The first instance was in Turnabout Samurai, the third case of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, with a stepladder reappearing in at least one location in each game to date, sometimes in several locations, for the sole purpose of continuing the "tradition". Upon examination, the protagonist and a partner character engage in an argument on the usage of the words "ladder" and "stepladder", and the difference between them. One usually accuses the other of being too absorbed in the details instead of looking at the big picture and realizing that stepladders and other ladders serve roughly the same function. The latter's response to this varies. Similar gags involving other items have been used on occasion over the series.