Rumple of the Bailey is indeed as real as Duane and the boss’s secretary. Specifically, he is a character in a series of stories and television shows and they are characters in a comic strip.
Why Duane didn’t know that Rumpole Is fictional is something that I cannot explain. Duane can be pretty clueless at times, but he is not really a dumb guy.
Sure, they’re all fictional: but that’s hardly a joke in itself. Why not hire Perry Mason? Or call Blondie to deliver a sandwich? Or have his car repaired by Walt Wallet?
Funny, the only other British Barrister I can think of is Sir Wilfrid Robarts, from Agatha Christie’s Witness for the Prosecution. Anyway, I believe you have to be a Barrister to argue before the British Court.
Maybe Rumpole is not fictional. They may exist in the same universe in which Rumpole is real.
“Sure, they’re all fictional: but that’s hardly a joke in itself.”
Sure it is. A fictional character referring to a fictional character and then saying “Well, I’m real” is perfectly good joke. (And one that has been done before.) As to why Rumpole…. well, why *not* Rumpole.
” Why not hire Perry Mason? Or call Blondie to deliver a sandwich? Or have his car repaired by Walt Wallet?”
No reason why not. Those would all be acceptable jokes and I’m sure they’ve been done.
Didn’t Peanut’s have a strip with the granddaughter of Roy Hobbs?
To my mind, that can be an ELEMENT OF the joke, but not the ENTIRETY OF the joke.
And particularly puzzling in this particular strip, which doesn’t tend toward laziness.
“To my mind, that can be an ELEMENT OF the joke, but not the ENTIRETY OF the joke.”
I think a *lot* of that would depend on the delivery. And I think this one was was executed fairly well. It’s enough to be a full joke in my mind.
I think in this case it’s quite easy to envision real people having the exact same conversation so there is no heavy handed “Ha! I broke the 4th wall! Aren’t I clever!” that mars so many other similar jokes. It’s a very subtle “Hey, technically Rumpole *IS* as real as the other two” and yet the “Get real” line *doesn’t* have to be meta– it could be something a real person would say. The fourth wall is tapped not broken. It works for me.
I agree with woozy. This strip works precisely because the reader already has already suspended some disbelief to accept that these characters are “people”. Having achieved that (over the history of the strip), the author first introduces a known fictional character for a conflict gag in the 2nd and 3rd panels, and then completes the coup by rattling the 4th wall (twice) in the last panel.
Actually,what they need is a solicitor. They do all the legal footwork and preparation. Barristers are only if they actually go to court, and solicitors generally have barristers with whom they work.
Actually, when I first read the second panel, I wondered what a “bamṡter” was supposed to be.
Maybe they need coffee and not legal footwork.
“..the only other British Barrister I can think of is Sir Wilfrid Robarts..”
Surely you remember Archie Leach (John Cleese) from A Fish Called Wanda?
Walt doesn’t repair cars. Skeezix does.
I’ve been learning about the British legal system from television, despite never having seen any of the Rumpole. Best of all was Silk, starring the incomparable Maxine Peake (and Rupert Penry-Jones). They were barristers; in The Brief, Alan Davies (pronounced Davis, an actor I knew more from his regular appearance on panel shows) plays a solicitor. Rake was a lot of fun, and informative too, with Richard Roxburgh as a barrister — but Australia! And the Janet King series, especially its predecessor Crownies, starring the insufferable Marta Dusseldorf, has government lawyers of all sorts, in various functions (like an investigatory Royal Commission) — but is set in Australia. But they do have the wigs, and address the judges as “My Lord/Lady”, and the prosecutor gets called “Mister [or Madam] Crown”.
Reminds me of the “King of the Hill” episode where Bobby wrote his American Presidents report on Josiah Bartlet.
BBBB, Walt did repair cars, didn’t he? I doubt Skeezix does anymore either, now that he’s nearing his 100th birthday.
Asking for fictional detectives and such is a very old joke. In the musical “Bye Bye Birdie”, Mr. MacAfee says “Call Mr. Keene, Tracer of Lost Persons! Call The Shadow! Look him up under Lamont Cranston!”
