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In the criminal justice system, no matter how heinous the crime, there are always two kinds of hilarity — those related to the situation, and those that stem from the lives of those involved. This is a list of them.

DUN-DUN!

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     Season 1

• Although scattered here and there throughout the series, arguably the biggest chunk of laughable moments (in this otherwise very dark and sinister drama) occur during the very first season.
• A morbid Fridge Humor moment. In the pilot, Cassidy is assigned a case in which a man was caught fondling a dead body on the subway. He awkwardly asks Cragen if it's actually a sex crime, since the victim is dead. Fast forward to the second episode. Cassidy now has to testify in court for that case, and the prosecution tries to get the case thrown out for that exact reasoning.
• The pilot's actually brilliantly laugh-out-loud funny altogether ("Shut up, John!"). The absolute crowner of the pilot has to be Elliot in court. He's trying to justify having arrested a flasher on hearsay (a pretty shaky reason) and the defense lawyer's having a field day...until Elliot uses a euphemism which implies that the flasher is compensating for something, which the perp then promptly disproves in open court. Elliot's expression suggests that Chris Meloni was struggling not to burst out laughing, which is exactly what we all did. (And the jury, or at least the front rows, laugh their asses off.) Then, right afterward:

  Benson: Hey, how'd it go?
  Stabler: He's in Bellevue.
  Benson: The jury came back that fast?
  Stabler: He waved his flag at 'em before they had a chance... Nobody saluted.

  • From the same episode: Cragen is talking to Benson and Stabler in his office. He's eating a piece of licorice when they tell him that someone "chopped off the victim's unit." Cragen immediately spits the licorice into his hand and dumps it in the garbage.
• Detective John Munch owns these, but nothing beats the moment in "Slaves" when he's talking to someone at Air Bucharest and the phone rings:

  Detective Munch: Don't answer that phone. Anyone who calls an airline waits on hold twenty minutes minimum while being subjected to a clockwork orangeian repetitive loop on the benefits of your awards program.

  Man: I believe that's your phone, sir.

  • Earlier in the same episode, the detectives undergo mandatory psych evaluations. Munch addresses his evaluation with the same amount of charm that he approaches everything:

    Dr. Jackson: Do you have a girlfriend?
    Munch: Do you?
    Dr. Jackson: Well, have you dated at all since transferring to this unit?
    Munch: Ah, now I see where you're going with this. Does dealing with sexual deviants every day affect me? The answer is no. Just ask my blow-up doll.
    Dr. Jackson: Do you think this job has had any effect on your sex life?
    Munch: No, but I think I've pinpointed what has. Believe it or not, I have serious intimacy issues. I'm critical, I'm negative, I have an occasional bout of... let's see, melancholy? A lousy date, but a good cop. So, I guess that just about covers everything?
    Dr. Jackson: Uh, no, actually. We have about 45 minutes.
    Munch: So I suppose you wanna hear a detailed account of my sexual history?
    Dr. Jackson: (stares)
    Munch: Well how're we gonna kill the remaining 44 minutes...?
    Dr. Jackson: ...Do you always deflect personal deflections with jokes?
    Munch: Do you always deflect jokes with personal questions?
    Dr. Jackson: Have you ever experienced any sexual dysfunction since taking this job? And I'd appreciate an honest answer.
    Munch: (takes a moment to think) Once.
    Dr. Jackson: Thank you. (Beat) How long ago was that?
    Munch: Not sure, but it was definitely within the last ten minutes. I'm sorry. Look, I'm not good about talking about me. You're the expert. Why don't you talk about me?
    Dr. Jackson: Okay. You've been married multiple times. Each wife was beautiful, spoiled, and not one of them matched you intellectually. You distrust all women, any form of government, and you could smell a conspiracy at a five-year-old's lemonade stand.
    Munch: Anything else?
    Dr. Jackson: ...You've given up on relationships. But you still believe in true love... and the pain of never having found it... is unbearable.
    Munch: ...anything else?

  • When Cragen first tells them about the psych evals, Munch thinks that the fact that SVU was picked as the guinea pig department means that the NYPD already assumes there's something wrong with most of the detectives in the department:

    Munch: What do you wanna bet they just slapped a new cover on the old Minnesota Multiphasic?

• In "Hysteria" Munch is called in to testify against a shrink who treated hysteria the old-fashioned way.

  Prosecution: What was that treatment?
  Munch: Miss Weber was told to disrobe, put her feet up in stirrups, and picture David Hasselhoff from Baywatch.
  Defense Attorney: Objection! Your honor, this witness is not qualified to testify on the treatment for hysteria.
  Munch: Actually, sir, I am. Up until 1952, hysteria was one of the most commonly diagnosed illnesses among women. The medical treatment was hysterical paroxysm.
  Court Reporter: Could the witness spell that?
  Munch: O-R-G
  Prosecutor: (looks confused)
  Munch: A-S-M.
  Court Reporter: (shocked expression)
  Defense: Objection! Would it surprise you to learn that, historically, the onus fell upon physicians to bring about the relief of these ladies' symptoms?
  Prosecution: Your honor, please instruct counsel to withold his questions until cross.
  Munch: I don't mind, your honor. In fact, I believe the manual version of this treatment dates back to Hippocrates and was attested to right up until the Middle Ages, up until the 1890s, when the vibrator was invented to speed things along.
  Prosecution and Defense: Objection!
  Judge: Sustained.
  Prosecution: Detective, is this practice currently against the law?
  Munch: Yes. And so is videotaping it.
  Defendant: (looks very uncomfortable)

