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  • Acceptable Targets: Shawn (and possibly the writers) has a vendetta against aloha shirts, and anyone who wears them whether they're a Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist or not. Possibly a Freudian Excuse because Shawn's father ofter wears them. The writers have a field day with it in "And Down the Stretch Comes Murder" :
Cquote1

 Shawn: Wow, Dad, tell me you're wearing that shirt because someone has to spot you from space.

Shawn: A little girl outside just started crying when she saw this shirt.

Shawn: I'm worried someone's going to stare directly at the pattern and have a seizure.

Cquote2

CompleteMonster: Karl Rotmensen aka Mr Yin. He is revealed to be the abusive father/evil mentor to Mr Yang, and is the one who actually commits the murders (Yang is just his pawn). After Shawn unintentionally inspired Yang to finally rebel against him by allowing herself to be taken into custody to save Shawn's mother (one of the few people, besides Shawn, although he didn't know it at the time, to show her any compassion, Yin becomes angry and swears a vendetta against Shawn even though by his own admission he never loved her. He starts said vendetta by murdering several people and arranging the corpses in a Yin/Yang symbol. A fan of Alfred Hitchcock, Yin murders Shawn's acquiantance Mary in a manner reminiscent of the famous “Shower Scene” from Psycho. Using this theme as a distraction, he kidnaps the hero Shawn's girlfriend and forces Sean to choose between catching Yin or saving her. When he reappears, he continues attempting to murder Shawn and everyone close to him. Even though he finally dies at his daughter's hand, the abuse is so extensive that she chooses to remain in the asylum out of guilt that she could have stood up to him sooner.

  • Crowning Music of Awesome: The remix of the theme song, Bollywood-style, in the Bollywood episode.
  • Big Lipped Alligator Moment: In the episode "Let's Get Hairy", Shawn activates a revolving bookcase by grabbing a book. Gus is taken to the other side of the bookcase. It spins back around when Shawn puts the book back. Shawn never notices, Gus never says anything, and the incident is never heard of again.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Mary, the Mr. Yang expert from "A Night with Mr. Yang" and "Mr. Yin Presents." His creepy acting and penchant for saying the most disturbing things made many people wish he would become a regular character. Unfortunately...
  • Ethnic Scrappy: Tony and Joon from "High Top Fade Out," of "Blackapella," who gave out "free biscuits and gravy" after each show. The latter is even played by Kenan Thompson. And the former is none other than Jaleel White, himself.
  • Foreshadowing: "Tuesday the 17th" becomes surprisingly darker once you've seen the Yin/Yang episodes. Especially the ending.
    • And especially since the episode following it is "An Evening with Mr. Yang".
  • Fridge Logic: In "Tuesday the 17th," the initial case turns out to be a prank being pulled on Shawn. But those involved continued the prank after Shawn calls in Juliet, who is ready to shoot the killer if he appears...
    • Shawn keeps "hypothetically typecasting" Gus as minor black characters in their favorite movies. This starts when he refuses to let Gus be "Goose" in Top Gun. That's because "Goose" is what Shawn's mother calls him.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: Maggie Lawson playing a female detective isn't all that hilarious, until you know that she played pretty much the same character as Nancy Drew in a 2002 TV Movie. For Nancy Drew fans who saw that, it just looks like Nancy joined the police academy and moved to California.
    • Timothy Omundson, the actor who plays Lassiter, had a bit role in Starship Troopers. What did he play? A psychic.
    • Henry's date in "Black and Tan: A Crime of Fashion" becomes one of the funniest scenes once you find out that Corbin Bernsen and Amanda Pays (his saucy date) are married.
  • Ho Yay: Occasionally between Shawn and Gus. Lampshaded and subverted in Season 4 premiere "Extradition: British Columbia," where Gus comments about the unusually romantic nature of the vacation destinations. As it turns out, they were all arranged for Shawn's girlfriend, but she had a teacher's conference. Shawn and Lassie have a lot of these moments as well. See also Ambiguously Bisexual.
    • Possibly Lampshaded in "The Head, the Tail, the Whole Damn Episode" when Shawn is telling Lassie he'll help him prove the shark attack was murder, saying they will be like one, and then throwing out several portmanteaus, including Shassie, Sharlton, and Spenciter.
    • In "9 Lives," a suspect misunderstands Gus's assertion that he and Shawn are "partners." When Gus tries to clarify that he means it in a business sense, Shawn interrupts saying they are in a relationship. He later admits that he does such things just because it bothers Gus.
    • Shawn: You're in a safe place, surrounded by men who love you. Gus?
    • Gus: Lassiter, I love you.
    • A deleted scene from "Daredevils!" shows that Juliet's workout partner, a tough female cop, may have more than a friendly interest in the junior detective.
      • Shawn even jokes around with Juliet about her sexuality in "Feet, Don't Kill Me Now":
Cquote1

