History Series / Monk

* [[Series/{{Monk Tropes A-E}} A-E]]
* [[Series/{{Monk Tropes F-J}} F-J]]
* [[Series/{{Monk Tropes K-R}} K-R]]
* [[Series/{{Monk Tropes S-Z}} S-Z]]

!!Unless I'm wrong, which, you know, I'm not, this show provides examples of the following tropes

This show was a turning point for the USANetwork. USA was previously a channel with a lineup consisting mainly of reruns, game shows, and Wrestling/{{WWE}} programs (and, of course, ''{{Duckman}}''). ''Monk'' was the first major hit show for the network, launching what has become a string of popular, critically-acclaimed series.

[[quoteright:222:~~DramaticHourLong DetectiveDrama~~]]

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* TwentyPercentMoreAwesome: "Mr. Monk and the Big Game" uses the standard "give 110%" cliche, although Monk (volunteering as a basketball coach) tries to settle with 100% as he claims that 110% is mathematically impossible. He eventually decides that it is acceptable for one player to give 110%, as long as a teammate drops to 90% to compensate.
* AbsenceOfEvidence
** In "Mr. Monk Goes to the Carnival", Stottlemeyer recalls a the case of a prostitute whose death looked like suicide until Monk pointed out that there was no water for the overly-large pills on which the victim had overdosed on.
*** In "Mr. Monk Goes to a Fashion Show", a similar circumstance happens when Monk proves that fashion model Natasia Zorelle's death could not be suicide because she was wearing lipstick, yet there were no traces of lipstick on the glass she supposedly drank from to overdose on sleeping pills.
** In "Mr. Monk's 100th Case", Monk notices that Cassandre Rank, the first victim of a serial killer was wearing lipstick, from a tube that is missing from her purse.
** In "Mr. Monk's Favorite Show," Monk suspects that Victor Timlinson, who was supposedly stalking [[spoiler:Christine Rapp]] could not have been, as if he were, there would be a StalkerShrine of some sort in his apartment.
** Any episode where it is proven that a victim knew his killer due to a lack of defensive wounds to suggest a struggle.
** In the novel ''Mr. Monk in Trouble'', Monk suspects that Gator Dunsen, an ex-con killed in a shootout by Trouble's police chief Harley Kelton, was innocent of the murder they had come to question him about: his prized 1964 Thunderbird was clean and the only way into and out of Trouble involves going through a swarm of migrating butterflies that gunk up any motorists going through that stretch.
** In the novel ''Mr. Monk and the Dirty Cop'', one victim is Bill Peschel, a senile man who apparently walked across his lush lawn in his socks, climbed onto a chair, scaled his fence and jumped into his pool and hit his head. Monk proves that he could not have done this as his socks would have had grass stains if he did, and they were bleached white. Furthermore, when Natalie stands on a lawn chair similar to one Peschel would have used, the chair sinks into the grass under her weight, yet the day before, the victim stepped on the chair and it did not sink into the wet ground.
** Likewise, Monk proves in ''Mr. Monk in Outer Space'' that Burgerville CEO Brandon Lorber died of a heart attack before he was shot, as there wasn't enough bleeding at the crime scene. There would have been more bleeding if he was still alive and his heart were functioning when he was shot.
* AccidentalAimingSkills: On at least one occasion, Monk hits something by accident. In "Mr. Monk Is At Your Service," he quickly jerks the gun off to the side to fire off a warning shot and, in another one, despite not having bothered to aim at anything, kills a bird with a rifle. In "Mr. Monk and the Three Julies," he diverts a sharpshooter's rifle and the ricochet strikes Stottlemeyer's beat up car.
* ActorAllusion
** In the episode "Mr. Monk Is Someone Else", Reed Diamond plays Agent Stone, who works for [[MeaningfulName Team Alpha]], [[Series/{{Dollhouse}} who work to identify and track high profile targets/dangerous individuals.]]
** "[[Film/GalaxyQuest Hyooo-mun]]" towards the end of "Mr. Monk and the UFO"
** "Mr. Monk and the Airplane" featured a brief cameo from Tony Shalhoub's co-star from ''Series/{{Wings}}'' (Tim Daly) as himself, with Sharona raving about how ''Wings'' was her favorite show. [[CrowningMomentOfFunny Adrian swears he never saw it.]]
** In "Mr. Monk is Someone Else," Monk has to memorize biographical details for the deceased -- including parents [[Series/{{Wings}} Joe and Helen from Massachusetts]].
*** This is a double allusion as Joe and Helen are also the first names of Shalhoub's own parents.
** The episode where Monk learns of a potential lead to Trudy's murderer has TimCurry playing a ManipulativeBastard who for various reasons is unable to move around much and is immobile, just like [[Disney/BeautyAndTheBeastTheEnchantedChristmas Forte]].
** Monk's standoff with Winston Brenner in Monk's darkened apartment in "Mr. Monk and the Blackout", with Monk wearing nightvision goggles, is similar to the climatic scene in ''TheSilenceOfTheLambs'' where Buffalo Bill (Levine) stalks Clarice Starling (JodieFoster) through a dark basement. Coincidentally, Ted Levine and another actor from that movie, Scott Glenn, would later reunite in "Mr. Monk Is On the Run," but in reversed roles, with Glenn playing the villain and Levine being a supporting protagonist.
** Natalie's parents are '''Bobby''' and '''Peggy''' Davenport. Their first names are the exact same as the first names of Traylor Howard's real parents, '''Peggy''' E. Traylor and '''Robert''' M. Howard, Jr.
** This is not the first time Natalie has been involved in a relationship with [[DirtyWork a man named Mitch]].
** In "Mr. Monk Buys a House," Hector Elizondo is first introduced as Dr. Neven Bell. Later, when seeing Monk discovering a clue on the stairway of Joseph Moody's house, "Honest" Jake Phillips calls him Series/{{Columbo}}. Elizondo had played a murderous diplomat in the ''Columbo'' episode "A Case of Immunity".
** Real-life Guest Star example: In "Mr. Monk and the Red-Headed Stranger", Monk asks if he smells anything in Willie Nelson's bus, to which Nelson replies "no, and neither do you." Fans of Willie Nelson will recognize this as a reference to Nelson being suspected of smoking pot by various law enforcement groups and having close encounters with the cops because of it.
* AfraidOfNeedles
** One of Monk's phobias. To the point that in "Mr. Monk and the End", they have literally single employee in the hospital brought in to restrain him while they inject him.
** Discussed in "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert", this conversation when Monk and Natalie are approached by Stork's girlfriend Kendra Frank:
-->'''Kendra Frank:''' Hi, I'm Kendra Frank. I'm a roadie with Trafalgar. ''[She shakes hands with Monk]''
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Now here..... ''[He hands Kendra a wipe]''
-->'''Kendra Frank:''' I was a friend of Stork's. ''[returns Monk's wipe]'' Here. ''[sighs]'' I was more than his friend. I was his sponsor at Narcotics Anonymous.
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Uh-huh, and, uh, Stork is?
-->'''Kendra Frank:''' The roadie. The roadie they just found!
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Oh! God, I'm so sorry.
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' "Stork"?
-->'''Kendra Frank:''' His real name was Greg Murray. Look, they're trying to say that he OD'd, okay? That's impossible! He's been clean for 17 months! I know, I talked to him about it every day!
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Well, Kendra, we were there. We saw a needle in his arm.
-->'''Kendra Frank:''' No, that's how I know there's something wrong. Stork was completely phobic about needles. He was the only roadie I've ever met that didn't even have ''one'' tattoo! I mean he missed a whole South American tour last year because he wouldn't get vaccinated!
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Maybe he got over it. ''[Kendra becomes visibly furious]''
-->'''Kendra Frank:''' You don't just get over a phobia like that overnight! Do you?! ''[Monk shakes his head]''
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' No. You don't.
-->'''Kendra Frank:''' So, please! ''[She holds up a sleeveless Trafalgar jacket draped over her left arm]''
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Wha--What is this?
-->'''Kendra Frank:''' Well they gave me his stuff, so, uh, it's his tour jacket. ''[Monk and Natalie search Stork's pockets, and find a backstage pass and a map of the grounds]''
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Is this a map?
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Yeah I have one of these. They--they gave it out at the door. ''[Monk notices a circle around the acupuncture tent with the number "7:30" underneath it. He looks up at Kendra]''
-->'''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 few seconds, Kendra looks up and glares at him, an angry look on her face]''
* AirHugging: Though this is less Monk being uncomfortable with men (specifically, his brother) and more his being uncomfortable with touching.
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: "Mr. Monk and the Other Detective" involves Monk accusing loser private-eye Marty Eels of cheating. [[spoiler:He is.]]
* AlliterativeName: Monk's last name means referring to him as "Mr. Monk."
** Kris Kedder in "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert", dead on
** In "Mr. Monk Is On The Air," Max Hudson sarcastically refers to his wife's sister Linda Riggs as "Loony Linda"
** In "Mr. Monk Takes a Punch," boxer Ray Regis
** In "Mr. Monk Joins a Cult," the cult leader Ralph Roberts
** Marci Maven is a double example because of her name, but also because she's played by SarahSilverman
* AmoralAttorney: Garrett Price shows up a few times. "But what about [[BlatantLies the bomb]]?"
* AnswerCut:
** In "Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion", a lapel pin is found under the body at the crime scene. Randy looks at it and recognizes it, but he can't remember where. The scene then cuts to Monk fussing with an identical lapel pin on his jacket.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Marathon Man":
-->'''Man on phone:''' Hello?\\
'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' Hi, um, this is Captain Leland Stottlemeyer with the San Francisco Police Department. Whom am I talking to?\\
''[cuts to]''\\
'''Trevor [=McDowell=]:''' Hey! It's me, Trevor [=McDowell=]. We've just opened a new furniture showroom right here in San Mateo, right off Route 101. ''[the bell dings]'' Break!
** In "Mr. Monk and the Bully", Natalie is angrily chewing Monk out for stalking Roderick Brody's wife, and is interrupted when she gets a call on her cell phone:
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Hello? ''[sighs]'' Yes, he's right here. ''[She listens]'' The Avalon? Sure, we know it. We were just there. Okay, what's his name? ''[Her mouth drops]'' Oh my God!
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' What happened?
-->''[cut to a dead body]''
-->'''Lt. Randall Disher:''' His name is Douglas J. Fendle, or rather ''was'' Douglas J. Fendle, I guess it still is, but, doesn't matter. Let's move on.
* AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent
** Although most of the episodes deal with a murder, there are two episodes that stand out to not have murder involved at all, the first being "Mr. Monk and the Missing Granny" (although it does have ''attempted'' murder) and the second being "Mr. Monk and the Kid". Coincidentially, both episodes involve a kidnapping.
** Episodes "Mr. Monk Gets Hypnotized" and "Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine" answer the long-asked question: "How would Monk solve a case if he was given a personality that impacted his detective skills?"
** Also happens for some reruns for "Mr. Monk and the Leper", where they actually have an inversion of the usual use of colors in the episode (ie, the main episode is in black and white, and the summation sequences are in color). See also ArtShift.
* AndTheAdventureContinues: How the series ends.
* ArbitrarySkepticism: Monk often holds what appear to be implausible beliefs. A seemingly open-and-shut suicide or accident case may be interpreted as a homicide by Monk, or he may accuse a person who has an airtight alibi. Stottlemeyer and Disher are consistently skeptical, despite that he turns out to be right about 99.9999999%, give or take a bit.
** Monk (who refuses to call it a UFO) in "Mr. Monk and the UFO" tells the sheriff he saw what everyone defines as a flying saucer, but when his mechanic says he saw a ghost once, he scoffs at him. Subverted: he says he saw it, but he doesn't believe in aliens, which might mean that if .
** He actually is partially wrong in one case, "Mr. Monk and the Naked Man," where he accused nudist Chance Singer of being a murderer because he had a trauma of nude persons because of him remembering his own birth, something Dr. Kroger considers remarkable.
** In "Mr. Monk Takes a Vacation," due to another error, he also accuses businessman John Fenimore of murdering his wife, at which point the man turns to said wife and says "he's going to tell me how I murdered you." Since it was quite early in the episode, he had time to pull off his normal Holmes gig.
** In "Mr. Monk Goes to Group Therapy," he is accused by Harold Krenshaw, a member of his support group, of being responsible for the murders of their support group friends and seriously entertains the possibility throughout half the episode.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Critic," when Natalie tries to convince Monk that StrawCritic John Hannigan killed his girlfriend Callie Esterhaus, Monk and the others don't believe her because they point out that he had a very airtight alibi for this. Furthermore, it appears Monk is under the impression that Natalie is only pursuing Hannigan just because he wrote a bad review about Julie's performance in the play that it turns out he was using for his alibi.
** Natalie has averted this a number of times.
*** In "Mr. Monk and the Other Detective," she supports Monk's belief that [[spoiler:Marty Eels]] is "cheating" at the case.
*** In "Mr. Monk Goes to a Fashion Show," she isn't skeptical of Monk's belief that the framed delivery boy is an innocent person. Bear in mind, she's there when Monk finds the exonerating clues.
*** In "Mr. Monk and the Astronaut", she is at first skeptical of Steve Wagner's guilt in the death of his girlfriend until Wagner gives a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to Monk.
*** In "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert," when Monk and Natalie are approached by Stork's girlfriend Kendra Frank, Natalie initially appears to be skeptical towards Kendra's claims that something is wrong, which exasperates Kendra. She still tags along with Monk to pursue the investigation.
*** In "Mr. Monk and the Rapper," Natalie doesn't believe that Murderuss could be responsible for the car bombing death of his rival Extra Large, but Monk, who had accepted Murderuss's offer while "blacking out", has a hard time believing the man is innocent.
*** In "Mr. Monk and the Bad Girlfriend," Natalie is the only person Monk is able to convince into thinking that Stottlemeyer's girlfriend Linda Fusco is a killer. Bear in mind, Monk and Natalie were sent by Stottlemeyer to investigate that murder.
*** In "Mr. Monk and the Genius," averted for everyone because of the WhodunnitToMe structure of the plot. Linda Kloster manages to bring information of her husband's eventual murder of her to Monk and Natalie before her death.
** Stottlemeyer sometimes averts this, though; in "Mr. Monk and Sharona", he says to Monk "if you're right, and you probably are, because you always are".
** The novels play with it: in ''Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse'', Stottlemeyer and Disher quickly latch on to Monk's theory when he says that Lucas Breen, a CorruptCorporateExecutive, is their suspect, but they have to also deal with the fact that the chief doesn't like them harassing Breen, a member of the police commission. In ''Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu'', Natalie, Stottlemeyer and Disher are skeptical of Monk's claim that a police informant who just got a $250,000 reward is a cop killer. In ''Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants'', Stottlemeyer doesn't believe Monk's allegations that Ian Ludlow, their tag along mystery author helping investigate, is their killer. In ''Mr. Monk and the Dirty Cop'', when Stottlemyer is framed for murder, Monk almost believes that Stottlemeyer actually is guilty, but Natalie gets him in line to help find the incriminating evidence.
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking
** In "Mr. Monk and the Psychic", Monk says, "You've gotta be a little skeptical, Sharona. Otherwise you end up believing in everything. UFOs, elves... income tax rebates....
** In "Mr. Monk Gets Cabin Fever", Natalie is upset with Monk for having to be in the Witness Protection Program just because he didn't stay in the car, for: she is stuck with him, Stottlemeyer and Agent Grooms in a remote woodland cabin; her daughter is missing a full week of school since she has to stay with Natalie's parents, Monk has a price on his head, and... he broke a man's car radio antenna.
** In ''Mr. Monk Goes to Germany'', when Monk and Natalie are preparing to leave for Germany, Natalie says this in her narration:
-->''"It was a twelve hour flight to Germany, which would be no easy feat for a man who was afraid of flying and anything foreign to him - that included, among other things, kiwi fruit, French films, polyester, the Beatles, zebras, and anything labeled 'Made in China'."''
* AreYouPonderingWhatImPondering: This conversation in "Mr. Monk Makes a Friend".
-->'''Lt. Randall Disher:''' Here's the report on the murder weapon. You know, the firing pin was worn down. That's why it wouldn't fire. ''[Stottlemeyer looks at the death revolver in his hand]''
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' Maybe we should call Monk in on this one.
-->'''Lt. Randall Disher:''' Oh, yeah, I already called him. He's not available. He's having some kind of problem with Hal.
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' ''[chuckles]'' Hal. Still can't figure that one out. ''[looks at the hammer, then realizes something when he looks at the handle]'' Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
-->''[long pause as Randy thinks and the two lock glances]''
-->'''Lt. Randall Disher:''' No.
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' When you showed this gun to Hal and said, "Here's the murder weapon," he knew that the killer used it like a club.
-->'''Lt. Randall Disher:''' That's right, he pointed to the cracked handle.
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' But we never told him how Tim Hayden died. You show anybody a handgun and say, "This is the murder weapon," they're gonna assume that the guy'd been ''shot''!
-->'''Lt. Randall Disher:''' How did he know?
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' How did ''he'' know?
* ArtShift: Several have happened over the show's run.
** There is the change in police station set and the use of Jeff Beal's instrumental theme in season 1 (see EarlyInstallmentWeirdness).
** After "It's A Jungle Out There" by Randy Newman came in, it should be noted that the opening credits montage has changed several times:
*** The montage used with the Beal instrumental was Monk's morning routine.
*** For the first 25 episodes with ''It's a Jungle Out There'' - all of the season 2 episodes and all season 3 episodes through "Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine" - the montage was a mix of clips from season 1 episodes, early season 2 episodes, and some of the original montage's clips.
*** When Traylor Howard was cast as Natalie to replace Bitty Schram, the producers realized that the montage was out of date, because it featured a pretty good number of Sharona shots. Hence, the montage was changed again, this time incorporating clips from episodes in the second half of season 2 and throughout season 3, removing all Sharona clips (however, there is one Sharona clip that did remain that came from "Mr. Monk Goes Back to School").
*** In "Mr. Monk and the Actor," the first episode of season 5, a new montage was introduced that would be used for the remainder of the series. This montage now added in clips from season 4 and season 5 (primarily from the former, as the only season 5 clips in this montage appear to be a few from "Mr. Monk and the Garbage Strike").
** The second of the two 2006 Christmas specials, "Mr. Monk and the Leper", was broadcast twice: the first time in FilmNoir black-and-white, and again in color. This was done because the producers thought the plot invoked the feelings of those old FilmNoir movies. Noticeably, the black-and-white summation in the color version was done in color in the B&W version rather than the usual B&W. Both versions were featured on the season 5 DVD release, with a bonus commentary featuring on the black-and-white version that includes Tony Shalhoub, Traylor Howard, Ted Levine, Jason Gray-Stanford, Sarah Brown, and some of the executive producers.
*** Due to the inclusion of both B&W and color "Mr. Monk and the Leper" versions, season 5's disc formatting is much different - with discs 1-3 having five episodes each, and disc 4 having two episodes, plus some webisodes and the pilot to ''{{Psych}}''.
** In "Mr. Monk's Favorite Show", Monk delivers the summation in his dream while knocked out, which is presented in the style of a sitcom TV show, complete with laugh track.
** "Mr. Monk's 100th Case" is presented in the form of an [=InFocus=] documentary hosted by James Novak, being watched by Monk and the other main characters at a viewing party in Novak's house. The investigation scenes play out no differently than they normally do in regular episodes, except the style of cinematography has changed: for instance, different types of close-ups, types of camera angles we would normally not see in a regular episode, etc. Some are completely new filming positions, such as a shot where Monk and Natalie are driving with the camera positioned in the backseat. Other examples include the fact that the interrogation of Douglas Thurman is not shown with the camera being in the interrogation room when he's being questioned, but rather, the camera shows two detectives watching a black-and-white TV monitor playing back the interrogation tape.
* AsideGlance:
** Natalie gives a few to the documentary's camera crews in "Mr. Monk's 100th Case," like for instance when Monk is about to make a big discovery.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Bully," Natalie rolls her eyes for the audience when Monk is polishing a spoon to take a photo with a ridiculously old camera.
* AsHimself
** WillieNelson is accused of murder in "Mr. Monk and the Red-Headed Stranger", which itself takes a lot of references from ''Series/{{Columbo}}'' episodes (especially the episode that featured Music/JohnnyCash).
*** Notably, this is referenced in a later episode, when Monk says he threw away a harmonica that was a gift from Nelson, simply because he had played it before.
** TimDaly is in "Mr. Monk and the Airplane". He does a double take at Monk. Tony Shalhoub had starred with Daly on ''{{Wings}}''.
** Danny Bonaduce appears in "Mr. Monk Meets the Playboy", where he is one of Dexter Larsen's golfing buddies. Larsen also uses one of Bonaduce's cars in committing the murder.
** Bob Costas features as himself in "Mr. Monk Makes the Playoffs". He tells Stottlemeyer that Monk helped him out on a favor a long time ago. Stottlemeyer says it had something to do with a demented cat salesman. Costas elaborates: the cat salesman was ''not'' demented, he sold demented ''cats'', like a psychotic calico kitten, and one cat that tried to kill him with a squeeze toy.
* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: In ''Mr. Monk Goes to Germany'', Natalie brings up one of California's biggest offenders, the Weinerschnitzel hot dog chain:
-->''"We headed out for an early dinner at the same place we'd visited the night before. This time I was a bit more daring. I ordered the Wienerschnitzel and was pleasantly surprised when they ''didn't'' deliver a hot dog to the table.''\\
''"When I was growing up in Monterey, there was a chain of fast-food places in California called Der Wienerschnitzel that served a wide array of lousy hot dogs that looked even worse than they tasted. I assumed, like every other ignorant Californian, that Wienerschnitzel was the German term for hot dog. But no, it's not. It's actually a lightly battered and fried veal cutlet that's similar to a country-fried steak, only a lot more light and tasty.''\\
''"So why would somebody call a hot dog stand the "Fried Veal?" It would be like calling a hamburger place the "Chow Mein". It made no sense."''
** To explain, this chain was originally called "Der Wienerschnitzel", but they dropped the "Der" part in 1977 because it is a masculine article ("Das" should be used to refer to neuter nouns). Even so, "Wiener schnitzel" with a space in it (as it should be written) doesn't refer to hot dogs, but rather a breaded Viennese-style veal cutlet (which is what is served in the scene where Natalie mentions this), which the restaurant ironically doesn't sell. "Wiener" is actually short for "Wiener Würstchen", loosely translating to "little Viennese sausage".
** Schnitzel is best known in the US as chicken-fried steak, which was invented when Austrian (or perhaps Bavarian) immigrants in Texas decided to make it with cube steak rather than veal cutlet (cube steak is far, far cheaper, and while beef is omnipresent in Texas, veal is less so for a variety of reasons).
* AssholeVictim / SympatheticMurderer: It doesn't happen quite as often as many other crime shows of the time, but there are still a couple:
** [[spoiler:You definitely want to feel sympathy for Wendy Mass in "Mr. Monk and the Red-Headed Stranger". She lost her parents and her sight following a car accident caused by a drunk driver -- Sonny Cross. She slowly regained her sight after many many years, but she pretended she was still blind, believing that to put her in the perfect position to find and kill Cross for destroying her life. It would've worked if she hadn't made it clear that she knew which arm Stottlemeyer had in a sling.]]
** [[spoiler:In "Mr. Monk Falls In Love," the "victim" turns out to be a brutal warlord who was hiding out incognito as a cab driver. One of his fares turned out to be a former citizen of the country he terrorized. Guess what happens next...]]
* AttentionDeficitOohShiny: Monk solves impossible cases regularly once per episode, but he often solves cases in under a minute when he's barely paying attention, since he's already distracted by another case. Often he solves four or five cases within fifteen minutes like this, or cases so obscure that nobody actually cares about them. He once determined while working on another case in a museum that the body on display was actually hit in the skull rather than dying from the cause declared by the museum, effectively solving a 30,000 year-old case. Stottlemeyer actually exploits this, calling out the facts of various cases while he's distracted.\\\
The closer a case comes to Monk's own life, the more trouble he has solving it. For example, in "Mr. Monk and the Garbage Strike", the problem is his pet peeve, cleanliness, that literally drives him insane trying to solve, and takes three tries and actually going into a computer cleanroom before he closes it. Likewise, he has problems to a lesser degree in "Mr. Monk Goes to a Fashion Show," that involve the son of "Inspector Number 8" of his shirts. Here, however, his problems vanish once he gets enough evidence to make a solid start on the case. The ultimate example of course being the case of his wife, Trudy, and her car bombing.
* AuthorAppeal: Majority of the cases involve murdered wives, and some murdered husbands as well.
* BachelorAuction: In "Mr. Monk and His Biggest Fan," Monk, Stottlemeyer and Disher participate in one. Randy gets a woman whose nine year old son apparently wants to be a cop, but turns out to have reconsidered later on (the standard "hates cops" excuse). Stottlemeyer ends up with his girlfriend Linda Fusco, which turns out to be opportune for both of them because their previous dates had always been canceled by Stottlemeyer's work getting in the way. Monk, not liking this event, gives money to Natalie so that she can "buy" him and free him from going on a date. But this fails when Marci Maven walks in and outbids Natalie by a large margin.
* BadassMustache: Stottlemeyer wears one with such pride that in "Mr. Monk and the Miracle", Monk has trouble recognizing him when he shaves it off and becomes a monk (the only way Monk can identify him is to use the feather on a quill). When Leland is out of action, Randy grows one in response (Monk and Natalie are dumbstruck when they first notice it). After Leland returns to the force, he gives Randy a safety razor as an implied way of ordering him to shave it off.
* BadBadActing
** In "Mr. Monk Goes to the Theater", after Hal Duncan is stabbed and killed on stage, Monk ends up taking the dead man's place... it goes as well as you'd expect. Also averted in that he did manage to act out the events quite well to recreate the crime scene... when the stage was empty. In fact, literally the only reason he was not acting well is due to stage fright. But this will probably remind ou very well of what it was like the first time you ever went out on stage if you ever were a stage actor.
** Thare's also "Mr. Monk Gets Married," where Monk and Sharona act like a couple with bad marriage problems to get into a marriage therapy clinic (Monk posing as a cowardly mop salesman and Sharona being his alcoholic wife), and do such a terrible job of it that the couple's therapist is relieved to hear they aren't married.
* BadLiar: Monk, due to his OCD, is one:
** In "Mr. Monk Meets the Playboy," when Sharona asks him if he actually saw the photos of her posing nude that Dexter Larsen had found; he hesitates for a long time, tentatively says "No," then blurts out "Yes" as he's walking away.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Red Herring," when Monk first meets Natalie, he blurts out that she's taking birth control pills in front of her daughter Julie, and upon realizing the implications tries to claim he was mistaken and they were really "adult tic-tacs". Natalie later tries to have Monk pose as an expert on fish during an argument with one of Julie's teachers, which doesn't go any better.
** However, Monk is not exactly a totally bad liar. In "Mr. Monk Is At Your Service," he goes to Paul Buchanan's garage to investigate, but a mechanic spots him and mistakes him for the job applicant scheduled to come by. Instead of creating a lie that would raise suspicion, Monk plays along and accepts the idea he is an "applicant". When the interview actually comes up, Monk doesn't necessarily so much make things up as create partial truths:
-->'''Paul Buchanan:''' Tell me, Melville. Who have you worked for? Anybody I know?
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Mmm…I don’t think so. Leland Stottlemeyer of the San Francisco.... Stottlemeyers. Randy Disher. Dr. Charles Kroger....
-->'''Paul Buchanan:''' No, I don’t know them.
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' And Natalie Teeger.
** But when Monk is showing off his new house-cleaning method to the staff:
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' I've divided the house into four zones.
-->'''Susie the Maid:''' Mr. Stilson normally has us start in the kitchen.
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' ''[retracts his pointer]'' Mr. Stilson is no longer with us. So from now on we're going to be cleaning the house ''my'' way: the Monk way.
-->'''Susie the Maid:''' Who's Monk?
-->''[long pause]''
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' You see... I grew up in a monastery. And the monks, were very demanding. We were cleaning constantly, 18 hours a day. Mostly dusting. It was very dusty. Crypts, catacombs, it was holy dust. But still... you know... ''dust''. And that is the Monk way.
-->'''Paul Buchanan:''' Well you heard the man. We'll be doing it the Monk way.
* BankToaster: In "Mr. Monk Goes to the Bank," a bank manager gives Monk one of these toasters as a reward for solving a bank robbery, which is greatly welcomed by Monk after the show had begun with Adrian at breakfast contending with burnt toast and a subplot develops necessitating he and Natalie getting a new one.
* BatmanGambit: In "Mr. Monk and the Genius", Patrick Kloster poisons his wife with a "poison pawn" - a trap that is impossible for the victim to resist. In this case, this involves him discovering her secret stash of liquor, poisoning that, then counting on her to hide the bottle herself so he wouldn't have to.
** Also, a few of the sting operations that involve baiting the perpetrator into coming back to the scene to incriminate themselves: in "Mr. Monk and the Panic Room", Monk, Stotlemeyer and Disher capture Kurt Wolff by baiting him into thinking that he needed to come back to recover a tape recorder that recorded his murder. When Wolff falls for the trap, Monk reveals that the tape was empty. In "Mr. Monk Goes Back to School," Monk gets Derek Philby to incriminate himself this way by convincing him that he may have left a piece of evidence incriminating him in Beth Landow's murder at the crime scene.
* BeAsUnhelpfulAsPossible: The Living Statue performer in "Mr. Monk Goes to the Bank" demonstrates that apparently, by dressing up in tin and freezing in poses, you are automatically given permission to disregard police officers requesting important information from you.
** Also, the entire crowd in "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert" once Monk discovers what the important evidence against Kris Kedder is - a blue beachball. Monk attempts to get the crowd to cooperate by breaking up a number on stage and using the loudspeaker, but the crowd boos him and the band on-stage cuts him off. Meanwhile, Natalie, Stottlemeyer, Disher, and Jared are chasing the ball through the crowd. At least twice, someone appears to start to hand the beachball to them, then immediately throws it away. Natalie gives a YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe look when this happens to her.
** [[http://www.usanetwork.com/series/monk/webexclusives/blogs/stottlemeyer14.html This Stottlemeyer blog entry]] has the following:
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' The kid was obnoxious and uncooperative, answering all our questions with insults and curses. He was underage and obviously under the influence of alcohol. When we ran his high school ID we discovered, not exactly to our surprise, that the punk had been listed on a number of prior police reports, for everything from stealing food from the cafeteria to threatening harm to teachers who accused him of cheating on exams. Since this little angel was a juvenile, we were obligated to contact Juvenile Hall and present our case to them for booking. This case did not qualify, which meant that only thing left to do was contact the parents and release the kid into their custody.
* BecomingTheMask
** In "Mr. Monk Is Someone Else", Monk adopts the persona of a dead hit man in order to save the life of his target. He ends up playing his role a little bit too well.
** Also, in "Mr. Monk and the Actor", method actor David Ruskin (played by Stanley Tucci; coincidentally one of three candidates for Monk alongside Tony Shalhoub and Alfred Molina) is hired to portray Monk in a movie. In the course of developing the Monk "character" he acquires many of Monk's various psychoses, eventually suffering a breakdown of his own and halting production of the movie. Though this time it wasn't Monk's fault, as earlier in the episode, Natalie warns Monk that said actor already had a history of BecomingTheMask multiple times in the past. Case in point: she says he had to spend three months in a rehabilitation clinic despite not drinking because he got so worked up to play the role of an alcoholic character.
** There was also another time ("Mr. Monk Is at Your Service") where Monk went undercover as the head butler, and seems to enjoy it more than solving crimes. At least he pretended not to recognize Natalie when she showed up.
* BewareTheNiceOnes
** In episodes related to Trudy's death, Monk can take on some KnightTemplar traits.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Man Who Shot Santa", with thief Michael Kenworthy dressing as Santa and setting up a distraction while his crew attempts to heist a diamond, Monk is in an emotionally bad state and ends up having to shoot Kenworthy in self-defense with his own revolver when the perp tries to kill him.
** Monk shows throughout the series that he is quite capable of defending himself when the situation demands, to the point of completely ignoring his phobias -- including shooting and severely wounding a murderer in self-defense while temporarily blind, overpowering a deranged man with a gun, or fending off a perp with dirty bags when being ill.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Badge" Monk fights off Mikhail Almonov on an unstable window-washing platform and ''stabs the man in the leg with said badge''.
** "Mr. Monk and the Blackout" -- "Be careful, your left shoelace is untied." "How does he know that?!"
* BerserkButton
** For Adrian, it could be anything, really, but his true BerserkButton is Trudy's death. Anything that threatens his memory of her, or implies anything about what happened, causes Adrian to snap, leading to BewareTheNiceOnes, as above.
*** That particular BerserkButton causes Monk to protest the demolition of the parking garage where Trudy was murdered in the Season Seven finale, "Mr. Monk Fights City Hall"; the structure was being demolished to make way for a children's playground, and Monk was worried that the demolition could destroy any remaining potential evidence. [[spoiler:However, the councilwoman who helps bring the matter before the city council is killed, leaving Monk to solve her murder and reveal that her vote would keep the parking garage standing; unfortunately, Monk insults the councilwoman's replacement during TheSummation, which causes the replacement to change the deciding vote out of spite. A sign shown after Monk leaves the structure for the last time shows that the playground replacing the parking garage will be named in Trudy's honor.]]
*** The memorable moment in "Mr. Monk Is on the Air" when the DJ made cruel jokes about Trudy's death (to the point his heckling yes men were disturbed by it). The yes men even tried to stop their boss before Monk simply jumped over the table and beat him up.
*** In the series finale, when Monk confronts Trudy's killer, [[spoiler:Ethan Rickover]], he claims that Trudy was unstable and crazy, prompting Monk to ''beat the crap out of him''. Mind you, at this point, Monk is [[spoiler:poisoned and ''dying'']]. The cool bit was that [[spoiler:the Judge wanted to make him look crazy. When he tries to get Monk killed by the cops using the same method at the end of the episode, Monk ''doesn't'' fall for it.]]
*** Other examples: in "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert," Monk can tolerate being hit by [[ChekhovsGun the same blue beachball]] at least twice. But the third time, he loses it.
** Stottlemeyer, while he was still married to Karen, also has a severe berserk button when it comes to Karen either being hurt or someone managing to [[YourCheatingHeart see his wife]]. [[spoiler:The former is in "Mr. Monk and the Captain's Wife", where he gets despondent after a truck driver is shot and killed by a roadside sniper, causing the driver's truck to swerve right into the path of Karen's van, putting her in the hospital. He even ends up coming very close to losing his badge just to do so]].
*** The second time is in "Mr. Monk and the Captain's Marriage", when Sgt. Ryan Sharkey makes comments that he's been seeing Karen, causing Stottlemeyer to punch him. However, it turns out that in that case, Sharkey was the killer, and in the fight he'd had with his victim, his head had been slammed against a car hood, knocking out one of his teeth; he baited Stottlemeyer into punching him so that he could have a valid explanation for why his blood was on the crime scene (Monk figures it out because he's chewing an apple on the side Stottlemeyer punched him on, not the side where no tooth was lost). It ends badly for Leland's marriage.
** Randy has a berserk button relating to people not taking him seriously especially when he actually did witness a murder, resulting in him quitting his job in "Mr. Monk Goes to the Dentist". Similarly, he doesn't like it when people diss his music, or being called "Cracker", like in "Mr. Monk and the Rapper," where he is very offended when Murderuss calls him "white" and criticizes his ability to mimic the lyrics to Murderuss's suggestive song "Car Bomb".
** Natalie gets into a furious rage whenever Monk is late with her paycheck or is unable to pay her. Lampshaded in "Mr. Monk and the Genius," where Monk and Natalie are fighting about back pay, are interrupted by Linda Kloster, who says she heard screaming, and Natalie says, "Oh, no, that's just me. I scream every payday."
*** Natalie gets worked up whenever Monk gets treated unfairly. She also gets pissed off with Stottlemeyer in "Mr. Monk Is On The Run Part 2" when she realizes that he has been covering up the fact that he helped fake Monk's death.
*** Bringing up Natalie's late husband Mitch is implied to be a berserk button for her. She says her emotions when Mitch is brought up are usually very raw. In ''Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii'', this occurs when Natalie gets to meet the TV medium Dylan Swift. What unsettles her is the fact [[INeverSaidItWasPoison that he knows information he shouldn't even know about]], which is even further implied by this conversation when Swift finds Monk and Natalie in Helen Gruber's bungalow. As he's speaking, Natalie even says in narration that she is tempted to slap him right there. Even Monk catches on to this vulnerability, to such an extent that his response is to grab Swift firmly by the arm, lead him to the door, and send him on his way. Though this could be that Monk saw Swift was about to press Natalie's button and wanted to defuse the situation before she did something like actually hurt Swift physically.
*** In ''Mr. Monk Goes to Germany'', Monk and Natalie discover Dr. Kroger with a six-fingered man, Dr. Martin Rahner. Thinking she's been betrayed, Natalie responds by punching Dr. Kroger in the face.
** Perp example: In "Mr. Monk Goes to a Fashion Show," [[Creator/MalcolmMcDowell Julian Hodge]] launches into a tirade [[RageBreakingPoint when the buttons on his designs are worn even the slightest bit crooked during his fashion shows]]. Almost borders on a HairTriggerTemper. Monk eventually discovers that one time, one of Hodge's models showed up to a fashion show drunk and almost "ruined" it in Hodge's words, and he got so infuriated he beat her and killed her in a fight. A fellow CSI tech then framed a delivery boy who barely spoke English for the murder.
* BigApplesauce: "Mr. Monk Takes Manhattan" happens, well, you probably know where. ''Mr. Monk on Patrol'' takes place within Summit and New York City.
* BilingualBonus: Several.
** In "Mr. Monk Visits a Farm," all of the Spanish that Monk speaks when posing as a farmhand at Jimmy Belmont's farm. For instance, he introduces himself by saying, "Ola, Señor. Intiendo que usted busca ayuda," which means "Hello, sir. I see that you are looking for help."
*** In that same sequence, some of the conversation that Monk has with the non-English speaking farmhand Javier while in the chicken coop. Even if you don't speak Spanish, it's clear that Monk is asking Javier, "Did you ever see Jimmy Belmont fighting or arguing with Harvey Disher?"
** The Stottlemeyer and Disher equivalents in ''Mr. Monk Goes to Germany'' are named Hauptkriminalkommisar Stoffmacher and Kommissar Geshir. Stoffmacher's name is a linguative pun: the proper English translation of ''Hauptkriminalkommisar'' is ''Main forensics commissioner''. ''Stoffmacher'' translates as German for ''material maker'' or ''fabric maker'', but it is also a thinly veiled version of Stottlemeyer's name. And with regards to Kommissar Geshir: ''Geshir'' roughly translates as being plural for ''plates'' or ''dishes'', effectively making it a German translation of Randy's last name.
** Lieutenant ''Plato'' (plate) in "Mr. Monk Goes to Mexico"
** In "Mr. Monk and the Airplane," the French sentences that Bernard speaks to the Chabrols on the plane
* BittersweetEnding: Averted, at least when it came to viewer expectations of what was going to happen in the GrandFinale.
* BlatantLies:
** In "Mr. Monk and the Panic Room," when Stottlemeyer and Disher are searching Sharona's house looking for Ian Blackburn's monkey Darwin, whom she stole from an animal shelter the night before. Stottlemeyer finds what looks like vomit and crooked photos on one wall:
-->''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' Hey! What happened here?
-->'''Sharona Fleming:''' Benjy threw up.
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' ''[incredulously]'' On the wall?
-->'''Sharona Fleming:''' It was pretty awful.
** In "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert," Monk accidentally walks into a port-a-potty. When he walks out:
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Oh! Oh! ''[rushes over, exasperated]'' Mr. Monk! What are you doing?!
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' I was just calling for a taxi; they're gonna pick me up out front in about ten minutes!
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' But, Mr. Monk, that ''wasn't'' a phone booth!
* BlackWidow: In the episode "Mr. Monk Goes to a Wedding", [[spoiler:Natalie's brother was about to marry one, who earlier kills a cameraman who is blackmailing her, and later tries killing Randy with a car.]]
* BlackAndWhiteInsanity: Monk will try prosecuting people for letting their dogs relieve themselves in the street, having an uneven number of buttons undone on their shirts/sweaters or wearing mismatched socks, as InsaneTrollLogic and SuperOCD make him believe that such "crimes against the universe" will "invariably" lead to ArsonMurderAndJaywalking. And don't get started on his nudity problem. He can't even look at nude sculptures (in fact, in "Mr. Monk Takes the Stand", when Monk must describe one in Evan Gildea's studio, he describes it by squealing through gritted teeth. According to the stenographer: "Witness: The defendant removed a sheet revealing a naked eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...." ''[pitch falters]'').
* BlessedWithSuck / CursedWithAwesome: "It's a gift... and a curse."
* BlindWithoutEm: Monk uses the exact phrase when describing the victim in "Mr Monk Goes Back to School"
* BloodOnTheseHands: Said by Salvatore Lucarelli in "Mr. Monk Meets the Godfather".
* BluffingTheMurderer: Inverted in "Mr. Monk Meets the Godfather", where Monk actually ''does'' intend to have the FBI catch Phil Bedard's confession on tape, but it backfires because they get static. That's becase Monk washes the tie containing the bug in the washing machine due to spilling it with food earlier, and since the bug wasn't waterproof... which is why you never want to bring electronic devices anywhere near water at all unless you are certain they are waterproof.
* BodyInABreadbox: Corpses have turned up in a trash compactor and an arcade game, and the latter was then re-located to a crate. The image on that page is from "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert" with a body stuffed into a port-a-potty, discovered when a repairman forces open the door with a crowbar, just as Monk and Natalie are walking by.
* BondOneLiner: There are a couple throughout.
** From ''Mr. Monk and the Earthquake'':
*** ''(Christine Rutherford bludgeons her husband after an earthquake hits. She drags his body to another room and topples a display case on top of him)'': "Well Henry, that ''was'' the Big One."
** In "Mr. Monk Is At Your Service", when Paul Buchanan's first butler promises not to blackmail him again over the deaths of Paul's parents:
-->'''Paul Buchanan:''' Well, you got that right. ''[shoots him dead with a pistol, then walks over to the fireplace with the letters]'' Thank you, Stilson. That'll be all. ''[burns the blackmail letters]''
* BoringButPractical: It is implied that while Randy lacks Monk's ability to solve impossible cases, he is very efficient when it comes to managing ordinary homicides. Stottlemeyer mentions this in ''Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu'', a tie-in novel to the series. His gift is getting people to open up to him.
* BottleEpisode: The season 1 finale "Mr. Monk and the Airplane". It's so well-written most people don't even notice. "Mr. Monk Is Underwater" is an undersea version.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: InUniverse, in "Mr. Monk's 100th Case," during James Novak's documentary, for the most part, in the investigation scenes, everyone acts like they are not being filmed and are just going about their business. However, there are a few moments in these scenes where characters break the fourth wall:
** At Cassandre Rank's murder, Randy is describing the apparent sequence of events as to how the murder unfolded to Stottlemeyer, and he shows the bagged murder weapon prominently in front of the camera. Stottlemeyer asks Randy in a deadpan voice, "And when you're done with that, can I see that, please?"
** At Barbara [=McFarland=]'s murder, Randy has a conversation with Novak, who is operating the camera, about how he always wants to name their serial killers.
** When Monk and Natalie are trailed by a camera crew to a lead that turns out to be a RedHerring, one shot is from the middle of the backseat facing forward. Natalie is talking about the lead's details, but as Monk already knows these details, you can see she is actually speaking to the film crew riding in back.
** The scene where Monk makes the tie between the three murder victims also qualifies: we see Monk about to make the link, so Natalie snaps her fingers and tells the cameraman to zoom in on the board of the victims' headshots to show the watermark.
** When Stottlemeyer and Disher are on their way to the SWAT team raid at Douglas Thurman's studio, Randy explains his Randy Disher Project CD to the camera guy.
* BrickJoke
