Kurvi-Tasch

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 (mous)tasche", and the dictator's most distinctive feature is indeed a curvy mustache reminiscent of Stalin's (or perhaps Hitler's). 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.

Herge goes into detail unusual even for him when writing on this, and goes to a great length to show the cult of personality aspects of the government, similar to those of Hitler and Stalin.

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".