Why has Tintin Never Reached Puberty?

Why, despite being over 50 years old, hasn’t Tintin grown up and reached puberty? Because of traumatic pituitary injury according to Canadian neurologists.

The research team successfully identified 50 significant losses of consciousness in 16 of Tintin’s 23 books. Of these, 43 incidents involved head trauma with loss of consciousness representing grade 3 concussions. Tintin sustained 26 concussions resulting from a blow with a blunt object. The most frequently used object was a club (8 times). Other causes for the subject’s loss of consciousness included bullet injury (3), chloroform poisoning (3), explosions (4), car accidents (3) and falls (2).

… We hypothesize that Tintin has growth hormone deficiency and hypogonadotropic hypogonadism from repeated trauma. This could explain his delayed statural growth, delayed onset of puberty and lack of libido.

The full study, Acquired growth hormone deficiency and hypogonadotropic hypogonadism in a subject with repeated head trauma, or Tintin goes to the neurologist, is available from Canadian Medical Association Journal.