Tintin Forums

Wow! Is it true?
I was on a forum and they were saying that in Cigars of the Pharaoh, when Tintin was in the asylum, he said that he didn't like cupcakes!
Is this said in the comic too?
If it is, then I guess he truly doesn't like cupcakes! :(

He does say it in the cartoon, yes.

It's in response to the member of the serving staff, who, on bringing Tintin food, promises him that if he eats it, he can have a cup-cake. Tintin punches him, and says as he does so, "I don't like cup-cakes!", then he dodges out of the cell.

In the book, he is brought a bowl of soup by two orderlies, one of who says, "Here is your soup".

Tintin replies "My soup? That's what I think of your soup", and punches the tray out of the hands of the second orderly, leading to it hitting the first one, and allowing Tintin to make his escape.

Well he didn't say it in the comics, so why did they have him say that ?
I was just so surprised...

The bowl goes straight on to the head of the orderly, prompting his colleague to hurry to help him while Tintin escapes.

In the original French version of the animated episode, the food in the bowl is described as "soupe" (as in the comics).

A bowl of very hot soup on a man's face could cause him injury, maybe some burns. A horrible image for young children. The translators may have thought that changing "soup" to "cupcakes" would lessen the impact - even if in the animation the contents of the bowl is still soup.

Actually the cartoon in English has the orderly serving breakfast, which he says is cereal, rather than hot soup (as you say, probably with the intention of reducing the implied injury to the poor nurse). The cup-cake is a treat that is promised to him if he eats the cereal.

Yeah, I guess you're all right!
But in my book (which is in Persian) it says soup too!
OK... they really didn't have to do this! It has caused a lot of misunderstandings every where!
And by "every where" I mean the Tintin fan-sites I usually visit: there were so many fans that disliked Tintin in some way, just for that!

Dear me! That seems a tremendously trivial reason for "many" people to get upset, or to dislike Tintin - one tiny mention in one brief scene of one cartoon - don't you think?
I mean to say, absolutely no-one had even mentioned it here, let alone been upset by it, before you brought it up.
I hope that you wouldn't treat a real person in the same way - liking them for many reasons, but then spurning them because of what you see as one small flaw?
Are you perhaps exaggerating for comic effect?
As for whether it need to be done or not, I think the explanation that it has been toned down for the audience at which the programme was aimed as suggested above seems to make a lot of sense.

jock123
Of course I'm not one of those who disliked Tintin just because he said he didn't like cupcakes (although I love them myself)!
I was just a bit surprised!
And interesting as it may seem, some didn't dislike him, they were trying to dislike cupcakes too! Or at least they said so!
And my eyebrows were just rising higher as I was reading their comment! :)