History Main / CourtroomAntics

* John Gotti's Lawyer Bruce Cutler was infamous for this. Some of his antics included referring to prosecutor Diane Giacacolne as the "Lady in Red" when she showed up in court in a red dress, throwing an indictment in the garbage, verbally berating witnesses, questioning their character, name-calling and even turning prosecution witnesses into his witnesses (which became known as "Brucyfying")

** During the testimony of his ex girlfriend, Brooks tried to put forth the idea that she is an unfit parent and this damages her credibility. The jury was removed from the room while Judge Dorow tried to explain why he couldn't do this without merit, and that it was irrelevant to the situation. Assistant District Attorney Zachary Witchow began to argue that if Brooks wanted to bring up her credibility as a parent, then the Prosecution would bring up the fact that she was impregnated, as a minor, by Brooks himself, and that had earned him a statutory rape charge (which placed him on the sex offender registry). Brooks became outraged, shouting over Witchow and Dorow, yelling about how they don't know the truth. As he was removed once again, he shouted "So let's open the door on all of it then so we can get all of it on the record since you think you know so much. DID YOU KNOW SHE SAID SHE WAS EIGHTEEN WHEN I MET HER?! DID YOU KNOW THAT?!" This came following an attempt by Brooks to put a series of texts between himself and his ex on the record as evidence (which was denied due to the discovery rule). Brooks had engaged in a long drawn-out argument with Dorow that he knew the texts were from his ex because they were from his ex, completely missing the repeated attempts by Dorow to establish factual proof that they were real, verified, and in evidence.

* ''Series/ALaw'': "His Suit Is Hirsute" brings us the character of Frank Pastorini, whose egregious antics (such as singing his objections and tap-dancing his way to a sidebar) would, in RealLife, result in a jail sentence. Michael Kuzak turns the tables on him by doing his closing argument in the gorilla suit with which he interrupted Grace's wedding.

[[caption-width-right:350:"This whole trial is a circus. And I mean that literally!"]]

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Battletech}}'', Nicolai Malthus, during his imprisonment after the Clan Invasion, happened to catch an episode of a cartoon series in which a fictionalized version of himself was the villain (the in-universe equivalent of the [[WesternAnimation/{{Battletech}} real-life cartoon]]). His outrage led someone to inform him that he couldn't declare a TrialByCombat in the Inner Sphere, and that his only recourse would be to hire a lawyer and sue for slander. Which he promptly did. The case was thrown out after Malthus attempted to challenge the ''judge'' to a fight.

[[caption-width-right:350:A tiger, its tamer, a magician, a mascot costume, a little boy, an amateur photographer, two birds, and a dog. Oh, and another child behind the defense's bench. All here in time for the trial.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:A lion, its tamer, a magician, a mascot costume, a little boy, an amateur photographer, two birds, and a dog. Oh, and another child behind the defense's bench. All here in time for the trial.]]

* ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' is practically the poster boy for this trope. From bringing animals into the courtroom to the defense getting everything but the kitchen sink thrown at them to the prosecution playing air guitar and the witness playing ''literal'' guitar, there's never dull moment in court.

[[caption-width-right:350:A lion, it's tamer, a magician, a mascot costume, a little boy, an amateur photographer, two birds, and a dog. Oh, and another child behind the defense's bench. All here in time for the trial.]]

* ''State of Georgia v. Denver Fenton Allen'' (seen in this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vN_PEmeKb0 animated reenactment]] by the creators and voice actors of ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'') started off as relatively mundane (a defendant in a murder trial started out by expressing dissatisfaction with his court-appointed attorney) but quickly took a turn for the bizarre after he started accusing his attorney of trying to force him into allowing him (the attorney) to perform fellatio upon him (the defendant) in exchange for requested documents; from there, the defendant eventually began showering the judge with verbal abuse before then asking the judge to fellate him, followed by a declaration that he "[doesn't] fuck girls" and instead preferred "white boys" with "big butts," which eventually turned into a shouting match between the judge and the defendant before the defendant eventually graphically threatened to murder the judge's entire family (to which the judge responded that he doesn't even ''have'' a family), followed by threatening to masturbate and ejaculate upon the judge ''and the judge daring him to do just that''. The judge gave as good as he got, however, telling the defendant looks "like a queer" and that he has "the constitutional right to be a dumbass." Note that ''none'' [[RealityIsUnrealistic of this is exaggerated or embellished in any way;]] the transcript indicates that this is a ''verbatim'' retelling of what actually happened that day.

* The trial of UsefulNotes/CharlesManson and his accomplices for seven counts of murder and one count of conspiracy is one of the most notorious examples. To begin with, Family members not named as defendants loitered outside the courthouse with plainly visible hunting knives in sheaths, simply to intimidate passersby. On one day of the proceedings, Manson himself was able to smuggle in a copy of ''The Los Angeles Times'' with the front page headline "Manson Guilty, Nixon Declares," and flash it in front of the jury (requiring Judge Older to issue a ''voir dire'' to the jury before they could proceed). The next day, the female defendants stood up and said in unison that, in light of Nixon's remark, there was no point in going on with the trial. (Older naturally didn't buy it.) Two months later, after Manson's request to question a prosecution witness (who had already been cross-examined by the defense) was denied, he actually tried to attack the judge; he had to be removed after being wrestled to the ground by the bailiffs, as the female defendants rose to their feet and started chanting in Latin. Thereafter, Older kept a loaded revolver under his robe remainder of the trial. Besides the Family themselves, defense attorney Irving Kanarek [[ThatWasObjectionable kept objecting over every little thing]], often racking up a hundred in a single day, and was so notorious for having trials extended beyond belief that another attorney had once quit rather than face him again. He was held in contempt of court numerous times but never quit objecting.

* Infamously known as "Quack Quack" in mob circles for being a chatterbox, [[UsefulNotes/TheMafia Gambino family]] mobster Angelo Ruggiero had his bail revoked in 1987 when he [[PenultimateOutburst insulted]] the judge with profanity-laced tirades in an attempt to intimidate the jury during his trial.

In RealLife, being in court is a stressful and serious situation. You have to take it seriously in order to avoid being held in contempt of court and win your case. In fiction, though, it's not entertaining to see a long, dry, drawn-out court session, especially in a comedy show. That's why these proceedings are often PlayedForLaughs, instead, as the characters partake in antics that would ''never'' fly in a real life courtroom.

* In November of 2021, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waukesha_Christmas_parade_attack Darrell Edward Brooks jr. rammed through a parade held in Waukesha Wisconsin following a domestic dispute with his ex-girlfriend (whom he had one child with and was staying at a Women's Shelter due to physical violence)]]. Brooks elected, in a pre-trial hearing in 2022, to represent himself as a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_citizen_movement Sovereign Citizen]], and the trial officially started on October 3rd of 2022. Brooks had ''numerous'' bizarre outbursts that were highly innapropriate (sometimes outright threatening), and his behavior only devolved as the trial continued. Judge Jennifer R. Dorow would later state that she was lenient on these behaviors due to Brooks self representation, and she didn't want to give Brooks an opening for a valid appeal.