Lieutenant Columbo is the most likable cop ever to hit the TV screen, the 70s drama became a binge-watching go-to during the pandemic, and the unique formula is instantly identifiable. Just like the series' structure, the answer to the mystery comes at the beginning of the piece, but the real fun is in finding out how the beloved detective will figure it out.
There's rarely any science to which movies or TV shows become valuable as fuel for the memetic hive mind. It's easier to look at a big pop-culture movement and perform an autopsy after the fact because guessing what may become a meme later is a game of chance. However, seeing the response to something like Columbo reveals a lot of interesting details about the way the internet works.
Columbo began its proper television run in 1971, after two pilot episodes that didn't quite nail down the formula. Creators Richard Levinson and William Link devised the pitch initially as a TV movie of the week, but its popularity and lead character led NBC to upgrade Columbo to full series status. There are 61 episodes of Columbo, each between 70 and 90 minutes in length. The show pioneered the inverse mystery format, also known as a "howcatchem" in a reversal of the term "whodunnit." Almost every episode begins with the murder, giving the audience all the information upfront. The drive of the episode is watching Columbo lock on to the culprit and catch them in a lie. It's exciting every time, but it is the same essential structure in each episode. Watching all of Columbo would take around five and a half days. Sounds insurmountable, unless something were to keep viewers under de facto house arrest with an indeterminate sentence.
As comfort viewing, Columbo is effectively unmatched. It's a formulaic drama about a man who the world can't help but like. The average cop drama is intensely unpleasant, sometimes because of the grim subject matter but more often because the show exists solely to convince the world that cops are perfect emissaries of justice. It seems weird for the memetic hive mind, most of which is on the younger side, to find their way to a cop show. It seems less weird after watching an episode or two of Columbo. The series refuses to glorify police work as a practice, nor will it celebrate any police officer whose name isn't in the title. Columbo is about Columbo, an old-fashioned detective who is kind, charming, unassuming, and dedicated to helping others.
There's an ongoing thread in meme culture that often serves to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. Look at Morbius. The many-faceted hand of the internet came for that film before it hit the screen, but when all the pointing and laughing caused a multi-billion dollar company to waste money, the tone changed sharply. If internet pranksters find a weakness, a crack in the system that they can exploit, they'll push against it until it shatters. This isn't always a good thing, but the target is typically a powerful person or a wealthy corporation. Columbo is ultimately a show about a working-class detective using his folksy charm to defeat the kind of person who is typically above the law. The killers are almost always wealthy, while the detective is happily lower-middle class. The show appeals to a modern audience as much as it did to the previous generation. It hails back to an earlier era, but it evokes something new in the modern audience.
The show's viewership skyrocketed over the past three years, its format is compelling, and its underlying themes are enjoyable, but the real reason the meme works is Columbo himself. The late great Peter Falk's flagship character is an instant fan favorite. He's a man made up of iconography. His outfit, which he wears every episode, looks like it came out of a costume shop. His car is a beat-up sedan that was out-of-date before the first episode aired. He talks constantly about his wife, who seems to have a near-encyclopedic knowledge of all subjects. He doesn't even carry a gun, because he knows that he'll be able to bring every suspect to justice without it. He even has a favorite food and a catchphrase. He's like a cartoon character, every element of his speech and appearance is locked in and constantly referenced from the first few episodes. Yet, somehow, underneath all of that familiarity, Lt. Columbo is almost violently likable. It's impossible to get tired of this weird little guy who loves solving mysteries and eating chili. We want to see him win, but we also want to see him everywhere. Memes can make that happen.
Columbo is a great show that happens to be extremely easy to build references around. Lt. Columbo is such a fully realized character who can comfortably slot into just about any other story. Everything from the structure of the show to the performance of its lead character makes it iconic on an almost unimaginable level. All of this comes from a little detective show from the 70s. Sometimes all it takes to become immortal is a single long-running performance. The entire show is available now on Amazon Prime and elsewhere, don't let it remain a mystery.