Murder By Death: Difference between revisions

** It's affectionate toward the genre and icons, in its own odd way, but Neil Simon said that he basically wrote the thing as his revenge against all those mystery stories that [[Ass Pull|introduced new information]] or otherwise used impossible cheats in their solutions. He actually rather identified with Twain.

*** The affection varies. While Twain never gets around to a [[Take That]] against the plot in the [[Charlie Chan]] or [[Hardboiled Detective]] stories, unlike the others, he takes every opportunity to [[Lampshade Hanging|hang a lampshade]] on Sydney Wang's racist speech patterns (Wang is a brilliant detective who speaks in [[You No Take Candle]] style ''and'' has the [[Critical Research Failure]] of being a ''Chinese'' man who is [[Japanese Ranguage|unable to pronounce R's]]). Similarly, Sam Diamond is the only detective who comes close to really solving the mystery, but he's also depicted as a despicable racist {{spoiler|and an [[Armored Closet Gay]]}}.

* [[Animal Assassin]] (A snake and a scorpion.)

* [[Armoured Closet Gay]]: {{spoiler|Sam Diamond}}, although he never did anything to a man that he wouldn't do to a woman.

* [[Calling Your Bathroom Breaks]]: Sam Diamond, fully two times. What a charmer.

* [[Captain Ersatz]]: Dick and Dora Charleston are [[The Thin Man (film)|Nick and Nora Charles]], Sidney Wang is [[Charlie Chan]], Milo Perrier is [[Hercule Poirot]], Sam Diamond is [[The Maltese Falcon|Sam Spade]], and Jessica Marbles is [[Miss Marple]].

* [[Casual Danger Dialogue]]: Dick and Dora Charleston have an extremely nonchalant -- indeed emotionless -- conversation about the deadly scorpion on their bed which will force them to remain perfectly still, quite possibly for the rest of their perhaps short lives. Later, when the killer asks Dick how they escaped:

{{quote|'''Dick Charleston:''' ''(breezily)'' We didn't; it stung Dora. The poison's in her system right now. We have fifteen minutes to get to a hospital. ''Cue hilarious ecstatic expression on killer's face'' {{spoiler|Fortunately it proved to be a nonlethal type of scorpion.}}}}

* [[Deconstruction Crossover]]

* [[Department of Redundancy Department]]: The title.

* [[Descending Ceiling]]: Used in an attempt to kill Perrier.

* [[Hammerspace]]: Where Dick and Dora seem to get their martinis from.

* [[Hardboiled Detective]]: Sam Diamond

* [[Ice Cream Koan]]: Many from Sidney Wang.

** He never does finish his "dangerous road like fresh mushroom" one, though, at least audibly and onscreen. Perhaps it was something like "must always be careful which to pick since even ordinary-looking ones can be deadly"?

* [[Load-Bearing Hero]]: Marcel saves Perrier from the [[Descending Ceiling]], "being one of the world's strongest men".

* [[Mistaken Identity]]: Jessica Marbles and her nurse are initially mistaken for each other.

* [[Old Dark House]]

* [[Poison Is Corrosive]]

* [[Portrait Painting Peephole]]: Surprisingly noticeable.

* [[Precision F-Strike]]: "''Jesus H. Christ.''"

** Itself a Lampshade of Mssr. Perrier's previous line, which has the same meaning but sounds [[Sophisticated As Hell|polite because it's in French.]]

* [[Right for the Wrong Reasons]]. Towards the end, each detective team claims to have solved the case, and each one makes a series of deductions which are plausible on their face (and the villian plays along too), but all are subsequently proven wrong.

* [[Rube Goldberg Device]]: The {{spoiler|mansion}}, and it's implied that the {{spoiler|maid}} is, too. Despite both of these, however, the suggestion that the murder weapon may be one is derided as stupid.

* [[Shocking Swerve]]: Played for laughs.

* [[Someone's Touching My Butt]]

* [[Stranger Behind the Mask]]: Done multiple times in a row, just to debunk the trope in general.

* [[Summation Gathering]] (Parodied)