Igor (character)
Igor or Egor 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!" and the like.
The cliché has its origins in the character of Ygor, an evil shepherd played by Bela Lugosi, in the Universal Studios horror movies Son of Frankenstein and The Ghost of Frankenstein; it also owes something to the hunchbacked lab assistant in the first film of the series, whose name was Fritz (in the original novel, Dr. Frankenstein had no assistant). The archetypal Igor, however, is probably the character of that name played by Marty Feldman in Young Frankenstein, Mel Brooks's parody of Universal's Frankenstein movies.
The character might trace back to Aminadab, the savage assistant in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Birth-Mark.[citation needed]
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.
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 "Albino" character in The Princess Bride appears to be built on the Igor archetype.
Although he has a different name, the character "Riff Raff" from The Rocky Horror Picture Show is very similar to Igor, sharing the hunched back and status of servitude to a master of science.
He also appears in one Superman comic book story, called "Transilvane", which appeared in Legends of the DC Universe #22-23. In the story, a mad scientist has created a whole world based on old horror movie characters. Ygor the Grotesque appears in an even more exxaggerated form: He's now essentially a (hunched over) head with mechanical arms and legs, and still has eyes which look up and to opposite directions. He is the servant of Dragorin, who is leader of the Vampires, and operates machinery for him.
The Castlevania series of video games contains a prominent and recurring small, hunch-backed monster sometimes referred to as a "hopper" or "hunchback". Their similarity to the original Igor character is highlighted by the fact that one of them battles the player alongside Frankenstein's monster in the first installment of the series.
A hunchbacked graverobber named Igor is a reoccurring character in The Far Side comics.
There is an Igor character named Koukol in the film The Fearless Vampire Killers.