History Main / ThereAreNoRules

* ''Literature/GideonTheNinth'': The necromancers and cavaliers [[ClosedCircle summoned to Canaan House]] by the GodEmperor are told that the one rule in their challenge to ascend to Lyctorhood is "never open a locked door unless you have permission". [[DwindlingParty A few murders in]], it's clarified that that's the ''only'' rule -- ''all'' other laws are suspended for the challengers by divine fiat.

** At the end the rule becomes, "Never [[IsThatTheBestYouCanDo ask for more Fight Club]]."

* An ''Series/{{Arrowverse}}'' promo involving a superhero vs. supervillain Fight Club has the Series/Arrow taking Series/TheFlash in an elevator to a secret floor in the Palmer Tech building.

** Then in Fight Club 2.0:

* An ''Series/{{Arrowverse}}'' promo involving a superhero vs. supervillain Fight Club has Series/TheArrow taking Series/TheFlash down in an elevator to a secret floor in the Palmertech building.

* The ''Series/{{Arrowverse}}'' promo involving a superhero vs. supervillain Fight Club

* Parodied on an episode of Series/TheDrewCareyShow when Drew and his friends were going to have some kind of competition:

Compare {{Calvinball}}.

-->'''Lewis''': There's only one rule.
-->'''Drew''': There are no rules?
-->'''Lewis''': No. No tickling.

* VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft, Dr. Dealwell explains the rules of [[GladiatorGames the Thuderdome]] to the player: The rules are simple: Two men enter, one--wait. Sometimes there's women. Two people enter, one--Wait, no, sometimes it's more than two...and that means more than two come out-- Alright, only rule is stay in the dome! [[DuelToTheDeath There are no other rules!]]

* In ''Wedge Goes to Arizona'' by Creator/JTEdson, Peaceful is challenged to a knife fight. He asks what the rules are, which confuses his opponent. When he says there are no rules, Peaceful immediately [[GroinAttack kicks him the groin]], following it up with a kick to to the jaw as he falls.

* Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} organizes its rules into [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Five_pillars five pillars]], the fifth of which is to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:IAR ignore all rules]]: "If a rule prevents you from improving or maintaining Wikipedia, ignore it."
* http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/NewRideForever has long been known in ''Series/DueSouth'' fandom as the list with no rules. (surprisingly, it's still active to a point after over a decade, though it moved from OneList to Yahoo after the buyout and the original had to be replaced with the 'new' one due to the original mod leaving and no one else being able to delete Yahoogroups' all too common spam posts)

StockPhrase. When someone's describing a game unfamiliar to the audience - especially if it's a particularly dangerous game - they will say this. Usually preceded by "[[RuleNumberOne There's only one rule...]]" Occasionally, they will list two or three rules of the game which are easy for the audience to remember, and round it off by saying that "Apart from that, ThereAreNoRules!"

'''Arthur''': It counts for nothing. The only rule is ... ThereAreNoRules.

* Website/{{Smogon}}, one of the main communities for competitive ''VideoGame/{{Pokemon}}'' battling, has several formats with differing rules and permitted {{Mons}}. One of the formats is called "Anything Goes", and as the name implies, this format has no restrictions... ''[[ObviousRulePatch except]]'' that it keeps the anti-{{troll}}ing Endless Battle Clause, "Players cannot intentionally prevent their opponent's Pokémon from fainting from PP depletion and Struggle recoil."

* In ancient Greece there was a fighting sport called pankration or 'all powers', which had two rules (outside Sparta, where it had none): (1) no eye gouging, and (2) no biting. You win when your enemy surrenders, is knocked out, or [[ThanatosGambit you die]],[[note]]Though killing your opponent earns him a posthumous victory in most cases[[/note]] whichever happens first.

* The tournament in the ''{{Series/Merlin|2008}}'' episode "The Shadow of the Sorcerer":

* The early [[UsefulNotes/UltimateFightingChampionship UFC]] events were promoted under this tagline, even though they had some rules (eye-gouging was banned, for example).

* Parodied on an episode of TheDrewCareyShow when Drew and his friends were going to have some kind of competition:

-->'''Promoter''': Whatever you do, don't hit him in the balls.

--> '''Butch:''' (Gives Logan a kick [[GroinAttack, disabling him]])

* ''Film/FightClub: Members Only'' - "Fight Club has only ONE rule: there are no rules!" (Though Fight Club proper actually has eight rules.)

* The tournament in the ''{{Series/Merlin}}'' episode "The Shadow of the Sorcerer":

* Played with in ''KingdomHearts: Chain of Memories'', when Hades sets up a tournament to get Cloud and Hercules to fight each other so that Hercules will be weakened enough for him to take him to the underworld. When Sora steps in to fight him to save Hercules:

--> '''Butch:''' ([[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Gives Logan a kick]] [[GroinAttack, disabling him]])

--> '''Butch:''' ([[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Gives Logan a kick]] GroinAttack, disabling him)
--> '''Butch:''' Well, if there ain't going to be any rules, let's get the fight started. Someone count 1,2,3 go.