Recap / Monk S5E13 "Mr. Monk Is on the Air"

A woman named Linda Riggs comes to Monk, accusing her sister's husband, radio DJ Max Hudson, of killing her. Monk takes on the case, but how could Hudson have killed her when he was on the air at the time?

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This episode contains examples of the following tropes:

• Absence of Evidence: Linda Riggs tells Monk that Max and Jeanette usually did something big for anniversaries, yet the calendar shows that the anniversary after her death had nothing planned.
• Animal Assassin: Max Hudson trained his neighbor's dog to turn on the gas in the bedroom where his wife, the victim, slept whenever the dog heard a certain phrase during his radio broadcast.
• Big Sister Instinct: Linda wants Monk to solve the case to avenge her sister Jeannette.
• Bullying a Dragon: Really Max, you taunt a great detective about his wife's death, especially one that used to be a cop and still has friends on the force? You not only get a beatdown but also arrested in due time.
• Chekhov's Gun: Max's shoes. When Monk and the cops are investigating the house, a dog owner is apologetically tugging a loafer from his pet's mouth. He goes to them and asks if any of them are missing a shoe. They say no, but Monk remembers that Max wore those shoes. The owner reveals that Max house-sat his dog a few months ago, which leads to Monk's "Eureka!" Moment.
• Chirping Crickets: Monk tries to deliver a few of Kevin Dorfman's jokes to Max Hudson in an attempt to get Max to break. This leads to an awkward silence. J.J. promptly plays the sound effect of chirping crickets on his computer.
• Death Glare: When Max begins joking about Trudy, Monk glares at him before beating him up.
• Domestic Abuse: Linda implies that Max did this to his wife Jeanette, and behind closed doors, has a bad temper.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: When Kevin learns Linda knows Max Hudson, he tries to get the lowdown about the Shock Jock. She points out that her in-law beat up his wife, had a bad temper and was an overall monster. Kevin is only further interested, as though she simply just shared trivia about the man. Even Monk, who struggles with social interaction, knows that Kevin has put his foot in his mouth.
• Dude, Not Funny!:
  • A lot of Max Hudson's jokes. We find out that he's not funny for Natalie when Monk and Natalie are investigating Jeanette's death at his house:
    Linda Riggs: This was where she was found, on the bed. This morning I heard him joking about it on his show. I don't know how somebody can joke about something like that.
    Natalie Teeger: [sighs] I don't know. Any time I'm in a store or in a restaurant and he's on the radio, I just have to leave.
  • Later, on the show, he starts making tasteless jokes about Trudy. Some of his colleagues realize he's going too far, but they can't stop him or prevent Monk from attacking their boss.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Usually, Hudson's colleagues go along with any joke he comes up with (even ones about his own wife's death). However, said colleagues become somber and give Monk their condolences when he shares how Trudy died. And when Hudson makes rather tasteless jokes about her to get Monk's goat, even the colleagues know Max is crossing the line.
  • Even Lt. Disher (who idolized his sense of humor), had to stop the car at hearing the shock jock joke about Trudy's death. While he still seems to be somewhat of a fan for his other work (before the murder is proven), he definitely knows that Max did something "unspeakable" (as Natalie put it).
• Facepalm: Natalie is seen facepalming when Monk tries talking to Max Hudson and his yes-colleagues live on the radio.
• Gaslighting: The whole purpose of Max calling his sister-in-law "Loony Linda", so nobody takes her claims that he killed his wife seriously.
• Hate Sink: Max Hudson is a crass shock jock who gets his jollies by humiliating people in public. He was emotionally abusive to his wife Jeannette whom he frequently cheated on and insulted on his radio show, and her sister Linda suggests he was physically abusive as well. Hudson also ridicules Monk on his show twice, even going as far mocking the death of Monk's wife the second time, something Hudson's own co-hosts find distasteful. As Monk points out, even if Hudson hadn't actually killed his wife, he was still abusive towards her and frequently ridiculed her on his show despite knowing she was suffering from depression. The audience will feel very satisfied when Hudson is arrested after Monk proves he killed his wife and for the for first time in his life is unable to find humor in a situation.
• Innocently Insensitive: Kevin Dorfman is very impressed that Linda personally knows Max Hudson and tries to ask her for details, despite that she just said Hudson killed her sister.
• Insult Backfire: To prepare Monk for going back on Max's show, Kevin gives him a file of jokes from his uncle Sy, who used to work with the legendary Milton Berle. Unfortunately, the jokes are pretty lame and outdated, with some not even really being directed towards Max, if they even translate well to radio.
