They Fight Crime

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
He's the Son of God, here to save us. He's the Devil himself. Together, They Fight Crime!
He's a deeply religious gay barbarian possessed of the uncanny powers of an insect. She's a radical punk mermaid with an Evil Twin sister. They fight crime!
—TheyFightCrime.org

Two very different characters are obliged to work together to solve a crime. The premise is very often, but not always, expressed in Trailers and pitches as "He's an X. She's a Y. Together, they fight crime!" So much that it's almost become a Stock Phrase. Expect lots of cultural clash humor arising both from different policing traditions and from general personal differences between the two characters. Sometimes the ante will be raised by making the crime-fighters from two groups that are actively antagonistic.

The story often (but not always) involves one character being on his own turf while the other character is a visitor. If there is a sequel, the character who was on his home turf in the first story will probably be visiting the home turf of the other character.

Can be the premise of a Buddy Cop Show, although then there usually needs to be some reason for the other cop to continue hanging around beyond the pilot.

They Fight Crime must use both Wunza Plot and Odd Couple. Please do not add teams of more than two characters, or single characters, no matter how quirky they are.

Examples of They Fight Crime include:

Advertising

  • He's a weed loving gangsta rapper. They're a large respected computer security company. They Fight (cyber)Crime! Seriously.


Anime and Manga

Comic Books


Fanfiction


Film

Literature

  • The Bellmaker: He is a young novice mouse from Redwall Abbey. She is young warrior mouse and ex-resistance fighter. They team up with her Badass Pa and a militaristic hare To Fight Crime!
  • The Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries: She's a luscious, highly desirable telepathic barmaid. He's a vampire suffering from anachronistic attitudes. They Fight Crime!
  • Skulduggery Pleasant: She is a teenage girl who inherited a mansion. He is a sixgun-toting skeletal-undead sorcerer detective. They Fight Crime!
  • Sherlock Holmes: He's a doctor scarred by the war in Afghanistan! He's a substance-abusing dilettante private consulting detective! They Fight Crime!
  • The Dresden Files: She's a cop who arrests her best friend every few pages. He's a wizard with trust issues. They Fight Crime!
  • The Caves of Steel: One's a human cop. One's an alien robot cop. They Fight Crime!
  • Snake Agent: One's a human cop with a patron Goddess. One's a demon from Hell with an unwanted conscience. Together They Fight Crime!
  • The Yiddish Policemens Union: One's a Defective Detective with massive Jewish Guilt (TM). One's his sensible half-Jewish, half-Native American cousin. They're cops: They Fight Crime!
  • Blood Books: She's a former-cop-turned P.I. with a vision problem. He's the vampiric bastard son of Henry VIII. Together, They Fight Supernatural Crime! Now On TV!
    • Later, She's a former-cop-turned-P.I. who is now a vampire. He's her former partner, and still a cop. Together, They Fight Supernatural Crime!
  • The Blood Books spinoff Smoke and Shadows series: He's a gay Production Assistant and wizard-in-training. And he's still the vampiric bastard son of Henry VIII. They Battle Demons!
  • The Millennium Trilogy: He's a middle-aged journalist and chick magnet. She's a twentysomething bisexual ass-kicking computer genius who may have Asperger's syndrome. They Fight Crime!
  • Catopolis: Two household pets gain psychic powers, and one of them lampshades it.

Huey: You're an Oracular Cat, I'm an Oracular Hamster. We fight crime!

  • Most any of the partnerships in the Lensman series, but in particular: One's the top agent of humanity. The other is a thirty-foot-long winged reptilian alien with multiple eyes on stalks. They Fight Boskone!


Live Action TV

  • Blood Ties: She's a Canadian former police detective who is slowly losing her sight. He's a vampire. They Fight Crime!
  • On Friends, Joey got a starring role in 'Mac & Cheese', a show described as "One's a hard-bitten detective, one's a robot. They Fight Crime!"
    • Which may have been a shout-out to the 1976 show "Holmes And Yo-yo" (see below).
    • In another episode, Phoebe and Monica declare themselves to be a hardass and wuss, respectively.

Phoebe: Hardass and wuss. We could fight crime!

