New-Age-Center

Tarquin is the elder child, aged about twelve. As he knows how to be a con artist, Tarquin is a very effective foil to Malcolm & Cressida. Even if it only stems from his desire for normality or a desire to make money. His almost Machiavellian ability to play the political game is not only a means of resistance to the parental authority, but also diametrically opposed to Malcolm & Cressida's half-baked, wide-eyed schemes. Tarquin is very calculating and methodical in his manipulation of Malcolm & Cressida. In fact, because of his rather traditional, pro-establishment outlook (at least in comparison to his parents), he could be a parody of the rebellious teenager, only he does it with style. He also has a more rational, scientific worldview that rejects vague ideas about spirituality and seems grounded in evidence and deductive reasoning. Tarquin is very sceptical about new age ideas such as crystal healing or rebirthing, questioning their rational basis (or rather, lack thereof), even asking a practitioner of "Wan-Ki":

"Where did you get your diploma, University of Mumbo-Jumbo?"

Aside from Tarquin's rationalism, he is politically astute, level headed and often the voice of common sense. As a straight man character, Fardell uses Tarquin to expose the hypocrisy of Malcom and Cressida, as well as their naivety, ignorance and hare brained, wooly-minded thinking.

An example of his Machiavellian streak is when Malcolm & Cressida take him to a "Whole Self Centre", claiming that Tarquin suffers from an "erotic shame complex". Tarquin tells them that he's picked up a few ideas and talks of a workshop, which ostensibly is about discovering the inner child. He gets the attendees to undress and get into the foetal position, where they think it's moving that they can learn from young people. He then gets them to touch each other, dance, and feel each others bodies. The scene changes to reveal that there are several smartly dressed businessmen queueing to get up a ladder and paying to see through the windows. This workshop is just a front for a sleazy peep show.

A good example of how down-to-earth Tarquin is, is demonstrated by another episode. The parents have run out of cash, and decide to list their various abilities. Amongst them are juggling, vegan cookery and making earrings from twigs. Tarquin looks at them, then states, "You might have enough talent to work for McBurger's!" (a blatant reference to another certain very famous burger-joint) And after several dreadful failures, this is indeed exactly what they wind up doing.

His younger brother is Guinevere. (This is actually a female name, but Malcolm and Cressida liked the name Guinevere and, when they found out their second child was a boy, decided to give him that name anyway, as they do not believe in gender-specific names.) He was born during the course of the comic strip and, interestingly, has grown from a baby through a toddler to his current age of about five or six, and stopped aging about there. Tarquin did appear to get older in the early years of ''Modern Parents'' and in one episode turned thirteen, but he seems to have reverted to about eleven and stayed at that age. Guinevere, whose name is usually just shortened to "Guin" by his brother, is still largely a passive character, often easily upset by his parents' whacky schemes, his big brother Tarquin often coming to his rescue. Guinevere's first word was football although Malcolm and Cressida were keen for his first word to have been dolphin.


Adapted from the Wikipedia article The Modern Parents, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki