He's a deeply religious gay barbarian possessed of the uncanny powers of an insect. She's a radical punk mermaid with an Evil Twin sister. They fight crime!
Two very different characters are obliged to work together to solve a crime. The premise is very often, but not always, expressed in trailers and pitches as "She's an X. He's a Y. Together, they fight crime!" So much that it's almost become a Stock Phrase. 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 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 (the reverse situation).
Can be the premise of a Buddy Cop Show, although then there usually needs to be some reason for the other cop to continue hanging around beyond the pilot.
They Fight Crimemust use both Wunza Plot and Odd Couple. Please do not add teams of more than two characters, or single characters, no matter how quirky they are.
Examples:
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He's a weed loving gangsta rapper. They're a large respected computer security company. They Fight (cyber)Crime! Seriously.
Anime and Manga
Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro: He's a demon from hell with an insatiable appetite for MYSTERY, she's a high school student with an insatiable appetite for FOOD. They fight crime!
Detective Conan: He's an age-regressed Sherlockian super-sleuth, she's his unwitting girlfriend/baby-sitter. They Solve Crime!
Every time Togusa is teamed up with Batou in Ghost in the Shell, their relationship fits this trope quite closely. While they have been working in the same unit for quite some time, Togusa is a cautious and serious family man who used to be a police officer, and Batou a former special forces soldier who regularly leaves a trail of destruction and badly beaten up suspects.
InuYasha: She's a modern-age high school girl with the powers of a Miko. He's a Feudal Era half-demon with a BFS. Together, They Fight Demons(and occasionally collect jewel shards)!
Cowboy Bebop: He's a laid-back ex-member of a criminal syndicate with a dark and troubled past. He's a former cop with a cybernetic arm and a tricked-out fishing boat. Together, They Fail To Collect Any Bountyheads.
He's a genius toymaker. She's his girlfriend. Together with their robot dog, they fight crime! They are: Yatterman, Yatterman 2, and Yatterwan!
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 (and Squirrel Girl). They Fight Crime! Or cause it, it shifts.
Spider-Man had an issue where Mary Jane helps proposes the following TV pitch: "She's an actress. He's a super-hero. They solve mysteries. Think it'll fly?"
Booster Gold is a time traveling glory hound. Blue Beetle is a sarcastic inventor. They Fight Crime!
Green Lantern: Hal's an intergalactic cop with a nearly omnipotent ring. Ollie's a loud mouthed hippie with a bow. They Fight Crime!
Ray Palmer is a physicist, Carter Hall is a re-incarnated Egyptian warrior prince. They fight crime.
Tintin: One is a young, chaste, straight-edged reporter, the other is a middle-aged, foul-mouthed, alcoholic seafaring captain. They Fight Crime!
Quoth Matthew the Raven: "It was like a bad TV show. He's a reincarnated serial killer. His partner's a bird. They're cops."
Brodys Ghost: She's the ghost of a teenaged girl locked out of heaven. He's a self-pitying layabout playing guitar on the streets for tips. They fight crime! *
(Specifically, they work together to try to stop a serial killer.)
The Tick: One's a Nigh Invulnerable escaped mental patient, the other's a nervous accountant with glider wings. They Fight Crime.
Quantum And Woody: One's a black military veteran armed with an arsenal of gadgets and a thirst for justice. One's a white street-savvy musician with a Zippo lighter and a pet goat. They fight crime!
Sin City: He's a private eye wanted for murder! She's a silent ninja assassin! They fight crime.
Batman and Robin: He's a dark, brooding millionaire using a bat-symbol to strike fear in criminals. He's a young, lighthearted, wisecracking teen acrobat. They Fight Crime!
Last Action Hero: In the Parody-riffic Schwarzenegger vehicle, the audience gets a peek into how partners are assigned at the precinct. "Kowalski, you get the rabbi. Jenkins, you have the animated cat this week."
The Thin Man series: He's a former private detective! She's a wealthy socialite! They Fight Crime! (Between drinking binges, that is.)
Osmosis Jones: he's a white blood cell, he's a pill to prevent cold-like symptoms! Together, The Fight Crime!
