# Mr. Monk and the Game Show -- How were they cheating? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 19, 2004, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-monk-and-the-game-show-how-were-they-cheating/260532 "2004-08-19T12:08:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2004, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-monk-and-the-game-show-how-were-they-cheating/260532/21 "2004-08-19T23:46:50Z")
> [@audit1](#): > > I think there is a problem with the method used to cheat. The host has to pick up the card in order to send the signal. But how does he know the question and correct answer before he picks up the card? DId he look them all over before the show? (unlikly) Or did he pick up the card , determine the answer and then move his hand to the correct answer to give the signal? (not what was depicted) From what I remember, the host usually paused, looking down at the card on the podium, before picking it up, usually saying something like “Here’s the $6000 question…” He could just then glance at the answer before picking the card up, and raise it in his hand accordingly. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-monk-and-the-game-show-how-were-they-cheating/260532/22 "2004-08-20T00:38:00Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > My 2 cents - love the show, but man this has to be the show with the shortest seasons in tv history. It only seems that way because the _Monk_ season is split in two, look for new episodes starting in January. I expect USA will do the same thing if they take the extension option on _The 4400_. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-monk-and-the-game-show-how-were-they-cheating/260532/23 "2004-08-20T01:29:21Z")
> [@ouryL](#): > > You are correct, his assistant caught him cheating and revealed it to the guy who found her. Did she actually say this, or was it just implied? (I also missed the first 30 seconds or so.) The two-cheater theory (heh) seems just a little too implausible. Perhaps she just had some other, unnamed dirt on him? God, I hope they rerun this one in the next Monkathon. (There’s one tomorrow, but I don’t think this one is included!) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-monk-and-the-game-show-how-were-they-cheating/260532/24 "2004-08-20T02:32:26Z")
There had to be two cheaters: 1. The assistant caught her boss cheating. 2. The guy who was shown on the show learned about the plot _when the assistant’s car crashed_. The assistant told him about it, and he put her confession onto his phone answering machine to use for blackmail purposes. So the guy shown cheating could not have been cheating prior to the car crash. It was a major plot hole. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-monk-and-the-game-show-how-were-they-cheating/260532/25 "2004-08-20T02:44:19Z")
I don’t think it was a plot hole at all. Fortunately, I haven’t deleted from my Tivo yet. When the assistant was confronting him (in the very first scene of the episode), she asked him why he did it. He said, “Have you ever been in debt, Lizzie? I mean _really_ in debt? It changes everything.” So he was cheating in order to pay off someone he owed. She caught him, and was going to turn him in. When the fisherman guy became a witness to the murder, he started blackmailing the host to keep cheating, but now with _him_. The host could have been at the guy’s cabin to work out the cheat system, but I just assumed that the guy would want to blackmail him in person and not over the phone or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-monk-and-the-game-show-how-were-they-cheating/260532/26 "2004-08-20T03:06:05Z")
Well, it’s odd that the first guy the host was helping would let him off the hook so gracefully. Maybe the host gave him some cock and bull story about not wanting to draw suspicion with a prolonged run, or the person he was helping was a personal friend, and they were just splitting the money. Hrm. ---
**Author:** ![blowero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-monk-and-the-game-show-how-were-they-cheating/260532/27 "2004-08-20T07:55:28Z")
> [@Jeff Olsen](#): > > One person, but what if there were others who had caught on? He couldn’t take that chance. That makes sense. It also makes sense that the host was at the cheater’s house because the cheater didn’t want to blackmail him over the phone, and Monk was simply wrong in guessing that they were working out a new system. It just seems odd that neither possibility was mentioned as part of the plot development, at least not that I can remember. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-monk-and-the-game-show-how-were-they-cheating/260532/28 "2004-08-20T11:36:09Z")
> [@blowero](#): > > That makes sense. It also makes sense that the host was at the cheater’s house because the cheater didn’t want to blackmail him over the phone, and Monk was simply wrong in guessing that they were working out a new system. It just seems odd that neither possibility was mentioned as part of the plot development, at least not that I can remember. It’s also possible that they did work out a new system. Maybe since the assistant found out he was cheating, the host came up with a new methos harder to catch. Remeber, no one was suspicious until the idiot went on the show, so any previous cheaters no one even thought were cheaters. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-monk-and-the-game-show-how-were-they-cheating/260532/29 "2004-08-20T11:42:41Z")
> [@pugluvr](#): > > I hope it’s not too much of a hijack to say that the season finale looks pretty funny - entitled _Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine_, which must mean his shrink is trying to treat him with prozac or another similar drug. The trailers looked like a crackup. Oh, yeah, I think the season finale looks very funny. The nurse that Sharona got for him two weeks ago mentioned that he should be medicated, so maybe it comes from that. It’s always a short season during the summer, but it should be back in January. I think the finale of _The Dead Zone_ is Sunday. They both stop in time for the regular network shows to start, and then they’ll be back. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-monk-and-the-game-show-how-were-they-cheating/260532/30 "2004-08-20T13:27:10Z")
> [@](#): > > Remeber, no one was suspicious until the idiot went on the show, so any previous cheaters no one even thought were cheaters. Hmm. That makes sense, **bouv** – that he had a subtle cheating system set up, and he split the reward with the contestants. They had no need to blackmail him, since they got $$ and were complicit in the cheating – if they exposed him, they’d lose their cash, too. The cheating would be more subtle – he selected which contestants were smart enough, good enough actors, etc., to carry it off without arousing suspicion. The assistant caught it, but no one else had. He killed her, the jerk shows up, and blackmails him. Whether he uses the same system is sort of irrelevant – there might have been a more subtle system in use with the other contestants (who had more brains), and this was something obvious enough that blackmailing-stupido could figure out. Frankly, I thought this plot had lots of holes. For instance, when Monk goes on the show and figures out the system, and starts to answer questions before they’re asked, the host guy surely understands that Monk has figured the system, and should either hold the card in the wrong place, or hold the card in a non-corner (like, middle of the bottom) so that the cheating isn’t so obvious. We did crack up at the woman contestant’s wail after the other two have been answering questions before they’re asked: “This is harder than it looks at home.” ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-monk-and-the-game-show-how-were-they-cheating/260532/31 "2004-08-20T22:49:47Z")
> [@C K Dexter Haven](#): > > Frankly, I thought this plot had lots of holes. For instance, when Monk goes on the show and figures out the system, and starts to answer questions before they’re asked, the host guy surely understands that Monk has figured the system, and should either hold the card in the wrong place, or hold the card in a non-corner (like, middle of the bottom) so that the cheating isn’t so obvious. I’m not sure I get the objection. The host only managed to ask, what, two or three questions that way? It probably took all of them for it to sink in the host’s mind that Monk had figured out the system. Besides, even if he did have time to deliberately try to screw up Monk, how would that help his blackmailer? ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-monk-and-the-game-show-how-were-they-cheating/260532/32 "2004-08-20T22:55:00Z")
Referring to an earlier post, you really don’t need to watch “Monk” for the mystery aspect. Most of the solutions are out of “Encyclopedia Brown”. The show’s appeal is Tony Shaloub’s hilarious, yet sympathetic portrayal IMO of a person with OCD. I was curious as to why the “Game Show” episode had none of the regular supporting cast, not even Bitty Schram (Sharona). ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2004, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-monk-and-the-game-show-how-were-they-cheating/260532/33 "2004-08-21T08:05:57Z")
I think part of it was to show his ‘other life’ with Trudy and her family. That side of Monk didn’t have Captain Stottlemeyer or Sharona in it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-monk-and-the-game-show-how-were-they-cheating/260532.md?page=1)