History Monk / TropesSToZ

** [[http://www.usanetwork.com/series/monk/webexclusives/blogs/ep_rockconcert.html This production blog from the USA Network site]] illustrates how much work the producers of "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert" put into recreating the environment of an actual rock concert. They used actual port-a-potties, with one that they could remove the back end from so that they could shoot scenes inside the tight space. The stage set was constructed based on research for lots of other real rock festivals, including Woodstock. The acupuncture tent that Monk, Natalie, and Kendra visit to interview a witness used real acupuncture benches, and the first aid tent where Monk and Natalie examine the body is stocked with actual supplies.

** In the opening to "Mr. Monk and the Man Who Shot Santa," if you have a good eye, you might noticed that some of the montage shots are footage recycled from "Mr. Monk and the Captain's Marriage" from where Monk and Natalie are stalking Karen Stottlemeyer through a shopping mall area.

** Lampshaded in "Mr. Monk Gets Drunk", when Randy says, "Monk's in there doing his summation thing..." Played with in [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the manner in which he delivered it.]]

* YourDaysAreNumbered: In ''Mr. Monk Gets Even'', Cleve Dobbs killed three people who wronged him, and then kills himself in a way [[SuicideNotMurder that it looks like his wife killed him]], after learning he has a terminal disease - specifically, Lou Gehrig's disease (the body gradually becomes completely paralyzed over time).

** In "Mr. Monk and the Very Very Old Man," Stottlemeyer is in his office when Randy comes in to inform him that his wife's arrived. Leland panics and tells Randy to talk to her and keep her occupied while he prepares the office for her arrival. This includes hanging a Native American dreamcatcher on a lamp, installing a waterfall (with coffee for water because he has no time to find a water pitcher), hiding his gun in a drawer (because Karen [[DoesntLikeGuns doesn't like firearms]]), and hiding a lot of his personal junk.

* WholesomeCrossdresser: Randy is a great female impersonator. In fact, twice, in "Mr. Monk and the Missing Granny" and "Mr. Monk and the Three Julies," he goes undercover as a woman. In the former, he wears a wig to pass as a homeless bag lady at the homeless shelter while in stakeout mode (though Monk and Sharona see through it very easily). In "Mr. Monk and the Three Julies," he dresses in drag to play Matthew Teeger's deceased mother's corpse, wearing a wire to catch a confession. After it's over and Matthew is taken into custody, Monk quips, as he breaks the news to Julie and Natalie, "That's him, and that's his mother," pointing first to Matthew, then to Randy, who was wearing a bra the entire time.

** ShoutOutToShakespeare: In "Mr. Monk and the Genius," when Patrick Kloster is disembarking from his private jet and is talking to the reporters about his wife's death, he says, "[[Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death, gorged with the dearest morsel of the earth.]]" A reporter asks him where that's from and he tells her, "Look it up."

** Monk's apartment in the novels is said to be on Pine Street a few blocks west of Van Ness Boulevard. However, establishing shots, and the position of the bay in the background show the apartment as being on the southeast corner of a street with the east-west street immediately descending a steep hill. That's because the actual apartment used is not on Pine Street at all, but is actually at the southeast corner of Taylor Street and Broadway.

** In "Mr. Monk and the 12th Man," this scene:
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' All right, everybody, listen up! Listen up! We’re not gonna find him flailing in the dark. Let’s communicate, keep each other briefed. We’re going dumpster diving. We’re gonna… ''[stops when he sees Randy putting up a piece of blank paper on the crime board]'' What are you doing? What is that?
-->'''Lt. Randall Disher:''' I’m leaving a space for the next victim.
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' Take that down. Take it down!
-->''[Randy removes the sheet]''
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' There is no "next victim". We’re stopping the son of a bitch at ''ten''.
** That night, Monk and Sharona go on a stakeout, dragging Sharona's date, deputy mayor Kenny Shale, along, to the house of a potential suspect, Henry Smalls. Smalls gets out of a cab, and as he's walking up to his front door, a masked man comes out from hiding and stabs him dead. Monk rushes over, and struggles with the man, who throws Monk aside and takes off. As Monk gets to his feet, dazed, the scene cuts to Randy tacking up a picture of Smalls to the board of victims' photos:

* ThoseTwoGuys: "Mr. Monk and the Employee of the Month" has an example of two guys who work together at Mega-Mart. They find the job so boring that they get their kicks from doing stuff like switching name tags.

