I was thinking about Poirot, specifically the television show with David Suchet. Poirot’s illustrious mustaches must provide some sort of counterbalancing effect upon his otherwise orderly and methodical nature. Though I grant the mustaches are always in their proper place and form, the proper form dictated to them is not that of the squareness otherwise associated with the great detective’s mind. They are not straight but curled, as any fan of the show knows. Inspector Japp, on the other hand, his mustache is often square, at least in the rough shape.
Now, the books perhaps do a bit more to explain Poirot’s dandyisms, but just taking the characters as they appear in the show, I find a humor in the fact that Poirot’s mustaches curl like the mysterious fogs of London while Japp sports an unadorned adornment upon his upper lip. It is almost as if, Poirot, in his love of squareness, keeps a friend who is square shaped. Poirot himself, keeping the world square around him, can’t help but not be square.
Tale Told 