Police officers work hard every day. They put their lives on the line, protecting the rights of you and me to feel safe. They are serious and disciplined, and do their job to the best of their ability, holding themselves to a high standard of conduct.Then there's these guys.Reno 911! is a mockumentary-style parody of COPS and similar reality shows, that ran on Comedy Central for six seasons from 2003 to 2009 and continues in reruns. Much of the material is improvised, based on a broad outline, with minimal scripted material. It features members of the fictitious Reno Sheriff's Department, videotaped in the course of their duties, sometimes addressing the camera directly as though being interviewed.
This series provides examples of:
All Just a Dream: The season three premiere parodies the season 2 premiere casting the season 1 finale as a Dream Within a Dream by subverting this: Dangle waking up and describing the horrible nightmare he had (the season 2 finale), only to remember that it wasn't a nightmare and they're all in prison.
Ambiguously Gay: Kimball. The other deputies explicitly ask her if she's a lesbian, and don't believe her when she says she's not.
A suave con man trying to get into his captors' heads tries to bait her by saying that he hates men.
Briar Patching: The return of "Spanish Mike" Alvarez to the FBI. When the real FBI shows up, they provide every form of ID imaginable without being asked.
Butt Monkey: Pretty much everyone in the cast at one time or another, but Deputy Weigel most of all.
Cliffhanger Copout: Every season ended with a Cliffhanger, and more often than not, would start the next season with a copout (but, of course, it would be Played for Laughs). Most Egregious is everyone killing each other at the end of the first season only for it all to be explained away as All Just a DreamWithin A Dream at the beginning of the next. The Season Four finale saw Dangle about to enter into a gay marriage-analogue with another man when Garcia comes in, professes his love, and steals him away, only for Garcia to reveal in the Season Five premiere that he was just kidding and would like to remind Jim that gay marriage is illegal.
Subverted in the Season 5 finale, which ends with the cops' parade float going up in a ball of flames, followed by a police funeral. The Season 6 premiere reveals that Johnson, Garcia, and Kimball actually were Killed Off for Real.
Declan and Rizzo in the last season are more straightforward examples.
Cool, but Inefficient: The Hummer the department buys with money they didn't have to spend on a case settlement.
Clementine: "All right, yeah, it get 6 miles to the gallon on the highway, and 3 miles around town... y'know, the air conditioner doesn't work so well, and it's not very comfortable, um... but I just look so damn good in it, y'know what I mean?"
The horses Garcia and Jones temporarily ride.
Cool Car: Fast Eddie McLintock's "Battle Hymn Of The Republic"-honking black-with-flame-decals Corvette.
Cool Shades: All the cops, but Junior is almost never seen without his.
When he took them off during the department's indictment, he was shown to be cross-eyed, due to getting steam in his eyes back in the '80s.
Demoted to Extra: Clementine was getting less and less to do even before she was killed off.
Disposable Sex Worker: Mike Powers reveals that he's cut the heads off of "a lot of hookers". Assuaging their tormentor, the deputies he has at gunpoint respond by saying, "They're hookers."
Scott: "Three heads I understand, nine heads I don't get, Mike. That's crazy."
Dream Within a Dream: Season 2 begins with a Previously On showing the last shot of Season 1 (everybody lying dead on the floor in the Reno County Morgue as Jones says "Guys?..."), then cutting to Dangle waking up in bed next to Kenny Rogers. Dangle asks whose dream this is, followed by Garcia waking up in a morning briefing.
Dropped a Bridget on Him: Inverted. Dangle is told that he accidentally fathered a child with a woman he met at what he thought was a drag show.
Drunk on Milk: At Kimball's Christian singles group, Clementine claims "I'm soooooo wasted!" before being told that they're serving non-alcoholic beer.
Clementine: I'm sorry. I saw what looked like beer, and my mind just... took me to Drunk Town.
Donut Mess with a Cop: "Yes Donut? More like <bleep> Yes Donut. Five percent discount for law enforcement." However, they are not fat.