  • From the same episode we get Elliot's hilariously awkward attempt to give his daughter a sex talk using soccer terminology.
    • Which culminates in her very bluntly telling him she's still a virgin even as she kicks the ball to him. He stands stock-still while the ball goes right past him and says simply "Okay."
• In "Bad Blood", Benson volunteers Munch to interrogate a suspect they just brought in on a murder case, knowing the suspect was already annoyed with her and Stabler and citing Munch as calm and patient enough to handle it. At first, Munch lives up to expectations, but the victim in question was a gay male whose father (running for Congress) had tried to "cure" him, and the suspect brings up how having a homosexual relative damaged Newt Gingrich's own campaign, unknowingly pushing Munch's well-known politically-induced Berserk Button and launching him into a heated rant at the suspect on Gingrich's personal failings. Cut to an exasperated Cragen watching from outside.

  Cragen: Anybody know where Cassidy is?
  (Cut to new scene. Cassidy is now interviewing the suspect.)

     Season 2

• In "Closure, part 2", when Elliot and Olivia interview a newspaper stand salesman, they ask what the witness to a rape looked like. He can't describe her face cause he was too busy checking out her butt. Their expressions after hearing this can best be described as a Flat "What". To which the man defensively responds, "I'm an ass man, and I make no apologies for it!"
• In "Abuse", when Olivia was concerned about the little girl of a famous singer:

  Munch: Hey, Olivia, Ashley had just called, asking for you.
  Olivia: What?! Is she alright?
  Munch: No, she saw the new *NSYNC music video and was thoroughly disappointed. As was I.

• An exchange from Cragen and Munch during the season 2 episode "Taken" when the latter is a bit peeved about a suspect.

  Munch: There should be a special level of hell for this pus-sucking, gangrenous, malignancy of an mental amoeba.
  Cragen: Somebody steal your parking space again?

• When Elliot was trying to work a confession out of Jason Mayberry in "Pique", he briefly and unexpectedly turns into a dudebro so quickly that it winds up turning a previously serious scene into a pretty funny one.

  Mayberry: I want to go home.
  Elliot in a whiney child's voice: "I want to go home." *begins sniffling*

     Season 3

• In the episode "Counterfeit", Munch is on sick leave. Finn and Olivia discuss what a hypochondriac Munch is:

  Olivia: How many times has he had anthrax this month?

• In "Popular", while cross referencing names from a check-in sheet for a hospital and names from an absentee list from a school, Olivia casually mentions that the one from the absentee list must be a forgery, and that she used to do it all the time, everyone does. Elliot gives her a look, and she backpedals by saying that Elliot's kids are the exception, and that she's sure he's very intimidating (all said with a smile on her face). Elliot claims to be real scary afterwards.
• In the episode "Care", when trying to get into the headspace of a child with autism who obsessively plays a fantasy video game and witnesses the murder of a foster sibling, Fin and Munch try playing the same game. Cragen initially mocks the "Super Mario Bros.", but later plays the same game and reaches the final level. This helps him communicate with the witness later: the child opens up when Cragen brags that he managed to bag a gorgon.
• The episode "Inheritance", while searching for a murder suspect with an obvious hatred of Asians within previous hate crimes, Benson finds a potential past victim. Stabler grabs his coat, but Liv points out it might take hours to track down a translator. Elliot's solution?

  Stabler: Doc, can you translate?
  Huang: What, you just assume I speak Chinese?
  Stabler: No, I heard you order take-out once.

  • Whether from Huang just assuming Stabler thought he knew Chinese simply because he was Chinese, or the thought of clean-pressed Huang ordering take-out, Liv's face right after is priceless knowing what an awkward car ride with the both of them is going to be.
• Towards the end of "Tangled", Fin and Munch are searching the perp's apartment for his pet cat:

  Fin: Here pussy, pussy, pussy.
  Munch: You're kidding...

  • And Munch's comment when he finds the cat? "There you are, you demonic little furball."

     Season 4

• From "Perfect", when they investigate a doctor owning a clinic dedicated to reviving lost vitality via hormone injections, this exchange follows:

  Munch: What he's doing is perfectly legal.
  Fin: Don't tell me you're thinking about taking this stuff.
  Munch: Considered it. Why shouldn't I add some lean muscle to what you so lovingly call "my bony ass"?
  Cragen: You can hit a gym when we close this case. Otherwise, everybody focus.

     Season 5

• The episode "Mean" has this glorious exchange:

  Brittany: What are they saying?
  Cragen: That they didn't do anything and you killed Emily all by yourself. Oh, and that you're nuts.

