Saying “Petah, the horse is here” into the Switch 2 microphone is apparently one way to summon Epona in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake. According to Nerdist’s account of a discovery by Twitter user Rubix, delivering the Family Guy line in a Lois Griffin voice prompts Link to play “Epona’s Song,” bringing his horse right to his side.
The trick relies on the remake’s forgiving microphone-based melody recognition. Players can hum, sing, or play a real instrument into the Switch 2 microphone, and Link responds by playing the corresponding melody on his ocarina as best he can. You can even play an actual ocarina rather than press the corresponding buttons on a Joy-Con, an option Nerdist describes as more fun than using buttons.
Is the feature as accurate as players might want? Nerdist’s answer is “Not exactly, no.” As Nerdist explains, the instrument’s narrow pitch range means plenty of different songs fit its scale. The microphone will usually pick up and accept a standard A-minor or C-major pop ballad. Rubix’s discovery takes that flexibility a step further: speech with the right inflection can apparently pass for a tune, too. That suggests the recognition will accept something close to the melody without requiring the player to sing it.
“I doubt the tone match was planned,” Nerdist’s writer says, calling the delivery a “good ‘ol Fran Drescher impression” and finding the horse-summoning result uproariously funny. The verdict is affectionate rather than critical, with no complaints about the accidental crossover, just appreciation for the game and its players.
The “Peter, the horse is here” meme comes from the eighth episode of Family Guy’s seventh season, which originally aired on March 8th, 2009. In the episode, Peter decides to buy a racehorse described by the source as suffering from an intellectual disability. The spoken variation used for Epona swaps “Peter” for “Petah,” making the Lois Griffin delivery part of the trick rather than simply reading the words aloud.