* VillainBall: The killer in Mr. Monk, Private Eye if he had just paid for the fender bender Monk would have left him alone and he would have gotten away

*** In that same episode, Monk and Natalie's first scene - with them walking on campus after Natalie, exasperated, tells Monk to forget about fussing with his lapel pin - is also filmed in this way. However, it may fall into visible camera equipment territory, because if you look at the sidewalk on the left side of the screen, you can see the rail that the camera rig is running on.

** Of the GoLookAtTheDistraction variety: In "Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine", Lester Highsmith's ex-wife commits suicide, but she has written a suicide note that incriminates him in a bloody armored car robbery and even gives out the details of his next heist. Fearing that the cops at the scene will find the incriminating note, Lester drives a few blocks, and when he sees some police officers shaking down a biker who missed his bail hearing, Lester pulls out his pistol and opens fire on them. Captain Stottlemeyer is wounded when a bullet hits him in the shoulder. Due to the shooting, the cops at Lester's ex-wife's apartment are called away. After the shooting, Lester quickly drives away, gets rid of the gun, returns to his ex-wife's apartment, and replaces her suicide note with a fake one while the police are occupied with the drive-by.

* WhatAnIdiot
** In "Mr. Monk and the Panic Room", Darwin the chimp is framed for his owner's murder despite the fact that the guy was shot twice in the back. '''You'd Expect''' Stottlemeyer and the others to realize no monkey could handle a handgun so adeptly. After Sharona points this out, Stottlemeyer takes Darwin into an interrogation room with [[spoiler: what he assumes is an unloaded gun; it's not.]] Darwin shoots without aiming and only hits the room's window. '''You'd Then Expect''' the cops to admit Darwin could not have killed Ian Blackburn, his owner. '''Instead''', they continue to insist Darwin is the killer until Monk's summation.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Girl Who Cried Wolf", Sharona continually sees a blood-soaked man with a knife in his chest and a screwdriver in his ear who disappears as soon as she runs screaming for help. On both occasions, this man speaks to her, calling her by name and saying things like, "Daddy needs you." '''You'd Expect''' Monk, Stottlemeyer, or somebody to ask what Sharona's childhood history is or where her father is. '''You'd Then Expect''' somebody to ask who, besides Sharona, knew said history. [[Spoiler: One answer would've been, "My creative writing teacher," for whom Sharona wrote an essay about her mentally ill dad, and who turned out to be the killer.]] '''Instead''' everyone believes Sharona is reacting to stress or even crazy, right up to the summation.

** The trope is even used InUniverse: In ''Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants'', Monk tells Natalie that he's very disappointed with Ian Ludlow's novels because Ludlow's main character Detective Marshak catches the killer in the exact same way ''every single time'': the killer is given away by a personality quirk, something Monk complains makes the murder cases he investigates much more interesting.
*** HoistByHisOwnPetard: That Ludlow has become reliant on a single formula for his books gets turned against him when Monk uses it to prove that he killed a UCLA professor named Ellen Cole and a shoe salesman named Ronald Webster, then framed Sharona's husband Trevor Howe for the former and Natalie for the latter, and is revealed to have killed at least five other people for the same reason. Monk says it himself: just like the killers in his own books, Ludlow dropped clues left and right that were intent on making sure that the least likely suspect took the fall in each case. And like his fictional killers, Ludlow betrayed himself with a personality quirk: he cannot resist the urge to go into any bookstore he passes to sign copies of his books (such that ''unsigned'' copies of Ludlow's books are worth ''more''). Case in point: Ludlow claims for his alibi that he was in Los Angeles when Ronald Webster was murdered, only for Monk to reveal that he signed some of his own books at a bookstore near a Noe Valley pizzeria that Webster visited on the night he was killed (which happened to be the same night that Natalie had taken Julie out to that same pizzeria), well ''before'' Ludlow claimed to have arrived in San Francisco. It also turns out that Ludlow signed stock at bookstores in Union Square and Washington Square because he reasoned Monk wasn't going to catch onto him that quickly. Of course he also gave himself away when he mentions that the receipt on the pizza box found in Webster's apartment has a discount mentioning the advertising on Julie's right arm, which is in a cast due to a fractured wrist, and Monk [[INeverSaidItWasPoison inquires how he knows that Julie has a cast on her right arm when he has never met her]].