• In "Bound", Novak goes to a judge's house to get an exhumation order signed, and finds him playing poker with the series' other recurring judges. When she explains she needs a judge, he snarks, "You just hit the jackpot."
  • When the Judge asks why he should disturb "the sanctity of the dead", Novak says she has a very long and compelling argument that would "disturb the sanctity of your poker game". He signs the order and shoos her out the door.
  • The other judges snark the whole time, too. "Better sign it, corpse might be a flight risk."
  • Gets a Call-Back in a later episode when Novak tells the detectives she got their warrants, but it better be damn important as she was "risking my life interrupting Judge Terhune's poker game, again.
• In "Head", the detectives are investigating a toilet-cam set up in a coffee shop. Most of the shop's patrons are on laptops.
  • Similar exchanges, with Stabler cracking a bad joke and Olivia delivering an annoyed look, occasionally occur on other episodes. How many times has this had to happen before she reduced her reactions to just a withering look?
  • Later in the episode, Munch and Benson are going through the perp's video collection:

    Benson: (mystified) Urine Trouble?
    Munch: It must be good: they made sequels.

• In "Abomination", the crew is discussing the case in the office, trying to pick up leads. Fin comments that they didn't get the names of the picketers at the victim's funeral - cue Munch hoisting a rather large camera and quipping that they got pictures (the camera belonged to one of the picketers) and that they must've "left it behind" when Cragen asks where he got it from. Casey's amused "I didn't hear that" and Cragen's exasperated "Give it back, John" are priceless enough, and then Munch mutters, "I'd be happy to. I even developed his film for free."
• The episode "Sick" can nowadays be looked at as either one big "Funny Aneurysm" Moment or Black Comedy (it was clearly based off of Michael Jackson).

  *Elliott comes a across a statue wearing child-sized Lederhosen*
  Elliott: (Completely deadpan) Lederhosen? Guilty.

  • Fin's reaction to the lemur inside of Billy's mansion.
  • Munch's reaction to discovering that dodge ball was still a game practiced in school. Even Double D would take pity on him:

    Munch: I hated this game. I literally weighed 98 pounds. I can still hear the kids in my gym class yelling "Break the pencil."

  • Casey gets one of her own, when having dinner with a judge and discussing the case.

    Casey: I already asked J.J. about the birthmark on Billy's penis!
    *All of the other patrons stare at her*
    Judge Mary Clark: She doesn't get out much.

  • This line:

    Dr. Warner: I've got news about Billy's bombshell.
    Stabler: Actually, I've heard it's more like a firecracker.

  • This exchange:

    Stabler:Trust me, when you're being brutalized by me, you'll know it.

    Tripley: You just threatened me. Did you hear him threaten me?

    Dr. Warner: Nope, open wide. And if you bite me, I'll hurt you.

     Season 6

• From "Weak," Benson and Stabler try interrogating Ray-Ray, a schizophrenic Talkative Loon. While his condition is not portrayed as funny, it's hard not to laugh at the sheer incoherency of his word salad and the detectives' bewilderment. While they're talking to the psychiatrist, Ray-Ray interrupts from inside the other room with, "Hello? Uh, I can't find my head!"
  • The psychiatrist says that Ray-Ray's DNA is in the system only because he's filed hundreds of reports about a neighbor trying to murder his cat.
  • Also Ray-Ray while he's being arrested:

    Ray-Ray: Don't be werewolf. Don't be a werewolf! DON'T BE A WEREWOLF!

  • Near the beginning of the episode, the SVU get a composite sketch from a victim that bares a resemblance to another infamous criminal.

    Munch: Well, that's great, our rapist is the Unabomber.

    • Later, when Benson and Stabler are interviewing a witness, they show her the sketch.

      Witness: Isn't that the Unabomber?

• In "Scavenger", the serial murderer is revealed to have some major mommy issues. The detectives manage to find his mother and bring him in, revealing that he was so afraid of darkness that she couldn't bring him to her plays, so she locked him in a closet before going to work, scaring him shitless (literally). The detectives use this to force him to find his last victim before she could die by locking him in a closet.
• From "Pure", Elliot and Cragen trolling a self proclaimed psychic that came in offering to help during a case.

  Ballentine: I didn't get a real good look at him, but his eyes were very distinctive. One brown, one blue.

  Stabler: Okay. Where was this?

  Ballentine: I had a vision.

  Cragen: ...Thank you very much for coming in.

  Ballentine: Look, I know what you're thinking.

  Stabler: Of course you do. You're psychic.

  Ballentine: You believe I'm mentally ill.

  Cragen: He's good.

  Ballentine: Look, I have worked with many other police departments on missing persons cases. My name is Sebastian Ballentine.

  Stabler: The Sebastian Ballentine?

  Ballentine: You've heard of me?

  Stabler: No.

  • Later in the episode, Novak has to bootstrap a warrant after the detectives broke down a suspect's door without one — an incident which Cragen hasn't yet been made aware of.

  Novak: Hey, I fixed this. You fix the door.
  (Fin starts waving frantically at Novak to be quiet, just as Cragen enters the scene.)
  Cragen: What door?

  • An unintentional one, but when a serial rapist blames his wife for him being a rapist, because she wasn't a virgin when they got married. Eliot's response? A notable pause and a Flat "What".
• From "Haunted ":

  Fin: Who's the best at undercover in your squad?
  Sandoval: I'm your guy.
  Fin: No offense, but my grandmother wouldn't sell an aspirin to you.

