List of running gags

A running gag, or gag reel, is a series of jokes and/or cliches that runs throughout Criminal Case and happens frequently. The purpose of this is to make the players of the game have a laugh or have a "déjà vu" feeling.

This page lists the most common and/or prominent running gags in the game.

Partners' crushes
On occasion, the player's partner—specifically either Jones, Amy, Frank, or Jack—will fall in love with or have a crush on a suspect at some point in the game. Later, however, the person with whom they fell in love would either be revealed to have something wrong with them or end up in a tragedy as described herein:

Jones

 * Jones fell in love with Alice August, but later discovered that she was guilty of Trixie Velvet's murder.
 * Jones had a strong liking of Rachel Priest and cared for her as a friend, but her attempt to expose a criminal endeavor cost Rachel her life.
 * Jones fell in love with Isabella Fairchild, who eventually admitted her wrongdoings at the climax of the murder investigation of Andrew Ashworth.

Amy

 * Amy had a crush on Zack Taylor until she found out that he was gay.
 * Amy's ex-boyfriend, Bobby Prince, for whom she still had strong feelings, eventually turned out to be the horrific slayer of a pilot. His love for Amy would reveal itself to be his motive for the murder of Frank Knight.
 * Amy had a liking of Mikey Bolero, who was found guilty of the murder of an acrobat.

Frank

 * Frank had deep feelings for Veronica Blade, who was ultimately found guilty of the premeditated electrocution of Peggy Pascal, the unlawful utilization of Colonel Spangler's weather-controlling machine, and the willful destruction of property through Hurricane Yves and Hurricane Zelda, thus confirming her as the person liable for the largest crime spree in Jazz Town.
 * Frank had a mild liking of Luz Lucha, who was ultimately revealed to be the murderer of a movie producer.
 * Frank opted to step down from the police ranks to pursue a romance with a femme fatale named Velma Bannister, who ultimately turned out to be a fraud before being arrested for plotting the theft of a rare diamond, and later became the killer of a movie producer.
 * Frank was attracted to Grace O'Brien, who was found guilty of the murder of a croupier.

Jack

 * Jack fell for Asal Hawaa, a spy for Mossad. After repeatedly flirting with her and disrupting their mission together, Asal tranquilized Jack to neutralize him. After this, they actually got in a relationship with each other. Even after she assassinated Nick Kringle, Jack forgave her. Later, however, Jack and Asal broke up in the aftermath of the murder investigation of a SOMBRA scientist.

Frank's drinking problem
Frank will often try to drink while on duty and when Chief Marquez is not watching, even though the Chief is smart enough to catch Frank red-handed in doing so. This includes:
 * Frank attempted to drink out of his flask and even offered the player a little bit of his favorite whiskey before they had to go back to the scene of the murder during a murder investigation. Shortly after, Chief Marquez caught him in the act and got mad at him for drinking in the job, after which she ordered the team to backtrack before the City Maintenance removed vital evidence from the scene.
 * Frank was ordered to do civic duty in the forest after he was caught drinking in court during the trial of Steve Bundy.

Roxie's jokes
In almost every Pacific Bay case, Roxie Sparks makes jokes about the victim's death as soon as she is done with the autopsy. These jokes are either a twist on how the victim died, or something related. For instance:
 * Upon finishing the autopsy of Valerie Green's body in What Dies Beneath, Roxie made a comment about the irony of divers drowning.
 * In The Ice Queen, Roxie stated that Becky Walden's death was "cooler" than the Tiki Shack bar, mocking the fact that Becky was frozen with liquid nitrogen.
 * In Death by Moonshine, Roxie said that there was a "happy hour" in the morgue after having to autopsy Sammy Duncan's body.
 * In Smoke and Mirrors, Roxie claimed that the method of murdering Vanessa Kimmel was cool, to which Frank responded that the victim might disagree with her. Roxie then replied that Vanessa could not disagree as her mouth was stitched shut by her killer.
 * After having to autopsy Ling Zhang's body in Heartless, Roxie exclaimed how her heart moved in excitement due to the body's state—making fun of the fact that Ling's heart was literally removed.
 * When she finished autopsying Clifford Grady's body in Cloudy with a Chance of Murder, Roxie joked how it was a "cut-throat" murder, making fun of how Clifford had his neck sliced open.
 * After successfully autopsying the corpse of Dinah Cooper, a cabaret dancer who was found hung up like a puppet in Hanging by a Thread, Roxie clearly intended a pun when she remarked: "Our victim must have really been hung up about something before she died."
 * In Leap of Death, Roxie said, "This was the best thing since sliced bread", joking about how Anjulie Cruz was sliced in half.
 * In The Hunger Planes, Roxie claimed she liked her meat medium-rare, mocking the fact that Harry Hugo was roasted alive over lava.
 * After autopsying the body of an artist named Fabrizio Gallardo in The Ship of Dreams, Roxie made a joke about how Fabrizio's last vision ought to be a "blast", given that a flare was found thrust in his eye socket.
 * In Smart Money, Roxie said she'd "bet her bottom dollar", joking about how Ernest Turing was suffocated to death with dollar bills. When she pointed out how much money there was, Roxie also remarked, "The victim wasn't keen on becoming a piggy bank."
 * In Killer Takes All, Roxie said that she had heard of a Poker Face, but never a "Croupier-Stick Face", an obvious pun on the fact that Alfie McNaulty was stabbed in the eye with a croupier stick.

