History ExactWords / RealLife

* UK Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell proposed on 3 November 2016 in the House of Commons that BBC One resume the practice of playing "God Save the Queen" (the UK national anthem) at the end of its broadcast day (the practice was halted in 1997) to commemorate the successful Brexit vote. That evening the BBC's ''Newsnight'' program ended its broadcast by stating that though it wasn't BBC One it would be happy to oblige - SmashCut to a video performance of "God Save the Queen" (the anti-establishment '70s punk rock song by the Music/SexPistols -- which also added a dose of Irony, since the BBC is state-funded).

** Averted: Canadian philosopher John Ralston Saul tells the story of a clever lawyer making a very subtle argument turning on ExactWords before the Supreme Court of Canada. He was in full tilt when Chief Justice Beverley [=McLachlin=] abruptly leaned forward [[ArmorPiercingQuestion and asked whether his argument]] [[BilingualBonus also worked in French]], which of course it had to since the law is equally valid [[CanadaEh in both official languages]]. The lawyer was completely dumbfounded.

** When the heavily-demanded [[Franchise/KingdomHearts Sora]] was finally added to the roster of ''Ultimate'', Sakurai revealed that Sora was actually the character most requested in the "Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot" from ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU''. The reason why VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}} was included as the final DLC character for ''3DS/Wii U'' instead of Sora was that she was the most-requested character ''that could be included at the time''. It took additional time to work out a deal with Creator/{{Disney}} to include Sora in ''Smash'', but come ''Ultimate'', the Keyblade Master would finally get his due.

* In 2007 Creator/JKRowling was asked by a kid at a Q&A for ''Literature/HarryPotter'' what exactly Dumbledore's brother [[BestialityIsDepraved did to a goat that landed him in prison]]. She first asked the girl how old she was, to which she replied that she was eight. She told the girl that he did a charm to [[LiesToChildren to help him clean the goat]] and finished with "So, that is my answer to ''you''."

* Going into the 2022 Japanese Grand Prix, Max Verstappen had an unassailable lead in the Drivers' Championship and could seal the title if he scored enough points. The race was red-flagged due to torrential rain, and by the time it was restarted, there was only enough time left for just over half the planned race distance. Under existing rules, which had been tweaked for that year, races that failed to reach 75% race distance would award proportionately fewer points. ''Everyone'', from fans to commentators to Verstappen himself, assumed that the rule would apply in this instance, meaning Verstappen wouldn't quite have scored enough points to win the title... so when the FIA declared that he ''had'', everyone was utterly baffled. Turned out that the exact wording of the rule meant it only applied if a race was suspended ''and not restarted''; since the Japan race ''had'' been restarted, full points were awarded despite the truncated length, and Verstappen was champion. The rule was changed for 2023 to be less confusing.
* In January 2020, Leeds United signed Jean-Kevin Augustin on loan from RB Leipzig, with a clause stating that if Leeds won promotion, they would be obliged to sign him for £18m and hand him a pre-arranged contract. The clause was set to expire on 30 June, which normally would be academic, since the English football season ends in May... except that in March, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and the resulting disruption meant that Leeds didn't win promotion until July. Having barely played Augustin during his loan spell, they tried to use this trope to get out of signing him by arguing that the clause's expiry meant they were no longer obliged to do so. It blew up in their faces big-time: RB Leipzig sued them on the grounds that they were violating the spirit of the contract, and after a lengthy legal battle, the courts ruled in Leipzig's favour. While Leeds re-negotiated the fee, they still had to pay £15.5m. Even worse, Augustin (who by that point had moved to Nantes, having been left in limbo) promptly sued Leeds himself for unpaid wages, and after ''another'' lengthy legal battle, he was awarded the full value of the pre-arranged contract that Leeds would have handed him had they signed him, which came out at £24.5m.

* In 2016 the New York City changed its transit rules for pets in the subway to only allow them if "enclosed in a container and carried in a manner which would not annoy other passengers". This resulted in people with large dogs [[https://time.com/4809559/subway-dogs-in-bags/ bringing along tote bags, duffel bags, suitcases, and the like, just for their dogs to chill in for the duration of the subway ride]].

** When Disney came out in opposition to the law, Desantis decided his course of action would be take control of Disney's local government the Reedy Creek Improvement district. Disney gave him the district, but not before [[https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2023/03/29/disney-desantis-board-reedy-creek-special-district/ transferring]] the majority of its power back to the corporation.

* Not even the legendary Creator/BillMurray is immune to this trope. In 2004, he was approached to voice the title character in ''Film/{{Garfield}}'', and agreed because he saw the name "Joel Cohen" listed on the writing team. As a fan of Creator/{{the Coen brothers}}, he agreed...only to start reading his script on the first day of recording (after he'd already signed to a two-picture deal) and realizing that it was poorly written. He insisted on watching the whole film and, frustrated with its quality, demanded to know "what Coen was thinking"...and that's when the producers revealed that the script had been written by Joel ''Cohen'' -- namely, a screenwriter whose credits include ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory1'' and ''Film/CheaperByTheDozen2003'' -- not Joel ''Coen'' of the Coen Brothers. Needless to say, Murray was less than thrilled.