CIDU Bill: Walt had a furniture company, Wicker & Wallet. Walt is over 100, and you’re right that Skeezix is almost 100 [in 2021]. Slim Skinner is doing the car repair now. The strip has recently been celebrating its 100th anniversary, although the daily strips didn’t start until 1919. I wish I could say that I remembered all this, but I had to check good ol’ Wikipedia.
Next you’ll be telling me that Sherlock Holmes was a fictional character, and that Nero Wolfe does not reside on West Thirty-Fifth Street.
My understanding is that the traditional rigid distinction between barristers and solicitors in England and Wales has been gradually blurring over the last few decades as “public access barristers” now deal directly with clients while “solicitor advocates” argue cases in the high courts. As with most professional turf wars there will probably be a merger of the Bar and the Law Society at some point.
The answer to “Why not hire Perry Mason?” is that the case is British. OTOH Rumpole did at least once appear in a Florida courtroom IIRC.
Other British fictional barristers/solicitors of note: John Dickson Carr’s Sir Henry Merrivale (rarely practices, but he did appear for the defense in THE JUDAS WINDOW), and the firm featuring Hilary Tamar and her/his colleagues in Sarah Caudwell’s four very funny novels. Also, by repute, Anthony Gilbert’s “Arthur Crook,” but I’ve never read any of them.
But yes, if I had to hire one of them for a firm I worked for, I’d probably go with Rumpole also. (Fortunately, at least in my “Shrug” identity, I am as fictional as all the rest of them, so that won’t be a fourth-wall problem.)
Don’t forget Sir Impey Biggs, who appears several times with Lord Peter Wimsey.
Perry Mason was real. He published the “Youth’s Companion” in Boston.
A barrister is one who is allowed to pass the bar of the court having studied and passed testing by members of the bar (barristers) – which is the fence like separation at the front of the court which separates the public (currently seated,in earlier times standing) and those with business before the court such as the barristers and prisoners. Those appearing before the court for lesser things might be required (traditionally) to stand on the public side of the bar.
If one thinks of the terms – the solicitor solicits the client and the barrister represents him/her at the bar (of the court).
As I understand it, Chartered accountants represent people in tax related matters in court.
Comics I Don't Understand 
Rumple of the Bailey is indeed as real as Duane and the boss’s secretary. Specifically, he is a character in a series of stories and television shows and they are characters in a comic strip.
Why Duane didn’t know that Rumpole Is fictional is something that I cannot explain. Duane can be pretty clueless at times, but he is not really a dumb guy.
Sure, they’re all fictional: but that’s hardly a joke in itself. Why not hire Perry Mason? Or call Blondie to deliver a sandwich? Or have his car repaired by Walt Wallet?
Funny, the only other British Barrister I can think of is Sir Wilfrid Robarts, from Agatha Christie’s Witness for the Prosecution. Anyway, I believe you have to be a Barrister to argue before the British Court.
Maybe Rumpole is not fictional. They may exist in the same universe in which Rumpole is real.
“Sure, they’re all fictional: but that’s hardly a joke in itself.”
Sure it is. A fictional character referring to a fictional character and then saying “Well, I’m real” is perfectly good joke. (And one that has been done before.) As to why Rumpole…. well, why *not* Rumpole.
” Why not hire Perry Mason? Or call Blondie to deliver a sandwich? Or have his car repaired by Walt Wallet?”
No reason why not. Those would all be acceptable jokes and I’m sure they’ve been done.
Didn’t Peanut’s have a strip with the granddaughter of Roy Hobbs?
To my mind, that can be an ELEMENT OF the joke, but not the ENTIRETY OF the joke.
And particularly puzzling in this particular strip, which doesn’t tend toward laziness.
“To my mind, that can be an ELEMENT OF the joke, but not the ENTIRETY OF the joke.”
I think a *lot* of that would depend on the delivery. And I think this one was was executed fairly well. It’s enough to be a full joke in my mind.
I think in this case it’s quite easy to envision real people having the exact same conversation so there is no heavy handed “Ha! I broke the 4th wall! Aren’t I clever!” that mars so many other similar jokes. It’s a very subtle “Hey, technically Rumpole *IS* as real as the other two” and yet the “Get real” line *doesn’t* have to be meta– it could be something a real person would say. The fourth wall is tapped not broken. It works for me.
