History LoopholeAbuse / WesternAnimation

* ''WesternAnimation/SunnyDay'': After her entry in a topiary contest is sabotaged, Sunny asks the judge if the rules say the topiary has to be made from a tree, and then proceeds to win the contest by sculpting a new topiary out of her own hair.

*** In "The Collector", he creates an Akuma, then detransforms and renounces his ownership of the Butterfly Miraculous, and ''then'' takes the Akuma to become the titular villain. This had the additional benefit of throwing the heroes off his true identity, since they were beginning to figure it out, but his Akumatization "proved" he couldn't possibly be Hawk Moth since they were aware of the "can't empower yourself" restriction but not the loophole. After he's defeated he simply reclaims ownership of the Butterfly Miraculous and resumes his usual activities as Hawk Moth.
*** Gabriel would repeat the above-mentioned trick three more times. In "Dearest Family", he does it to test his new Megakuma, briefly turning into Collector again. In "Representation", he becomes Nightormentor to keep tabs on Adrien. In "Conformation", he becomes Nightormentor again to spread fear among the world's population as the first step of his final master plan.

** The Butterfly Miraculous [[NoSelfBuffs cannot be used to empower its own wielder]]. Twice now, Hawk Moth has managed to circumvent this restriction in different ways:
*** In "The Collector", he creates an Akuma, then detransforms and renounces his ownership of the Butterfly Miraculous, and ''then'' takes the Akuma. This had the additional benefit of throwing the heroes off his true identity, since they were beginning to figure it out, but his Akumatization "proved" he couldn't possibly be Hawk Moth since they were aware of the "can't empower yourself" restriction but not the loophole. After he's defeated he simply reclaims ownership of the Butterfly Miraculous and resumes his usual activities as Hawk Moth.

*** The first instance happens when he gets Alya Césaire and Nino Lahiffe over their shared embarassment at being caught playing ''Super Penguino''. This causes them to undergo a FusionDance and become Oblivio.

** A commercial for Nabisco's Ritz Bits S'mores sandwiches has Comic Book Guy offer to trade Bart a mint condition chocolate statue of Radioactive Man and the first Radioactive Man comic book for the box. Bart agrees and hands him the box. Comic Book Guy finds out the box is empty. Bart responds [[ExactWords "You said 'the box'".]]. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0dMoZhDKxA The commercial can be viewed here]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheNewAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh'': In the episode "Find Her, Keep Her", Rabbit scolds Pooh, Piglet, and Tigger for teaching Kessie to fly. Pooh then points out that Rabbit only said for Owl not to teach her how to fly.

*** One episode had a girl cursed to turn into a monster and attack anyone who trespassed on a magic castle. However, as Jade notes, there's nothing in the curse that says the girl can't invite people in.

* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice''

** Inverted and subverted in an episode where Homer enters a ''Series/RobotWars'' style contest as a robot. He is about to be awarded a trophy by one of the two judges. There a protest that he can't do that.

** When a secret society Homer is made leader of wants to reform without him in they become the society of "No Homers". When he complains that they already let ''another'' guy named Homer in, they respond, "It says 'No Homer''s''.' We're allowed to have ''one''."

** Invoked by Homer in another "Treehouse of Horror" where he sells his soul for a donut. He eventually figures that if he didn't finish the donut, he wouldn't have to go to Hell. It works... until Homer sleepwalks to the kitchen later that night and eats it.
** In the same episode, Homer is on trial for his soul. He's saved when Marge shows a picture of them on the back of which Homer wrote that his soul belongs to Marge. Apparently, this is legally-binding and, thus, supercedes the agreement between Homer and Ned the Devil.
** In a flashback episode showing Marge pregnant with Maggie, Marge was afraid of Homer's reaction to the pregnancy so she asked her sisters to promise not to tell him about it and they agreed. Since they promised not to tell ''Homer'' about the pregnancy, they call up the two biggest gossips in Springfield, and in a matter of hours everyone in town ''except'' Homer knows, which means he finds out anyway thanks to someone other than Patty and Selma.
** That's how Cletus Spuckler could get so many pretzels (for everyone of his many children) from Marge, who was giving coupons valid for a free sample. She forgot to state that she would accept only '''one coupon per customer'''. At least this helped her to know the name of every Cletus' child...