  • Inspector Lynley: He's a Lord Peter Wimsey with a title and a complicated personal life. She's a cranky, foul-mouthed working-class junk food addict with massive class resentment issues. They're unlikely True Companions and Not Love Interests with a healthy helping of Unresolved Sexual Tension. They Fight Crime!
  • Castle: He's a bestselling mystery writer who doesn't play by the rules. She's a no-nonsense detective who'll do anything to bring a killer to justice. They Fight Crime! And Have Lots Of UST!
  • Automan: One is a police computer nerd who overclocks the computer and creates a Tron-like superbeing. The other is that self-same Tron-like superbeing. They Fight Crime!
  • Numb3rs: One's an FBI agent! The other is the Agent's nerdly math-professor brother. They Fight Crime!
  • Knight Rider: He's a man...who does not exist. It's a car holding plot-advancing gadgets with an entertaining A.I.. They Fight Crime!
  • Life: He's an Eccentric Millionaire who spent twelve years in prison. She's an ex-junkie with a kick-ass attitude. They Fight Crime!
  • Life On Mars: He's a time traveller/coma patient who's By-The-Book Cop, and may be going insane. He's an overweight, armed bastard, Cowboy Cop. They Fight Crime! (And jump over desks!)
  • Due South: One's a crude, rude American cop. One's a polite, soft-spoken Canadian Mountie. They Fight Crime!
  • Holmes and Yo-yo: One's a human cop. One's an experimental robot cop. They Fight Crime!
  • Simon and Simon: Even though they're brothers, Rick and A.J. have nothing in common. They're private detectives, so of course They Fight Crime!
  • Collector's Item: Vincent Price is an antique dealer. Peter Lorre... well, it's not entirely clear what he does. He's short and kind of creepy. Together, They Fight Crime.
  • Psych: One's a slacker with a photographic memory. One's a pharmaceutical rep with an acute sense of smell. They Fight Crime!
  • Covert Affairs: She's a CIA trainee suddenly promoted to field work. He's Mission Control, but he's blind. They Fight Crime!
  • Bones: One's a street-smart FBI agent. One's a socially-inept forensic anthropologist. They Fight Crime!

Booth: "Look, I'll do my street thing, you do your lab thing, alright? Together, we catch bad guys."

