History ExactWords / RealLife

* Patrick Hoban, an infamous ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'' player, made a deal with his opponent to side out a certain card (move it from their deck to their side deck, where it couldn't be used) in the second duel of a match. Hoban did indeed side the card (Djinn, Releaser of Rituals) but simultaneously sided back in another copy of the same card so that in the next duel, he had access to the card and his opponent didn't. This incident led to Konami officially declaring side decks to be "hidden knowledge"[[note]]The term for things an opponent is not allowed to ask you knowledge of, previously covering the deck, the hand, and face down cards[[/note]] effectively banning the previously accepted practice of gentleman's agreements.

* In 2022, Florida Governor Ron [=DeSantis=] signed the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act. On the outside, it was meant to prevent discussion of any sort of LGBTQ+ topics in schools (hence its epithet among critics as the "Don't Say Gay" Law). However, since the legislation was written in such a way to outlaw "discussion of gender", at least one teacher has decided to follow the law to the letter and refuse to use anything following heteronormative discussion, even referring to kids with neutral they/them pronouns.
** 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 transferring the majority of its power back to the corporation.

** 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 distict, but not before transferring the majority of its power back to the corporation.

* 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 the 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.

* Hitler really should have seen that coming. In 1934, Hitler insisted that the [[UsefulNotes/NazisWithGnarlyWeapons Wehrmacht]] swear an oath of loyalty to him personally-- not to "the German people" or any other such cohort or location that could allow his soldiers to rationalize betraying him (on the grounds that it was in the best interests of the German people to remove Hitler from power). This was critical because many German Army personnel had broken the laws of Imperial Germany and the Weimar Republic for political reasons. The most famous of these may have been when several thousand soldiers deserted from the German Army to fight alongside the Bavarian police and ultranationalist paramilitary militias against the Bavarian Soviet Republic in 1919. The oath made all officers who attempted to do him in oathbreakers, which a few may truly have found to be a difficult mental barrier to overcome (though it would've meant nothing once he was already dead, and this could have promoted a 'wait and see' approach). The oath's greatest legacy was its use in justifying inaction against Hitler after the war. Even officers who had been good friends with Hitler and supported (almost all) the regime's political goals, such as Heinz Guderian, were able to claim that the oath had kept them from trying to kill Hitler.

* [[OlderThanFeudalism When]] Creator/{{Plato}} gave Creator/{{Socrates}}' definition of man as "featherless bipeds" and was much praised for the definition, [[TheGadfly Diogenes]] plucked a chicken and brought it into Plato's Academy, saying, "Behold! I've brought you a man." After this incident, [[MovingTheGoalPosts "with broad flat nails"]] was added to Plato's definition.

* 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. A similar practice happens in Moore County, TN, the location of the famous Jack Daniels Distillery. It is legal to make alcohol there, but one cannot purchase it. Therefore, a customer at the gift shop could buy a Jack Daniels glass bottle that just ''happens'' to have whiskey in it and just ''happens'' to be the price of a bottle of whiskey.

* A very horrifying example occurred in 1969 when [[UsefulNotes/MansonFamily Charles Manson]] went into the house of Leno and Rosemary [=LaBianca=], had some of his followers tie them up as he held them at gunpoint and reportedly told the couple "I'm not going to kill you." He then left the house and sent in the rest of the members who accompanied him that night to murder them instead.

* [[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 South Africa 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."

* A husband promised to give his unfaithful ex-wife half of everything he owned. He literally does so by sawing everything in half. [[https://web.archive.org/web/20180807185125/http://www.virale.ro/uncategorized/husband-gave-his-unfaithful-ex-wife-half-of-everything-he-owned/ You can see for yourself]].

* Traditionally, East Asian countries such as China had taboos in place against shedding the blood of royalty. Well, strangulation and poison don't result in the shedding of blood. Neither does wrapping someone in a carpet and having that carpet trampled with horses. Or pouring molten metal into someone's ears.

* [[https://youtu.be/BYsXI0gYG18?t=932 An interesting case]] involving this trope and LaserGuidedKarma. A controlling hardass rich self-made farmer had written out his will stipulating what would happen to his assets. He had intended on giving two of his farms to his sons and everything else to a trust fund while the wife would be sent to a pre-determined retirement village with a monthly stipend from the trust fund. However, he had used terms "first to die" and "longest living" with the idea that he would die before his wife. In a turn of events, the wife had a sudden stroke and passed away before he did. The farms went to the kids, who decided to finally stand up to him, and he had to live in the retirement village with the stipend.

* When Creator/NcutiGatwa was announced in 2022 to be taking over the role of the Doctor in ''Series/DoctorWho'', [[spoiler:the show's website and social media made no mention of his incarnation (presumed to be the 14th) in stark contrast to the announcement of his predecessors [[https://youtu.be/Zog-6SrGxE0 Matt Smith]], [[https://youtu.be/6Zim8zL3Q5k Peter Capaldi]] and [[https://youtu.be/q1IczjLYCIM Jodie Whittaker]], simply that he was "[[https://www.doctorwho.tv/news-and-features/ncuti-gatwa-is-the-doctor the new Doctor]]". This was intentional as it turned out Gatwa was never cast as the 14th, he ended up being the 15th Doctor after the shock return of Creator/DavidTennant.]]