** In the episode where the Simpsons are visiting a {{Bland Name|Product}} [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkberry Pinkberry]] Homer is asked to choose his mixed in topping. In a [[SmartBall rare moment of brilliance]] Homer chooses the '''tip jar'''(!), which is located right next to the toppings, and the acne teen behind the counter has no choice but to comply.
** Also comes up in the episode in which Lisa has to babysit Bart (which ''really'' offends him, since he's two years older than she). Once he's pushed her too far with all his pranks and dumb stunts, she orders him to go to bed - and he continues to disobey her, coming up with various excuses for doing so. For example, going into her room and jumping on ''her'' bed ("You didn't say ''which'' bed!"). He also comes up with a much lamer excuse when he goes into the kitchen and makes a sandwich, "explaining" that [[PoorCommunicationKills he thought she'd told him]] to "go to ''bread''."

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SonicBoom'' episode "The Sidekick", Sonic fires Tails as a sidekick out of concern for his safety. He then puts out flyers looking for a new one, with the note "All qualified candidates welcome". That meant that not only could Tails go back in to get his job back, it also allowed ''Dr. Eggman'' to try to get the job (so he can try to destroy Sonic up close and personal!).

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** [[JackassGenie Norm the genie]] employs this multiple times. First, he took advantage of the fact that [[spoiler: his lamp sucks in the next best source of magical energy, arranging matters so that Cosmo and Wanda would be sucked in]]. Aside from also often playing on people's ExactWords with their wishes, in "Fairy Idol" he [[spoiler: manipulated events to cause Cosmo and Wanda to quit their jobs, as the position would then be open to any magical creature, including him.]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderMan2012'' episode "Run Pig Run," Spider-Man is [[BalefulPolymorph transfigured into a pig]] by Loki and thus made the target of an Asgardian boar hunt. In comes Thor, but sadly, Thor doesn't have the authority to call off the hunt. As Thor tells the hunters, however, he may not be able to officially call off the hunt, there's nothing in the rules that says Thor can't interfere with the hunt and slow them down until sunset.

** When Rusty was [[spoiler:captured by a group of supervillains at a Guild night club, they planned to kill him by dropping him into a vat of acid. Monarch and Dr. Mrs. The Monarch were called in and, citing their rights as Venture's primary arches, [[TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou prevented the other guild members from killing him]]]].

** At the end of the Zygerria arc, Obi-Wan and Rex corner slavedriver Agruss. While Obi-Wan clearly wants the bastard dead, Agruss points out that despite the atrocities he's committed, killing him when he's unable to defend himself so would be against the Jedi Code. Obi-Wan silently agrees... and then simply stands by and does nothing to stop Rex from killing Agruss instead.
-->'''Agruss:''' Come now, master Kenobi. I know a Jedi won't kill an unarmed man.
-->'''Rex:''' I'm no Jedi.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'': It's revealed during the Battle For Mewni that [[spoiler: decades ago, Moon learned the spell that could bypass [[KnightOfCerebus Toffee]]'s HealingFactor by making a deal with [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Queen]] [[SealedEvilInACan Eclipsa]], promising her that Eclipsa would be released from her prison when Toffee was ''dead''. So Moon simply injured him with the spell, knowing his armies would flee when their general no-longer had his HealingFactor, and keeping Eclipsa sealed]]. Unfortunately, [[spoiler: Toffee proves to be too much of a threat to live, forcing Star to kill him, and unknowingly setting Eclipsa free]].

** There's also "Kung Timmy", in which Timmy wishes for "amazing kung-fu powers". The "rules of kung-fu" state that it must only be use for self-defense, ''never'' for vengeance"...[[IdiotBall which Timmy completely ignores in an attempt to beat the crap out of Francis]], who'd stolen the Turners' home. Because he's using his kung-fu for vengeance, which is against the rules, his powers won't work...until [[AbhorrentAdmirer Tootie]] arrives to help and [[WouldHitAGirl Francis threatens to beat her up as well]]. Since Timmy is now fighting to defend Tootie and not just hurt Francis, his powers start working again.

