A Confederacy of Dursleys

The comical description of Vernon Dursley on the opening page of book one is humorous, no doubt.  It reminded me of the opening paragraph of A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, one of the funniest books I have had the pleasure to peruse.  Not only are the two characters, Vernon Dursley and Ignatius Reilly, similar in appearance, they both have a critical eye when it comes to surveying their fellow humans.  First, the description of Mr. Dursley:

"Mr. Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills.  He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large mustache."  - Harry Potter and the Sorcercer's Stone, page one.

While these two sentences are briefer than the quote below, and certainly not as detail-oriented, we also pick up some clues as to the shallowness of Mr. and Mrs. Dursley in the opening.

Here is the first paragraph of A Confederacy of Dunces:

"A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head.  The green earflaps, full of large ears and uncut hair and the fine bristles that grow in the ears themselves, stuck out on either side like turn signals indicating two directions at once.  Full, pursed lips protruded beneath the bushy black moustache and, at their corners, sank into little folds filled with disapproval and potato chip crumbs.  In the shadow under the green visor of the cap Ignatius J. Reilly's supercilious blue and yellow eyes looked down upon the other people waiting under the clock at the D. H. Holmes department store, studying the crowd of people for signs of bad taste in dress.  Several of the outfits, Ignatius noticed, were new enough and expensive enough to be properly considered offenses against taste and decency.  Possession of anything new or expensive only reflected a person's lack of theology and geometry; it could even cast doubts upon one's soul."