History Main / ArkhamsRazor

A trope mostly in comedic works where, when given multiple explanations for an event, the oddest one is most likely is going to be true. The inverse of OccamsRazor. As such, it can be summarized as "When you hear hoofbeats; think zebras, not horses." The name is a take off of OccamsRazor, combined with Arkham, which refers to the fictional Massachusetts town in the works of Creator/HPLovecraft, and also to the fictional insane asylum in ''{{Franchise/Batman}}'' comic books. Thus, the term "Arkham" is closely tied to the idea of madness or surprise.

A trope mostly in comedic works where, when given multiple explanations for an event, the oddest one is most likely is going to be true. The inverse of OccamsRazor. As such, it can be summarized as "When you hear hoofbeats; think zebras, not horses." The name is a take off of OccamsRazor, combined with Arkham, which refers to the fictional Massachussets town in the works of Creator/HPLovecraft, and also to the fictional insane asylum in ''{{Franchise/Batman}}'' comic books. Thus, the term "Arkham" is closely tied to the idea of madness or surprise.

* In ''DirkGentlysHolisticDetectiveAgency'', the titular protagonist inverts Sherlock Holmes' famous quote, saying "When you have eliminated all which is improbable, then whatever remains, however impossible, must be the truth." This is the person who owns an I Ching calculator that returns any answer higher than four as "a suffusion of yellow", practices zen driving (rather than just drive where you want to, find another driver that seems to know where they are going, and follow them), and claims that the perpetrator of a particularly gristly closed room murder got out by travelling to another dimension. [[spoiler: He is entirely correct about the last one.]]
* Like the ''A Pup Named Scooby-Doo'' example in Western Animation, the real culprit of most of ''Literature/TheBoxcarChildren'''s later installments is invariably whichever suspect is not actually suspected by the title heroes.

** Of course [[CatchPhrase "It's never Lupus."]] Except for that one time. Even in a herd of Zebras one doesn't expect to find a [[IncrediblyLamePun wolf.]]

* The ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' episode "My Lucky Night": When JD ([[ChekhovsClassroom who recently watched a relevant TV program]]) suggests a patient may be infected with a flesh-eating bacteria rather than a simple case of cellulitis, Cox immediately rejects this explains the concept of OccamsRazor ("Think horses, not zebras"). JD, however, turns out to be right.
** Unlike in some other medical series, this trope is usually averted on ''Scrubs''.

* ''KidIcarusUprising'' plays with this in the next to last stage. When fighting what appears to be Magnus and Dark Lord Gaol, Pit and Palutena suspect that Dyntos, god of the forge, had made fake copies of them, like he'd done with [[BossRush almost every other boss in the game]]. [[spoiler: It turns out that he just invited the real ones over.]]

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* Like the ''A Pup Named Scooby-Doo'' example in Western Animation, the real culprit of most of ''TheBoxcarChildren'''s later installments is invariably whichever suspect is not actually suspected by the title heroes.

[[/folder]]

A trope mostly in comedic works where, when given multiple explanations for an event, the oddest one is most likely is going to be true. The inverse of OccamsRazor. As such, it can be summarized as "When you hear hoofbeats; think zebras, not horses." The name is a take off of OccamsRazor, combined with Arkham, which refers to the fictional Massachussets town in the works of Creator/HPLovecraft, and also to the fictional insane asylum in Batman comic books. Thus, the term "Arkham" is closely tied to the idea of madness or surprise.

* {{Monk}} has effectively made cases against people who were in outer space or even ''in a coma'' at the time of the murder. It's pretty much guaranteed that, as he only works the insane cases that no one else can figure out, the murderer will always be the least likely suspect with an air-tight alibi.

** Justified, of course, because dealing with the zebra cases is the entire reason for House's department ''existing''. They only get the weird cases that the regular doctors can't figure out, similar to how SherlockHolmes probably didn't deal with many conventional crimes that Scotland Yard was able to deal with on their own.

[[folder: Literature ]]
* In ''DirkGentlysHolisticDetectiveAgency'', the titular protagonist inverts Sherlock Holmes' famous quote, saying "When you have eliminated all which is improbable, then whatever remains, however impossible, must be the truth." This is the person who owns an I Ching calculator that returns any answer higher than four as "a suffusion of yellow", practices zen driving (rather than just drive where you want to, find another driver that seems to know where they are going, and follow them), and claims that the perpetrator of a particularly gristly closed room murder got out by travelling to another dimension. [[Spoiler:He is entirely correct about the last one.]]
[[/folder]]

* ''KidIcarusUprising plays with this in the next to last stage. When fighting what appears to be Magnus and Dark Lord Gaol, Pit and Palutena suspect that Dyntos, god of the forge, had made fake copies of them, like he'd done with [[BossRush almost every other boss in the game]]. [[spoiler: It turns out that he just invited the real ones over.]]