* 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)).

* [[https://www.reddit.com/r/CuratedTumblr/comments/stc92z/man_in_a_dress/ A trans man]] who was estranged from his parents received an invitation to his sister's wedding, but his parents told him to come in a dress, or not come at all. What they didn't know was that in the past 7 years, he'd been taking testosterone, gotten surgery, and become a weightlifter. So he showed up to the wedding as his manly self in a pink frilly dress. (His sister gave him the go-ahead before the wedding, thought it was hilarious and took as many pictures of him at the wedding as possible.)

* When Creator/NcutiGatwa was announced in 2022 to be taking over the role of the Doctor in ''Series/DoctorWho'', the show's website and social media made no mention of his incarnation (presumed to be the 14th) in stark contrast to the announcement of his predecessors [[https://youtu.be/Zog-6SrGxE0 Matt Smith]], [[https://youtu.be/6Zim8zL3Q5k Peter Capaldi]] and [[https://youtu.be/q1IczjLYCIM Jodie Whittaker]], simply that he was "[[https://www.doctorwho.tv/news-and-features/ncuti-gatwa-is-the-doctor the new Doctor]]". This was intentional as it turned out Gatwa was never cast as the 14th, he ended up being the 15th Doctor after the shock return of Creator/DavidTennant.

* When Creator/NcutiGatwa was announced im 2022 to be taking over the role of the Doctor in ''Series/DoctorWho'', the show's website and social media made no mention of his incarnation (presumed to be the 14th) in stark contrast to the announcement of his predecessors [[https://youtu.be/Zog-6SrGxE0 Matt Smith]], [[https://youtu.be/6Zim8zL3Q5k Peter Capaldi]] and [[https://youtu.be/q1IczjLYCIM Jodie Whittaker]], simply that he was "[[https://www.doctorwho.tv/news-and-features/ncuti-gatwa-is-the-doctor the new Doctor]]". This was intentional as it turned out Gatwa was never cast as the 14th, he ended up being the 15th Doctor after the shock return of Creator/DavidTennant.

* A famous legal example, detailed on Wiki/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.

** Some people practising bestiality in England have also been convicted for rape -- as [[ComicallyMissingThePoint the animal was less than 16 years old.]] (Cf. "buggery" in Wiki/TheOtherWiki - NSFW warning.)

* In 2022, Florida Governor Ron [=DeSantis=] signed the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act. On the outside, it was meant to prevent discussion of any sort of LGBTQ+ topics in schools (hence its epithet among critics as the Don't Say Gay Law). However, since the legislation was written in such a way to outlaw "discussion of gender", at least one teacher has decided to follow the law to the letter and refuse to use anything following heteronormative discussion, even referring to kids with neutral they/them pronouns.

* In 2022, Florida Governor Ron [=DeSantis=] signed into a law the derogatorily-named "Don't Say Gay Bill". On the outside, it was meant to prevent discussion of any sort of LGBTQ+ topics in schools. However, since the law was written in such a way to outlaw "discussion of gender", at least one teacher has decided to follow the law to the letter and refuse to use anything following heteronormative discussion, even referring to kids with neutral they/them pronouns.

* Creator/{{SNK}} did this during their [[TrollingCreator 20-year long trolling campaign]] about the fate of ''Franchise/TheKingOfFighters'''s K9999 - post-2016 reports from visitors at their offices suggested that there was an unspoken rule in an attempt to [[BuryYourArt bury the character]] that mentioning K9999, or even alluding to his existence, was forbidden. [[spoiler:Nothing said anything about being forbidden to mention [[PaperThinDisguise Krohnen]]]].

* 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/ToyStory'' and ''Film/CheaperByTheDozen2003'' -- not Joel ''Coen'' of the Coen Brothers. Needless to say, Murray was less than thrilled.

* A husband promised to give his unfaithful ex-wife half of everything he owned. He literally does so by sawing everything in half. [[http://www.virale.ro/uncategorized/husband-gave-his-unfaithful-ex-wife-half-of-everything-he-owned/ You can see for yourself]].

* In 2022, Florida Governor Ron [=DeSantis=] signed into a law the derogatorily-named “Don’t Say Gay Bill”. On the outside, it was meant to prevent discussion of any sort of LGBTQ+ in schools. However, since the law was written in such a way to outlaw “discussion of gender”, at least one teacher has decided to follow the law to the letter and refuse to use anything following heteronormative discussion, even referring to kids as neutral they/they.

* 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/ToyStory'' and ''Film/CheaperByTheDozen'' -- not Joel ''Coen'' of the Coen Brothers. Needless to say, Murray was less than thrilled.

* The title of ''VideoGame/MultiVersus'' is a meta example. When asked about the subject of playable characters [[GuestFighter outside of]] Creator/WarnerBros properties, [[https://twitter.com/vadorant/status/1470875664173699072 one of the developers from Player First Games had this to say]]: