Raggle taggle ruminants! Rapscallion!

January 28, 2009 4:06 AM

Tintin is gay ... and Daniel Craig and the kid from Billy Elliot are going to star in a (presumably straight) Tintin film by Spielberg. Now that someone mentions it (and a cursory google search confirms it), I feel foolishly naive for all my innocent and happy memories of reading Tintin comics and hoping to one day be that intrepid young foreign correspondent who never faces a deadline and never files a story. (via) (previously and previously)

Apparently, some Belgian hucksters were on to this in 2001, helpfully pushing along Herge's legacy.

posted by e-state 4.0 (32 comments total)

Tintin is a cartoon.
posted by vacapinta at 4:16 AM on January 28, 2009 [2 favorites]

Now that someone mentions it (and a cursory google search confirms it), I feel foolishly naive for all my innocent and happy memories of reading Tintin comics and hoping to one day be that intrepid young foreign correspondent who never faces a deadline and never files a story.

What you should feel foolishly naive for is that sentence.
posted by gman at 4:17 AM on January 28, 2009 [4 favorites]

Seriously. Steven Spielberg can rape his own characters all he wants, but he had better fucking leave my childhood heroes alone.
posted by dunkadunc at 4:18 AM on January 28, 2009

The police spokesperson said "Tintin in Thailand" had been printed in Thailand

Bake 'em away, Toys
posted by mannequito at 4:22 AM on January 28, 2009

Go ahead and fag your own post, dude.
posted by gman at 4:23 AM on January 28, 2009

It will be writtern by Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish which is a pretty interesting proposition.
posted by ninebelow at 4:29 AM on January 28, 2009

What you should feel foolishly naive for is that sentence.

gman, have you never heard of irony?
posted by e-state 4.0 at 4:30 AM on January 28, 2009

Proof!

... and it gets even more graphic, I hear. (torrent, presumably NSFW.)
posted by markkraft at 4:38 AM on January 28, 2009

Not sure. I think so. Is it like when a member we've never really heard from writes a sentence which contains, "I feel foolishly naive for all my innocent and happy memories of reading Tintin comics and hoping..." after telling us Tintin is gay, and we're supposed to think it's okay? Or is it something else?
posted by gman at 4:41 AM on January 28, 2009

I'm a traditionalist old fuddy-duddy who still believes in notions such as "authorial intent." Since Hergé never stated Tintin's sexual orientation, the question remains unanswered and unanswerable. If you want a canonically gay fictional character, go talk to Albus Dumbledore. Leave Tintin, Sherlock Holmes and Jonathan Harker alone.
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:58 AM on January 28, 2009

Yeah, you feel foolishly naive for thinking you wanted to be a young hero -- turns out he's GAY! LOL!

If you were going for some super dry version of I don't know what, you totally missed it. Homosexuality is not an stigma.
posted by cavalier at 4:58 AM on January 28, 2009

Rest assured, my tongue was planted firmly in my cheek, and my claim of naivety stems from never having considered Tintin's sexual preference when I was avidly reading the comics. It seems you imply I meant something else. For the record: I do not believe Tintin to be gay, and nor would I care if he was (I can't believe I have to type that). Just thought the link was interesting, nothing more. Oh, and I apologise for not being known to you. I promise to post homophobic bait whenever I find it from here on in.
posted by e-state 4.0 at 4:59 AM on January 28, 2009

But I'd better make the case because, astonishingly (and though when I googled “Tintin” and “gay” I got 526,000 references) there are still Tintin aficionados who remain in denial about this.

Some research:

"Superman" + "gay": 2 300 000
"Batman" + "gay": 10 600 000
"Spiderman" + "gay": 310 000
"Garfield" + "gay": 244 000
"Calvin and Hobbes" + "gay": 188 000

So: Garfield is clearly the least gay single cartoon character, and Calvin and Hobbes are barely gay at all.
posted by Dumsnill at 5:08 AM on January 28, 2009

I can't tell if the article linked in the OP is an honest fanwank elevated to a newspaper article, or a satire of such fanwanks.

If you want a canonically gay fictional character, go talk to Albus Dumbledore. Leave Tintin, Sherlock Holmes and Jonathan Harker alone.

