History Monk / TropesSToZ

* ThemeTuneCameo: In "Mr. Monk and the Leper", Randy plays the usual "Monk looks over a crime scene music" on the 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.

*** However, the whole book was {{Jossed}} by the broadcast of "Mr. Monk and Sharona", and must now be considered an Imaginary Story.

* SuicideWatch: One episode sees Monk being put on formal suicide watch after a case shatters his confidence in his abilities.
* SuicideBySea: While he doesn't die, a visibly disturbed Monk calmly walks into the ocean immediately after being hugged by a nudist in "Mr. Monk and The Naked Man".

* YourCheatingHeart: Take a drink everytime a murder is due to somebody killing their lover or wife and then enjoy that hangover.

* UsefulNotes/TheSpanishInquisition: In "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert," when Natalie is trying to calm Monk down after he accidentally walks into a port-a-potty, just prior to Kendra Frank approaching them, she replies, "Yeah, I know. I actually read that the Spanish Inquisition used to lock people in port-a-johns," to which Monk replies, "That wouldn't surprise me."

* SlippingAMickey: Invoked and [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Inverted]] in [[ExactlyAsItSaysOnTheTin "Mr. Monk Gets Drunk"]]. Monk attempts to do this to Al Nicoletto to extract a confession from him, and also orders for a non-alcoholic beverage (intended for himself) and an alcoholic beverage for Nicoletto. He ends up being the one drunk shortly thereafter. It's implied that the orders were mixed up.

** Also, Héctor Elizondo replaced Stanley Kamel (Dr. Kroger) after his death.

* YouKnowWhatYouDid: In "Mr. Monk and the Captain's Marriage", Sgt. [[ChekhovsGunman Ryan Sharkey, Jr.]], who is on the take of money launderer Michael Karpov, kills a drug dealer named Chicklet who was scheduled to testify against Karpov. However, in the fight leading up to the murder, Chicklet slams Sharkey's head against a car, knocking one of the guy's teeth out. In order to explain why his blood and tooth are in the crime scene, he provokes Stottlemeyer into punching him by claiming to be having an affair with Stottlemeyer's wife. Leland is suspicious enough to have Monk and Natalie follow her, despite Karen's protestations of innocence. And then he's surprised when Karen asks for a divorce. But it also works the other way: even if the entire drama relating to the murder case hadn't happened, Karen was still planning to divorce him, and flat-out refuses to explain why when he asks. Given that we saw virtually nothing over the series to back her up, especially not in the 20-some episodes since her previous appearance in "Mr. Monk Gets Fired", and only maybe some subtle hints throughout a few season 4 episodes, we don't know what led her to decided to divorce him...

** In "Mr. Monk, Private Eye," there is a scene where Stottlemeyer is on an online dating site on his computer. When Randy walks in, Stottlemeyer quickly covers up the screen with his coat and tries to claim that he was looking at confidential information on a Vice squad operation. Randy then mentions having seen the captain's profile.....

* SharedFamilyQuirks: Several.
** The Monk brothers. Adrian and Ambrose are both {{Insufferable Genius}}es, and both are crippled with psychological diseases (Adrian has OCD, Ambrose has agoraphobia).
** In "[[Recap/MonkS7E15MrMonkAndTheMagician Mr. Monk and the Magician]]," it's shown that all of Kevin Dorfman's relatives are big talkers. Natalie is visibly disturbed to learn this.
* SheIsAllGrownUp: Whenever someone comments on Julie's beauty. To the point that in "[[Recap/MonkS4E10MrMonkGoesToAFashionShow Mr. Monk Goes to a Fashion Show]]," Natalie wishes she had a big, fat, hairy wart on her forehead.

-->''[beat]''
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Yo.

* StockSoundEffects: In "Mr. Monk Can't See a Thing," the buzzer that goes off at Fire Company 53 shortly after Monk arrives is a noise you may recognize as the distinct call alarm sound from the television show ''Franchise/{{Emergency}}''

* SmallRoleBigImpact: [[spoiler:Wendy Stroud, the midwife who disappeared several years before the events of the series. She appears as a skeleton in "Mr. Monk and the End" but her murder prompted Ethan Rickover to kill Trudy (since she's the only one who could connect the two). Trudy's murder is what caused Monk's breakdown and the loss of his job as a detective.]]

* ShownTheirWork:
** In "Mr. Monk and the Big Game", Julie interviews Stottlemeyer and Disher for a project on DNA evidence. All of the information given is practically straight on. One example: Stottlemeyer mentions that no two siblings will have the same DNA -- it's ''close'' to, but not exactly identical, with the exception 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 because 1) DNA is not found at every crime scene, and 2) even if there is DNA, there needs to be a match in the computer records to compare it to. This last answer, plus the unsolved murder that Stottlemeyer uses for an example, is a ChekhovsGun for Monk later.
** [[http://www2.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 Frank 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 "Mr. Monk and the Big Game," many of the girls on the basketball teams were actual players, and the final goal was a shot that was accomplished in a single take.
** One reviewer who [[http://www.eviltwinltd.com/Monk/reviews/santa.htm reviewed]] "Mr. Monk and the Secret Santa" observed that the episode accurately portrayed the effects of strychnine poisoning.
** If you look at the author's notes for each of the novels, you'll notice that Lee Goldberg did a lot of extra research to make the stories and settings as realistic as possible.
*** In ''Mr. Monk in Outer Space'', to create the parody show ''Beyond Earth'' and some background on the burger chain Burgerville, Goldberg did his homework by looking into ''Franchise/StarTrek'' and [=McDonald=]'s, respectively. Mr. Snork is like Mr. Spock, while a couple of real [=McDonald=]'s controversies are referenced, just with Burgerville in their place - namely, the ''Liebeck vs. [=McDonald=]'s Restaurants'' lawsuit (the Hot Coffee case), and the discovery in 2000 that [=McDonald=]'s was secretly using beef flavoring in their French fries which angered a lot of vegetarians. Additionally, the Burgerville financial scandal is compared by the forensics accountant as being identical to the Enron scandal.
*** In ''Mr. Monk is Miserable'', he did a lot of reading to create an accurate impression of Paris. In ''Mr. Monk Goes to Germany'', its prequel, a lot of research was done on Lohr, Germany, the main setting, for information on the hotel that the psychiatric conference is held at, and also nods to "Literature/SnowWhite".
*** In ''Mr. Monk in Trouble'', Goldberg did a lot of research on old mining towns in California around the time of the 1849 Gold Rush in order to recreate the atmosphere realistically for Abigail Guthrie's journal entries about the tales of Artemis Monk. Such information included stuff about train heists, various methods of salting mines, Greeley's Cure, and a miner's lodgings.
*** In ''Mr. Monk On the Couch'', Goldberg created Natalie's subplot with a lot of background information about housing architectural styles and research about binoculars and optical lenses.
*** In ''Mr. Monk on the Road'', plenty of good research on the Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz and information on the physics of the Bixby Creek Bridge was shown. And many of the landmarks are ones you can encounter if you took a real road trip through the area.
** The USA Network blog entries written by Stottlemeyer provide a realistic insight into some of the minor types of incidents a police officer of his rank would encounter.

* SchmuckBait: After ''Mr. Monk Helps Himself'', Natalie opens a PI agency for her and Monk, with Natalie. Stottlemeyer loves to tease Monk about being Natalie's employee. He always takes the bait.