Igor (fictional character)
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Igor Manic or Ygor is the traditional stock character or cliché hunch-backed lab assistant to the mad scientist, familiar from many horror movies and horror movie parodies. He is most closely associated with the Frankenstein films.
In general, an Igor is any flunky, patsy, minion, or henchman in a fantasy or science fiction work - the more disfigured the better. Typically, their stock line is: "Yes, master!" or, where speech impediments are present, "Yeth, mahthter!"
The cliché has its origins in the character of Ygor, a demented hunch-backed blacksmith (complete with broken neck) memorably played by Bela Lugosi in the Universal Studios horror movies Son of Frankenstein (1939) ("They tried to hang me because I stole bodies... uh, they said!") and The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942); yet the characterization most associated with the name actually derives from Dwight Frye's original hunch-backed lab assistant in the first film of the Frankenstein series (1931), whose name was Fritz (in the original novel, Dr. Frankenstein had no assistant). To complicate matters further, the voice of the archetypal "Igor" is usually associated with Peter Lorre. Marty Feldman put a comic spin on the hunchbacked assistant as "Eye-gor" in Young Frankenstein (1974), Mel Brooks's parody of Universal's Frankenstein movies.
An even earlier influence on this type of character might be Aminadab, the savage assistant in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Birth-Mark (1843).
In 2004 Igor returned to the screen in Universal Studios' big-budget monster movie Van Helsing. He was played by Kevin J. O'Connor.
Currently, there is an animated movie entitled Igor in production, set for release 24 October 2008. It is said to be "an irreverent comedy with a new twist on the classic mad scientist/monster genre." [1] Christian Slater is reported to voice the title character in the animated film, which will also feature the voices of Steve Buscemi and John Cleese.
[edit] In other media
In Terry Pratchett's humorous fantasy novels, the Überwald region of the Discworld (that is, the region of the Discworld noted for resembling a collection of horror movie clichés) is home to a tribe of hunch-backed lab assistants with speech impediments, every single one of whom is named Igor; the females are all named Igorina. They have a habit of passing on parts of their body to their family members when they die and are valued in rural areas where accidents with axes happen frequently. The Igors have now branched out into working in city-states such as Anhk-Morpork as medics and general lackeys for scientists, with the We R Igors (A Spare Hand When Necessary) agency renting them out. Their most noticeable behavioural trait, apart from always lisping and limping even if they do not actually have the requisite impediments, is an uncanny ability to appear silently right behind someone mere seconds after being called for, and opening doors to visitors in a similarly short interval after they knock. When questioned about either of these traits, the usual response is "It'th a nack".
Igor appears in the 1990s computer game Hugo's House of Horrors. In this graphic adventure, Igor assists his master in performing experiments on the protagonist, Hugo. The protagonist must later enlist Igor's help to escape that room.
In the Nightmare Before Christmas, the town's resident mad scientist, Dr. Finkelstein, has a hunchbacked assistant called Igor who acts rather canine, working for 'Bone Biscuits'.
The cartoon series Count Duckula features the titular character's family retainer, Igor, who is portrayed as an anthropomorphic vulture (hence the hunchback). Igor is a traditionalist and often schemes to convert his vegetarian master to a diet of blood, as was the case with Duckula's previous incarnations.
He also appears in one Superman comic book story written by Jean-Marc Lofficier and drawn by José Ladrönn, called Transilvane, which appeared in Legends of the DC Universe #22–23. In the story, Dabney Donovan, a mad scientist has created a whole world based on old horror movie characters. Ygor the Grotesque appears in an even more exaggerated form, essentially a (hunched over) head with mechanical arms and legs, though retaining eyes which look up and in opposite directions. He is the servant of Count Dragorin, who is leader of the Vampires, and operates machinery for him.
A hunchbacked graverobber named Igor is a recurring character in The Far Side comics.
Emmanuel "Sunshine" Logroño played Igor occasionally in a comedy sketch along Jacobo Morales when Los Rayos Gamma, Puerto Rico's political parody troupe, had their own television program.
Nielson Bayzia in the Middle Eastern Hadrabubdla comics is loosely based on the attitude and behavior of Igor.
In the 2005 computer game Psychonauts, the mad scientist Dr. Loboto has a female assistant named Sheegor.