     Season 7

• In the episode "Starved", Olivia tries to find a serial rapist who targets successful women through speed dating. At said event, we get to listen in on the various conversations of other speed daters, and one couple is having this exchange:

  Man: ...I felt like I was...outside my body, looking down. Ya know?
  Woman: Yeah...I felt the same way when I was abducted.

• From "Manipulated":

  Benson: What do PMCs do?
  Munch: Profit from the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
  Tutuola: Please don't get him started on Dick Cheney again. ^note Mariska looked to be on the verge of Corpsing there.

• In "Web", Fin arresting the cyber pedophile who goes by the name "Funfella".

  Fin: Hey, Funfella.

  Funfella: Who are you?

  Fin: Your blind date from the internet. I'm a little older than 15, but maybe we can still be friends.

  Funfella: I just came to get something to eat.

  Fin: Yeah, right, and I'm the starting goalie for the Rangers.

  • The Answer Cut, after asking Funfella what's in the bag he's carrying:

    Fin: Four pack of coolers and a box of condoms. What are you planning on getting frisky with the Hamburglar?

     Season 8

• In "Uncle" Pre-interview with the main suspect, Munch bursts in accusing Elliot and Dani of beating his uncle. When they tell him that the ER doctor said he had Alzheimer's, Munch states all doctors are idiots right in front of Doctor Huang. After answering a few of Huang's questions about his uncle's condition, he asks for a second opinion from him.

  Munch: Could you take a look at him?
  Huang: Well I'm just another idiot doctor.

• The beginning of the episode "Loophole" features a crook, high as balls on PCP and wreaking havoc while looking for a woman named "Barbie".

  Stabler: (hits the perp in the back of the head with a fire extinguisher)
  Perp: (turns to Elliot, unfazed and pissed) How dare you hit the erotic god of love?!

  • Stabler's reaction after the hit does nothing.
  • Doubly hilarious when you realize it's Goldberg, wrestling's answer to the One-Man Army. A fire extinguisher probably would feel like a love tap to someone who's taken steel chair shots for years, not to mention the opening scene looked like one of Goldberg's "days at the office" in WCW.
    • The best part? The guy is listed with the name Cupid
• In the episode "Responsible" Stabler gets a call from his daughter Kathleen, while talking to Judge Donnelley with Novak. She spotted a video posted on one of the suspects' social media pages. Said video is of the four suspects drinking and insulting "Gaybler", Benson, AND "Judge Diarrhea", calling said judge an "old witch with her broomstick up her butt". while Donnelly is watching the video with Stabler and Novak.

     Season 9

• Fin and Lake are Mistaken for Gay when canvasing for suspects. Lake rolls with it by putting his hand on Fin's thigh with a big grin on his face while Fin is not amused.
• In the episode "Authority" when the accused advocates a protest which ends in a public pillow fight:

  Novak: If a couple hundred idiots wanna spend their afternoon having a pillow fight, let them.
  (cue Munch happily hitting people with a pillow behind her)

• In the episode, "Savant", a developmentally-disabled girl with a penchant for hugs practically asks for one from almost every character... even the judge during trial.

  Girl: Can I have a hug?
  Petrovsky: *flabbergasted* ... No!
  Girl: *pouty face*
  Petrovsky: ... Well, maybe later.
  Girl: *smiles*

  • Earlier, there's the part where the little girl first meets Novak and immediately latches onto her. Novak is completely caught off guard, while Elliot's expression say, "Yeah, she does that a lot..."
• In "Alternate", a lawyer is called in by a woman with multiple personality disorder, only for her to waive counsel and dismiss him on his arrival because she's switched personalities. The lawyer's reaction?

  Lawyer: Call me if you change one of your minds.

• As scary as it was, the pizza bomb in "Svengali" also gets a little humor from the setup when Fin hands Lake the pizza.

  Fin: Double pepperoni. It'll kill ya.
  (Lake tosses the pizza onto his desk and it explodes.)

     Season 10

• "Lunacy" has an astronaut friend of Stabler's ranting about "the jokers who think we never went [to the moon]" — right in front of Munch. The best part is that Munch actually likes the guy, so instead of launching into a rant, he just nods and laughs as though he's totally agreeing about how much of an idiot those guys are.
  • Later in the episode, Munch ends up asking for the astronaut's autograph "in case I'm wrong". Fin's reaction is priceless.

    Fin: I think it just started snowing in hell.

• Stabler and Fin in "Wildlife" telling rapper "Gots Money" about how, when he goes to prison, his cellie will roll a pair of dice to decide how many times to rape him:

  Stabler: Will you look at that, I gots an eleven!

  • Made even funnier (and slightly horrifying) when you think about the other show (Oz) Christopher Meloni did and the kind of people he associated with in prison. You don't think Schillinger did that a few times?
• "Ballerina"'s cold open: Two guys get into a fight. One picks up a butcher's cleaver. The other guy's chest explodes.

  "You shot me?"
  *holds up knife* "...How?"

• In "Hell", after a girl draws a picture of the devil as her attacker, Cragen tells Munch to go online and find out what he can about Satanic cults in the area.

  Munch: I hear and obey, oh Lord of Darkness.