    • Another take on them: One's a devoutly religious Catholic who believes in chivalry. One's a rational atheist who believes in gender equality. They Fight Crime!
  • Parodied by Late Night with Conan O'Brien: Conan O'Brien is very tall, Robert Reich is a former Secretary of Labor and very short. They Fight Crime!
  • Frequently used as a gag on Mystery Science Theater 3000. For example, near the end of the first-season movie Robot Holocaust, Tom suggests a sequel: "He's a robot. He's a human. They're detectives!"
    • An educational short titled "Bodycare and Grooming" inspired the quip, "Body Care! And Grooming! They're cops!"
  • The Persuaders: One's a streetwise American self-made millionaire, the other is a daredevil English aristocrat. They Fight Crime!
  • Angel Summoner and BMX Bandit. One can summon angels, the other rides a BMX. They're a crime-fighting duo, d-d-d-d-duo, yeahh!
  • The X-Files: He's a misunderstood crackpot. She's a skeptical pathologist. They Fight Crime! (And Aliens!)
  • Past Life: He's an ex-cop whose wife died (who is totally not going to come up in the series eventually), she's a past life therapist. They fight reincarnation-based crime!
  • Big Wolf on Campus: He's a perky, easily frightened, goth with an encyclopedic knowledge of the supernatural; He's an easy going, football playing, werewolf with a secret identity and the ability to kick lots of ass. Together, they fight Monsters! With a Kickboxing, Totally Badass Normal, Action Girl
  • The Avengers: He's a suave English gentleman spy. She's an Action Girl Ms. Fanservice with a preference for catsuits. They Fight Crime, espionage, and unnatural weirdness.
  • Chuck: He's a Nerd with a Magical Database in his head. She's an Action Girl Ms. Fanservice with a thing for knives. They Fight Crime ... and Spies!! With their partner, who is a total Colonel Badass!!
  • Torchwood, by virtue of being a police procedural. He's an omnisexual reformed conman who can't stay dead. She's a tough-as-nails policewoman who keeps him sane. They fight crime!
  • The Sweeney: He's a tough, no-nonsense, bends-the-rules older cop who's quick-witted and with an eye for drink and the ladies! He's a younger, more inexperienced cop who wants to follow the rulebook yet respects his older partner! They fight crime!
  • Keen Eddie: One's a scruffy, accident-prone, idealistic detective from Manhattan, the other's a shallow London dandy with an addictive personality and an over-active libido. Together, they fight crime!
  • Rizzoli and Isles: One's a Hot Chick in a Badass Suit homicide detective with a dysfunctional family. One's a blueblooded medical examiner with No Social Skills and truth issues. They're Heterosexual Life Partners. They Fight Crime!
  • Dark Angel: She's a genetically-engineered super-soldier Half-Human Hybrid. He's an incredibly wealthy paraplegic who spends his spare time as a airwave-pirating cyberjournalist. Together, They Fight Crime! Although in season 2, she frees more super-soldiers and they stop fighting crime so much.
  • White Collar: He's a blue-eyed master criminal genius with a million dollar smile. He's a no-nonsense FBI agent who always gets the bad guys. They Fight Crime!
  • Dexter: He's a mild-mannered lab tech with a Dark Passenger. She's a tough, foul-mouthed cop with a heart of gold and a lot to prove. Together, they fight crime (in their own special ways)!
  • Supernatural: Two brothers—He's a pre-law student who just lost his girlfriend. He's a charming blue collar bum who can't find their dad. They fight monsters!
  • The Invisible Man: He's a recently reformed thief with an invisibility gland in his head. He's a jaded veteran and paranoid conspiracy theorist who's been fired from every other government agency in existence. They fight crime!
  • Campion. He's a disinherited member of the aristocracy. He's a former burglar turned valet. They fight crime!
  • Community episode "The Science of Illusion": She's a seriously cute recovering teen drug addict. She's a newly-single, single-mindedly Christian housewife and mother. They Fight Crime or at least attempt to!
  • Sherlock. He's a high-functioning Sociopathic Hero with Insufferable Genius tendencies and a habit of leaving body parts around the kitchen. He's a snarky invalided army doctor who wants back in the action. They Fight Crime. and feed the subtext.
  • The Sentinel. He's a former Army Ranger turned cop with hyper-acute senses. He's a long-haired Anthropology student. They Fight Crime!
  • Hardcastle and McCormick: one's an ex-con turned race car driver. The other's a retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge. With their prototype sports car "Coyote X". They fight crime!
  • T. and T. She's a young crusading lawyer. He's Mr. T. Of Course they fight crime!
  • Doctor Who: He's a super-intelligent death-defying egotistical alien....
    • ...she's a sentient Police Box that can travel through time and is Bigger on the Inside...
    • ...she's a shop girl from the estates...
      • ...and her mechanic ex-boy-friend...
    • ...he's a rogue Time Agent and immortal ex-conman...
    • ....she's a medical student...
    • ...she's a plucky temp with flaming red-hair and a temper to match...
    • ...she's a red-headed kissogram and her Roman-Fighting-Nurse husband...
      • ...joined by their daughter, a mysterious time-traveler armed with hallucinogenic lipstick
    • Together, they fight aliens![2]
    • In "A Good Man Goes To War" we have: She's a lesbian Victorian silurain with katanas; she's her human butler and lover. Together, they fight crime! (Including eating Jack the Ripper)
  • Fringe: She's an FBI agent with a mysterious past, he's a brilliant ne'er-do-well with an even more mysterious one - They Fight Crime along with his father, who's a genuine Mad Scientist.
  • Heroes Volume 5: One's a mind-reading detective trying to quit the habit, the other's a mental fragment of a murderous supervillain trapped in the detective's head. They fight crime! ...Or not.
  • Kamen Rider W: He's a detective who wants to be hard-boiled but is too emotional; he's a walking search engine with poor social skills. Together, they fight Monsters of the Week!
  • I Spy: He's a white tennis pro! He's the tennis pro's black trainer! (That was terribly significant in 1965!) They Fight Crime!
  • Dragnet: He's an anal retentive stiff! He's his chatty partner! They Fight Crime!
  • MythBusters: One's a Fun Personified redhead with a goatee and Nerd Glasses. The other is a bereted Deadpan Snarker with a walrus mustache. They Bust Myths.
  • Burn Notice: He's an out of work spy, she's his trigger happy ex-girlfriend. They Fight Crime along with his buddy who used to report on him to the FBI. And occasionally his mom.


