History Main / HollywoodRestrainingOrder

Also, restraining orders on TV usually require the person to maintain a minimum specified distance from another, such as 500 feet, and a common comedy gag is for the person to be dog-piled by an army of police officers the very [[CantGetAwayWithNuthin ''microsecond'']] they cross some invisible line in the sand and get "too close" to the person in question. In reality, restraining orders usually just order the person to generally refrain from contacting, harassing, following, or stalking the other person, something that doesn't deter a determined stalker (otherwise the offender could violate it entirely by accident just by, for example, being unfortunate enough to go to the same Starbucks at the same hour as the victim). Another such gag involves the person for whom the order was issued torturing the restrained person by continually approaching them, under threat of the order being enforced (another reason they aren't given specific distance limits). In reality, if you approach someone against whom you have a restraining order, they are not considered to have violated it, and if you do so continually, ''[[HoistByHisOwnPetard you]]'' may find yourself in legal hot water for abuse of the order.

Also, restraining orders on TV usually require the person to maintain a minimum specified distance from another, such as 500 feet, and a common comedy gag is for the person to be dog-piled by an army of police officers the very ''microsecond'' they cross some invisible line in the sand and get "too close" to the person in question. In reality, restraining orders usually just order the person to generally refrain from contacting, harassing, following, or stalking the other person, something that doesn't deter a determined stalker (otherwise the offender could violate it entirely by accident just by, for example, being unfortunate enough to go to the same Starbucks at the same hour as the victim). Another such gag involves the person for whom the order was issued torturing the restrained person by continually approaching them, under threat of the order being enforced (another reason they aren't given specific distance limits). In reality, if you approach someone against whom you have a restraining order, they are not considered to have violated it, and if you do so continually, ''[[HoistByHisOwnPetard you]]'' may find yourself in legal hot water for abuse of the order.

* In the Dixie Chicks song "Goodbye Earl," when Wanda filed for divorce against her eponymous abusive husband, she had a restraining order put out against him. It didn't do a thing, as Earl "walked right through" it and sent her to the hospital. When Mary Ann, her best friend and [[BloodBrothers Blood Sister]] heard of this, she dropped everything to be at Wanda's side, and [[MurderBallad they decided to get together and kill him]].

** In "[[TheSimpsonsS10E5WhenYouDishUponAStar When You Dish Upon a Star]]", after Homer's disastrous performance in a case against Creator/KimBasinger, Creator/AlecBaldwin and Creator/RonHoward, Judge Snyder forbids him from coming "within 500 miles of any celebrity, living or dead". Homer [[LoopholeAbuse reassures himself]] that he can still do prank calls.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': One story had a girl manage to get a restraining order against Spider-Man, thinking he was stalking her. The ruling judge explicitly observed that he was just doing this for her sake, and also observed that he was restricting the range of the order so that she couldn't complain if Spider-Man just happened to swing overhead her current location.

* In the ''Series/Lucifer2016'' fic "[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/36162718/ The Devil and His Urchin]]", at one point encouragement from Chloe to cut himself off from his hostile family prompts Lucifer to deliver a restraining order to Amenadiel and even request that he pass on a similar order to ''God'' (Lucifer notes that he had to call in a few favours for that one and he's fairly sure the officials are just humouring him anyway). He acknowledges that it's unlikely either can be enforced, but it's still a fun excuse for him to troll his family.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': One story had a girl manage to get a restraining order against Spider-Man, thinking he was stalking her.

[[folder:Film]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "Restraining [=SpongeBob=]", Squidward gets a restraining order against [=SpongeBob=]. This causes much difficulty due to the fact that they work the same shift at the Krusty Krab and have to interact with each other to get anything done during working hours (rearranging the shift schedule so that they don't have to work the same shift is never brought up as a solution, as that would make sense). The other problem is, Mr. Krabs isn’t willing to honor the restraining order (which could’ve gotten him into serious trouble too) and Squidward isn't willing to take customer’s order even though Spongebob prepared it without having to go up to Squidward directly.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'', Squidward gets a restraining order against [=SpongeBob=]. This causes much difficulty due to the fact that they work the same shift at the Krusty Krab and have to interact with each other to get anything done during working hours (rearranging the shift schedule so that they don't have to work the same shift is never brought up as a solution, as that would make sense). The other problem is, Mr. Krabs isn’t willing to honor the restraining order (which could’ve gotten him into serious trouble too) and Squidward isn't willing to take customer’s order even though Spongebob prepared it without having to go up to Squidward directly.

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS16E11OnAClearDayICantSeeMySister On a Clear Day I Can't See My Sister]]", [[DisproportionateRetribution Lisa gets a restraining order against Bart after he pulls some pranks on her during a field trip]] that is physically enforced with a giant pole that she uses to poke Bart should he get too close to her. Lisa, of course, quickly abuses this and begins moving closer to Bart and poking him for kicks (it's implied that Bart has permanent nerve damage because of the amount of times Lisa has poked him), which forces him to move further away and out of the house and having to be taught by Willie in the school's shed. Also, If Bart had brought up in his appeal to [[HangingJudge Judge Harm]] that Lisa was following him around and poking him completely unprovoked (which is actually illegal) instead of insulting her, the restraining order would have easily gotten removed [[DisproportionateRetribution instead of it being increased from 20 to]] ''[[DisproportionateRetribution 200]]'' [[DisproportionateRetribution feet]].

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' Stan kidnaps Greg and Terry's newborn child to be taken out of the country to prevent the baby from being under their custody. At the last moment, Stan decides to return the baby, immediately getting beaten up and has a restraint order to stay far away from the child.
* In ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'' episode "The Cubing", while the Aqua Teens are dealing with The Wisdom Cube, Carl has been trying to file a restraining order on the team so he doesn't deal with them anymore. Since he's doesn't have enough evidence to properly get one, it's tied up in the courts.

** In "On A Clear Day I Can't See My Sister," [[DisproportionateRetribution Lisa gets a restraining order against Bart after he pulls some pranks on her during a field trip]] that is physically enforced with a giant pole that she uses to poke Bart should he get too close to her. Lisa, of course, quickly abuses this and begins moving closer to Bart and poking him for kicks (it's implied that Bart has permanent nerve damage because of the amount of times Lisa has poked him), which forces him to move further away and out of the house and having to be taught by Willie in the school's shed. Also, If Bart had brought up in his appeal to [[HangingJudge Judge Harm]] that Lisa was following him around and poking him completely unprovoked (which is actually illegal) instead of insulting her, the restraining order would have easily gotten removed [[DisproportionateRetribution instead of it being increased from 20 to]] ''[[DisproportionateRetribution 200]]'' [[DisproportionateRetribution feet]].