Lars' jokes
In almost every case of World Edition, Lars tells a knock-knock joke related to the analysis to the player and their partner. Jack usually welcomes the joke and plays along, while Carmen gets annoyed and angry at it. For instance:
 * In The Impossible Dream, Lars does his first knock-knock joke upon analyzing Princess Sofia's crown, ending with "Eiffel down and broke my crown!" Rather than saying "I fell", Lars says "Eiffel".
 * In I Spy a Mummy, Lars does another knock-knock joke after analyzing Afif Wahab's blood on a golden ankh, ending with "Ankh if you love your mummy". Rather than saying "honk", Lars says "ankh".
 * In Horseback Mountain, Lars wants Carmen to accompany him with his knock-knock joke about a vacuum mug containing salty tea. When Carmen refuses, he does both parts by himself, ending the joke with "Anais cup of salty tea". Rather than saying "a nice", Lars says "anais".
 * In Plagued by Death, Lars tries to tell a knock-knock joke, but Jack insists that he simply tell the stained cloth's analysis result. Later, when Lars is feeling better after getting sick from the virus, he tries to tell a knock-knock joke, but Jack hugs him before he can say anything. Lars claims the joke would end with "Disease me, Lars". Rather than saying "this is me", he says "disease me".
 * In Dead in the Water, after analysis of a jade vase, Lars lets his daughter June tell a knock-knock joke (although she does all five parts of it) that ends with "A vase choice you made in coming to see my dad!" Rather than saying "wise", June says "vase".
 * In Speak, Friend, and Die, before giving the results of the analysis of a blue substance, tells a knock-knock joke that Sanjay interrupts. He ends the joke with "Larval always find a way!" Rather than saying "love will", Sanjay says "larval".
 * In Out of the Blue, Lars tells a knock-knock joke about the orange crystals he analyzed . He ends the joke with "Orange crystals" after Jack said "Orange Chris who?".
 * In The Circle of Death, Lars tells a knock-knock joke involving the blood sample he was sent. He ends the joke with "A face-scinating sample of blood it was you sent me,  !" Rather than saying "fascinating", Lars says "face-scinating".
 * In Murder, He Wrote, rather than telling a knock-knock joke, he asks who isn't there, as Angela was revealed to be the SOMBRA mole.
 * In Total Eclipse of the Heart, after analysis of black seeds, Lars ends his (incomplete) knock-knock joke with "Chili out!", replacing "chill" with "chili".
 * In Cheaters Never Win, upon analyzing some hair, Lars tells a joke that ends with "The Harris in the bowl". Much to his chagrin, Michelle finishes the joke before he can. Rather than saying "hair is", Lars says "Harris". Later, Michelle tries telling her own joke.
 * In Up in Smoke, Lars says "Your ex-plosion has been caused by the white crystals you picked up on the latex gloves!" He says "ex-plosion" rather than "explosion".

