Shout Out / Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations

References to other media in Trials and Tribulations.

---

• Atmey: "Shall we say the figurative Sir William will be dropping his panties before lunchtime."
• Phoenix: "(Uh oh... Phoenix, we have a problem...)"
• Atmey: "Ha... Elementary, my dear lawyer. Obviously it wasn't glued on well enough."
  • Atmey: "And I always look over all the documents. It's elementary, Sir Lawyer!"
• This conversation.
  Godot: "Mr. Trite's words are the milk and you are the spoon, Your Honor."
  Judge: "I-I'm a spoon!? I'm no spoony bard, I'll have you know!"
• Godot: "As they say... 'A cornered fox is more dangerous than a jackal!'"
• Mia: "(Well, we know whose milkshake brings all the boys to the yard...)"
• Judge: "An impressive deduction, Mr. Wright. ...Most impressive."
• Phoenix: "Her testimony has more plot holes than that movie The Grid: Revelations!"
• Godot: "Hey, Filly. Know your role, and shut your mouth. I can't stand women like you."
• Grossberg: "Unnngh... It feels like my hemorrhoids are doing the Harlem Shake!"^note The game was released in 2004, eight years before the song's release. However, there is a dance called the Harlem Shake, popularized in 1981 by Al B, which is more likely being referenced here. Although, with the case taking place in 2013, both interpretations could conveniently be used.
• This phrase:
  Godot: "I'm already seeing a very hot someone, so you'll be waiting for a long time."
  • Also Luke Atmey's comments about Godot.
    Atmey: "Godot. A legend or myth... Men pin a lifetime of hopes on the chance to simply meet him."
    Atmey: "Not surprising... Some people spend their entire lives idly waiting for his appearance."
• Maya brings up the topic of the "Rocko" soundtrack and "Claw of the Tiger".
  Maya: What!? It's not the Rocko soundtrack, is it? Claw of the Tiger?
• Case 3 manages to get in three references all within the same scene, assuming all topics are explored and a wrong item is presented.
  • Phoenix: "D-Director!? (Sh-She's human!? She seems more like a ghost in a shell.)"
  Maya: "This is madness!"
  Phoenix: No, Maya, that is SPARDA.."
• "I guess Mr. Elg is like every other man with his own pile of secrets."
• Viola: "He had to pay compensation... He was made an offer... He simply... couldn't... refuse."
• Judge: "Ruh-Roh!"
• Phoenix: "(A muddy mudskipper in outer space has a better chance of surviving than I do.)"
• Armstrong: "Oui, Monsieur Judge. Everything I do, I do it for you!"
• Phoenix: "(A spirit medium afraid of ghosts...? Isn't it ironic, don't you think?)"
• In case 5 when you examine the bell tower at the beginning, an exchange with Maya gives you:
  Maya: "...I'll take money for the win."
• Godot's real name is Diego Armando, which is a reference to Diego Armando Maradona.
• Luke Atmey: "It's elementary, my dear."
• When he brings Furio Tigre into court, Godot mentions that the job was a "three cup problem."
• Edgeworth: "I detest talk of supernatural drivel. I suppose now you'll say she has midi-chlorians?"
• Butz: "She flew, I'm telling you! Whooosh! Just like that dude with the red underwear!"
• The CD from Furio Tigre's office and the virus it contains is labelled "MC Bomber." When Maya tries to remember the name later she comes up with MC Screwdriver and MC Hacksaw, but doesn't quite hit it.
• When uselessly presenting evidence to Sister Bikini, the conversation with her goes like this:
  Gumshoe: "Umm, about this here..."
  Bikini: "Hmm... Let me see... Well, as you may know... In order to see reality for what it truly is... ...we strive to break our attachments to much of the transient, material realm. I guess you could call me an 'immaterial girl'!"
  Gumshoe: "I guess she lives in an immaterial world, huh Mr. Edgeworth?"
• Phoenix: (about Bikini) "(Wow, she must have just gotten off the trolley from the land of make-believe...)"
• Gumshoe sings "Every case is gonna be air-tight" in a reggae beat. Who's that meant to sound like...?
  • Probably the same guy who sang Gumshoe's other favourite, "No motive, no crime..."
• If you examine the other side of the Suspension Bridge, Maya will suggest to Phoenix that he should train with her, since it would be great if he could have spiritual powers too, leading to this comment:
  Phoenix: "(Really? 'I see dead people' sounds more like a cause for alarm to me...)"
• During the cross-examination of Laurice...
  Edgeworth: "If you truly have nothing to hide... then why are you stammering like you just flew over a cuckoo's nest!?"
• Here's where things get meta...
  Phoenix: "But then a miracle happened. The kind that Mr. Tigre would prefer to say never happened. But he can't. Neither can I."^note  A localization hiccup in the bad ending of the second game included the line "The 'miracle' never happen," which underwent Memetic Mutation.
• Edgeworth: "Well, her metabolic processes are a matter of interest only to historians, so to speak."
• "Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
• An easily overlooked one, because you have to pretty much intentionally mess up. But when cross-examining Dahlia Hawthorne, if you pick the wrong choice towards the end of one cross-examination, Phoenix will exclaim how his intuition was wrong. Godot responds: "Intuition...? Truthiness has no place here!"
• The title of one of Dahlia Hawthorne's testimonies in the first case is How I Met My Feenie.
• Atmey: "I am a traveler of both time and space..."
• When asking Gumshoe about Godot in case 2:
  Gumshoe: "No way he's an amateur. He's an iceman in court, a maverick that give me goosebumps."
• One of the oils Jean Armstrong offers Phoenix contains golden myrrh and frankincense.
• Mask☆DeMasque's symbol looks an awful lot like a Phanto.
• Larry Butz's last two girlfriends before the game were "Bennifer" and "Katty Tom," a reference to 2000's celebrity couples Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez and Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, both of whom have subsequently broken up).
• The Spanish translation even gives a couple of Spanish-only references:
  • Jean Armstrong says "¡Tú eres muy malo! ¡Siempre negativo, nunca positivo!" (You're very bad! Always negative, never positive!), a phrase made famous by a press conference by F.C. Barcelona's former coach Louis Van Gaal.
  • Miles Edgeworth says to himself "Pero qué público más tonto tengo" (What a stupid audience I have), a song by seminal early 80s band Kaka De Luxe.
  • Gumshoe's Bob Marley shout-out in the English script is changed to a Camaron De La Isla shout-out (he references both "Volando voy" and "Soy Gitano").
• The Judge references a popular children's rhyme at the end of case 3.
  Judge: "Wright, you caught a tiger by his toe, but if this one hollers, he won't be let go."
• Bikini: "Let's not dilly-dally shilly-shally."
• The climax of the first trial day of the second case, in which Phoenix implicates Atmey by claiming his own fingerprints would be on the stolen urn based on him reaching into a bag in Atmey's possession earlier and realizing he touched the urn, is the exact same way Columbo took down Dale Kingston. Both cases even have the theft be part of a scheme to frame someone else for murder.

---