* Thanks to a related trope, BatDeduction, some of the [[TheRiddler Riddler's]] riddles work this way. For a relatively grounded example, his first-ever crime used the clue "banquet," sending Batman and the police to a charity dinner. The real, and much less conventional meaning of the clue was that the Riddler had ''flooded a bank vault'' -- gotten a "bank wet" -- to defeat its pressure-sensitive locking mechanism and was looting it in scuba gear.

* Thanks to a related trope, BatDeduction, some of the [[ComicBook/{{Batman}} Riddler's]] riddles work this way. For a relatively grounded example, his first-ever crime used the clue "banquet," sending Batman and the police to a charity dinner. The real, and much less conventional meaning of the clue was that the Riddler had ''flooded a bank vault'' -- gotten a "bank wet" -- to defeat its pressure-sensitive locking mechanism and was looting it in scuba gear.

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

A trope mostly in comedic works where, when given multiple explanations for an event, the oddest one is most likely is going to be true. The inverse of OccamsRazor. As such, it can be summarized as "When you hear hoofbeats; think zebras, not horses." The name is a take off of OccamsRazor, combined with Arkham, which refers to the fictional Massachussets town in the works of Creator/HPLovecraft, and also to the fictional insane asylum in Batman comic books. Thu, the term "Arkham" is closely tied to the idea of madness or surprise.

A trope mostly in comedic works where, when given multiple explanations for an event, the oddest one is most likely is going to be true. The inverse of OccamsRazor. As such, it can be summarized as "When you hear hoofbeats; think zebras, not horses." The name is a take off of OccamsRazor, combined with Arkham, which refers to the fictional city and insane asylum from the works of Creator/HPLovecraft (which is closely tied to the idea of madness or surprise).

A trope mostly in comedic works where, when given multiple explanations for an event, the oddest one is most likely is going to be true. The inverse of OccamsRazor. As such, it can be summarized as "When you hear hoofbeats, think zebras, not horses." The name is a take off of OccamsRazor, combined with Arkham, which can refer to either the fictional city from the works of Creator/HPLovecraft (which is closely tied to the idea of madness or surprise) or the infamous asylum from the {{Batman}} comics and [[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum video]] [[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity games]].

* In one comic of ''Webcomic/QuestionableContent'', Marten and his girlfriend Dora take a long lunch, and return with [[SexyShirtSwitch Marten wearing some of Dora's clothes]]. Their friends immediately assume that they had done something naughty, but Marten claimed that they had been ambushed by [[AllMonksKnowKungFu Shaolin Monks]] and spilled spaghetti sauce on his clothes and needed to change at Dora's. Everyone laughs it off, but a few strips later he is proven correct when a battered monk arrives at the coffeeshop and recognizes Marten.

A trope mostly in comedic works where, when given multiple explanations for an event, the oddest one is most likely is going to be true. The inverse of OccamsRazor. As such, it can be summarized as "When you hear hoofbeats, think zebras, not horses." The name is a take off of OccamsRazor, combined with Arkham, the fictional city from the works of Creator/HPLovecraft (which is closely tied to the idea of madness or surprise).

A trope mostly in comedic works where, when given multiple explanations for an event, the oddest one is most likely is going to be true. The inverse of OccamsRazor. As such, it can be summarized as "When you hear hoofbeats, think zebras, not horses." The name is a take off of OccamsRazor, combined with Arkham, the fictional city from the works of Creator/HPLovecraft (which is closely tied to the idea of madness or surprise).

Often used as a form of BaitAndSwitch. The audience, expecting OccamsRazor, writes off the wacky explanations as not possible only to be surprised that the outlandish possibility was correct. GenreSavvy viewers will have expected the Arkham's Razor to be in effect from the get go and expect the unexpected, so to speak.

See also: InfallibleBabble, CassandraTruth. Often overlaps with TheCuckoolanderWasRight or RefugeInAudacity. Compare ImpossiblyMundaneExplanation, where an explanation floated by a character is dismissed for being too mundane.
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!!Examples:

[[AC:ComicBooks]]
* Thanks to a related trope, BatDeduction, some of the [[ComicBook/{{Batman}} Riddler's]] riddles work this way. For a relatively grounded example, his first-ever crime used the clue "banquet," sending Batman and the police to a charity dinner. The real, and much less conventional meaning of the clue was that the Riddler had ''flooded a bank vault'' -- gotten a "bank wet" -- to defeat its pressure-sensitive locking mechanism and was looting it in scuba gear.