Video Games

He's an amnesiac cybernetic soldier who doesn't know what to do! She's a megalomaniacal artificial intelligence dominatrix who's lost all their power! They Fight The Many!
You and her versus the world.
She really doesn't like that.

Megaman: They fight netcrime.


Web Comics

He's a PONY, he's a COP, together they are PONYCOP!

I wouldn't say that we necessarily fight crime as we...take care of problems that need to be solved with violence.


Web Original

  • Played for laughs (while quoting Arthur, Lethal Weapon 2, and Field of Dreams) in the Abridged series None Piece[1]:
    • Shanks: i am an alcoholic millionaire playboy, who is on the brink of an arranged marriage to a wealthy single woman.
    • Luffy: I am a young iowa corn farmer with an oscar winning wife, and paranoid delusional tendencies.
    • Shanks: And together we fight illegal narcotics and crime lords in the mean starts of LA.
  • See TheyFightCrime.org to get a randomly generated ridiculous-sounding permutation of that phrase.

"He's an ungodly Amish farmboy searching for his wife's true killer. She's a disco-crazy belly-dancing stripper who dreams of becoming Elvis. They fight crime!"
"He's a short-sighted alcoholic vampire hunter with a passion for fast cars. She's a manipulative African-American Valkyrie on the trail of a serial killer. They fight crime!"
"He's a benighted crooked firefighter plagued by the memory of his family's brutal murder. She's a supernatural gypsy research scientist who hides her beauty behind a pair of thick-framed spectacles. They fight crime!"
"He's a time-tossed bohemian waffle chef with a robot buddy named Sparky. She's an artistic mutant museum curator who hides her beauty behind a pair of thick-framed spectacles. They fight crime!"
"He's an otherworldly shark-wrestling librarian in a wheelchair. She's a disco-crazy mute mechanic from aristocratic European stock. They fight crime!"
"He's an otherworldly one-eyed master criminal from the 'hood. She's a mistrustful tempestuous socialite living homeless in New York's sewers. They fight crime!"

Rorschach: "How the hell did I end up being the good cop?"

  • This discussion starts off with this concept for a Prototype/Warhammer 40,000 crossover before changing it to the more appropriate "They fight Heresy".
    • "HE'S An Inquisitor held back from promotion due to his radical ideas of fairness, equitability, and investigating before Exterminating! HE'S a two-legged biological killing machine which consumes men to gain their skills! Together THEY FIGHT HERESY."
  • Blamimation: He's a Renaissance trout! He's a modern-day hawk! They fight crime! But only above water...

Western Animation

"A fugitive, semi-aquatic special forces amateur stage magician, framed for a crime he didn't commit, the 1865 assassination of Abraham Lincoln, joins forces with a rogue-trillionare inventor-extreme fighting champion from the future. Together with the aid of "R.I.C.K.", their super crime-fighting talking high-tech rickshaw, they'll bring hope, justice, and varying degrees of aquaticness to a Tri-State Area in peril. Together, they are...Doof 'n' Puss!"

  • Gargoyles: She's an NYPD detective. They are winged beasts of the night who spent the last thousand years in an enchanted sleep. They fight crime.
  • Played with on The Simpsons, with a two headed goat.

Homer:One of you ate tin cans, one of you ate health food. How you solved crimes, I'll never know.

Other

  • The BouncingCow screensaver: "A Cow. A Trampoline. Together, they fight crime."
  • When George R. R. Martin, writer of A Song of Ice and Fire, was talking about his TV days on an interview, he said that TV networks love this style of pitch because it's simple, consistent and easy to follow. The example he gave was "He's the Pope. She's a Chimp. They Fight Crime.
  1. ↑ (Specifically, they work together to try to stop a serial killer.)
  2. ↑ And those are just from the new series!
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