The Rude Kids Return - More "Viz" Characters Quiz

Answer: The Man on the Telly

Roger Mellie began his "Viz" career as a newsreader who swears a lot on air. Over the years, he has extended the range of his broadcasting abilities to encompass a whole range of skills and his strip is now a means of satirising UK TV shows in general. He still swears a lot, though.

Answer: Raffles

Raffles is based on the character A J Raffles, the "Gentleman Thief" created by the late-Victorian writer E W Hornung. Hornung's character first appeared in a series of short stories in 1898, collected as "The Amateur Cracksman" the following year. The "Viz" Raffles shares the same Victorian milieu as his namesake, but his character is that of a modern-day thug, who likes nothing more than picking a fight for no good reason.

Answer: Mr Snodworthy

"Tinribs" is a parody of the "Dandy" cartoon "Brassneck", who was a proper robot with proper robotic abilities. Tinribs, however, is made out of a skateboard, two baked bean tins, and the voice-box from a Barbie doll. His component parts do, however, make useful sharp implements for the regular mutilation of the long-suffering Mr Snodworthy.

Answer: Mutha and Fatha

Biffa Bacon is clearly inspired by the cartoon strip "Bully Beef and Chips" from the proper kids' comic "Dandy". Biffa's story is in many ways an exemplar of how parental influence can adversely affect a child's upbringing. There is evidence that he has aspirations to improve himself, but any efforts in this direction are invariably thwarted by the violence and abuse he receives from his brutal parents.

A tragic character if ever there was one.

Answer: Farmer Palmer

For those who don't speak the generic UK rural dialect known as "Mummerset", this translates as "Get off my land". Farmer Palmer sums up all the finest clichés about the English farming classes, from his in-bred son to his massive unearned wealth amassed as a result of excessive Government subsidies.

Answer: Hammond Organ

Even if you have never heard of "Captain Morgan and his Hammond Organ", who appeared in a number of strips in the 1990s, the typical UK comic ploy (parodied by "Viz") of rhyming a character with their defining feature should have been enough of a clue.

Captain Morgan was a pirate whose crew were frequently exasperated by his habit of playing easy-listening melodies on his Hammond Organ instead of plundering treasure ships and engaging in other more usual buccaneering practices.

Answer: He shoots himself

Big Vern is a stereotypical East-End gangster, who goes through life under the misapprehension that routine activities such as shopping are merely the front for some form of criminal activity. The culmination of each adventure normally sees him assuming (wrongly) that he is about to be arrested, and uttering his catch-phrase "No copper's gunna take me alive" while blowing his brains out with a sawn-off shotgun.

Answer: False

Fru T Bun, while certainly a baker by trade, is generally sober and is more notable for his imaginative manufacture of life-size gingerbread figurines. The Drunken Bakers appear in a different strip. Their hopeless lives revolve around the consumption of wholly immoderate quantities of alcohol, while trying (with very little success) to maintain their bakery business.

The tragic desperation of their existence has led to their being compared to characters in a Samuel Beckett play (only with more vomiting).

Answer: Jimmy Hill

Jimmy Hill, with his distinctive enormous chin and silly little beard, is often to be found in the background of various strips, and spotting him has become a "Where's Wally"-like exercise for millions (well, scores) of "Viz" readers every issue.

Answer: Newcastle Brown Ale

A fairly regular character in the 1980s, "The Brown Bottle" has made occasional appearances since. Like other super-heroes such as "Superman" and "Spider-Man", he has a mild-mannered alter-ego (reporter Barry Brown) who changes dramatically when he drinks Newcastle Brown Ale. Sadly, instead of enabling him to fight crime and right wrongs, it merely makes him drunk, abusive and incontinent.