Nothing To Lose has the same concept of an Odd Couple who come together by circumstance: a disgruntled white executive and a black robber. Though instead of fighting crime, they team up to commit the crime of safecracking against the white guy's boss.
The Last Boy Scout: He's a former Secret Service agent! He's a former pro-football player! They Fight Crime!
"Theodor Rex": "A long time ago, in the future": She's a no-nonesense, by the book cop. He's a wise-cracking tyrannosaurus rex. They Fight Crime! (and hilarity ensues)
The Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries: She's a luscious, highly desirable telepathic barmaid. He's a vampire suffering from anachronistic attitudes. They Fight Crime!
Skulduggery Pleasant: She is a teenage girl who inherited a mansion. He is a sixgun-toting skeletal-undead sorcerer detective. They Fight Crime!
Sherlock Holmes: He's a doctor scarred by the war in Afghanistan! He's a substance-abusing dilettante private consulting detective! They Fight Crime!
Blood Books: She's a former-cop-turned P.I. with a vision problem. He's the vampiric bastard son of Henry VIII. Together, They Fight Supernatural Crime! Now On TV!
Later, She's a former-cop-turned-P.I. who is now a vampire. He's her former partner, and still a cop. Together, They Fight Supernatural Crime!
The Blood Books spinoff Smoke And Shadows series: He's a gay Production Assistant and wizard-in-training. And he's still the vampiric bastard son of Henry VIII. They Battle Demons!
The Millennium Trilogy: He's a middle-aged journalist and chick magnet. She's a twentysomething bisexual ass-kicking computer genius who may have Asperger's syndrome. They Fight Crime!
Catopolis: Two household pets gain psychic powers, and one of them lampshades it.
Huey:You're an Oracular Cat, I'm an Oracular Hamster. We fight crime!
Most any of the partnerships in the Lensman series, but in particular: One's the top agent of humanity. The other is a thirty-foot-long winged reptilian alien with multiple eyes on stalks. They Fight Boskone!
Good Omens: One's the Angel who guarded the Gates of Eden, the other's the Serpent that tempted Eve. Together, they prevent the apocalypse!
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. They Fight Crime! And Have Lots Of UST!
Automan: One is a police computer nerd who overclocks the computer and creates a TRON-like superbeing. The other is that self-same TRON-like superbeing. They Fight Crime!
Numb3rs: One's an FBI agent! The other is the Agent's nerdy math-professor brother. They Fight Crime!
Life On Mars: He's a time traveller/coma patient who's by the book, and may be going insane. He's an overweight, armed bastard, Cowboy Cop. They Fight Crime! (And jump over desks!)
Due South: One's a crude, rude American cop. One's a polite, soft-spoken Canadian Mountie. They Fight Crime!
Holmes and Yo-yo: One's a human cop. One's an experimental robot cop. They Fight Crime!
Simon And Simon: Even though they're brothers, Rick and A.J. have nothing in common. They're private detectives, so of course They Fight Crime!
30 Rock parodied this: One's a regular cop on-the-beat. The other is God. They fight crime!
Collector's Item: Vincent Price is an antique dealer. Peter Lorre... well, it's not entirely clear 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!
Covert Affairs: She's a CIA trainee suddenly promoted to field work. He's Mission Control, but he's blind. They Fight Crime!
Bones: One's a street-smart FBI agent. One's a socially-inept forensic anthropologist. They Fight Crime!
Booth: "Look, I'll do my street thing, you do your lab thing, alright? Together, we catch bad guys."
Another take on them: One's a devoutly religious Catholic who believes in chivalry. One's a rational atheist who believes in gender equality. They Fight 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. They Fight Crime!
Frequently used as a gag on Mystery Science Theater 3000. 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!"
An educational short titled "Bodycare and Grooming" inspired the quip, "Body Care! And Grooming! They're cops!"
Subverted in another episode: "He's a cop! He's a rabbi! They're cops! Except the rabbi!"
The Persuaders: One's a streetwise American self-made millionaire, the other is a daredevil English aristocrat. They Fight Crime!
Past Life: He's an ex-cop whose wife died (who is totally not going to come up in the series eventually), she's a past life therapist. They fight reincarnation-based crime!
