Ruprecht the Monkey Boy

6a00d8341dbac353ef0133f369b473970bFormative characters.  You never know when one will cross your path.  They etch themselves into the memory and live there for the duration.  One such for me is Ruprecht the Monkey Boy as portrayed by Steve Martin in the film Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

What was the magical component that etched Ruprecht into my mind?  I have no idea.  I suspect it was an amalgam of elements:  my age at the time, the hair, the hugging, the trident, the cork fork, the toileting, the excessive absurdity…so many priceless moments.  Memorable moments.  Scarring moments.

Ruprecht surfaces in dialogue every few weeks here in the house of Tales.  The warm, wicked nostalgia which accompanies him is a familiar caress that I would never replace.  Would another bit of remembered information serve me better?  Quite possibly.  A bit of poetry, or a snippet of quantum mechanics, or a story seed, or a game strategy.  All would be practically more applicable, but none would fill the void that would be left behind.

Ruprecht the Monkey Boy walks as a paragon in my mind.  Who are some of your formative characters?


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