Jack's disguises
Occasionally in World Edition, Jack will have to use disguises to conceal his identity and/or deceive suspects to make them cooperate.
 * In God Save the Prince, Jack disguises as a British policeman after London's police asked the Bureau to patrol Westminster Lane.
 * In The Impossible Dream, Jack disguises as a member of the Promethian Cult to get Cassandra Papadakis to reveal that she is a member of the aforementioned cult and to get Archibald Gilchrist to reveal that he killed Jacqueline Proust.
 * In The Parting Shot, Jack disguises as a rebel leader in order to meet Seamus Cummings. Later in the case, Jack disguises as Seamus to meet Sultan Mahmoud and see if he knew about Seamus' death.
 * In Countdown to Murder, Jack disguises as a cosmonaut to enter the Kazakh launch site after Natasha Romanova placed a lockdown on launch site.
 * In Bloodywood, Jack disguises as Om Padmasana to convince Lars to stop him from being one of Om's followers.
 * In Oh! Crazy Kill!, Jack disguises as a K-pop idol to see what SILVERee would say about the strange activity at a karaoke bar where SILVERee performed daily.
 * In Speak, Friend, and Die, Jack disguises as an elf to investigate strange activity at the set of the Ringed Lord.
 * In Total Eclipse of the Heart, Jack disguises as Adolfo Herrera so he could intercept a meeting between the now-deceased Adolfo and Zoila Huanca.
 * In Up in Smoke, Jack disguises as a woman after Chockas D.Lux claimed that he could not make a passable female disguise.
 * In Double Trouble, Jack disguises as Niilo Virtanen to deceive the latter's assassin while he inspects the Bearing Straight factory.

Breaking the fourth wall
Sometimes your partner will say something that may indicate he/she knows everything in the game is fictional, as displayed herein:
 * After finding a broken webcam in the Grimsborough University's library in At the End of the Rope, Jones shows distraught and expresses how everything breaks so easily in Grimsborough.
 * In Troubled Waters, Jones and the player find Patricia P. Harris' book, named Troubled Waters. Jones mentions that the title could be the name for their case.
 * In Heartless, Hannah says that it is hard for her to believe that Amy and the player have to deal with this many murders every week, pointing out that there is a new case every week.

Partner harassment
On occasion your partner may become victim of (sometimes dangerous) jokes by different suspects. Here are some instances:
 * Jones was subject to several jokes after he mistook costumes when assisting to the Grimsborough Sci-fi Festival (during the Additional Investigation), dressing himself as a superheroine reminiscent of Wonder Woman.
 * Taylor Kirby threw a pot of blue paint on Jones's head while he and the player were summarizing details about Aaliyah Banks' death.
 * Jones was hit in the head by a brick thrown by Opera Phantom while standing in the Opera during the murder investigation of an opera director.
 * Shawna Knox made fun of Frank's Hawaiian shirt during the murder investigation of a young restaurant waiter after he questioned her tobacco-chewing habits.
 * Shelly Dulard deliberately littered Amy when she stood near her steamboat during the murder investigation of a banker.
 * Veronica Blade opened fire on Frank and the player from her estate's cannon while the duo was doing a quick recap at the American Civil War reenactment battlefield.

Memes
Throughout the game, players may occasionally encounter many references to Internet memes. Here are some of the instances:
 * Grumpy Cat can be spotted at least five times in the game: the first time in a crime scene of Anatomy of a Murder, the second time in a crime scene of The Wollcrafts' Creature, the third time in a crime scene of Killing Me Softly, the fourth time in a crime scene of All the King's Horses, and most recently in a crime scene of Easy Prey.
 * A poster of Uncle Sam can be seen in the "City Hall Entrance" crime scene of All the King's Horses.
 * Becky Walden replaced Eva Sanchez's face on a picture with a trollface.

The Illuminati
In various crime scenes, players can find the preeminent and most widely recognized symbol of a real-life secret society known as the Illuminati. For instance:
 * You can encounter the symbol at the middle-right area of the "Workshop Window" crime scene in The Ghost of Grimsborough.
 * You can spot the symbol for a second time in the "Showcase" crime scene of The Poisoned Truth.
 * The symbol reappears in the "Military Bootcamp" crime scene of The Root of All Evil.
 * The symbol returns once again, this time in the "Ivywood Sign" crime scene of The Young and the Lifeless.

References to Grimsborough
There are several references to characters from Grimsborough, especially Grimsborough PD members, during the events of Pacific Bay's cases:
 * In the "Ice Cream Kiosk" crime scene of Shark Attack!, you can spot "Jones" written on the star embedded in the sidewalk.
 * In the "Plaza Stairs" crime scene of Dead Girl Rolling, you can find a tree trunk with Jones's name carved on top of a heart symbol.
 * There are two Easter eggs involving Grimsborough PD members in The Ice Queen:
 * We-Miss-You-Jones.png" banner.]] In the "Beach" crime scene, you can find a seaplane with a "We miss you Jones" banner.
 * In the "Gift Shop" crime scene, you can find a US postal stamp with Chief King's face on it.
 * When the player examines Susie Pickley's book, Constance Bell can be seen credited as the author of the book.
 * Judge Hall is mentioned by Judge Dante during Ray Westman's trial, suggesting that he could impress her with that murder trial in the Annual Judge Convention.
 * After the player recovers Ramirez's notebook for him during the Additional Investigation of Spineless, a drawing of Jones eating cookies can be spotted on the bottom of the page at the right-hand side.
 * In the "Looted Station" crime scene of Of Rats and Men, a portrait of Jones can be seen.
 * Also in the aforementioned crime scene, a poster of Freddy Stewart's corpse can be noticed.
 * Rachel Priest can be seen on a TV screen in the "Distillery" crime scene of The White Peaks Project.
 * David Jones can be seen on a flashing television screen, in the crime scene "Mayor's Office" in Uncivil Rights. Along with Clifford Grady doing a weather forecast and his employer.

