Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2021 June 30

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June 30

Onassis in Tintin

I just remembered that I had read on Wikipedia somewhere that Al Capone was one of only two real-life characters mentioned in The Adventures of Tintin and wondered who was the other.

Well, now I just remembered that in Flight 714, Laszlo Carreidas says on the telephone: "What's that you say? Onassis is after them? Then buy, buy!"

Does anyone know if this was an intentional reference to Aristotle Onassis? JIP | Talk 22:13, 30 June 2021 (UTC)

Link to previous discussion: Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2021 January 11#Real-life characters in Tintin. --Viennese Waltz 06:11, 1 July 2021 (UTC)

Axel_Gryspeerdt agrees, see here. On the other hand, Renoir, Braques and Picasso are mentioned by Laszlo Carreidas one frame earlier. So, if it's just about famous people being mentioned (even famous living people, for Picasso was alive at the time Flight 714 was published), then, evidently, there are more than just two real-life characters "mentioned" in the world of Tintin. ---Sluzzelin talk 08:23, 2 July 2021 (UTC)

(I do get the difference, by the way. Onassis is supposedly a contemporary rival, an actor in Carreidas's life, while Picasso is a creator of expensive masterpieces who just happens to still be alive, but not an actor in the fictional millionaire's life. Nevetheless, Onassis's role here is so ephemeral, visually non-existent at all, and just a contemporary reference meant to add to Carreidas's character, that I don't see it at the same level as Hergés inclusion of Al Capone). ---Sluzzelin talk 19:40, 2 July 2021 (UTC)