** In Part 2 of the Final Episode: [[spoiler:near the very end of the episode, just before he and Natalie leave his house to go to the crime scene, Monk checks his stove to make sure its off. Rewind 8 seasons ago to the first episode, and Monk is in the middle of a crime scene and suddenly remembers that he might not have turned the stove off.]]
** In "Mr Monk and the Game Show", Monk talks to Trudy's mother about how she dealt with her grief, she says, "I was ''[[TheMourningAfter buried alive]]''." Three episodes later, in "Mr Monk vs. the Cobra," he is BuriedAlive -- literally.
** In "Mr. Monk Gets Drunk", a guy who calls himself Larry Zweibel sits at a table, and the guests say that he reeks of aqua velva, such that it smells like he's been swimming in it. Later in the episode, Natalie remarks about how the [[AscendedFridgeHorror alcohol tastes funny]]. The reason? The man's dead body [[ImAHumanitarian was hidden in the wine cask]]! ([[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's Aftershave]], anybody?)
** In ''Mr. Monk's Favorite Show'', we see that Natalie rips out Page 73 from the tell-all autobiography that Monk bought. He points out to the bookstore clerk he purchases his copy from that he has a sign saying "No questions asked". Later, at the end, when Monk returns the book, he returns it with a taped-in page 73 from ''Literature/OliverTwist''!
** More like TemptingFate, but in ''Mr. Monk and His Biggest Fan'', Linda Fusco asks Stottlemeyer, "What does a girl have to do to get your attention, captain? Kill someone?" Three episodes later, Monk and Natalie suspect Linda of murdering her partner.
** In "Mr. Monk Goes to the Dentist," Stottlemeyer is annoyed that Randy is putting off his dentist appointment for a very painful toothache until the weekend and saving his sick days for days when he isn't feeling sick. A few episodes later, in "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert," Stottlemeyer catches Randy in the act of playing sick to go to the San Francisco Band Jam.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Garbage Strike," we see Monk mail all his garbage away to someone at the beginning of the episode in desperation. Later, in session with Dr. Kroger, Dr. Kroger asks Monk if he's been sending his trash to him. Monk denies it until Dr. Kroger points out that the garbage is sorted according to color and food groups, and has Monk's handwriting on the label.
* BrokenPedestal: When Christine Rapp writes a tell-all book about Monk's favorite TV show in "Mr. Monk's Favorite Show" -- the ''only thing that made him happy as a child'' -- there isn't enough BrainBleach in the world to help him. Given the rest of the book is that bad, it begs the question: what is on [[spoiler:page 73?]]
* BuffySpeak: When Monk tells people to pause or fast-forward something on a TV in later episodes, he says "picture freeze" or "picture go fast". Ironically, he didn't do this in earlier episodes.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Monk, and to a lesser degree Randy.
* BusmansHoliday: Naturally, like with a lot of other mystery shows, Monk cannot seem to go on vacation anywhere without a few dead bodies involved.
** In "Mr. Monk Takes a Vacation," Sharona takes Monk on a vacation against his will, where he is incredibly uncomfortable and simply sits on the beach fully clothed. When a murder mystery pops up he couldn't be happier, and drags Sharona into helping him solve it. Upon their return Sharona asks that they never go on vacation again, then says "I can't believe I just said that!"
** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in "Mr. Monk Gets Cabin Fever":
--->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Everywhere you go, every time you turn around, somebody is killing somebody else!\\
'''Captain Stottlemeyer:''' That's true.\\
'''Adrian Monk:''' What?\\
'''Captain Stottlemeyer:''' [[ContinuityNod There was the time you went on vacation]] "(Mr. Monk Takes A Vacation") and then on the airplane. ("Mr. Monk and the Airplane")\\
'''Adrian Monk:''' These things happen!\\
'''Captain Stottlemeyer:''' [[ContinuityNod And that stage play...]] ("Mr. Monk Goes to the Theater")\\
'''Adrian Monk:''' It happens!\\
'''Natalie Teeger:''' To you!
** Natalie even concludes at the end of the episode that fate makes Monk go to these places JUST SO he will be there to solve the murders...
** In "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert", it's either bad luck or pure coincidence that Monk and Natalie are right by the port-a-potty when Stork Murray's body falls out of it. Natalie is somewhat startled, but her attitude after the break shows that she's perfectly fine helping Monk investigate, which suggests that either she was convinced by Kendra Frank, the victim's girlfriend, that something was wrong, or it's because they came in Stottlemeyer's car and Stottlemeyer is still looking for his son.
** Played straight in "Mr. Monk Makes the Playoffs" when Monk and Stottlemeyer go to a playoff game with tickets for the press box with Bob Costas (AsHimself), but Monk discovers an attempted murder involving a rigged grill and murdered quarterback David Gitelson being HiddenInPlainSight by being dressed as a passed out fan.
** The ExpandedUniverse novels just love this trope:
*** In ''Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii'', Monk [[BecomingTheMask takes Dioxynl]] to follow Natalie to Hawaii. After the drug wears off and he's back to being himself, he ruins Natalie's friend's wedding by exposing her groom-to-be as a bigamist, stumbles upon a homicide and drags Natalie along, while trying to find evidence to arrest a television medium for fraud, and solving a rash of mysterious burglaries and car accidents on the way.
*** In ''Mr. Monk Is Miserable'', Natalie uses emotional blackmail to get Monk to come along with her to Paris. There is a murder on the plane. Then, he finds a skull in the catacombs that was not dumped there a few hundred years ago, but less than twelve months ago. Later, Monk and Natalie are at a blind restaurant (where you eat in pitch-black darkness). Another woman sits down, and is about to talk to them when a shadowy assailant stabs and kills her with a steak knife, then escapes in a matter of a few seconds.
*** In ''Mr. Monk on Patrol'', it's averted since Monk and Natalie are called to Summit, New Jersey to help Randy investigate a series of break-ins.
* TheBusCameBack: Sharona returns for season 8's "Mr. Monk and Sharona".
* TheButlerDidIt: Inverted! The butler gets killed in "Mr. Monk Is at Your Service".
* ButtMonkey: Randy Disher. The one time he didn't accept [[CassandraTruth his status]], it was a TearJerker. Then back to status quo.
* CaliforniaDoubling (for itself): Los Angeles doubles for San Francisco (the orange bus with "Culver" written in giant cursive letters doesn't help in "Mr. Monk Joins a Cult"). Season 1 is guilty of VancouverDoubling and TorontoDoubling, because the pilot was filmed in Vancouver, while the rest of the season was filmed in Toronto). Examples of CaliforniaDoubling proper:
** The Metrolink train that appeared in the background in "Mr. Monk and the Buried Treasure" really doesn't help either, proving that the characters are actually in Soledad Canyon. San Francisco has BART and Caltrain; Metrolink runs throughout San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange, Ventura, and LA counties.
** "Mr. Monk Is Up All Night" rather explicitly shows [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Union_Station Union Station]], a landmark any Los Angeles native would recognize. However, they might have thought it was cooler. Would've worked if it weren't for the fact that a body turns up on the LACMTA Red Line station platform. Any railfan enthusiast or actual LA commuter will confirm this.
*** This happened again in the finale, with LA Union Station being used for the Fourth/Townsend [=CalTrain=] station. That station is actually much different, and has no connections to the BART system (the nearest BART station is a couple blocks' walk north, at Market Street, or a ride on the Muni Metro to the stop at Embarcadero).
** A body is dumped near the San Bruno train station in "Mr. Monk and the Other Detective", supposedly on a hillside in the woods. You couldn't dump a body within 50 yards of the real train station without being noticed.
** In "Mr. Monk Bumps His Head," which is supposed to be in Wyoming, some of the backdrops look suspiciously like California hills and don't appear as dusty as Wyoming or Colorado are (Wyoming is not very humid).
** A few episodes averted this:
*** "Mr. Monk and the Game Show" averted the using-Los-Angeles-as-stand-in-for-San-Francisco type because Monk and Kevin are taken to Los Angeles by Dwight Ellison for the investigation.
*** "Mr. Monk Takes Manhattan", the BigAppleSauce episode, was filmed on-location in New York City. A few shots appeared to have been filmed in Los Angeles, though.
*** Some season 4 filming happened on-location in SanFrancisco:
**** In "Mr. Monk and the Big Reward," the scenes of the [=MacMillan=] Museum were done on location (which, based on the view of the Bay appears to be somewhere in Pacific Heights). The climatic scene where Monk and Natalie are chased by three bounty hunters has them running up and down San Francisco's hills (the appearance of a cable car going up Jackson Street suggests that they are in North Beach).
**** Although the courthouse sequences in "Mr. Monk Gets Jury Duty" were filmed in Los Angeles, the opening was revised in the script by the producers after they realized they were going to be doing on-location shooting. Instead of whatever was originally planned, the episode opens with Stottlemeyer and Disher chasing Miguel Escobar along Jackson Street through Chinatown.
** "Mr. Monk and the Astronaut" subverts this by setting the climatic scene at the fictitious Paxton Air Force Base, which is obviously a thinly disguised Edwards Air Force Base. They did a lot of ShownTheirWork with regards to how personnel seen on base are behaving.
* CallBack: Characters will sometimes use the solution to previous cases to guess what might be happening in the current case (though it never works).
** In "Mr. Monk and the Garbage Strike," a deranged Monk theorizes the victim was secretly killed (by Music/AliceCooper) for his antique chair, similar to how a victim in a previous episode was kidnapped while the kidnappers were really after the antique chair she was sitting on.
** In "Mr. Monk on Wheels," once it is revealed that John Kuramoto, the thief who shot Monk in the leg was paid $3,000 to steal a bike (which in part was the reason Monk and Natalie were at said thief's house), Monk wonders if there could have been anything valuable hidden inside the frame, echoing "Mr. Monk and the Employee of the Month," in which Joe Christie is cleared of suspected drug theft after Monk determined that someone stole drugs from an evidence room by hiding them in a bike frame.
** One case where one should have been brought up would be the novel ''Mr. Monk on Patrol''. The way the killer in that story sets up his alibi - he makes it seem like he is in his Manhattan office when his wife is killed in a staged burglary; he's actually in a recreation of it that he built in his backyard in Summit - is identical to how Stottlemeyer's girlfriend set up her alibi in "Mr. Monk and the Bad Girlfriend" (recreating her bedroom in the back of a rental truck). In both cases, what tells Monk that the video or webcam footage being used as the alibi is actually happening somewhere else is similar: in ''On Patrol'', it's because a police siren heard in the background is actually a Summit Police siren and not an NYPD siren, and in ''Bad Girlfriend'' it is because a pen Linda sets down rolls a little bit (indicating that she parked her truck on a hill).
* CallingCard: Played rather subtly in "Mr. Monk and the 12th Man": the murderer of the week often leaves behind a dollar bill containing a specific serial number for the bill in question at places he needs to get into before killing one of the twelve people. First, he pays with a $10 bill when killing a tollbooth operator, then to get into a movie theater to kill another victim. It also makes him a literal SerialKiller, as Monk and Stottlemeyer point out.
** In "Mr. Monk's 100th Case," the serial killer is tracked by the fact that he takes a tube of lipstick off of the young actresses he kills. An inversion though: he takes the lipstick tubes from the crime scenes and smears it over blow-ups of the victims' photos at his photo studio, making it more like a "checklist".
* CannotSpitItOut: Monk has obsessive-compulsive disorder, but it's almost never mentioned, even when it would help. There are also cases where the trope could be applied elsewhere:
** In "Mr. Monk and the Bad Girlfriend," when Monk and Natalie prepare to break to Stottlemeyer that they suspect his girlfriend Linda Fusco is a murderer. Notice that Monk and Natalie both hesitate for a few seconds before Monk says Linda's name. But this could easily be interpreted as being that Monk is debating with himself how to break the news in a way that will allow him to nail Linda, but at the same time not risk his friendship with Stottlemeyer.
* CannotTellAJoke: Monk. Supposedly he tells two jokes during the entire series, both times shocking everyone around him; this doesn't stop him from [[DeadpanSnarker snarking]], especially early in the series. He can't tell a joke, but at least he can be [[InsistentTerminology sardonic]].
** One was in "Mr. Monk and the UFO", unless of course, he really ''is'' an alien that will destroy the planet if Natalie doesn't stop trying to see his belly button.
** In "Mr. Monk Goes to the Ballgame", when Monk and Sharona walk into the Hammonds' house, Monk quips that he and Trudy considered buying the same house, which is not likely on a San Francisco cop's salary.
** There is also his excruciatingly painful attempt at stand-up comedy in "Mr. Monk Goes to a Wedding" and in "Mr. Monk Takes a Vacation"
* CareerEndingInjury: Monk's mental breakdown that ended his career as a police officer.
* CastingGag: There are several.
** In "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert," Kris Kedder stole the copyright credit to roadie Stork Murray's song, and kills Stork when the guy threatens to sue him. Kedder's actor Brad Hunt is a minor songwriter, according to the IMDB.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Employee of the Month," Monk's ex-partner Joe Christie is played by Enrico Colantoni, who starred with Tony Shalhoub in ''Film/GalaxyQuest''.
** In "Mr. Monk Joins a Cult," Monk has OCD. The cult leader, Ralph Roberts, is played by Howie Mandel, a big time mysophobe.
** "Mr. Monk, Private Eye" stars Fred Weller as the episode's murderer, Jay Bennett. Weller's cousin Peter not only directed that episode, but also was the Stottlemeyer actor in "Mr. Monk and the Actor".
** Episodes where Tony Shalhoub's wife Brooke Adams or his brother Michael appear. See RealLifeRelative
** In "Mr. Monk and the Dog," when Monk is taking care of Amanda Castle's dog Shelby, Natalie hands him a catch-in-action pooper scooper to help him clean up after her. But what's better? It's a Sha-Poopie! Tony's brother Dan pitched it on ''American Inventor'' in 2006 but it got rejected.
* [[TheDogWasTheMastermind The Cat Was the Mastermind]]: In "Mr. Monk Makes the Playoffs", it is revealed that Monk met BobCostas after helping him out with a matter of a cat salesman who sold demented cats. In particular, Monk proved that Costas's cat planned to kill him with a squeeze toy.
* CatchPhrase: Many of these should be [[MemeticMutation memes]].
** "You'll thank me later."
** "Unless I'm wrong, which, you know, I'm not..."
** "Here's what happened..."
** "Here's the thing..."
** "I don't know how he did it, but he did it."
** "He's the guy."
** "It's a gift...and a curse."
** "Wipe."
* ChannelHop: When the show premired in 2002, episodes were broadcast first on ABC and then rerun later that week on USA. Within a few weeks ABC lost interest in the show, leaving it airing on USA only.
* CharacterAgedWithTheActor: Julie Teeger is supposed to be about the same age as her actress Emmy Clarke, give or take a few years. She ages accordingly, which is why in her first episodes, she looks like an 11 year old, and in her season 7 and season 8 episodes, she looks like an 18 year old woman. It may be slight DawsonCasting, though: Emmy Clarke was born in 1992, but when "Mr. Monk and the Red Herring" aired in 2005, Julie was 11.
* TheCharacterDiedWithHim: When Stanley Kamel died of a sudden heart attack in April 2008 during the production hiatus between seasons 6 and 7, the same thing had to be done to Dr. Kroger to avoid a WhatHappenedToTheMouse scenario. As a result, "Mr. Monk Buys a House" has Monk finding a new therapist, and is dedicated to Stanley Kamel. HectorElizondo was brought in as Dr. Neven Bell to replace.
** CharacterOutlivesActor: This happens in the novels because Dr. Kroger appears in ''Mr. Monk Goes to Germany'' and ''Mr. Monk is Miserable'', both of which were published after Stanley Kamel's death.
* CharacterNameAlias: In "Mr. Monk on Wheels", when knocking on John Kuramoto's door, Monk says, "Hello, Johnny! Open up, it's--it's EncyclopediaBrown! Sally and I want our blue bike back, and the name of your decorator."
* ChasteHero: Monk.
* ChekhovsGun: Present in most episodes:
** In "Mr. Monk Goes to the Dentist", Stottlemeyer suspects that Randy wants to avoid using sick days to see the dentist for a toothache so he can use them for other purposes. Fast forward ten episodes to "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert," Stottlemeyer catches Randy in the act of pretending to be sick to attend the titular concert. In that same episode, the fact that the victim is afraid of needles or Kris Kedder casually mentioning that his asthma inhaler is unique.
** In "Mr. Monk Buys a House", there's a mention of an incident at a depository in 1968. Then in the second half of the episode, the main characters have two murders tied to a bank heist at said depository that year.
** In "Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever," keep that metallic paint Monk finds on the victim's fingertips handy.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Paperboy," Kevin rattles off all of his previous addresses to Randy. Monk realizes that they are the winning lottery numbers.
** In "Mr. Monk Gets Hypnotized," when the gang goes to Aaron Larkin's house to question him about his wife's apparent abduction, Randy passes out pieces of homemade Disher Mint chewing gum, flavored diet blueberry. Stottlemeyer tries a piece, and he has trouble chewing on it, and he ends up spitting it out, unable to find it. Then later, Monk (under hypnosis) finds a piece of gum on Sally Larkin's shoe and puts it in his mouth. After he snaps out of his hypnotic state, Monk confronts Sally and reveals that the gum he found on her shoe is the piece that Stottlemeyer had been chewing, proving that she had not been held captive in a woodland cabin for three days, as she had stepped on it while murdering her husband.
** At the end of "Mr Monk and The End (Part 1)", [[spoiler:Monk finally opens Trudy's final Christmas present. It's a powerful moment, since it means, as pointed out earlier, that he's finally accepting her death. (He's also coming to terms with the possibility that he himself may be dead within a couple of days.) It turns out to be an "IfIDoNotReturn" video made by Trudy, and it contains all the information Monk ''ever'' needed to find her killer. Yes, that's right: the Gun has been sitting, loaded, on the mantle for 12 years and 8 seasons, and has been ''regularly'' pointed out by the characters.]]
** The novels:
*** In ''Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse'', Monk claims to be allergic to cats. Then he finds out that [[NotSoDifferent Lucas Breen is also allergic to them]].
*** In ''Mr. Monk in Outer Space'', the Franchise/StarTrek ripoff costume that Conrad Stipe's shooter wears. Ambrose notices discrepancies in the shooter's outfit that Adrian dismisses as insignificant at first, until he realizes that it means the shooter was ''not'' a Beyond Earther because a proper fan would not have mismatched the parts of the outfit. Therefore, when producer Kingston Mills is killed, Adrian uses his newfound knowledge to finger a protesting fan named Ernest Pinchuk for the Mills killing alone.
*** In ''Mr. Monk and the Dirty Cop'', there are several mentions to events that happened "ten years ago".
*** In ''Mr. Monk on Patrol'', the different calls that Monk and Natalie deal with while on patrol in Summit all serve as handy to catch the killer in the end - from a domestic disturbance call, they figure out the part about their suspect cheating on his wife with his secretary. From a call to remove someone loitering at an electronics store, they clear the people originally suspected of the murder in question.
* ChekhovsGunman
** Mrs. Ling in "Mr. Monk and the 12th Man," a dry cleaner who is driven crazy by Monk's habits at the beginning of the episode. Monk later brings her in at the very end to correctly identify the murderer.
** The crime scene cleaners that Monk spends time with in ''Mr. Monk on the Couch''. They turn out to be responsible for shooting a rail engineer who caught them stealing from someone's house.
** Dylan Swift in ''Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii'' is a TV medium that Monk suspects of fraud. Monk is also investigating a double homicide that happens around the same time he and Natalie are in Hawaii. Turns out Swift is also their murderer.
** Bertrum Gruber, the informant in ''Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu'' who gives up the Golden Gate Strangler serial killer. He then turns out to have double-crossed and killed Kent Milner, a police officer who was the real hero (as he had pulled over their suspect a day before and saw evidence in the car linking him to the killings, but he didn't arrest him because he wanted to split the reward money with Gruber). Monk is suspicious of his story from the start given that [[INeverSaidItWasPoison his story includes some details the police never released to the public]]. He proves that Gruber wasn't the real informant by showing the captured suspect a photo of Milner.
** Ian Ludlow in ''Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants''.
** Ernie Pinchuk in ''Mr. Monk in Outer Space''.
** Dr. Martin Rahner in ''Mr. Monk Goes to Germany''. Monk knows there's something fishy about him from the start.
** Nicholas Slade in ''Mr. Monk and the Dirty Cop''
** At the start of "Mr. Monk and the Captain's Wife," we see Monk exasperating Ronnie and Morris, the two garbagemen subsituting for the regular driver on the route. At the end of the episode, when Monk chases down the garbage truck to retrieve the garbage bags that the incriminating evidence against Evan Coker might be in, Ronnie and Morris are the two drivers. They try to outrun Monk, but Monk manages to catch up.
*** In fact, Ronnie and Morris reappear in "Mr. Monk and the Garbage Strike," making them ThoseTwoGuys.
* ChekhovsSkill
** Played straight in "Mr. Monk Buys a House", where Natalie, Stottlemeyer and Disher are revealed to be proficient in Morse code. There's even a moment where Stottlemeyer and Disher amuse themselves by tapping messages to each other on the door of a suspect's house, only for Natalie to chastise them, revealing that she knows it as well. This proficient knowledge in Morse code comes in handy when Monk and Natalie are taken hostage by [[CrookedContractor "Honest" Jake Phillips]] and Natalie sends up smoke signals in Morse code that Stottlemeyer correctly interprets as an "SOS" (but Randy misinterprets them as a soda advertisement).
** In "Mr. Monk and the Election", Monk talks about how he played a lot of "Keep Away" in school. Then he uses his experience to help Natalie get her car keys from two {{Jerkass}} parking attendants.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion," we see Dianne Brooks fill out her registration form on Monk's back. It's very insignificant at the time. Then later, when Monk and Natalie are in the library, we see a flashback to Monk's first meeting with Trudy, and in it, her friend Drew writes down Trudy's phone number on Adrian's back. Guess how Monk figures out which hotel Dianne is staying at when he realizes she's going to be killed by her husband?
* TheCSIEffect: There is a point in the novel ''Mr. Monk Goes to Germany'' where this trope is discussed. Stottlemeyer says he hates {{CSI}} and personally wants to punch the person "who had the brilliant idea of doing a show that teaches crooks how to avoid being caught".
* CharacterTics: Monk has several, like the finger-steepling and his methodical examination of a crime scene. Therefore, we call it his Rainman thing.
** Louie Flynn, boxer Ray Regis's trainer in "Mr. Monk Takes a Punch", has a compulsive habit of tucking in a crucifix he wears around his neck whenever he's lying. This leads Monk to realize a potential motive for someone to try assassinating Regis.
* CheckPlease: In "Mr. Monk and the Captain's Wife," Monk takes Stottlemeyer's children out to lunch at a diner. Naturally, he's uncomfortable in the surroundings. So when the staff break into a dance routine to one of the songs on the jukebox, he says the line when the microphone is held out in front of him. Then one of the waitresses bumps the table, giving him his EurekaMoment to solving the case.
* ChewbaccaDefense: Played straight by Harrison Powell in "Mr. Monk Takes the Stand". He is defending Evan Gildea, a sculptor accused of murdering his wife Nancy in a staged break-in, and he wins. To elaborate:
##A large piece of the evidence is a large slab of Belgian gray marble, which Monk alleges that Gildea smashed apart and distributed across his driveway to use as an alibi (he was claiming that he was sculpting a statue of a nude woman on the night of the murder). Powell brings in a wheelbarrow of said marble. Here, he claims that if Monk's theory held up, the pieces would fit together like a jigsaw puzzle, which he "disproves" by randomly selecting pieces and holding them together. To be fair, though, the case is probably lost through Powell discrediting Monk by citing his psychological instability, which Monk unknowingly supports by fiddling with his microphone for a length of time, climbing out of the witness stand to put the marble together himself, and apparently screaming "mayday!" after realizing he was losing.
##And it sure had to be one big lucky break for Powell that he had managed to discredit Monk, because his reasoning with the smashed marble was just one dose of InsaneTrollLogic. His logic: if Gildea had destroyed the marble slab that was his alibi, then why not put the pieces back together like a jigsaw puzzle? This makes no sense: almost any construction worker, handyman, or anyone who has ever touched a jackhammer knows that the vibrations of the blade break up marble into lots of smaller pieces, which are all significantly different than each other. If the prosecution had thought to bring in someone like an iron worker to explain this, Powell would have lost because his "argument" would have been found to be bogus. Instead it was Monk who was being questioned and we all know how that went.
##And, even if it was like a giant puzzle, since when would two random pieces of a huge puzzle have more than an infinitesimal chance (one in a trillion, perhaps) of fitting together? It's like he shook a box of nuts and bolts and metal sheets, noticed they failed to assemble themselves into something, and concluded that engineering is impossible.
* ChineseLaunderer: Mrs. Ling in "Mr. Monk and the Twelfth Man". She actually likes Stewart Babcock more than Monk even though Stewart has killed twelve people.
* ChristmasEpisode: They were present from season 4 through season 7: "Mr. Monk and the Secret Santa" (2005), "Mr. Monk Meets His Dad" (2006), "Mr. Monk and the Man Who Shot Santa Claus" (2007), "Mr. Monk and the Miracle" (2008). A noticeable fact is that of all the episodes, a therapist only shows up in one (Dr. Kroger in the 2007 special).
* ChronicallyCrashedCar: In "Mr. Monk And The Three Julies", Stottlemeyer's new 2008 Dodge Charger falls victim to this trope.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: "Honest" Jake Phillips in "Mr. Monk Buys a House". He is trying to find $4 million in 1960s money from a 1968 bank heist, money stashed in the late Joseph Moody's house, which Monk has purchased. He crosses everyone he meets in the episode: first, he stabs and kills his girlfriend, Cassie Drake, who was also Joseph's private nurse and killed him to keep the secret quiet, after Monk catches on to her. Jake also fatally shoots his partner, a Hispanic plumber named "Honest" Ramone, as soon as they find the money. Lastly, he takes Monk and Natalie hostage when they discover the awl he used to stab Cassie stained with blood on his toolbelt.
* CIAEvilFBIGood: Played straight with the FBI, although usually just barely, as there was at least one instance where the FBI agent for the episode (like Agent Colmes in "Mr. Monk Meets the Godfather"; or Agent Derek Thorpe in "Mr. Monk and the Really, ''Really'' Dead Guy") [[GoodIsNotNice was a jerk, even though he is technically one of the good guys]] prior to his FaceHeelTurn in the novel ''Mr. Monk Is a Mess''.
* CityOfAdventure: San Francisco. [[MemeticMutation It's a jungle out there]], indeed.
* {{Claustrophobia}}: One of Monk's big phobias.
** In one episode, he is trapped in a coffin, and memories of Trudy keep him from completely freaking out.
** In "Mr. Monk Is Underwater", he's caught in a submarine (he was convinced he'd only be in there for a few minutes but they went under while he was on board), and only solves the case by hallucinating that Dr. Bell is with him.
** And in season 8, [[spoiler:he gets over the fear trapped in a car trunk. With Harold, no less.]]
* ClearMyName
** WillieNelson, accused of shooting his partner in an alleyway ("Mr. Monk and the Red-Headed Stranger").
** Sharona's sister, accused of stabbing a co-actor on-stage in a performance ("Mr. Monk Goes to the Theater").
** A Hispanic delivery boy framed for the beating death of a fashion model ("Mr. Monk Goes to a Fashion Show").
** A rapper, Murderuss, accused of blowing up his rival and later killing the driver in the hospital ("Mr. Monk and the Rapper").
** Monk's own half-brother ("Mr. Monk's Other Brother").
** Natalie and Sharona (ExpandedUniverse novel ''Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants'').
** Stottlemeyer himself (ExpandedUniverse novel ''Mr. Monk and the Dirty Cop'').
** Monk ("Mr. Monk Is on the Run").
* ClingyJealousGirl / LoonyFan: Marci Maven. Her obsession with Monk is like a mild version of the obsessions of some JustinBieber fans.
* ClockDiscrepancy: In the episode ''Mr. Monk and the Rapper'', a rapper named Murderuss is suspected of killing his rival rapper Extra Large with a time bomb in the exact same matter as he described in his song "Car Bomb". However, it turns out that Murderuss is innocent and that Extra Large was not the intended target - when setting the timer, the murderer didn't account for the fact that Daylight Savings Time started that day and so the bomb went off an hour later than it was supposed to.
** Also in ''Mr. Monk Takes Manhattan'' Disher buys a watch from a street-corner salesman in New York City who claims it is accurate. However, this is shown not to be the case when Disher remarks on its ability to show times all around the world and says "it's 5:30 here; in Denver, 3:30; in California, 12:17; and in Paris, France... time has stopped." The troubles with the watch prove to be critical because it sets off an alarm at a crucial time. The characters almost get caught because the instructions are only written in Korean and so they can't figure out how to turn the sound off.
* CluelessDeputy: Randy
* ClusterFBomb: Never happens on-screen or in novels, but Stottlemeyer recalls one of these incidents in a blog entry. However, Natalie implies giving one of these to Brian Galloway in ''Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii''.
* ColdOpen: Nearly every episode has one, usually introducing the murder of the week by showing either it, some poor sap discovering it, or some event that led to it.
** At least twice, the cold open has Monk present when the crime is committed. "Mr. Monk Can't See a Thing" actually has Monk get blinded by the attacker (Eddie Murdoch), while "Mr. Monk on Wheels" has Natalie actually converse with the bike thief John Kuramoto when he crashes next to them.
** If you want a count of how many times one of the four leads or someone related to them appears in the pre-credit sequence: Monk appears pre-opening credits in four season 5 episodes, in twelve season 6 episodes, and five season 7 episodes.
* ComicallySmallBribe: Monk is a pathetic cheapskate.
** In "Mr. Monk Goes to the Theater", he attempts to bribe a doorman with four dollars for information on Jenna Ryan. Then Sharona gives him $40. Then Monk asks for his four dollars back. Then says "We have four dollars in credit for future information!" as Sharona drags him away.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Bully", he tries to bribe a barman with a picture of General Washington (a dollar bill). Then he ups the bribe with another General Washington ([[UpToEleven a quarter]]). Natalie is seen facepalming, as if to say, "Mr. Monk, you are the worst briber I've ever met".
* ContinuityNod:
** Much of the first season features nods to "Mr. Monk and the Candidate" by way of setting: thanks to his brilliant solving of the case in the pilot the mayor becomes a big supporter of Monk and is constantly forcing the police to accept his help on cases (until they finally start calling him in themselves).
** In "Mr. Monk and the Bad Girlfriend" Monk refers to Hal Tucker, the man who pretended to be his pal as well as the hockey game they went to, in "Mr Monk Finds a Friend".
** In "Mr. Monk and the Actor", a director is filming a movie based on the events of the episode "Mr. Monk and the Astronaut". It being Hollywood, changes were made, like making Randy a woman and also turning "her" into Stottlemeyer's romantic partner.
** "Mr. Monk and His Biggest Fan" actually references several episodes by name.
** When Harold is harshly criticizing a child's drawing and imitating Mothra in "Mr. Monk and the Daredevil", a schoolteacher asks him if he's on the schoolboard. And Harold says he is. He beat Natalie to it in "Mr. Monk and the Election".
*** While obsessing over Harold's transformation into the Frisco Fly, Monk allows Trudy's cock-eyed coffee table to be right-angled.
** "Mr. Monk Falls In Love" features a nod to "Mr. Monk Goes To A Rock Concert," with Stottlemeyer pointing out that they "got a conviction based off of the air the guy blew into a beach ball."
** One of the last things we see Monk doing is checking to make sure his stove is off. In the ''very first episode'', [[BrickJoke Monk kept interrupting his inspection of a crime scene to wonder if he turned off his stove]].
** In "Mr. Monk and the Man Who Shot Santa Claus", the truck used to block the intersection belongs to the same construction company from an earlier episode, and Randy later wears the sweater [[BlatantLies his aunt definitely knitted for him]] the previous season.
** In "Mr. Monk Bumps His Head", Monk, who can't remember that his favorite brand of water is Sierra Springs, is seen drinking the brand Summit Creek instead. 1 season and a few episodes later, in "Mr. Monk and His Biggest Fan", [[LoonyFan Marci Maven]] brings him Summit Creek water, pointing out that it replaced Sierra Springs as his favorite brand a year earlier.
** In "Mr. Monk Goes to a Fashion Show", Monk makes a big deal out of buying a shirt inspected by Inspector #8, his favorite. In the later episode "Mr. Monk and the Man Who Shot Santa", Natalie asks a store clerk if he can find a shirt inspected by Inspector #8.
* ConvenienceStoreGiftShopping: The trope is referenced in various episodes:
** In "Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Man", Monk gives Benjy a rockmaker set for his birthday. Benjy's reaction indicates that the gift does not actually suit him.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Man Who Shot Santa", Monk mentions that this trope was partially the reason why all of his christmases were the worst barring those spent with Trudy, as in 1964, he received only one walkie-talkie from his father, to which his father knew was useless, but gave it to him anyways because [[KickTheDog Monk doesn't have any friends to play with anyway.]] Ironically, that memory is also what led to Monk solving the case about what the Santa was doing the day he was forced to shoot him in self defense.
** In "Mr. Monk Meets His Dad", a large part of Ben Glazer's plot deals with this trope: all the items in Jack Monk, Sr.'s truck that he is supposed to deliver to orphanages are filled with rubbish junk, even causing one girl to state angrily that she hates Christmas, Santa, and the elves for that. Adrian is suspicious when he finds there are only six packages in the truck, a very tiny load for an 18 wheeler with a large trailer, and further more, they are forced into taking out-of-the-way routes instead of direct roads. Turns out the entire delivery route was a wild goose chase so the truck could keep it under 5,000 miles (as the GPS device resets itself ever 5,000 miles) to erase evidence of the fact that Glazer took this rig unit when he killed his partner Kenneth Woods.
** A justified use of the trope occurred in "Mr. Monk and the Miracle". In the ending of the episode, after Monk and Natalie rescue a "converted" Stottlemeyer from a monastery, Stottlemeyer gives a safety razor to Randy (who grew a moustache when he took command in Stottlemeyer's absence) as an implied order for him to shave it off, with Randy not being too happy about it.
* ConvictionByContradiction: Monk can often figure out the crime this way before he has any solid evidence and spends the rest of the episode obtaining said evidence. Lampshaded once, when someone questions the validity of ''how he phrased a sentence'' as evidence.
** One example - in ''Mr. Monk on Patrol'', a woman named Pamela Goldman is killed in her house in Summit, New Jersey. After clearing a few initial suspects, Monk concludes that her husband Joel did it - but he was at his office in midtown Manhattan when the killing was committed, delivering a webinar, as confirmed by his secretary. Furthermore, Penn Station cameras show that Joel got off a New Jersey Transit train that morning in Manhattan and did not come back to the station until that afternoon. Monk eventually realizes that Joel was not in his office the day of the murder to deliver the webinar because the wallpaper seams do not match up. [[spoiler:He actually delivered it from a recreation of his office that he constructed in his home garage.
* CoolShades: Though not exactly common, those times where main characters wear sunglasses, this trope does seem to be in play. Some noticeable cases include "Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever," which is one of the rare occassions where you see Monk wearing sunglasses.
* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer: The official book series occasionally includes basic errors such as Monk drinking milk. In all fairness, the main series has made similar slip-ups before, such as Monk eating (cheese) pizza in one episode.
* CrapsackWorld: At first it seems this is just Monk's opinion, but think about it: he discovers murders and dead bodies almost everywhere, half the time when not on a case, and he's ''never wrong''. Guess it really is [[ThematicThemeTune a jungle out there.]]
%% CrazyAwesome is YMMV and stays on the YMMV tab.
%% Creek Moment was renamed EurekaMoment and is already present.
* CreditsGag: In the season six episode "Mr. Monk and the Rapper", the normal version of the opening song "It's A Jungle Out There" performed by Randy Newman, is replaced with a rapped version performed by Music/SnoopDogg (who also stars in the episode). The small issue is that the shots in the montage are not changed, so they may seem out of sync with the new melody. However, the instrumental of Newman's version is used in the credits.
* CrimeAfterCrime: In a number of episodes, the murders are relatively innocent people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. The mystery is finding out why they were murdered in the first place, and it often comes down to the the murder being used to cover up some other crime, possibly another murder, which is only discovered through the murder investigation. If that's not the case, someone else is likely to be murdered in an attempt to cover up evidence from the first murder.
** A typical use of this, for example, occurs in "Mr. Monk and the Very Very Old Man," in which the town of Malden's deputy mayor Dennis Gammill, accidentally kills an innocent teenager named Darren Leveroni in a drunken hit and run years before the plot happened. He felt guilty, so he writes a confession and puts it in a time capsule buried on the 110th birthday of Miles Holling, the oldest man in the world, just a week after the hit-and-run. But in order to keep his confession from being dug up, Gammill has to, five years later, be sure that Miles doesn't live to see his 115th birthday. To do so, he kills a guard at the nursing center, George Rowe, and uses his uniform and security card to get into the place and kill Miles. Gammill goes down for triple homicide in an attempt to cover up his single hit and run.
** "Mr. Monk Goes to the Circus": Natasha Lovara, a high-flying acrobat, fakes breaking her leg, then shoots and kills her ex-husband with an animal wrangler's revolver, doing some acrobatic stunts so that witnesses confirm the killer was an active acrobat. Then she goes back to the circus, where she has Dede, an elephant, crush her left leg, so that the police will confirm her left leg is useless when they request an x-ray. But Natasha is seen by Dede's trainer, who mentions having seen her, so she tapes a walkie-talkie behind one of Dede's ears, then from hiding, orders the elephant to crush her trainer's head while he is showing off some tricks to Monk and Sharona.
** "Mr. Monk Can't See a Thing": Peter Breen, a construction foreman, bribes one of his workers, Eddie Murdoch, to kill his girlfriend Stefanie Preston. Breen gives Murdoch a house key to get into Stefanie's house. Murdoch kills Stefanie by strangling her with a blind cord, throws her body on a couch, spills alcohol to make it look like she had been drinking, then sets her house on fire by lighting a pile of old newspapers with a cigarette. However, as he is walking away from the house after setting the fire, Murdoch realizes he's lost the keys Breen gave him, but the moment he realizes it happens to be the moment that the fire engine from Fire Company 53 is driving right past him on its way to Stefanie's house. Murdoch knows he needs to get Breen's keys back, so he goes to Fire Company 53, the closest firehouse, intending to steal some firefighting gear so he can recover the keys without being noticed. It also turns out that Monk and an ex-firefighter named Rusty are in the firehouse when Murdoch walks in. So as Murdoch is starting to grab a coat and helmet, Rusty appears and confronts him. Murdoch promptly grabs a shovel and strikes Rusty a killing blow to the head. Monk hears the noise, runs over, and after a struggle with Murdoch, grabs the shovel. But just as he's about to swing the shovel, Murdoch grabs a container of cleaning solution off the workbench and throws it into Monk's face, blinding him. While Monk is incapacitated, Murdoch grabs his gear and makes it back to Stefanie's burning house. Once there, he slips on the gear, and manages to walk right through the police line, into the house, and grab the keys. So he goes for double murder, arson, assault, and impersonating a firefighter for what should have just been a single murder and arson.
*** This episode happened to be based on the novel ''Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse'', which has the same type of plot: Lucas Breen kills an elderly woman named Esther Stoval by suffocating her with a pillow, then sets her house on fire. But he leaves his overcoat behind (he brought the overcoat because it was raining when he snuck out of the party he was supposed to be at when he committed the murder), and he fears that the police will find it if it survives the blaze, because it has monogrammed buttons with his initials. He goes to the nearest firehouse, where he is surprised and forced to kill a Dalmatian named Sparky to get the firefighter's coat and gear. Though this allows Breen to get his overcoat back, he gets mugged shortly after returning the stolen gear to the firehouse. The coat is too burned to be usable, so he tosses it in a dumpster to dispose of it. However, a homeless man happens to grab it that same night. When Monk, Natalie and Stottlemeyer are confronting Breen and accusing him of Esther Stoval's murder, Breen happens to see the homeless man wearing the overcoat that used to be his own. So a few days later, Breen tracks the man down, bashes his head in with a brick, and then takes the overcoat back, and burns it in his home fireplace.
** "Mr. Monk is the Best Man" is more a case of trying to get back an incriminating piece of evidence. Stephanie Briggs, T.K.'s friend, shoots a fellow former ecoterrorist colleague of hers named Martin Kettering and sets his body on fire. But while driving away, she is pulled over for excessive speeding, before she has a chance to get rid of the gun she used. Stephanie hastily hides it in a tuxedo bag she is intending to give to Leland. It also happens to be her third speeding offense, so she is arrested, the car is impounded, and Leland grabs the tuxedo bag. Stephanie hence does whatever she can do to try to keep Leland from opening the tuxedo bag and discovering the gun she used on Kettering: first, she ransacks his place while trying to find the gun. When that doesn't work, she threatens T.K. while using an electronic voice scrambler, then firebombs Stottlemeyer's car, and lastly sets off a bomb at the church during the wedding rehearsal. Monk figures that Stephanie is behind these incidents when he realizes that the night she was arrested was the night Kettering was kiled, and she was pulled over not too far from where the body was found, plus the fact that the incidents all happened after Stephanie was released from jail for the speeding offense.
* CriticalResearchFailure: {{Invoked}} a few times throughout the series. Some blatant examples include one in ''Mr. Monk on Patrol'' - when Monk and Natalie are driving in a police car and responding to a burglary after an alarm goes off, references are made to a "211 in progress". However, "211" is the ''California'' police radio code for "armed robbery in progress", and the story takes place in ''[[{{Joisey}} New Jersey]]''.
** A few of the other cases seem to fit this: "Mr. Monk and the Astronaut" involves a killing contraption rigged to a garage door opener.
* CriminalDoppelganger: Adrian happened to be a dead ringer for a mob hit-man. {{Inverted|Trope}}, in that the police didn't mix him up, but instead the FBI needed him to make the other ''criminals'' think he was the hit-man.
* CrookedContractor: "Honest" Jake Phillips in "Mr. Monk Buys a House" is one. [[spoiler:To elaborate: Monk runs into him in a hardware store while buying fixtures for a new house he has purchased on a whim, then Monk calls Jake over when he finds an off-centered lamp. Jake comes to take a look at it. The problems he finds and the work necessary to fix them eventually cause his work to deteriorate into house-wide demoliton project so extensive that Monk and Natalie are left cowering on the steps as Jake and his assistant "Honest" Ramone work. Then Jake is revealed to be after a hidden fortune left behind by the last tenant of the house. His accomplice and lover killed that occupant to prevent him from telling the secret to anyone else, though she told Jake about it. Jake stabs and kills her in her house after he sees Monk find evidence linking her to the first crime. When Monk and Natalie find the bloodstained murder weapon on Jake's toolbelt, he takes them hostage by shackling them by their legs to a claw-footed bathtub. After finding the money, he shoots and kills Ramone, before Monk and Natalie knock him out by pushing a wall down on him. They manage to crawl down the hall to send up Morse code smoke signals from the fireplace to Stottlemeyer and Disher, who barely arrive in the nick of time as Jake recovers and prepares to shoot his hostages.]]
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass
** Despite his phobias and neuroses, Monk can and will take physical action if necessary, disarming criminals holding him at gunpoint, shooting at least two suspects (one while blind), and knocking a hit man unconscious with a bottle (while drunk). Despite being visibly terrified, he does things like [[spoiler: standing in front of an F-22 fighter jet about to take off.]] In the finale [[spoiler:he beats up the judge who [[BerserkButton murdered Trudy]].]]
** Randy Disher's continued employment as a police lieutenant often mystifies; in "Mr. Monk and the Three Julies" he seriously considered the possibility of [[Film/{{Terminator}} a robot from the future murdering women named Julie Teeger]]. Yet [[BigDamnHeroes he has his moments]], especially in "Mr. Monk Gets Married" and "Mr. Monk Gets Cabin Fever" [[spoiler:(even though the latter example was ''[[NiceJobBreakingItHero his own damn fault]]'')]]. Though Randy is often a {{Cloudcuckoolander}}, he becomes scarily efficient, competent, and down-to-Earth when he needs to be, such as whenever Stottlemeyer is disabled.
* {{Cult}}
** With a dash of ChurchOfHappyology for flavor.
** There was also the time when Monk, undergoing severe trauma from getting lost in New York, ended up being "converted" by a street preacher in Times Square, seen attempting to warn everyone about the apocalypse and preaching about "cleaning" the city of its sin, Monk naturally thinking "cleaning" to mean that God will clean up all the problems in the world by vaccuming or scrubbing, and not the Rapture. Monk says to the street preacher upon Sharona's arrival, "Don't listen to her, [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Jor-El]]! I know her -- she's a ''fornicator''!"
* CurseCutShort: In "Mr. Monk and the Rapper," when Murderuss and his associates visit Monk's apartment, Snake di Assassin says at one point of the late Extra Large, "I hate that motherf--ellow."
* CurtainsMatchTheWindow: A noticeable, but likely unintentional case, happens in "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert" with the two female supporting characters, in that the characters wear shirts that match their hair color: Natalie is played by Traylor Howard, a blonde, and she is wearing a patterned white t-shirt. Kendra Frank is played by Tamara Feldman, who has dark black hair, and she wears a black t-shirt, black pants, and a black sleveless jacket.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: D-F]]
* DawsonCasting: Tony Shalhoub is actually six years older than Monk is supposed to be. Hence, though he turns 50 in "Happy Birthday, Mr. Monk," he's actually 56 in that episode, which aired in 2009.
** This causes a nice discrepancy in the casting of John Turturro as Ambrose, Adrian's elder brother by a few years, because Turturro is actually four years ''younger'' than Tony Shalhoub.
** And Shalhoub was 53 when "Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion" was produced. In contrast, Cynthia Stevenson, the actress playing Dianne Brooks, was 45 years old at the time, and her character is supposed to be 47 years old at that point.
** Depending on how you interpret it, it is possible Natalie may count as this due to OlderThanTheyLook, as Traylor Howard was 38 years old when her first episodes were produced and aired.
* DarknessEqualsDeath: A variant. In ''Mr. Monk is Miserable'', Monk and Natalie go to a restaurant in Paris called Toujours Nuit (which, as you are supposed to know, means "Always Night"). The idea is that you eat in total darkness, and rely on your other senses to eat. Natalie coaxes Monk in by reminding him of the events of the episode "Mr. Monk Can't See a Thing". What could possibly go wrong? Well, for one thing, a young woman named Aimee Dupon comes in, gets herself seated at their table, and tells Monk "I know who you found," in reference to the skull Monk had found the previous day in the catacombs. Suddenly, there's a thud, and Monk, who has heightened senses, informs Natalie that someone has just murdered Aimee. Natalie is incredibly frustrated that Monk is seeing murders everywhere (for the record, a man had been killed by peanut allergy poisoning on their flight, and as mentioned above, Monk later found a skull in the catacombs), and then one of the waitresses trips and falls, prompting the house lights to come on, revealing that indeed, someone has stabbed and killed Aimee.