  • Earlier in the same episode:

  Munch: He goes by many names: Satan, Lucifer, Mephistopheles, Beelzebub, Old Nick...

  Stabler: Let's not forget Ryan Seacrest.

• In an effort to catch a corrupt judge in "Crush", several SVU members get into the courtroom under false identities: a suspect in the previous case as a juvenile offender, Cragen as said offender's father, Stabler as the plaintiff, and Dr. Huang as the defense attorney.
• In "Liberties", when a suspect was bitten by his would be victim's dog and is ranting about how he probably needs to be checked for rabies, Olivia's response is priceless.

  Olivia: I seriously doubt you gave the dog rabies.

• A very dark example at the beginning of "Hothouse":

  Tai chi instructor: Let your chi flow. Can anyone remember the next movement?
  Elderly woman: Body in water.
  Tai chi instructor: No, snake creeps down.
  Elderly woman: No, I mean there's a body in the water!

     Season 11

• In "Hammered" ADA Sonya Paxton turns up drunk to a trial and tries to make excuses.

  Judge Moredock: Have you been drinking?

  Paxton: I was up all night preparing.

  Suspect: What, drinks?

• How in the world did Chris Meloni and Mariska Hargitay manage to keep straight faces in "Sugar" while on the P.A. at a store asking for the "Master Baiter" to come to the front?! They don't. Mariska is corpsing like crazy when Chris gets on the P.A., and she suddenly turns away; it's not hard to figure she knew she couldn't last much longer and she wanted to save the take.
  • After the initial announcement, some poor stock boy hangs his head and slowly stride forward, prompting Olivia to clarify over the P.A., "No, not a masturbator, the Master Baiter." You just know he never heard the end of it. And that's when Chris starts corpsing. In both actors' cases, it works because it's completely in character.
• Elliot trying to kick down a door in "Perverted." He manages to dent the door, but he starts groaning in pain. Cue him getting a phone call:

  Elliot: Starla's not home... I... tried that.

• In "P.C.", Elliot and Alex are talking when lesbian-rights activist Babs Duffy (played by guest star Kathy Griffin) enters the squadroom railing against Elliot. She sees Alex and immediately stops, ogles her, shyly introduces herself, and then:

  Alex: I'll leave you two alone.
  Babs: No, you do not need to leave us alone!

  • During the investigation, Elliot gets sucker-punched by a suspect. His coworkers proceed to rib him over it because of one little fact.

    Alex: (walking in) What happened to him?
    Tutuola: (gleefully) Technical term? Punched by a chick.

  • Moments later, just as Elliot walks out of the interrogation room (leaving so that Olivia can talk to the suspect alone), Alex asks if she punched him again.
• "Hardwired" begins with two women fighting in public, one accusing the other's son of molesting her son. When Elliot attempts to intervene, one little boy hits him in the groin. Cue theme song.

  Stabler: Now I know why they call them "Special Victims"

     Season 12

• In "Locum", 10 year old Mackenzie finds out her mother read her emails.

  Mackenzie: I can't believe you read my emails!
  Munch: You know, none of our emails are really private—
  Fin: Munch.

• Olivia's Intoxication Ensues in "Wet" caused by accidentally breathing in the fumes released by a Large Ham fungi scientist's boiling samples.

  Benson: I'm not the one who stabbed the captain with a pickle!

  • Stabler later fakes his own Lemon Wacky Hello.

    Stabler: IT'S SO HOT IN HERE! I DIDN'T ORDER THAT PIZZA!

  • And from earlier in the ep, Stabler interrogates a suspect who confuses the words "alibi" and "lullaby".
• "Bombshell" has this El-and-Liv moment during a boring stakeout:

  Benson: I got nothing but a five-pound rat.
  Stabler: You think you got it bad? I just saw a transvestite who looks like Munch.

• In "Ace", Benson and Stabler are questioning an OBGYN who saw one of the (pregnant) victims. Stabler asks how he could have not noticed the woman's bruises, but the doctor quickly explains that she told him she fell in the shower (which was supposedly why she needed to see him in the first place). Stabler points out that the two areas she was injured in aren't really consistent with falling in the tub:

  Stabler: So she fell on her face... and her vagina.

• Huang when giving the profile on the victim's stepfather in "Bullseye". Taking into account his normally civil attitude even when dealing with rapists and serial killers on a regular basis, his response is just amusing:

  Olivia: So, any pathologies with Jeff?
  Huang: Other than extreme internet addiction, no, he's just a jerk.

• During Gillian Hardwicke's introduction episode, "Branded", she completely flubs up her introduction to Benson and Stabler, and at the end of the conversation, she's given back-to-back requests from them with no word from her, leaving her confused as hell.

  Cragen: Welcome to Special Victims.

     Season 13

• A man was caught getting ready to have sex with an unconscious woman. His completely sincere excuse?

  Suspect: I told you; you have to believe me. I though she was dead!
  Tutuola: Excuse me?
  Suspect: She was lying there. Not moving. I thought she was dead.
  (Beat)
  Tutola: Let's go, creep boy.