** In "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert," the facial expression variant of this trope is seen. When Monk and Natalie are approached by Stork's girlfriend Kendra Frank, who points out to them that he was afraid of needles. The tone of her voice also counts:
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Maybe he got over it.
-->'''Kendra Frank:''' You don't just get over a phobia like that overnight! Do you?!
** Then Monk looks at a map in Stork's jacket pocket:
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' You say he was afraid of needles?
-->'''Kendra Frank:''' Yeah, that's right.
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' He had an...acupuncture appointment at 7:30 this morning.
-->'''Kendra Frank:''' What?! ''[Monk hands her the map and points it out. After a second, Kendra looks up and glares at him, a disgusted look on her face]''
** In "Mr. Monk and His Biggest Fan," both Monk and Natalie display YHGTBKM reactions when Marci Maven shows up and successfully "buys" Monk at the SFPD bachelor auction.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Actor," Randy's priceless reaction to discovering that he is portrayed by a woman in the screen adaptation of the Steve Wagner case

** Terry Fradet appears in "Mr. Monk Goes to Jail" as one of the inmates in the prison library. In "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert," he plays Greg "Stork" Murray, the murder victim.
** Kathryn Joosten was on the show twice: in "Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Suspect," she played Brian Babbage's hospital nurse. In "Mr. Monk's 100th Case," she was interviewed by James Novak in the part of Monk's childhood babysitter.
** Erica Yoder plays murder victim Beth Landow in "Mr. Monk Goes Back to School". She also plays suspect Helen Hubbert in "Mr. Monk and the Bad Girlfriend".

** In "Mr. Monk and the Big Game", Julie interviews Stottlemeyer and Disher for a project on DNA evidence. All of the information given is straight-on accurate. One example: Stottlemeyer mentions that no two siblings will have the same DNA -- it's ''close'' to, but not an exact copy -- except for identical twins. Another example: one of Julie's questions is why DNA cannot be used to close every case, and Stottlemeyer replies that this is for two reasons: one, DNA is not found at every crime scene, and two, even if there is DNA, there needs to be a match in the computer records to compare the DNA against. This last answer, plus the unsolved murder that Stottlemeyer uses for an example, is a ChekhovsGun for Monk later.

* ThrowItIn: Some things clearly appear improvised.
** Randy's epic struggle in "Mr. Monk and the Leper" to remove some embarrassing photos of him with acne in Dr. Polanski's waiting room. The scene was supposed to be a simple swipe, but the set designer had glued the pictures on so strongly that Jason Gray-Stanford couldn't do the swipe. You can tell Jason looks confused when he pulls on the photo and it doesn't come off. So without breaking character, he grabs the chain pen on the receptionist's desk and tries to use that to pry the picture off, eventually ending up ripping out part of the plaster with the photo.
** Traylor Howard's [[HideYourPregnancy pregnancy]] was worked into "Mr. Monk Is At Your Service".
** In "Mr. Monk Is Up All Night," the bit where Stottlemeyer and Disher grab Monk's pickpocketed wallet from Gully at the bar was added by Ted Levine and Jason Gray-Stanford. By doing this, they make it clear that they know Gully is buying them drinks on Monk's credit card. They play along with it – essentially thinking, "Drinks on Monk!" Only on their exit do they end any pretense, and take Monk's wallet back; in other words, they have been one step ahead of Gully the entire time. This also proves that Stottlemeyer and Disher are not as oblivious as they may sometimes act.

*** In "Mr. Monk and the Lady Next Door," we start with John Keyes killing the security guard of the world records museum and stealing an egg-eating robot. A few nights later, he robs a jewelry store and shoots the manager when the manager recognizes him by voice. Monk investigates both deaths, connecting Keyes to the second murder before he connects him to the first murder, which he does through hydraulic fluid spilled on Keyes' driveway. Turns out the jewelry store was Keyes' main target, and he had stolen the robot so that he could use it as his alibi.