Dysfunction Junction: With the exception of the time the FBI was brought in in Season 1 to help catch a serial killer and a couple others, nobody who visits the precinct leaves without exposing themselves as a horrible, horrible person. Even a visiting English constable ends up robbing a bank on duty, getting shot to death, and being shipped home in a cardboard box.
Fake Nationality: Carlos Alazraqui as the "Mexican" Deputy Garcia (Alazraqui is American born, but his mom is from Argentina and his father is from Spain, according to his Comedy Central Presents episode).
Though Garcia's Spanish does suck when he tries to go undercover as an undocumented worker.
God Save The Queen: The 'funeral' the deputies give the English exchange constable. Being Americans, half the words they sing are from "My Country 'Tis Of Thee".
Good Cop/Bad Cop: Deputy Garcia think it's "Good Cop, Black Cop".
Hannibal Lecture: Parodied by Mike Powers right down to the glass cell on Jones by claiming to know about Jones's "gritty ghetto life." However, it fails as Jones casually admits he grew up in the well-off WASP-y suburb of Mound, Minnesota. Mike Powers then sheepishly tells where he's hid a body.
Harassing Phone Call: After being exposed as a serial killer on the run, District Attorney Mike Powers makes threatening calls, notes, and text messages to each of the cops. They basically tune it out.
Dangle: I'm trying to get my junk mail filter to work on this...
Have We Met?: One episode has Dangle run into a guy outside of a donut shop. He runs through half a dozen gay hangouts, but can't remember why the guy looks familiar. As they part ways, once the guy enters the store and starts holding it up, Dangle remembers where he's seen the guy:
Dangle: Wanted poster! Wanted poster!
Heroic BSOD: More like Protagonist BSOD. Dangle and Junior have one after they walk in on Wiegel in the bath and tell her that the man who says he's her father isn't. And she knows. Then starts singing "pop, pop, go the bubbles." They walk out, clearly BSO Ding. Turns out they're also tripping on peyote.
Hummer Dinger: In one episode, the deputies got issued a Hummer and were ecstatic about it... until they encountered problem after problem due to its bulk and poor gas mileage.
If I Had a Nickel: Jones adds up on his hands how much he'd have if he had a nickel for every time a kid claimed that he was their father. He concludes he'd have about a dollar.
Junior: (after Garcia empties the magazine of a G36 with an extended clip attached at some targets and hits nothing but air) "That's got to be some kind of goddamn RECORD."
Jumping the Shark: Parodied (and thus not YMMV) in 'Bounty Hunter Tommy Hawk' where the department is hosting a 'Jumping the Shark for Autism' fundraiser. May double as a Take That Me, considering the content of the previous episode (the fifth season's season premiere).
Jerkass: Everybody, but especially Garcia. One of the early episodes described Jones hitting Garcia as "throwing shit onto a big shit pile that already has too much shit on it."
Jurisdiction Friction: At least once a season, they'll chase someone all the way to the California border.
Also, every now and then someone from the FBI will come in to take over a case. It's gone over differently each time.
Later seasons involved arguments on a bridge between Reno officers and those of a neighboring county whose line they shared in the middle of a river.
Kavorka Woman: Wiegel. No matter how much they hate/loathe/mock her, even Dangle has voluntarily at least made out with her.
Killed Off for Real: The season 5 finale shows a large explosion, followed by a funeral. We learn during the season 6 premiere that Garcia, Johnson, and Kimball all died, although they're quickly replaced by Declan and Rizzo.
Kissing Cousins: Deputies Kimball and Junior. They don't realize it until the latter lies about being shot on the pavement cradled by the former, the two share a kiss, and then the former starts talking about her uncle, which the latter realizes they also share.
One perp on drugs starts making out with Dangle thinking that he's his "really hot cousin".
Lemming Cops: Fast Eddie McLintock has a penchant for causing these. Junior describes once actively driving into a 15-car pileup caused by him just to say he did.
Libationforthe Dead: While toying with the new bomb squad robot, they have it pick up a bottle of liqour then tip some out, Lt. Dangle saying it's for the "dead robot homies" while speaking in monotone.