[[AC:LiveActionTelevision]]
* In an episode of ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' the gang is arguing about who was the most "badass" as a kid. All of their tales of [[FormerTeenRebel youthful rebellion are eventually proven false,]] except for TeamMom (and literal mom) and kindergarten teacher Lily, who painted a picture of herself as basically an {{Expy}} of [[Series/TheWire Omar]]. Naturally, at the end of the episode this is proven true.
* Double-subverted in ''{{Series/Community}}'' when the study group cannot work out what happened to Annie's missing pen. Unwilling to believe any of the group stole it, they agree to believe Troy's manufactured story that a ghost took it. In fact, [[spoiler: it was Troy's escaped pet monkey, Annie's Boobs.]]
* Interestingly used as part of how the WeirdnessCensor is {{justified|Trope}} on early seasons of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', where the police (who know the truth about the town's vampire problem) have little trouble convincing most people that the vampires are just PCP addicts. As Oz points out when he's told the real story, the vampire explanation actually makes more sense.
* Often played non-comedically in ''{{Series/House}}''. In medical jargon, an unexpected diagnosis is referred to a "zebra," and this occurs so frequently in the show that it even has a page on the [[http://house.wikia.com/wiki/Zebra House Wiki]]. At one point the title character says "I look for zebras because the other doctors already ruled out all the horses."

[[AC: Webcomics]]
* In one comic of ''Webcomic/QuestionableContent'', Marten and his girlfriend Dora take a long lunch, and return with [[SexyShirtSwitch Marten wearing some of Dora's clothes]]. Their friends immediately assume that they had done something naughty, but Marten claimed that they had been ambushed by [[AllMonksKnowKungFu Shaolin Monks]] and spilled spaghetti sauce on his clothes and needed to change at Dora's. Everyone laughs it off, but a few strips later he is proven correct when a battered monk arrives at the coffeeshop and recognizes Marten.
** Also occurs in the explanation for Steve's infrequent appearances for a long stretch of the comic. The two possible explanations were "he got drunk and dicked around for a while" or "he became a secret agent and blew up an island," and it was implied that [[RiddleForTheAges not even he knew for sure which was true.]] Until [[BrickJoke later]], when he ran across TheBaroness from his story.

[[AC: WesternAnimation]]
* Used in almost every episode of ''WesternAnimation/APupNamedScoobyDoo''. During TheSummation, every suspect is listed... and the one character who isn't listed for whatever reason (too unlikely, had an alibi, or just plain the writers didn't feel like including them) is invariably the culprit.
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A trope mostly in comedic works where, when given multiple explanations for an event, the oddest one is most likely is going to be true. The inverse of OccamsRazor. As such, it can be summarized as "When you hear hoofbeats, think zebras, not horses." The name is a take off of OccamsRazor, combined with Arkham, the fictional city from the works of HPLovecraft (which is closely tied to the idea of madness or surprise).

Often used as a form of BaitAndSwitch. The audience, expecting OccamsRazor, writes off the wacky explanations as not possible only to be surprised that the outlandish possibility was correct. GenreSavvy viewers will have expected the ArkhamsRazor to be in effect from the get go and expect the unexpected, so to speak.

* Thanks to a related trope, BatDeduction, some of the [[{{Batman}} Riddler's]] riddles work this way. For a relatively grounded example, his first-ever crime used the clue "banquet," sending Batman and the police to a charity dinner. The real, and much less conventional meaning of the clue was that the Riddler had ''flooded a bank vault'' -- gotten a "bank wet" -- to defeat its pressure-sensitive locking mechanism and was looting it in scuba gear.

* In an episode of ''HowIMetYourMother'' the gang is arguing about who was the most "badass" as a kid. All of their tales of [[FormerTeenRebel youthful rebellion are eventually proven false,]] except for TeamMom (and literal mom) and kindergarten teacher Lily, who painted a picture of herself as basically an {{Expy}} of [[TheWire Omar]]. Naturally, at the end of the episode this is proven true.

* Interestingly used as part of how the WeirdnessCensor is [[JustifiedTrope justified]] on early seasons of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', where the police (who know the truth about the town's vampire problem) have little trouble convincing most people that the vampires are just PCP addicts. As Oz points out when he's told the real story, the vampire explanation actually makes more sense.

* In one comic of ''QuestionableContent'', Marten and his girlfriend Dora take a long lunch, and return with [[SexyShirtSwitch Marten wearing some of Dora's clothes]]. Their friends immediately assume that they had done something naughty, but Marten claimed that they had been ambushed by [[AllMonksKnowKungFu Shaolin Monks]] and spilled spaghetti sauce on his clothes and needed to change at Dora's. Everyone laughs it off, but a few strips later he is proven correct when a battered monk arrives at the coffeeshop and recognizes Marten.

* Used in almost every episode of ''APupNamedScoobyDoo''. During TheSummation, every suspect is listed... and the one character who isn't listed for whatever reason (too unlikely, had an alibi, or just plain the writers didn't feel like including them) is invariably the culprit.