Kurvi-Tasch

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A statue of Kurvi-Tasch from The Calculus Affair. Note the mustache logo on the statue base, on the flags, and as a diacritic in the word "Szohod".

A Bordurian military office in The Calculus Affair. A portrait of Kurvi-Tasch appears on the wall, and the officer is using the salutation "Amaïh Kûrvi-Tasch". The moustache emblem appears on the officer's armband and as a diacritic in the word "Kurvi".

Marshal Kurvi-Tasch is the military dictator of the fictional regime of Borduria in the popular comic series The Adventures of Tintin. In the original French versions of the comics, his name is Plekszy-Glasz. Although he never appears as a character in the series, he is mentioned by name, and glimpsed in statues and portraits in King Ottokar's Sceptre, The Calculus Affair and Tintin and the Picaros.

The original French version of the name is a pun on plexiglass, with an allusion of his regime being "transparently Fascist". The English version, "Kurvi-Tasch", is a pun on "curvy 'tasche", and the dictator's most distinctive feature is indeed a curvy mustache reminiscent of Stalin's (also Hitler is well known of his moustache). Kurvi-Tasch's mustache is a symbol of the regime, appearing on the state flag, in the architecture of buildings, on the body fenders of Bordurian cars (such as Tintin's getaway car in The Calculus Affair), and even as a diacritical mark over vowels.

In the English translations, the political system founded by Kurvi-Tasch is called "Taschism", an obvious pun on "fascism". Bordurian military men greet each other with the salutation ""Amaïh Kûrvi-Tasch!", which is an obvious pun on the greeting used by Nazi officers,"Heil Hitler".