight Kurt Schrute III.

For the record: While many have chimed in on the physical resemblance between Newt and Schrute—BuzzFeedThe Daily ShowCollegeHumor, the Daily MailThe Today Show, and even Rainn Wilson himself—we believe the news team here at MoJo actually started the Newt/Schrute meme. It all began with a Tumblr post on the night of a Republican presidential debate in November. The trend began catching on in December and January. (We’ll try to be modest about this, though.)

And if you need any further proof that these two men likely share DNA, check out their shared devotion to the Star Wars saga. Here’s the former House speaker gushing about how George Lucas’s series reflects the “core values in American civilization” (the video of Newt starts at 00:43):

. . . and here’s Dwight going all-out on Halloween:

Boom. Case closed.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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