  Adrian: (responding to J.J. playing fart sound effects in response to Monk's jokes) Yeah, J.J., that sound effect is about as funny as my wife's cooking. Do you know what she made every night?
  Max: A noose?
  Adrian: No. No, not a noose. Leftovers. Why would she make a noose?
• The Internet: Jeanette Hudson's sister Linda Riggs tells Monk she found him on the Internet, resulting in Monk saying, "I'm on the Internet?". This clip was of course then used by USA to advertise the Monk section of their website.
• I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: Steven Weber is the second of Tony Shalhoub's Wings costars to appear on the show
• Just One Little Mistake: Max ended up using a dog that has an affinity for fancy shoes. Monk and the cops come across the dog's owner pulling the shoe out of the dog's mouth, and the detective realizes that the shoe belongs to Max Hudson. This ends up cluing him in that the dog was involved in the murder, and he proves it.
• Kick the Dog: Max Hudson often does this with his tasteless jokes. His biggest kick is when, possibly to rattle Monk's cage, he makes jokes about Trudy's death. He also regularly mocked his wife despite knowing she was suffering from depression due to his abuse of her.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Max Hudson murdered his wife using his neighbor's dog. The dog ends up giving him away by stealing one of his loafers, and his owner apologetically went to the cops outside Max's house asking if they had lost a shoe.
• Malicious Misnaming: Max Hudson sarcastically refers to his wife's sister Linda Riggs as "Loony Linda".
• No Sense of Humor: Monk finds Max intimidating because Monk himself can't "do" humor and therefore can't fight back. He says it's like others speak a different language that he's never understood.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Natalie immediately tries to get into the recording booth to stop Max once she hears him making fun of Trudy.
  • Max gets alarmed when Monk successfully proves that the shock jock used his neighbor's dog to open the gas.
• Only One Finds It Fun: Kevin Dorfman gives Monk a bunch of his uncle's old jokes to use against Max and his crew. He's cracking his ass up, while Monk seems to get a kick out of them too. Max and the others are just kind of baffled, but certainly not insulted.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Germophobic Monk turns off the fireplace gas with his foot, showing no hesitation. This is why you don't insult Trudy to his face. He also lets Natalie hug him in pity after showing her a home movie of his childhood and lets Linda hug him (with minor discomfort) as thanks for solving the case.
• Precious Puppy: Despite the circumstances and learning the neighbor's dog was an accessory to murder, Linda happily greets him when he comes into the room and demonstrates how he was used to kill her sister.
• Reverse Whodunnit: Max Hudson being the culprit is made certain within the Cold Opening, since he is shown practicing his lines for his call from the police to tell him about her death. The mystery is how he killed her while on the air.
• Shout-Out: When Monk and Natalie first interview Max Hudson during his radio show, there is a point where Monk wipes his microphone down, causing some static feedback in the other mens' headsets:
  Max, J.J. and Little Willie: Ow! Ow!
  Max Hudson: You’re hurting me!
  J.J. and Little Willie: Ow! Oooh!
  Max Hudson: This guy’s great! He’s possessed!
  J.J.: [raises fist] Yo, Adrian!
  [beat]
  Adrian Monk: Yo.
  [They burst out laughing until Max signals for them to stop]
  J.J.: What is going on there?
  Max Hudson: Okay, we just lost a third of our audience.
• Spanner in the Works: Max's neighbor ends up helping Monk solve the case. He shows them the shoe that his dog took — one of Max's loafers — and explains that Max was house-sitting his dog while he and his wife were on vacation. Monk immediately figures out that the dog was trained to kill Max's wife.
• Speak Ill of the Dead: Max insults own dead wife as well as Trudy on the air, to Monk's face. The beatdown he gets from Monk is well-deserved.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Hudson tries to quip that Linda is harassing him when he sees her with Stottlemeyer and Monk in his house. Stottlemeyer then hands him a copy of a search warrant because obviously, they had to come in with legal authorization.
• Take That!: Max Hudson is an insult directed at shock jocks and radio pundits. He's got a bit of Howard Stern in him.
• Tranquil Fury: When Max begins making jokes about Trudy's death, Monk's anxiety disappears into calm fury, and you know he is going to destroy Max.
  Monk: Are you making fun of Trudy?
• Who's Laughing Now?: We get a variation of this after Monk proves that Hudson did indeed kill Jeannette. Though it would be more accurate to call it "Who's Not Laughing Now?".
  Monk: You're not laughing now, are you?
  Hudson: No. I'm not laughing.
  Monk: (coldly) Join the club.

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