Thomson and Thompson

The Thompson Twins, as they are known, are a favorite of Tintin readers the world over. They've inspired the naming of a popular rock group of the same name.

Ostensibly detectives working for Interpol and Scotland Yard, the twins are identical gents who wear black bowler hats and carry walking sticks. They have bushy mustaches and are quite good at getting everything wrong, although usually in a harmless or even helpful way. They serve as a better-humored Lestrade to Tintin's Sherlock Holmes.

They're famous for identifying themselves as 'With a P' or 'Without a P' by using hilarious clarifications: "With a 'p' as in Psychology" or "With a 'p' as in Pharaoh".

Homage to this was paid in no less different a medium than the movie Die Hard, which featured FBI agents named Johnson & Johnson, one black, the other caucasian. In addition to opening phone conversations with "This is Agent Johnson. No, the other one," they introduced themselves similarly: "I'm Special Agent Johnson. This is Agent Johnson. No relation."

In response to thbz's note below, Allan Thompson's name was changed to simply 'Allan' in the English versions. I don't think they gave us his first name, but 'Allan' is meant to be his last (family) name.

Their names are Dupont and Dupond in the original version. You can distinguish them by their moustache:

• Dupont (Thomson) has a pointy moustache.
• Dupond (Thompson) has a moustache which looks like the letter D.

Note that there is also a character named 'Allan Thompson'. He was Captain Haddock's lieutenant, and often works for Rastapopoulos after that. He is a bad guy. Maybe his name is different in the English version to avoid confusion with Thomson and Thompson. Update: The Custodian gives the answer in his writeup above: Allan Thompson is only known as 'Allan' in the English versions.