* ADayInTheLimeLight
** Dr. Kroger, Dr. Bell, Benjy Fleming, Julie Teeger, and Harold Krenshaw all have their days.
** This also happens when [[SupportingProtagonist Sharona, Natalie, Stottlemeyer and Randy]] solve (or greatly help Monk solve) the case. These episodes usually focus on [[ClearTheirName clearing a wrongly accused suspect]] and/or implicate "[[BeneathSuspicion the guy who is beneath suspicion]]".
* DeadPersonConversation
* DeadpanSnarker: Monk, Natalie, Stottlemeyer, Disher and Sharona all get their moments.
* DeathInTheClouds: Played with. The actual murder occurred in the airport, but Monk is on the plane with Stefan Chabrol and only had as long as the flight lasted to solve the crime. Played straight, since Stefan also poisons a suspicious friend on the plane too.
* ADeathInTheLimeLight: [[spoiler:Kevin]]
* DeceasedFallGuyGambit
** Used in the episode [[spoiler:"Mr. Monk and the Garbage Strike"]].
** Also used in "Mr. Monk and the Birds and the Bees": Rob Sherman, a sports agent, shoots and kills Dewey Jordan, a petty criminal he has "hired" for an "insurance scam" in his house, using a nickel-plated pistol. When his wife comes downstairs to investigate the noise, Sherman shoots and kills her with a revolver, which he places in Jordan's hand to frame him for the murder, and also fires a shot at the doorframe with the revolver to make it seem like he shot and killed the "burglar" in self-defense and also get gunpowder residue on the crook's hand. The use of switched guns does make it seem like a variation on the ''Columbo'' episode "Negative Reaction" (where a photographer shoots his wife with one pistol, then shoots the fall-guy with a different gun, then shoots himself with the first gun to make it look like self-defense, and plants that gun on the fall guy).
** In ''Mr. Monk in Trouble'', Harley Kelton, the crooked Trouble police chief and Trouble's auto mechanic Bob Gorman kill a recently released ex-con named Gator Dunsen to frame him for killing the security guard at Trouble's history museum.
* {{Deconstruction}}: One of the primary points of the ending was that murder is often carried out for banal and petty reasons. Rickover murdered three innocent people not because of some grand conspiracy, but to keep his job safe. Monk even lampshades this.
* DefeatingTheUndefeatable: Monk outsmarting killers with airtight alibis.
** A great example is the novel ''Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse''. Monk suspects Lucas Breen, rich CEO of a development company, and who also sits on the police commission, of killing an old woman and setting her house on fire, then walking to a nearby firehouse, killing a dalmation there, and stealing a coat and helmet. Even though Stottlemeyer and Disher are convinced by Monk of Breen's guilt, they are unable to capture Breen because of a lack of solid evidence, and because Stottlemeyer gets orders from his superiors to quit harassing Breen. Secretly, he does order some tests on firefighting gear from the firehouse Breen visited to get the equipment. After they accuse him of the death of a homeless man, Stottlemeyer risks being demoted. Monk only connects Breen to the killings because Monk and Breen are both allergic to cats - which the fire victim kept a large litter of, and the overcoat Breen wore collected a lot of cat dander.
** Patrick Kloster in "Mr. Monk and the Genius". Then again, he's a chessmaster.
** In ''Mr. Monk Is Cleaned Out'', Monk suspects that Bob Sebes - an investor recently exposed as running a Ponzi scheme - killed three government witnesses who were supposed to testify against him, except that Sebes is under house arrest and wears a foolproof tracker that goes off whenever he leaves his house. His attempts to get to Sebes are not well helped by the fact that he's been laid off as a consultant.
* DefectiveDetective: The TropeNamer, though not the trope inventor. The show even used to be marketed as such.
* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment:
** Adrian's brother Ambrose (an agoraphobia sufferer) comes up with a classic example when talking about the police.
-->"They no longer respond to my complaints because I call them more often than I should. [[CouldSayItBut I'd like to complain to them about it]], but [[BrokenRecord they no longer respond]] [[MadnessMantra to my complaints]]."
** And from Monk in "Mr. Monk Joins a Cult": "She was a sex prostitute."
** In "Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever," when meeting station manager Stan Lawrence, Natalie describes herself as Monk's "partner / babysitter / assistant / babysitter!"
* DeliveryGuyInfiltration: In "Mr. Monk Takes a Punch," the Iceman poses as a food delivery man to get into the first class booth he is planning to assassinate Ray Regis from.
* DepravedDentist: Dr. Oliver Bloom and his assistant Teri in "Mr. Monk Goes to the Dentist". They're not actually depraved prior to when the episode's events happen, but when an armored car robbery happens, an ex-cop involved in the robbery, named Denny Jardeen, is punched in the face while he shoots both of the guards. He comes to Dr. Bloom to get his tooth fixed, but while under anasthesia, he divulges the details to them without his knowledge. Dr. Bloom and Teri, rather than calling the police, get greedy and steal the loot from Jardeen's house. When Jardeen finds out, he confronts them while they are operating on Randy for a toothache, and Teri strikes Jardeen multiple times with a giant plastic tooth, then they dispose of the body. Intending to now fence the stolen bonds, they kidnap Monk and torture him with a dental drill, intending to figure out whether the fence they want to sell to is under police surveillance. Not only is the scene similar to Dr. Szell's torture conducted in ''Film/MarathonMan'', but Dr. Bloom and Teri even compare it to that.
* DesignatedDriver: Inverted. As mentioned in the WildTeenParty section below, because Stottlemeyer let Monk plan his bachelor party, Monk supplied what amounted to 144 oz. of beer (12 partygoers times 12 oz bottles of beer), which Stottlemeyer noted that they only had enough to make each party member become slightly sleepy (and certainly not enough to require a designated driver), or give it all to one of the partygoers to make him extremely polluted and make him the "designated drunk". The majority chose the latter option, with Randy volunteering to become the designated drunk. As a result, there's an incident when Randy stumbles in, totally plastered, asking about the owner of a police unit that's painted charcoal gray with flames on the side, and on the roof and windshield.
* DetectiveMole: This show has had several.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Secret Santa," Cpl. Alice Westergren
** In "Mr. Monk and the Captain's Marriage," Sgt. Ryan Sharkey kills a small-time drug dealer about to testify against Sharkey's employer, a known racketeer. He is also a police sergeant from Mendocino. Unfortunately, during the fight prior to the murder, he loses a tooth and bleeds somewhat when his victim slams his head against the hood of a car, so he tricks Stottlemeyer into punching him so that an explanation will exist as to why his blood and tooth are found at the scene.
** In "Mr. Monk Goes to a Fashion Show," a variant: Julian Hodge is a fashion designer and is the real killer, but the mole is in the form of Howard Gordon, a forensics technician, who decided to cash in by soliciting a bribe from Hodge to destroy incriminating evidence.
** The TieInNovel series has a lot more in the way of moles:
*** In ''Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants'', the killer is Ian Ludlow, a mystery writer who also consults for the Los Angeles Police Department, then tagged along on a mauling murder in San Francisco that he had committed to frame Natalie.
** In ''Mr. Monk and the Dirty Cop'', the killer is a private investigation agency CEO who hires Monk and Natalie after Monk loses his consulting job.
** In ''Mr. Monk in Trouble'', Trouble Police Chief Harley Kelton. The museum's security guard, Manny Feikema, is killed and he asks for help from San Francisco since Feikema used to be an SFPD detective. Of course, it is not revealed until the end that Kelton was conspiring with an accomplice, local auto mechanic Bob Gorman, who actually killed Feikema. [[spoiler:Kelton had managed to deduce that the gold stolen in an unsolved train heist in the 1960s was hidden in the furnace of the museum's display steam locomotive. He had to have Feikema killed because Feikema would never help Kelton recover the gold. After this, Kelton and Gorman conspire to kill Gator Dunsen, a recently released ex-con sent to prison by Feikema, and frame him for the murder. Gorman ties Gator up, makes him drink himself into a stupor, then stages a shootout with Kelton with Monk and Natalie hunkering down outside, so that it will look like Kelton killed Gator in self-defense. That night, Kelton kills the robbed train's engineer, Clifford Adams, at his old rundown shack, after Adams realizes that the gold from the train has been discovered.]]
** A CSI tech known only as Pillsbury Pete does the opening subplot murder in ''Mr. Monk Is Cleaned Out''.
** In ''Mr. Monk on Patrol'', the town of Summit, New Jersey has been overrun with a corruption scandal, leading to Randy becoming acting mayor since he's the first person in the chain of command not to be indicted by the state attorney general. He's also chief of Summit's small police force. Summit has also been hit by a rash of burglaries, which Monk eventually finds are being committed by two of Randy's own officers, Raymond Lindero and Walter Woodlake. They are arrested, and although linked to several of the burglaries, they say that they didn't commit a burglary in which a young woman was killed - because they were breaking into someone else's place at the same time. Monk only proves them innocent of the murder when he and Natalie discover that the person Lindero and Woodlake were burglarizing when the murder was committed did not report the crime to the police because he's selling bootleg merchandise out of his house (making a small case of MuggingTheMonster).
** A murder in ''Mr. Monk Is a Mess'' was committed by FBI Agent Derek Thorpe (he's the {{Jerkass}} agent from "Mr. Monk and the Really, Really Dead Guy").
* DetectivePatsy: In "Mr. Monk and the Leper," Mandy Bronson utilizes Monk in this way through a hired accomplice impersonating her husband. Monk realizes he's been duped when he realizes that the husband could not have known his house security code if the security system was installed after he supposedly "vanished". He also tells Natalie that he made a perfect patsy for Mandy: she'd researched his OCD compulsions and fears, and she and the hired accomplice were both aware that Monk would be afraid to touch a leper's hand (meaning he'd not have a good enough look to determine that "Derek Bronson" was just an imposter), and reinforced it by having the meetings always happen in poor lighting conditions.
* DisabilitySuperpower: Offensively so with HyperAwareness. Once, in "Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion," Natalie lampshades his ability to remember handwriting written on his back:
-->''[Monk has explained to Natalie how he met Trudy]''
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' And that’s how I got her number.
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Wait, wait, wait! You mean when he wrote it on your back, you could ''feel'' it? You--you could do that?
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' I have very sensitive skin.
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' That's like a superpower! Like a...very weird, not very useful superpower!
* DisgustingPublicToilet:
** Subverted in "Mr. Monk and the Critic." Monk expects the men's room at the theater to be like this, but instead it's incredibly clean and even has an attendant offering a variety of scented soaps.
** In "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert," Monk walks into a port-a-potty by accident, when he exits:
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Oh! Oh! ''[rushes over, exasperated]'' Mr. Monk! What are you doing?!
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' I was just calling for a taxi; they're gonna pick me up out front in about ten minutes! ''[Natalie smiles, somewhat amused]''
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' But, Mr. Monk, that ''wasn't'' a phone booth!
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' No that wasn't a phone booth. Natalie, it was that horrible, ''plastic'' outhouse! ''[Natalie gently loops her arm around his and slowly leads him away]'' Oh my God, what was I talking into?! Oh my God, where...where did I put that quarter?! For the love of God, Natalie! Where did I put that quarter?! ''[A repairman jimmies the port-a-potty next to them and Stork's body falls out]''
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' ''[gasps]'' Oh my God!
** Later, Monk and Natalie are talking, and Monk is wiping his neck very tightly:
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Oh, how long do you think I was in there?
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' I don't know, Mr. Monk. Maybe a minute!
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' It was rough. It was like some kind of medieval torture device.
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Yeah, I know. I actually read that the Spanish Inquisition used to lock people in port-a-johns.
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' That wouldn't surprise me.
* DisproportionateRetribution:
** In "Mr. Monk Gets Fired," the new {{Jerkass}} commissioner not only fires Monk but also suspends his detective's license after Monk accidentally erases several years worth of forensic files while cleaning crumbs from a keyboard. Though we learn that it's just the commissioner wants to get back at Monk for putting a corrupt friend of his in jail.
** In "Mr. Monk Takes Manhattan," when arresting Steven Leight in a bar for murdering his wife, a foreign ambassador and two of his bodyguards, Monk spots a busboy whom he recognizes as a man he saw urinating in the subway earlier, and wants to use his handcuffs on him.
*** Could be a subversion, because in fact, you really can get arrested for urinating in public, and depending on your city, get put on a sex offender registry.
** In the TieInNovel ''Mr. Monk and the Dirty Cop'', Monk and Natalie stop by a Chinatown salon where they use bird excrement to give geisha facials to interview a person of interest in a double homicide. Monk is so disgusted that he calls in a Hazmat team and a SWAT team!
*** That's not the worst. He once wanted a full police investigation into a missing sock in ''Mr. Monk Goes to Germany''.
*** In ''Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse'', after Natalie looks into a dumpster where an overcoat may or may not have been dumped, it takes her a while to talk Monk out of calling a Hazmat team to decontaminate her, but still she has to do some extensive cleaning to convince Monk that she isn't infected.
** According to [[http://web.archive.org/web/20080516023524/http://www.usanetwork.com/series/monk/webexclusives/blogs/teeger21.html the tie-in blog entry]] for "Mr. Monk Is At Your Service," Natalie actually believes Monk would qualify for "best boss of the year" award just because of how she's seen growing up:
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' I'm not sure who make worse employers: the people who've just struck it rich and hire a whole staff of people to run their enormous new house because they think that's what rich people are supposed to do, or the people who just inherit money and hire a staff so that they can continue to do absolutely nothing for themselves.\\
I do know that it's one thing to have a staff of people to help you run your life - if that's how you want to spend your money, fine. But it's another thing to treat those people like dirt.\\
There is just no excuse for some of the behavior I've witnessed. I've seen people screaming at their employees because the prize poodle had an accident on the Persian rug or the Rolls Royce wasn't shiny enough. I've heard of people getting fired because they accidentally shrunk a pair of cashmere socks in the wash or dared to ask to leave early to pick up their sick kid from school. As a child I witnessed more than one household employee leave my own parents' house in tears. Probably for making an unforgivable mistake like putting too much ice in my mom's cocktail.\\
Honestly, those sorts of bosses make Mr. Monk look easygoing and carefree. He's practically a candidate for boss of the year compared to them. I guess you could say it's just so hard to find a good boss these days. Seeing my parents and all their friends recently really drove that point home. Yes, my job can have its exhausting, frustrating moments. But at least I'm not working for someone like my mother.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: In "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert," when Monk, Natalie and Kendra Frank are questioning an acupuncturist about a murder victim she saw earlier that morning, there's this, which falls into DontExplainTheJoke:
-->'''Annie:''' He said he was giving up; he wanted to get high. He said he used to be afraid of needles, but he got over it.
-->'''Kendra Frank:''' I-I don't believe this!
-->'''Annie:''' Well I guess he's with Kurt, Jimi and Janis now.
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Who?
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' I'll tell you later.
** The reference Annie is making is to Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin, three renowned singers who shared one thing in common: they were drug addicts and they all fatally overdosed at age 27 (making them members of the 27 Club). And since the victim, Stork Murray, looks like he's in his late twenties, it makes sense (for comparison, Tamara Feldman, Kendra's actress, was 26 at the time of the episode's production, and Stork looks close in age).
** In "Mr. Monk and Sharona," Natalie walks in as Monk and Sharona are talking on the couch. Monk's reaction is like that of a spouse caught cheating.
** Burgerville in ''Mr. Monk in Outer Space''. For one thing, a lot of the controversies that are mentioned to surround them turn out to be ones that McDonald's, a real chain, actually has had in the past 20 years: Randy says that some vegans were pissed when Burgerville came forward revealing that they used beef flavoring in their fries[[note]]McDonald's severely came under fire in 2000 when it was discovered by some Los Angeles vegans that the company used beef flavoring in their fries.[[/note]] Also, Randy mentions that someone recently sued Burgerville after he spilled a cup of their hot coffee at a drive-thru and burned his crotch.[[note]]This appears to be a nod to ''Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants'', aka the McDonalds Coffee Case or the "hot coffee lawsuit". On February 27, 1992, a 79 year old woman named Stella Liebeck ordered a cup of coffee at a McDonalds Drive-Thru in Albequerque, New Mexico. She was sitting in the pasenger's seat with her grandson driving. When she removed the lid to add cream and sugar, she spilled the cup, suffering extreme third degree burns to her crotch. The judge found McDonalds to be 80% at fault for failing to warn consumers that the coffee was hot.[[/note]] Burgerville also is compared by the SFPD's forensic accountant to the Enron scandal.[[note]]Namely, using controversial accounting practices to cover up financial losses.[[/note]]
* DoesntLikeGuns: Stottlemeyer's first wife Karen. In "Mr. Monk and the Very Very Old Man," she gasps and appears visibly uncomfortable when Randy tries showing her his sidearm, on Leland's orders to keep her occupied while he is quickly tidying up the office for her arrival. In fact, her dislike of guns is so strong that Leland actually has to hide his own sidearm in a desk drawer whenever she visits his office to keep her under the impression he doesn't use a weapon.
** And later, in "Mr. Monk and the Captain's Marriage," when Monk and Natalie are trailing Karen, this pops up:
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' How long have they been married?\\
'''Adrian Monk:''' Forever. Karen and Leland? They've never had a thing in common. I remember... this one weekend he went hunting. She stayed home and organized a rally for stronger gun control.
* DontExplainTheJoke: Since Monk doesn't have a sense of humor, usually the joke has to be explained to him.
** For example, in "Mr. Monk Is On The Air," when Monk and Natalie arrive at Max Hudson's house to investigate:
-->'''Linda Riggs:''' I don't think he's home.
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Did you tell him I was coming? ''[points to the welcome mat, which has the words "GO AWAY" written on it]''
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' No, Mr. Monk, that's not for you. It's a joke.
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' It’s a joke? How--how is that funny?
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Um, well, I guess it's funny because it says the ''opposite'' of what a welcome mat would normally say.
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' S-so it's an opposite joke?
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Yeah. That's right.
* DramaQueen: Natalie has an episode of this in "Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever", when she so much as trips over some sound cables:
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Excuse me! Do these cables have to be right here?!
-->'''Billy Logan:''' Yes they do, because they carry your voice from this microphone to that soundboard.
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Well can't you move them somewhere else?! They almost broke my neck!
-->'''Billy Logan:''' "Almost" doesn't count.
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Fine. I'll do it! ''[She starts to move the cables. Billy comes over]''
-->'''Billy Logan:''' What are you doing? Are you mental?! Put it down! Put it down! ''[They engage in something that looks like tug-of-war over the cables]''
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' I'm taking care of it!
-->'''Billy Logan:''' Let go! ''[Stan Lawrence comes over]''
-->'''Stan Lawrence:''' Billy, what the hell is the matter here?
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Stan, I can't work with this guy!
-->'''Billy Logan:''' What, ''you'' can't work with me?! Who do you think you are, lady?! I've been here for eight years, and you're just another untalented face!
-->'''Stan Lawrence:''' Billy! Calm down!
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Untalented, huh? The ratings keep going up every night! How do you explain that?!
-->'''Billy Logan:''' The ratings go up when the jackpot goes up! It has nothing to do with you, you moron!
-->'''Stan Lawrence:''' Billy! I've warned you before about your attitude. That's it. You're out of here! You're fired! Somebody call security! ''[Natalie turns around, shocked]''
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' No-no-no, don't fire him!
-->'''Billy Logan:''' See, look, I'm moving the cable! ''[Two security guards seize him]'' Stan, please! Don't do this!
-->'''Stan Lawrence:''' It's too late, Billy!
-->'''Billy Logan:''' I'm sorry! I'm apologizing!
-->'''Stan Lawrence:''' Mr. Logan has been terminated. I don't want him back in the building! You make sure to get his security pass and keys. Get him out of here!
** In the next scene, Monk tells Dr. Bell that this is unlike the Natalie he knows:
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' All I'm trying to say is... it's not the same Natalie! If you knew her you wouldn't know her! Last night after the show, she got somebody fired!
-->'''Dr. Neven Bell:''' Really?
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' One of the crew, sound guy! There were some wires on the floor, and she was just like ''[leans back in his chair, curls his fingers like claws, and snarls like a screaming child]'' you know, complaining.
* DrinkingOnDuty
** Randy does it in the beginning of "Mr. Monk Gets Married". Justified, however, when it became apparent [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness that Randy doesn't usually do this]], and had a pretty justifiable excuse for doing so, as he is shocked that his mother Maria has not only dated, but also married, Dalton Padron, a guy who is significantly younger than her, and she isn't even rich, but they are spending their honeymoon at a marriage counseling place. It is bizzare enough to hire Monk and Sharona to investigate and eventually get a fake marriage in order to do some sleuthing at the mansion.
** Stottlemeyer does this, although in his case, [[DrunkenMaster he really does actually need the alcohol in regards to solving a case]].
** Stottlemeyer and Disher share a drink on duty during the finale's darkest hour.
* DrivesLikeCrazy
** Sharona
** Both Monk and Natalie have each done this on one occasion each -- Monk when under the influence of a drug that's meant to relieve himself of his phobias, and Natalie in "Mr. Monk and the Three Julies".
** Stottlemeyer also did the same in the final episode. Justified, as they were trying to locate Monk before he ends up doing something bad to [[spoiler:Ethan Rickover]] in revenge for [[spoiler:murdering Trudy as well as a nurse]]. The fact that it was stormy outside, and Disher ended up selling his siren in a garage sale shortly beforehand (as he apparently thought crime was over and the bad guys had quit) didn't help matters, either.
* DrivingQuestion: The MythArc, as well as the individual episodes.
* DrivingIntoATruck: In "Mr. Monk Gets Stuck in Traffic," Ray Galardi, a construction planner, kills environmentalist Steve Marriot, then puts Marriot's body into the guy's old Volkswagon Beetle and loads it into Galardi's dump truck. He then drives the truck onto the highway and dumps it with the hydraulic lift, to make it look like an accident.
* DrivingTestSmashers: Natalie in "Mr. Monk and the Three Julies", with a 2008 Dodge Charger.
* DrowningPit: The ballast tank in "Mr. Monk Is Underwater," which [[BlatantLies you can access from inside the submarine]].
* DrunkenMaster
** Stottlemeyer, when completely drunk, can actually solve cases on par with Monk, if not rival Monk in case solving ability.
** In "Mr. Monk Gets Drunk", Monk accidentally got drunk and was able to subdue a hitman, and solve a conspiracy involving everyone in a hotel covering up a man's death so they can keep his money.
* DudeNotFunny [[invoked]]
** In "Mr. Monk Is On The Air," when Max Hudson, a shock jock, starts making tasteless jokes about [[BerserkButton Trudy]]. Some of his colleagues realize what is happening, but can't prevent Monk from attacking their boss. That he's not funny for the main characters is suggested when Monk and Natalie are investigating Max's wife'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.
** Really, any time that people openly mock Monk's problems. Happens with him any time the suspect is a performer or public figure, and they tend to do things to provoke his OCD, like Karl Torini in "Mr. Monk and the Magician" does by throwing his cards across the floor and manipulating Monk into being the "volunteer" to get inside the [[DisappearingBox Zig-Zag Cabinet]]. His friends sometimes get frustrated with his many phobias and compulsions but they usually try to help him deal with/overcome them, rather than mock him for them.
* DysfunctionalFamily: It is heavily implied in the series starting with "Mr. Monk and the Three Pies", that Monk's family was dysfunctional, and contributed to most of Monk's quirks.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In the pilot episode, Randy's last name was "Deacon," not Disher. Which led to a stealth pun when you put the first two letters of Stottlemeyer's first and last names with the first two letters of Randy's names. Additionally, instead of the "It's a Jungle Out There" tune by Randy Newman, an instrumental by Jeff Beal was used. The set that was used for the police station and Captain Stottlemeyer's office was also completely different for season 1 from the set that would be used from season 2 through the end of the series - a set with a lot more wood furnishing on the walls than the more familiar set.
* EasyAmnesia: Monk gets hit on the head and loses his memory, but not his quirks.
* EgocentricTeamNaming: Randy Disher's garage rock band was called "The Randy Disher Project". The etymology explained in "Mr. Monk and the Secret Santa" around the band's name: "Well, my name's Randy Disher, and then... Project."
* EmbarrassingSlide: During "Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion", while Stottlemeyer is making a request for information on a homicide to attendees at UC Berkeley, suddenly the slideshow, which has been running this whole time, displays very compromising photos of him in riot gear violently attacking protesters at an anti-nuclear demonstration in the 1970s. Monk and Natalie are mortified, while Stottlemeyer makes a very bad attempt to defend his actions in the photos.
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' ''[after the projector shows an image of him pointing at the clock tower]'' You didn't have a permit!
-->'''Student:''' Yes we did!
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' It expired at noon!
-->'''Student:''' 12:06!
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' ''[quietly]'' Like I said, it expired at noon.
** Also, in "Mr. Monk and the Leper," Natalie finds some pretty embarrassing pictures of Randy with acne in Dr. Polanski's waiting room. Which leads to a BrickJoke when Randy wanders in later in the episode and makes an epic struggle to take them down and destroy them.
* EpicFail: A few.
** Lampshaded in "Mr. Monk is Underwater." Monk learns that Commander Whitaker piloted the submarine they are on into an undersea mountain. He cannot believe the commander of a Los Angeles-class submarine like the ''U.S.S. Seattle'' could let such a mistake happen, and furthermore the fact that Whitaker and the eventual murder victim, second-in-command Lieutenant Commander Jason Pierce both conspired to cover up their error to keep Whitaker from getting a black mark on his record.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Red Herring," when Lyle Peck starts a fire as a distraction while he steals his moon rock from Julie's aquarium, Stottlemeyer tries to put the fire out with a kid's homemade fire extinguisher. However, he only succeeds in making the fire WORSE because he then finds that one of the chemicals in the spray is an accelerant called turpentine.
** In one webisode, Stottlemeyer is doing an online text interview with a Chronicle reporter. But unfortunately, Monk has repositioned all of the letters in alphabetical order. So after some frustration that causes the reporter to sign off, Stottlemeyer writes "Go to hell".
** In "Mr. Monk and the Leper," Randy tries to take some embarrassing photos of himself off Dr. Polanski's waiting room wall, and succeeds in knocking down several more photos as well as ripping out a piece of the wall plaster itself.
* EurekaMoment: "I think I just solved the case."
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Notice that depending on their relation to Monk, people address him differently. Family members, his neighbor Kevin Dorfman, Dr. Bell, Dr. Kroger and Sharona all address him by first name. Stottlemeyer and Disher always address Monk by last name. Natalie always addresses him as "Mr. Monk", like you would expect assistants to.
* ExoticDetective: Monk
* ExasperatedPerp: Usually the result of Monk's eccentricities. That page has a quote from "Mr. Monk and the Actor".
* ExpandedUniverse: The Lee Goldberg novels, although some novels would be considered non-canon such as ''Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants'' and ''Mr. Monk Goes to Germany''. The novel ''Mr. Monk on the Road'' and later novels explores what could happen after the series finale. By and large, the novels don't fit with the TV series canon, primarily because many storylines from the novels were later adapted into TV episodes. (To wit, the fourth episode in season 5, "Mr. Monk Can't See a Thing", is a modified version of ''Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse''; while ''Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu'' contributed two major plot points to "Mr. Monk and the Badge", where Monk [[spoiler:rejoins the force]]; and both the novels and the TV show had episodes about Sharona returning.) Some of the problems stem from the fact that the novels are published at a much slower rate than episodes aired.
* ExplainExplainOhCrap: Some variants.
** This one in "Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion", as Monk, Natalie, Stottlemeyer and Disher are sitting at a table after Stottlemeyer has been humiliated by some compromising slides:
-->'''Lt. Randall Disher:''' You forgot to give them the toll-free number.
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' You know, I don’t think we’re going to get any hot leads from this group, Randy. ''[Natalie looks in her purse and finds a set of earrings]''
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Oh, shoot! Dianne’s earrings. I forgot to give them back! ''[Stottlemeyer notices them]''
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' Hang on a second. ''[He takes the earrings, and sets them down on a sample in his case file]'' Whaddaya think?
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Well it looks like they’re from the same set. I mean they match perfectly.
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' Whose earrings are these?
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Dianne Brooks. She and her husband left about a half an hour ago. He said she was depressed. He’s been saying that all week.
-->'''Lt. Randall Disher:''' Were they in town Friday night?
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Um, yeah. They got in the day before. ''[Monk suddenly stands up]''
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Oh, my God. Captain, I think Dianne is in danger. I think her husband is planning to kill her. Tonight.
** This one from "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert," when Monk, Natalie and Kendra Frank are searching Stork's trailer, after Kris Kedder leaves. Natalie notices that Monk looks alarmed:
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' What is it?
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Something's missing. Did either of you move anything? ''[Natalie and Kendra look at each other]''
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Uh, no.
-->'''Kendra Frank:''' No.
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Something's different. ''[points]'' There was an envelope; a white envelope right there.
-->'''Kendra Frank:''' There was? ''[Natalie grabs a blue slip of paper from the spot Monk is pointing to]''
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Huh, it's a receipt. "Registered mail." He mailed something to himself.
-->'''Kendra Frank:''' I remember that. That was about six months ago. I went to the post office with him. He was mailing sheet music to himself. He called it his "insurance policy".
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' What song?
-->'''Kendra Frank:''' I don't know.
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' I think I do: the song Kris Kedder was just singing.
-->'''Kendra Frank:''' "Peggy's Gone to Memphis".
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Kedder didn't write that song. ''Stork'' wrote it about his daughter. "Peggy" is short for "Margaret"; "''Peggy's'' Gone to Memphis"!
-->'''Kendra Frank:''' Oh my God! He just took that envelope!
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Can't prove anything without that envelope! ''[They run out of the trailer]''
* The {{Expy}}: Franchise/SherlockHolmes, [[CaptainObvious of course]].
** The GreatDetective who is the last mind sought when no one can figure out a queer situation, [[LampshadeHanging even called Sherlock Holmes on many occasions]].
** His assistant who's background is in medicine instead of law enforcement, but whom none-the-less proves invaluable in solving crime. Here, Sharona is more equivalent to Dr. Watson with a medical background, in contrast to Natalie's background as the widow of a deceased military pilot.
** A [[InspectorLestrade smug police officer]] who makes the actual arrest, often being quick to bring the obvious suspect into the interrogation room. (After the first season Stottlemeyer begins to move away from this, generally trusting Monk's intuition, and showing genuine detective skills.)
*** Captain Stottlemeyer also bears a similarity in appearance to [[WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget Chief Quimby]]
** A brother who is even smarter who rarely puts it towards solving crime because of crippling shyness.
** An ArchEnemy who makes only sporadic appearances, usually preferring to stay in the background.
** In the TieInNovel ''Mr. Monk Is Cleaned Out'', [[FunWithPalindromes Bob Sebes]], accused of running a massive Ponzi scheme, is an Expy of Bernard Madoff.
* {{Facepalm}}ing: A couple of instances: in "Mr. Monk Is On The Air," Natalie is seen facepalming when Monk tries talking to Max Hudson and his yes-colleagues live on the radio. Also, she does it in "Mr. Monk and the Bully" when Monk tries bribing a bartender with $1.25.
* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler:Agent Derek Thorpe, the jackass FBI agent from ''Mr. Monk and the Really, Really Dead Guy,'' undergoes one in the ExpandedUniverse novel ''Mr. Monk Is A Mess.'' As it turns out, getting shown up in that episode was the beginning of a career downslide for him, which led to him stealing money from the FBI evidence locker--and killing an innocent man who caught him stashing it.]]
* FailedAuditionPlot: Monk's continued attempts to get reinstated despite being continually rejected.
* FailedASpotCheck: In his USA Network blog entry for July 28, 2006 (coinciding with but not in any way related to "Mr. Monk Can't See a Thing," which aired on that date), Stottlemeyer describes an incident where he and Randy were conned by one of his high school acquaintances, where his curiosity caused him to fail to register his suspicions until nearly too late, causing them to lose some money.
* FakeAmerican:
** Randy is played by Jason Gray-Stanford, who is actually Canadian.
** In "Mr. Monk vs. the Cobra," gravedigger Chris Downey is supposed to be an American based on his name, but he is played by British actor Mark Sheppard. In the first scene where he has dialogue, [[OohMeAccentsSlipping his British accent is slipping]].
** The first season, because it was filmed in Vancouver and Toronto, gave us lots of Canadian-sounding Californians, [[CanadaEh eh?]] These include Michael Hogan (Warren St. Claire in "Mr. Monk and the Candidate"), Linda Kash (Dolly Flint in "Mr. Monk and the Psychic"), Stephen [=McHattie=] (Lt. Adam Kirk in "Mr. Monk Goes to the Carnival"), Maria del Mar (Monica Waters in "Mr. Monk and the Other Woman"), and others.
* FakedKidnapping: In "Mr. Monk Gets Hypnotized," Sally Larkin fakes her own kidnapping, making it look like she has been abducted by her husband. Then she murders him and makes it look like self-defense. See the article page for the full details of how she does it.
* FakingAndEntering: Played straight in all variants in different episodes.
* FakingTheDead
** Happens in the Season Six finale, "Mr. Monk Is on the Run".
** Winston Brenner in "Mr. Monk and the Blackout" (Season 3) was a radical bomber in Boston who pretended to blow himself up in order to escape being prosecuted.
* FakeOutMakeOut: Averted drastically in "Mr. Monk and the Genius", when Monk and Natalie are on a stakeout. Natalie sees their suspect approaching their car, Natalie blurts out "He's coming! What do we do? Uh, we should kiss! No! I didn't say that! I wasn't thinking, I never said that!"
* FamousAncestor: When Monk and Natalie visit the Trouble historian Doris Thurlo in ''Mr. Monk in Trouble'', Monk learns he's a descendent of Artemis Monk, the old mining town's famous assayer and crime-solving genius who was the best assayer of the 1850s.
* FanserviceExtra: The nude sunbathers in "Mr. Monk and the Naked Man." Also a few unnamed extras in "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert" who can be seen either shirtless or in little more than bikinis.
* FatBastard: Morbidly obese CorruptCorporateExecutive and ManipulativeBastard Dale "The Whale" Biederbeck.
* FifteenMinutesOfFame: Natalie gets a ridiculous amount of fame from a brief stint as a lottery girl, much to Monk's chagrin.
* {{Flanderization}}: Disher started out as a skeptical semi-ditz who could be a bit of a jerk, but at least was still recognisably an adult man. Over later seasons, one wonders how a man with the mindset of a teenage rebel with ADD could've become a lieutenant, let alone [[spoiler:become a police chief in New Jersey.]]
** It's just [[spoiler:[[ButtMonkey New Jersey]]]].
* {{Flopsy}}: In "Mr. Monk and Sharona", Monk suspects the deceased man was a con artist. The man had a record of getting injured, such as being hit by a Mercedes, and then receiving monetary compensation.
* FlowersForAlgernonSyndrome: "Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine"
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Sometimes Foreshadowing involves the ChekhovsGun of the episode.
* ForgotFlandersCouldDoThat: Lt. Disher was {{flanderized}} from PluckyComicRelief to TheDitz. Thus, it fit this trope later on when he would demonstrate competent policework.
* FoundTheKillerLostTheMurderer
** Happens when Monk gets close to finding [[spoiler:Trudy's killer.]]
** All things considered, there is a form of this in Katherine Kendall's character in "Mr. Monk Buys a House". She kills her senile patient by wheeling him up the stairs and shoving him down to his death. When Monk catches onto her, she is stabbed and killed by her lover, [[HonestJohnsDealership "Honest" Jake]], to be kept from talking.
** "Mr. Monk Can't See a Thing". Monk finds Eddie Murdoch, the man who attacked him at the firehouse and killed Rusty, at Peter Breen's construction site. Murdoch, in trying to chase Monk, ends up falling down a shaft to his death. They identify him as the man who killed Rusty and Stefanie Preston, but Monk doesn't believe that Murdoch had any reason to kill the girl (his reason for killing Rusty could be that he panicked), and realizes that Peter Breen must have paid Murdoch to do the killing.
* FreezeFrameBonus: Sometimes, close-ups of newspaper articles count because you can see the text of the article.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Paperboy," when they show the close-up of an article called ''It Just Wasn't His Day'', you can see the text which includes a quote from the subject.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Three Pies," when Ambrose shows Adrian and Sharona the article about the deadly carjacking, if you freeze the close-up of the article, you can see that the victim's name is Gladys Dohan.
** In "Mr. Monk Is On the Run, Part II," if you look at the tribute poster Natalie is making, all of the pictures of Monk you see on the poster are actually production stills from various episodes from season 3 to season 6. The top row has stills from "Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion," "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert," "Mr. Monk and the Big Reward," and some others. They're all production stills, as there would be no cameraman around to capture those moments when they happened in those episodes (for instance, there's one photo on the poster that is from "Mr. Monk is On The Air" depicting Monk and Natalie in Max Hudson's studio).
** In "Mr. Monk and the Leper," freeze the image as Natalie is rising to her feet after falling out of the hot air balloon. Her pose provides an almost perfect mirror image of Andrew Wyeth's painting ''Christina's World''.
** In "Mr. Monk Buys a House," the same newspaper thing is shown when Monk is realizing that the newspaper articles in Joseph Moody's scrapbook are all articles about a depository robbery. But if you freeze the image, you may notice that the text of the article has nothing to do with the robbery - but is actually text on "Mr. Monk Goes to a Fashion Show" and "Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine".
** In "Mr. Monk's Favorite Show," look at the ballot slips during the summation: one of the actresses listed is 'Kendra Frank' for ''TheJaneAustenStory'', a possible in-joke reference to Kendra Frank, Tamara Feldman's character in "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert."
** In "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert," there are several shots, especially shots inside Stork's trailer, where you can see the words "Chapter 13 - England" on the logo on the back of Kendra's t-shirt. If you noticed that the band itself is named for is named Trafalgar....
*** When Kendra hands Stork's jacket over to Monk and Natalie, when Monk looks at a map, if you freeze it, you will notice that there are labels for all of the tents on the grounds. Going clockwise, the order of facilities on the top of the map is: bathrooms, two vending tents, the acupuncture tent, two more vending tents, a tattoo parlor, a beer tent, a security tent (at the main entrance), and a ticket office outside the front gate. On the bottom of the map are more concessions and the first aid tent.
*** When Monk, Natalie and Kendra are investigating Stork's trailer, at the moment Kendra says, "Yeah, he loved it," you can see a photo on the wall to her left of her with her arm around Stork.
*** When Monk, Natalie and Kendra are at the acupuncturist tent, when Kendra hands a photo of Stork over to Annie for identification, there's a brief close-up that goes by very fast of Stork and another woman. It may not be noticed the first time, but only if you freeze it will you notice that it's a photo of Kendra and Stork posing (you can tell from the appearance of her hair and the arched appearance of her eyebrow). It appears to have been taken no more than a day or so before the murder because it looks like the San Francisco Band Jam stage signage is seen in the background. And although Kendra mentions earlier as just being Stork's closest friend, this photo, and one seen in his trailer later on, seem to imply that she may have actually been his girlfriend.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Genius," when Natalie opens the second of Patrick Kloster's books, you will notice on the left side a page with a list of all of Patrick's books, which include ''Ultimate Chess Tactics'', ''The War Of Chess'', ''Winning Endgame Play'', ''Ninja Chess'', ''Unbeatable Chess Strategies'', ''Play Chess and Conquer'', ''Grandmaster Chess Secrets'', ''Five Moves Ahead'', and ''Power Chess Strategy''.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion," during the summation, we see a shot of Kyle Brooks uncovering his wife's papers and her old suicide note. You can't read it at regular speed, but if you freeze it, here's what you'll see on the first page when Kyle looks at it:
-->Dearest friends and loved ones,
--->By the time you read this, I will be gone. I know what you might say, "isn't there another way?" But for me, there is not. The pain is just too great and I can't bear another minute.
-->I've always felt like an outcast, ever since I was a child, and people want to say to me, "Don't worry when you get to college. That's where you'll find your miles. That's where you'll find happiness." Well here I am, senior year, and all I've found is despair. The depression is overwhelming. I can't seem to make this life work for me.
-->To my mother, father, and sister Ellen, know that this wasn't your fault. You did the best you could and that's all I ever wanted. Unfortunately, you couldn't shield me from the power of the world. Please take my possessions and send them to a worthy client.
** In "Mr. Monk's 100th Case," when James Novak is introducing Monk's case to the TV audience, you will see crime scene photos of corpses on the display behind Novak. These include photos of Debbie Ringel's mauled body from "Mr. Monk And His Biggest Fan" and the dead body of Tony Gamelobo from "Mr. Monk and the Buried Treasure".
* FriendOnTheForce: Lieutenant Disher and Captain Stottlemeyer.
* FrightDeathtrap: The Scared Stiff variant was attempted on the oldest man in the world in "Mr. Monk and the Very, Very Old Man". It didn't work, so the intended victim got smothered with a pillow instead.
* FunnyAnsweringMachine: Monk's answering machine message in "Mr. Monk Can't See a Thing" goes like: "Hello. This is Adrian... Monk. Thank you for calling my new answering machine. When you hear the beep noise, please speak into the telephone receiver and leave a message, which I will play back and listen to later. This is the end of the message, and here is the beep... I was talking about." ''[BEEP]''
* FunnyAneurysmMoment: In-universe, in the episode "Mr. Monk's 100th Case", there is an awkward scene where Monk and Natalie are interviewing a restaurant manager trying to act in-character while responding to Natalie's questions, made more humiliating given that Monk and Natalie are being followed by James Novak's camera crew:
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Mr. Gleckson, we'd like to talk to you about a woman named Cassandre Rank. I believe she used to work here.\\
'''Vampire Manager:''' ''(in character)'' Yeeessss, Cassandre Rank. She was a most delictable young girl. I remember drinking her blood; she had the most exquisite taste--\\
'''Natalie Teeger:''' She was killed two days ago. Somebody strangled her.\\
'''Vampire Manager:''' ''(breaks character)'' What? Are-are you serious? Oh my God, you-you must have thought that-- look-look you know that this is just a job, right? And this is not real blood; it's all makeup. Oh hell, and that stuff about drinking her blood? Oh crap--\\
'''Adrian Monk:''' When did she work here?\\
'''Vampire Manager:''' Uh, about a year ago. But she only worked her for about a month; 'cause she got a part in a play or something and then she split. Nobody stays here that long.\\
'''Natalie Teeger:''' There was another woman, a Barbara [=McFarland=]? She worked here too, didn't she?\\
'''Vampire Manager:''' ''(goes back into character mode)'' Yeeeesssss! Barbara [=McFarland=], she had a very delectible neck, I'm sure in fact--\\
'''Natalie Teeger:''' She was killed too.
** Arguably "Mr. Monk Gets a New Shrink", about Dr. Kroger temporarily retiring, got some shades of this after Stanley Kamel died of a heart attack in 2008.
* FunWithPalindromes
** After Dr. Kroger passed away (due to Stanley Kamel's death in 2008), Monk has difficulty finding a new one by "Mr. Monk Buys a House." He rejects one reccomended by Natalie's brother because the chairs in his waiting room were too low, and rejects another one because he has an eyepatch. Then comes Dr. Neven Bell. His first name is the same forwards as it is backwards, but Monk can't approve because the first N is capitalized, rendering the palindrome imperfect (neveN), even with Dr. Bell doing several small gestures to win his confidence over (beginning the appointment at the exact second it is scheduled, supplying Monk with his favorite bottled water, handwipes during their introductory handshake, and acquiring a painting in his office that came from Dr. Kroger's waiting room)..
** Taken UpToEleven to the point of having theme naming in the TieInNovel ''Mr. Monk Is Cleaned Out'', with Monk losing his savings to a Ponzi scheme that looked like a great idea. The scheme was masterminded by '''Bob Sebes''', an {{Expy}} of Bernard Madoff, who defrauded investors with his '''Reinier''' Investment Fund. Oh, and Bob's wife's name is '''Anna'''.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: G-I]]
* GallowsHumor:
** In "Mr. Monk Goes to the Ballgame," this happens when the Hammonds' GPS system directs them to an industrial park, where a hooded man is waiting with a pistol in hand:
-->'''GPS System:''' You have arrived at Skyline Hills Resort.
-->'''Lawrence Hammond:''' The hell I have!
-->''[The shooter steps up to the passenger's side window, and empties a pistol into the car from point blank range]''
-->'''GPS System:''' Thank you for using the Safe Voyage System.
* GasLighting
** Sharona was a victim of this, where her writing professor attempted to discredit her sanity by having her adulturer pose as a dying man with a knife in the chest and a screwdriver sticking out of his ear, stating that "Douglas is worried about her.", and then have him disappear when she tries to show them: Thrice. Turns out, she was doing this because earlier, Sharona wrote a mystery paper which was about a woman who kills her husband with a toxin that can emulate a heart attack, and the writing professor and the lover decided to repeat history on her husband, and thus cover themselves in case Sharona gets suspicious.
* GayParee: This show has had some involvement with the City of Light:
** In "Mr. Monk and the Paperboy", Monk solved a murder in France just by reading a newspaper article in the International section of the ''San Francisco Chronicle''. It's even brought up in the novel ''Mr. Monk is Miserable'', where Chief Inspector Philippe Le Roux mentions this to Monk and Natalie when he first meets them.
** Partial subversion in the novel ''Mr. Monk is Miserable'', where Natalie expects to eat croissants and whatnot while enjoying the rustic splendor of the city. As soon as she sees the lights on the Eiffel Tower, and the [[FerrisWheelOfDoom Roue de Paris]], and the Arc de Triomphe merely because L'Arche de le Defense is visible from the top of it, she launches into a long character filibuster (with which [[AuthorFilibuster Lee Goldberg]] [[PoesLaw may or may not have agreed]]) about how commercialism and "doing things bigger" has ruined her beautiful city [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks from being the way it was twenty years ago on her honeymoon with Mitch]]. [[DoubleSubverted Then]] she finds an enormous parisian flat with a personal cafe and a waterfall being run by a sewer [[strike: mutant]] vagrant (ItMakesSenseInContext) and repeatedly waxes poetically throughout the book about how Paris even has better garbage than San Francisco [[hottip:*: despite only ever seeing garbage from the 7th arrondissiment]]. [[ZigZaggingTrope Triple-subverted]] ([[{{Drama}} or was it?]]) with a [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] by Randy when the police are completely blase about a criminal plummeting to his death directly in front of them:
-->'''Randy Disher:''' Now I understand why every French movie I've ever seen ends with a suicide.
* GenderFlip: Randy's equivalent in the [[ShowWithinAShow TV show]] in season 5's "Mr. Monk in the Actor". Either PlayedForLaughs or a good ShownTheirWork thing: the show version of Randy and Stottlemeyer are acting out a scene in the episode "Mr. Monk and the Astronaut", from the crime scene investigation at Joanne Raphelson's house. Randy is really embarrassed. When the actors lean in for a kiss, the real Stottlemeyer says in a very deadpan voice: "[[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain that]] ''[[ThatDidntHappen never happened]]''." Randy says in agreement, "Not even once."
** Though Randy is also a female name (there's a character in the first ''{{Airplane}}'' film), so the in-universe producer figured they weren't doing much harm.
** Also worth noticing is that if you watch the original episode, then watch this recreation, some of the lines and dialogue dispersed throughout other scenes in the episode are condensed to one scene. TruthInTelevision, though -- Hollywood is known for drastically altering the truth about certain events for dramatic purposes.
* GenreSavvy:
** In "Mr. Monk and the Paperboy," when Monk realizes what Kevin's girlfriend plans to do, he predicts that she'll try to kill him as early as that night. He turns out to be correct.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Election," due to ChekhovsSkill, Monk recognizes a game of "keep away" when he sees one.
** "Mr. Monk Goes to the Dentist": Dr. Oliver Bloom and his assistant Terri must love ''Film/MarathonMan'' since the scene where they torture Monk with a dental drill is incredibly similar.
** "Mr. Monk Meets His Dad": Unlike his father, Adrian is smart enough to be suspicious of any trucking boss who orders you to stick to the backroads when there are more direct highways, or sends you on a back-and-forth journey that zigzags.
** In the novel ''Mr. Monk on the Road'', a combination of lampshade hanging/genre saviness happens when Natalie asks Stottlemeyer if he's noticed that about half the time Monk solves a murder right on the spot, the killer is also the person who found the body.
** Stottlemeyer describes in [[http://www.usanetwork.com/series/monk/webexclusives/blogs/stottlemeyer09.html this blog entry]] an incident where he and Randy are in a long line at a popular hot dog stand at Fisherman's Wharf. They see a guy pull up in a sports car and Stottlemeyer senses that the man is going to cut in line, so he warns Randy. They see him do just that, so they confront him and tell him to go to the back of the line. "He gave me the wiseass comments I've come to expect from punks like him -- "are you the line police, the hot dog cops, oh I get it the wiener patrol?" -- that kind of thing. Once the guy at the counter refuses to serve the man, Stottlemeyer and Disher take him aside and he threatens them with a lawsuit and insults. So Stottlemeyer looks at the man's car and gets an idea: he tells Randy a certain code to call in. So the man now changes his idle threats until the tow truck arrives to take his car away. Stottlemeyer notes that the man had parked in a red zone.
** [[http://www.usanetwork.com/series/monk/webexclusives/blogs/stottlemeyer14.html Another Stottlemeyer blog entry]]:
-->''Years ago, I was working a beat with my partner when we noticed a young kid behind the wheel of a fancy, brand-new car. He was driving erratically, and when we pulled up behind him and lit him up he turned into the Tasmanian Devil and took off. But the chase didn't last long; after only a few blocks, he over-negotiated a right turn and went up over a curb and into a storefront. We grabbed him as he was trying to make his escape through a dress shop and brought him back to the station.''\\
\\
''The kid was obnoxious and uncooperative, answering all our questions with insults and curses. He was underage and obviously under the influence of alcohol. When we ran his high school ID we discovered, not exactly to our surprise, that the punk had been listed on a number of prior police reports, for everything from stealing food from the cafeteria to threatening harm to teachers who accused him of cheating on exams. Since this little angel was a juvenile, we were obligated to contact Juvenile Hall and present our case to them for booking. This case did not qualify, which meant that only thing left to do was contact the parents and release the kid into their custody.''
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: In "Mr. Monk's Favorite Show," Monk sees a mirror on the ceiling in Christine Rapp's bedroom. He doesn't quite get the idea.
** Those swinger couples in ''Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii'' that Monk and Natalie pass while talking to their suspects, who claim to "investigate" people. Natalie tells Monk what the term really means.
** The mention of the MileHighClub trope comes up in ''Mr. Monk Goes to Germany''.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Miracle", Monk tells Natalie that her getting gravy for their small party wouldn't have been necessary as the bums, their guests, make their own gravy. When Natalie asks how they do it, Monk simply responds with "You don't want to know..."
* GilliganCut
** In "Mr. Monk Buys a House," when Jake finds a problem and realizes he'll have to run a new line through an existing wall:
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Is it going to be, you know, like [imitates the sound of a drill] messy?\\
'''"Honest" Jake Phillips:''' Nah, no way. You won't even know I was here! ''(Cuts to Jake viciously hacking a jagged hole in the wall, sending debris flying everywhere)''
** From "Mr. Monk Joins a Cult":
-->'''Randy Disher:''' ''(holding the Siblings of the Sun book)'' Monk, have you even read this thing?\\
'''Adrian Monk:''' Have you? ''(cuts to Dr. Kroger, Natalie, and Stottlemeyer outside the room, suddenly hearing Randy singing; Dr. Kroger enters and finds Randy on the floor, shirtless, singing in harmony with Monk)''
** In "Mr. Monk Is On the Run, Part 2", Stottlemeyer makes Natalie promise not to locate Monk (who is in hiding). Immediately, the scene cuts to Natalie packing a suitcase.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Employee of the Month", Monk has to go undercover at Mega-Mart, and asks Joe Christie, "What am I supposed to do? Hang out all day in the men's department?" Christie grins. The scene cuts to Monk wearing a red Mega-Mart employee's vest with a nametag that reads, "HI. I'M ADRIAN."
** In "Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion," Monk and Natalie open the student lounge freezer and find it frosted over. Monk bites his lip and says, "I'm gonna need a spatula, a pan.....and a Bible." The scene cuts to Monk midway through defrosting while Natalie is napping on the couch.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Game Show":
-->''[Monk has been to Val Birch's house with Kevin Dorfman]''
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' I have to get closer.
-->'''Kevin Dorfman:''' Closer? Yesterday, we were in the front row. You can't get much closer than that.
-->''(Cuts to the Treasure Chest set as the contestants are being introduced)''
-->'''Roddy Lankman:''' Please welcome to the show Adrian Monk! ''(Monk hesitently steps on-stage and walks over to his podium)''
** In "Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever," we open with lottery hostess Marissa Kessler doing a drawing, then she signs off wishing everyone "a lucky lotto day". The scene immediately cuts to her running out the door screaming, being chased by an assailant.
** This happens in ''Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii'', when Monk and Natalie are catching a shuttle ride to rent a car. They happen to be riding with Brian Galloway, whom Monk had earlier exposed as a bigamist who was planning to marry Natalie's friend Candace.
-->"Do you really want to ride in a bus with that pitiful excuse for a man?" Monk said, walking alongside me.
-->"I'm not the one who is going to be uncomfortable," I said, "He is."
-->"Because seeing [[DeathGlare you staring at him]] will silently remind him of how he wronged your friend?"
-->"Who said anything about being silent?" I said, "I'm going to remind him [[ClusterFBomb as loudly, and as colorfully, as I possibly can]] for the entire drive. If you've got sensitive ears, you might want to keep them covered."
-->[cut to]
-->''Brian would have bolted from the shuttle the instant we got to the airport, but he was slowed down by his luggage, so I got a few more choice words in before he escaped. Monk was so embarrassed by my language, I think he was tempted to run out, too.''
* GirlFriday: Sharona, then Natalie.
* GirlfriendInCanada: Subverted in "Mr. Monk and the Employee of the Month"; Randy's girlfriend appears to be one of these -- the picture he shows Sharona is the one that came with his wallet ("She's a wallet model!") and he gives what appears to be a LineOfSightName -- except that at the end of the episode, we actually see her waving to him from a taxi.
* TheGloriousWarOfSisterlyRivalry: Sharona and Gail appear to have this in "Mr. Monk and the Earthquake".
* GPSEvidence:
** In "Mr. Monk and the Three Pies," Ambrose points out that of course Pat van Ranken's rusted-old pickup truck runs, and that it's been to a certain section of the park, because it has yellow acorns in the truckbed that only grow in one spot in the park. Impressive knowledge of the local ecology, for a guy who ''never'' leaves his house.
** Subverted in "Mr. Monk and the Genius", where Monk realizes that one of the flowers in Patrick Kloster's yard is poisonous oleander, and takes it to the Captain as his primary evidence... where he is immediately shot down because of how common it is.
** Subverted (and possibly parodied) in "Mr. Monk and the Other Detective." Loser private eye Marty Eels shows up with all the answers and he picks up a dead mosquito off the floor of a car and is able recognize its species and genus and whatever and point out that it only appears in this one particular place in the city that the body is at. Turns out he was faking it and knew where the body was ahead of time (long story).
* GrandFinale: The show's two-part series finale, "Mr. Monk and the End":
** Part 1 -- [[spoiler:Monk happens upon the handprint of a hired killer at the murder of someone connected to Trudy's past, and the man behind Trudy's murder tells the killer to poison Monk. Discovering he has only days to live and with the hired killer dead by the end of the episode, Monk is in a race against time to put the pieces together to find out who was ultimately behind Trudy's murder. He finally opens Trudy's last Christmas gift to him, and it ends up being an "IfIDoNotReturn" message to him that may ultimately give him the clues he needs to finally solve the mystery of her murder.]]
** Part 2 -- [[spoiler:Trudy's message reveals who she was going to meet the day she was murdered -- her old law professor and her killer, Judge Rickover -- and it also reveals that she had a child by the same man, a daughter, whom she believed died. Monk puts all the pieces together and escapes from the hospital to confront Rickover, revealing that he also killed the missing midwife and buried her in his backyard. Natalie is poisoned, and the source of the poison affecting Monk is found (his wipes), allowing an antidote to be made. After Rickover confesses to the crimes, he kills himself, and his last words ("Take care of her") lead Monk to find out that Trudy's daughter is still alive.]]
* GreenAesop: Arguably, "Mr. Monk and the Garbage Strike". ([[InsaneTrollLogic By the way, the best way to deal with trash is to burn the city. Then burn the ashes and rebuild San Francisco from scratch]].) There's a simpler solution: Just throw all the trash into the bay, "one bag at a time. One truck at a time! One bag at a time." It might take a while, but at least you're making an effort!
* GrillingPyrotechnics: The murderer of the week in "Mr. Monk Makes the Playoffs" attempts to invoke this trope by rigging a fan's charcoal grill to explode by adding in gasoline that he siphoned out of his own car to silence this particular fan [[spoiler:(Long story short, the murderer was afraid that the fan in question had either witnessed his murder of the backup star quarterback or was privy to the out-of-order playbook because he was in close proximity to the quarterback shortly before he was bludgeoned and killed.)]]. Although he certainly succeeded in having the grill ignite, actually having the fan killed by the explosion wasn't nearly as successful, as the only real damage he did to the fan was burn his right hand (a good subsitute for an ice pack or bandage is to put a rubber foam glove over it). Also, unlike most uses of this trope, it wasn't PlayedForLaughs.
* HandshakeRefusal:
** Monk is a germophobe and refuses to shake hands with just about anyone. If he's forced to, he will immediately turn to his assistant for a wipe.
** In one episode he voluntarily shook hands as a sign of friendship with an ex-colleague of his, who was accused (even by Monk) of being in the drug-business (which he wasn't, which was proven of course.)
** In another episode he shook hands with a succession of people, after the last one he immediately turned to his assistant for a wipe. The problem being, the last handshakee was black, leading to much accusations of racism.
* HandyCuffs
** On "Mr. Monk Gets Married", Dalton Padron is able to grab the sheriff's gun because he was cuffed with his hands in front of him.
** "Mr. Monk Gets Jury Duty". When the SFPD hands off "most wanted" fugitive Miguel Escobar to the feds, they considerately cuff him the same way, making his escape attempt easier to accomplish.
* HannibalLecture: Dale "The Whale" Biederbeck, the extra-large [[TheSilenceOfTheLambs Mason Verger]] expy does this to unnerve people, especially Monk.
* HappyDance: Monk does the "jig" when he solves the case in "Mr. Monk Gets Fired".
* HappyFlashback
* HarsherInHindsight: InUniverse example: In "Mr. Monk and the Big Game", Lynn Hayden, Julie's basketball coach, makes a cryptic statement to Julie about their practice potentially being her last. Why? Because she is referring to the fact that she [[spoiler:plans to turn herself in to the police for accidentially starting a destructive forest fire]], but her line becomes extremely harsh when she is electrocuted and killed in the bathroom by her own brother.
* HeelFaceTurn: Harold Krenshaw, after years as Monk's nemesis Harold realizes (after being lock in a car trunk with Monk by the bad guy of the week) that the two are a lot alike and becomes his friend, then he makes a un-Krenshaw gesture and joins a new group therapy to allow Monk to have Dr. Bell to himself (though his insurance required him to only be in group therapy. The other members were murdered by the bad guy leaving only Harold and Monk so Harold leaving left Monk as the only member left).
* HeroicBSOD
** It is heavily implied that, although Trudy's death didn't cause Monk's issues, it certainly made it a lot worse than before, suffering a mental breakdown that forced him into early retirement from the force before the start of the series, and necessitated therapy as well as [[spoiler:finding Trudy's killer, not to mention learning that the car bomb was intended for Trudy all along and not a backfired assassination attempt on him]] that he ever gets better. He also has relatively minor episodes within the main HeroicBSOD, namely pertained to whether he can get his old job back or not (such as when he was not only removed from the case, but also had his detective's license revoked by the commissioner simply because he accidentially deleted a few years worth of forensic files while attempting to eliminate crumbs from the keyboard, or when a four-year hiring freeze threatened his chances of reinstatement).]]
** Stottlemeyer also suffered through it a few times.
*** [[spoiler:A notable example is when, after his wife Karen Stottlemeyer was hospitalized for a car crash that left her in a coma and necessitated brain surgery, Stottlemeyer began to have an unhealthy obsession of bringing the person responsible to justice, even to the point of dismissing basic logic, such as immediately pinning the blame on a picket union because the victims, two truck drivers, were scabs, despite the fact that the assailant responsible for sniping the first one wasn't even wearing shoes when he did it, and also assaulted the head union boss's second in command that most certainly would have gotten Stottlemeyer into trouble had the boss not covered it up. Also, when the real killer was exposed, and after it was learned that the killer in question did it first to recover incriminating evidence in a repossessed car that linked him to a bank robbery that resulted in the death of a clerk, and the second to keep them off the wrong trail, he actually throws the killer onto the hood of a police car and deeply considers beating him up badly in retribution to what he nearly did with his wife. He only barely stops himself when Sharona and Disher remind him that if he does this, he'll lose his badge, and it really isn't worth it.]]
*** A prior instance of this is where he has a cold case about a valedictorian student being killed by a drunk driver, and this combined with Monk's greater skill as a detective, left him frequently depressed. The fact that he was having marital problems stemming from not watching a documentary (which turned out to be a ChekhovsGun to finding out the murderer for both their current case and his cold case) that forced him to stay with Monk didn't help matters much]]..
* HesDeadJim: In the series finale, Monk finally accepts Trudy's death in two different ways. The first is when he opens Trudy's Christmas present, and the second is when he sleeps in the middle of the bed (rather than sleeping on one side as if to save room for Trudy).
* HeyThatsMyLine: This is a RunningGag in "Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever". The first time it happens is when Randy writes a clever BondOneLiner about what happened to the murder victim ("[[BondOneLiner It looks like her number came up]]"), and then throws his notepad at an officer who says the EXACT same thing seconds later. The second time happens during Natalie's first night as lottery hostess, where she ends by using Monk's line, "You'll thank me later!" to flatter him. Monk comments, "That's my line! I say that!" afterwards.
* HiddenInPlainSight: In ''Mr. Monk in Trouble'', it's mentioned that the gold in the old train heist vanished because it was used to line the locomotive's furnace, and the furnace was lined with soot as well.
* HollywoodPersonalityDisorders: The way the show portrays OCD is incredibly inaccurate.
** Although the writers seem to realize this, and therefore Monk is explicitly identified as having OCD maybe only once across the entire series, with characters opting to call him simply "weird" or "persnickety" when explaining his disorder to others. It's heavily toted as OCD in promotional material, however.
* HollywoodSpelling: Natalie's last name has twice been a plot point.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Election," Monk proves that a death threat letter against Natalie (running for the school board) was a diversion because he notices that although the shooter did take the time to dot his I's and cross his T's, he didn't write the last R on her last name when writing the message ("Close Ashton High, Natalie Teege Must Withdraw" is the result). This is proven when he realizes the shooter was getting her name from a custom poster with Natalie's name, from which the R had fallen off, indicating that the shooter didn't know her already.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Voodoo Curse," [[spoiler:Natalie receives a voodoo doll in the mail, sent by a killer paramedic trying to distract Monk from investigating her by tricking Natalie into thinking she will be decapitated.]] Monk realizes that the sender can't have known who Natalie was, since the sender misspelled her last name as "Teager" (with an A instead of a double E). Then [[spoiler:Angeline Dilworth, the aforementioned killer paramedic, [[NotMyDriver happens to be the one who picks Natalie up after she mistakenly ingests Reverend Jorgensen's concotion during a cleansing ritual]]. During the ride, after Monk gives TheSummation to Jorgensen in the van, Natalie is in the ambulance and happens to notice that Angeline misspells her name as "Teager" on the patient chart. A struggle breaks out.]]
* [[HonestJohnsDealership "Honest" Jake's Repairman]] / CrookedContractor: In the episode "Mr. Monk Buys A House", Monk, as the title states, bought a house belonging to a recently murdered senior citizen (who is later revealed to have been an inside man for a depository robbery during the 1960s that netted $4 million, and was killed because, as a result of his dementia, he babbled about the heist to his nurse, who wheeled him up a stairway and shoved him to his death). While Monk is getting supplies, he finds a repairman who talks and acts like an Honest John-type character, and even (allegedly) calls himself "Honest" Jake Phillips. He is later hired by Monk to help fix the house, only to essentially demolish the house even further. Turns out he had ulterior motives in trying to help "repair" the house: He was trying to locate the stash of money stolen from the bank by the previous occupant, and the aforementioned nurse, Cassie Drake, is his lover, whom he stabs and kills in her house after Monk catches on to her.
* HowWeGotHere: "Mr. Monk Goes to the Bank" starts with two police officers writing a parking ticket for an illegally parked SUV outside a bank that had just been robbed the day before. When the guy writing the ticket finds that his pen is out of ink, he and his partner decide to grab a bite to eat and let the driver off. As they get into their unit and drive away, the camera then tracks through the bank, then the vault door, to reveal Monk, Natalie, Stottlemeyer and Disher trapped inside. After the credits, we go back two days and spend the first half of the episode documenting the events leading up to this. Indeed, [[ThoseTwoGuys those two officers]] are seen again as the scene is shown again, now with context, once the main events reach this point.
* HideYourPregnancy: Traylor Howard became pregnant in the second half of season 5. To avoid causing problems, it was necessary for writers to position Natalie during scenes such that her midsection and below is hidden by items like bags, tables, or car doors. This is evident in "Mr. Monk Makes a Friend" and "Mr. Monk and the Really, Really Dead Guy". In "Mr. Monk Is at Your Service," the writers took advantage of Traylor's pregnancy by incorporating it into the episode. For most of her scenes, Natalie stands or sits in positions that make it so that we see only the section above her chest, (like behind a desk or leaning against her car with the driver's side door open). However, when she needs to rescue Monk from her old obsessive boyfriend, she wards off his advances [[PillowPregnancy by stuffing a pillow down her chest]]. For these scenes, they just filmed her like they would in normal episodes, like in the first half of the season.
* WebVideo/HitlerRants: In [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7AWsJWeT6c this]] YouTube video, Hitler hires Monk to find [[ItMakesSenseInContext Fegelein]], but things go horribly wrong.
* HonorBeforeReason: When Monk becomes Stottlemeyer's best man, he takes his duty of keeping the wedding ring safe seriously -- by holding it clenched in his fist ''for nine days straight'', like it is the only guaranteed way that you won't lose your friend's wedding ring!
* HotMom: Natalie, Sharona
* MyHovercraftIsFullOfEels: In "Mr. Monk Falls In Love," there is a scene where Monk and Natalie are in the Zemenian neighborhood trying to locate Leyla's mother. They ask a passerby, but when finding he doesn't speak English, Monk pulls out a translation book and reads out what he thinks is useful, but the on-screen subtitles reveal to us that he is actually asking, "We are looking for the sad stick." He is confused as to why no one is able to provide an answer.
** In one of [[http://www.usanetwork.com/series/monk/webexclusives/blogs/teeger28.html her blog entries on USANetwork.com]], Natalie describes herself as stumbling to use the Greek language when she was an exchange student (the entry itself expands on a small anecdote Natalie makes to Monk in "Mr. Monk and the Naked Man"), as marked here:
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Everyone was super warm and encouraging as I stumbled through my beginner's Greek, as if they were just flattered that I would even try to speak their language or something, but I ran into a few problems during my time there. I was constantly mixing up words, saying "kiss" when I meant "friend," little things like that. One time I went in to a pharmacy looking for baby powder and got nothing but blank stares when I asked for it at the counter. I learned later what I'd done wrong, and why the lady at the pharmacy had looked so confused; I'd asked her if she had any "baby dust." Another time I caused a minor panic at my host family's house when I took a phone message and announced that their friend Maria had called to say that she had just checked into the hospital. Yeah, she had just checked into a ''hotel''. A pretty important distinction, as I learned after almost giving poor Mr. and Mrs. Mavropoulos heart attacks.
* HuntingAccident: In "Mr. Monk Is At Your Service," Paul Buchanan threatens to kill Natalie's parents in this way.
* HurricaneOfPuns: In "Mr. Monk and the Bully," when Monk participates in the interrogation of Roderick Brody, who bullied him in middle school (imagine Monk's horror over getting a swirly). Monk unleashes a slew of toilet/swirly-related puns.
* HyperAwareness: Monk
* HypocriticalHumor:
** Randy cites his astrological sign (Pisces) as a reason he isn't superstitious.
** In "Mr. Monk Gets Cabin Fever," Agent Grooms tells Monk, Natalie and Stottlemeyer not to draw any attention to themselves while in public....while wearing a very conspicuous three piece suit. Natalie calls him out for it.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Actor," when Monk is in Dr. Kroger's office, talking about David Ruskin after the project is canceled:
-->'''Dr. Charles Kroger:''' And they canceled the movie [about you]?
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' He said he wanted to play a character who wasn’t so dark and depressing. ''[beat]'' He's in England playing ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}''.
* IAlwaysWantedToSayThat:
** In "Mr. Monk and the Birds and the Bees", Natalie says to Tim Sussman, "Tim, I've been waiting a long time to say this: [[TheSummation 'Here's what happened.']].."
** In "Mr. Monk and the Very Very Old Man," Stottlemeyer says to Monk, "Monk, I'm going to say something I've wanted to say for a long time: I just solved the case."
** In "Mr. Monk and the Candidate," Monk says this line when he gets to say, "[[FollowTheMoney Follow the money]]."
* IAteWhat: In one episode, Natalie is afraid of a voodoo curse and Monk hires the shaman Reverend Jorgensen to help her "get rid" of it. He initiates a complicated ritual with a potion made of some very questionable and dangerous ingredients. She hurries to drink it, which causes the horrified Jorgensen to inform her it was supposed to be applied to the skin. Cue rush to the hospital with attempted homicide included.
* ICantBelieveAGuyLikeYouWouldNoticeMe: How Monk feels about his Trudy, even years after they got married.
* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: Every single episode has "Mr. Monk" in the title, always at the beginning of the title (the only episode where it ''isn't'' at the beginning is "Happy Birthday, Mr. Monk").
* IdiotBall: Disher was born with one melded to his hands.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Game Show," Monk's father-in-law, who produces the game show ''Treasure Chest'', knows that the current champion Val Birch is cheating. Monk is convinced, since when he meets the repeat winner, [[WhatAnIdiot Birch does not seem to know what the Golden Gate Bridge is]].
* [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace I Just Shot Monk In the Leg]]: Natalie accidentally discharges a bullet into Monk's good right leg in "Mr. Monk on Wheels" due to lack of proper firearms training.
* IllTakeThatAsACompliment: Paul Crawford, the reporter in "Mr. Monk Fights City Hall", is very proud of his talent to take nearly anything that is said as a compliment.
* ImprobableAimingSkills: In the second part of the series premiere, Monk manages to aim and shoot the perpetrator holding Sharona hostage in the dark. "Aiming" here is key, as that's what separates it from AccidentialAimingSkills.
* ImplausibleDeniability:
** At the beginning of "Mr. Monk and the Garbage Strike", we see Monk manage to put all his trash in cardboard boxes, and desperate, he writes an address for the UPS man to send the trash to. About halfway through the episode, an epic BrickJoke: Monk is seen talking to Dr. Kroger about his reasons for hating garbage, [[FunnyBackgroundEvent while men can be seen tossing a large number of trash bags into the courtyard in the background]]. There is an awkward silence, and then:
-->'''Dr. Charles Kroger:''' Adrian, have you been sending me your trash?
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' ''[laughs]'' No.
-->'''Dr. Charles Kroger:''' See...I've been getting boxes of ''trash'', sent to ''me'' in the mail.
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Really?
-->'''Dr. Charles Kroger:''' Yeah, really. Now, Adrian, don't try to deny it. It's all sorted by color and food groups. It’s ''your'' handwriting on the label.
** In "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert," Monk accidentally walks into a port-a-potty while he's looking for the payphones, which are a few feet to his right. As soon as he shuts the door, the camera stays firmly focused on the exterior door [[OverlyLongGag for about a full minute]]. Then Monk emerges, shutting the door behind him:
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Oh! Oh! ''[rushes over, exasperated]'' Mr. Monk! What are you doing?!
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' I was just calling for a taxi; they're gonna pick me up out front in about ten minutes! ''[Natalie smiles, amused]''
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' But, Mr. Monk, that ''wasn't'' a phone booth!
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' No that wasn't a phone booth. Natalie, it was that horrible, ''plastic'' outhouse! ''[Natalie loops her arm around his and slowly leads him away]'' Oh my God, what was I talking into?! Oh my God, where--where did I put that quarter?! For the love of God, Natalie! Where did I put that quarter?! ''[A repairman breaks open the port-a-potty next to them and Stork's body falls out]''
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' ''[gasps]'' Oh my God!
** Also from "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert" is the scene where Stottlemeyer catches Randy in the act of PlayingSick. Even though Randy's denials on the phone could be plausible, they are rendered implausible because Stottlemeyer is calling from literally less than 15 feet away and can clearly see that he's perfectly healthy. This borders into ICanSeeYou territory.
** From "Mr. Monk and the Leper," Randy denies ever having met Dr. Aaron Polanski, then Natalie tells him that there are photos of him in the doctor's waiting room.
* INeverSaidItWasPoison: Played with a lot, especially in the episode "Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine" where Monk, under the influence of medication that makes him go loopy, actually forgets that the suspect was indeed told the details of the investigation. At different points, Monk, Natalie, Stottlemeyer and Disher are all very much GenreSavvy about this trope.
** There are many episodes with cases where the perpetrator incriminates himself or herself by unwittingly mentioning something about a case that only the police and the perpetrator would know.
** In "Mr. Monk's 100th Case", Stottlemeyer admits in an interview that he withholds specific details from the press in order to make it easier to separate useless leads from potential suspects, a strategy that is very commonly practiced in real life.
* InsaneTrollLogic: Happens a few times in the novels when Monk sees someone doing something he finds disgusting from his perspective -- which causes him to call said person out with a very interesting idea of the consequences of their actions, to the point that Natalie has occasionally said it might make sense to Monk in some way but not to her. Though occasionally, he does actually have a point, for instance, with the grape stepping on "Mr. Monk Gets Drunk".
* InspectorLestrade: Captain Stottlemeyer (when sober). When drunk, however, [[DrunkenMaster Captain Stottlemeyer can match or outdo Monk]]. He solved the murder of a man's wife with two pictures.
* IResembleThatRemark: In "Mr. Monk and the Actor".
-->'''Adrian Monk''': He [David Ruskin]'s completely obsessed - and not in a good way, like me.
* {{Irony}}:
** In the episode "Mr. Monk's 100th Case", Monk manages to deduce that the host of the TV magazine news show ''In Focus'' is the true murderer of one of the victims. Ironically, the host in question had just done an episode relating to Monk's 100th case since coming out of retirement.
** In "Mr. Monk, Private Eye," Jay Bennett has a motor yacht called ''The Lucky Lady'', which is ironic because he kills his mistress on it.
* IronicEcho:
** In "Mr. Monk Joins a Cult," 'Father' Ralph Roberts hands Monk his book, and says, "Take it. The more you read, the more you know. ''The more you know, the less you don't know''." Monk repeats the italicized part back to him at the end when he and Natalie are exposing Father's back pain problem in front of a group of his followers.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Very Very Old Man," Stottlemeyer and Monk bring up an unsolved hit-and-run case.
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' I mean, how can you live with yourself? You gotta tell someone.
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' The urge to confess...
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' It's the cop's best friend.
** It is repeated when Miles Holling's time capsule is dug up:
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' "On December 7th, 1998, I killed Darren Leveroni with my car. May God forgive me because I will never forgive myself. Signed, Dennis Gammill." ''[breathing heavily]'' The urge to confess...
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' It's the cop's best friend.
** In "Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever," we see Monk use Natalie's back to sign an autograph for an enthusiastic patrol cop. Later, Natalie does the same thing back to him when signing an autograph for some lottery fans.
* IThinkYouBrokeHim: On "Mr. Monk and the Employee of the Month", Sharona's kid and his friend dump a puzzle on the floor for Monk to sort, which ends up leading the detective to a EurekaMoment, holding up two pieces and staring at them. One of the kids
comments, "Uh oh. I think we broke him."
* IWasYoungAndNeededTheMoney: [[spoiler:Sharona]] in "Mr. Monk Meets the Playboy"
* ItTastesLikeFeet: In "Mr. Monk Gets Drunk," Monk sees wine stompers at work:
-->'''Wine Expert:''' Wine stomping. It's a tradition that goes back thousands of years to the Greeks. We're one of the last wineries in California that at least makes some of their wines using this method.
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' ''[clearly disgusted]'' Oh, my God! People actually ''drink'' that?!
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Yeah, I think so.
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Are they insane?! Ask her if they're insane!
** Monk is horrified to find that his favorite Cabarnet is also made in this method:
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' I've been drinking that wine for fifteen years! It's foot wine! I can taste it!
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Oh, come on, you cannot taste it!
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' I... I... I... can. I can taste the feet now. And the toes. And what's between the toes.
-->'''Al Nicoletto:''' ''[nodding in agreement]'' And the fungus. It really is barbaric.
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Okay, I didn't see any fungus! Look, I'm sure they have clean feet! There are probably rules about that stuff....''[She trails off as she sees the grape stompers walk past them, stepping barefoot across the obviously muddy ground]'' OK, I admit it, that's pretty disgusting.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: J-M]]
* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: Stottlemeyer in the first part of "Mr. Monk and the End". "Your computer crashed."
* JackTheRipoff: This is the trope that [[spoiler:James Novak]] uses in "Mr. Monk's 100th Case" - he strangles and kills his girlfriend Kate Kindel and passes her death off as another victim of Douglas Thurman, an active serial killer who has strangled three young women in identical fashion. What tipped Monk off was the fact that Kindel was strangled from behind (like a surprise attack) while the first three victims were strangled from in front (like they were facing their killer), and the fact that when Thurman killed himself, he had Mexican currency in his possession as he was fleeing to Mexico, but the Kindel killing happened north of San Francisco, which to Monk made no sense (Basically, why would a wanted killer go out of the way to take one more victim before fleeing south?).
* {{Jerkass}}
** Monk. Probably to make him less pathetic, but the way he treated the people around him in the last few seasons, especially Natalie, makes one want to smack him. Monk's usual level of jerkiness is nothing compared to the way he behaves in "Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine," due to the side effects of his anti-OCD medication.
** Natalie becomes somewhat of a diva in "Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever" when she becomes a lottery hostess. If Monk sounds like a jerk talking to her in parts, he is actually very justified, in that he's being increasingly irritated with Natalie being too focused on her lottery job. He's also somewhat disturbed by her shift in personality, especially after an incident where she furiously lashes out at a sound engineer after tripping over some sound wires, which a normal person (or someone like Monk) would just try to be more careful around and not make such a fuss about.
*** She was also sort of Jerkass-like in "Mr. Monk vs. the Cobra." See Headscratchers for more.
** 90-odd percent of perps fit this trope. Regarding {{Jerkass}} villains, special mention must go to Max Hudson in "Mr. Monk Is on the Air". Truly one of the most hateful bastards the show has ever produced, especially since he humiliates Monk and Natalie on separate occasions (Natalie is really offended when Randy tells her that he likes the show). To put it in perspective, Steven Weber, the actor who played Max, who formerly worked with Tony Shalhoub in ''Series/{{Wings}}'', after reading what his character does to Monk in regards to Trudy's car bomb accident, actually ''begged'' the producers of ''Monk'' not to have him do that scene.
** Special mention goes to Agent Derek Thorpe, the obnoxious FBI agent in "Mr. Monk and the Really, Really Dead Guy". With his arrogance, some viewers complained that it would have made sense if he were the killer (explaining why he appeared to be stonewalling the investigation of a brutal homicide). The way he treated Monk like dirt makes you want to smack him.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Sharona
* {{Jossed}}: The plot of at least one of the books (about a Sharona/Natalie crossover) cannot happen thanks to the final season featuring a Sharona/Natalie crossover.
* JurisdictionFriction: Played straight and averted.
** There is little evident friction between the San Francisco Police Department and other Bay Area police forces (Oakland, San Mateo County, Alameda County, Marin County). In both novels and episodes alike, whenever the characters must go outside San Francisco, like to the East Bay, local police get called.
** Between the SFPD and federal agencies (like the ATF and the FBI), the trope is played straight.
*** For instance, in "Mr. Monk and the Really, Really Dead Guy" when the FBI takes over a serial killer case and starts bossing Captain Stottlemeyer and the other main characters around, and the lead agent Derek Thorpe is a complete jerk to them (for the record, this also is a case that would ''never happen'' in real life, because the FBI has absolutely no jurisdiction over a routine homicide case unless the killer crossed state lines in the process of committing the crime, or it was committed during something that falls to federal jurisdiction like bank robbery).
*** In "Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Suspect," Stottlemeyer brings Monk and Sharona in on the Amanda Babbage mailbombing case because the people at the ATF "are in charge and are not shy about saying so".
*** Stottlemeyer shows further contempt for Agent Grooms in "Mr. Monk Gets Cabin Fever" when he's assigned to be Monk's supervising agent during Monk's time in WitnessProtection.
*** In ''Mr. Monk is a Mess'', Monk and Natalie get themselves into hot water with Agent Thorpe and a few other FBI personnel after a woman named Michelle Keeling kills herself in Natalie's house and some marked mob money from a sting operation, money that was stolen from an FBI evidence storage room, is discovered under Natalie's mattress.
* JustPlaneWrong: Almost everything to do with the F-22 Raptor also qualifies in "Mr. Monk and the Astronaut": Such as Natalie mistaking a sidewinder missile for a nuclear weapon, or the warheads just being left out like that. Or... anything else in the entire sequence. Also, if you look closely, one of the soldiers has an AK-pattern rifle, painted black. This might be due to production problems, like the relative availability of AK-pattern prop guns.
* JustTrainWrong: In "Mr. Monk and the Buried Treasure," there's one scene where Monk, Natalie, and Troy Kroger and his friends are milling near a grade crossing, trying to figure out the next part of the map. Then a commuter train speeds through the crossing. What makes it so train wrong on so many levels is that the show is set in the San Francisco Bay Area, yet the train we see is a Metrolink train. Metrolink is Los Angeles's commuter railroad system. Therefore, they're not in Niles Canyon (the closest thing there is to the geography they are in; which also has railroads running through it including the Altamont Commuter Express (ACE) trains), but rather they are in Soledad Canyon on the Antelope Valley Line at a turnoff that leads to an abandoned barn.
* KarmaHoudini: In "Mr. Monk and the Bully", Roderick Brody, the guy who bullied Monk in high school, is rich, successful, having a hot wife, and believes all the cruel things he did to him where nothing more than dumb jokes on his part. And worse of all, he wasn't the killer -- though he nearly got framed up by his wife's identical twin.
* KentBrockmanNews: Brandy Barber in "Mr. Monk and the Man Who Shot Santa" definitely qualifies. For one thing, most of her reports are emotionally charged rather than done rationally, and often has her skewing the story to humiliate the interviewee. Her story about Monk's shooting of a BadSanta with his own weapon in self-defense is rigged such that it portrays the incident as deliberate. As a result, Monk and Natalie get harassed everywhere they go, but the city takes a HeelFaceTurn once Monk stops the diamond heist said BadSanta was trying to commit. It seems that pretty much everyone - except the police officers in the San Francisco Police Department - believes Barber's reports.
* LackOfEmpathy: Although several of the killers in the show do commit heinous crimes, few truly stand out as having lack of empathy.
** One aversion would be Jack Leverett in "Mr. Monk and the Actor". He clearly doesn't feel that good about either his first killing or his second one.
** "Honest" Jake Phillips in "Mr. Monk Buys a House" has some empathy - you can see he has a MyGodWhatHaveIDone look and appears visibly shaken after he stabs and kills his girlfriend.
** From "Mr. Monk and the Captain's Wife," Evan Coker shoots a tow truck driver with a hunting rifle in order to retrieve a pistol from his repossessed car. The driver's truck then promptly swerves in front of Stottlemeyer's wife Karen, causing her to crash and get knocked into a temporary coma. In the ending, while being arrested by the police, Coker is shown chuckling and smiling after Stottlemeyer almost goes [[UnstoppableRage ballistic]] and beats him down because of this.
** In "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert," Kris Kedder kills roadie Stork Murray to keep the roadie from revealing that Kedder committed copyright theft. When Monk, Natalie and Kendra show up to question him, Kedder appears to show empathy for Stork's death, but Kendra can clearly see through it:
-->'''Kris Kedder:''' ''[singing to some women]'' "Peggy's gone to Memphis / Daddy's all alone..." ''[Monk, Natalie and Kendra come up. Kedder stops]''
-->'''Kendra Frank:''' Excuse me. This is Adrian Monk and Natalie Teeger. They're with the cops.
-->'''Roadie in Hawaiian Shirt:''' Cops?
-->'''Kendra Frank:''' Yeah, they're looking into what happened to Stork.
-->'''Kris Kedder:''' What's the big mystery? He's been chasing that dragon for years. I tried to help him.
-->'''Kendra Frank:''' ''[disgusted]'' When did ''you'' try to help him? ''[to Monk]'' See now that he's dead, everyone's his best friend! ''[to Kedder]'' Where were you when he was sinking?
-->'''Kris Kedder:''' Where were you?
** "Mr. Monk Is On The Air": Max Hudson certainly doesn't have any when Monk brings up Trudy on the air, although his sidekicks do. He makes some tasteless and offensive jokes about Trudy, [[BerserkButton which proves to be a bad idea because it causes Monk to attack him in the booth]].
** In "Mr. Monk's 100th Case," Hal Tucker admits to James Novak he actually felt some empathy for Monk's troubles when he was being arrested.
** In "Mr. Monk Buys a House," 'Honest' Jake Phillips comes across Monk at a hardware store and emphathizes with Monk's difficulties in finding a good showerhead to convince Monk he is very useful.
* LampshadeHanging
** The 100th episode might as well have been called "Ode to Lampshades". It has so many.
** "Mr. Monk and His Biggest Fan" does its fair share of hanging as well.
* LaughingMad: Monk briefly undergoes this trope in "Mr. Monk and the Garbage Strike" when, [[spoiler:after being driven insane by the continuing piling of garbage as well as his earlier failure to find the one responsible for the murder of the saniation union boss due to being wrong the first time around, hijacks a city garbage truck, and is planning to dump it into the bay, and implies to do the same with every garbage truck available until the city is clean]], as well as coming up with an even less credible and ridiculously hillarious theory that ''Alice Cooper'' killed the union leader due to envy over his owning a chair. In case you're wondering how it's less credible, the first theory was only wrong in that the Mayor killed the union leader, and everything else was spot on, even the Mayor visiting the union leader the night of his death. The second theory, however missed out on a lot of the evidences observed by Monk earlier, and was simply too ludicrous to be true. Randy takes it so seriously that he starts poking holes in it until Stottlemeyer asks him, "Do we really need to poke holes in the 'Alice Cooper wants a wingback chair' theory?"
* LargeHam: Tim Curry's portrayal of Dale the Whale.
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: In the second season ("Mr. Monk and the TV Star"), Marci Maven (Sarah Silverman) becomes a fan of Monk's work. At the end of the episode, she says something about how he's such a great detective "one day you'll get your own TV show." And then she ask him "if you ever do get your own TV show, ''[[TheyChangedItNowItSucks don't change the opening song]]''." When the credits roll, rather than the second season song, they're playing the first season theme.
