Tintumon is a joke character, the

Malayali The Malayali people () (also spelt Malayalee and also known by the demonym Keralite) are a Dravidian peoples, Dravidian ethnolinguistic group originating from the present-day state of Kerala in India, occupying its southwestern Malabar coast. ...

equivalent of

Little Johnny Little Johnny jokes are about a small boy who naively poses questions and makes statements that are very embarrassing to his "grownup" listeners (such as parents and teachers), and has a very straightforward way of thinking. At times he is well ...

. This character was created and spread like a viral phenomenon through

text messages Text messaging, or texting, is the act of composing and sending electronic messages, typically consisting of alphabetic and numeric characters, between two or more users of mobile devices, desktops/laptops, or another type of compatible compute ...

mobile phones A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

. Later, the popularity increased to such an extent that leading bookmakers also published books on Tintumon jokes. The character was originally created by noted cartoonist

B. M. Gafoor B. M. Gafoor (4 May 1942 – 13 November 2003) was an Indian cartoonist and comic artist. He was one of the most prominent cartoonists from Kerala and was one of the founders of Kerala Cartoon Academy. Within a career of more than three decades ...

. It is telecasted as a cartoon serial in

Jeevan TV Jeevan TV is a news and entertainment Malayalam television channel. Its headquarters is at Palarivattom, Kochi, India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and depende ...

. But before that, a brat named Tintu first appeared in the 1983 film '' Ente Mamattukkuttiyammakku'', popularising the name among Malayali diaspora.

Origin

A 3-year old girl named Tintu first appeared in the 1983 film '' Ente Mamattukkuttiyammakku'' portrayed by

Shalini Shalini (born 20 November 1979), also known as Baby Shalini, is a former Indian child artist and actress who predominantly worked in Malayalam and Tamil films. During the 80s, Shalini was the most successful child artist in the Malayalam film i ...

, which first popularized the name Tintu among

diaspora. Tintumon, the character was created by cartoonist

. Though it was not popular in print, it reached the peak of popularity during the year 2009 through mobile

SMS Short Message/Messaging Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile devices exchange short text ...

and

e-mails Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic (digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...

. Tintumon spread from mobile to mobile like a rage. SMS offers from various service providers aided Tintumon's growth. Mimicry artists have been using the character of Tintumon in various shows. This became public after the jokes found their way into the SMS and the Internet. There were issues of copyright regarding its publication between Gafoor's BMG Group and another animation company, which led to a legal war in 2010. Later, its copyright was retained by the BMG Group, who is 2010, released an animated version of ''Tintumon''. The animated version is also being telecast in

Character

Tintumon takes life as it comes. He is quick-witted, mostly inventive, and normally can’t stop himself from commenting on everyday issues. Although he was initially depicted as a five-year-old boy, later messages portrayed him as a grown-up. There are stories portraying him as an engineering student, police officer, doctor, lawyer, politician, movie star, priest, saint, and even burglar. Tintumon is now regarded as a specimen of Malayali life. His social status and age differences across stories. Tintumon is a pan-Keralite. The humour in his character largely comes from his original and often rational comments on life, his total disregard for others, his liberal attitude, all with a pinch of sarcasm. Some compare Tintumon jokes to

Sardarji jokes Sardarji jokes or Sardar jokes are a class of ethnic jokes based on stereotypes of Sikhs (who use the title of "Sardar", with -ji being an honorific). Although jokes about other ethnic and linguistic communities are found in various regions of I ...

. However, while the Sardarji jokes usually portray a Sardar's comics, the Tintumon jokes are examples of Tintumon's intelligence and down to earth attitude.

Characters in Tintumon Universe

There are some repeating characters in Tintumon Jokes. They include *Thomas - Father *Amma -

Mother ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given childbirth, birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the cas ...

*Appuppan - Grandfather *Dundumol - Girl friend *Pinkymol - Girl friend *Dundumon -

Cousin Most generally, in the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a cousin is a type of familial relationship in which two relatives are two or more familial generations away from their most recent common ancestor. Commonly, " ...

*Jintappan - Friend *Sanjumon -

Brother A brother is a man or boy who shares one or more parents with another; a male sibling. The female counterpart is a sister. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to non-familia ...

*Shashi -

Archenemy In literature, an archenemy (sometimes spelled as arch-enemy) is the main enemy of someone. In fiction, it is a character who is the protagonist's, commonly a hero's, most prominent and most-known enemy. Etymology The word ''archenemy'' sometim ...

*Minikutty - Sister *Rinku - Best friend

References

Books

* Jeena Rajan: "Tintumon Jokes (I Love You Tintu)", , {{ISBN, 978-81-264-2636-2 * Tintumon Jokes (Tintumonodano Kali) Stock characters in jokes