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Revision as of 14:39, 1 April 2005 by 80.177.212.227 (talk)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Igor is a Russian name, apparently brought to ancient Russia by the Vikings (Ingvar). Igor (Rurik's son) conquered Kyiv. It also bears similarity - and may be derived from - the Russian name Ivor.
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.
The cliché has its origins in the character of Ygor, played by Bela Lugosi, in the Universal Studios horror movies Son of Frankenstein and 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.
In Terry Pratchett's humorous fantasy novels, the Uberwald region of the Discworld (that is, the region of the Discworld noted for resembling a collection of horror movie clichés) is home to an extended family of hunch-backed lab assistants with speech impediments, every single one of whom is named Igor.
The "Albino" character in The Princess Bride seems to be built on the Igor archetype.
In general, an Igor is any flunky, patsy, minion or bidding-doer in a fantasy or science fiction work--and the more disfigured the better.