If only vanity was a crime.
After a person has been arrested, photographs are taken by law enforcement to document the offender's height and physical appearance in case of future wrong-doing. Multiple pictures are taken, showing every side of the perp in montage, showing every distinct mark and inflection they may have.
Sub-Trope of Photo Montage. Compare Photo-Booth Montage.
See Also Police Lineup.
Examples
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Advertising
- A commercial
for Sesame Street Mini Beans from Kellogg's shows the characters from Sesame Street having mugshots taken in front of a wall with its measurements drawn in crayon.
Films — Live-Action
- In The 400 Blows, the process of Antoine's arrest is shown, highlighting that although he is a child, he is "processed" like an adult: his fingerprints are taken, and his mugshot is taken. A pair of hands positions his head for the profile picture with a certain roughness.
- Parodied on My Blue Heaven. As Vinnie, a mob boss going on Witness Protection, poses for his new ID photos, he reassures his handler that "this isn't the old me, this is the new me", while unconsciously posing as if he were having his mugshot taken.
- Happens whenever someone is arrested in Hot Fuzz, accompanied by heavy metal music that serves as a Greek Chorus. A particularly long one occurs at the end due to the huge number of suspects, each of the antagonists in the sorry shape the climax left them in.
- Terminator Genisys. Kyle Reese, Sarah Connor, and the T-800 getting arrested in 2017. The scene immediately cuts to them getting their mugshots taken, all while "Bad Boys" by Inner Circle plays in the background. Because Sarah is so short compared to the other two, we only see the top of her head in the frame.
Literature
- Burglar Bill: Bill's mugshot showing his front and side view is displayed on his bedroom wall.
Live-Action TV
- When Grandpa is having his mugshot taken in the The Munsters Today episode "Farewell Grandpa", Grandpa is arrested for being an immigrant without a green card (since he came to America before green cards became a thing). As they try to take a photo, his image unable to be captured because he is a vampire, Grandpa does several amusing poses to mock them.
- A feature of the intro to Prisoner: Cell Block H.
- Canada's Worst Driver: Season 4 was filmed at a closed correctional facility. The show photographed the bad drivers mugshot-style for all the intros.
- On Supernatural, when Sam and Dean are arrested in "Folsom Prison Blues", they are finger printed and have their mugshots taken. Dean rather enjoys the process, giving his best Blue Steel pose and asking if his mugshot is better or worse than Nick Nolte's.
- When Spencer is arrested in season 12 of Criminal Minds, they show the entire process of him being processed into the prison including snapshot freeze frames of his mugshot being taken.
- A season-one Lois & Clark episode, "Man of Steel Bars", has Superman trip over a very unusual scheme and end up going to jail. Among the rigmarole of being processed, where he goes with the lawful process and no one has anything against him, he's photographed accordingly, then a few more photos crop up as people nearby in the station wanted a picture with him and the photographer apparently plays along.
- A season four episode of Stranger Things shows Eleven being arrested for assaulting Angela. The tearful and frightened girl has her mugshot taken, and the audience sees various photos of said mugshots.
- The Crystal Maze: From the second series onwards, each contestant is introduced with a monochrome mugshot, showing them in full face, and in profile.
Video Games
- In the opening of Persona 5, the main character is arrested. You get to see the typical frontal and side photographs taken with the main character holding a blank expression the entire time.
Web Original
- Homestar Runner uses this as the title sequence for "Strong Bad is in Jail Cartoon" when Strong Bad is arrested for trying to break into Bubs' Concession Stand.
Western Animation
- After being arrested at the end of the Trollhunters episode "Waka Chaka", the following episode "Win, Lose or Draal" starts with Jim and Toby having their mugshots taken. Toby starts, finding the photographing segment amusing and does various poses for the camera. Even when it is Jim's turn, he takes the time to photobomb it before Barbara comes to pick them up.
- In the The Looney Tunes Show episode "Jailbird and Jailbunny", Bugs and Daffy are placed in prison for both not paying a littering fine and contempt of court. Before being taken to prison, Daffy's photographs showing his sheer horror while Bugs poses for the camera in an amusing fashion, the last one with his arms around the security officers.
- At the end of the Tiny Toon Adventures episode, "Gang Busters", Montana Max gets a series of photos taken at various angles until he is somehow standing upside down, after which he falls down.
- Dexter's Laboratory: The title card for "Dexter Detention" features mugshot photos of Dexter.
- The Powerpuff Girls (1998): At the beginning of "The Rowdyruff Boys", a montage of Mojo Jojo getting defeated and thrown in jail shows him getting his mugshot taken.
- The Simpsons: In "Homer Alone", Marge gets arrested after having a nervous breakdown and causing a pileup on the highway, and mugshots are taken of both her and her Beehive Hairdo.
- The Fairly OddParents!: The title card for "Inspection Detection" uses mugshots of Timmy, Cosmo, and Wanda.
- In one episode of Chowder, after the four main characters were arrested, their mugshots were taken. Chowder's photograph showed him having taken a bite out of a sign, while Truffles' photograph had her ripped the sign in half.
- The Facebook banner of Mr. Warburton shows the main characters of his show, Codename: Kids Next Door, fooling around while having their mugshots taken on the "Adultville Police Department". His profile picture features him holding a sign of his own, wearing a deficitionalized helmet from his series, and being victim of a "rabbit ears prank" by Numbuh 2.
- In the Eek! The Cat episode, "The Great Eekscape" has Eek and Sharky taken to an animal pound where they get their mugshots upon arriving. Eek translates for Sharky to the cop doing their mughsot that Sharky wants doubles so he can send a copy to his mom; the cop puts a check mark next to "2 for 1". Later in the episode Sharky does indeed receive his extra mugshot photos.
