Thomson and Thompson

Thomson and Thompson (French: Dupont et Dupond [dypɔ̃ e dypɔ̃]) are fictional characters in The Adventures of Tintin comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. They are two intelligence service detectives, identical in both appearance (apart from slighly different moustaches) and demeanor, first introduced in Tintin's fourth adventure Cigars of the Pharaoh (1932-1934), although a 1946 version of Tintin in the Congo (1930-1931) gives them a single-panel appearance.

Well-meaning but clumsy, thoroughly clueless and afflicted with chronic spoonerisms, they mostly act as comic relief and, originally, as de facto secondary antagonists hindering Tintin's progress by suspecting the wrong people, including himself; although their incompetence remains a source of incidents, the duo later comes to trust Tintin and frequently support him, giving his theories the benefit of the doubt and lawfully arresting some of the villains he unmasks. They traditionally wear bowler hats and carry walking sticks, except during missions abroad where they insist on wearing whichever stereotypical costume they believe accurate to the country they are visiting, hoping to blend into the local population only for their folkloric attires to make them stand out all the more.

The detective with the flat, drooping walrus moustache is Thompson and introduces himself as "Thompson, with a 'P', as in psychology" (or any such word in which the "P" is silent), while the detective with the flared, pointed moustache is Thomson, who often introduces himself as "Thomson, without a 'P', as in Venezuela." Their first names and actual relation towards one another are never said outright, although Hergé twice calls them "brothers" in the original French-language text. Often, when one says something, the other adds "To be precise" (In French: Je dirais même plus, "I would even add"), but then repeats what the first said, but mixed up, for example; "The whole thing looks very fishy to me." "Yes, to be precise, the whole thing looks like me, very fishy." or, "A Thompson looks death straight in the face!" "To be precise, a Thomson with a straight face looks like death."

The detectives were in part based on Hergé's father and uncle, identical twins who wore matching bowler hats while carrying matching walking sticks.