** Additionally, many characters were named after the show's producers. Murder victim Stefanie Preston in "Mr. Monk Can't See a Thing" was named for a writer, and the judge in "Mr. Monk Takes the Stand" is named for Anthony Santa Croce. Schizophrenic ex-detective Cynthia "Cindy" Chow in ''Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu'' was also named for a producer.
* LeftTheBackgroundMusicOn: In "Mr. Monk and the Leper", Stottlemeyer and Disher are searching a missing pianist's apartment. Randy sees a piano and starts doodling on it.
-->'''Captain Stottlemeyer:''' What are you doing?\\
'''Lt. Randy Disher:''' [[LampshadeHanging Background music.]] ''(continues with same riff)''\\
'''Captain Stottlemeyer:''' You know, they don't keep playing the same thing over and over.\\
'''Lt. Randy Disher:''' Sure they do. ''(continues)''\\
'''Captain Stottlemeyer:''' ''(annoyed)'' Hard to concentrate!\\
'''Lt. Randy Disher:''' Isn't it? ''(continues)''\\
''(Randy plays a dramatic chord as Stottlemeyer makes important discovery)''\\
''(same riff continues in background as they examine the evidence)''
** Even funnier - Randy is doodling out the original theme used in the season 1 version of the opening credits sequence.
** "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert" has this trope more naturally: rather than the usual light melodies, this episode has an all-rock music soundtrack. The idea is that most of the soundtrack is supplied by the music that is being performed on stage. It would almost be perfect, apart from the fact that a few of the tracks are repeated (e.g. the song that is playing when Monk is in the parking lot is played again minutes later when Monk and Natalie are first talking with Kendra Frank).
* LickedByTheDog: "Dog...lick...hand! Boil water!"
* LimitedWardrobe: A rare non-animated version; Monk likes consistency in every aspect of his life, and this extends to wearing nearly-identical suits at almost all times, with most exceptions being when a different style is required (i.e. his old police uniform when trying to get his badge back).
** In contrast, Natalie has the reverse, a seemingly UnlimitedWardrobe. Her general outfits tend to change from season to season.
* LineOfSightName: In "Mr. Monk Fights City Hall", Harold Krenshaw asks Monk for the name of his new therapist, and Monk gives the pathetic name "Dr. Door". Harold pulls him up on it and asks if he saw a fire alarm, would he say "Doctor Bell"? This is followed by a marvellous SpitTake from Natalie.
* TheLivingDead: This effect failure has cropped up in a few episodes. One of the most glaring is in "Mr. Monk and the Genius": when Monk is leaning next to Linda Kloster's body at the crime scene, you can see her chest rise at the point where Monk says "I don't know." Apparently they couldn't use a dummy to avoid this problem. Also, in "Mr. Monk Goes to the Hospital," Dr. Whitcomb's actor does this during the crime scene investigation.
* LivingLieDetector: Averted in "Mr. Monk and the Other Detective": the living lie detector is faking it.
* LockedRoomMystery:
** "Mr. Monk and the Panic Room," where records producer Ian Blackburn is shot and killed in his locked panic room. The police arrive, cut through the panic room door, and find him dead with his own monkey Darwin holding the gun.
** "Mr. Monk Is Underwater": Commander Whitaker shoots the naval second-in-command Jason Pierce and passes his death off as a suicide. Ultimately, a Series/{{Columbo}} device (a firecracker lit with a cigarette to create a fake gunshot) is used to delay the presumed time of death so that it will seem like Whitaker was outside the room when Pierce was killed.
* LoonyFan[=/=]StalkerWithACrush: Marci Maven. Monk and Natalie are somewhat disturbed when she ropes them into clearing her dog's name. What's frightening to them is that she's wearing Monk's old pants, she has furnished her house with much of the stuff he throws out, and she has plastered the wall in pictures of him, also even making a bobblehead of him. Also, she has an inaccurate diorama of "Mr. Monk and the Three Pies," and is starting a song about the detective.
* LostInCharacter: "Mr. Monk and the Actor" has David Ruskin succumb to this trope
* LuxuryPrisonSuite: Dale the Whale's last appearance. [[spoiler:Until he loses it trying to frame Monk when he attempted to assassinate the governor.]]
* LyingCreator: "Mr. Monk and the End" opens with a flashback to Trudy's death. We see that Monk and Stottlemeyer had ''just'' started a case about a missing nurse when they found out about Trudy's death. Said murder had been advertised for years as "the only case Monk never solved." [[spoiler:Except that it turns out that the missing nurse was killed by the same guy who killed Trudy, for the same reason.]]
* MadnessMantra: When Monk breaks down during the garbage strike and tries to get rid of the trash himself by driving it into the sea, he keeps muttering "One bag at a time, one truck at a time!" to himself.
* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: The nature of a lot of murders
* TheManBehindTheMan: Warrick Tennyson was hired by Frank Nunn, who worked for the Judge.
* ManChild: Monk becomes one through hypnosis in "Mr. Monk Gets Hypnotized". He gets better, though. It's also hinted that even during this state, he still innately could find clues about the actual murder, although his way of expressing these facts is much different -- like tasting a piece of gum taken off Sally Larkin's ''shoe''. It's kind of gross, but just from tasting the gum, Monk is able to determine that Sally had actually killed her husband at his house instead of at the cabin she was supposedly hiding in, because it turns out the gum is a piece of Randy's homemade diet blueberry chewing gum.
* MauveShirt: Kevin Dorfman. [[spoiler:He's murdered in "Mr. Monk and the Magician".]]
* MakeTheDogTestify: Averted through LampshadeHanging. Captain Stottlemeyer tells Randy that there is a law prohibiting animals from testifying. Randy responds that it could easily be changed, as it ''is'' California, where stranger things happen every day.
* MatchCut: A few cases.
** In "Mr. Monk Gets Hypnotized," we see Monk at the hypnotist Dr. Lawrence Climan's office. The camera cuts to the plants outside the office window, and pans across the bushes, dissolving and moving to Stottlemeyer and Disher organizing a search party at Sally Larkin's house.
** In "Mr. Monk and the End," when the car bomb kills Trudy, flames shoot out of the side of the garage. The camera follows the flames up into the blue sky, then pans back down on a birthing clinic where Monk and Captain Stottlemeyer are questioning Dr. Malcolm Nash.
** In "Mr. Monk Gets Drunk," Al Nicoletto kills Rudy in a hotel room, then looks at the postcard Rudy received from Ben Gruber - a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge. As Nicoletto looks at the picture, the camera zooms in on it, immediately turning into the show's title card.
* [[MeaningfulBackgroundEvent Meaningful Foreground Event]]: Monk is obsessing over the fact that Harold Krenshaw has, apparently, lost his phobias and become a daredevil. While he and Stottlemeyer are engaged in a contest of bladders, Monk's coffee table is perfectly aligned. In an [[ContinuityNod earlier season]] we saw that Monk always keeps it cock-eyed. That he doesn't care about '''that''' shows that he's more obsessed with '''this'''.
* MeaningfulName: Monk is a creature of habit.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Miracle," one of the three homeless men who go to Monk and Natalie is named "the Professor". Natalie initially thinks that he's named that because he is an intellect who wants to know about the world, then the Professor says, "I eat books."
* MediaScrum: The main characters do have to deal with this on a few occasions.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Garbage Strike," they are really prominent.
** "Mr. Monk and the Billionaire Mugger" is a prominent example, as Stottlemeyer is under pressure to solve the Sydney Teal murder investigation, but it's also burdened by the fact that a uniformed police officer (later determined to have been an actor Teal had hired to congratulate Archie Modine had Modine not been planning to shoot him [Teal]) was seen fleeing the scene afterwards. The press latch onto that second subplot, calling him "Fraidy Cop". At one press conference, Stottlemeyer actually tries to make reporters shut up about Fraidy Cop by saying, "I have another statement, and here it is: The next reporter that asks me about this so-called Fraidy Cop is going to be banned from all press conferences for a year."
* MetaCasting: Stanley Tucci, one of the actors originally considered for the role of Monk, stars in "Mr. Monk and the Actor" as David Ruskin, who is playing Monk in a TV adaptation of "Mr. Monk and the Astronaut". Creator/AlfredMolina, who had also auditioned for the role, appears in "Mr. Monk and the Naked Man" as an engineer.
* MethodActing: InUniverse, David Ruskin in "Mr. Monk and the Actor". This conversation Natalie has with Monk in a back alleyway after she excuses herself from a crime scene investigation as Monk coaches Ruskin on his "it's a gift and a curse" catchphrase:
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' There you are! What are you doing?
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Just getting some air.
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' There's a lot of air inside. Everybody's in there breathing away.
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Yeah, it's a little stuffy for me in there. "It's a gift! And a curse! It's a gift and a curse, it's a gift and a curse!"
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Okay?
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Okay Mr. Monk, don't you see? It's already happening!
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' What is?
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Okay, I've been doing a little research on your new "pal". Two years ago, David Ruskin played an alcoholic in a TV movie. He got so into it, he had to check himself into rehab for three months!
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' A lot of people check themselves into rehab.
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' He doesn't drink! That's the thing! He had all the symptoms of an alcoholic without drinking! He's had at least two other breakdowns! Mr. Monk, I think this man is dangerous! I think he's dangerous to you.
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Maybe he's just dedicated. Did you ever think of that? ''[Natalie sighs]'' Natalie, they're making a movie about me! Now this is something I might actually come close to, almost, enjoying!
* MileHighClub: Mentioned in ''Mr. Monk Goes to Germany'' when Monk, on Dioxynl, is seen disembarking the plane with a hot reporter. Natalie decides not to bother trying to explain the concept to him. This goes into GettingCrapPastTheRadar territory.
* MissFanservice:
** FanserviceExtra: Quite a number of women, primarily extras, appear in "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert" who qualify for this. In particular, the girl that Monk tosses the beachball to the first time it hits him. Tamara Feldman as Kendra Frank also may qualify as she's wearing a t-shirt with very short sleeves.
** Natalie appears to exhibit this trope in "Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever" when she's in her lottery hostess dresses.
* MistakenForBadass: Quite a few times. One good example is when Monk, disguised as a strangely identical hit man, straightens a fellow mobster's tie -- which apparently is taken for an intimidating gesture, given that the guy he was doing it to was inquiring about where the body of one of Monk's doppelganger's victims is buried.
* MistakenForExhibit: In "Mr. Monk Takes the Stand", a flashback during Monk's testimony shows that at the victim's house, he mistakenly believed a display stand was an art piece. He also does the same with a Windex container in ''Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu''.
* MistakenForRacist: In "Mr. Monk and the Marathon Man", Monk is meeting with a group of people at the marathon committee's office, and has a wipe ready to wipe his hands after all handshakes are complete. Unfortunately, the last person to shake his hand is a black man, and Monk wipes his hands right after. This trope is played straight, racism is implied and accused. Afterwards, everyone there regards him with contempt.
* MonochromeCasting: Tony Shalhoub, though born in America, is Lebanese, but Monk is supposed to be white.
* MoodWhiplash: The show is fearless about switching between drama and comedy.
** The best examples, by far, are in "Mr. Monk and the End". Here's one: Dr. Matthew Shuler informs Monk he's going to die. He'll feel better, then there'll be vomiting, followed by death. [[ComicallyMissingThePoint Monk, however, wants death to happen before the vomiting]].
*** Also in the Part 1 prologue, when Dr. Malcolm Nash sees Monk trying to straighten out the umbilical cord on a baby model, he points out that they're not supposed to be perfectly straight. Stottlemeyer says, "But his was." Then he gets the phone call about Trudy's death.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Captain's Wife," we have Monk and Stottlemeyer watching garbage pickup, which itself is pretty amusing. Then as soon as the garbagemen leave, Randy arrives to tell Stottlemeyer that Karen has been hospitalized.
* TheMourningAfter. Monk is married. His wife is dead, but he's still married.
* MuggingTheMonster: Here are a few examples.
** In "Mr. Monk Goes to the Dentist," an ex-cop named Denny Jardeen is part of a crew that holds up an armored car. In the fight, one guard punches Jardeen, breaking one of his teeth, then Jardeen shoots him. Jardeen goes to Dr. Oliver Bloom, his dentist, to get his tooth repaired, but under anasthesia, he [[LooseLips divulges everything about the robbery to Dr. Bloom without knowing it]]. Greedy, Dr. Bloom and Terri go to where the money from the heist is being stored and steal it. They kill Jardeen while operating on Randy for a toothache when he figures out what happened and confronts them.
** In ''Mr. Monk on Patrol'', two rogue Summit police officers, Raymond Lindero and Walter Woodlake, are arrested for a rash of burglaries. However, they insist that they are innocent of committing one burglary in which a woman, Pamela Goldman, was bludgeoned and killed. Their alibi is that they were robbing a Mr. Prosser, who lives nearby, when the killing was committed. Monk and Natalie visit Mr. Prosser, only for him to tell them no one burglarized him the day of the murder. As a result, Randy considers the rogue officers as having very weak alibis as a result. However, later, Monk and Natalie are called to a trespassing call at an electronics store for a man who has camped out in front of the store's TV merchandise, and Monk suddenly realizes that the rogue officers have been cleared off the murder charge - the reason why Mr. Prosser, the man they were robbing, never called the police is because if he had, they would have discovered that he was selling bootlegged merchandise out of his house, which itself is also a crime.
* MundaneMadeAwesome: Monk's reaction in "Mr. Monk on Wheels" to discovering Dean Berry's square tomatoes. He is literally beside himself with joy, since each slice is the ''exact'' same size and won't overlap in sandwiches.
-->'''Monk:''' You can taste the ''symmetry''!
** Of course, there is a small SeriesContinuityError with this - in "Mr. Monk Goes to the Asylum", Dr. Morris Lancaster reads from Monk's patient chart that Monk is allergic to tomatoes.
* MurderMakesYouCrazy: At least to all appearances in "Mr. Monk is on the Run". [[spoiler:When Frank Nunn is shot dead, to all appearances by Monk himself, he acts really disoriented and neurotic (more so than usual). Driving in circles while attempting to steal a pickup truck (as the club is locked around the steering wheel), and stopping to re-thread his torn prison uniform with the correct color thread, are probably good examples.]]
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: There are a few cases where a killer does look visibly shaken after committing their murder. For instance:
** In "Mr. Monk and the Actor," Jack Leverett looks shaken after killing his mistress in the heat of a fight. When he shoots the pawn shop owner, he looks at the revolver he used in the shooting, horrified, after the owner is killed.
** In "Mr. Monk Buys a House," when "Honest" Jake Phillips stabs and kills his girlfriend Cassie Drake in her house, he is seen shedding a tear immediately afterwards. However, he doesn't show this look when he shoots and kills Honest Ramone.
* MysteryMagnet: Monk is one. Indeed, not a single corpse that he runs across has ever died of a natural death.
** This has been lampshaded a couple of times. In the novel ''Mr. Monk on Patrol'', after Monk and Natalie are nearly incinerated by an arsonist who sets their hotel rooms on fire with a Molotov cocktail, Officer Walter Woodlake tells Randy (paraphrased), "Chief, I thought these two were supposed to drive crime down, not up." In ''Mr. Monk Is Miserable'', Natalie says she feels like she'll have to start carrying body bags around.
* MythArc: Finding Trudy's killer is the main arc, but there are several other arcs within the series, such as Stottlemeyer's relationship with Linda Fusco (one season 5 and two season 6 episodes).
* MythologyGag:
** In "Mr. Monk Goes to the Dentist," we were introduced to Randy's single, "I Don't Need a Badge," a condescending rock song directed at Stottlemeyer following Randy's temporary resignation from the force. In the novel ''Mr. Monk is Miserable'', when Randy is introduced at the Paris police prefecture, Inspector Guy Gadois identifies him right away, and apparently has heard the song a lot. EarWorm InUniverse, probably. Gadois's only changes to the lyrics have been replacing some American terminologies with European ones - "captain" with "Inspector" and "mustache" with "goatee". Natalie is somewhat disturbed, as is Stottlemeyer.
** In "Mr. Monk's 100th Case," the first time Randy is interviewed on the documentary, the banner incorrectly displays his rank as "Sgt." He was mistakenly called "Sgt. Disher" in "Mr. Monk Goes to a Wedding".
** Lee Goldberg seems to have set many of his novel series in one universe. Lieutenant Ben Keoloha and the Grand Kiahuna Poipu resort in ''Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii'' had appeared in one of the ''DiagnosisMurder'' novels.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Captain's Marriage," one scene shows the vagrant Gerald Vengal reading out of one of Lee Goldberg's ''DiagnosisMurder'' novels to his pet gerbil Devo.
* MrFanservice: In "Mr. Monk and His Biggest Fan," Randy tries to woo over the women at the SFPD BachelorAuction by taking his shirt off.
* MuggedForDisguise:
** In "Mr. Monk Can't See a Thing," Eddie Murdoch kills Stefanie Preston on the orders of his boss Peter Breen and sets her house on fire. But he leaves Breen's keys behind and doesn't realize this until it's too late to go back in. So to get back to the fire scene without drawing attention, he goes to the nearest firehouse, kills a fireman named Rusty with a shovel, blinds Monk with cleaning acid, and steals a firefighter's coat and helmet to get back into the scene. ''Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse'', the novel the episode was ripped from, has Lucas Breen do the same with a Dalmatian named Sparky.
** In "Mr. Monk Gets Stuck in Traffic," Ray Galardi, after killing Steve Marriot and making his death look like a car accident, realizes he mixed up his phone with Marriot's when he takes a call on his cell phone only to get someone asking for Marriot, meaning Galardi's own phone is on the body. So to get his cell phone back, Galardi stops his truck across the highway, walks into the accident scene, and lures a paramedic to an out-of-the-way area by claiming that his pregnant wife's in the back of one of the ambulances and needs to be checked on. When the paramedic is opening the back doors of the ambulance, Galardi strangles him, rolls his body under the vehicle, and steals his uniform so that he can switch phones back without anyone noticing.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: N-Q]]
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Naming a mining town Trouble in ''Mr. Monk in Trouble''. And believe me, Monk and Natalie deal with a lot of ''trouble'' there.
* NecroCam: Subverted on the intro of "Mr. Monk and the Critic".
* NerdyInhaler: Kris Kedder in "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert" has asthma, so he uses a unique mint-flavored one. Is used to prove that he blew up a blue beachball while impersonating his victim at an acupuncture tent
* NeverOneMurder: Especially in the later seasons.
** Outright lampshaded in "Mr. Monk and the Actor", where David Ruskin inquires if the person who killed Michelle Cullman will strike again. Stottlemeyer replies that the murder was a crime of passion, and that the killer will probably never put another toe out of line again. Cuts to Jack Leverett breaking into a pawn shop and accidentally shooting the owner with his own revolver while attempting to destroy evidence linking him to the first murder.
* NeverSuicide: There are a lot of suicides in San Francisco that turn out to be cleverly disguised murders.
** According to a monologue in the novel ''Mr. Monk on the Road'', Monk is never called in for suicides unless they are somehow tied to an investigation he is working on, the victim is high profile, or the method of suicide is truly bizarre (like overdosing on Ding Dongs).
** Twice have there been [[MurderSuicide murder-suicides]] in the show.
** The first is "Mr. Monk's 100th Case", where Douglas Thurman shoots himself in a motel room as a SWAT team arrives, to avoid being captured.
** The second is "Mr. Monk and the End" with the judge.
** The third is the novel ''Mr. Monk Gets Even'' with the plot involving a set of three murders disguised as accidents. Monk pins them on a Steve Jobs-esque computer company founder named Cleve Dobbs, but the evidence is somewhat shaky. Then Dobbs is apparently murdered, almost meaning Monk is wrong, until Monk realizes that Dobbs had a terminal disease and knew he only had a year left to live. He killed the three people he believed wronged him, then killed himself in a very ingenious way that would cast suspicion on his wife.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: "Mr. Monk on Wheels", the opening scene shows Natalie helping John Kuramoto after his bike hits a pothole and crashes, and even fixes his chain, then compliments him on his bolt-cutters, all while unaware that the bike is stolen. She is very embarrassed when Dean Berry, the bike's legitimate owner, comes running out just as Kuramoto rides away. This causes Monk to get shot in the leg by Kuramoto, ultimately leading to Monk verbally abusing Natalie to the point that she becomes his emotional punching bag/virtual slave.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed:
** In "Mr. Monk Gets Jury Duty", a Colombian drug smuggler named Miguel ''Escobar'' with a plot to avoid US federal custody is a pretty obvious ripoff of famous drug kingpin Pablo Escobar -- since both Escobars were involved in drug smuggling operations to the United States that also involved large numbers of murders.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Rapper" the VictimOfTheWeek is a paunchy emcee by the name of Extra Large, a clear stand-in for the NotoriousBIG. Said episode also had SnoopDogg play Murderuss, who founded a record label named Manslaughter Records, likely a stand-in for Death Row Records.
** In the novel ''Mr. Monk Gets Even'', Monk finds himself investigating three murders-staged-as-accidents that he believes were committed by Cleve Dobbs, the ousted CEO of an electronics company called Peach (Dobbs himself is later killed, apparently by being stabbed several times and thrown over a balcony railing, but Monk proves that he actually committed suicide in such a clever way as to put the blame on his wife). Peach is a blatant stand-in for Apple (which also exists in this universe), but Cleve Dobbs is almost blatantly supposed to be Steve Jobs, which is glaringly obvious when you consider that the pronounciation of their names is practically identical.
* NoodleIncident: Too many to count, but a lot are brought up.
** [[http://www.usanetwork.com/series/monk/webexclusives/blogs/teeger15.html Natalie's blog entry]] for "Mr. Monk Can't See a Thing" describes a scene that didn't happen in the episode: Monk got the pointer cane he's using when he comes to the police station to identify the drifter from a special training center for people with blind people. Natalie took Monk to a seesion with a group of blind people, taught by a blind therapist. It didn't exactly go well.
** In "Mr. Monk Is the Best Man," we learn Karen Stottlemeyer was Leland's second wife, and his first marriage was annulled after only five days. We the viewers are left to figure out exactly what went wrong.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Rapper," when Stottlemeyer learns about Murderuss's visit to Monk's apartment and Monk claims he's been told he accepted it, Stottlemeyer says, "You did it again," which implies that this wasn't the first time Monk mentally blacked out while nervous.
** The episode "Mr. Monk Goes to the Asylum" {{lampshade|hanging}}d this trope during the tour of the asylum with Monk's roommate.
-->'''John Wurster:''' This is the Monkey Room. Funny story about how it got its name.
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' What is it?
-->'''John Wurster:''' We don't know. We just know there's a funny story.
** The first scene with Monk and Natalie in "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert" begins with this:
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Captain!
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Captain, for the record, this was all her idea. I mean, I wouldn't be here if I couldn't drive or had anything else to do.
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' OK, I give up. What is it? ''[Natalie produces a check]''
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' It's a $34 dry cleaning bill to clean the shirt and jacket that Mr. Monk ruined when he ran through the poultry farm to recover the ransom money in the Jimmy Creskow kidnapping case. What are you gonna do about it?
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' Try to ignore it.
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' No-no-no-no! We've already submitted this twice! It is a work-related expense, and we are entitled to compensation!
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Not my idea.
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' Look, I couldn't agree with you more. I believe you guys are entitled to every dime you can get, but, there's nothing I can do about it. Lieutenant Disher is the Disbursement Coordinator.
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Okay, where is he?
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' Uh, he's not here. He called in sick.
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Is he okay?
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' You know, he didn't sound too good. He's got a bad fever and he's got a cough.
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' With that phlegmy flu thing? ''[Natalie waves her hands frantically to get Stottlemeyer's attention]''
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Okay-okay! If Randy is not here, who is in charge of payout?
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' That would be the Assistant Disbursement Coordinator.
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' And who is that?
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' We don't have one. Is there anything else?
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Nah, that about covers it.
** In that same episode, Natalie mentions having studied the Spanish Inquisition when Monk likens a port-a-potty to a medival torture device.
** And in "Mr. Monk and the Bad Girlfriend," when asked by Monk and Natalie how Stottlemeyer's girlfriend could go 32.2 miles from her house to a crime scene in 20 minutes, this:
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Maybe she had a jetpack, like in those ''JamesBond'' movies.
-->'''Lt. Randall Disher:''' There's no such thing as a working jetpack. Don't ask me how I know.
** In "Mr. Monk vs. the Cobra," Stottlemeyer tells Monk about an incident that happened in Atlanta: according to him, he got in a cab and recognized the driver as [[HistoricalInJoke the guy who was the SAC of the FBI's Atlanta field office until he accused the wrong guy in the 1996 Olympic Park bombing, which ruined his career.]] He brings it up because the case Monk and Stottlemeyer are working involves a suspect who officially has been deceased for six years, and Stottlemeyer is genuinely afraid of the consequences that might occur if he goes public and is immediately proven wrong.
** In "Mr. Monk, Private Eye," Natalie mentions that she was able to rent out Monk's new office thanks to an advance she took out after Monk's paycheck from the "Kensington case".
** In "Mr. Monk and the Leper," there are photos of Randy with acne on the wall of Dr. Polanski's office. When Natalie gets Randy to admit that the photos are of him, he says it was from a case where he was undercover as a teenager with bad acne and he asks Stottlemeyer if he recalls it, to which Stottlemeyer says, "You're on your own, Randy."
** A lot of times, these noodle incidents happen in individual stories to refer to previous events in the series without giving the details away. For instance, "Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever" has Randy make references to Stottlemeyer's divorce and his girlfriend being arrested, which make more sense if you've seen the episodes in which those events happened.
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: In "Mr. Monk on Wheels", Natalie basically spends the entire episode as the living embodiment of NiceJobBreakingItHero, culminating in Monk getting ''shot in the leg''.
* NoirEpisode: "Mr. Monk and the Leper", broadcast in both color and black-and-white. They also show both variants on the DVD release.
* NoOSHACompliance: Those hot dog vendors in "Mr. Monk Fights City Hall" sure as hell behave in ways that you wonder if the health department would shut them down right away. Namely, the fact that they're seen picking up hot dogs dropped on the floor, among other things.
* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: On a few occasions this has popped up. For example, in "Mr. Monk and the Leper," Dr. Aaron Polanski, despite having a name that would suggest an American actor in the role, is played by Paul Blackthorne, a British actor, who keeps his native accent rather than using an American accent. Also, one of Buchanan's maids in "Mr. Monk Is At Your Service" uses a posh British accent whereas all of the other household staff use American accents.
* NotMyDriver: In "Mr. Monk and the Voodoo Curse," after Natalie overdoses during Jorgensen's cleansing ritual by accidentally drinking a potion that was meant to be applied to her skin ''and not meant to be drank'', Angeline Dilworth, whose uncle happened to be the voodoo doll sender's third victim, is the paramedic that responds to the call.
* NotImportantToThisEpisodeCamp: This is where Julie Teeger is suspected to be in a number of episodes. It supplies the page quote.
* NotMeThisTime: Dale "The Whale" Biederbeck III is suspected of arranging for a death row inmate to be killed before execution because he hadn't paid off a debt. However, both Monk and Dale the Whale know Dale was innocent that time around, and in fact, [[EvenEvilHasStandards even he wouldn't stoop as low as to kill someone/arrange for someone to be killed for not paying their debts, especially if the sum in question was in the low thousand dollar range]].
* NotSoFakePropWeapon: This is the case with "Mr. Monk Goes to the Theater" and how Sharona's sister Gail is framed: the knife is switched after [[spoiler:the victim has collapsed from an apple spiked with peanut oil]]. Gail tries informing Stottlemeyer and Disher that she would have been able to feel the difference in weight and balance between the prop knife and the real one. Why no one ever thought to see if she had any blood splatter on her clothing is beyond asking.
* ObfuscatingDisability
** In the pilot, Monk realizes that Ian Sykes is not really a cripple because his shoes are heavily scuffed, something that would not happen to a man who had to use a wheelchair all the time. This revelation does not come in time and Sykes manages to get away.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Red-Headed Stranger", Monk realizes that Mrs. Mass, the blind "witness" to Sonny Cross's death wasn't really blind when he remembers that she instinctively avoided shaking Stottlemeyer's injured hand, even though no one had mentioned that he was injured. In all fairness, she was actually blind - in one eye only. She used to be fully blind before an accident in the supermarket reconnected an optic nerve in that eye.
** In "Mr. Monk Goes to the Circus," to murder her ex-husband, acrobat Natasha Lovara stages a fall at a circus to make it seem like she's broken her left foot. She turns out to have a fear of hospitals, being a Romany Gypsy, so she sets her own plaster cast, and for two weeks, until the circus reaches San Francisco, she pretends that her left foot is broken. One night, she slips out of the cast, grabs the panther wrangler's revolver, and trails her ex-husband to a restaurant, wearing a ski mask to hide her face. Natasha then shoots her ex-husband there, but to make sure no one would suspect her (since she supposedly had a "broken" foot at the time), she does several acrobatic moves in front of the witnesses before escaping. Since she's aware the police will consider her a suspect and want an x-ray, Natasha then returns to the circus and commands one of the elephants to crush her left leg, breaking it for real. Unfortunately, the elephant's trainer happens to wake up and see her, so she kills him by commanding the elephant to crush his head in the same way via radio while he's demonstrating for Monk and Sharona.
* OddNameOut: Cast example. Once Natalie came in, Jason Gray-Stanford was the only one of the four principal cast members whose first name did ''not'' start with the letter 'T' (with the other cast members being Tony Shalhoub, Traylor Howard, and Ted Levine).
* OneSteveLimit: Played straight with the main characters. Averted with supporting characters.
** For instance, after Natalie's daughter Julie comes into the series, there are no other one-time characters named Julie except in "Mr. Monk and the Three Julies." However, beforehand, Rachel Dratch played Julie Parlo in "Mr. Monk and the Missing Granny".
** Lindas are another aversion: there is Linda Fusco (Stottlemeyer's girlfriend in season 5 and the first episodes of season 6), but there is also Linda Riggs (Jeanette Hudson's sister in "Mr. Monk Is On The Air") and Linda Kloster (murder victim in "Mr. Monk and the Genius").
** Variants of the first name "Roderick" count: there's Roddy Lankman (game show host in "Mr. Monk and the Game Show") and there's Roderick Brody ("Mr. Monk and the Bully").
* TheOner: Several occasions.
** "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert": when Stork Murray is going to Kris Kedder's trailer, he walks across the stage, asks another guy for directions, makes his way down a flight of stairs, walks across the grounds to Kedder's trailer, pounds on the door, then sees Kedder approaching. This was filmed from a crane with one long continuous tracking shot.
** "Mr. Monk and the Critic": We see the murder through Hannigan's POV, resulting in one very long one-take shot.
** "Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever": The scene where Monk and Natalie are walking down a city street and Monk is constantly stopping Ntaalie from slipping into lottery mode. The camera is positioned in front of them and stays in front of them for the length of a block, with no angle changes, even pausing movement when Monk and Natalie stop.
** "Mr. Monk's 100th Case": The SWAT team raid on Douglas Thurman's photography studio is done in one take with a single camera shot.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness:
** Monk has severe OCD and a host of other phobias, such that he frequently needs sanitary wipes. During "Mr. Monk and the Garbage Strike," he's so disturbed by the trash bags piled around that he was unable to function as a detective. By the climax of the story, he's driving a garbage truck around, ''picking up the garbage himself'', and fingering Music/AliceCooper for the crime(!) in a summation that's more implausible than usual. Stottlemeyer gets him to a clean room, and he gets back to normal. Relatively speaking.
** There's "Mr. Monk Is On The Air": Monk suspects shock jock Max Hudson of murdering his wife, so he appears on his show to interview him. The story of Trudy's death comes up, and Max's sidekick J.J. offers his condolences. But Max, who's a serious {{Jerkass}}, starts making tasteless jokes. You ''know'' Monk is pissed when the normally mild-mannered detective who abstains from physical contact ''jumps across the table to tackle Max.'' Made worse by the fact Natalie is locked out of the booth and is unable to intervene when even she realizes what is going to happen.
** The two episodes where Monk tries alternative methods of treatment, "Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine" and "Mr. Monk Gets Hypnotized," other characters do take alarm when Monk starts acting unusually (in the former, that he polishes off Stottlemeyer's hospital meal tray and actually hugs Stottlemeyer, much to his confusion; in the latter, it's him deciding to adopt a frog named Hoppy from Sally Larkin's backyard).
*** Related: in ''Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii'', when Natalie discovers Monk on the same plane as her on the way to Hawaii, she is noticeably alarmed by his strange behaviors as she is unaware that he is on Dioxynl (the medicine from "Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine").
** And Natalie is not immune either in "Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever." Normally, she's very accepting of Monk's OCD behaviors and has a bubbly personality, but when she becomes a lottery hostess, Monk observes her becoming a full-tilt diva, more devoted to the lottery than to him. He grows increasingly irritated by this shift, eventually to the point that he openly mocks her in public while she's signing autographs for her fans. And at one show, she gets incredibly pissed when she trips over some sound wires, going full DramaQueen in an argument with sound engineer Billy Logan, which culminates in the station manager trying to intervene, and Billy being fired and removed by security because he's got a hot streak. Monk even says he's observed it when he talks to Dr. Bell:
-->'''Dr. Neven Bell:''' But I see your point about the monkey.
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' All I'm trying to say is... it's ''not'' the same Natalie! If you knew her you wouldn't know her! Last night after the show, she got somebody fired!
-->'''Dr. Neven Bell:''' Really?
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' One of the crew, sound guy! There were some wires on the floor, and she was just like ''[leans back in his chairs and snarls]'' you know, complaining.
** There's Monk being unsettled in "Mr. Monk and the Leper" to see Natalie drinking a bottle of mouthwash after learning that Dr. Polanski, whom she was making out with the previous night, is a leper.
* TheOtherDarrin:
** Three actresses played Trudy Monk: Stellina Ruisch for the first two seasons, Melora Hardin for all appearances from "Mr. Monk and the Game Show" onwards, and Lindy Newton for two flashbacks in "Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion".
** Dale The Whale, Monk's recurring ArchEnemy, is played by a different actor in each of his appearances (most noteably by TimCurry in his second appearance, Adam Arkin in his first appearance, and Ray Porter in his third), because [[IncrediblyLamePun the role is too large for one guy to carry]].
** Sharona's ex-husband Trevor Howe is played by Frank John Hughes in "Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Suspect", but by David Lee Russak in "Mr. Monk and the Girl Who Cried Wolf".
** Stottlemeyer's son Jared has changed actors multiple times, as he ages: in "Mr. Monk Goes to the Ballgame," he's played by Cameron Cush, and by child actor Jesse James in "Mr. Monk and the Captain's Wife". In Jared's DayInTheLimelight episode, "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert", he's played by John Kyle Hansen.
** Sharona's son Benjy is played by Kane Richotte in the season 1 pilot, as well as all of the season 2 and season 3 episodes, and Max Morrow for all of season 1 except the pilot episode.
** In fact, the only relatives of the main characters who are played by the same actors in all of their appearances are Sharona's sister Gail (Amy Sedaris), Stottlemeyer's first wife Karen (Glenne Headly) and Natalie's daughter Julie (Emmy Clarke).
* OverlyLongGag: Monk trying to say "I guess I don't have a choice" to Stottlemeyer in "Mr. Monk Takes Manhattan," but being repeatedly interrupted by a jackhammer, lasting for literally a minute and a more.
** Also, in "Mr. Monk Goes Back to School," when he writes his name on the chalkboard, take all the time you need to get a glass of orange juice.
** In "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert," Monk accidentally walks into a port-a-potty while looking for the payphones, which are a few feet to his right. When the door shuts, the camera then stays firmly focused on the port-a-potty for about a minute. Dramatic music builds up, and then Monk exits.
* OhTheHumanity: Monk yells this whenever he encounters something ''really'' nasty.
** "Mr. Monk and the Paperboy": after realizing he just wiped his hands with an oily garage rag
** "Mr. Monk and the Kid": when changing a diaper.
* OhCrap: There are a lot, usually when Monk or one of the other main characters gets taken hostage, but others exist. Examples:
** In "Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion", this must be what Monk is thinking when he realizes that [[spoiler:Kyle Brooks]] killed a clinic nurse and is planning to kill his wife.
** In "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert", Monk, Natalie and Kendra Frank share one when they realize that [[spoiler:Kris Kedder]] has taken an envelope that has all of their incrimating evidence:
-->'''Kendra Frank:''' Oh my God! He just took that envelope!
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Can't prove anything without that envelope! ''[He, Natalie and Kendra run out of the trailer]''
** In "Mr. Monk and the Leper", during the scene where Mandy Bronson opens fire on Monk and Natalie as they are trying to flee in a hot air balloon.
** In "Mr. Monk and His Biggest Fan" and "Mr. Monk Makes a Friend", Stottlemeyer gets one when he realizes Monk is in grave danger.
** In "Mr. Monk Paints His Masterpiece", Monk gets one when he realizes that his "masterpieces" are painted on canvases made from money sheets as part of a counterfeit money scheme... and Natalie is still holding one of these.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Garbage Strike," Monk, Natalie, Stottlemeyer and Disher are conversing in low voices in a rotunda of City Hall as Monk declares to them in a low whisper that he thinks the mayor was lying about not being in union boss Jimmy Cusack's office. The conversation goes like normal.... until Stottlemeyer notices a sign that says "Whisper Spot" and mutters, "Oh hell," at which point they are mobbed by a bunch of reporters who were standing nearby and overheard every single word.
** In "Mr. Monk Buys a House", Monk and Natalie get to share another silent one when they notice a bloody awl on [[HonestJohnsDealership "Honest" Jake]]'s tool belt, just long enough to realize what he's really been up to... at which point they turn to see Jake pointing a pistol at them:
-->'''"Honest" Jake Phillips:''' Mr. Monk, I've got a confession to make: they really don't call me "Honest" Jake.
* PaintingTheMedium
** In the season 4 episode, Monk is finally put on retainer by the police. He's guaranteed 16 homicides a year for the next two years.
** In an inadvertent example, the ad for "Mr. Monk Stays in Bed" features Monk being served a bowl of alphabet soup. Monk says, "I see letters". Yes, he's talking about the letters in the soup, but by ContrivedCoincidence in TV airings, he's looking in the direction of the episode's [[MediaClassifications age rating]] on the screen.
* PeekABooCorpse: Does happen several times.
** A variant in "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert". Monk and Natalie are looking for Stottlemeyer's son at a rock concert and happen to be right next to one port-a-potty when a maintenance worker suddenly forces it open and a roadie's dead body falls out. It is enough to startle Natalie.
** In "Mr. Monk Goes to Jail," Monk and a prison warden open the door to the prison's auxilary freezer to find the dead body of one of the cooks. Subverted in that they were actually looking for him.
** In the TieInNovel ''Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii'', another variant happens as the hotel manager's dead body is dug up at a luau.
* ParallelParking: Not seen, but in "Mr. Monk and the TV Star", Sharona complains about Monk's heckling causing her to spend ''twenty'' minutes parallel parking.
* PerkyGoth:
** Marci Maven counts by personality in "Mr. Monk and His Biggest Fan," even though she wears a white coat that makes her look like an inspector in some scenes and she's wearing Monk's recycled clothing in others
** A straight example could be Kendra Frank in "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert". She wears all black clothing (pants, t-shirt, sleeveless jacket) and dark black hair, although she is the primary source for Monk and Natalie to use to investigate the murder
* PetTheDog: A literal example occurs in the final season.
* PhotographicMemory: Monk has incredible memory. He can even recognize the most minute details about a man's earlobe. So if he witnesses a crime, just be aware that he'll find you.
-->'''Monk:''' I know that rock!
* PhraseCatcher: "It doesn't have to be perfect." From pretty much every random person Monk works with who isn't already aware of his neuroses, directed at Monk.
* ThePictureCameWithTheFrame: Randy Disher claims that he has a girlfriend, and shows the picture of a beautiful woman. Sharona points out that the photo came with the wallet. Randy explains that his girlfriend is a famous "wallet photo model". [[SubvertedTrope It turns out to be true.]]
* PillowPregnancy
** Natalie does one to ward off advances from her old abusive boyfriend in "Mr. Monk Is at Your Service". It's awesome when you consider that the reason this was done was because Traylor Howard [[HideYourPregnancy really WAS pregnant]].
** A variant in the TieInNovel ''Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu'': When Monk and Natalie go shopping at a department store, Monk inadvertantly busts a shoplifting ring. One of the participants is a woman faking a pregnancy by wearing a tummy pack around her chest (which bursts open when Natalie tackles her to the ground, revealing that said pack is used to sneak stolen merchandise out of the store). Monk tells Natalie that he figured it out because the woman walked like a normal person instead of waddling, and she bent over at the waist to pick up her purse -- which she could not have done if she actually was pregnant. [[TruthInTelevision A number of shoplifters have been actually busted smuggling stuff out of stores in similar methods]].
* PlayedForLaughs: Monk's debilitating mental illness.
* PlayingDrunk: Brad Terry in "Mr. Monk and the TV Star" picks a fight while pretending to be drunk so as to attract paparazzi attention, which then gives him an alibi so he can stab and kill his ex-wife Susan Malloy and make it seem like the murder happened seconds before it really happened.
* PlayingGertrude: In "Mr. Monk and the Very, Very Old Man," Miles Holling was played by Patrick Cranshaw. The actor playing his octogenerian son Hiram is Bill Erwin, who was actually ''older'' than Cranshaw by only a few years.
* PlayingSick: Stottlemeyer implies in the episode "Mr. Monk Goes to the Dentist" that the reason Randy doesn't want to go to the dentist in spite of a genuine toothache is because he wants to save his sick days on days where he isn't actually sick. This is later confirmed in "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert", where Stottlemeyer, searching for his son, catches Randy red-handed doing this. He surprises Randy by calling his cell phone, pretending to be unconvinced about Randy's excuses (like [[BlatantLies passing the music on stage off for a broken stereo]]) and surprises him.
* PoliceBrutalityGambit: "Mr. Monk Goes to the Carnival" has a criminal plot that works like this:
##Some years before the episode happens, suspected killer Leonard Stokes is arrested by Lt. Adam Kirk, a police lieutenant known for having a hot temper. It turns out that Kirk has been accused of [[PoliceBrutality police brutality]] multiple times in the past.
##While in prison, Stokes conceives a plan to get the confession he made to Kirk dismissed: he contacts an old friend of his named John Gitomer and has him stage a beating to frame Kirk.
##Gitomer [[SockItToThem inflicts bruises on himself by creating an improvised club from a gym sock stuffed with batteries and attached by a string to a ceiling fan]].
##Gitomer then contacts Kirk and arranges to meet him at a carnival with information about a (fictitious) drug shipment. He says he'll talk if he and Kirk go up on the ferris wheel, which they do.
##Once the ride starts up, Gitomer starts thrashing around and screaming, acting like Kirk is beating him up. The ferris wheel operator stops the ride when their seat reaches the bottom. Kirk gets out and stumbles off, confused.
##What Gitomer does not know is that [[spoiler:Kitty Malone, the ferris wheel operator, is also Stokes's girlfriend. As soon as Kirk gets off and has his back turned to her, Kitty runs up and stabs Gitomer in the heart, ]]killing him instantly.
* PoliceLineup: There are two of interest in this series.
** "Mr. Monk and the Red-Headed Stranger" features a line-up for a blind witness.
** That lineup in "Mr. Monk and the Captain's Marriage" became a full-scale brawl.
* PrecisionFStrike:
** In "Mr. Monk and the Magician," when Natalie, Stottlemeyer and Disher are arresting Karl Torini, Natalie tells him, "Abraca-Dorfman, you son of a bitch!"
** In "Mr. Monk's 100th Case," at the end of Ralph Roberts' in-prison interview, a guard is heard off screen shouting, "Roberts! Time's up! Get back to your cell!" to which he apparently replies, "Shut up, you mother[bleep]."
* PrettySpryForADeadGuy: [[spoiler:Trudy]], in one TearJerker episode, [[spoiler:''Mr. Monk and Mrs. Monk'']].
* ProductPlacement: Pretty blatant during some seasons, when the camera would ''linger'' on the labels of Monk's favorite cleaning products.
