Characteristics
Munch is Jewish, but once commented that the only thing he and Judaism had in common was that he "didn't like to work on Saturdays." However, he is sensitive to anti-Semitic jokes, though conversely, he also occasionally makes comments that play on Jewish stereotypes, usually in an ironic fashion. He indicates that he is familiar with Jewish prayers, and eventually says the titular one at the end of an episode of Homicide called "Kaddish" in memory of a Jewish murder victim. He is familiar with common Yiddish words and phrases. Munch interacts with an Orthodox Jewish witness, using one Yiddish word, farshteyn ("understand"), and referring to the twelve Israelite tribes from the Bible. The man remarks that Munch must be Jewish and, consequently, agrees to help him out of a fraternal connection. After the interaction, Munch reciprocates by offering the man a ride back to the Riverdale neighborhood in The Bronx. He identifies his ethnic background as Romanian.
He has a younger brother named Bernie who owns a funeral parlor; he at one point jokes that he occasionally "throws him some business". He mentioned another brother who is in the drywall business. His cousin, Lee, acts as his accountant—and the accountant for The Waterfront—when he lives in Baltimore.
Munch has been described as a stubborn man who can "smell a conspiracy at a five-year-old's lemonade stand." Munch can often be seen lecturing his co-workers on a variety of conspiracy theories, which he views as obvious truths. In his very first case with SVU, he rants about the government cover-up in the Kennedy Assassination. However, Munch doesn't seem to believe all conspiracy theories; in The X-Files episode "Unusual Suspects" -- a cross-over episode with Homicide -- Munch vocally disbelieved the Lone Gunmen's claims of a government plot to expose Baltimore residents to a hallucinogenic gas.
Munch's most notable features are his sarcastic wit and dark humor. He is known to make jokes at crime scenes and insult witnesses and suspects in murder investigations. A very cultured, articulate individual, Munch has many interests in art, philosophy and other intellectual activities. This, contrasted with the working class officers he worked with, has often led him to be viewed as bizarre by others. He seems to view himself as more intelligent than many of his colleagues noting that in Baltimore he "was surrounded by intellectual insects". He is known for his trademark dark glasses and his very thin appearance which he claimed was "from only having fifteen hundred calories a day".
At the onset of Homicide, he had been divorced twice, but by the seventh season he had had a total of three ex-wives, until marrying his fourth, Billie Lou; each one of the previous three is "beautiful, spoiled, and none of them matched John Munch intellectually". Before leaving Baltimore, Munch had divorced his fourth wife and never shies away from cracking sarcastic divorce jokes. Dr. Aubrey Jackson has noted, however, that despite his romantic troubles, Munch still believes in true love, and is crushed by the fact he has not found it.
He once stated that he and his first wife, Gwen, had sex once after their divorce. Her first on screen appearance is the season six episode of Homicide titled "All Is Bright" where she is played by Carol Kane. Gwen shows up at 'The Waterfront' bar to inform Munch her mother has died. As the two catch up, he agrees to arrange for the funeral of Gwen's mother despite the fact that his ex-mother-in-law loathed him and did everything in her power to disrupt her daughter's marriage to him. Near the end of the episode, Munch performs a touching toast to his former mother in law in one of the few time his cynical facade slips. Carol Kane next returns as Gwen in the season 10 finale of Law and Order: SVU and is portrayed as a paranoid schizophrenic. While working with Lennie Briscoe (played by Jerry Orbach) in the season four episode of Homicide, "For God and Country", a crossover with Law and Order, Munch loses badly to Briscoe in a pool game and learns Briscoe had briefly dated, and had sex with, Gwen. He goes on to get quite drunk and proclaims that he forgives Gwen and still loves her. Despite this, it appears that he and Briscoe become quite good friends—their interaction in the two following crossovers between Homicide and Law & Order, as well as in a crossover between Law & Order and SVU, is generally friendly (Belzer originally pitched to Dick Wolf that Munch join Law and Order as Briscoe's new partner, but the role had been filled by Jesse L Martin).
While Munch could never be accused of being sentimental, his cynical façade has occasionally slipped, revealing a deep compassion—especially for children—borne from his unhappy childhood. When Munch emerged unscathed from an ambush shooting during a third season episode of Homicide that left three of his colleagues in the hospital, he tried to maintain his cynical demeanor by complaining to his commanding officer (Al Giardello) that "they got blood on my shoes, Gee" but he breaks down in tears anyway. In the second season of SVU, after solving a case dealing with an abusive mother who put her daughter in a coma, Munch told Benson a story about how when he was in high school, he saw an abused girl on her porch every day. One day she wasn't there because her mother had thrown her through a window, killing her. He stated that it was the first time he saw a grown man cry (the girl's father) and that the mother didn't care at all.
Munch is a staunch believer in individual rights and occasionally finds that something he has to do in the line of duty goes against his sense of morality. A particularly disturbing experience for him was having to see patients on dialysis have their kidney transplants denied.
Munch enjoys fig milkshakes.
In the third season episode of Homicide, "Law and Disorder", Munch was suspected by Detective Tim Bayliss of having murdered Gordon Pratt (played by Steve Buscemi), a Baltimore man suspected of shooting three homicide detectives, including Munch's partner Stanley Bolander who he was with at the time. Munch had motive, opportunity, an unconfirmed alibi, and never actually denies killing Pratt, but Bayliss refuses to question Munch further or test his service weapon to determine if it has been fired recently. He closes the case, informing his shift commander that there is insufficient evidence to charge anyone.
Munch is fluent in French, as shown when he chats with a victim in Law and Order: SVU's season 12 episode "Flight". He also has some conversational ability in Russian, Hebrew, Spanish, Greek, and Hungarian.
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