** In ''Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse'', Monk and Natalie stop by a North Beach firehouse to investigate the death of [[spoiler:Sparky]], a beloved firehouse dalmation bludgeoned with a pickaxe during an apparent break-in. They also stop by a nearby house fire in which a 64 year old woman, [[spoiler:Esther Stoval]], was killed. Monk deduces that Esther's death was actually a FieryCoverup. Her house, we learn, was one of several scheduled for demolition for a new condo complex. When Monk, Natalie and Stottlemeyer question [[spoiler:Lucas Breen]], the developer, Monk immediately pegs him as Esther's killer. After Monk and Natalie requestion a dog-loving witness who saw a man dressed as a firefighter leaving the firehouse after Sparky was killed, Monk deduces that Breen also killed Sparky. [[spoiler:Breen went to Esther's house, smothered her with a pillow, set the house on fire, but he left his overcoat behind at Esther's house. He went to the firehouse to get a coat and helmet so he could sneak into the fire and recover it without emergency crews noticing him. He didn't expect Sparky the dog, and had to take him out in self-defense.]]

-->'''Adrian Monk:''' No, this is comeuppance. Pro bono ''comeuppance''. ''[Natalie's face reddens up, furious]''

-->''[She gasps]''

** An InUniverse case of this trope: In the novel ''Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants'', Monk is very much disappointed with Ian Ludlow's novels because Ludlow's character Detective Marshak catches the killer in the exact same way every time: the killer is given away by a personality quirk. In fact, Monk complains that the murder cases he investigates are way more interesting than Ludlow's stories, and discourages Natalie from reading.
*** HoistByHisOwnPetard: That Ludlow has become so reliant on a single formula for his books is something Monk uses to prove that Ludlow killed a UCLA professor named Ellen Cole and a shoe salesman named Ronald Webster, then framed Sharona's husband Trevor Howe for the former and Natalie for the latter. Monk says it himself: like the killers in his books, Ludlow dropped clues left and right that were intent on framing the intended people. Also, like the killers he creates, Monk announces that Ludlow betrayed himself with a personality quirk. In Ludlow's case, he cannot resist the urge to go into any bookstore he passes to sign copies of his books. Case in point: Ludlow claims he was still in Los Angeles when Ronald Webster was murdered, only for Monk to reveal that he signed stock at a bookstore near a Noe Valley pizzeria that Webster visited on the night he was killed, well ''before'' Ludlow claimed to have arrived in San Francisco. It also turns out that Ludlow signed stock at bookstores in Union Square and Washington Square.

* ScreamDiscretionShot: In the "circus" episode, [[spoiler:an elephant trainer demonstrates how the elephant can gently place its foot upon his head, on a stump. Unfortunately, the murderess has duct-taped a walkie-talkie to the elephant and gives the command for the elephant to put the foot down. A hideous crunching noise is heard. Viewers don't actually get to see his head get crushed.]]

* ThemeTuneCameo: In Mr Monk and the Leper, Randy plays the usual crime scene music on a piano while Stottlemeyer searches a room for evidence. When asked about it, he explains that he's supplying background music, much to Stottlemeyer's annoyance. Bonus points for playing the actual theme the moment he stops.

** "Mr. Monk and the Panic Room": A monkey is framed for murder. It is then up to Monk to figure out how.
** Another example is an episode where a dog had apparently mauled a woman to death. The bite marks on the woman's body matched the dog's teeth exactly, but the owner claimed the dog had died before the apparent attack.

** In "Mr. Monk Is Up All Night," the bit where Stottlemeyer and Disher grab Monk's pickpocketed wallet from Gully at the bar was ad-libbed by Ted Levine and Jason Gray-Stanford. As Douglas Nabors described it in the production blog, "This wasn't scripted, but Ted and Jason thought it would be an interesting idea if their characters knew that Gully was buying them drinks on Monk's credit card, and they were going along with it – essentially thinking, "Drinks on Monk!" Only on their exit do they end the con and take Monk's wallet back; in other words, they were one step ahead of Gully the entire time. It was a nice moment for Stottlemeyer and Disher, further proving that they're not as oblivious as they may sometimes act."

** Starting in ''Mr. Monk on the Road'', the novels explore Monk's life after solving Trudy's death. Novel 16 and onwards are written by another show writer, Hy Conrad. All of the novels are written from Natalie's point of view.

* TotallyRadical: Monk's idea of "cool" and "hip" formed some time in the mid-70's and has not changed one iota since then. Which is fine, but unfortunately, he believes the same is true for everyone else.

