I gueass there are all kinds of comedic moments, circumstances and reactions, etc.
A notable favorites of mine is in "Sex and the Married Detective": the sequence where first one and then another therapist ask Columbo for advice and he rolls into their professional personas. Not as funny but in the same way he does it with the psychologist who was treating the first MRS. Barsini.
Another great line is when he says to the sex therapist something like "yeah, we gotta watch out for that...popular sex". I'm not sure my quote is exact, but the deadpan delivery of that line back to the "doctor" in such apparent but contrived seriousness really is humorous.
I've referred to this before, but in "Columbo Goes To College" one of the murderers does a perfect Columbo impersonation. Besides having the gravelly voice down pat, he scratches his head while ALSO crossing his eyes and arching his eyebrows. It is hilarious I promise. (The line is "You know what I gotta do...I gotta talk to the coaches' wife!")
Negative Reaction. The soup kitchen with Joyce Van Patten as the nun. "That coat, that coat, that coat".
With able assistance from the indispensable Vito Scotti.
"Negative Reaction" has TWO of the funniest moments, one, as you said was with the nun in the soup kitchen and the other is where Columbo meets the driving
tester Mr Weekly played beautifully by Larry Storch. When the family goes driving we are constantly repeating those hilarious lines!
When COlumbo and Rumford are talking in By Dawn's Early Light and Rumford says, "I wear a uniform. You wear...I guess you can call that a uniform."
Or when Columbo goes to see the used car dealer (can't recall the episode name) and the guy goes, "Lieutenant. I'll give you 80 dollars in a trade for it"
Steve, that car dealer guy was Charlie Shoup, and the episode was A Friend in Deed.
I love all the ones you guys have mentioned so far. I would add the scene in Negative Reaction when Columbo asks Galesko if he has any pictures of cocker spaniels so he can comfort love-sick Dog.
And also every single scene that has Vito Scotti in it!
Another spot in Sex and the Married Detective: Cloumbo going up in the elevator smoking the cigar and being stared down by Doctor Allenby, then extinguishing the cigar in the coffee.
I disagree about the driving scene in Negative Reaction. I can't stand it. I always thought it was unfunny and unrealistic slapstick. And what possible reason would Columbo have to be "playing dumb" for the driving instructor?
And if he wasn't "playing dumb," I find it hard to believe that such an observant and meticulous policeman like Columbo would drive like an idiot endangering himself and others. Columbo might be sloppy in some respects, but he is not a menace.
Hi guys,
The driving scene in "Mureder with too many notes", cracks me up. Billy Connolly, being driven home by Columbo at 10 miles an hour. Even an old guy on a bike gives them a toot them as he whizzes past.
Yeah, like when he crashes into the police car in Make Me A Perfect Murder and has to wear the neck brace. And someone says to him "Good Luck, Lieutenant" (Referring to good luck in catching the murder of Mr. McAndrews), and Columbo replies, "Don't worry, it will be off soon." Meaning the neck brace.
I thought it nwas funny when columbo was with eve babcock and she thought he was a 'client.' then the real client shows up, and he says, "By the way, my name is Lt. Columbo and I'm with the los angeles police department."
I think a funny one is the scene in "Murder in Malibu" where Columbo and his colleague are "examining" the panties on the mannequin in the lingerie shop and they suddenly notice that all of the ladies in the shop are staring at them with disgusted looks on their faces.
And in "Dead Weight," where Hollister makes our hero seasick and says he can't understand how someone named Columbo isn't more at home on the water. And Columbo says, "It must have been another branch of the family, sir!"