List of The League of Gentlemen Characters - Herr Lipp

Herr Lipp

Herr Wolf Lipp (Pemberton) is a German teacher from Duisburg, who leads tour groups in Royston Vasey. A homosexual, he becomes obsessed with Justin Smart, a boy with whom he is staying. Justin's mother comes down with a nosebleed during the epidemic, leaving Lipp more time to spend with him. He has not quite mastered the English language, so he often makes mistakes which come out as double entendres. He has been visiting Britain every year for over a decade, and has presumably come into contact with many schoolboys like Justin. In the penultimate episode of Season 2, he struggles to express his feelings for Justin before ending up throwing some drug-laced coffee in his face, causing him to collapse. When Lipp says goodbye to Mrs Smart (who survives the epidemic, having only been a "carrier"), it is revealed that he and his wife, Lotte (Gatiss), buried Justin alive, with only a snorkel to breathe through. He leaves saying "See you next year, Justin! Tschüß!" before stroking the snorkel.

In the Christmas Special, a man named Matthew Parker reveals how in 1975, he was part of an exchange programme and stayed with the Lipps, where Lipp ran a boys choir and Lotte assisted on the organ. He gradually comes to believe that Lipp is a vampire and, when Lipp attempts to make advances on him, he misinterprets them as Lipp's attempts to make him into a vampire, but in the end it is revealed that Lotte is the one who is a vampire, as well as the choirboys, who she turned into vampires because the couple could not have children. Matthew flees the church, but the choirboys appear to eat away at Lipp before he can escape. He does not appear in Season 3.

In The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse he appears as a much more sympathetic character than before. He discovers that he is a character in the programme and disguises himself as his creator, Steve Pemberton, blending in at home and treating his wife and children far better than the real Pemberton appears to. He becomes upset at his status as a one-joke character, feeling it better for him to die than to carry on without Free Will, thus threatening to shoot Mark Gatiss with a flintlock pistol during the film's climax. He is convinced by Geoff to hand over the gun, Geoff subsequently kills Gatiss believing that the safety catch was on. He is last seen looking after some children seeking their parents after the apocalypse.

In the live show, he is allowed some audience participation by playing "Blind Man's Poof" with an unfortunate young man.

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    You do not quite get what I mean. Herr Frankenstein was interested only in human life. First to destroy it, then recreate it. There you have his mad dream.
    Garrett Fort (1900–1945)