This Might Be The Funniest Moment Of The Epic V. Apple Trial
Many revelations have inadvertently come to light over the course of the Epic v. Apple court battle. What started as Epic's fight against Apple's app store monopoly has turned into a content mill of unveiled secrets and receipts between the biggest companies and organizations in the gaming industry. Both Apple and Epic Games have argued different points of the antitrust issue at hand for the past several days. However, in addition to some of the more serious claims, Epic and Apple's attorneys took a moment to discuss a truly bizarre "Fortnite" character: Agent Peely.
According to a transcript from The Verge, Peely came up during Apple's cross-examination of Matthew Weissinger, Epic Games VP of Marketing. Peely appeared in a matchmaking lobby before witnesses, at which Apple's attorney asked, "And we have a large yellow banana here, don't we? In a tuxedo?"
"Yes. That is Peely," Weissinger replied. However, the attorney already seemed to know the character and that, in fact, he was more specifically called "Agent Peely" when wearing a tuxedo.
"We thought it better to go with the suit than the naked banana, since we are in federal court this morning," the attorney jokingly explained.
Agent Peely is only one variation of the normally naked banana man. Other variations include Peely Bone, P-1000, and Unpeely — who is, naturally, even more naked than the OG Peely. However, clothed or not, Apple's attorney seemed to imply that there may be more to Peely than meets the eye.
What does Peely have to do with it?
Peely might've just seem like a random point thrown into the mix if not for an earlier argument in the trial concerning indie storefront Itch.io. According to Kotaku, Apple's attorney argued that the "so-called adult games" available on Itch.io seemed to violate Epic Games Store's policy on not supporting games that are "offensive or sexualized." The attorney pointed out a game that included "words that are not appropriate for us to speak in federal courts," concluding that the content was "both offensive and sexualized."
Epic's attorney seemed to remember this when she revisited Peely in her own line of questioning. In an exchange with Weissinger, she brought up the earlier "implication that to show Peely without a suit would have been inappropriate." As per The Verge's transcription of the exchange, she asked, "Is there anything inappropriate about Peely without clothes?"
"It's just a banana, ma'am," Weissinger replied.
So, as far as the court is concerned, there doesn't seem to be anything indecent about a "naked" banana — just in case you were afraid that there was something truly messed up about Agent Peely.