Thomson and Thompson
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Thomson and Thompson (Dupond et Dupont) are a pair of detectives in Hergé's classic European comic strip The Adventures of Tintin. Although unrelated, 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. 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.
The detective with the flared mustache is Thomson (without a "P"), who often describes himself as "Thomson, without a 'P', as in Venezuela!". The detective with the flat mustache 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.
The detectives usually wear bowler hats and carry walking sticks, except when abroad: during those missions they insist on wearing the "costume" of the country they are visiting so as to blend into the local population, but in general only manage to find some ridiculous folkloric attire that actually makes them stand apart. Thomson and Thompson were originally only side characters, but later became more important. In the redrawings of the earlier albums, especially The Black Island, the detectives gained their now traditional mannerisms.
The detectives were based on Hergé's father and uncle, who were twins, both of whom wore matching bowlers.
Translators of the series have tried to find names that are similar or identical in pronunciation for this pair. Dupond and Dupont thus become Thomson and Thompson in English, دوپونت و دوپونت in Persian, Schultze and Schulze in German, Jansen and Janssen in Dutch, Hernández and Fernández in Spanish and 杜本 and 杜朋 (Dùběn, Dùpéng) in Chinese, Johnson and Ronson in Bengali and Skapti and Skafti in Icelandic. Other versions may keep the original names or slightly alter them, for instance Dupon and Dubon in Japanese (デュポン and デュボン).
They (or at least their Roman-era equivalents) also make a brief cameo appearance in the Asterix book Asterix in Belgium.
The characters inspired the name of the British 1980s pop band, the Thompson Twins.
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da:Dupond og Dupont es:Hernández y Fernández fa:دوپونت و دوپونت fr:Dupond et Dupont nl:Jansen & Janssen pt:Dupond e Dupont sv:Dupontarna