I agree with woozy. This strip works precisely because the reader already has already suspended some disbelief to accept that these characters are “people”. Having achieved that (over the history of the strip), the author first introduces a known fictional character for a conflict gag in the 2nd and 3rd panels, and then completes the coup by rattling the 4th wall (twice) in the last panel.
Actually,what they need is a solicitor. They do all the legal footwork and preparation. Barristers are only if they actually go to court, and solicitors generally have barristers with whom they work.
Actually, when I first read the second panel, I wondered what a “bamṡter” was supposed to be.
Maybe they need coffee and not legal footwork.
“..the only other British Barrister I can think of is Sir Wilfrid Robarts..”
Surely you remember Archie Leach (John Cleese) from A Fish Called Wanda?
Walt doesn’t repair cars. Skeezix does.
I’ve been learning about the British legal system from television, despite never having seen any of the Rumpole. Best of all was Silk, starring the incomparable Maxine Peake (and Rupert Penry-Jones). They were barristers; in The Brief, Alan Davies (pronounced Davis, an actor I knew more from his regular appearance on panel shows) plays a solicitor. Rake was a lot of fun, and informative too, with Richard Roxburgh as a barrister — but Australia! And the Janet King series, especially its predecessor Crownies, starring the insufferable Marta Dusseldorf, has government lawyers of all sorts, in various functions (like an investigatory Royal Commission) — but is set in Australia. But they do have the wigs, and address the judges as “My Lord/Lady”, and the prosecutor gets called “Mister [or Madam] Crown”.
Reminds me of the “King of the Hill” episode where Bobby wrote his American Presidents report on Josiah Bartlet.
BBBB, Walt did repair cars, didn’t he? I doubt Skeezix does anymore either, now that he’s nearing his 100th birthday.
Asking for fictional detectives and such is a very old joke. In the musical “Bye Bye Birdie”, Mr. MacAfee says “Call Mr. Keene, Tracer of Lost Persons! Call The Shadow! Look him up under Lamont Cranston!”
CIDU Bill: Walt had a furniture company, Wicker & Wallet. Walt is over 100, and you’re right that Skeezix is almost 100 [in 2021]. Slim Skinner is doing the car repair now. The strip has recently been celebrating its 100th anniversary, although the daily strips didn’t start until 1919. I wish I could say that I remembered all this, but I had to check good ol’ Wikipedia.
Next you’ll be telling me that Sherlock Holmes was a fictional character, and that Nero Wolfe does not reside on West Thirty-Fifth Street.
My understanding is that the traditional rigid distinction between barristers and solicitors in England and Wales has been gradually blurring over the last few decades as “public access barristers” now deal directly with clients while “solicitor advocates” argue cases in the high courts. As with most professional turf wars there will probably be a merger of the Bar and the Law Society at some point.
The answer to “Why not hire Perry Mason?” is that the case is British. OTOH Rumpole did at least once appear in a Florida courtroom IIRC.
Other British fictional barristers/solicitors of note: John Dickson Carr’s Sir Henry Merrivale (rarely practices, but he did appear for the defense in THE JUDAS WINDOW), and the firm featuring Hilary Tamar and her/his colleagues in Sarah Caudwell’s four very funny novels. Also, by repute, Anthony Gilbert’s “Arthur Crook,” but I’ve never read any of them.
But yes, if I had to hire one of them for a firm I worked for, I’d probably go with Rumpole also. (Fortunately, at least in my “Shrug” identity, I am as fictional as all the rest of them, so that won’t be a fourth-wall problem.)
Don’t forget Sir Impey Biggs, who appears several times with Lord Peter Wimsey.
Perry Mason was real. He published the “Youth’s Companion” in Boston.
A barrister is one who is allowed to pass the bar of the court having studied and passed testing by members of the bar (barristers) – which is the fence like separation at the front of the court which separates the public (currently seated,in earlier times standing) and those with business before the court such as the barristers and prisoners. Those appearing before the court for lesser things might be required (traditionally) to stand on the public side of the bar.
If one thinks of the terms – the solicitor solicits the client and the barrister represents him/her at the bar (of the court).
As I understand it, Chartered accountants represent people in tax related matters in court.