Crime can be funny, so why can't crime shows?

This might sound strange coming from someone who counts "The Wire" and "Law and Order" among her favorite television shows, but I like funny crime shows.

Not like "Columbo" funny (which is just funny in a sad way, sorry "Columbo" fans), but the shows that either plainly mock the crime-show format or inject a little humor into the serious faces over at "CSI" or even my beloved "Law and Order." Because, let's face it, a lot of crime is funny -- just read the daily blotter items in any newspaper (but preferably the Press-Gazette) for a glimpse of the stupid and the ridiculous.

Apparently, I'm not alone. Both "NCIS" and "Bones" -- best described as "CSI" with humor and eccentricity -- are hits with audiences who may be a little fed up with the standard stab-and-uncover procedurals or the true-crime grittiness of a show like "The Shield." Don't think these shows aren't smart or cool, although admittedly the hipness of "NCIS" definitely skews to an... ahem... older crowd (that's right, mom, I know you love Mark Harmon but he's still old).

So, anyway, I guess that's why I'm pretty excited to see one of my favorite funny crime shows return to television on Jan. 9 for a short winter season. Now, I can totally understand why someone would not find "Psych" funny. I know some of those people, and I don't care what they think because this is one of the best comedies on television. Period. It's ridiculous. It's irreverrent. It's witty. And it doesn't take itself -- or its implausible storylines -- too seriously. Fake psychic Shawn (James Roday) and his reluctant best friend detective Gus (Dule Hill) are adorable in their bromantic quests for criminals in always sunny Santa Barbara. With a little help from Shawn's dad (Corbin Bernsen, no longer Arnie Becker from "L.A. Law"), the duo are the new-age Holmes and Watson, if Holmes and Watson were twentysomething bffs who start all their stories with flashbacks to their childhood.

It's been a long cold lonely winter... so check out some of the sun on "Psych. Episodes start airing Jan. 9 on the USA Network at 9 p.m.

-- Malavika Jagannathan, mjaganna@greenbaypressgazette.com