List of exclamations used by Captain Haddock

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The comic book series The Adventures of Tintin, by the Belgian artist Hergé, is one of the most popular cartoon creations of the 20th Century, with as many as 100 million Tintin books in print. One of the secrets of its appeal is the cast of eccentric and charming personalities who surround the rather bland Tintin, providing much-needed comic relief. Chief among these colorful figures is Tintin's sidekick, the lovable curmudgeon Captain Haddock. The fearless captain is game for every adventure, but is frequently nearly undone by his temper, or his drinking.

A particular trademark of Captain Haddock is his colourful exclamations that he hurls out every time he gets in a rage.

At the time Captain Haddock was first introduced, just before the Second World War, his manners presented a moral problem to Hergé. As a sailor, Haddock ought to have a very colourful language. Yet, as he was to appear in a Catholic children's magazine, he obviously was forbidden to use any swearwords. The solution came one night when Hergé overheard a political argument between two passers-by in the street. In the heat of the discussion one of the persons became so enraged that he lost his composure for a moment and started yelling at his companion "You... You... You peace-pamphlet yourselves".[citation needed] This was the solution Hergé sought: what if the captain would use strange or difficult words that were not offensive in themselves, but would hurl them out as if they were very strong cusswords...? (This would also add a comical note by portraying the captain as a pseudo-intellectual who loves to use difficult words without really knowing what they mean.)

The idea took form quickly and in his first anger-scene the captain storms towards a party of Bedouin raiders yelling expressions like 'Hydromeduse' (a form of jellyfish), 'troglodyte' (cave-dweller) and 'ectoplasm'. (The bedouins immediately take flight, but from the Foreign Legion appearing behind the captain's back.) The trick with the false swearwords proved successful and was a mainstay in future books. Consequently Hergé actively started collecting difficult or dirty-sounding words for use in the captain's next anger attacks and on occasion even searched dictionaries to come up with inspiration. This went so far that in the end Hergé started to resemble Haddock in using words (at least in his writings)- he only half understood himself.

On one occasion however the scheme backfired. In one particularly angry state, Hergé had the captain yell the 'cussword' Pneumothorax (a medical emergency caused by the collapse of the lung within the chest). One week after the scene appeared in Tintin Magazine, Hergé received a letter from a father whose boy was a great fan of Tintin, but also was a heavy tuberculosis sufferer and had experienced a collapsed lung. According to the letter, the boy was devastated that his favorite comic made fun of his own condition. Afterwards it turned out that the letter was a fake written and planted by Hergé's own studio workers (one source mentions Bob de Moor[citation needed]) and when this came out soft-spoken Hergé was just as devastated by his 'betrayal' as the boy of the letter allegedly was.

List of exclamations used by Captain Haddock

NOTE: This page lists almost all of the exclamations used by Captain Haddock as curses and insults in the translated, English version of Hergé's Tintin series (with definitions where possible).

A

B

  • Baboons!
  • Baby-snatchers!
  • Bagpipers!
  • Bald-headed budgerigar!
  • Bandits!
  • Bashi-bazouks!
  • Bath-tub Admiral!
  • Beast!
  • Belemnite!
  • Billions of billious barbecued blue blistering barnacles!
  • Billions of Billious Blue Blistering Barnacles!
  • Billions of Blue Blistering Barnacles!
  • Black beetles!
  • Black Marketers! Blackamoor!
  • Blackbird!
  • Blackguards!
  • Blistering Barnacles!
  • Blistering blundering birdbrain!
  • Bloodsuckers!
  • Blue blistering barnacles!
  • Blue Blistering Bell-Bottomed Balderdash!
  • Blunderbuss!
  • Bodysnatcher!
  • Bootlegger!
  • Borgia!
  • Bougainvillea!
  • Brat!
  • Breathalyser!
  • Brigands!
  • Brutes!
  • Bucaneers!
  • Bully!
  • Butcher! [33]

C

D

E

F

  • Fancy-dress Facist!
  • Fancy-dress Fatima!
  • Fatfaces!
  • Filibusters!
  • Fourlegged Cyrano!
  • Freshwater swabs!
  • Fuzzy wuzzy! [7]

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

R

  • Raggle taggle ruminants!
  • Rapscallion!
  • Rats!
  • Rhizopods!
  • Roadhogs! [5]

S

T

V

W

Y

Z

See also


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External links