 Shawn: Your negativity...is clogging up my psychic signals. Do you mind keeping [the incredibly flirty receptionist Tanya] busy while I attempt to unclog them?

Juliet: And how am I supposed to do that?

Shawn: Gus would turn into Smooth Gus and try to pick her up.

Juliet: I am not hitting on a girl!

Shawn: Why, does that scare you? Or does that not scare you...? And does that scare you?

Cquote2
    • In "Shawn 2.0", while Shawn is giving his dad silly reasons not to hire Declan, he includes his "impossibly long eyelashes".
      • To be fair, he was played by Nestor Carbonell (Richard Alpert from Lost) for whom the comment is hardly uncommon.
    • Lauren Lassiter (but with her brother's face, to Gus): You are a great guy. Are you dating anyone?
  • Large Ham: Shawn when playing up his psychic abilities, especially during The Summation.
    • Guest Star Tim Curry in 'American Duos.'I feel like an angel baby swaddled in a cocoon of cloud candy.' Just one example.
  • Narrowed It Down to the Guy I Recognize: When Saul Tigh shows up as a crusty fisherman about 15 minutes in, you know that he'll be the murderer by the end of the episode.
    • Also in Season 1's "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not, He Loves Me, Oops He's Dead", guest-starring Teryl Rothery.
  • Tear Jerker: The fourth season finale, wherein Jules is subjected to the psychopath's whim, gagged, tied to a chair, and left tethering helplessly above at the edge of a clock tower with no sure proof of whether she'll be saved or not--when Lassiter and Gus do manage to reach and free her, she wears an empty, expressionless face. Near the very end, as parallel scenes between her and Shawn's girlfriend's rescue play in mute, she begins screaming and then breaks down against Lassiter, and he just holds her quietly.
    • It really says something about the show, which is mostly a comedy, that the whole ending montage of that episode is probably one of the most heart-wrenching things you could possibly watch. Lassiter and Juliet, Henry cleaning the Psych window, Mary's funeral....it brings this troper to tears every single time.
    • Too a lesser extent the character of Yang. She was used as a pawn by her monster of a father, and for many years her only sign that there was a better life was a random encounter with Shawn and his mother (who don't even remember the incident.) She only stands up to her dad when the two people she cares for are her targets, and even though she never actually killed anyone she's still consumed with guilt for failing to stop her dad sooner.
  • Unfortunate Implications: In addition to the over-the-top racial humor, in spite of all the show's Ho Yay and Mistaken for Gay, the only absolutely confirmed gay character (other than an early appearance by George Takei in which the issue never arises) is a Psycho Lesbian who had been killing any man who'd gotten too close to her crush. But, to be fair, her orientation was used to provide a surprise twist, not to make a statement on the morality of others who share it.
    • Recently we found out Lassiter's mother is in a committed and happy relationship with another woman.
  • X Meets Y: "Last Night Gus" is Psych meets The Hangover
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