Long Lost Relative: Played with in an episode where, when things are going badly for Garcia and he's particularly depressed, he runs into his long-lost daughter. Turns out that she's not really his daughter but a stripper that the gang paid to pretend to be his daughter to cheer him up.
Junior's bulletproof vest over his shirt. When asked why he wears it like this, he reveals that he was hungover when he first put his uniform on and came in to work, and he kept wearing it in this fashion ever since.
This is part Truth in Television as most canadian police officers wear it over their shirt in this exact fashion.
Trudi's cat costume in the Halloween Episode. Apparently, she does it every year, because every year she's told everybody's going to.
Of Course I'm Not A Virgin: Trudi's response to being called a "virgin" in her first Lamaze Class is "I'm not a virgin, I had sex to have a baby." (Subverted, considering she got the sperm from a sperm bank.)
Pimped Out Car: One of the drivers Junior pulls over drives one of these. Junior proceeds to inquire all about it, gawking at the several after-market performance enhancements. He tries to start it, and it explodes.
Pity Sex: Dangle threw Trudy a "pity fuck". Jonesy did the same for Dangle once, too.
Porn Stache: All of the men except Jones. One episode focuses on them gathering signatures to stop the state passing legislation requiring them to shave. They end up making them mandatory.
Running Gag: Dangle's bike gets stolen every time it's off camera. Every time.
The deputies get in a car chase and try to report in the license plate, only to realize it's a novelty plate. They get so engrossed in trying to figure out what it says that they crash into the back of the suspect's car.
Any segment with Jones and Garcia. Either it turned into: a chase sequence or an argument. The segments could almost be mistaken for a Show Within a Show. The two were probably the most effective partners, in spite of the fact that Garcia is racist.
Stripper Cop Confusion: Has happened to Dangle, Garcia, and Junior (the Porn Staches may have had something to do with it). Jones actually does moonlight as a stripper.
Subverted in an episode in which Garcia admonishes a group of women on a bachelorette party. Then played hardcore straight when, as he's leaving, Dangle and Junior come out from another room, dancing and dressed only in their utility belts and underwear.
In another, after Junior is shot and Kimball is the only one around to keep him conscious while they wait for an ambulance, they share a kiss to prove she's not a lesbian, then start talking about how the other looks like a relative, until coming to the conclusion that they're cousins.
Take Our Word for It: At one point, the deputies play a game with a corpse draped by a sheet with a misshapen protrusion, taking turns trying to guess what it is. The sheet is never lifted to the camera, but the deputies state that the one who guessed "roller blade" was close.
Take That: A stagehand for Ted Nugent insults/commands ridiculous things for Garcia and Jones to do when they're only supposed to be security right down to calling them dumbasses (note: that they didn't even do anything yet.) In response, they unleash the mob onto "Ted" and the stagehand. Given Ted's track record it could've only been more of an up yours if Dangle wasn't involved (Tom Lennon was playing "Ted.")
To the Pain: After Raineesha is tricked into putting her hand through "Spanish Mike" Alvarez's cell door:
Raineesha: You're hurting my wrist.
Spanish Mike: There are many levels of pain. You have just crossed into the... 'welcome mat'. You have not even entered the door, walked down the hallway, and gone up the stairs to visit the V.I.P. rooms."
Truth in Television: Well, truth in another television show: The arrest segments in COPS are sometimes just as baffling as their parodies here. In both shows, the more mentally unstable or drug-fueled criminals provide the police with a five to ten minute Big Lipped Alligator Moment after the officers respond to the disturbance calls.
Unusually Uninteresting Sight: A few segments involved the deputies giving lectures to schoolchildren. No matter what kind of mayhem ensued on stage, the kids would always just sit and look bored.
Ventriloquism: Jones does a bit with a dressed-up Clementine as the dummy, complete with corny mouth movements and less-than-impressive water-drinking speech.
We Should Get Another Tape: Subverted. Clementine reveals that Jones has something he would have wanted everybody to see, and then pops in a videotape of the two of them having sex. She apologizes and says the part she was talking about is later on the tape. Turns out, it's not a Video Will: it's just something Jones said after they had sex.
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