** In "Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion," the continue-the-conversation version: Monk and Natalie are conversing with Dianne and Kyle Brooks, and Monk notices a photo of Dianne's dog Tangerine, recalling that she had a poodle with that name in her senior year.

-->''[Cuts to]''

** Another ''Monk'' example is an episode where a dog had apparently mauled a woman to death. The bite marks on the woman's body matched the dog's teeth exactly, but the owner claimed the dog had died before the apparent attack.

'''Dianne Brooks:''' Ahh... Oh, so you two aren't [dating]... ''[she points between Monk and Natalie. Natalie smiles, amused]''\\
'''Natalie Teeger:''' No. ''(laughs)''

*** "Mr. Monk and the Three Pies" is a modern version of ''The Adventure of the Six Napoleons'' and ''The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle'' - Pat van Ranken is tracking down cherry pies that may or may not have an incriminating shell casing in them ejected when he was shooting his wife with his pistol. Turns out to be a RedHerring: the shell casing in question turns out to be in a bag of flour at Ambrose's house.

** "Mr. Monk and the Bad Cop": "My name is Anonymous, and I have to relation whatever to Adrian Monk."

** Max Hudson in "Mr. Monk Is On The Air" is a TakeThat to shock jocks and radio pundits
* TalkingAnimal: Sort of: The animals don't actually speak the English language (and yes, as much as Randy might think it is okay, dogs are not allowed to testify in open court), but a few episodes relating to animals seem to depict the animals with an almost human understanding. In "Mr. Monk and the Dog", this is most noticeable: the dog Monk has to raise after its owner ends up missing (who is also pregnant) seems to be genuinely sorrowful upon learning that her owner died, and her reaction when giving birth is similar to a human. Likewise, in the next episode, "Mr. Monk Goes Camping," the method in which Monk manages to calm a bear down was telling it the murder, and the bear's reactions indicated that it understood fully well what was going on in the story and reacting accordingly.

* TelevisionGeography: Sometimes the transition from San Francisco to Los Angeles is jarring.
** Another example: in ''Mr. Monk on Patrol'', when Monk and Natalie are taking a New Jersey Transit train from Penn Station to Summit, Natalie refers to the route as the "Dover Line". New Jersey Transit does have commuter trains to Dover, New Jersey from Manhattan via the Midtown Direct track connection in Newark, which is also used to reach Summit. However, the line servicing Summit is actually known as the Morristown Line.

* SuperSpeedReading: Monk has this ability, as demonstrated in "Mr. Monk's Favorite Show" while reading a magazine with Natalie, with him rapidly flipping through it and then getting chewed out by Natalie for giving her no time to read the articles. Monk, of course, makes fun of her "slow" reading speed. Of course, speed-reading is justified in his case due to his HyperAwareness. **Also invoked in the book ''Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants'', where there is a scene where Monk speed-reads through several of Ian Ludlow's mystery books, and quickly complains that the books are just using the same formula, again due to the same Hyper Awareness.

** "Mr. Monk and the Other Woman" was produced immediately after "Mr. Monk and the Psychic", but before "Mr. Monk Goes to the Carnival," which accounts for the apparent regression of Stottlemeyer and Disher in terms of their relationship with Monk.
* SexDressed: Watch the judge at the probate hearing in "Mr. Monk and the Leper". Monk's SherlockScan exposes his affair with his secretary.

'''Adrian Monk:''' Well, it's right here. This is it, old #303. Uh-oh! Tie on the doorknob! ''[The camera pans to show a necktie wrapped around the doorknob]'' My roommate and I did the same thing, it's a code. ''[Natalie laughs, amused]''\\

'''Adrian Monk:''' Yeah, it means, "Don't come in! I'm reorganizing my closet!" ''[Natalie looks at him incredulously]''\\

* * An episode had Monk on hold with customer service while having a conversation with his assistant. During this conversation, the "This call is monitored for quality assurance" rep interjected herself into Monk's and Natalie's conversation.

** In "Mr. Monk's 100th Case", the scene where James Novak and his camera crew tail Monk and Natalie to a horror restaurant as they check out a lead on a discovered link between the first two murder victims. When they are walking in, the restaurant in question is open for business and customers are seen at several tables. And if you're noticing, none of the patrons even notice two people surrounded by a group of men with heavy film cameras and backlights.