Thomson and Thompson


Thomson and Thompson are fictional characters in The Adventures of Tintin, the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. They are two incompetent detectives who provide much of the comic relief throughout the series. While their different surnames would suggest they are unrelated, they look like identical twins whose only discernible difference is the shape of their moustaches. They are afflicted with chronic spoonerisms, are extremely clumsy, thoroughly clueless, and usually intent on arresting the wrong character. In spite of this, they somehow are entrusted with delicate missions.
The detective with the flat, drooping walrus moustache is Thompson and introduces himself as "Thompson, with a 'P', as in psychology", while the detective with the flared, pointed moustache is Thomson, who often introduces himself as "Thomson, without a 'P', as in Venezuela."
Often, when one says something, the other adds "To be precise", but then repeats what the first said, only twisted around. This trait has gained popularity.
Thomson and Thompson usually wear bowler hats and carry walking sticks, except when abroad: during these missions they insist on wearing the stereotypical costume of the country they are visiting so that they blend into the local population, but instead manage to dress in folkloric attire that actually makes them stand apart.
The detectives were in part based on Hergé's father and uncle, identical twins who wore matching bowler hats while carrying matching walking sticks.

Character history

In Tintin in America there are characters similar to the twins: two policemen collide and Mike MacAdam is a incompetent detective.
Thomson and Thompson first appeared in Tintin in the Congo, making only a brief one-panel appearance; their first appearance towards the plot of a story was in 1932, in Cigars of the Pharaoh, when they come into conflict with Tintin on board a ship where he and Snowy are enjoying a holiday cruise. When this adventure was first published they were referred to as X33 and X33bis. Here they show an unusually high level of cunning and efficiency, going to great lengths to rescue Tintin from the firing squad and saving Snowy from sacrifice in disguises that fool even Tintin. In this and two other early stories — The Blue Lotus and The Black Island — they spend most of their time, forced to follow official orders and faked evidence, in pursuit of Tintin himself for crimes he has not committed, the two noting in Blue Lotus that they never believed in Tintin's guilt even if they had to obey their orders. Except for their codenames, they remained nameless in the early adventures. 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.
In his 1941 play co-written with Jacques Van Melkebeke, Hergé named them as "Durant and Durand", although he later renamed them as "Dupont and Dupond". When King Ottokar's Sceptre was serialised in Eagle for British readers in 1951, the characters were referred to as "Thomson and Thompson"; these names were later adopted by translators Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper and Michael Turner in their translation of the series into English for Methuen Publishing.
While the original version of Cigars of the Pharaoh was published 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 knows the pair, and is surprised at their unfriendly behaviour; however, on the original chronological sequence, this is indeed the first time they ever meet. In addition, Hergé added them to the 1946 colour version of the second Tintin story, Tintin in the Congo, in the backdrop as Tintin embarks for what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Thomson and Thompson were originally only side characters but later became more important. In the re-drawings of the earlier books, especially The Black Island, the detectives gained their now-traditional mannerisms.
In Land of Black Gold, the detectives mistakenly swallow some mysterious pills used to adulterate fuel, that causes them to sprout immensely long beards and hair that change colour constantly and grow at a break-neck pace. The condition wears off by the end of this adventure, but it relapses in Explorers on the Moon, causing problems when Captain Haddock must continuously cut their hair, repeatedly switching back to re-cut floor length hair which all grow back in seconds. Frustrated at this, the captain exclaims "After all this, when they ask me what did I do on the spaceship, I'll reply 'Me, you say? I was the barber!'"
In the 19 books following Cigars of the Pharaoh, Thomson and Thompson appear in 17 of them, not appearing in Tintin in Tibet or Flight 714 to Sydney. In some of these books their role is minor — the duo's appearance in The Shooting Star is confined to two panels; they appear briefly only at the beginning of The Broken Ear ; and are imprisoned and face execution on false charges in Tintin and the Picaros. During their other appearances, they serve as the official investigators into whatever crimes Tintin is currently investigating.

Inspiration and cultural impact

The detectives were in part based on Hergé's father Alexis and uncle Léon, identical twins who often took walks together wearing matching bowler hats while carrying matching walking sticks. 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 2 March 1919. They were shown escorting Emile Cottin, who had attacked Georges Clemenceau—one detective was handcuffed to the man while the other was holding both umbrellas.
They also make a brief cameo appearance in the Asterix book Asterix in Belgium.
They make an appearance in L'ombra che sfidò Sherlock Holmes, an Italian comic spin-off of Martin Mystère, edited by Sergio Bonelli Editore.
The name of the pop group the Thompson Twins was based on Thomson and Thompson.
The detectives are regular characters in the 1991–1992 television series The Adventures of Tintin . as well as the motion-capture film adaptation, . In the film, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost portray Thomson and Thompson.

Names in other languages

In the original French, Dupond and Dupont are stereotypically prevalent surnames and pronounced identically. The different letters indicate their different moustache styles: D for droite, T for troussée. 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:
In some languages, the French forms are more directly adapted, using local orthographic ambiguities:
The original Dupond and Dupont are kept in Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish, Finnish, Indonesian, Italian, Basque, Catalan, the Casterman edition in Spanish, and the newer Portuguese editions.