  • The internal Flat "What" was written on Fin and Rollins's faces.
  • Later, Cabot walks in and bluntly says that she spoke to her bosses and thinking the victim was dead is not a valid excuse.
• In "Spiraling Down", a defense attorney tells Alex to brush up on her Latin and then quotes a Latin phrase ("Actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea" ^* "The act does not make a person guilty unless the mind is also guilty."). After a moment of silence Amaro translates it for Alex. Her response?

  Alex: Thanks, I knew that one.

  • The reason for her reaction? The phrase in question is Latin, but it's also a pretty basic legal principle. It would be like a Spanish speaker translating "que sera sera" because the other person doesn't speak Spanish; with or without a general knowledge of Latin, most lawyers, especially those involved in criminal law, will be familiar with that phrase and its implications.
• In "Father Dearest," the detectives' priceless Squick faces while Dr. Huang explains the concept of genetic sexual attraction.

     Season 14

• In the Christmas Episode "Presumed Guilty," one of the suspects also happens to be a Salvation Army Santa working on a busy public street. Cue Rollins and Fin chasing down and tackling Santa Claus while bystanders look on.
• In "Criminal Hatred," when Rollins and Fin are looking for information about a male suspect at an equal opportunity strip club, one of the female strippers greets Fin with "Hey there, Detective Tutuola, long time no see!" As he and Rollins are walking away:

  Fin: Met her a long time ago, when I was working undercover.
  Rollins: Wow, and your undercover name was "Detective Tutuola"?

  • Later on in the episode, Fin catches Rollins open-mouthed staring at a pair of male strippers as they finish asking questions at the same establishment.
• In "Legitimate Rape," the defendant (acting his own lawyer) accuses Olivia of thinking all men are rapists.

  Barba: Objection, argumentative and... (shaking his head) ridiculous.

• Another Barba-and-Benson gem, this one from "Agent Provocateur"; Barba and Olivia are less than impressed with a witness who didn't show up to testify in front of a grand jury.

  Barba: [crossly] Guess who didn't show?? I just spent the past two hours with 23 grand jurors playing Sudoku.
  Benson: It's Friday. How about we pick him up at the end of the day?
  Barba: [starting to grin] So he can't get processed until Monday and has to spend a weekend at The Tombs? [gloating] Motherhood has really changed you, Liv. Brought out your sweet side. [abruptly all business] Do it.
  Benson: [sing-song] Thank you!

• A moment from "Her Negotiation": Barba, recalled from vacation, strides into the precinct wearing some... interesting garb:

  Benson: Where were you, on your yacht?
  Barba: ...Not my yacht.

     Season 15

• In "Rapist Anonymous," after defense attorney Minonna Efron gets Rollins to admit, on the witness stand, that she disagreed with Barba:

  Efron, in Large Ham mode: It isn't easy to break ranks with the DA. I applaud your willingness to speak truth to power.

  • Then cut to Barba vaguely looking like he wants to strangle someone.
• A grimly funny moment occurs in "Wednesday's Child," when the detectives are trying to track down a missing boy who was given away via back-alley adoption to a pair of criminals. Fin and Rollins ask the adoption broker what home address the adoptive couple gave, and she provides it. Fin takes one look and has this reaction:

  Fin: Wow, really?... I didn't know anyone lived at YANKEE STADIUM!!

     Season 16

• Barba holding Noah for the first time in "December Solstice". He has no idea what he's doing, and the baffled, awkward look on his face is just priceless.
  • Also from "December Solstice" is some wonderfully snarky Barba:

  Carisi: Yeah, that's assault three. Recklessly causing physical injury to another person, maybe even attempted murder. Am I right, counselor?

• In "Perverted Justice", new possible evidence is found, and they need to question the already-distressed witness. Someone asks, "She's fragile enough as it is. Who wants to ask her these kinds of question?" Cue everyone looking at Olivia, who looks rather surprised. Cut to Olivia questioning the witness.
• In "Undercover Mother", Liv encounters Barba after the undercover operation still in her undercover disguise as a madam, wearing a teal blue outfit with leopard spots.

  Barba: Do I wanna know why you're dressed like that?

  • During the aforementioned operation, Lt. Murphy, undercover as a pimp called 'The Bishop', walks in and completely uproots SVU by pistol-whipping Carisi, who is pretending to be a john, and pointing a gun at Liv, which forces Rollins and Amaro to call off the operation early. When Fin and Liv inform Murphy that the person he hit was also an officer, Murphy's only reaction is...

    Murphy: That little mouse job is one of yours?

  • There's also Barba's reaction to how "you raided a brothel on Super Bowl Sunday?" As if somehow, the idea of doing this during the Super Bowl is the most improbable thing about this.
  • Given that the raid was against Barba's explicit orders and stepped in the middle of Murphy's investigation, neither of them is exactly happy with the squad. The situation is meant to be very serious, but it's hard not to laugh at everyone's bewildered, sheepish looks while Murphy AND Barba scold them like they're misbehaved children.

     Season 17

• In "Criminal Pathology", murder suspect Carl Rudnick decides to retain a second attorney in addition to his first attorney without even talking to the aforementioned first attorney, and consequently ends up with two lawyers who don't particularly like each other, not to mention that he reveals this in the middle of his arraignment, giving them no opportunity to consult with each other beforehand. Hilarity Ensues.