* A famous legal example, detailed on Website/TheOtherWiki [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_Biz,_Inc._v._United_States here]], focused on the distinction between "doll" and "toy." Specifically, the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States had ruled that there were two major categories of playthings for children: dolls, which included human figures, and toys, which contained "nonhuman creatures." Though the distinction seemed small, dolls were charged a tariff rate of 12%, while the rate for toys was only 6%. In 2003, Marvel Comics--or more specifically, Toy Biz, Inc., its action figure subsidiary--argued that all of their products should be charged as toys, not dolls. Why? Because franchises like ''ComicBook/XMen'' and ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' contained characters that ''looked'' like humans, but ''weren't'' because of their mutant abilities, rendering them "nonhuman creatures" instead. The judge in the case examined over 60 of the figures before ruling that Toy Biz was correct; her decision led to reimbursements for Marvel and outcry from fans, who pointed out that the whole notion of mutants as a "separate" class is a recurring theme in the comics...touted by [[FantasticRacism anti-mutant hate groups]] and other bigoted individuals.

* Foie gras, a French food made from the swollen liver of a fattened goose, is considered a delicacy and appears in the culture's haute cuisine. However, it is created by force-feeding geese and, in some cases, limiting their mobility so they can do nothing but eat, practices which have earned the ire of many animal rights activists. In the late New Aughts (2000-09), some of these activists were able to ban the sale of foie gras in French restaurants in California...but savvy owners realized that while they were forbidden to ''charge'' for foie gras, there was no rule against their ''serving'' it. Thus, several restaurants started offering eighteen-dollar glasses of water that came with a helping of "complementary" foie gras.

** In Germany, the use of Third Reich symbolism is illegal with very specific exemptions. This has sometimes resulted in prosecutions for ironic usage or for usage clearly critical of the Third Reich e.g. crossed-out swastikas, while actual Neo-Nazis use other symbols like the Imperial German flag to skirt the ban. Due to this fact, the ObviousRulePatch of "unless it is used in a clearly an anti-Nazi statement" was added.

* An often-seen mail-order lottery scam works on this principle, where they offer "a prize worth $5000" or something to that effect. The prize in question is a ''coupon book'', where if you were to redeem every single coupon the total savings would roughly equate to $5000.

* In 1979, the powers that were at Creator/MarvelComics decided to cancel various series that weren't selling that well to make room for new ones. This would have resulted in the then-current ''Comicbook/BlackPanther'' storyline getting CutShort [[note]]AGAIN – it had just been resumed after previously having fallen victim to the feature's 1976/77 relaunch[[/note]], but the staff simply continued and concluded it in three issues of the company's sole remaining showcase mag, ''Marvel Premiere''. But ''ComicBook/{{Captain Marvel|MarvelComics}}'' was also in the middle of a storyline, and had some leftover filler issues, too. So they launched a new volume of ''Marvel Spotlight'', thus continuing the existing feature in what was technically a new magazine. [[note]]Although they eventually showcased other heroes as well and took their time with the remaining filler tales. Then, just as they were going to print the final one in 1981, ''Spotlight'' was canceled again. It would finally be published a whopping decade later in a new anthology called ''Marvel Super Heroes'', along with the final installments of ''[[Comicbook/CarolDanvers Ms. Marvel]]''.[[/note]]

** The Affordable Care Act (aka "Obamacare," aka "Health Care Reform") is an example of why careful legislative crafting is so crucial. Opponents of the law have challenged elements of it on the grounds that the law sets up health insurance marketplaces: established by the states, ideally, but by the federal government if the state opts out. The law also provides tax subsidies for those too poor to afford the full price of health insurance on the exchange. However, opponents point out that one section mentions that customers are eligible for subsidies that can be used "on exchanges established by the state," which, they say, means that customers using exchanges established by the federal government are ineligible for the subsidies. For various complicated policy reasons, this would cripple the law. The law's drafters argue that this is a ridiculous, nitpicky interpretation that ignores the rest of the bill and the stated intentions of just about everyone involved with the crafting of the law, as well as arguing that the legal definition of "exchanges" provided another section of the law mandates that all exchanges, whether state or federal, be identical in structure. The supreme court in a 6-3 decision upheld the law, following the reasoning of "They made the equivalent of a typo, everything else would not make sense". However, Antonin Scalia in one of the last major legal opinions of his life wrote a scathing dissent including phrases like "If we want words to have meaning at all..." and "Jiggery Pokery".

* [[https://www.twitter.com/patrickw/status/961210123397074944?lang=en When a tweet by Patrick W. Watson]] described Elon Musk as an "African-American immigrant", many people were confused because Musk isn't black. However, Musk grew up in UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica and his father was an Afrikaner, thus making him an African-American in the sense of "an American originally from Africa", not "an American of (recent, black) African ancestry."

* An often-seen mail-order lottery scam works on this principal, where they offer "a prize worth $5000" or something to that effect. The prize in question is a ''coupon book'', where if you were to redeem every single coupon the total savings would roughly equate to $5000.

* A famous episode in the life of Judge Roy Bean, where he released an Irish railroad laborer charged with killing his Chinese co-worker. His justification was that criminal homicide is the "killing of another human being", and the law had nothing to say about "killing a Chinaman." His decision probably had a lot to do with the mob of angry Irishman outside his courtroom threatening to hang him if he didn't let their friend go.