Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2020 April 9

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April 9

Thomson and Thompson shoes

In the Tintin comic Land of Black Gold there is a scene where one of the bad guys look at Thomson and Thompson's shoes (the soles, to be precise) and inmediately realizes that they should be police instead of sailors, as they were pretended to be. I suppose it must be something super obvious, but I can't make sense of that. What did he see?90.165.109.232 (talk) 15:20, 9 April 2020 (UTC)

That rang a bell, and a quick search of the archives reveals: Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Entertainment/2010 April 2#How do Thomson and Thompson's shoes give them away? (not bad recall if I say so myself). The consensus was that British policemen always (in cartoon-land anyway) wear hobnail boots. Alansplodge (talk) 15:29, 9 April 2020 (UTC)

(ec) This suggests that the hobnailed shoes that Thom(p)son is wearing were typical for police and military. I can imagine that they are less than ideal on board of a ship where one might prefer soles that do not slip easily. --Wrongfilter (talk) 15:32, 9 April 2020 (UTC)

Agreed, see seaboot. Alansplodge (talk) 15:36, 9 April 2020 (UTC)

Thank you!--90.165.109.232 (talk) 15:46, 9 April 2020 (UTC)

I've always thought it was because policemen stereotypically have big feet. Hence the "Boot size greater than your IQ? Join the Met!" range of jokes. DuncanHill (talk) 12:27, 14 April 2020 (UTC)

Ah, I see I made that point ten years ago! DuncanHill (talk) 12:28, 14 April 2020 (UTC)

What does it say in the original French version? --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 12:22, 14 April 2020 (UTC)