Big Wolf on Campus: He's a perky, easily frightened, goth with an encyclopedic knowledge of the supernatural; he's an easy going, football playing, werewolf with a secret identity and the ability to kick lots of ass. Together, they fight Monsters! With a Kickboxing, Totally Bad Ass Normal, Action Girl.
The Avengers: He's a suave English gentleman spy. She's an Action GirlMs. Fanservice with a preference for catsuits. They Fight Crime, espionage, and unnatural weirdness.
Torchwood, by virtue of being a police procedural. He's an omnisexual reformed conman who can't stay dead. She's a tough-as-nails policewoman who keeps him sane. They fight crime!
The Sweeney: He's a tough, no-nonsense, bends-the-rules older cop who's quick-witted and with an eye for drink and the ladies! He's a younger, more inexperienced cop who wants to follow the rulebook yet respects his older partner! They fight crime!
Keen Eddie: One's a scruffy, accident-prone, idealistic detective from Manhattan, the other's a shallow London dandy with an addictive personality and an over-active libido. Together, they fight crime!
Dark Angel: She's a genetically-engineered super-soldier Half-Human Hybrid. He's an incredibly wealthy paraplegic who spends his spare time as an airwave-pirating cyberjournalist. Together, They Fight Crime! Although in season 2, she frees more super-soldiers and they stop fighting crime so much.
White Collar: He's a blue-eyed master criminal genius with a million dollar smile. He's a no-nonsense FBI agent who always gets the bad guys. They Fight Crime!
Dexter: He's a mild-mannered lab tech with a Dark Passenger. She's a tough, foul-mouthed cop with a heart of gold and a lot to prove. Together, they fight crime (in their own special ways)!
Supernatural: Two brothers—He's a pre-law student who just lost his girlfriend. He's a charming blue collar bum who can't find their dad. They fight monsters!
The Invisible Man: He's a recently reformed thief with an invisibility gland in his head. He's a jaded veteran and paranoid conspiracy theorist who's been fired from every other government agency in existence. They fight crime!
Campion. He's a disinherited member of the aristocracy. He's a former burglar turned valet. They fight crime!
Community episode "The Science of Illusion": She's a seriously cute recovering teen drug addict. She's a newly-single, single-mindedly Christian housewife and mother. They Fight Crime or at least attempt to!
Hardcastle and McCormick: one's an ex-con turned race car driver. The other's a retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge. With their prototype sports car "Coyote X". They fight crime!
T. and T. She's a young crusading lawyer. He's Mr T. Of Course they fight crime!
Doctor Who: He's a super-intelligent death-defying egotistical alien....
...she's a sentient Police Box that can travel through time and is Bigger on the Inside...
...she's a shop girl from the estates...
...and her mechanic ex-boy-friend...
...he's a rogue Time Agent and immortal ex-conman...
....she's a medical student...
...she's a plucky temp with flaming red-hair and a temper to match...
...she's a red-headed kissogram and her Roman-Fighting-Nurse husband...
...joined by their daughter, a mysterious time-traveler armed with hallucinogenic lipstick...
...and finally she's a flirty girl who keeps dying...
In "A Good Man Goes To War" and "The Snowmen" we have: She's a lesbian Victorian silurain with katanas; she's her human butler and lover, and he is a gun toting potato dwarf. Together, they fight crime! (Including eating Jack the Ripper)
And from the original series, we have...
...he's a robot dog...
...she's a sexy jungle girl from outer space...
...he's a kilt-wearing 18th century Scotsman...
...they're his granddaughter's science and history teachers...
...he's a teenage supermathematician from another universe...
...she's a teenage girl who likes to make things explode...
...he's an obnoxious schoolboy in thrall to the universal embodiment of chaos...
Fringe: She's an FBI agent with a mysterious past, he's a brilliant ne'er-do-well with an even more mysterious one - They Fight Crime along with his father, who's a genuine Mad Scientist.
Heroes Volume 5: One's a mind-reading detective trying to quit the habit, the other's a mental fragment of a murderous supervillain trapped in the detective's head. They fight crime! ...Or not.
Kamen Rider Double: He's a detective who wants to be hard-boiled but is too emotional; he's a walking search engine with poor social skills. Together, they fight Monsters of the Week!
