Major Misunderstanding

Major Misunderstanding is a character in the British adult comic Viz.

He is a retired major who dresses smartly, has a bushy walrus moustache and wears his medals on his chest for all to see; things which suggest that he is very pompous. He seems senile and certainly set in his ways, ranting against anything that he believes goes against his traditionalist right wing moral values. He reads the Daily Mail. He is always drawn with fists tightly clenched at his sides. Otherwise he seems to visually resemble Major Gowen of Fawlty Towers.

As his name suggests, he often misunderstands situations completely. For example, he once believed that a blood donor van was a chip van, and berated the nurse operating the van for trying to bring "unwanted custom" to the "close-knit community". The Major has mistaken hooded monks for Asbos and vendors at a church fete for asylum seekers.

He is somewhat similar to other Viz characters, including the early Billy Britain, and Victorian Dad, although the major has never been shown to have any family. Like Victorian Dad, he is often presented as a hypocrite. In one episode, a woman who asks him for directions is assumed to be a prostitute, and while he rants at her for her immorality he reveals that in his army days he and his fellow soldiers regularly used prostitutes in Asia, which he claims, as a "discreet encounter in a Burmese bordello" was "different". At the end of the episode he decides that he will use the "prostitute's" services after all.