The Hitcher (character)
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The Hitcher is a fictional character in The Mighty Boosh.
The Hitcher (Noel Fielding), whose real name is Babu Yagu, is a Cockney man-witch with green skin and a top hat; he has a giant Polo for an eye and is pure evil. He is often accompanied by The Piper Twins (Fultcher and Brown), Jim and Jackie Piper, who also have Polo eyes. He is proprietor of the Zoo for Animal Offenders which features the Nazi turtle ("a fresh-water fascist for all the family"), the Ku Klux goose and Trevor Robinson, a shire horse with over 37 unpaid parking tickets.[1] The Hitcher has an enormous thumb, and tells Howard that he was born with a pathetically small thumb, but he sought out a shaman hornet who stung his thumb until it became huge. When the shaman hornet asked for 500 Euro in return, the Hitcher squashed him (after quite bluntly telling him 'You won't see penny one from me, you slag!'). The Hitcher travels with a Polo-covered box that contains a nightmare world inside, including the Zoo for Animal Offenders. He plans to chop up Howard and Vince and feed them to his animals. He is a proponent of jazz fusion (although he also raps), and has a slap-bass guitar style that Howard finds most impressive. Bryan Ferry tells Vince that some believe the Hitcher is the Devil himself, and some believe he is just a strange man in green makeup. Ferry apparently believes the former. Despite his magical attributes, the Hitcher suffers from a bad back. In the first series, he was beaten when Howard tricked him into playing jazz fusion, sending Ivan the Bear berserk, leading him to the zoo and attack the Hitcher. When the attack was finished, all that was left was the Hitcher's clothes (though as it transpired, he was just to the left, having leapt out, before making his exit)
The Hitcher reappears in series two episode Fountain Of Youth, where he plans to utilize the fountain's magical qualities to restore himself to his, "Former glory... And beauty, mind", after which he planned to 'Rule the universe', 'with an army of green bitches destroying everything in their cockney wake!'. It is uncertain how he intends to achieve this simply with his restored youth. His scheme goes awry when, while showering in the fountain (which has been done up Ikea-style), Naboo flushes the adjoining toilet, causing him to melt and possibly die. In this episode we learn that the Hitcher can change his appearance, as he disguises himself as an attractive woman in order to con Howard.
A coconut version of The Hitcher appears briefly as the owner of a nightmarish fairground game, in the series two episode The Nightmare of Milky Joe. This is arguably not a real reappearance of the Hitcher, however, as it is later revealed that Vince and Howard had eaten a lot of rancid coconuts and gone "coco loco", and they were hallucinating.
In the radio series, the Hitcher is not in charge of the Zoo for Animal Offenders, which is owned by Bob Fossil's brother and contains a rapist crab, a mackerel that exposes himself, a baboon that presses all the buttons in lifts and a swan that keys cars. He does still abduct Howard and Vince by trapping them in his box, but the box is inhabited by the 'People of the Box' and they are rescued by Bob Fossil rather than Ivan the Bear.
The Hitcher also appeared in the 2006 Live Tour, although time constraints meant that Noel appeared without the usual green makeup he wears for the role, and wore a simplified version of the usual costume, where he claimed the show was to be called "The Mighty Stump-Fuckers". During a scene in which the Hitcher becomes involved in a sword fight with Rudi Van Der Saniel he is complimented by Rudi who says "You fight well, for a Jimmy Saville impersonator." When the audience responds by laughing, the Hitcher replies "Shut up or i'll fix it for you, and you, and you and you", quoting the famous closing titles theme tune for the BBC children's show Jim'll Fix it, presented by Jimmy Saville from 1975-1994.
He also appeared at a Razorlight concert. In return, Razorlight agreed to play a small cameo role in the episode "The Priest and the Beast".
Noel Fielding has said that The Hitcher is based on a lot of people that he knew in his childhood (probably the Cockney aspect, rather than the evil) including his grandfather. He also references Fagin from Oliver Twist as inspiration. The lines "have a cup of tea, have a cup of tea" sung by the Hitcher in the series, plus elements of his physical appearance and top hat are possibly a reference to singer, songwriter Daevid Allen from the psychadelic rock band Gong, a band who frequently implore the listener to have a cup of tea, refering to the bands intake of hallucinogenic mushroom tea.
