Only Murders in the Building is a good, old-fashioned murder mystery in every possible way: It’s gripping, but also oddly cozy; its tense moments are broken by witty lines that actually make you laugh out loud; its characters feel like real, fully-formed people, but they also have some of the most preposterously funny names ever uttered out loud on television.
Please see the following little blurb about the latest season to see what I mean: After solving murder of Ben Glenroy after the opening night of Death Rattle (which later became the musical, Death Rattle Dazzle), the OMITB trio, Mabel Mora, Charles-Haden Savage, and Oliver Putnam find themselves whisked off to Hollywood to meet with producer Bev Melon and formidable directing duo, the Brothers Sisters, to discuss turning their podcast into a film. Although Oliver wants to stay in LA with his girlfriend, Loretta Durkin, who is currently starring in spin-off Grey’s Anatomy: Family Burn Unit, when Charles’ stunt double, Sazz Pataki, is found dead back at their building, they have no choice but to begin season 4 of their podcast—and so begins season 4 of the show.
The names in the Only Murders universe are weird–and they’re getting weirder (The Brothers Sisters! Professor Dudenoff! Bev Melon! Vince Fish! And I simply have to talk about it.
On one hand, the goofiness of the names on the show serves as a kind of tribute to the murder mystery genre itself. After all, all of the best and most iconic murder mysteries also feature names that are just a little too grandiose, a little too absurd.
There’s Agatha Christie’s pompous Inspector Hercule Poirot and her quirky elderly amateur detective Miss Marple. Suspects crop up in her books with such wonderful names as Jacqueline de Belfort, Julius Hersheimmer, Vera Claythorne, and Aristide Leonides. Although some of these names may have been a little more common at the time when Christie was writing, subsequent murder mysteries have adopted the trope of using larger-than-life monikers.
In the 1978 murder mystery novel The Westing Game, we get characters like Tabitha-Ruth “Turtle” Wexler, Josie-Jo “J.J.” Ford, and Sydelle Pulaski. Even more recently, the Knives Out franchise has followed the trend. Benoit Blanc, for one, is an obvious homage to Christie’s Poirot. And, of course, what could be more iconic than the goofy, color-coded names of the Clue board game: Miss Scarlet! Colonel Mustard! Professor Plum!
Many of the names in the Only Murders universe follow a similar pattern, sounding just a little old-fashioned and imposing, almost as though they had just stepped out of a looming British mansion where a body has been found in the parlor. Take Charles-Haden Savage, Jonathan Bridgecroft, or this season’s Professor Dudenoff.
But the names in Only Murders go further than previous murder mysteries ever have. There’s something downright silly about some of them—take Bunny Folger or her bird, Mrs. Gambolini. And, charmingly, these names always seem to perfectly express the characters themselves. Loretta Durkin is elegant in an old-timey way (Loretta) but also, simultaneously, bumbling and awkward (Durkin). Mabel Mora is one of those millennials who doesn’t quite fit in (who’s called Mabel anymore?). Sazz Pataki comes at you like an exploding firecracker (and all of those Z’s and T’s and K’s show it).
And then there are the delightful names of the fictional movies and plays. Whoever came up with Grey’s Anatomy Family: Burn Unit, CoBro, and Death Rattle Dazzle is a genius.
As it turns out, creating this collection of wacky names is no easy feat. John Hoffman, the show’s creator, previously spoke about the lengthy process of naming characters during an episode of the Only Murders in the Building podcast last season.
“Picking names for this show, I always go to names that, like, in my own head, I’m like, ‘Does it ring a bell? Does it ding for me? What have I not heard all that often?’ All of that stuff,” he said. “So, picking his name to feel, like, legit enough that he’s a well-known person but just a little off.”
After host Elizabeth Keener noted with delight that Paul Rudd’s character, Ben Glenroy, is “just three names stacked on top of each other,” Hoffman recalled that his name was particularly hard to find. For one thing, they had to find a name that “cleared.”
“The way a name clears is if it can be confused with no one else,” he said. “If our show is set in New York and if we name a character this and there is one other person residing in New York with that name, that name will not clear.”
He added, “It’s a bit torturous for us because we go through so many different versions of every character’s name to land on something that pings in your ear as something you won’t forget.”
Maybe that’s one reason why these names sound so eccentric—in many cases, there is no living person with the same name. And it’s something that not only makes the show feel like a classic whodunnit, but it also lends to the playful, witty current that makes the show so special.
All this being said, I still haven’t forgotten or forgiven John Hoffman and co. for naming a character Tobert.
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