Jason Alexander as Poirot
Hercule Poirot is a fictional detective created by Agatha Christie in 1920 whose exploits have been filmed many times, including a series of movies starring The Muppet Show guest star Peter Ustinov. He is a Belgian investigator (often irked when mistaken for French) known for his moustache, ego, and deductive reasoning (relying on "the little grey cells," as he so often says). As with other works by Christie, the character has occasionally been spoofed or referenced in Muppet productions.
References[]
- A proposed Sesame Street character, created by Tony Geiss in the 1990s, was Hercules Parrot, a brilliant gentlemanly bird detective who wears a gray homburg hat and moustache (to match the TV portrayal by David Suchet on Poirot).[1] Parrot's facial adornment is described in the first script as "spiky" and in the second as "thin," while Poirot's moustache is described in the books as waxed to a point on each end. Just as Poirot was a rotating element of Mystery!, Parrot's adventures would have been featured on "Mysterious Theater." While Parrot never refers to his "little grey cells" catchphrase, others in both sketches remark "What a mind!" as a similar allusion to the sleuth's brain. A suggested montage for his second case would have been patterned after the Poirot opening, including multiple angles of his face.
- Two sketches were written and neither produced. The first, "Who Killed Cock Robin," ends with Vincent Twice teasing "The Murder on the Oriole Express" (spoofing one of Poirot's best known books, Murder on the Orient Express).
- The second, "The Chicago Ten," clarifies how the avian sleuth's name is pronounced, "Parrow," which he insistently corrects. Poirot displayed a similar insistence about his surname (pronounced "Pwah-row"), and there was no "s" in his name. In the 1982 film adaptation Evil Under the Sun (with Ustinov as Poirot), he is in fact coincidentally and erroneously introduced as "Hercules Parrot."
- This case also features Parrot's associate Hastings, who like Watson to Sherlock Hemlock, bears the exact same last name as the spoofed detective's original companion (Captain Hastings) but with the species changed. This Hastings is a mynah bird who can only repeat things, reflecting how the book Hastings spent most of his time baffled or restating how amazed he is at Poirot's brilliance.
- Jason Alexander portrayed Hercule Poirot, named directly, in episode 108 of Muppets Tonight, in "Murder on the Disoriented Express," again spoofing Murder on the Orient Express. Jason even makes a point of specifying that he's Belgian. The passengers, including Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Bobo the Bear, frustrate Alexander by confusing the detective with the Greek demigod Hercules (and very briefly, Superman).
- Jean Pierre Napoleon in Muppets Most Wanted, according to Ty Burrell in the film's presskit, is "sort of an amalgam of all the French police inspectors that have ever existed... We went back to the '60s films, with Clouseau or Poirot -- it's sort of a mash-up of all of them."