Patton Oswalt And David Harbour Are Basically Adult Versions Of These Two ‘Stranger Things’ Characters

Of the various young pairings in Stranger Things (El and Mike, Lucas and Max, Will and the Mind Flayer…), obviously, Dustin and Steve is the greatest of all time. The bond between the two characters only strengthened in season three once Steve began working at Scoops Ahoy and became Dustin’s accomplice to both getting into movies for free and thwarting the Russians.

But perhaps there’s a reason for the natural chemistry of the two unlikely pals, as evidenced by the real-life friendship of Patton Oswalt and Chief Jim Hopper himself, David Harbour — a lovable nerd and a dad-bodded hunky leading man, respectively. Over the weekend, Twitter user Trevor White (a.k.a. @JustARealDummy) pointed out the similarities between a young Oswalt and Harbour to Dustin and Steve.

“[David Harbour and Patton Oswalt’s] friendship makes so much sense when you realize they are grown-up Steve and Dustin,” he wrote, accompanied by the following throwbacks.

It didn’t take long for Oswalt to notice the tweet, who shared it with the caption: “Oh my God. OH MY GOD. You see this [David Harbour]?”

With Patton’s stamp of approval, from there the tweet quickly went viral, and fans began sharing to express their absolute delight at the revelation:

https://twitter.com/Fallback84/status/1153110871872348160

https://twitter.com/joshuamneff/status/1153129964683833345

The official Stranger Things Twitter account even got in on the fun:

Oswalt and Harbour’s friendship goes back to at least 2017, when Oswalt held “an epic summit” to smooth over the apparent feud between former Hellboy star Ron Perlman and the star of the 2019 reboot of the same name.

“Not since Bill Clinton, Menachem Begin, and Anwar Sadat has there been such an epic summit yielding such a little result!” Perlman wrote on Facebook at the time, along with photo evidence of the meeting. “Apparently Patton Oswalt thought it was a good idea to host David Harbour and yours truly for a detente dinner. The result: I gained three pounds and ruined my liver.”

“Meanwhile, good luck kid! Signed, the babe,” he added.

Saving the world from Russians and squelching monsters is one thing, but have you ever facilitated a Hellboy-off? Now that sounds truly terrifying.