Media references
Throughout the game, players can find various references to famous media titles. Below are some of the instances:

Video games

 * There are references to Magical Ride and My Shops—two other games by the creators of Criminal Case—in the "Square's Entrance" and "Square Steps" crime scenes of The Kiss of Death.
 * In At the End of the Rope, once the player unlocks the tablet, there can be seen four apps, one of which is Criminal Case, a nod to the game itself. This is possibly intended as a shout-out because the actual iOS release for the game was on the 28th August 2014, whereas the case was released on the 18th July 2013, which was over a year before.
 * In the "Festival Main Hall" crime scene of The Reaper and the Geek, there is a head that resembles a Creeper from Minecraft.
 * In the "Bridge Entrance" crime scene featured in Blood and Glory, you can spot the logo of Half-Life spray-painted on a wall. Also stuck into the same wall is a crowbar, which is the iconic weapon of said video game series.
 * There are some references to the popular Facebook match-three video game Candy Crush Saga:
 * The candy bag in the Additional Investigation of All the King's Horses has candies similar to the ones of the game in it.
 * After analyzing Vito's phone in Killing Time, Hannah mentions that Vito was addicted to "a game with all the sweets".
 * Andre Roche is shown to have a tattoo on his neck featuring five block lines and the words "cut here", which is a rip-off of the tattoo sported by Trevor Philips, one of the three protagonists of Grand Theft Auto V.

Other

 * In To Die or Not to Die, during the moment of Phineas Fine's arrest—specifically after he reveals the reason as to why he killed Jacob Dawks—Jones remarks, "This is madness!" Phineas then responds, "This is theater!" This is a spoof of the popular "This is Sparta!" scene from 300, a 2007 American fantasy war film.
 * The video Jones is seen to be watching in the opening cutscene of The Wollcrafts' Creature is a reference to Charlie Bit My Finger, a 2007 viral video that is famous for formerly being the most viewed YouTube video of all time.
 * In the "Festival Main Hall" crime scene of The Reaper and the Geek, there is a poster in the background which says "The God of the Rings"—an obvious parody of the popular book/film series The Lord of the Rings.
 * Also in the aforementioned crime scene, there's a blue police box resembling the TARDIS—the time-travelling space ship featured in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who.
 * There are various references to the popular American crime drama television series Breaking Bad:
 * In the "Students' Desks" crime scene of Spring Break Massacre, the "Mysterious man" on the projector screen strongly resembles Heisenberg from Breaking Bad. Plus, the subtitles on the projector screen, which reads "Robbing a train", may be a reference to "Dead Freight", the fifth episode of the fifth season of Breaking Bad.
 * In the "Gas Station Shop" crime scene of Burying the Hatchet, on a unit is a sticker of the element abbreviations "Br" and "Ba"—the logo of Breaking Bad.
 * In the "Tattoo Parlor" crime scene of Death on Wheels, you can see a magazine cover which advertises a TV show called "Burning Mad" and features a parody of Heisenberg on the cover.
 * In the "Plaza Stairs" crime scene of Dead Girl Rolling, you can spot a "Br" symbol and a "Vamonos Pest" poster which are obvious references to Breaking Bad.
 * Zoom-in_on_Heisenberg.png from Breaking Bad.]] In the "Saloon Terrace" crime scene of Open Wounds, there is a wanted poster which features the portrait of a man bearing a striking resemblance to Heisenberg.
 * Most of Crystal Death's plot orbits around the aforementioned show.
 * Gustavo Salamanca, a suspect during the investigation, shares his surname with Hector Salamanca.
 * Timothy Chubbles says "You think a good guy like me could break bad?".
 * The "Mining Shaft" crime scene of There Will Be Blood is full of references to the Indiana Jones franchise.
 * There are several cases whose titles pay homage to popular songs, novels, or movies. For example, Ashes to Ashes is a reference to David Bowie's popular song of the same name.
 * In the "Deep Coral" crime scene of What Dies Beneath, you can spot a clownfish and a blue surgeonfish, which are references to Marlin and Dory from Finding Nemo.
 * During the trial of a notorious serial killer known as "The Puppeteer", Judge Dante sarcastically remarks that he thought the Puppeteer was "some toy that came alive at night and killed people, but turned back into a doll by day." This is a reference to the popular horror movie franchise Child's Play featuring the fictional living doll, "Chucky".
 * Sven Blattner bears a disturbing resemblance to Mr. Burns from The Simpsons.
 * While reporting the result of a young actress's autopsy in the first case of Ivywood Hills, Roxie tries to conciliate a discontented Frank by utilizing the popular tagline "Why so serious?"—which originated in the 2008 superhero film The Dark Knight.

