A few hours ago, U.S. court judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers issued some significant rulings in the Epic Games vs. Apple case. The injunction stated that Epic Games must pay roughly $3.5 million for breaching the App Store contract, but Apple must also allow app developers to guide customers to external third-party payment methods in the future. However, another major decision that we regrettably did not cover in our original news piece is that Judge Rogers has confirmed that Fortnite"s "banana man" character, affectionately known as "Peely" (artistic depiction above) can appear naked in court. Yes, really.
For those unaware, during the court trial, Apple"s legal counsel showed an image of Peely while describing Fortnite but instead of presenting him in his natural state, Peely was shown wearing a tuxedo. Apple"s lawyer stated that the reason for this formal attire was that "we thought it better to go with the suit than the naked banana, since we are in federal court this morning."
While this was obviously a lighthearted joke in a fairly contentious court case, Epic"s attorney decided to pursue the matter further and get to the root of it while cross-examining Epic Games" VP of marketing Matthew Weissinger. The lawyer reportedly asked Weissenger that "there might have been an implication that to show Peely without a suit would have been inappropriate, do you recall that? Is there anything inappropriate about Peely without a suit?", to which Epic"s marketing VP responded "It’s just a banana man". Truly an epic moment.
Judge Rogers has deemed this exchange important enough to be a part of a federal court ruling (document courtesy of The Verge) and decided that Peely can appear naked in court. No questions asked. The official wording is as follows:
With respect to the appropriateness of Peely’s “dress,” the Court understood Apple merely to be “dressing” Peely in a tuxedo for federal court, as jest to reflect the general solemnity of a federal court proceeding. As Mr. Weissinger later remarked, and with which the Court agrees, Peely is “just a banana man,” additional attire was not necessary but informative.
Well, there you have it, dear readers. Judge Rogers agrees that Peely is just a banana man, and should he ever appear in court in the future, he is free to do so without any clothes. Justice has finally prevailed.