-->'''Sam''': ''A small band of pilgrims sought out a place in the New World where they could worship according to their own beliefs... and solve crimes.''\\
'''Toby''': ''Sam...''\\
'''Sam''': ''It'd be good.''
--->--''TheWestWing'', "Shibboleth"

[[OddCouple Two very different characters]] are obliged to work together to solve a crime. The premise is very often expressed in {{Trailers}} and pitches as "He's an X. She's a Y. Together, they fight crime!"… So much that it's almost become a StockPhrase. Expect lots of cultural clash humor arising both from different policing traditions and from general personal differences between the two characters. Sometimes the ante will be raised by making the crime-fighters from two groups that are actively antagonistic.

The story often (but not always) involves one character being on his own turf while [[FishOutOfWater the other character is a visitor]]. If there is a sequel, the character who was on his home turf in the first story will probably be visiting the home turf of the other character.

Can be the premise of a BuddyCopShow, although then there usually needs to be some reason for the other cop to continue hanging around beyond the pilot.

A subtrope of both WunzaPlot and OddCouple.

----
!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* ''{{The Big O}}:'' He's a rich negotiator with a HumongousMecha, she's a robotic maid. TheyFightCrime!
* ''ReadOrDie:'': Three sisters: two love books and the youngest...doesn't. TheyFightCrime!
* ''CowboyBebop:'' He's an ex-mafia martial artist/fighter pilot/bounty hunter. She's a hot 70-year-old cryogenically unfrozen amnesiac crack-shot waif perpetually on the run from astronomical gambling debts. He's an ex cop taken out by injury, and possibly mafia influence, who owns the main HQ. She's...''[[SoYeah Ed]]''. TheyFightCrime... [[/folder]]

[[folder: [[Recycled In Space In SPACE ]]
]]!
* ''Hellsing:'' He's the First Vampire, with more than enough power to destroy everything that exists. She's his dual-howitzer-wielding big-chested innocent spawn. TheyFightCrime!
* ''DeathNote'': One is a bored, brilliant high school student. The other is an immature supernatural being with an addiction to apples...[[TheyFightCrime They Fight Crime!]]...kind of.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* ''Angel And The Ape:'' She's a gorgeous [[GreatDetective super-sleuth]] who speaks six languages and [[ActionGirl knows karate]]. He's a comic book artist who [[EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys happens to be a talking gorilla]]. TheyFightCrime!
* ''SamAndMax:'' One's a dog. The other's a hyperkinetic rabbit-like... thing. TheyFightCrime!
* [[{{Batman}} One's a paranoid billionaire, one's an orphaned circus performer. They Fight Crime!]]
* Power Man and Iron Fist: Luke Cage is an indestructible badass from Harlem. Danny Rand is a martial arts master CEO. They Fight Crime!
* {{Cable}} is a telekinetic cyborg soldier from the future with a messiah complex. {{Deadpool}} is an insane mercenary who's in love with Bea Arthur and Chimichangas. They Fight Crime!
* {{Booster Gold}} is a time traveling glory hound. {{Blue Beetle}} is a sarcastic inventor. They Fight Crime!
* [[GreenLantern Hal]]'s an intergalactic cop with a nearly omnipotent ring. [[GreenArrow Ollie]]'s a loud mouthed hippie with a bow. They Fight Crime!
* [[DoomPatrol A pilot, a daredevil and a movie star, all with huge egos, get horribly disfigured and then brought together by a mad scientist who tells them they can redeem themselves if they work together. To fight crime!]]
* {{Preacher}}'s sex investigators.
* Ray Palmer is a physicist, Carter Hall is a re-incarnated Egyptian warrior prince. They fight crime.
* [[BirdsofPrey One is a hyper-controlling, bitter nerd recovering from physical and emotional trauma. The other is a broken down woman with a history of valuing her boyfriends more then herself. Together? They FIGHT CRIME!]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* ''TheKentuckyFriedMovie:'' "She was six feet of black dynamite. He was a short Hassidic Jew!"...TheyFightCrime!
* ''RushHour:'' One's a black American cop. One's a Chinese cop. TheyFightCrime!
* ''Red Heat:'' One's an American cop. One's a [[InSovietRussiaTropeMocksYou Soviet Russian]] cop. TheyFightCrime!
* ''BonCopBadCop:'' One's an English Canadian cop. One's a French Canadian cop. TheyFightCrime!
* ''In The Heat of the Night:'' One's a black cop from the North. One's a white racist cop from the South. TheyFightCrime!
* ''Dead Heat:'' One's a living cop. One's a recently reanimated zombie cop. TheyFightCrime!
* ''DieHard III:'' One's an aging white cop from Los Angeles, the other is a racist black man from Harlem. TheyFightCrime!
* ''AlienNation:'' One's a human cop. One's an alien cop. TheyFightCrime!
* ''LastActionHero:'' One's a super-cop [[FishOutOfWater taken out of a movie and put into the real world]]. One's [[PluckyComicRelief a kid]]. TheyFightCrime!
** The "police station" sequence of ''LastActionHero'' also featured a Gentile Cop/Rabbi Cop pairing.
* ''MysteryMen:'' "I am Pencilhead." "And I am Son of Pencilhead!" "[[TheyFightCrime We erase crime.]]"
* [[{{Showtime}} One's a hard-nosed detective, the other is a fame-seeking patrolman.]] TheyFightCrime!


[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* ''TheSookieStackhouseMysteries:'' She's a luscious, highly desirable telepathic barmaid. He's a vampire suffering from anachronistic attitudes. TheyFightCrime!
* ''SkulduggeryPleasant:'' She is a 12-year-old girl who inherited a mansion. He is a sixgun-toting skeletal-undead sorcerer detective. TheyFightCrime!
* ''SherlockHolmes:'' He's a battle-scarred veteran of the war in Afghanistan! He's a substance-abusing dilettante grad student! TheyFightCrime!
* ''The Caves of Steel:'' One's a human cop. One's an alien robot cop. TheyFightCrime!
* ''Snake Agent:'' One's a human cop. One's a demon from Hell. TheyFightCrime!
* ''[[TheYiddishPolicemensUnion The Yiddish Policemen's Union]]:'' One's a DefectiveDetective with massive Jewish Guilt [--('''[[TradeSnark TM]])'''--]. One's his sensible half-Jewish, half-Native American cousin. They're cops: TheyFightCrime!

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''BloodTies:'' She's a Canadian police detective who is slowly losing her sight. He's a vampire. TheyFightCrime!
* On {{Friends}}, Joey got a starring role in 'Mac & Cheese', a show described as "One's a hard-bitten detective, one's a robot. TheyFightCrime!"
* ''PushingDaisies:'' He's a pie-maker with the power to bring the dead back to life. He and his undead girlfriend team up with a detective who knits to, yes, fight crime.
** Suprisingly, given that description, [[BetterThanItSounds it's an amazingly well done show]].
* ''The Inspector Lynley Mysteries:'' He's a LordPeterWimsey with a title and a complicated personal life. She's a cranky, foul-mouthed working-class junk food addict with massive class resentment issues. TheyFightCrime!
* ''{{Castle}}:'' He's a bestselling mystery writer who doesn't play by the rules. She's a no-nonsense detective who'll do anything to bring a killer to justice. TheyFightCrime! And Have Lots Of {{UST}}!
* ''{{Automan}}:'' One is a police computer nerd who [[ExplosiveOverclocking overclocks]] the computer and creates a ''{{Tron}}''-like superbeing. The other is that self-same ''{{Tron}}''-like superbeing. TheyFightCrime!
* ''{{Numb3rs}}:'' One's an FBI agent! The other is the Agent's nerdly math-professor brother. TheyFightCrime!
* ''KnightRider:'' He's [[CatchPhrase a man...who does not exist]]. It's a [[CoolCar car]] [[BagOfHolding holding]] [[AppliedPhlebotinum plot-advancing gadgets]] [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot with an]] [[SarcasmMode entertaining]] [[RobotBuddy A.I.]]. TheyFightCrime!
* ''BurnNotice:'' He's an [[CloakAndDagger out-of-work spy]]. She's his [[ChaoticGood trigger happy ex-girlfriend]]. He's BruceCampbell. [[TheyFightCrime They fight crime!]]
* ''{{Life}}:'' He's an EccentricMillionaire who spent twelve years in prison. She's an ex-junkie with a [[ActionGirl kick-ass attitude.]] TheyFightCrime!
* ''DueSouth:'' One's a crude, rude American cop. One's a polite, soft-spoken Canadian mountie. TheyFightCrime!
* ''Holmes and Yoyo:'' One's a human cop. One's an experimental robot cop. TheyFightCrime!
* SimonAndSimon: Even though they're brothers, Rick and A.J. have nothing in common.
* ''Collector's Item'': Vincent Price is an antique dealer. Peter Lorre... well, I'm not sure what he does. He's short and kind of creepy. Together, they fight crime.
* {{Psych}} One's a slacker with a photographic memory. One's a pharmaceutical rep with an acute sense of smell. They Fight Crime!
* {{Bones}} One's a street-smart FBI agent, one's a socially-inept forensic anthropologist. TheyFightCrime!
* The first season of ''{{Angel}}'': He's a vampire. She's a struggling diva. He's a half-demon (or inept linguist, depending on when in the season you're watching). They Fight Supernatural Crime!
* Parodied by ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'': Conan O'Brien is very tall, Robert Reich is a former Secretary of Labor and very short. TheyFightCrime!
* Frequently used as a gag on MysteryScienceTheater3000. For example, near the end of the first-season movie ''Robot Holocaust'', Tom suggests a sequel: "He's a robot. He's a human. They're detectives!"
* [[ThePersuaders One's a streetwise American self-made millionaire, the other is a daredevil English aristocrat.]] TheyFightCrime!
* DoctorWho: He's a time-travelling, near-immortal alien from a long-dead race. His constantly-changing companions are either helpful or not. TheyFightCrime!

