A standard whodunit on Dog City
The second murder is Scooter's in The Muppet Show Episode 414
Kermit assembles the suspects in the same episode
Pigs struggle to identify the right wolf on Sesame Street
The Whodunit, sometimes spelled as "whodunnit," is a specific form of the mystery genre and a colloquial spelling of the crucial question "Who done it?" Specifically, a whodunit emphasizes the puzzle element in determining who from a narrow field of suspects committed a crime (in novels, most often murder). While the inverted form (as on Columbo) reveals the criminal early on, and others emphasize how the crime occurred, the whodunit challenges the reader or audience to identify the culprit. Fair play typically required that while the culprit could be a surprise, they must not be introduced only at the end.
The whodunit thrived particularly in the 1930s (when the term was first coined by reviewers) and 1940s, in the works of Agatha Christie, the Charlie Chan books and movies, and The Thin Man series, and select Sherlock Holmes stories fit the mold as well. Most whodunits take place in an enclosed location, such as a country mansion, island, train, or club gathering, and typical suspects included greedy relatives, shifty businessmen, nobility, gangsters, and butlers. The game Clue relies on the format, as do later television series including Murder, She Wrote and films such as Knives Out (with Frank Oz). Common conventions include the use of red herrings and the detective saying a variation of "You may be wondering why I've called you all here" to the assembled suspects (often in a drawing room or library) before revealing the culprit. While many police procedurals are not strictly whodunits, an element is retained through the lineup, when a victim identifies the perp from a field of suspects.
References[]
- The unfinished script treatment Made-for-TV Movie would have been a whodunit, with Kermit the Frog trying to solve a guest's disappearance from a field of suspects (Muppet and human).
- The parody sketch "Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Disappearing Clues" (The Muppet Show episode 103) begins as a whodunit (with suspects including Miss Piggy as the maid and Fielding the butler), but it soon becomes immaterial as the butler eats all of the evidence and witnesses.
- The Muppet Show episode 414, with a mystery play at the episode's center, plays most of the conventions straight, including multiple suspects with motives, witness Scooter killed before he can reveal the name, baffled policeman Patrolman Bear, and Kermit saying "Now, you may be wondering why I've called you all together."
- Sesame Street Episode 1944 presents Inspector Bird (Big Bird) with a whodunit, determining who dropped balloons on the street. Big Bird declares "You're all suspects" to the assembled residents at the beginning, and "I guess you're wondering why I asked you here" when he gathers the suspects again for the denouement. The script specifies closeups of "shifty suspects" as in a 1930s detective film.
- The Fraggle Rock episode "Inspector Red" has Red Fraggle trying to identify who took the Fraggle Horn. After accusing Uncle Traveling Matt, Boober, and Marlon Fraggle in turn, she reveals the solution in the Great Hall, beginning "You're probably all wondering why you've been called here today."
- The Sesame Street sketch "The Big, Bad Perpetrator" (First: Episode 2541) has the Three Little Pigs trying to identify the Big Bad Wolf from a police lineup (red herring suspects include a small bad wolf, a big good wolf, and a big bad chicken).
- While most Sherlock Hemlock cases are not whodunits, the traditional trappings were used in the first "Mysterious Theater" segment "The Mystery of the Missing Cat," set at an English country manor with all parties concerned (including the butler) gathered in a single room.
- Dog City, while including mystery elements in general, saved its proper whodunit for the first season episode "Radio Daze," with Ace Hart hired to keep the cast of a radio show alive as near fatal accidents occur. When Ace makes his first accusation, everyone says "Who done it?" in unison before Ace states that Miss Dunn dun it (but is nearly dun in instead).
- As with The Muppet Show "Sherlock Holmes" sketch, Muppets Tonight episode 108 presents "Murder on the Disoriented Express," which *begins* as a whodunit with suspects in a closed space to be solved by Jason Alexander as Hercule Poirot, but descends into typical chaos.
- Sesame Street Episode 3908 (released on video as Computer Caper) presents Telly Monster with a more benign case, identifying who his mystery e-mail friend is. He uses the clues in each e-mail to narrow down the suspects.
- Various episodes of the 2018 Muppet Babies series use the whodunit format, including "Sherlock Nose."