You down with SPP?

I had no idea there was an actual name for it and that it was considered a cartoonist’s convention, but apparently there is – it’s the Silent Penultimate Panel.

Arnold Wagner wrote about it recently on his blog, and that was where my eyes were first opened to it.

I’ve used those now and again (I try not to over-use them, but they’re fun). Frequent cartoon-lunch cohort Matthew Hansen refers to them as “Third Panel Guys Staring at Each Other cartoons,” which has a nice ring to it, but I’m kind of excited to now refer to them as SPPs.

Here’s one of my favorites.

EDIT: And another.