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* ''AceAttorney:'' One's an [[NaiveNewcomer idealistic rookie defense attorney]]. One's a [[TheSpock logical]], [[UnFunny serious]] [[WorthyOpponent prosecutor]]. TheyFightCrime!
** Or... he's a serious, fresh attorney. She's his dead mentor's spirit-contacting younger sister! They solve murders!
* In ''[[MonkeyIsland The Curse of Monkey Island]]'', there is a book about ventriloquism which although only needed for one puzzle can be used on numerous objects and characters with amusing results. Using it on the head of a donkey costume in the local theater results in, ''"Hi. I'm Frank. I'm a talking donkey. I fight crime."''
* ProfessorLayton: One's a [[BadassBookworm renowned archeology professor]] and [[AmateurSleuth detective]] (''[[InsistentTerminology not]]'') [[PuzzleGame obsessed with brainteasers]]. The other's a very insistent [[FakeBrit mockney-spouting]] [[CuteShotaroBoy little boy]] [[TheDoctorDolittle who can talk to animals]]. They [[SoupCans solve puzzles]], [[QuintessentialBritishGentleman drink tea]] and occasionally - just occasionally - [[TheyFightCrime they fight crime]].
* MegaManX: One is a [[SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan sensitive]] MartialPacifist. The other is a [[SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan manly]] {{Badass}}. They fight [[strike:crime]] Mavericks!

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Original ]]

* See [[http://theyfightcrime.org/ TheyFightCrime.org]] to get a randomly generated ridiculous-sounding permutation of that phrase.
** He's a world famous jewish cop from the 'hood. She's a ''violent hypochondriac'' soap star ''living homeless in New York's sewers''. They fight crime!
** He's an underprivileged gay Green Beret with acid for blood. She's a plucky extravagent fairy princess who dreams of becoming Elvis. They fight crime!
** He's a [[TheAtoner suicidal]] [[CrazyPrepared devious]] [[BadAss Green Beret]] who believes he can never love again. She's a [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney cosmopolitan gold-digging]] [[MermaidProblem mermaid]] with an [[BadassBookworm MBA from Harvard.]] [[OverlyLongGag They fight crime!]]
* {{Unskippable}}, in the episode on [[{{Onimusha}} Onimusha 3]]: “One's a Frenchman. One's a samurai. [[TheyFightCrime They're cops.]]”
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFuMpYTyRjw One summons angels! The other rides a BMX!]] TheyFightCrime!

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Comics ]]

* [[http://sydneypadua.com/2dgoggles/lovelace-the-origin-2/ 2D Goggles.]] Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace as crime-fighting mathematical superheroes!
** She's the pipe-smoking, [[RaisedByWolves raised-by-mathematicians]] spawn of [[ByronicHero Lord Byron]]. He's an AbsentMindedProfessor with a vendetta against street musicians. TheyFightCrime!
* AMiracleOfScience: He's an unorthodox thought-police officer with a dark secret. She's a quasi-telepathic autonomous operative of the HiveMind that inhabits her home planet, who can [[{{Flight}} fly]] and [[BatmanCanBreatheInSpace breathe in space]]. Together, TheyFightCrime!
*[[TheAdventuresofDrMcninja He's an Irish ninja/doctor who wants to be Batman! He's a mustachioed, gunslinging 12-year-old! TheyFightCrime!]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* An episode of ''FamilyGuy'' played this as a joke, with the newest cop show, where the hardened cop got paired with a kid from the streets, a robot, and a couch?
** Or the Stewie/The Rock buddy-cop cutaway. "One's a BABY, the OTHER'S...[[AmbiguouslyBrown black? Phillipino? Some kind of Spanish]]?"
* ''ChipAndDaleRescueRangers:'' Two chipmunks, two mice, and a housefly fight crime among both animals and humans.
* ''KimPossible:'' She is the popular cheerleader. He is the under achiever who has no friends. TheyFightCrime! [[WakeUpGoToSchoolSaveTheWorld And she'd better be home before 10]].
* Parodied on ''TheCritic'', when Clint Eastwood played a cop partnered with a child, a leprechaun, and a velociraptor.
* ''AquaTeenHungerForce''. One's a megalomaniacal, sociopathic milkshake. One's an intelligent, African-American box of french fries. One's a dumbass meatball. They're detectives... or at least used to be.
** Hilariously, the shows creators had to describe the show's premise as TheyFightCrime, because the real concept of the show was too bizzare for the network to want to put on the air.
* {{Bonkers}}. He's a by-the-book cop who aspires to be promoted. The other is a washed-up, toon actor bobcat. Together, they fight crime!
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