** In ''School's Out! The Musical'', Flappy Bob signs a contract with the Pixies that transforms Earth based on Flappy Bob's definition of "safe and fun" (read: boring, educational and covered in six inches of foam padding). [[spoiler:After his HeelFaceTurn, he uses his law experience to point out the obvious loophole: Earth is safe and fun ''[[ExactWords as defined by Flappy Bob]]''. His definition now? "Everything the way it's supposed to be!"]]
** "The Big Fairy Share Scare": Timmy agrees to share his fairies with Chloe where Chloe gets them on Fridays. Immediately after he wishes for no more Fridays.

** Poof owes his existence to this trope. Since Cosmo proved to be very dangerously unpredictable when he was born, Fairies were forbidden from breeding ever again. Timmy decided that if they can't breed a baby, he'll just wish that Cosmo and Wanda have a baby and Da Rules say nothing about this. Well, there ''was'' going to be a rule against it, but Jorgen forgot to add it to the book.

** There's also the curse that brought the title characters into the modern age; the ExactWords were that they'd be [[TakenForGranite turned to stone]] 'until the castle rose above the clouds'. Xanatos breaks the curse by having the castle disassembled and reassembled atop a skyscraper, the top of which broke into the clouds.

* Deconstructed in the ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' episode "The King of Omashu": As part of Aang's final test to free his friends, he is tasked with picking an opponent to fight. Rather than picking one of the intimidating opponents the king of Omashu brought with him, Aang picks the frail-looking old king instead... who turns out to be not only totally ripped, but also one of the strongest Earthbenders in the world. Oops.

** In "Slime Day", saying a secret TriggerPhrase causes one to be slimed out of nowhere; the phrase in question is "I don't know". Unfortunately, FB and CC ironically don't know the secret phrase and the rule the kids can't tell anyone the phrase because they have to discover it themselves. However, there is no rule that states that the secret phrase can't be written down, so the Nickelodeon President gives the boys a cue card with the phrase inscribed on it, and they finally recite the phrase and get slimed.

* ''WesternAnimation/SunnyDay'': After her entry in a topiary contest is sabotaged, Sunny asks the judge if the rules say the topiary has to be made from a tree, and then proceeds to win the contest by sculpting a new topiary out of her own hair.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/NoddyInToytown'', Noddy is attempting to tow a giant jelly with his car, only for it to become unhitched as he is going up a hill, so it rolls back down it. The jelly rolls into Toytown where Noddy is finally able to stop it. An amused Mr. Plod (the policeman) sees the jelly and consults his rule book, and while there is a section on jelly there is nothing against the law over speeding jellies.

* In ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', Lobo promised Superman that he would leave everyone on Earth alone if the latter rescues him, and he did. Later, he got into a brawl with other Leaguers. In orbit.

** Max uses this a couple times to aid his friend PJ. PJ's father disallowed him from playing with any of the toys in his room so Max, feeling sorry for him, looked for a way to get PJ to be able to play with his toy tank. Unfortunately, basically every ground in existence was expressly forbidden. Max eventually asked about the walls and ceiling, and the two played with the tank there using suction cups. In another episode, PJ's father said he wasn't allowed to move the VCR, but Max noticed he [[ExactWords didn't say]] they couldn't plug into it.

** There's also the curse that borught the title characters into the modern age; the ExactWords were that they'd be [[TakenForGranite turned to stone]] 'untile the castle rose above the clouds'. Xanatos breaks the curse by having the castle disassembled and reassembled atop a skyscraper, the top of which broke into the clouds.

*** For the spell to work, the victim must both see ''and'' hear the spell cast, and in its entirety. Thus, several characters escape being turned to stone - a blind man is spared because he cannot see the spell cast on his TV. Xanatos avoids becoming a victim as he sees it on TV but mutes the audio. The quick thinking Hudson spares the Gargoyles as he mutes the TV before the spell is completed; later, Goliath tells Lex to mute the blind man's TV before they hear more than a couple lines of the spell.

*** For the spell to work, the victim must both see ''and'' hear the spell cast, and in its entirety. Thus, several characters escape being turned to stone - a blind man is spared because he cannot see the spell cast on his TV. Xanatos avoids becoming a victim as he sees it on TV but mutes the audio. The quick thinking Hudson spares the Gargoyles as he turns tells before the spell is completed; later, Goliath tells Lex to mute the blind man's TV before they hear more than a couple lines of the spell.