Degrassi: The Next Generation is known for it accurate, yet sometimes vanilla portrayal of North American teenage life. Topics such as date rape, teen pregnancy, school violence, and inevitable cocaine abuse by wayward rockers are all fair game on this Canadian after-school-special-like teenage sitcom.

Characters such as Manny, the school slut, Paige, the pig-faced "mean girl," and Marco, the Latino gay resonate with tweens and adults alike. One of the most unforgettable Degrassi characters is Rick, who is Season 3 beats his chubby, plus-size-model (she has a very cute face) girlfriend Terri, putting her in a coma, and subsequently in Season 4 brings a gun to school, shoots and paralyzes the star basketball player (who is black), and in the end is killed by his own gun.

Does anyone else find it at all creepy that the Rick (picture 1) looks an awful lot like the kid who yesterday went on a shooting spree in an Omaha mall (picture 2)?

It sure gives us the heeby jeebies.

Watch Degrassi on The N or Your TV20.