The Inventive Dope: Crabtree & Disher

One variation on the canny dope is the canny dope who suggests crazy solutions. The canny dope's solutions are often ingenious and amusing.

Detective Crabtree, Murdoch Mysteries: When Tesla and Murdoch investigate "microwaves," Crabtree suggests that in the future, microwaves could be used to cook a potato. 

"Yams would be delicious!" 

"Highly impractical," both Tesla and Murdoch scold him. "It would take an entire room."

"Yes, but perhaps in the future all homes will have a potato cooking room." 

Murdoch does in fact invent this room, and it is used in a murder--an ongoing joke of the series is how many future inventions Crabtree unknowingly comes up with. 

And I love the phrase: "potato cooking room." 

Lt. Disher, Monk: At one point, Disher suggests that an astronaut suspect killed his mistress by "activating an escape pod" from a ship in space. 

When the others question him on who exactly built the escape pod, he declares that the astronaut did it.

"Out of a kit in his basement," Stottlemeyer says sardonically.

"He's resourceful."

On the one hand, these inventive dopes seem foolish in the moment. On the other, their ability to think outside the box makes them assets to an investigation. At one point, even Monk turns to Disher and asks him for one of his "crazy theories." Disher is offended, but he should have been flattered!