Well, even if we consider authorial intent as the last word, it's quite possible to make the argument that Rowling failed in her intent of making Dumbledore gay. 10, 15, 30 years from now, people will pick up Philosopher's Stone and Order of the Phoenix in complete ignorance of a trivial footnote of an offhand comment made at a book signing session and come to their own conclusions.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 5:08 AM on January 28, 2009 [1 favorite]

Why does Tintin or Superman or Dumbledore or Tom Cruise or Garfield have to be gay or strait? Does everything in this world have to revolve around our genitals and where we, real or imaginary, like to put them?
posted by Pollomacho at 5:16 AM on January 28, 2009 [2 favorites]

Ren and Stimpy.
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 5:16 AM on January 28, 2009

Has anyone mentioned yet that Tintin is a cartoon?
posted by Potomac Avenue at 5:24 AM on January 28, 2009

I don't know whether Tintin is gay or not.

However, I've never met a heterosexual who sported a Tintin hairstyle. Make of that what you will.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 5:28 AM on January 28, 2009

Why does Tintin or Superman or Dumbledore or Tom Cruise or Garfield have to be gay or strait?

Yeah, that was the point I was also trying to make. In "The Trial," does it matter whether K. is "truly" gay, straight or bi? As far as I'm concerned: Not even slightly.
posted by Dumsnill at 5:31 AM on January 28, 2009

However, I've never met a heterosexual who sported a Tintin hairstyle. Make of that what you will.

Fully half of my Facebook friends do.
posted by game warden to the events rhino at 5:31 AM on January 28, 2009

The suggestion is just nonsense really. This much better article from the Economist demonstrates why Tintin's sexlessness is actually more to do with post-war French law dictating that children's books be wholesome.
posted by Kirjava at 5:37 AM on January 28, 2009 [1 favorite]

"Superman" + "gay": 2 300 000
"Batman" + "gay": 10 600 000
"Spiderman" + "gay": 310 000
"Garfield" + "gay": 244 000
"Calvin and Hobbes" + "gay": 188 000

You're ruining everything.
posted by gman at 5:40 AM on January 28, 2009

Double.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 5:42 AM on January 28, 2009

"Everything" + "gay": 15 300 000
posted by Dumsnill at 5:42 AM on January 28, 2009 [2 favorites]

Further Google-based research:

+math +gay 6,410,000
+"microsoft word" +gay 737,000
+"mother teresa" +gay 430,000
posted by Wolfdog at 5:43 AM on January 28, 2009

Also: Olive Oyl was a beard and Bluto used to pose for Tom of Finland.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 5:43 AM on January 28, 2009

Double.

Not at all. This is a much gayer post.
posted by gman at 5:43 AM on January 28, 2009

I'm pretty sure Mr. Peanut is gay, but I respect him for not divulging his sexual orientation. He's always smiling confidently and elegantly dressed, wearing nothing but a top hat, monocle, spats, gloves, and a cane. If I was a gay cartoon character, I'd look to Mr. Peanut for inspiration, because there's something in his smile and the way he tips his hat that makes me feel warm and loved and okay to be a gay cartoon character.
posted by mattdidthat at 5:46 AM on January 28, 2009 [1 favorite]

I think this could safely be appended to the older and still-open "is Tintin gay?" Tintin post from fifteen days ago. Flagged.
posted by Shepherd at 5:47 AM on January 28, 2009

Mr. Peanut is not gay, he is a rock-solid member of the fedora-wearing redhead-banging monocle set. The head Keebler elf is as gay as Rob Halford though.

When I was a young man, I aspired to be an avuncular old elf, and then I found out that he was gay, and I didn't feel any differently about things. I didn't feel naïve until after I actually met him and fell for that "elvish rod of power" routine.

Now that's not to say that all elves are sexual predators, my point is that they are all gay. Only a few of them are sexual predators.

So, you are asking, how do elves reproduce if they are all gay? Well, periodically, during times of environmental stress, like when Bette Midler hasn't played their tree in a while, a new elf will bud from a mature elf and demand that you hang posters of Judy Garland in the little knot-hole that it lives in. God I hate elves.
posted by Mister_A at 5:58 AM on January 28, 2009

I don't think he's gay in this pastiche. Tintin reinvented as a militant manual labourer in northern England. I first came across it in an anarchist bookshop in San Francisco. It's, um, an interesting read. Not for Tintin purists.
posted by MuffinMan at 6:01 AM on January 28, 2009

Batman is gayer than math???
posted by Mister_A at 6:13 AM on January 28, 2009