Why is Hamish's name so funny?

Because it's such a scottish name. Having lived in Scotland for many years with the exception of a chap called William Bruce I've never come accross someone with a more typical name for a scots person (although bizarrely loads of people are called Scott).

He's laughing because he thinks he has Hamish nailed as this little small town bobby with such a typically Scottish name. In short he thinks Hamish lives in this little world and hence may be naive. He thinks it's a little twee.

Visitors to very small villages tend to be slightly presumtous anyway. My Dad is a shepherd in the Yorkshire Dales and he's had loads of tourists asking to take his photo because he has a shepherds crook (stick) and several dogs with him. It feels wrong to tell them he was a maths teacher for the best part of 30 years before he decided to have a change. I've also had tourists ask me if I could explain the history of stone walling to them (I could and did but it's a bit like asking some random stranger in the street to explain the history of a shop!). Local villagers are not there as tourist attractions but a lot of the visitors don't seem to get that!

I don't mean to ramble but I've had a lot of people make highly insensitive intrusions because they thought everything was a tourist attraction instead of respecting a fellow human being as they might do if they were in a town. On the other hand where we live is so beautiful I would feel sad if people could not come to see it.