References to Pretty Simple
The game contains several references to Pretty Simple, the development team of Criminal Case. Examples:
 * In the "Third Floor" crime scene of Good Cop Dead Cop, there is a pizza box marked "Pretty Pizza".
 * The result after searching through a drawer is a box of cigarettes labeled "Pretty Lights".
 * In the "Escalator" crime scene of Fashion Victim, there is a purple shopping bag with "Pretty Store".
 * Also in the aforementioned crime scene, "Pretty Pizza" makes an appearance as a logo on a calendar standing on the table.
 * In the "Main Street" and "Hot Dog Stall" crime scenes of The Last Supper, a license plate with the text "PRT - SMPL" can be spotted.
 * A license plate depicting the same text can be seen in the "Stewarts' House" crime scene in the following case.
 * In The Summoning, Nathan Pandit points out that the cause of death is pretty simple.
 * The "Raised Beds" crime scene of The Haunting of Elm Manor has a Chinese lantern with 簡単, the Japanese term for simple.
 * The knife Isaac Weston used to slay Connor Sullivan has "Pretty Simple" engraved on its blade.
 * In the crime scene "Pet Beauty Parlor" in Dog Eat Dog, there's a poster advertising pet grooming called "My Pretty Pet".
 * In the "Comic Book Shop" and "Bookshelves" crime scenes of Killing Me Softly, there are many merchandises of the comic book superhero "Captain Simple". The owner of the franchise "Captain Simple" is called "Pretty Corp."
 * When the player is piecing back a torn poster in The Reaper and the Geek, the poster turns out to be that of "Captain Simple".
 * In Dead Man Running, Madison informs that "Simple Sports Drinks" sponsors the Grimsborough University's football team.
 * When the player is piecing back a webcam in At the End of the Rope, the words "Pretty Webcam" can be observed.
 * In the "Festival Main Hall" crime scene of The Reaper and the Geek, there is a t-shirt which has the logo of Pretty Simple on it.
 * The gymnastic beam in the "Training Facility" and "Training Mats" crime scenes of Marked for Death is created by a company called "Pretty Strong".
 * In the "Terrace" crime scene of Troubled Waters, a champagne bottle bears the title "Pretty Simple".
 * In the "Sun Chair" crime scene of A Shot of Beauty, a pink smartphone—with Pretty Simple's logo set as its background picture—can be seen.
 * In The Ice Queen, a box of "Pretty Lights" cigarettes reappears in the "Campfire" crime scene.
 * When piecing back Odette Kamarov's mobile phone in Murder-Go-Round, you can notice that the mobile brand's name reads "PrettyPhone".
 * In the "Temple Interior" crime scene of Under the Skin, you can easily spot a rock with a "Pretty Simple" graffito on it.
 * It is stated that travel writer tourist Paula Mahler has a guidebook called "Pretty Planet".
 * It is mentioned that actress Felicia Steppingstone earned her fame after winning a reality show called "Pretty Simple Life".
 * In Deadly Legacy, when Phillip Hatchman is drinking a bottle of wine while interrogating, the word "Pretty" can be observed on the bottle's tag.
 * When Roxie gives her autopsy report on Randolph, she notes that the killer eats a candy called "Pretty Pieces".
 * In Smart Money, it is found that the killer reads comic books. The Killer's Profile image for this depicts the "Captain Pretty" comics, which is an obvious reference to the aforementioned "Captain Simple" comic book superhero.
 * In Death by Martini, Jeremy Bowman is seen holding a suitcase with "PS" labels over it, standing for Pretty Simple.
 * Off With Their Heads features a news magazine named "Pretty Fair" and a coffee cup with the inscription "Pretty Coffee".
 * In Going the Distance, Thomas Moulin has the "Pretty Simple" sponsor logo on his rally jumpsuit.