Sometimes it's a law of the internet that makes one think "
There Should Be a Law"...
note And, yes, there are porn versions of this image. Like the rule says, NO EXCEPTIONS.
If it exists, there is porn of it — no exceptions.
Allegedly originating from and popularized by the
imageboard 4chan, this was the very first near-universally agreed-upon
Rule of the Internet. It is so well founded and documented with
irrefutable proof that even those with only a cursory awareness of the Internet are aware of this rule even if they don't know it has a name.
While the original architects of the Internet had grandiose goals of research and data sharing,
we all know what Joe Everyman is going to use it for:
pornography! Now, it's not that everyone online is just looking for pornography; it's just that it's very
very easy to
come to. Even if you're not looking for it! Don't believe us?
Do a Google image search (filters off) of, well... pretty much anything. Sometimes even with the filters
on. Odds are pretty good that the results will include something
Not Safe for Work.
The key reason the scope of it is so wide and bizarre lies in what some have come to call
Rule 36: "If you've thought of it, then there's somebody out there with a fetish for it." (And incidentally, by "it" we mean "anything that exists in the world.") Even
TV Tropes.
There's also
Rule 35, basically
a guarantee that Rule 34 will remain true because "if there is no porn of it, it
will be made." This basically means that if you notice you can't find porn of something, and point it out,
somebody will be happy to draw/write/find it for you in pretty short order, if only to maintain the Rule 34.
Finally, Rule 35 also has a quantum interpretation. "Referring to a type of previously non-existent porn will cause online porn of that type to come into being retroactively." Nobody takes this seriously, so far as we know.
You might wish to keep a bottle of
Brain Bleach handy while proving (or
attempting to disprove) Rule 34.
Don't say we didn't warn you. And if you DO go hunting to prove this rule false,
say good-bye to your childhood first...
Compare
Sexy Whatever Outfit (a non-pornographic
Sister Trope),
Freud Was Right,
Memetic Molester,
Perverse Sexual Lust,
Fetish Fuel (and
the wiki for it
),
Rule 34 – Creator Reactions (a list of creator reactions to this applying to their work). See also
Rule 63, which is often confused with this.
Not to be confused with these other rule 34's (though overlap with this rule is guaranteed):
See also
Gone Horribly Right. (You wanted porn?
You're welcome.)
No examples, please. Not only would such a list cover potentially every work ever, but we're also not interested in being the Net's "How To Find Rule 34 Stuff" — you will need to look elsewhere if you want to find
that kind of thing. At most, you can see our pages for
The Rule of First Adopters and
Parallel Porn Titles to witness how the rule applied even before the Web was invented.
And go to
The Internet Is for Porn for in universe examples.
Yes. There is porn of this article as well. No exceptions!
no exceptions...no exceptions...no exceptions...
