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Thomson and Thompson (Dupont et Dupond)

This wooden toy depicts Thompson, albeit without his characteristic bowler hat. His moustache does not flare out like Thomson's. When the red string is pulled, his arms and legs move.

Thomson and Thompson (original French: Dupond et Dupont) are a pair of detectives in Hergé's classic European comic graphic-novel series The Adventures of Tintin. It is unclear whether the two are related: they have different names and are never referred to as twins or brothers in the original language version of the series (except once^[1] sarcastically). In any case, the two clumsy detectives look like twins and can only be told apart by the shape of their moustaches. They provide much of the comic relief throughout the series, as they are afflicted with spoonerism (as seen in King Ottokar's Sceptre). They are thoroughly incompetent, and always bent on arresting the wrong character, but in spite of this, they somehow get entrusted with delicate missions, such as ensuring security for the Syldavian space project or investigating arms dealing.

The detective with the flared moustache is Thomson (without a "p"), who often describes himself as "Thomson, without a 'p,' as in Venezuela!" and who often remarks, "To be precise...". The detective with the flat moustache has described himself as "Thompson with a 'P,' as in..." and then used words with either a silent "P," or in which the "P" is combined with another letter, as to change the sound, such as Philadelphia, psychology and so on.

It's confirmed that Simon Pegg and Nick Frost will portray Thomson and Thompson in the Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson movie adaptation.

[edit] Character history

The first appearance of Thomson and Thompson was in Cigars of the Pharaoh when they came into conflict with Tintin on board a ship where he and Snowy were enjoying a holiday cruise. When this adventure was first published in 1932 they were referred to as X33 and X33bis (or X33 and X33b). On this occasion they showed an unusually high level of cunning and efficiency, going to great lengths to rescue Tintin from the firing squad in disguises that fooled even him, and saving Snowy from sacrifice.

In this and other early stories like The Blue Lotus and The Black Island, they would spend most of their time pursuing Tintin himself for crimes he had not committed, although they later reconciled with him and became firm allies in subsequent stories.

In spite of the codenames mentioned above, they remained nameless in the early adventures, including The Blue Lotus, The Broken Ear and The Black Island. It was not until King Ottokar's Sceptre, published in 1938, that Tintin mentions their definitive names when introducing them to Professor Alembick at the airport.

While the original version of Cigars of the Pharaoh came out in 1932, the rewritten and redrawn version was issued in 1955, and the English version was not issued until 1971. This resulted in some chronological confusion for new readers of the Tintin series, which is why the text hints that Tintin already knew the pair, and was surprised at their unfriendly behavior; however, on the original chronological sequence, this was indeed the first time they ever met.

Thomson and Thompson also appear in a retcon on the very first page of the 1946 remake of Tintin in the Congo though they keep at a distance, looking on as Tintin, surrounded by admirers, sets off for the Congo. A remark made by one of them implies that at that stage they do not even know Tintin by name, only reputation. (In the original publication, made in the 1930s, this remark is made by a railway worker chatting to a colleague.)

The detectives usually wear bowler hats and carry walking sticks, except when abroad: during those missions they insist on wearing the stereotypical costume of the country they are visiting so that they can blend into the local population, but in general they only manage to find some ridiculous folkloric attire that actually makes them more conspicuous and leads to trouble, such as in The Calculus Affair when they are arrested in traditional Swiss outfits. In Destination Moon, they even managed to be arrested in Syldavia while wearing Greek costumes, convinced they were wearing Syldavian ones, due to an error on the part of their tailor.

In The Blue Lotus, an unforgettable half-page drawing appears of Thomson and Thompson walking down a street in China "in disguise" (in fact wearing outfits for a Chinese opera), unaware that they are being followed by a large crowd of amused locals.

Another recurring joke in the early adventures was when they and Tintin would requisition fast cars, motorcycles, or boats in order to pursue the villains: Tintin would start up so fast that the Thompsons would be thrown off while Tintin, unaware of this, would continue the pursuit warning them to hold on tight.

Thomson and Thompson were originally only side characters but later became more important. In the redrawings of the earlier books, especially The Black Island, the detectives gained their now-traditional mannerisms.

In Land of Black Gold, the detectives mistakenly swallowed some pills that caused them to sprout immensely long beards that change color constantly. The condition wears off by the end of this adventure, but it relapses in Explorers on the Moon, causing problems when the captain must continuously cut their hair, repeatedly switching back to re-cut floor length hair (and mustaches and beards) which all grow back in seconds. Fortunately, an antidote was previously developed, although it apparently takes some time to work.

In the 19 books following Cigars of the Pharaoh (not including the unfinished Tintin and Alph-Art or the book of the film Tintin and the Lake of Sharks), Thomson and Thompson appear in 17 of them, not appearing in Tintin in Tibet or Flight 714, although in some books their role is minor. The duo's appearance in The Shooting Star is confined to a single panel.

[edit] Inspiration and cultural impact

The detectives were physically based on Hergé's father and uncle, who were twins, both of whom wore matching bowlers. Another inspiration was a picture of two mustachioed, bowler-hatted, formally dressed detectives who were featured on the cover of the Le Miroir edition of March 2, 1919. They were shown escorting a criminal—one detective was handcuffed to the man while the other was holding both umbrellas. ^[2] In turn, the Thom(p)sons inspired the name of the British 1980s pop band, the Thompson Twins.

They (or at least their Roman-era ancestors) also make a brief cameo appearance in the Astérix book Asterix in Belgium.

They make an appareance in L'ombra che sfidò Sherlock Holmes,^[3] an italian comic spin-off of Martin Mystère, edit by Sergio Bonelli Editore.

[edit] Names

In the original French, Dupond and Dupont are stereotypical surnames (akin to "Smith" in English, though they mean du pont, "of the bridge") and pronounced identically (IPA: [dy.pɔ̃], approximately dü-pon). Translators of the series have tried to find in each language names for the pair that are common, and similar or identical in pronunciation. They thus become:^[4]

• Uys and Buys in Afrikaans
• Tik and Tak in Arabic (تيك و تاك)
• Johnson and Rohnson in Bengali
• Kadlec and Tkadlec in Czech
• Jansen and Janssen in Dutch
• Thomson and Thompson in English
• Citserono and Tsicerono in Esperanto
• Schultze and Schulze in German
• Ντυπόν and Ντιπόν in Greek (pronounced [diˈpon])
• Dupont and Duvont in Japanese (デュポンとデュボン Dupon to Dubon)
• Clodius and Claudius in Latin
• Douponte, Doupont in Persian (دوپونت و دوپونط)
• Tajniak and Jawniak in Polish
• Hernández and Fernández in Spanish and Galician
• Skapti and Skafti in Icelandic
• Johns and Johnes in Welsh
• Tomson and Tompson in Serbian
• Zigue and Zague in older Portuguese editions

The original Dupond and Dupont was kept in Swedish, Danish, Portuguese, Turkish, Korean, Finnish, Italian, Catalan and Indonesian.

[edit] References