According to Douglas Adams in ‘Last Chance To See’, it isn’t an author’s job to prop up stereotypes.

Of course, he pointed this out because he and his little group of English gorilla-watchers were being outclassed by German super-efficient, über-confident gorilla-watchers.  He pointed out that it wasn’t his job to make them off-handedly arrogant and proficient just because they were German.  So he decided that for the sake of the rest of the book, they’d be Latvian.

Maybe Erich isn’t smugly confident (how many people in this comic are smugly confident? Most of them?) and maybe he isn’t German.

Not my job to prop up stereotypes.

 

Now, about Mr. Biner…