  Calhoun: I have a motion to separate these three charges.
  Buchanan:...As do I.
  Judge: Coordinate, and I'll let the presiding judge know what he's in for. Good day.

• Barba's reaction when his witness shows up to court an hour late and intoxicated in "41 Witnesses"

  Just get him some coffee. (beat) Gallons of it!

• "Assaulting Reality": When a tacky reality show is being played at a bar, Benson comments, "Who actually watches this?" Cut to both Rollins and Carisi watching it at the former's home, completely enthralled.
  • Rollins goes on to say that she is "Team Melanie" and actually tears up watching the show minutes later.
• Amidst the chaos that is the ending of "Intersecting Lives", we at least get this quip from Barba after he's threatened outside the courthouse. He's obviously shaken but still his normal, snarky, Motor Mouth self:

  Olivia: Hey. Everything all right?

     Season 18

     Season 19

• Some of the deleted scenes earn quite a few laughs, such as this one from "Gone Fishin" where defense Dworkin gives an extended long-winded statement on asking how far the government's jurisdiction should be allowed to go. Barba is in rare form.

  Dworkin: My client is just a guy fighting for his liberty against an all-powerful government that has intruded into all aspects of our lives: our emails, our texts. They even look at me through my computer when I'm looking at things I shouldn't be looking at.

  Barba: Dear God.

  Dworkin: That's the price we pay for living in America at this particular time in history, I accept that, but when does the government's power go too far? When do we, as citizens, say "enough"? I posit, is when we are outside our country's legal borders. And if I'm wrong? If our government can commit criminal acts anywhere on our planet without suffering consequences, then we are living in a police state that George Orville never dreamed of. A world that would give Oliver Stone the midnight sweats...

  (beat)

  Barba: (staring at him) Are you done?

  Dworkin: Help yourself.

  Barba: Male captus bene detentus, an improper capture, results in a lawful detention. If counsel would get off his legal soapbox to take his own dive into legal precedence, he'd see that the principals he's arguing against have been around since Ancient Rome. (facing Dworkin) If he'd like to change that, he is welcome to take it up with the proper venue, the Legislature.

• From "Contrapasso", when Fin and Carisi arrive on the scene:

  Fin: (viewing the bloody crime scene) Ok, this is nasty, but why call SVU?
  Female Officer: Take a look in that ice bucket.
  Fin: (looks into the ice bucket, with Carisi looking over his shoulder) Aww , come on!
  Female Officer: If I'm not mistaken, that's a set of testicles.
  (squicked groans from both Carisi and Fin)
  Carisi: Aw, jeez!
  Fin: Confirmed. You found these on ice?
  Female Officer: They were on the bed. I put them in there.
  Fin: Good thinking.

     Season 20

     Season 21

• In "The Longest Night of Rain", the squad is attending Tucker's retirement party:

  Olivia: Who's the—who's the woman with Tucker?

  Fin: You asking us?

  Carisi: Yeah, we got you in the divorce.

     Season 22

• In "Our Words Will Not Be Heard", Kat and Fin are going somewhere:

  Kat: You gonna tell me where we're going?

  Fin: It's a surprise.

  Kat: Where's Phoebe?

  Kat: Wait, what?

  Fin: Congratulations, you're getting promoted. Liv and Phoebe are meeting us to celebrate. Just act surprised, and tell the captain how much you've learned from her.

  Kat: From all of you!

  Fin: Yeah, but let's polish that apple.

• In "Wolves in Sheep's Clothing", Carisi is going to officiate Fin and Phoebe's wedding. While he and Olivia are waiting to talk to a suspect, he asks her a question:

  Olivia: You're giving Ortiz "Queen for a day", you'd think he'd at least be on time.

  Olivia: [beat] What about just "love"?

  Carisi: Make it shorter?

  Olivia: It's always better.

     Season 23

• When Kat's in the ambulance in "Never Turn Your Back on Them," the EMTs tell Fin to keep her awake, so he tries a joke:

  EMT: Good, keep her alert.

  Fin: Li—Kat, wake up! Wake up. You're gonna be mad if you miss this punchline. All right, how many? None. They bust the bulb for being broke, and the room for being black.

  Fin: O-okay, it was a bad joke.

• In "The Five Hundredth Episode," Fin's telling Olivia about a suspect who walked himself into SVU, and warns her that he's a real charmer. She opens the door to the interrogation room:

  Amaro: I'm guilty!

  Olivia: Nick! Whose idea was this?

  Amaro: What, you're the captain now, you don't like surprises?

     Unsorted

• A man gets caught during a bust about to have sex with an unconscious woman.

  Man: She fell, and, uh, I was helping her up!
  Olivia: With your penis?

• Similarly, Benson and Stabler got called in on a prostitution sting after one of the girls claims an attempted rape. One man who's being led away stops to appeal to Olivia that it's all a mistake, only for her to flatly tell him that his fly is open.
• When a suspect boasts about having killed a mute witness, he's handcuffed and being dragged by Stabler and Benson. Without a pause, Stabler pulls the guy so he rams face-first into a pole then pulls him back and keeps walking as if nothing happened.
• Munch undercover as a pedophile tourist is surprisingly funny. Especially since his disguise consists only of changing his shirt, taking off his shades and smiling.
  • Munch also briefly goes undercover as a homeless person to catch a vigilante group targeting the homeless. His disguise consisted of wearing some old clothes and yelling his opinions about the government. The suspects showed up within a matter of minutes.

