Make the Dog Testify/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: The witness called to the stand is an animal or an inanimate object.

  • Played Straight: Tropey the Wonder Dog is called to the witness stand to testify.
  • Exaggerated: The witness in question is a goldfish in a bowl.
  • Downplayed: The witness in question is a talking parrot.
  • Inverted: A human being (or in fantasy-type settings, perhaps one of the Fair Folk) is called to testify.
    • The lawyers and judge are animals, while the witnesses are all human.
  • Justified: Tropey is a Talking Animal or Funny Animal and therefore can speak.
    • Tropey is called up by a Bunny Ears Lawyer who doesn't seem to know what he's doing, but actually does.
  • Subverted: Bob is called to the witness stand, and brings Tropey up there with him.
  • Double Subverted: But Bob is an interpreter for Tropey.
  • Deconstructed: This wouldn't hold up in any Real Life courtroom, and is usually done when the lawyer is getting desperate.
  • Reconstructed: The lawyer has done his homework, and only calls up material witnesses. Since Tropey is a material witness, and able to speak and reason, the lawyer is justified in calling him up to testify.
    • Alternatively, see "Defied"
  • Parodied: The witness called to the stand is Mr. Stilton...a wedge of cheese.
  • Lampshaded: "I now call Tropey the Wonder Dog as my next witness..."
  • Averted: Nothing that isn't human is called up to testify.
  • Enforced: "We need to liven up this comedic series' courtroom episode with some Courtroom Antics!"
  • Invoked: The case is getting desperate, and Bernie the Attorney's client is facing life in Prison.
  • Defied: Bernie knows that no one would take a dog seriously, and that a dog cannot legally testify (even if it does talk), and so calls only relevant human witnesses or experts and hopes for the best.
  • Discussed: "Did he just call the dog to testify?!"
  • Conversed: "That wouldn't hold up in any court. Well, OK, maybe in Ruritania."
  • Played For Laughs: Almost always is.
  • Played For Drama: Bernie's client is losing the case badly, despite being innocent; calling up Tropey is a desperate last-ditch tactic to turn the trial around.
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