I Spy: He's a white tennis pro! He's the tennis pro's black trainer! (That was terribly significant in 1965!) They Fight Crime!
Dragnet: He's an anal retentive stiff! He's his chatty partner! They Fight Crime!
Burn Notice: He's an out of work spy, she's his trigger happy ex-girlfriend. They Fight Crime along with his buddy who used to report on him to the FBI. And occasionally his mom.
Merlin has done this a few times with Merlin and Guinevere, notably "The Witchfinder", "Goblin's Gold", and "Lamia." She's an unassuming handmaiden. He's a long-suffering manservant. Together, they fight frameup-artists, goblins, and man-eating octopus monsters.
Common Law: One's a street-wise loudmouth with a lengthy list of disgruntled ex-girlfriends. The other is a logical former lawyer who's still in love with his ex-wife. They Fight Crime!
Arrow: One's a playboy socialite who was trapped on an island for five years, returning to fix the mitakes of his father and save his city. The other's his bodyguard, a former marine looking for a way to help the world and fight for a cause worth fighting. They Fight Crime, corruption, and the occasional assassin!
Person of Interest: He's a former spy disowned by the CIA. He's an independently wealthy inventor with a machine that spies on everyone. Together, They Prevent Crime!
This seems to be the premise of the new Hannibal series: he's an empath FBI agent, he's a cannibal psychologist. They hunt serial killers! And get increasingly and quietly drawn into madness/increasingly and quietly draw into madness, respectively.
Video Games
Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door referenced this trope during the Glitz Pit challenge. When Mario converses with a Spike Top at one point in the rankings, he talks about distinctive features, his being his spike and Mario's being his Badass Mustache. "Spikey Joe and Mustache: Together, they fight crime! That'd make for a killer TV show!"
Ace Attorney Investigations has three different combinations of this. In all of them, the first person is the aforementioned logical, serious prosecutor. Depending on the case, the second person is either a lovable but dumb detective, a very young prosecutor with a habit of whipping anyone who annoys her, or a highly visiblealleged thief.
Ghost Trick: He's a laid-back, aloof amnesiacghost with a drive for justice and Cool Shades. She's an idealistic Cloud Cuckoolander rookie detective who likes chicken and keeps getting killed... and again... and again. They solve mysteries, save lives, and (occasionally) fight crime! (or become criminals themselves).
On the other hand; He's the aforementioned laid-back amnesiac ghost. He's the ghost of a hyperactive puppy pomeranian who will do anything to protect his little miss. They fight crime!
This one gets even better once you beat the game and find out... that you were a cat all along!
One's a serious, idealistic (and quite corpulent) detective who goes by the book and strives to give the best out of himself. The other is a stylish, cool-cat (and quite lanky) police inspector whose every move is literally a dance move and still climbs up the ranks because he's simply that good. They are best pals, and fight crime!
One's said lanky stylish police inspector, the other is a grumpy former forensic medic for the police who left his job to research a meteorite. They chase down vengeful ghosts!
In 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."
He's an amnesiac cybernetic soldier who doesn't know what to do! She's a megalomaniacal artificial intelligence dominatrix who's lost all their power! They Fight The Many! You and her versus the world. She really doesn't like that.
Mega Man Battle Network: He's an elementary school student who is assisted by his A.I. program (older brother) in a world where almost everything is connected to a network. They Fight Crime!
Megaman himself describes official netbattlers as these.
He's a wisecracking, womanizing bookshop owner/mystery novelist with a dark family secret! She's his skeptical Asian-American shop/research assistant! They Fight Supernatural Crime!
He's a PONY, he's a COP, together they are PONYCOP!
Mr Square, Issue 177: "He's a chronically depressed loser with nothing to lose. He's a pathologically enthusiastic psychotic sheep who thinks he's an ex-cop. TOGETHER, THEY FIGHT CRIME!"
A Miracle of Science: He's an unorthodox thought-police officer with a dark secret. She's a quasi-telepathic autonomous operative of the Hive Mind that inhabits her home planet, who can fly and breathe in space. Together, They Fight Crime!
The doctor himself has clarified that in point of fact,
I wouldn't say that we necessarily fight crime as we...take care of problems that need to be solved with violence.
Axe Cop: He's a cop with an axe! He's a dragon/triceratops/tyrannosaurus rex/ghost! They fight crime.