** Then they started giving Natalie a new car to drive every new season, beginning with a Jeep Grand Cherokee from her introduction to halfway through season 5. She then drove a Buick Lucerne for a few episodes, then drove a Ford Escape for the duration of season 6. In season 7, she drives an Audi A3 in the first eight episodes, a Nissan Sentra for three midway episodes, and then a Hyundai Genesis from "Mr. Monk and the Lady Next Door" to the end of the series. How she affords this on Monk's low salary is questionable.
** "Mr. Monk and the UFO" was a painfully unsubtle 60-minute commercial for Sleep Inn.
** For the first five seasons, Monk drank Sierra Springs water, and the brand was blatantly mentioned a lot. This gave for a nice dose of SelfDeprecation in "Mr. Monk and the TV Star" when a girl delivers a pack of Sierra Springs water to Brad Terry's trailer while Monk is talking to him. Brad tells Monk he gets it for free because he drinks it on the show.
** In "Mr. Monk on Wheels," you can see a Dell logo very prominently on the back of the computer that Dean Berry plays back the surveillance video of Kuramoto's encounter with Natalie on.
** Mayflower Movers trucks are shown prominently in "Mr. Monk Buys a House" and "Mr. Monk and the Lady Next Door." In the first case, one is seen parked in the driveway when Monk is helping movers with his belongings. In the latter case, it is seen when Monk and Natalie are talking with Marge Johnson at the end as she prepares to move out of her house.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Airplane", Lever 2000 wipes get two placements, the first most blantently when Monk is told to put all the objects in his pockets in the X-Ray machine tray -- the wipes end up label up, perfectly straight, just like a commercial.
** In "Mr. Monk Takes a Punch," during the scenes at the boxing gym, Ray Regis is wearing an Everlast hoodie when being interviewed by Stottlemeyer and Disher after the bombing, and the bomb itself is in an Everlast punching bag.
* ProperlyParanoid
** In the beginning of "Mr. Monk and the Miracle", some homeless friends, Ike, Reggie and the Professor, mock their friend Willie T's seeming paranoia about someone pulling a gun on him and trying to chase him. The next morning, he turns up dead in a refrigerator box, determined to have been suffocated with a plastic bag.
** Monk himself often is in this trope: [[spoiler: In ''Mr. Monk Goes to the Dentist'', he has a crippling fear of dentists due to a bad experience, a fear so severe, in fact, that he was completely unwilling to go beyond the waiting room while Disher and Natalie investigate a murder that seemingly happened while Disher was getting his appointment regarding a seeming kidnapping of "Barry Bonds," and later had to be pried off when he was literally frozen in fear in his seat during the wait (presumably from hearing a drill whirring in the background). Turns out he was very much justified in this fear, as he ends up being abducted and then tortured by the same dentists in regards to potential clients for the bearer bonds and whether the police had them monitored (an incident that also resulted in his fear of them being heightened as a result to the extent that he refuses to go to a dentist even after one of his teeth was chipped).]]
** Randy Disher was also in this trope in the same episode, [[spoiler: as during the dental procedure for a legitimate toothache, and while being placed in novocaine, he ends up witnessing a brutal confrontation between the dentists and a bald man demanding for "Barry Bonds" and that "he was worth $13 billion," and tried to report it to his co-workers, only to be laughed at and/or met with disbelief (the fact that he was currently being doped up on novocaine when it was happening did not help matters much on his end, either), eventually being fed up at not being believed and quitting the force. It later turned out that Randy was actually quite correct in what he saw (barring the "Barry Bonds" thing, as that was actually "bearer bonds" stolen in an armored car heist a few days earlier where two guards were shot and killed, a case that Randy was involved in the investigation of).]]
** "Mr. Monk Is Up All Night" lives this trope. [[spoiler: Monk is walking out late at night, and oversees a sour drug deal going wrong in a restaurant kitchen. An Asian man reveals that he is an undercover cop and pulls his gun on a bald man and a drug dealer, whom he orders to line up against the wall. A fight breaks out and the undercover cop is shot dead by the drug dealer. The bald man is hustled by the drug dealer outside to a waiting car that drives away. By the time Monk has gotten back after running a few blocks to a payphone to call the police, the kitchen is practically spotless, and there is no evidence of a killing, making Stottlemeyer and Disher suspect that Monk was seeing things as he was suffering from insomnia. Monk's first clue is when the supposedly killed "undercover cop" turns up alive at the train station, throwing out some trash that is traced to an antique coin store (the Asian claims he is on his way to see his brother in Portland). Tracing the garbage, Monk recognizes the coin dealer as the bald witness, who claims he was in bed at the time. When the "undercover cop" turns up dead at the station, Monk realizes something mentioned by Gully, who pickpocketed his wallet earlier: that it's a different city at night. The solution: the "undercover cop" was not actually killed, and a waitress working late helped him clean up the kitchen afterwards. The "drug dealer" was scamming the coin dealer into giving them his antique coins under the pretense that it was hush money.]]
** Natalie had one in "Mr. Monk and the Voodoo Curse" when Angeline Dilworth sends her a voodoo doll in the mail that makes Natalie fear that she will be decapitated. Subverted in that Angeline is trying to distract Monk when he notices a mistake regarding her previous victim.
* ProtagonistTitle
* PutOnABus: Sharona remarries her ex-husband and moves back to New Jersey midway through season 3. Monk is shown in denial in "Mr. Monk and the Red Herring". After this, no mention is made until Season 8. Her image is even removed and never shown in any subsequent intro (actually, she does appear partially in an opening credit shot taken from "Mr. Monk Goes Back to School").
* QuipToBlack
** Disher keeps trying to spout one off in "Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever", with minimal success. It sure looks like her number came up now, didn't it?
** Stottlemeyer pulls off the occasional line that ''would'' be one if he did it with dramatic flair instead of perfect deadpan, such as referring to a dead hotel guest as having "checked out early." Stottlemeyer also tries a few in "Happy Birthday, Mr. Monk". Natalie promptly chews him out for being insensitive.
** On the same episode, Monk unintentionally also makes the Captain feel bad about them by describing how horrible the victim's death must have been. It involved hooks ripping him apart and then being compacted in what must be the world's deadliest trash compactor. "He must have been screaming for mercy the whole time."
[[/folder]]
[[folder: R-T]]
* RaisedCatholic: Sharona, apparently.
* RapidFireNo:
** Monk gives one in "Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion" when he's fervently denying to Dianne Brooks that he's dating anyone. He then does it again when she sees him and Natalie together and she mistakes Natalie as being his girlfriend (Natalie is highly amused by Dianne's suggestion).
** In "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert," Natalie delivers one when she tries to stop Monk from touching a heat lamp with his pointer finger. It fails: she restrains his right hand, so he touches and burns his left pointer fingertip instead, then does the right one. Then we see Monk and Natalie getting an ointment from the first aid tent.
* RavenHairIvorySkin: A few female guest characters have fallen into this trope.
** Marci Maven, played by SarahSilverman, provides a decent example of this
** Kendra Frank, played by Tamara Feldman, in "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert"
** Stottlemeyer's fiancee T.K. Jensen, played by Virginia Madsen
* ReactionShot: In "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert," when Stork's body falls out of the port-a-potty, we cut to a shot of Monk and Natalie reacting to the body landing at their feet.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Actor," when Randy's female replacement in the TV film enters the set, the camera does several reaction shots of the real Stottlemeyer and Disher.
* RealLifeRelative: Quite a number of people in Tony Shalhoub's actual family have appeared on the show.
** Brooke Adams, Shalhoub's wife, appears several times (always as different characters):
*** In "Mr. Monk and the Airplane" as Leigh Harrison, a flight attendant who is driven crazy by Monk's antics. She is later interviewed by James Novak in "Mr. Monk's 100th Case", where it is shown that she has developed a fear of flying and also was driven to drinking, which was also implied by her final appearance in the former episode.
*** In "Mr. Monk and the Kid" as Abigail Carlyle, an abducted violinist's mother.
*** In "Mr. Monk Visits a Farm" as Sheriff Butterfield. All of a sudden, the scene where Monk goes square dancing very terribly with her (while looking visibly uncomfortable for the entire scene) becomes a thousand times funnier, especially since he brings up Trudy during the scene.
*** In "Mr. Monk and the Badge" as Edith Capriani, a CrazyCatLady that Monk gets fed up with for pulling him away from other cases.
** Tony's brother Michael Shalhoub has played three characters throughout the series' run:
*** In "Mr. Monk and the Missing Granny," he plays Ron Abrash, a former radicalist who Monk and Stottlemeyer question as a person of interest in a kidnapping. Which makes the part where Monk says, "I've been smoking THE TRUTH, man!" that much funnier when you consider just exactly who Tony is saying this line to.
*** In "Mr. Monk Bumps His Head," Michael plays Ned, the beekeeper whose farm Roger Zisk crashes his car into when trying to cover up bee stings that he'd received the night before when dumping Debbie Barnett's dead body on a roadside.
*** In "Mr. Monk Is the Best Man," Michael is the minister who presides over Leland and T.K.'s wedding ceremony.
** Tony's sister Susan Shalhoub Larkin appears as Linda Kloster's housekeeper in "Mr. Monk and the Genius" (the one who drops the tray and discovers the body).
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Captain Stottlemeyer is rarely skeptical of Monk's intuitive leaps, having seen him in action for so long, and often makes accommodations for Monk's OCD on the crime scene.
* RecklessGunUsage: After fighting with [[spoiler:Sarah Longson]] for her Walther PPK pistol in "Mr. Monk on Wheels", Natalie turns around, gun in hand. She tells Monk, who had already been shot in the leg earlier in the episode and was trying climb down some stairs to assist Natalie, that she was okay... and [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace accidentally shoots Monk in his uninjured leg]]. Which makes no sense at first given that in "Mr. Monk and the Three Julies", Natalie tells Randy that she went to a firing range all the time and knows how to use a gun.
** Actually, it's rather Justified: this is only the second time that Natalie has held a firearm (having once held, but never used, a twelve gauge shotgun in an earlier episode). For all we care, she probably hasn't used one for a minimum of eleven years.
* ReplacedTheThemeTune: From the instrumental "Monk Main Title Theme" to "It's a Jungle Out There".
* ReassignedToAntarctica: In the TieInNovel ''Mr. Monk and the Dirty Cop'', Stottlemeyer mentions that he drove out Paul Braddock, an SFPD DirtyCop who violated peoples' rights and beat them up by giving him a choice: either risk Internal Affairs ripping him apart, or take a job in the small Mojave Desert town of Banning, CA.
* RightBehindMe: In "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert," a funny scene where Randy, playing sick, gets a call from Stottlemeyer on his cell phone, and speaks like he is sick, while Stottlemeyer is slowly walking up behind him and acting completely incredulous at his lies.
* TheReveal: The identity of the man who masterminded Trudy's murder, revealed in the series finale: [[spoiler:Judge Rickover, Trudy's old law professor with whom she had an affair. Trudy had his child and believed the baby died after birth, but Monk discovers that the child lived and eventually meets her.]]
* RevealingCoverup: So many layers of it in the series finale. [[spoiler:Monk finally figures out Rickover killed Trudy because the judge ordered the murder of a doctor who was blackmailing him with proof of his involvement in two murders, including Trudy's. Plus, he killed Trudy in the first place because she linked him to the first victim, the midwife who delivered their illegitimate daughter. And he killed the midwife to stop her from revealing the truth about said daughter.]]
* ReverseWhodunnit: Like a number of ''Series/{{Columbo}}'' episodes, Monk often figures out who the murderer is by the second act, or the killer's identity is revealed in the first scene, ''both'', or some variation thereof; the kicker is Monk's proving HOW they did it or finding the evidence to prove what he knows happened.
** "Mr. Monk and the Birds and the Bees" is probably one of the closest things to a ''Monk'' version of a ''Columbo'' episode in that we are introduced to Rob Sherman, we see how Sherman kills his wife and a hired accomplice and makes it look like the killed burglar shot her, we see him stage the scene, like a ''Columbo'' episode would do it. So the episode is ''Monk'' first proving that the murder was staged, then trying to find evidence to prove that Sherman and his accomplice have met.
** "Mr. Monk and the Genius" counts because we know that Patrick Kloster is the culprit from the very beginning, due to his wife visiting Monk to inform him right before she herself gets killed. So Monk spends the plot trying to find how to nail Patrick.
** "Mr. Monk Is On The Air": that Max Hudson will be the culprit is certain within the ColdOpening, so once Monk goes on the case, much of the episode is Monk trying to figure out how Max killed his wife.
* RubeGoldbergHatesYourGuts: Like clockwork.
* RunningGag: There are both "throughout the series" running gags and also gags limited to individual episodes.
** During Sharona's tenure on the show, a running gag is that she has bad instincts in the men she chooses to date, besides her ex-husband Trever Howe: a man who turns out to be the streaker interrupting Stottlemeyer and Disher's police press conferences ("Mr. Monk and the Red-Headed Stranger"), a mob enforcer ("Mr. Monk Meets the Godfather"), several married men, and more than once the episode's murderer.
*** Natalie actually averts it in the novels. In ''Mr. Monk on the Couch'', she is careful after dating a man that Monk has revealed to be a killer enough to turn GenreSavvy.
** Randy has two: coming up with very ridiculous theories (often bordering into supernatural reasons, like astral projection or secret escape pods), or his method of delivering news to Stottlemeyer in an awkwardly ceremonial way.
** Monk's inability to pay Natalie becomes a sort of cosmic joke, and is often the subplot of a number of episodes ("Mr. Monk vs. the Cobra", and also heavily used in "Mr. Monk and the Genius" where the episode actually starts with Monk and Natalie arguing about back pay).
** Some of the in-episode jokes:
*** In "Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever," Randy attempts with little success to come up with successful one-liners. Which doesn't exactly work out. To the point that Stottlemeyer gets annoyed at him for trying to insert them into the summation.
* SassyBlackWoman: In the ep where Sharona thought she was going insane, she gets a friend from her writing class who fits basically the role of EthnicScrappy. She was very painful to watch.
* ScienceIsUseless:
** The police were very embarrassed in "Mr. Monk and the Really, Really Dead Guy" when they surrounded and almost arrested a guy [[SarcasmMode brandishing a deadly harmonica]], based on predictions made by state of the art computer systems. Of course, why the FBI had taken over a routine homicide case like this is beyond belief.
** Another episode had a guy exonerated based on DNA evidence. [[spoiler: The DNA came from an accomplice, so the guy was still guilty of murder.]]
** "Mr. Monk and His Biggest Fan" makes you wonder how easy it is to frame a dog that has been dead for three days for a murder.
* 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.]]
* ScreamsLikeALittleGirl: Monk. [[spoiler:Because of a bear. A [[BearsAreBadNews big damn bear]]]]. Interestingly, though, the trailers for this scene had Tony Shalhoub screaming in his own voice. They dubbed it over because [[RuleOfFunny that makes it more humorous]].
* SecondPlaceIsForWinners: One episode has the murderer intentionally winning second place in a potato sack race to win a cherry pie as part of an attempt to retrieve an incriminating shell casing.
* SecretSanta: "Mr. Monk and the Secret Santa". Stottlemeyer forgets to buy a gift for Det. Chasen, his Secret Santa, so he regifts a bottle of port someone had sent him. Then the bottle turns out to be poisoned...
* SerialKillingsSpecificTarget: At least two examples.
** One is "Mr. Monk Goes Home Again," where Monk uncovers a shooting that was staged to cover up the fact that the victim was poisoned, and where the killer had been plotting to kill several people with poisoned candy bars to cover up the murder of his wife.
** "Mr. Monk and the Really, ''Really'' Dead Guy": a doctor kills a random street musician in one particularly gruesome way - bludgeoning him over the head with a crowbar, then suffocating him with a plastic bag, injecting him with a vial of poison, stabbing him four times with a knife, shooting him twice with a revolver, and finally crushing him with a car - to divert the police from the murder of his date.
** "Mr. Monk and the 12th Man" had a murderer who was tracking down and murdering 12 people with no apparent relation to one another, although it was later revealed that there was one thing that they had in common: They served on a jury together, specifically a civil case regarding an accident at a person's house. Stewart Babcock was tracking them down because one of the jurors was proceeding to blackmail him for money to keep quiet for killing his first wife and putting her on ice, but he didn't know which of them was the person blackmailing him.
* SeriesContinuityError
** Various details relating to Trudy's death and how Monk got the news. See the Monk Wiki entry for "Mr. Monk and the End" and the IMDb Goofs entry.
** Another slight error happens in the second half of the fifth season: "Mr. Monk Is on the Air" was supposed to air as part of the first half of the season, but for whatever reasons ended up airing in January 2007. Unfortunately, this causes continuity errors as to the dates mentioned in the episodes before and after it. You can notice most of the telltale details if you pay attention to Natalie: for one thing, her hair is noticeably longer. Also, at Max Hudson's house, she's wearing a red long-sleeve shirt that is one she also wore in "Mr. Monk Can't See a Thing," and at the police station is wearing a collared light blue shirt that looks like one she wore in "Mr. Monk Gets a New Shrink". She is driving a Jeep Grand Cherokee instead of a Buick Lucerne, and she is never seen standing behind an object that obscures her chest (indicating that the episode was filmed before Traylor Howard's pregnancy forced her to start standing behind other objects like car doors or desks). In the scene where Monk, Natalie and Linda Riggs are looking at the calendar in Max Hudson's house, the calendar is open to July 2006, when the previous episode was set in the present year.
** "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 scretary.
* {{Sexiled}}: Invoked and ultimately subverted in the episode "Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion". Monk and Natalie are in one of the dormitory corridors:
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' One in a million! Maybe one in a trillion!
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Mr. Monk, forget about the dog!
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' How could the same person have two dogs, 25 years apart, happened to be named Tangerine? "Tangerine"? And this Tangerine is black!
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Why would anybody lie about a dog's name?
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' I don't know, but... there is something weird about that guy [Kyle Brooks]. Dianne said that he couldn't wait to meet me, but he didn't even know I was a detective!
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Mr. Monk, come on! Let's have some fun! ''[snaps her fingers]'' You said you were gonna show me your dorm room!\\
'''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]''\\
'''Natalie Teeger:''' Yeah, I think I might know about that.\\
'''Adrian Monk:''' Yeah, it means, "Don't come in! I'm reorganizing my closet!" ''[Natalie looks at him incredulously]''\\
'''Natalie Teeger:''' Your ''closet''?\\
'''Adrian Monk:''' Yeah. My roommate in freshman year, Greg, he reorganized his closet 4-5 times a week.\\
'''Natalie Teeger:''' Uh-huh, and did his girlfriend ever come over to help?\\
'''Adrian Monk:''' Oh yeah. All the time, they were real neat freaks. I used to tease them about it. "Neat freaks!"
* SheIsNotMyGirlfriend: It is frequent that other characters will be under the impression that Natalie suppresses romantic feelings for Monk. Natalie is highly amused by the mere suggestion.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion":
-->''[Dianne Brooks sees Monk and walks over]''\\
'''Dianne Brooks:''' Adrian! There you are. We've been looking for you. ''[Dianne looks at Natalie suspiciously, as if what Monk said to her earlier about not dating anyone was a lie]''\\
'''Natalie Teeger:''' Hi, I'm Natalie Teeger. ''[Natalie and Dianne shake hands]''\\
'''Dianne Brooks:''' Hi. Dianne Brooks.\\
'''Natalie Teeger:''' I'm his assistant.\\
'''Dianne Brooks:''' Ahh... Oh, so you two aren't [dating]... ''[she points between Monk and Natalie; Natalie smiles, amused]''\\
'''Natalie Teeger:''' No. ''(laughs)''
** There is a scene in "Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever" where Natalie, who is moonlighting as a lottery hostess, is signing autographs for her fans. Monk comes up to her to grab some wipes from her purse. One of Natalie's fans asks her if Monk is her boyfriend, and Natalie corrects her.
** Happens in the ExpandedUniverse novel ''Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii'', where Natalie's friend Candace initially mistakes Monk as being Natalie's boyfriend.
** Also in one scene in ''Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse'' when Joe Cochran finds Monk staying at Natalie's house (due to Monk's apartment being fumigated).
* 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 "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. [[spoiler:Although in "Mr. Monk Goes to a Fashion Show," Natalie wishes she had a big, fat, hairy wart on her forehead]].
* ShellShockedVeteran: Averted. Despite being taken hostage very frequently, buried alive on a few occasions, frequently seeing the aftermath of many bloody murders (shootings, stabbings, explosions, beatings, even a few mutilations on the side), Monk is afraid of milk, handshakes, and germs, and has traumatic memories of birth.
* SherlockScan: Being that he's an expy of the TropeNamer, Monk exhibits these tendencies. But since Monk is also socially inept, he also doesn't always know that there are some details not to bring up. Just a few pointers: If you know that a woman is lying about her age, don't call her out on it. Or if you know that the judge at a hearing is sleeping with his secretary, don't use that as your way of proving your credibility to him. Or mention that a widow is having a sexual affair if her daughter is also standing there.
** Dr. Bell actually does one on Monk in "Mr. Monk Buys a House" when Monk has his first session with him, after Dr. Kroger's death. Monk mentions that he hasn't been sleeping due to the girl next door who plays Chopin's Prelude in A Major nonstop. Monk mentions that the girl only started playing piano about a year ago, and Dr. Bell correctly guesses, seemingly out of thin air, that it's only been bothering him for five weeks. Monk asks the standard, "How do you know that?" and Dr. Bell explains that Dr. Kroger played Chopin in his waiting room all the time, and the music has only bothered him for five weeks, the time period it has been since Dr. Kroger died, ostensibly meaning that for Monk, the music is invoking painful memories.
* ShipTease: In "Mr. Monk and the Genius", Monk and Natalie are on a stakeout. When their cover is threatened, Natalie briefly and inexplicably blurts out, "[[FakeOutMakeOut We should kiss!]]"
* ShortDistancePhoneCall:
** In "Mr. Monk and the Panic Room," Randy is searching Sharona's house for the monkey Darwin, speaking to Stottlemeyer on a walkie-talkie while in the same room. Stottlemeyer tells him he doesn't need to use one.
** In "Mr. Monk, Private Eye," Natalie decides to have Monk try out to be in the private investigation market. Monk and Natalie set up in a temporary office. They get bored quickly waiting for a case. Case in point: we are shown a scene where Natalie is awakened by her phone ringing.
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Adrian Monk Investigations. What is the nature of your problem?
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' I'm being kept in a room against my will.
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' You were kidnapped? Uh, do you know who did it?
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Yes. It's my personal assistant. Her name is Natalie... Teeger. ''[As he says that, the camera pans around Natalie to reveal that Monk is talking on his phone]''
** PlayedForLaughs in "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert": while searching the grounds for his son, Stottlemeyer catches Randy in the act of playing sick from a distance. We see a shot of Randy from in front. In the background, Stottlemeyer flips out his cell phone and appears to call someone. In the foreground, Randy's cell phone rings, and he answers:
-->'''Lt. Randall Disher''': ''[pretending to sound wheezy]'' Hello?
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer''': Hey, Randy! How're you doing, buddy? I-I was worried about you. ''[The whole time they are talking, Stottlemeyer is slowly stepping closer to Randy]''
-->'''Lt. Randall Disher''': Captain?
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer''': Yep?
-->'''Lt. Randall Disher''': ''[coughs]'' What time is it? ''[long pause]''
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer''': Oh, I'm sorry! Did I wake you up? ''[pause]'' Hey, what's that music I hear?
-->'''Lt. Randall Disher''': Oh, ''[pretends to cough]'' it's my stereo. It's broken! I can't turn it down!
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer''': It's loud!
-->'''Lt. Randall Disher''': Listen, Captain, thanks for calling!
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer''': ''[now practically inches away from him]'' Sure.
-->'''Lt. Randall Disher''': I’m going to get up now. I think I should make myself some soup.
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer''': Oh, soup? That’s good. Yeah, fluids are good. Drink plenty of fluids..
-->'''Lt. Randall Disher''': Fluids. Okay, I will. Thanks for calling, Captain!
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' Take care. ''[Randy hangs up, turns to a woman next to him and says]''
-->'''Lt. Randall Disher:''' My boss! ''[As Randy's laughing, Stottlemeyer puts his hand on his shoulder, and Randy spins around, discovering Stottlemeyer giving him the DeathGlare]'' Whoa. Captain.
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' Lieutenant.
-->'''Lt. Randall Disher:''' Did you, uh, did you call in sick, too?
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' No, Randy. I'm looking for Jared.
-->'''Lt. Randall Disher:''' Well, here's what happened with me: I was on my way to a doctor, and uh... I got nothing. Let's go find Jared. ''[takes one last sip of his beer before setting it down and walking away with Stottlemeyer]''
* ShoutOut
** In "Mr. Monk and the Genius," when Patrick Kloster is disembarking from his private jet and is talking to the reporters, 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."
** In "Mr. Monk and the Employee of the Month", the store's phrase "Have a Mega-Mart day" might be a reference to the standard {{Disneyland}} greeting.
*** This conversation between Monk and Joe Chrisie when they are looking at Jennie Silverman's Employee of the Month privileges is clearly supposed to be referring to the movie ''Film/ForrestGump'':
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Tell me about the Lobster Barrel.
-->'''Joe Christie:''' It's a family place. It's noisy, there's a million kids. You wouldn't last five minutes. It's got a great all-you-can-eat buffet with seven different kinds of shrimp: jumbo shrimp, batter-dipped shrimp, tempura shrimp...
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Okay, stop telling me about the Lobster Barrel.
-->'''Joe Christie:''' ...barbecued shrimp...
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Stop.
** "Mr. Monk's Favorite Show" features a sitcom that is an {{Expy}} of ''TheBradyBunch'' entitled ''The Cooper Clan''. The similarities are endless: similar episode plots, alliterative titles, lead stars who got into trouble with the police after the shows went off the air, and a star writing a tell-all book about their sex life.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Leper", a [[FreezeFrameBonus freeze frame shoutout]] occurs when the fake leper's dead body and Natalie fall from the gondola of the hot-air balloon. As Natalie gets up, the camera zooms in on her, and, if you freeze, you'll notice that minus the deletion of a few buildings in the background, Natalie's pose results in a near-perfect mirrored image of Andrew Wyeth's famous painting ''Christina's World''.
** In one episode, Monk is summoned by court for [[RogueJuror Jury Duty]]. HilarityEnsues, as Monk finds himself trapped in a small room with 11 other people, persisting throughout the episode that he prefers to work alone. Anyway, [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything the jury consists of a bunch of apathetic ignorants who immediately vote guilty just to get out of there quicker. One of whom is a Jerkass, another one has a cold, and the foreman is a StraightMan-turned-grunt]]. [[Film/TwelveAngryMen Which has happened before.]]
** And of course the numerous tribute to SherlockHolmes.
*** Jack Monk read Sherlock Holmes as bedtime stories to Adrian when he was growing up. Which possibly helped a lot in the long run.
*** Oates, Randy's farmhand in "Mr. Monk Visits a Farm," makes the comment, "One minute you're hand-cuffing yourself to a piece of farm machinery, sobbing like a schoolgirl, the next minute you're putting all the pieces together like Sherlock Holmes. Which is the real Adrian Monk?"
*** In the pilot, and in several other episodes, Monk identifies cigarettes and cigars from their ashes, like Sherlock does in ''A Study in Scarlet'', ''The Boscombe Valley Mystery'', etc.
*** Disher's original last name in the pilot was Deacon, so the first two letters of his and Stottlemeyer's first and last names put together spells "Lestrade" ('''Le'''land '''St'''ottlemeyer and '''Ra'''ndy '''De'''acon = '''Lestrade'''). See {{Expy}} above to see how the characters are based on Doyle's.
*** "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. RedHerring: the shell casing in question turns out to be in a bag of flour at Ambrose's house.
** Several shoutouts are made in the series to ''Series/{{Columbo}}''.
*** "Mr. Monk and the Red-Headed Stranger" could be considered to be the result of blending together several ''Columbo'' episode elements: The fact that the bullet hole in Sonny Cross's jacket does not match the position of the bullet hole in the body determines whether or not the victim was on good terms with the killer comes from "Fade in to Murder". Johnny Cash played a sympathetic country/gospel singer accused of murder in "Swan Song". In fact, Stottlemeyer makes a remark about Cash's performances at Folsom by saying that Music/WillieNelson will soon be performing "live from Folsom Prison". And there is a blind witness with a twist (Mrs. Mass), just like in "A Deadly State of Mind".
*** In "Mr. Monk Is on the Run, Part Two", Natalie realizes that Monk is alive when she sees a newspaper article about the "Car Wash Columbo", a (supposedly) Hispanic car wash man who recently helped the local police solve the hit-and-run death of a highway safety worker single-handedly. Monk has faked his death and Stottlemeyer has made it seem that he's dead, so this incident ends up blowing his cover. Of course, Natalie is not happy to find that Stottlemeyer has known about this the whole time and was lying to her (when in truth, he was trying to keep Monk away from Sheriff John Rollins, the guy who framed him).
*** A direct shout out to ''Columbo'' is in "Mr. Monk Buys a House", when Jake says, "So what's going on, Columbo?" Some believe that BradGarrett ad-libbed that part of the line. By coincidence, Hector Elizondo, who debuts as Dr. Bell in that episode, played Hassan Salah, a murderous diplomat in "A Case of Immunity".
*** Some circumstances of "Mr. Monk Goes Back to School" are based on "Etude in Black," such as the fact that the murder victim, Beth Landow, is much like Jennifer Welles: she is pregnant, she is having an affair with the killer (Derek Philby, vs. Alex Benedict), and her death is made to look like a suicide.
*** Two episodes, "Mr. Monk and the Miracle" and "Mr. Monk and the End," bear some elements of "Requiem for a Falling Star," especially the latter, which features a string of murders that are tied to a body buried under a sundial, and features a killer who won't move out of his current house because of said body.
*** In "Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever", a crucial clue that an apparent suicide was murder is that a contact lens case is found with only one lens in it, and the other contact lens is found on the victim's body. This is the same clue that was used by Columbo in "Murder, a Self Portrait" to determine that a drowning death was actually murder.
*** In "Mr. Monk Is Underwater," Commander Whitaker uses a cigarette as a fuse for a firecracker to give himself an alibi, by fooling people into thinking that an apparent suicide victim shot himself while the commander and the senior officers were banging on his cabin door, with the firecracker simulating the sound of a gunshot. Nelson Hayward did the exact same trick in "Candidate for Crime".
*** In one of the flashbacks to Monk's childhood in 1972 in "Mr. Monk and Little Monk", one of his classmates mockingly calls Monk "Columbo".
*** "Mr. Monk Buys a House" is also like the ''Columbo'' episode "Undercover", in that a string of new murders occurs that is tied to an old unsolved bank robbery.
** "Mr. Monk Is on the Run, Part One", contains a lot of similarities to ''Film/TheFugitive''. Sheriff John Rollins (Scott Glenn) could have been named for the sheriff seen at the train wreck scene in the movie. His request for a helicopter and his orders about police checkpoints when searching for the escaped Monk are similar to the orders that Deputy Marshal [[TommyLeeJones Samuel Gerard]] gives before executing the search for Kimble. Furthermore, the main character in both is framed for a shooting, and Monk and Dr. Kimble each seek a killer with a physical deformity (Monk is looking for a six-fingered man, and Dr. Kimble is looking for a man with a prosthetic right arm).
** Some elements of "Mr. Monk and the Voodoo Curse" are direct ShoutOuts to ''Film/TheExorcist'', including the scene of a shadowy figure walking past a lone lit lamppost on a foggy night.
** Inspector Guy Gadois in ''Mr. Monk is Miserable'' is named after an alias that was used in one [[ThePinkPanther InspectorClouseau]] story.
** In "Mr. Monk is on the Air," 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]'' [[Film/{{Rocky}} 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.
** You know the show's funny font? Yeah, [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/71/Kojak_title_screen.jpg that's originally from]] ''{{Kojak}}'' (which is doubly funny, considering that a detective more ''unlike'' Monk could not be found).
** In "Mr. Monk Goes to the Dentist," Monk is tortured by Dr. Oliver Bloom and Teri, [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate two dentists involved in stealing bearer bonds worth $13 million from an ex-cop who himself had robbed them from an armored car and killed two guards, and then later, killing said ex-cop when he figures out what happened, and barged in on them]] for information regarding one of their clients, in a manner very similar to the infamous torture scene in ''Film/MarathonMan''. Dr. Bloom and Teri even lampshade it by saying Monk is going to live through it.
** In the novel ''Mr. Monk and the Dirty Cop'', there is a portion of the story where Monk and Natalie are hired by a private investigations agency called Intertect. Said agency was taken from the old 1960s private eye show ''Mannix''. Additionally, there is a person mentioned in passing named Lew Wickersham, a reference to that show.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Rapper," when trying to justify buying Natalie flowers for Secretary's Day, Monk actually drops a reference to Secretariat, the 1973 Triple Crown winning horse of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes. Which indicates that Monk isn't entirely culturally blind.
* ShowDontTell: In the entirety of the show's run, Monk was explicitly described as having OCD ''maybe'' twice, not counting promos. This is made especially jarring on the multiple occasions where Monk gets in trouble for grossly inappropriate behavior and Natalie or Sharona tries to explain to an authority figure that Monk suffers from a condition; the best she's ever able to come up with is "he's... persnickity".
* SickEpisode: "Mr. Monk Stays in Bed"
* 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.
* SmugSnake: Several of the killers of the week are like this, which makes it all the more enjoyable when Monk brings them down.
* SnubByOmission: In "Mr. Monk and the Astronaut", Steve Wagner quite pointedly leaves Monk out when saying anyone could be a hero.
* SockItToThem: In "Mr. Monk Goes to the Carnival", John Gitomer does this to ''himself''. He ties the sock weapon to a ceiling fan so as to give himself contusions and frame Lt. Adam Kirk.
* SomeoneToRememberHimBy: Inverted. In the final episode, [[spoiler:Monk finds out that Trudy, some years before they met, had had an affair and a child by her old law professor. Trudy was led to believe that the child died at birth, but after her murder was solved, Monk found out that her daughter, Molly, lived after all and had been adopted. He sought her out and began a friendship with her.]] )
* SoundtrackDissonance: "Mr. Monk and the Very, Very Old Man" has the world's oldest man being suffocated with a pillow....while the room's gramophone plays a very inappropriate upbeat piano piece in the background.
* SpitTake: Natalie has two memorable ones.
** From "Mr. Monk Fights City Hall":
-->''(Harold is trying to figure out the identity of Monk's new therapist)''
-->'''Harold Krenshaw:''' I'm talking about your new therapist, the mystery doctor, the genius you're always raving about. Who is he? Just tell me his name!
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' I can't tell you. It's privileged information.
-->'''Harold Krenshaw:''' No, it's not. What happens in the session is privileged. His name isn't privileged. People recommend therapists everyday. Am I right, Natalie?
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' I don't know. I'm just waiting for the conversation to be over.
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Okay, fine. His name is doctor... ''(glances at elevator doors)'' Door.
-->'''Harold Krenshaw:''' Dr. Door? Is that the best you can do? I suppose if we were standing by that alarm you would've said "Dr. '''Bell'''". ''(Natalie promptly spits water in Harold's face)''
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Oh god, Harold! I'm so sorry!
** From "Mr. Monk and the Genius":
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' You have to admit, he's real good. ''(takes a sip from her lemonade)'' What? He was right. I am thirsty. '''(Monk looks at her oddly)'' What?
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' How do you feel?
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Uhhh, I feel fine. ''[Monk continues to stare at her oddly; she casually takes another sip]'' What?
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' It just occurred to me: if there's poison in the lemonade, we could go to the DA and we'd have all the evidence we need. ''[Natalie immediately spits out the window)''
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' It just occurred to you?! And you didn't say anything?! My gosh, Mr. Monk, I've never seen you like this! ''[She dumps the rest of her cup onto the pavement, clearly disgusted]''
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' How do you feel now?
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' You know I hate to disappoint you, but I feel fine!
* 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 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.
** [[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 was 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.
** 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 McDonalds, respectively. Mr. Snork is like Mr. Spock, while a couple of real McDonalds controversies are referenced, just with Burgerville in their place - namely, the ''Liebeck vs. McDonalds 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 impresssion 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.
* TheSoCalledCoward: Monk is terrified of 312 specifically named, listed, and ordered things. In spite of constantly encountering them, he ''always'' gets his man. And he never gets over his fear.
* SpeakNowOrForeverHoldYourPeace: HilarityEnsues because Monk can make weddings....intersting, to say the least.
** First is in "Mr. Monk Goes to a Wedding," when Natalie's brother Jonathan is getting married. Natalie, not feeling comfortable seeing her estranged family by herself, ropes Randy into coming along as her "date". However, shortly after they arrive, someone tries to kill Randy by ramming him with a car driven by someone in Natalie's family, but is unsuccessful, although Randy is left with a broken arm and a broken leg. Monk and Stottlemeyer show up to investigate, and Stottlemeyer goes undercover as a wedding photographer by borrowing a CSI tech's camera and volunteering. Then the body of the original photographer turns up dead in the mudbath, and Monk determines that his death and the attempt on Randy's life are connected. Further investigation turns up Jonathan's bride-to-be as a BlackWidow.
** In the novel ''Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii'', the wedding in question does not do much apart from serve as a plot point to give a reason for Monk and Natalie to travel to Hawaii in the first place. Natalie gets invited by her Los Angeles friend Candace to be a maid of honor at Candace's wedding, at a five star resort in Hawaii. When the day of travel comes, Natalie flies out to Hawaii, as does Monk, who, not thinking he'll be able to last a week without Natalie, has tagged along by taking Dioxynl. The wedding is aborted when Monk exposes Candace's fiancee Brian Galloway as a bigamist and a pathological liar. During the actual wedding ceremony. To add to this, Brian's car is vandalized later that day, which Monk eventually discovers is the result of drug smugglers trafficking drugs into Kauai by stuffing them into the seats of rental cars. Also, Monk and Natalie stumble on a murder.
*** And after Monk and Natalie return to San Francisco, Natalie gets berated by her mother, who seems less concerned about Candace's fiancee being exposed than about the fact that it was Monk who was responsible for exposing the fact, apparently reminded of how Monk ruined Jonathan's wedding.
* TheSpanishInquisition: In "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert," Natalie mentions having studied the Inquisition after Monk likens accidentally walking into a port-a-potty to an iron maiden.
* StaircaseTumble: How Cassie Drake kills Joseph Moody in the opening to "Mr. Monk Buys a House": she wheels him up a flight of stairs in his wheelchair. Then at the top, she releases him, stands him up, and forcibly pushes him.
* StatusQuoIsGod: Whenever Monk makes a new friend, they turn out to be [[SixthRangerTraitor evil criminals manipulating him.]] Whenever he makes some progress in his mental health, he's [[ResetButton back to being worse than ever at the end of the episode]]. It took the final episode to give him some closure.
** The final season has him working though some of his problems.
** On the final season, "Mr. Monk and the Foreign Man" had him make a friend whose wife died in the {{cold open}} in a hit-and-run and was not evil or manipulating. However, he wasn't from around this part of the country, so...
*** This friend was literally put on a bus at the end, too.
** In "Mr. Monk Goes to the Office", his coworkers at the office he was working at while undercover liked him and seemed to be forming a friendship, but of course after the crime was solved he had to go back to his regular job. Making it worse, Monk had ruined his relationship with them due to not wearing proper shoes at a bowling game.
** "Mr. Monk and the Lady Next Door" lampshades the trope by having Monk be convinced that Marge Johnson, the elderly woman who had become a mother figure to him, had to have been in on the two murders John Keyes has committed, because everyone else who had become his friend in the past ended up betraying him. Things get awkward when he finds out that she really was innocent, right after cruelly berating her. He eventually does apologize and get some closure.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Badge", [[spoiler:Monk quits the force after having been back on it for only a few days, finding consulting to be more of his thing.]]
** In "Mr. Monk Falls in Love," Monk sparks a possible romance with Leyla Zlatavich, who is arrested for murdering an escaped war criminal. [[spoiler:She had taken the rap for the real killer, her mother]].
* StockFootage: There are some stock clips that are used when leading into scenes set at the police station.
* 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}}''
* StrangeMindsThinkAlike: In one episode, nearly everyone independently comes up with the idea that Monk is an alien. Except the sheriff, of course.
* StrangerInAFamiliarLand
** When Monk gets his badge back. Things definitely are different being a consultant versus being an SFPD detective.
** The book that "Mr. Monk and the Badge" was ripped from, ''Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu'', has some of this. Due to a police strike taking most of the force out of commission, the mayor puts Monk and Natalie in the position of acting captain of the Robbery-Homicide division for the length of the strike, in charge of three eccentric ex-detectives thrown off the force for many of the same reasons Monk had his own discharge. Furthermore, even Natalie notices that Monk being an official captain means they must take different types of calls as they must respond to every murder call, instead of having the liberty to choose their cases.
* StrawCharacter: Karen Stottlemeyer is one of the worst variety of the type of liberal thinker who is almost a caricature of the majority of this set of people. She is constantly harping on Leland that he needs to be more open-minded and tolerant of other things while never budging one bit from her own position and showing almost zero respect for Leland and simply assuming that her way is the right way. Monk and Natalie avert this trope, though for Monk, this might be more subverted.
* StrawmanHasAPoint:[[invoked]] In "Mr. Monk Makes a Friend", it's clear that Hal, the "friend" Monk makes, is up to no good. But then he says "when's the last time you hung out with him?" (To be fair, it's difficult to do so...)
* StrictlyFormula: Episodes take one of four basic plots:
##The killer is known, and how the crime was committed is known. The episode is spent trying to find evidence to arrest that person, and these episodes are hence patterned similarly to many episodes of ''Series/{{Columbo}}''.
##Monk knows who the killer is, and knows what the motive is, but the killer has a seemingly air-tight alibi. The episode is spent trying to break that alibi and find out how the killer did it.
##In a number of episodes, the plot involves trying to find out the killer, how the murder was done, and why.
##In some episodes, the killer's M.O. is known, but not who did it or why.
** The novel series, for the most part, use this plot formula: Natalie introduces Monk and Monk quickly solves an unrelated murder. The real murder or murders occur. Monk accuses someone out of pettiness. Monk determines the real killer, who has an airtight alibi; only Natalie believes him. Monk is proven right. End of story. Some play with the trope, though:
*** In ''Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse'', the unrelated murder case happens midway through the story, after the investigation for the main murder starts. Also, Monk accusing Lucas Breen of being the killer is not done out of pettiness even though he thinks of Breen as the killer after only talking to him for five minutes.
*** In ''Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu'', the first murder investigation shown is part of the novel's first subplot (the Golden Gate Strangler serial killer). The unrelated murder, a single shooting at a convenience store, happens after the second subplot starts (the stabbing death of astrologer Allegra Doucet, and two very improvised murders, all committed in the span of 24 hours).
*** In ''Mr. Monk and the Dirty Cop'', there is a variant: many of the threads that set up the main murder mystery's plot occur within the first 14 chapters (Monk and Natalie meeting Bill Peschel and Paul Braddock, the two eventual murder victims), but in the first half, there are ''two'' unrelated subplots: a small university shooting that Monk solves on the spot, and the assassinations of two judges.
*** In ''Mr. Monk in Trouble'', the unrelated murder at the beginning doesn't have Monk even visit the crime scene but identifies the man as having stabbed a woman based on what he's wearing and the bloodstains on his clothes. Gets an IronicEcho when Natalie reads an entry in Abigail Guthrie's journal where Artemis Monk identifies a cowboy named Bud Lolly as having killed a fellow named Bart Spicer just from tar and wood splinters on the man's clothes, without ever going to the mine. The mysteries in that journal turn out to be ChekhovsGun for the main plot.
*** InUniverse case, combined with HoistByHisOwnPetard: In ''Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants'', Monk is unimpressed with Ian Ludlow's novels because Ludlow's character Detective Marshak catches the killer in the exact same way: the killer is given away by a personality quirk. And Monk then uses this little thing to nail Ludlow for comitting two murders that he's framed Natalie and Sharona for: in this case, the personality quirk Monk catches onto is that Ludlow cannot resist the urge to go into bookstores where his books are sold to autograph every copy he can.
* StripperCopConfusion: Sadly, yes, in the one where Natalie's brother gets married. Monk couldn't notice that the guy had dollar bills sticking out of his belt.
* TheSummation: Almost always signaled with the CatchPhrase "Here's what happened..." But some episodes play it straight, some play with the formula, and there are a couple that actually lack a summation:
** 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.]]
** Subverted in "Mr. Monk and the Earthquake", wherein the summation goes through all the usual bells and whistles (black and white flashbacks, dramatic camera shots, etc), as if totally oblivious to the fact that the voiceover supplied by an unusually-addled Monk is pure gibberish.
** An unusual one is "Mr. Monk and the Miracle", where Monk and Natalie are telling the summation to a converted Stottlemeyer in a monastery. Unfortunately, since all of the nuns are chanting, they are forced to harmonize the summation to blend it in. Tony Shalhoub and Traylor Howard are awesome with the low harmonic voices they use to address Stottlemeyer.
** Played with in "Mr. Monk and the Garbage Strike", where a sleep-deprived Monk has been driven crazy by the garbage strike and becomes convinced that the crime in question was actually committed by ''Alice Cooper'' because he wanted the victim's antique chair for himself (complete with a hilarious shot in which [[{{Cameo}} Alice Cooper himself]] [[CrowningMomentOfFunny guns down the victim and leers evilly over the chair]] during the summation).
** Subverted in "Mr. Monk Gets Hypnotized". In the episode, Monk is hypnotized into thinking he is a 6-year-old again. When he goes to the crime scene, the victim's crotch is exposed, and Monk begins his summation. He starts the whole thing totally seriously, and then claims that the man died of embarrassment. But later, when he comes across Sally Larkin in her garden, he gives her the true version.
** When attempting to give the summation to Stottlemeyer in "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert", he has a very hard time attempting to do so and be heard because Novillero is currently playing "The Laissez Faire System" at max volume.
** Played for laughs in "Mr. Monk and Sharona", when Sharona impatiently forces herself, Monk, and Natalie into Perry Walsh's closet to give the summation. [[OhCrap Unfortunately, Walsh hears every word.]] Right before Monk can give the summation properly, Sharona tells Monk to quickly explain everything, and Monk does literally just that: he speaks incredibly fast and we are rushed through the summation at triple speed, with Monk being almost unintelligable as a result.
** Played awesomely in "Mr. Monk and the Rapper": Monk declares that music producer Denny Hodges is a murderer, but since he's doing this at the tribute concert, the partygoers won't let him finish the summation, so Music/SnoopDogg gets up on stage and raps the summmation. It's awesome, but you still might need the black-and-white flashbacks to explain what he's saying.
** Also played awesomely in "Mr. Monk and the Kid" where Monk reads the summation to the one-year old boy he has temporarily adopted as a bedtime story.
** "Mr. Monk Gets Cabin Fever": Monk and Randy are trapped in the Willowby cabin, as two thugs with automatic rifles are firing at them from outside, pinning them down. Randy looks at a fortune cookie that lured him here, and Monk notices scorch marks around a power outlet. They say in perfect unison, "Oh my god! I've got it! Here's what happened!" Then they dive into their separate summations, which overlap and the black-and-white flashbacks jump back and forth.
** Lampshaded in "Mr. Monk's 100th Case" when James Novak goes to prison and does a group interview with Jimmy Belmont, Hal Tucker and Joey Krenshaw, put away respectively in "Mr. Monk Visits a Farm," "Mr. Monk Makes a Friend" and "Mr. Monk and the Daredevil." They complain about how tedious the summation part is because Monk is basically telling them what they did, because they were the perpetrators!
* SuperOCD: Very. [[http://forums.usanetwork.com/lofiversion/index.php/t403246.html Possibly]] a misdiagnosed autistic savant, instead.
* SuperSenses: Although not emphasized in every episode, it's periodically shown that Monk's senses, particularly hearing, smell, and touch, are sharp to an almost superhuman degree. The show emphasizes the negative SensoryOverload aspect of having such senses, with Monk often being driven nuts by noises or smells that no one else even notices.
** For example: in ''Mr. Monk Is Miserable'', he goes into a blind restaurant (e.g. you sit and eat in total darkness) and is able to sense (due to extrasensory perception) someone approaching their table. And he senses that said person has committed a murder when he hears a noise even before the body is revealed.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute
** The replacement of Bitty Schram (Sharona) with Traylor Howard (Natalie) in the middle of season 3. The fandom has long been locked in a battle over which one is better. It works better here than a few other cases because things like Natalie being similar to Sharona down to having a kid the same age (Benjy, instead of Julie) can be explained by Monk trying to make things stay the same when life changes around him. Though the episode "Mr. Monk and Sharona" highlights how different they are as well.
** Also, Héctor Elizondo replaced Stanley Kamel (Dr. Kroger) after his death.
** International police officers in different countries that have a murder solved by Monk have a duo who acts very similarly to Stottlemeyer and Disher. In ''Mr. Monk Goes to Germany'' and ''Mr. Monk Is Miserable'', this provides a convenient RunningGag with the police in Lohr, Germany and [[GayParee Paris, France]].
*** In "Mr. Monk Goes to Mexico", Captain Alameda and Lieutenant Plato
*** In ''Mr. Monk Goes to Germany'', Hauptkriminalkommissar Stoffmacher and Kommissar Geshir
*** In ''Mr. Monk Is Miserable'', Chief Inspector Philippe Le Roux and Inspector Guy Gadois
* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial
** In "Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion", when Monk meets Dianne Brooks in the check-in line, Dianne asks him if he's dating anyone, which Monk fervently denies with a couple of repetitive "no"s. When Monk and Natalie run into Dianne later, and she thinks that [[SheIsNotMyGirlfriend Natalie is Monk's girlfriend]], Natalie is visibly smirking when denying they're dating.
** This happens in several other cases where Monk and Natalie are mistaken for a couple.
** 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.....
** In "Mr. Monk and the Leper," Randy walks into Dr. Aaron Polanski's office, and looks at some old photos of him with acne. He claims to be browsing when asked by the receptionist. Then he decides to take the photos off. After an intense struggle due to the photo being glued on so well, it comes off, taking a piece of the plaster with it, which is exactly when Dr. Polanski walks in.
-->'''Dr. Aaron Polanski:''' Randall! What a nice sur...prise.
-->'''Randy Disher:''' Hi, doc. ''[hands him the torn off photo]'' This fell off the wall.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Bully", when Monk and Natalie end up telling Stottlemeyer and Disher that they happen to know the victim:
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' Know what? What, you know this guy? ''[Gestures towards the body]''
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' No, not technically...
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' ''[overlapping Monk's words]'' No, [we] don't "know" him; never met him face to face.
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Never formally introduced. Sort of.... ''[Natalie makes "footsteps" with her fingers]'' We've been following him.
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Yeah.
** Also used in tandem with the INeverSaidItWasPoison trope.
* TagAlongActor: Monk acquires David Ruskin in "Mr. Monk and the Actor". It didn't work out well because of the guy's method acting.
* TakeAThirdOption
** In "Happy Birthday, Mr. Monk," faced with hiding in either a dumpster or port-a-john, Monk declares "I choose death!" Then reconsiders and decides on the port-a-potty.
** "Mr. Monk and the Red-Headed Stranger":
-->'''Stottlemeyer:''' It's either (a) the blind woman who has zero motive or it's (b) your friend the red-headed stranger.\\
'''Randy:''' Who had motive, means, and opportunity, and was identified by the only witness at the scene.\\
'''Stottlemeyer:''' A or B, Monk.\\
'''Monk:''' I think it's C.\\
'''Stottlemeyer:''' What the hell is C?\\
'''Monk:''' I don't know yet.
* TakeThat:
** The episode "Mr. Monk and the TV Star" is this trope against "modern" detective shows like CSI that use "science" to solve mysteries as oppose to traditional observational skills by showing that the "science" is fake as it comes in the form of ridiculously unreal instruments, like spectroscopes being used to find fibers (leading Sharona to boast that Monk solved the case without such a tool when they are arresting the lead star). Also, when watching the taping at one studio set, Monk calls out a geographic mistake in the characters' conversation.
*** "Mr. Monk and the Really ''Really'' Dead Guy" does the same thing about computers
** 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.
* TalkingToTheDead: Monk talks to Trudy in his sleep sometimes.
* TaxidermyIsCreepy: Oh my... one guy stuffed [[spoiler:his mother]] in "Mr. Monk and the Three Julies." And he wasn't even the killer. It's clever as a shoutout ''Film/{{Psycho}}''.
* 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.
* TemptingFate:
** 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:
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' It’s number 11, damn it! All right, nobody’s going home. I want to know how many of our victims knew Mr. Henry Smalls. We’re gonna revisit every crime scene. We huddle back here at 0900. Go. Go! ''[detectives leave the room]''
** In "Mr. Monk and His Biggest Fan", Linda Fusco asks Stottlemeyer, "What does a girl have to do to get your attention, Captain? Kill someone?" Three episodes later, in "Mr. Monk and the Bad Girlfriend," Monk and Natalie suspect Linda to be responsible for the shooting death of her partner. [[spoiler:And they're right.]]
* ThatOneCase: Trudy's murder, which is eventually solved in the show's GrandFinale.
* ThemeNaming:
** In "Mr. Monk and the Rapper," SnoopDogg plays a rapper named Murderuss. His two associates are nicknamed "Mr. Assassin" and "Killa". Makes sense, doesn't it?
** In ''Mr. Monk Gets Cleaned Out,'' the common theme appears to be palindromes. Bob Sebes, a wife named Anna, a Reinier Investment Fund? That's three palindromes right there.
* ThematicThemeTune: "It's a Jungle Out There"
* ThirdActStupidity: Monk will often let it slip to the killer that he knows he's the killer and has solid evidence to prove it. This usually occurs when the killer is an authority figure in a position to kill Monk in a way that would raise absolutely no questions. As a result, Monk is regularly endangered in ways he could have easily avoided if he had kept his mouth shut and waited for the police to arrive. This is generally explained by the fact that Monk has ''really'' bad social skills.
* ThroughHisStomach: "Mr. Monk and the Lady Next Door"
* ThrowItIn: Some things clearly appear improvised. For instance, Randy's epic struggle in "Mr. Monk and the Leper" to remove some embarrassing images of him in Dr. Polanski's office was the result of the pictures being nailed on too tightly by the set designer (the scene was supposed to be a simple swipe). And Traylor Howard's pregnancy was worked into "Mr. Monk Is At Your Service", which may or may not count.
** In "Mr. Monk Is Up All Night," the production blog states that Stottlemeyer and Disher grabbing Monk's pickpocketed wallet from Gully at the bar was something ad-libbed by Ted Levine and Jason Gray-Stanford. As Douglas Nabors described it, "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."
* ThrowingTheFight: In "Mr. Monk Takes a Punch", Monk discovers that Ray Regis took a dive during the previous title fight to raise enough money to pay for experimental operations on his trainer Louie Flynn's daughter.
* TieInNovel: A series of novels was released starting in January 2006, midway through season 4. The first 15 novels were written by Lee Goldberg.
** As a result of the novel series being written alongside the TV series for the first ten novels, the novels adapt accordingly for plot elements that have happened in the series. For instance:
*** ''Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu'' makes reference to Stottlemeyer's divorce, placing it after "Mr. Monk and the Captain's Marriage" in the continuity timeline.
*** ''Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants'' most likely takes place after "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert" and before "Mr. Monk Meets His Dad," as it was published in July 2007. Since it is mentioned that Stottlemeyer is still dating Linda Fusco, this also means the novel happens before "Mr. Monk and the Bad Girlfriend".
*** ''Mr. Monk and the Dirty Cop'' was the first novel written after Stanley Kamel (and hence Dr. Kroger)'s death and the casting of Hector Elizondo as Dr. Bell, so Dr. Bell is featured in it, and this places its events after "Mr. Monk Buys a House".
** 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.
** Two novels were eventually adapted into episodes: ''Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse'' was adapted into "Mr. Monk Can't See a Thing," and ''Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu'' was adapted into ''Mr. Monk and the Badge''. In the latter case, reading the novel and then viewing the episode will cause you to notice that the plot is very similar to such a point that only the character names were changed.
* TorchesAndPitchforks: Natalie makes an off-handed comment twice in ''Mr. Monk and the Dirty Cop'' which involves this trope:
-->''"I kept waiting for the Neighborhood Watch Committee to march on my house with torches to drive me away because I don't have breast implants, a German car, or an iPhone. What saved me was that I was a thin, natural blonde with a perky smile, but I knew that wouldn't hold them off for much longer."''
* TruckDriversGearChange: "It's a Jungle Out There" starts in C minor, but about midway through jumps to F minor.
* TruthInTelevision: In "Mr. Monk Meets the Red-Headed Stranger", Monk is invited into Willie Nelson's tour bus and immediately asks "Do you smell that?" Willie answers "No, and neither do you." alluding to his well-known fondness for pot. On two separate occasions, in 2006 and 2010, marijuana had been found and confiscated off his bus.
* TwoScenesOneDialogue:
** "Mr. Monk and the Three Pies" - we intercut between Adrian and Pat van Ranken each reenacting the shooting of van Ranken's wife in their respective kitchens, with the dialogue and positions of the two matching up perfectly.
** In "Mr. Monk's 100th Case," when Natalie, Stottlemeyer and Disher are listing off some of Monk's idiosyncracies, they jump back and forth:
-->'''Randy Disher:''' Oh, he has some idiosyncrasies.
-->'''James Novak:''' Like what?
-->'''Randy Disher:''' Fear of heights. Fear of germs. Spiders. Milk.
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' ''[ticking off on her fingers]'' Crowds, elevators, fire.
-->'''Randy Disher:''' Rabbits, tunnels, bridges.
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Boats.
-->'''Randy Disher:''' Decaffeinated coffee
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Lightning.
-->'''Leland Stottlemeyer:''' The wind. He's afraid of the wind.
-->'''Randy Disher:''' Egg whites.
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Bad.
-->'''Randy Disher:''' Naked people. That one is way up there. I think it goes "naked people" and then "death."
** 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.
-->'''Dianne Brooks:''' Isn’t that funny? I mean, what are the odds of that?
-->''[Cuts to]''
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' One in a million, maybe one in a trillion!
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Mr. Monk, forget about the dog!
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' How could the same person have two dogs, 25 years apart, happened to be named Tangerine? "Tangerine"? And this Tangerine is black!
* TwoFirstNames:
** Kendra Frank in "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert"
*** Stork also counts, as Kendra tells Monk and Natalie, "His real name was Greg Murray."
** Ray Regis in "Mr. Monk Takes a Punch"
** Billy Logan in "Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever"
*** Also Stan[ley] Lawrence
** "Honest" Jake Phillips in "Mr. Monk Buys a House"
** James Novak in "Mr. Monk's 100th Case"
** Daniel Reese in "Mr. Monk's Other Brother"
** Marge Johnson in "Mr. Monk and the Lady Next Door"
** Dr. Davis Scott in "Mr. Monk Goes to the Hospital"
** Jay Bennett in "Mr. Monk, Private Eye"
** Brother and sister Lynn and Aaron Hayden in "Mr. Monk and the Big Game"
** Dr. Oliver Bloom in "Mr. Monk Goes to the Dentist"
** Steve Wagner in "Mr. Monk and the Astronaut"
[[/folder]]
[[folder: U-Z]]
* UnusualEuphemism: "BM" for "shit" and "haul bottom" for "haul ass".
* UnusuallyUninterestingSight
** This is what the limo driver tries in "Mr. Monk Makes the Playoffs" to hide his victim's body in plain sight by dressing it as a passed out fan. How no-one noticed the stench of dead flesh or even flies around the body is a mystery.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Miracle", when Monk and Natalie are harmonizing TheSummation to get it to Stottlemeyer, we wonder how come none of the other monks hear two voices that obviously don't blend in.
** 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.
* UnconventionalSmoothie: In "Mr. Monk is On The Run - Part 1", Natalie needs to use a power drill to get Monk's shackles off. Unfortunately, Randy is also staking out Natalie's house. To explain the drill, she pretends that her blender broke and uses the drill to create a smoothie from a number of questionable and unusual ingredients.
* UpToEleven: Monk's OCD becomes much worse after Trudy's murder.
* VerySpecialEpisode
** Parodied in "Mr. Monk and the Naked Man", but arguably does a better job of preaching tolerance than serious uses of the trope.
** Also in the episode "Mr. Monk Makes a Friend" about Friendship. A guy who makes friends with Monk and puts up with all his quirks and phobias. He also points out while Monk considers Natalie, Stottlemeyer and Disher friends, the guy tells them off in a [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech "You Suck" speech to the three of them about how they just use Monk in a one-sided manner]]. Turns out he was the murderer they suspected earlier and Monk desperatly wants him not to be the killer even when he threatens to kill Monk. Natalie, Stoddlemeyer and Disher save the day and Monk learns they really are his friends.
** "Mr. Monk Buys a House" could be considered one if you factor in that the series had to adjust after Stanley Kamel died of a heart attack in April 2008.
* VerbalBusinessCard: The main characters sometimes introduce themselves with the "I'm [X]. I'm an [X]" format.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion": Natalie meeting Dianne Brooks for the first time:
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Hi, I'm Natalie Teeger.
-->'''Dianne Brooks:''' Hi. Dianne Brooks. ''[shakes hands with her]''
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' I'm his assistant.
** In "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert", Kendra gives one when she introduces herself to Monk and Natalie: "Hi, I'm Kendra Frank, I'm a roadie for Trafalgar."
* ViewersAreMorons: In "Mr. Monk Takes the Stand", Evan Gildea brags about how he can't be tried again because he was found not guilty. With no prompting, Stottlemeyer says it's right and says it's called double jeopardy. The only people for him to be talking to are Monk, an ex-police detective and Natalie (who, if she didn't know, would have come up many seasons ago the first time someone got acquitted on one murder and convicted for another). This bit can only be explained as the writers of that episode being unable to count on their audience to know about it before hand. [[ValuesDissonance More likely, it's for the benefit of non-US audiences]], however. They aren't as used to American systems.
* VisibleBoomMic: Naturally, a few episodes have suffered this goof.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Paperboy," when Monk, Sharona, Stottlemeyer and Disher go to the bodyshop to talk to a suspected hit-and-run motorist mentioned in a newspaper article, you can see the boom mic reflected off the car on the left side of the screen.
** In "Mr. Monk Joins a Cult," the top of the boom mike dips briefly into the camera viewing area when Monk enters Father's cabin.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Three Julies," when Monk has finished the summation, the boom rigging's shadow can be seen. In "Mr. Monk and the Genius," the same thing happens after Patrick Kloster catches Monk planting "evidence".
* VillainousBreakdown: Dale the Whale in "Mr. Monk Is on the Run, Part 2", thanks to an EngineeredPublicConfession on Natalie's camcorder.
* WalkAndTalk: A few episodes use this for conversations.
** A very noticeable one is from "Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever" in the scene where Natalie sees a city bus with an advertising wrap of her. We are treated to a long continuous shot of Monk and Natalie walking down a sidewalk and conversing, which is all done in one take, and the angle does not change until they get to the end of the block.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion," the scene where Monk and Natalie are walking to Monk's old dormroom is filmed in this style.
* WantingIsBetterThanHaving: Getting back on the police force was one of Monk's goals since the start of the show. When he finally accomplished it late in the final season, he discovered that he actually preferred the independence of being an outside consultant.
* WeWantOurJerkBack:
** In the episode "Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine", Monk ends up taking a type of medication where all of his regular quirks are being suppressed and he can live a (relatively) normal life after an incident where he was forced to let a criminal get away due to his hands being soiled. It works too well, and he ends up becoming similar to one of those jerkish college frat-boys, with Sharona and the SFPD wanting the Monk they know to be there. Eventually, Monk manages to give up on that medication when it became apparent that he'd have to choose between the medicine and his memories of Trudy.
** Lee Goldberg brings the drug back in some of the novels, as the only way Monk can manage to make an airline flight. [[spoiler: In ''Mr. Monk Goes to Germany'', at one point Natalie observes that this will keep him from solving the murder. He replies that he has already solved it, and just needs to find the evidence-- indeed, it turns out that in his normal state he would not have been ABLE to handle the evidence. Unfortunately, Monk and Natalie are almost killed when the shack they enter to retrieve the evidence in question catches fire, and they barely escape the flames.]]
* WeirdnessMagnet
** In the episode "Mr. Monk Gets Cabin Fever", Natalie observes that everywhere Monk goes, people get murdered, supposing he's followed by some karmic cloud of disaster. By the end of the episode, she changes her mind about him: he's not a Weirdness Magnet for murder, he's cosmically drawn to where murders occur so he can solve them.
** Natalie's one to talk here. Before her daughter Julie even gets her driver's license, she was involved one way or another in at least six homicide investigations and one museum heist. In at least two novels, Julie provides a crucial clue for Monk to solve a homicide. [[spoiler:Once, it's her knowledge of fashion styles, and the other time, she breaks her arm and gets a [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's Cast]] to wear.]]
* WeNeedADistraction
** 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.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Bad Girlfriend", Natalie uses the pretense of viewing a new apartment to keep Stottlemeyer's girlfriend out of her house while Monk searches it for evidence that proves her responsible for shooting her business partner.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Really, ''Really'' Dead Guy", the killer takes out a street musician in a gruesome way so that the police will be drawn away from his girlfriend's death so that incriminating stomach contents that could lead back to him will be destroyed. This works because the killer is a doctor, meaning he knows anatomy, and that the stomach contents dissolve within 36 hours after death.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Magician," when Monk and Natalie go to Torini's loft apartment to question him, Torini makes his entrance in this way. First, Monk notices one of Torini's gadgets, a Zig Zag Cabinet. As he's noticing it, Torini's voice comes over hidden loudspeakers and instructs him to step away from the cabinet. At that point, fog machines emit colored fog in the room in front of them. Monk and Natalie's attention is drawn to the fog, thinking that Torini will emerge from there, but it turns out the machines are meant to keep them from noticing Torini magically pop into existence behind them until he clears his throat.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Voodoo Curse", Angeline Dilworth tries to distract Monk, through exploiting Natalie's fear of voodoo, by tricking her into thinking she would be decapitated. It backfired due to his concern for her.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Red Herring", [[spoiler:Lyle Peck]] stages a small fire to distract the crowd at the science fair while he steals his incriminating moon rock from Julie's tank. Stottlemeyer grabs a kid's homemade fire extinguisher, which only succeeds in [[EpicFail making the fire WORSE]]:
-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' Hey! What's in this thing?!
-->'''Kid:''' Turpentine.
** HoldingTheFloor: In "Mr. Monk Goes to a Wedding," Monk uses this to keep Jonathan Davenport's BlackWidow bride at bay until Stottlemeyer can bring Randy down to identify her.
** 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.
* WhatTheHellHero
** In "Mr. Monk and the Red-Headed Stranger", when Stottlemeyer finds out that Monk not only released a streaker that they just picked up for disrupting two police press conferences, but also hired him to streak, is about to tell Monk off for it, until Monk points to Mrs. Mass to indicate her reaction, showing he actually had a good reason for hiring him: See YouJustToldMe below.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Bully", this scene where Natalie angrily chews Monk out for stalking Roderick Brody's wife:
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' If we leave right away, we can be at her house by eight o'clock. We can follow her all day-
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Yeah, look, uh, Mr. Monk, I have to tell you something. I made a decision: if you want to keep following Mrs. Brody, I suppose that's your right, although it really isn't, but, I can't help you anymore.
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Why not?
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' I--I--I'm just not comfortable! Her husband fired us!
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' It's what they call pro bono.
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' No, "pro bono" is for lawyers! This is stalking!
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' No, this is comeuppance. Pro bono comeuppance. ''[Natalie reddens up, furious]''
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' No! No! That is just crazy talk! ''[She marches forward and switches off Monk's table lamp]''
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' It's not crazy talk!
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Pro bono comeuppance?! That's the craziest talk there is! You heard what he said! He wants you to '''quit!!'''
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' I wanted him to quit! I ''begged'' him to quit 40 years ago, in stall #3! ''[He starts looking at the digital camera]'' Oh yeah. ''[Natalie's cell phone rings]''
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Hello? ''[sighs]'' Yes, he's right here. ''[She listens]'' The Avalon? Sure, we know it. We were just there. Okay, what's his name? ''[She gasps]'' Oh my God!
** In the TieInNovel ''Mr. Monk Is Miserable'', Dr. Kroger does this to Natalie over the phone for blackmailing Monk into taking her to Paris when he learns from Monk that she hasn't been doing her job of assisting him.
** In the TieInNovel ''Mr. Monk and the Dirty Cop'', Julie is seen tearfully berating her mother for going into an abandoned warehouse and almost getting herself killed.
** In "Mr. Monk Is On The Run," Stottlemeyer shot Monk - fortunately, Monk was wearing a bulletproof vest as they were faking his death to keep the police from further pursuing him. When he enters a room with other cops, they all look disgusted.
*** Natalie later chews him out for covering up from her the fact that Monk was alive and in hiding. In Stottlemeyer's defense, though, he's trying to protect Monk because he has uncovered evidence that Sheriff John Rollins, the man who framed Monk for shooting Frank Nunn, is dirty and may be on the payroll of someone in the governor's office. Monk says the same thing to her when she finds him at a Nevada car wash: he and Stottlemeyer didn't tell her because they believed Rollins knew he was alive, and he would follow Natalie if she left town to see him.
* WhodunnitToMe: Linda Kloster in "Mr. Monk and the Genius" goes to Monk and Natalie because her husband Patrick, a [[TheChessmaster Grand Master in chess]], is planning to kill her and she posthumously wants him punished for what he does.
** In "Mr. Monk and the End", it's Monk himself.
* WhoWouldWantToWatchUs: The perp in "Mr. Monk and the TV Star", Brad Terry, is the star of a detective show; his LoonyFan Marci Maven subsequently defects to Monk after Brad's arrest:
-->'''Marci Maven:''' ''You'' are the greatest detective in the world! You are the greatest detective in the universe! ''You should have your own show!''
** This is made even greater by the fact that she immediately announces he should "never change his theme song" (a complaint she used against the previous actor she was obsessed with). ''Monk'' had just changed its theme song to one that fans didn't quite like as much and they played the old theme song over the end credits as a TakeThatUs, or self-deprecation.
* WhyDoYouKeepChangingJobs: Natalie's past has included occupations like bartender, shopping mall employee, office employee, and Vegas blackjack dealer, to name a few. In "Mr. Monk Goes to a Wedding," it's implied she's gone through at least 17 jobs prior to working for Monk.
* WildTeenParty
** In the episode "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert". Monk, Natalie, and Captain Stottlemeyer go to a music festival in town that week to look for Stottlemeyer's son, and the only reason why Monk goes along is when he discovers that he accidentally took the phrase "rock show" to mean a geology exhibit. While waiting outside due to being horrified at learning what he actually agreed to go to, a couple starts making out on the hood of Stottlemeyer's car, with Monk attempting to tell them to stop, ending in failure. It helps as a plot device, since the next thing that happens is Monk and Natalie [[MysteryMagnet discover a roadie's body in one of the port-a-potties.]]
** Inverted with the episode "Mr. Monk is the Best Man". Because Stottlemeyer lets Monk plan his bachelor party (which proved to be a very big mistake), it's barely even a party, and most certainly isn't wild (with a port-a-potty within the actual bathroom, pizza with [[ExactWords nothing on it]], not even cheese or sauce, one 12 ounce beer for each partygoer [12 party members, amounting to 144 oz of alcohol total] which requires Randy to be Designated Drunk; some jokes that just don't go well, and he shows them ''BachelorParty'' as their movie, of which the movie is implied to not be a popular choice among the cops. The closest it ever gets to being a wild teen party is when Randy staggers in asking who owns the police unit out front that's painted a charcoal gray with flames on the side and on the roof and windshield, which causes everyone to run outside and find Stottlemeyer's car on fire.
* WillTheyOrWontThey: Randy Disher and Sharona Fleming. Teased throughout all of Bitty Schram's tenure with the show, [[spoiler:seemingly dropped after she left, then confirmed that they will as of the series finale]].
** They are definitely living together in ''Mr. Monk on Patrol''.
* WorkingTheSameCase: The {{pilot}} included Monk being called in on two unrelated cases (a stabbing in a staged burglary and a shooting that was an attempted assassination), in fact by two different police jurisdictions, only to later discover that the same man committed both murders.
** Actually, this happens a lot of times in both the episodes and the books.
*** For instance, in "Mr. Monk and the 12th Man," where Monk is called in to a hit-and-run at a tollbooth plaza, where a driver handcuffs a tollbooth operator's wrist to a long rope and drags him to his death for almost a mile. Later, Monk connects it to a random strangling at a movie theater. The connection: the $10 bill used by the killer at the movie theater is sequential to the bill used by the hit-and-run driver at the toll plaza.
*** In "Mr. Monk and the Buried Treasure," this is the case, with Monk and Natalie accompanying Dr. Kroger's son and his pals into the hills following a supposed treasure map, which is actually tied to a bank robbery that Stottlemeyer and Disher are investigating. The TwoLinesNoWaiting trope is clearly present, since in the first half, Stottlemeyer's and Monk's investigations are intercut, though we the audience are aware from the beginning that the two cases are connected.
*** 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 in Outer Space'', Monk is brought in to investigate the death of Burgerville CEO Brandon Lorber, whose shooting death he quickly realizes was actually a heart attack - and the shooter passed off the death as a murder. The next day, he is brought in to consult on an apparently unrelated incident, the shooting of ''Beyond Earth'' creator Conrad Stipe at a convention. The day after that, a cab driver named Phil Bisson is shot and killed in what Monk deduces as being a staged robbery. It is this third murder that causes Monk to deduce that Lorber and Stipe were shot by the same person - he finds a piece of chewing gum that is the same brand as a piece that Stipe was chewing before he was killed, and a wrapper from a coffee candy in Lorber's office. [[spoiler:The shooter was a hired hit man. Bisson was the cab driver who drove the hit man away after he shot Lorber's body. During the ride to the airport, the hit man lost his Blackberry, which had incriminating messages between him and his employer and information on Lorber. Stipe answered it when the hit man called it from an airport payphone. The hit man killed Stipe and the cabby as he couldn't risk that etiher of them had browsed his messages.]]
** In ''Mr. Monk and the Dirty Cop'', the murders of two men, Paul Braddock and Bill Peschel are being investigated by different parties simultaneously: Lt. Disher to Braddock's death, and Monk and Natalie to Peschel's death. Monk eventually finds evidence that both were killed by Nick Slade.
** 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.]]
*** This story was adapted into an episode called "Mr. Monk Can't See a Thing". Some things are changed: The killer, Eddie Murdoch, kills Stefanie Preston, the girlfriend of his boss Peter Breen, by strangling her then setting her house on fire. However, he leaves Breen's house keys behind, but when he realizes it, the fire engines are going past him. He goes to the nearby firehouse to pick up a firefighter's coat and helmet, unaware that Monk and a firefighter named Rusty are there. When Rusty confronts him, Murdoch strikes him over the head with a shovel, killing him. Monk comes around and fights with Murdoch, who overpowers him by grabbing a bucket of cleaning solvent and throwing it in Monk's face, blinding him. While Monk is covering his eyes, Murdoch makes his escape and retrieves the keys at the burning house. Monk connects the two cases because of his other senses: he knows the killer smelled like he'd been drinking rum, and later when at Stefanie Preston's house, he finds a few charred rum bottles.
** In ''Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants'', Monk, Natalie and Sharona look into a beating death that Sharona's husband has been framed for. When Monk and Natalie go back to San Francisco, they find themselves investigating a staged alligator attack. Monk finds evidence that ties both deaths to mystery author Ian Ludlow.
** Averted and subverted in ''Mr. Monk on the Couch'': Natalie helps Monk investigate a number of knifings happening in her own neighborhood. However, her own case involving a man who died of natural causes with a fake identity, is not connected to it.
*** Subverted with the murder case. When a BART engineer named Stuart Hewson is shot and killed in his Noe Valley house, Monk deduces that it is related to three knifings in the area committed by ex-con Rico Ramirez because Hewson's house had a view into the bedroom of Mark Costa, Ramirez's second victim. However, from the spotlessness of the crime scene and the number of bullets put in the body, Monk deduces that the killers are actually Jerry Yermo, William Tong, Gene Tiflin and Corinne Witt, four crime scene cleaners he has been hanging around the past week. [[spoiler:Hewson had spotted the crime scene cleaners discovering the ex-con's fortune of diamonds in Costa's house. They killed him because he was trying to blackmail them.]]
** In ''Mr. Monk in Trouble'', Monk determines that the recent murders of Trouble's history museum security guard, an old train engineer, and an ex-con, are tied back to a famous train holdup committed in the early 1960s. The gold stolen in the holdup was hidden inside the locomotive's furnace, but since the train's run was extended due to the publicity brought on by the heist, the locomotive ran for twenty more years, then got snatched up by the history museum.
** In ''Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii'', Monk and Natalie are investigating the murder of Helen Gruber, bludgeoned and killed in her bungalow at the Grand Kiahuna Poipu resort. It seems to have been committed by her much younger husband and his lover. Later, the resort's manager Martin Kamakele is killed and buried in a luau garden. At the same time, Monk is investigating Dylan Swift, a TV medium he purports to be a fraud. At the very end, it turns out that Swift is not just a fraud, but also the murderer: he had wired up the hotel rooms and bungalows at the resort with listening devices so he could pick up information guests taked about and use it as part of his way of tricking people into thinking he was getting information from the afterlife. The first murder victim happened to have hearing aids, and she started hearing voices when she moved into the bungalow - which is revealed to have been because her hearing aids were picking up the feeds from the hidden listening bugs. Swift feared she would discover the source of the "voices" and killed her to keep her from talking. He also used information he had picked up from the victim's husband and his lover to frame them. The resort manager happened to be in on Swift's TV show tactics. But after learning how Swift had "solved" the case, he realized the truth and tried to blackmail Swift, who killed him and buried him.
* WoundedGazelleGambit:
** In "Mr. Monk Goes to the Carnival," John Gitomer beats himself up with a battery-stuffed gym sock, then meets with Lt. Adam Kirk under the guise of turning state's evidence on a drug deal in order to accuse him of brutality, thus discrediting his testimony against an old friend awaiting trial. What he wasn't told was that Leonard Stokes, the mastermind behind this little plot had an extra surprise in store; the operator of the ferris wheel Gitomer met with Kirk on is Kitty Malone, Stokes's girlfriend, who stabs him, to frame Kirk.
** Subverted in "Mr. Monk and the Bad Girlfriend," where Linda Fusco, who shot and killed her business partner, tries to discredit Monk and Natalie by claiming to Stottlemeyer that Monk threatened her that he would have her arrested if she didn't sleep with him. Stottlemeyer, who has known Monk longer than her, immediately realizes that something is up. If anything this could be a VillainBall moment as well, since before that, Linda stated that Stottlemeyer was completely on her side and wouldn't even hear Monk out on the theory. Once Stottlemeyer heard this story, Stottlemeyer starts to get suspicious.
** In "Mr. Monk Gets Hypnotized," Sally Larkin murders her husband and makes it look like he kidnapped her and held her captive in a woodland cabin for a few days. This one works better because she's supposed to be an actress.
* WritersCannotDoMath: The timeline of certain past events revealed in the finale makes no sense ''and'' contradicts facts established previously in the series.
* WrongfulAccusationInsurance: A case of this is in "Mr. Monk Is on the Run", both parts. Monk is framed for shooting a six-fingered man by a corrupt sheriff (Scott Glenn) named John Rollins.
** In the first part of the episode, Monk commits the following offenses while on the lam:
*** Escaping custody (a crime whether or not you are guilty of the crime you have been accused of committing).
*** He attempts to accelerate his journey by stealing a man's pickup truck (it doesn't work out because the club is locked around the steering wheel, so it just goes in circles around a gas pump).
*** He goes to Natalie, who provides him with clothes and takes off his shackles. If this were discovered, she could face charges of harboring a fugitive.
*** Stottlemeyer probably could face aiding and abetting for arranging with Monk to fake his death and then lying to cover it up.
** In Part Two, a few more bad cases happen:
*** Monk probably commits ID theft to hide out in Nevada.
*** When Rollins follows Natalie to Monk and tries to arrest both of them, Monk and Natalie attack him, in an eerily TheSilenceOfTheLambs type chase through the car wash. Natalie momentarily incapacitates Rollins by blinding him with a fire extinguisher. Even more, Monk and Natalie escape by [[MuggingTheMonster stealing Rollins's car]].
** Very likely, however, the governor probably pardoned Monk, Natalie, Stottlemeyer and Disher, given that Monk had demonstrated his heroism by thwarting an assassination attempt on the governor's life. Plus, the district attorney would be hard-pressed to explain why a detective was forced to escape from jail to find the killer himself.
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: In "Mr. Monk and the Badge" Monk realizes his goal of being reinstated in the SFPD, only to find that nothing about policing was familiar to him anymore and the episode end with him retiring from the force.
* YouJustToldMe: This is usually how Monk manages to get the perpetrator should the evidence he finds can't implicate the perpetrator directly, although it's more similar to "You Just Showed Me."
** In "Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii", this is how Monk manages to deduce that Dylan Swift, a supposed TV psychic who films in San Francisco and Hawaii is responsible for two beating deaths at a hotel in the course of a week: knowing the likelihood that Swift has bugged all of the hotel rooms (Monk figuring this out after he realized that this was the only way Swift could know so much about Natalie's background without meeting her or going on the Internet), he fakes "cleaning" so he can find the devices. So to trap him, Monk and Natalie have a moving conversation, where Monk talks about Trudy and her security blanket. The next morning, Monk sends Stottlemeyer a letter, which he reads when Monk shows up at Swift's show in San Francisco, right after Swift mentions the very same story that Monk told Natalie -- a conversation that he could only have known about if he was listening in. The letter itself reads that this story was a trap to incriminate Swift. In this case, some INeverSaidItWasPoison is involved, as Monk reveals that Swift, unable to speak to the dead, could only know so much about the first murder victim and her background if he was the killer.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Suspect", the identity of [[spoiler:Brian Babbage]] as the mail bomber is confirmed when he panics at the sight of someone opening one of his custom-made packages. He shouldn't have known about the bombings because he had been in a coma when the bombings happened. (If you're curious about how he managed to set off the bombings while in a coma, watch the episode in full).
** "Mr. Monk and the Red-Headed Stranger": Monk clears Willie Nelson's name by proving that Mrs. Mass, the blind woman who was the only other person besides Willie in the alleyway when his road manager was killed, wasn't blind (or at least, not completely blind)—he had a streaker run past her, and she reacted. See the WhatTheHellHero listing above for more.
** In the second episode, "Mr. Monk and the Psychic," Harry Ashcombe needs his wife's body found without revealing that he had killed her, so he looks up a hack psychic named Dolly Flint in the police files. He tricks Dolly into thinking she was guided to the body (in reality, Ashcombe knocked her out, put on a wig, drove through a red light to make sure "she" was seen driving to the crash scene). Monk trapped him by getting Dolly to accuse Ashcombe of murder, thus forcing him to discredit her—and he helpfully though inadvertently confessed in the process.
** A mixture of this trope and BluffingTheMurderer was used by Monk on Derek Philby in "Mr. Monk Goes Back to School". Monk, after deducing that Philby killed his mistress Beth Landow and passed it off as a suicide and a custodian who was threatening to blackmail him (as he witnessed the first crime) through a staged explosion, particularly how he committed the former murder, tells Philby that the cops will do a full-scale search of the campus for whatever evidence implicated him. After finding the incriminating glasses in the clock tower, Philby finds Monk and the police waiting for him when he leaves, and Monk then reveals that he didn't need to find proof: he'd already found the glasses and then went back and planted them, knowing full-well where Philby would look.
** In "Mr. Monk Goes to a Fashion Show," Monk and co. use this method expose forensics expert Howard Gordon as the man who covered up the fact that fashion designer Julian Hodge killed two models and framed a Hispanic delivery boy named Pablo Ortiz. Monk, Stottlemeyer and Disher bring Gordo down to the scene where Hodge killed the first victim, Clea Vance, and present to him some hairs that they claim have to be Hodge's. Gordo takes them down for testing. When he shows up at the fashion show and is exposed, he says under oath that the hairs are Pablo Ortiz's. Stottlemeyer promptly tells him he's under arrest as an accessory to murder. It turns out the hairs they gave earlier had been Monk's own hair, as they knew full well he'd never actually test them if he were the accomplice responsible for burying the evidence against Hodge.
* YouKnowWhatYouDid: In "Mr. Monk and the Captain's Marriage", police sergeant [[ChekhovsGunman Ryan Sharkey]], 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 refused to explain why when he asked. Given that we saw virtually nothing over the series to back her up (though who knows, considering that Karen had not appeared since "Mr. Monk Gets Fired", more than 20 episodes earlier)...
** The entire dilemma gets a dramatic CallBack in "Mr. Monk on Wheels". Monk has been shot in his left leg, and is confined to a manual wheelchair, pushed around by Natalie. He acts like a jerk to her because he blames her for his injury, and she accepts it because she blames herself (when the event in question - a bike theft - was something even Natalie could not have anticipated or done something to prevent, so had no reason to blame herself for causing). So due to essentially working round the clock taking care of Monk, wheeling him around in a wheelchair, etc., Natalie is very nearly mentally and physically broken down. After an incident where Monk falls out of his wheelchair at the cemetery crime scene, Stottlemeyer takes Monk aside, and warns him that if he keeps taking his frustrations out on Natalie, he'll eventually lose her, and Stottlemeyer makes clear that he knows this because he sees himself in Monk - being too self-centered, which could have explained Karen's divorce.
* YouDoNotWantToKnow:
** In "Mr. Monk Is On The Run: Part 1", after Monk arrives back at Natalie's house wearing a strange trenchcoat over his prison jumpsuit, he said a homeless person gave it to him in exchange for something else in return. When questioned by Natalie about what that thing was, Monk can only respond with "I'd rather not talk about it...".
** In "Mr. Monk and the Bad Girlfriend," when Natalie shows up at Linda's house on a shiny motorcycle (note, a Softtail) to pick up Monk so they can time the distance from there to the crime scene, she says she got the bike from a friend of hers who owed her favor. When Monk asks for her to elaborate, she says, "Do you really want to know?"
** In "Mr. Monk and the Miracle", when Monk notices Natalie buying gravy for the Christmas dinner they are having with the three hobos who are their clients - Ike, Reggie and "the Professor" - this conversation:
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' You wasted a trip.
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Why do you say that?
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Because they make their own gravy.
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Who makes their own gravy?
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Bums.
-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' "Bums make their own gravy". What does that even mean?
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' You don't want to know.
* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe:
** In "Mr. Monk Gets Cabin Fever," Natalie says it when Monk says that the wife in the cabin across the lake from the witness protection cabin likely killed her husband.
** 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
* YouLookFamiliar: Several actors have played different characters in different episodes.
** Brooke Adams, Tony Shalhoub's real wife, appears in five episodes. See RealLifeRelative
*** Michael Shalhoub, Tony's brother, appears in three episodes
** James Logan played an office employee in "Mr. Monk Goes to the Office". He also plays the singer in the Hawaiian shirt in "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert"
** 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".
* YouMeddlingKids: Monk sometimes is the factor as to whether or not someone would have gotten away.
* YouNeverDidThatForMe!: In the episode where Sharona and Natalie meet, Natalie finds out that Monk paid Sharona a lot more than he paid her. Thus she complains that Monk never paid her that much. It was a difference of twenty dollars, y'know.
* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: In the finale, Monk sits around in a chair with his therapist at about 40 minutes in, the case apparently solved, and talks about [[LampshadeHanging his lack of closure]]. Yeah.
[[/folder]]
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[[folder: Title Or Description]]

[[folder:Title Or Description]]

[[folder: A-C]]

!! Unless I'm wrong, which, you know, I'm not, this show provides examples of the following tropes ''

!! Unless I'm wrong, which, you know, I'm not, this show provides examples of the following tropes:

[[folder:A-C]]

[[folder:D-F]]

[[folder:G-I]]

[[folder:J-M]]

[[folder:N-Q]]

[[folder:R-T]]

[[folder:U-Z]]

** A rapper accused of blowing up his rival and later killing the driver in the hospital ("Mr. Monk and the Rapper").

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

** Lampshaded in "Mr. Monk's 100th Case" when James Novak goes to prison and does a group interview with Jimmy Belmont, Hal Tucker and Joey Krenshaw, put away respectively in "Mr. Monk Visits a Farm," "Mr. Monk Makes a Friend" and "Mr. Monk and the Daredevil." They complain about how tedious the summation part is because Monk is basically telling them stuff they already know, because they were the perpetrators!

-->'''Kendra Frank:''' The roadie. ''[blank stares from Natalie]'' The roadie they just found!

-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Well, Kendra, we were there. We saw a needle in his arm-

-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Maybe he got over it. ''[Kendra glares at her, furious]''

-->'''Kendra Frank:''' So, please! ''[She holds up a black jacket draped over her left arm]''
-->'''Adrian Monk:''' Wha--What's this?
-->'''Kendra Frank:''' Well they gave me his stuff, so, uh, it's his tour jacket. ''[Monk and Natalie look and find a backstage pass and a map of the grounds]''

-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' Yeah I have one of these. They--they gave it out at the door. ''[Monk sees a circle around one tent with the number "7:30" underneath it. He looks at Kendra]''

-->'''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 few seconds, Kendra glares at them, disgusted]''

-->'''Lt. Randall Disher:''' His name is Douglas J. Fendle, or rather ''was'' Douglas J. Fendle, I guess it still is, but let's move on.

*** In "Mr. Monk Goes to a Fashion Show," she isn't skeptical of Monk's belief that the framed delivery boy is an innocent person.

*** In "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert," when Monk and Natalie are approached by Kendra Frank, Stork's girlfriend, Natalie displays initial skepticism towards Kendra's claims that something is wrong, which exasperates Kendra. She still tags along with Monk to pursue the investigation.

** In "Mr. Monk and the Employee of the Month", Monk has to go undercover at Mega-Mart, and asks Joe Christie, "What am I supposed to do? Hang out all day in the men's department?" Christie grins. Cuts to Monk wearing a red Mega-Mart employee's vest with a nametag that reads, "HI. I'M ADRIAN."

** In the novel ''Mr. Monk and the Dirty Cop'', there is a portion of the story where Monk and Natalie are hired by a private investigations agency called Intertect. Said agency was taken from the old 1960s private eye show ''Mannix''. Additionally, there is a person named Lew Wickersham, a reference to that show.

* SoundtrackDissonance: "Mr. Monk and the Very, Very Old Man" has the world's oldest man being suffocated with a pillow while the room's gramophone plays a very inappropriate but upbeat piano piece in the background.

** This happens in ''Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii'', when Monk and Natalie are catching a shuttle ride to rent a car. They happen to be riding with Brian Galloway, whom Monk had earlier exposed as a bigamist.

-->"Because seeing you staring at him will silently remind him of how he wronged your friend?"
-->"Who said anything about being silent?" I said, "I'm going to remind him as loudly, and as colorfully, as I possibly can for the entire drive. If you've got sensitive ears, you might want to keep them covered."
-->[paragraph break]

* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** In "Mr. Monk and the Bad Girlfriend," there are some production stills that suggest that Monk's meeting with Linda at her house was to happen on her front lawn, not in her bedroom.
** [[http://www.usanetwork.com/series/monk/webexclusives/blogs/ep_actor.html This production blog]] for "Mr. Monk and the Actor" indicates that the way in which Monk discovers the gun used in the pawn shop owner shooting was a lot different originally. The final version has the gun being found in a downspout. Originally, a kid was to pick up a discarded gun, thinking it was a toy. Natalie would start playing "shootout" with the kid, until Monk deduced it was the murder weapon and it had a round in the chamber, followed by a suspenseful hide-and-seek game in which the last round was fired at Monk and Natalie. An actor was actually cast, but the scene was not filmed and was cut for time.
** [[http://www.usanetwork.com/series/monk/webexclusives/blogs/ep_newshrink.html The USANetwork.com production blog]] for "Mr. Monk Gets a New Shrink" shows that the plot formula went through a lot of idea changes. The idea that the piece of incriminating evidence was to be found in a vaccum bag had floated around for years. Hy Conrad writes, "We even toyed with the idea of a killer hacking up his victim then placing the pieces, one by one, in a self-cleaning oven and turning them to ash in the oven's crematorium heat. He would then vacuum out the remains and have a vacuum cleaner bag filled with his victim. [[BodyHorror But this seemed a bit too gruesome for us]]." Then there came to settling on a cleaning lady being the murder victim (Theresa Mueller). To give some personal involvement to a regular character, the cleaning lady was written to work in Dr. Kroger's building, fulfilling something else the writers wanted to do - give Stanley Kamel a DayInTheLimeLight episode.
*** Once this had been done, a few ideas as to how Dr. Kroger would be involved floated around. Having Dr. Kroger help Monk solve the case had to be shot down because this would ruin the clinical doctor-patient detachment. Therefore, Dr. Kroger was kept out of most of the investigation scenes, and when Dr. Kroger and Monk peer into Francis Merrigan's office, the two couldn't exactly break into the office itself.
** [[http://www.usanetwork.com/series/monk/webexclusives/blogs/ep_birdsandbees.html The production blog]] for "Mr. Monk and the Birds and the Bees" indicates that originally the incriminating photo of Julie and Tim Sussman with Rob Sherman in the background was to be taken at a Tunnel of Love attraction, and Monk chasing Rob Sherman to get the photo disks back would have happened on that attraction. However, it was too expensive to build one on a soundstage and they couldn't find a similar attraction at a real theme park.
** Future guest stars Alfred Molina and Stanley Tucci were also considered. Amusingly, Tucci's role was that of [[MetaCasting an actor playing Monk.]] Also Molina's role was a man suspiciously similar to Monk.
** John Ritter, Henry Winkler, and Dave Foley were also considered for the role of Monk. Music/QueenLatifah was the original choice for Sharona.
** The Season 3 opening episode (''Mr Monk Takes Manhattan'') was originally written as a {{Crossover}} with ''Series/LawAndOrder'' (USA and NBC share the same parent company).

** John Ritter, Henry Winkler, and Dave Foley were also considered for the role of Monk. QueenLatifah was the original choice for Sharona.
** The Season 3 opening episode (''Mr Monk Takes Manhattan'') was originally written as a CrossOver with ''LawAndOrder'' (USA and NBC share the same parent company).

* GenderFlip: Randy's equivalent in the [[ShowWithinAShow TV show]] in season 5's "Mr Monk in the Actor". Either PlayedForLaughs or a good ShownTheirWork thing: the show version of Randy and Stottlemeyer are acting out a scene in the episode "Mr. Monk and the Astronaut" and they start kissing before the actress portraying Natalie comes in. The real Stottlemeyer says in a very deadpan voice: "[[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain that]] ''[[ThatDidntHappen never happened]]''." Randy says in agreement, "Not even once."
** Though Randy is also a female name (see the ''{{Airplane}}'' films), so the in-universe producer figured they weren't doing much harm.

-->'''Captain Leland Stottlemeyer:''' Years ago, I was working a beat with my partner when we noticed a young kid behind the wheel of a fancy, brand-new car. He was driving erratically, and when we pulled up behind him and lit him up he turned into the Tasmanian Devil and took off. But the chase didn't last long; after only a few blocks, he over-negotiated a right turn and went up over a curb and into a storefront. We grabbed him as he was trying to make his escape through a dress shop and brought him back to the station.\\

The kid was obnoxious and uncooperative, answering all our questions with insults and curses. He was underage and obviously under the influence of alcohol. When we ran his high school ID we discovered, not exactly to our surprise, that the punk had been listed on a number of prior police reports, for everything from stealing food from the cafeteria to threatening harm to teachers who accused him of cheating on exams. Since this little angel was a juvenile, we were obligated to contact Juvenile Hall and present our case to them for booking. This case did not qualify, which meant that only thing left to do was contact the parents and release the kid into their custody.

-->''"I kept waiting for the Neighborhood Watch Committee to march on my house with torches to drive me away because I don't have breat implants, a German car, or an iPhone. What saved me was that I was a thin, natural blonde with a perky smile, but I knew that wouldn't hold them off for much longer."''

* TruthInTelevision: In "Mr. Monk Meets the Red-Headed Stranger", Monk is invited into Willie Nelson's tour bus and immediately asks "Do you smell that?" Willie answers "No, and neither do you." alluding to his well-known fondness for pot. In 2006 and 2010, marijuana had been found and confiscated off his bus.

-->'''Natalie Teeger:''' ''[ticking things off on her fingers]'' Crowds, elevators, fire.

-->'''Adrian Monk:''' One in a million! Maybe one in a trillion!

*** Stork also counts, because if you listen, Kendra tells Monk and Natalie, "His real name was Greg Murray."

** Randy has a berserk button relating to people not taking him seriously especially when he actually did witness a murder, resulting in him quitting his job in "Mr. Monk Goes to the Dentist". Similarly, he doesn't like it when people diss his music, or being called "Cracker", like in "Mr. Monk and the Rapper," where he is clearly offended when Murderuss criticizes his ability to mimic the lyrics to Murderuss's suggestive song "Car Bomb".

** Perp example: In "Mr. Monk Goes to a Fashion Show," [[Creator/MalcolmMcDowell Julian Hodge]] gets into a tirade [[RageBreakingPoint when the buttons on his designs are worn even the slightest bit crooked during his fashion shows]]. Almost borders on a HairTriggerTemper. Monk eventually discovers that one time, one of Hodge's models showed up to a fashion show drunk and almost "ruined" it in Hodge's words, and he got so infuriated he beat her to death, and couldn't resist straightening out her collar afterwards. A fellow CSI tech then framed a delivery boy who barely spoke English for the murder.

** In "Mr. Monk and the Dog," when Monk is taking care of Amanda Castle's dog Shelby, Natalie hands him a catch-in-action pooper scooper to help him clean up after her. But what's better? It's a Sha-Poopie! Tony's brother Dan pitched it on ''American Inventor'' in 2006 but it got rejected.