    Fin: That's the same old crap he says every day, only louder.

    • Fin's lead-in to this, a summation of what the "Street Cleaners" are looking for, is equally hilarious.

      Fin: So we just introduce them to the filthiest, laziest bum they've ever seen.
      (Gilligan Cut to Munch ranting like crazy in the streets)

• Munch instigates more dark-funny with a reference to the bar he owned with fellow detectives in Homicide: Life on the Street:
• Elliot and Olivia are trying to interview a suspect who is listening to music on his headphones. So Elliot determines the best way to get his attention is to turn the volume up suddenly. The best part is Olivia. She looks like a little kid worried her parents are going to catch her with her hand in the cookie jar, so to speak.
• One episode the 1-6 was being cleaned of asbestos, causing Fin to start worrying. Munch helpfully tells Fin that as a black man, he is much more likely to die from heart disease or diabetes before he gets cancer. Then the next time we see Fin, he's wearing a face mask.
• In an episode involving stolen embryos, Munch gets a moment of dark humour when he says he has a description of one of the victims and asks if he should put an APB on it, holding up a picture of an embryo.
• Fin's description of the sociology behind being "On The Down-Low", and the others' reaction:

  Fin: It's different for black men. They go out, have sex with other men, then come home, have sex with their woman, and pretend they're straight.
  (Benson, Cragen, and Stabler stare at him, eyebrows raised)
  Fin: Hey, don't look at me, I just know stuff!

• When Fin curtly described Munch as "[his] Jew" when they're undercover with a pimp, Munch waits until they're outside to object:

  Munch: Your Jew? Your Jew?! What if I called you my boy?
  Fin (grinning, arms spread wide): Then I'd be your boy, John!

  • Before that, Munch's parting words before they get outside.

  Munch: Shalom.

• One episode has this hilarious exchange after Munch explains another one of his conspiracy theories.

  Melinda: Is there anything you can just accept?
  Munch: Yeah. Compliments.
  Melinda: No wonder you're such a skeptic.

• In one episode during a heated interrogation:

  Suspect: Oh it's bad cop now, right?
  Munch: (screaming) You bet your ass!
  Jeffries: John, easy.
  Munch: (still in a loud voice) You did it, you piece of crap. I know it, you know it.
  Jeffries: Seriously, come on.
  Munch: No, I'm going to kill this guy myself.
  Suspect: (speaking to Jeffries about Munch) Call him off, call him off.
  Munch: I'm gonna Mike Tyson you, you bastard!
  Suspect: Come on. Is this legal?
  Jeffries: Probably not.
  Munch: (whispering in suspect's ear) I'm gonna kill you. I'm gonna kill you. I'm gonna kill you...

  • Then later, there's Munch hitting on the ME. He gets shot down. HARD.
• Munch about to start a grand of drugs the dealer keeps in a public washing machine:

  Munch: What should I use, "Lemony Fresh" or "Mountain Stream"?

• Munch, once again, delivers. When described as a "dirty old man" by a suspect:

  Munch: Who're you calling 'old'?

• As the detectives are screening anonymous tips, Fin can be overheard saying:

  Fin: No, ma'am, I'm not evading your question. What is your question?

• Stabler has finished more than one interview in an interesting way.

  Suspect: (Gives Benson and Stabler his alibi) Are we done here?/We're done here.
  Stabler: No. (Jacks the suspect up against (van/wall/telephone pole/fence) before patting him on the cheek) Now we're done.

• When Munch and Fin are arresting a fourteen year old sociopath and serial rapist, the kid brings up a calculus teacher at his school that looks like Munch.

  Munch: Did he just threaten my hypothetical sister?

• This exchange:

  Munch: I miss the days when revenge just meant shooting someone.
  Warner: And I miss the days where I never had to say "I ran more DNA tests on that semen."

• In Chester Lake's first episode, he offers to buy Casey Novak dinner. Fin's WTF look, unbeknownst to either Chester or Casey, is priceless.
• One from early in the series, after several episodes of Munch's conspiracy theories.

  Munch: Guys, check this out. Teddy Kennedy lands in the water at Chappaquiddick on July 18th. Neil Armstrong lands on the moon July 20th. Think about that.
  Jeffries: And?
  Munch: You don't find that amazing?
  Jeffries: Nope.
  Stabler: You're learning.

• During a measles outbreak:

  Carisi: I think I feel warm. Hey Rollins, feel my forehead.
  Rollins: I am not feeling your forehead.
  Carisi: C'mon.
  Rollins: Oh wait, you got a little something here. And there.
  Carisi: Seriously!?
  Rollins: Another one here. (gasps)
  Carisi: Okay, that's not funny!

• Barba realizes how bad a case is.

  Benson: How bad was it?
  Barba: The Titanic meets the Hindenburg meets my first year of Little League.

• Law & Order
• Funny/Live-Action TV K-Z
• Law & Order: Criminal Intent

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Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Funny/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit

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