Google doodle celebrates Roger Hargreaves and the Mr Men

Mr Google is celebrating Mr Men. The logo on the Google home page features assorted Mr Men and Little Misses to celebrate the birthday of Roger Hargreaves, the man behind the popular children's stories.

Clicking the doodle searches for information on Roger Hargreaves, an advertising chap who created the Mr Men in 1971. The first Misters were Messrs Tickle, Greedy, Happy, Nosey, Sneeze and Bump. Mr Snow showed up at Christmas and more followed in 1972. The Mr Men made their TV debut in 1975, and the Little Misses arrived in 1981.

The Google logo on the search engine's home page shows a number of Mr Men scenes -- you hit refresh to see more -- including Little Miss Sunshine tripping gaily along, Mr Messy repainting the logo, Mr Tickle playing a prank on the postman and Mr Bump coming a cropper.

The inclusion of the Little Miss in the doodle led to a heated discussion of extended universes in the Crave office, followed by a fistfight over whether the Misses are canon or non-canon.

There are now 44 Mr Men, including the somewhat dubious recent addition, Mr Guilty. As part of their mission to appear on every form of merchandise, the Mr Men appear in books, TV shows and even iPhone games. Hargreaves' son Adam, who inspired the first character when he asked his dad what a tickle looked like, recently sold the rights for a very tidy £24m.

Recent Google doodles include the a celebration of burner-inventing Robert Bunsen, steam-powered colourful character Richard Trevithick and first man in space Yuri Gagarin.

Update: A gallery of all the Roger Hargreaves Mr Men Google doodles is now on the site