Those last two not awesome enough for you? They Team Up.
Registered Weapon: He's a Cowboy Cop with no regard for life, property damage or hygiene! He's a cash register that was rebuilt into a super-advanced robot! They Fight Crime!
Chirault: He's a demon employed as a demon hunter! She's a Cat Girl who's accidentally been shrunk to a few inches tall! They fight demons!
Cloud's family in Sandra and Woo spends the second-longest story arc so far doing this in superhero garb. However, at the end it is revealed that it was just a movie.
"He's a short-sighted alcoholic vampire hunter with a passion for fast cars. She's a manipulative African-American Valkyrie on the trail of a serial killer. They fight crime!"
"He's a benighted crooked firefighter plagued by the memory of his family's brutal murder. She's a supernatural gypsy research scientist who hides her beauty behind a pair of thick-framed spectacles. They fight crime!"
"He's a time-tossed bohemian waffle chef with a robot buddy named Sparky. She's an artistic mutant museum curator who hides her beauty behind a pair of thick-framed spectacles. They fight crime!"
"He's an otherworldly shark-wrestling librarian in a wheelchair. She's a disco-crazy mute mechanic from aristocratic European stock. They fight crime!"
"He's an otherworldly one-eyed master criminal from the 'hood. She's a mistrustful tempestuous socialite living homeless in New York's sewers. They fight crime!"
"He's a fast talking gay dog-catcher haunted by memories of 'Nam. She's an elegant goth vampire looking for love in all the wrong places. They fight crime!"
"He's a deeply religious skateboarding librarian haunted by memories of 'Nam. She's a brilliant Bolivian single mother with a knack for trouble. They fight crime!"
The Long Armagedon of the Law[2]. He's Jesus, he's the devil. They Fight Crime!
Unskippable, in the episode on Onimusha 3: "One's a Frenchman. One's a samurai. They're cops."
"HE'S An Inquisitor held back from promotion due to his radical ideas of fairness, equitability, and investigating before Exterminating! HE'S a two-legged biological killing machine which consumes men to gain their skills! Together THEY FIGHT HERESY."
Blamimation: He's a Renaissance trout! He's a modern-day hawk! They fight crime! But only above water...
Western Animation
An episode of Family Guy 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 To Fight Crime!
Parodied on The Critic, when Clint Eastwood played a cop partnered with a woman, a cute little kid, an ugly old dog, a dinosaur, and a leprechaun. Later, Arnold Schwarzenegger shows up partnered with a pig, an alien, Siamese twins, a sofa, and a second-rate mime.
Bonkers. One's a By-the-Book Cop who aspires to be promoted. The other is an out-of-work toon actor bobcat. Together, they fight crime!
Later on in the show: She's a tough, savvy beat cop, he's an out-of-work toon actor bobcat. Together, they fight crime!
Sharky and George He's a shark. He's a fish. Together, they fight crime!
"A fugitive, semi-aquatic special forces amateur stage magician, framed for a crime he didn't commit, the 1865 assassination of Abraham Lincoln, joins forces with a rogue-trillionaire inventor-extreme fighting champion from the future. Together with the aid of "R.I.C.K.", their super crime-fighting talking high-tech rickshaw, they'll bring hope, justice, and varying degrees of aquaticness to a Tri-State Area in peril. Together, they are...Doof 'n' Puss!"
Gargoyles: She's an NYPD detective. They are winged beasts of the night who spent the last thousand years in an enchanted sleep. They fight crime.
Played with on The Simpsons, with a two headed goat.
Homer: One of you ate tin cans, one of you ate health food. How you solved crimes, I'll never know.
Meet Leon Black. He's a Harvard-educated forensics specialist. Meet Tandoori Jones. He's a fun-loving, typical East Indian cop who plays by his own rules: none. Together they are Black & Tan.
Other
The BouncingCow screensaver: "A Cow. A Trampoline. Together, they fight crime."
When George R. R. Martin, writer of A Song of Ice and Fire, was talking about his TV days on an interview, he said that TV networks love this style of pitch because it's simple, consistent and easy to follow. The example he gave was "He's the Pope. She's a Chimp. They Fight Crime.
