Like many classic memes and jokes, details often get changed to suit the audience....but given that Holmes, Watson, John Reid (TLR's alter ego) and Tonto are all fictional characters, a fictional story still works regardless of the fictional character's names...though I guess the impact of the story would diminish somewhat if the two protagonists were totally unknown shmucks. I think the story works better with Holmes and Watson...Holmes's deductive reasoning 'wizardry' and Watson's relatively lack of deductive reasoning acumen gives the story just a little extra zing.