Shawn Spencer is holding his hand up to his face.
Beloved investigative procedural comedy Psych was full of fast-paced jokes and pop culture references, so making full parody episodes was a natural next step. Psych's many parody episodes often played with genre, spoofing everything from The Wild West to Alfred Hitchcock. Of all the Psych episodes that pay homage to other shows and movies over eight seasons, Psych's best parody episode copied Jack Nicholson's crime classic, Chinatown.
How Psych's "Santabarbaratown" Parodies Jack Nicholson's Chinatown Psych Goes Neo-Noir In A Case That Is More Than What It Seems Close ✕ Remove Ads Nicholson's character P.I. Gittes is hired to investigate a wealthy man's infidelities and becomes embroiled in a decades-long scheme that involves fraud, murder, and incest.
"Santabarbaratown" borrows major plot points from Chinatown, like the reveal of a secret daughter hidden by an old established family. The episode is peppered with small references to Chinatown, like fish served whole with the head, though Nicholson's Gittes takes it in stride while Psych's Shawn Spencer and Burton"Gus" Guster react in disgust.
Of course, while Chinatown was the inspiration, the episode is still a parody, not losing the comedy at the heart of all of Pysch's best episodes. While Nicholson's Gittes is suave and professional, Shawn and Gus are much more clumsy yet overconfident in their investigation, undercutting the tension with their constant banter and physical comedy, like Shawn twice not understanding the definition of a Mexican standoff.
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