History Main / DraftDodging

* During UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar, after the Union instituted conscription but allowed rich men to exempt themselves from it by paying $300 or hiring a substitute, song parodies of James Sloane Gibbons's poem "We Are Coming, Father Abraham (Three Hundred Thousand More)" began to circulate, one of which opened with this stanza:
-->We are coming, Father Abraham,\\

* During UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar, after the Union instituted conscription but allowed rich men to avoid it by paying $300, song parodies of James Sloane Gibbons's poem "We Are Coming, Father Abraham (Three Hundred Thousand More)" began to circulate, one of which opened with this stanza:

!!Example subpages:

[[index]]
* DraftDodging/RealLife
[[/index]]

!!Other examples:

[[folder:Sickness option]]
[[AC:Comic Books]]
* Mentioned in ''ComicBook/{{Maus}}''. The grandfather of the artist had ''16'' of his teeth pulled so he wouldn't have to join the army; the artist's father (the protagonist) would willingly ruin his health with a salted herring-only diet and no sleep and coffee during the last three days before the test. (It was the grandfather who insisted that he'd do this. But the artist's father found doing it was so terrible, he preferred to be drafted the second time around.)
* Averted by Creator/WillEisner's father in his autobiographical graphic novel ''ComicBook/ToTheHeartOfTheStorm''. He opts not to have his eye put out (by a doctor!) to avoid service in World War I, instead he emigrates to America.

[[AC:Film]]

* In ''Film/{{Tigerland}}'', two soldiers about to depart to Vietnam contemplate jumping from a roof to injure themselves and avoid deployment. At the end of the film [[spoiler:a soldier deliberately injures another soldier's eye so that he will be discharged.]]
* In ''Film/{{MASH}}'', the main characters try to help a local boy avoid the draft. They make him take amphetamines to speed up his heartbeat and fake a heart condition. The doctor sees through this and keeps him for further examination, which reveals the fraud.
* In the Creator/LaurelAndHardy movie ''Film/GreatGuns'', the eponymous duo were servants to a rich family. When a man from said family was drafted, the family (not the draftee himself) tried this.
* In a Finnish military farce movie ''Vääpeli Körmy'' (''Sergeant Major Körmy'') a young man tries to avoid draft by pretending to have such bad eyesight he can't even see the eye test. When the doctor says he will be released from service and asks him to bring him a form from the third pile by the wall, the man makes the mistake of walking to the papers and bringing the right one.

[[AC:Jokes]]

[[AC:Literature]]
* Thomas Mann's novel ''Literature/ConfessionsOfFelixKrull'' subverts this: The character knows that the doctors are very generous in declaring even sick people fit for the army; so he instead fakes being a sick but enthusiastic guy, who plays down his obvious-but-fake maladies. It works.
* In ''[[Literature/TheGoodSoldierSvejk The Good Soldier Švejk]]'', set right before and during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, there are a variety of men trying to avoid conscription by appearing ill, resorting to injecting gasoline into their legs and other outlandish methods (all played for comedy). The army has a special "hospital" for malingerers, where they put them on a strict diet, and, among other things, wrap them in wet sheets - even the ones who really have tuberculosis.
** Subverted by the protagonist, who volunteers, despite suffering from rheumatism so bad that he can't even walk, and he's wheeled to the recruitment office by his charwoman. And then he's [[KafkaKomedy promptly sent]] to the above-mentioned special hospital ward.
** Later into the book, one-year volunteer Marek[[note]]One-year volunteer - [[GratuitousGerman Einjährigfreiwilliger]] - is his rank in the [[UsefulNotes/TheSoundOfMartialMusic Austrian military]], a designation for a "reserve officer candidate", he was actually drafted.[[/note]] is introduced, who describes his failed attempts to catch rheumatism - he slept in gutters in rain and bathed in icy river - which only hardened him to cold, so he felt perfectly fit after spending the whole night sleeping on snow. He also tried to catch a venereal disease, visiting a brothel daily, but he [[STDImmunity remained immune]]. Finally he met a disabled soldier who injected him with something which made him suffer a "real rheumatism" so he can hardly move.

* In the ''Literature/SergeStorms'' novel ''Orange Crush'', the Lt Governor of Florida was revealed to have never registered for the draft. To avoid the political fallout of him being seen as a draft dodger (even though there was no war in which the government was actually drafting people to fight in at the time), his handlers arrange for him to join the National Guard, intending to file paperwork claiming that he had an injury that prevented him from serving in the field. Unfortunately, said paperwork had not been filed by the time his unit was called up and sent to Kosovo.
* An Iranian in ''On Wings of Eagles'' avoided service in the Shah's army by pretending to have an incurable twitching disease. After twitching for hours in front of numerous doctors (which turned out to be rather exhausting) he eventually got a medical exemption.
* Creator/DaveBarry in ''Dave Barry Turns 50'', mentions a guy who wore the same underwear for several days, not even removing them to go to the bathroom(!) so that the doctors reject him solely to avoid them getting near him. He also says that to him, this guy was quite a bit more honorable than Henry Kissinger.
* Creator/SpikeMilligan averted this trope. He really did put his back out a day or two before his call-up date, necessitating medical treatment and bedrest. This delayed his arrival with his regiment. As Milligan said, in ''Literature/AdolfHitlerMyPartInHisDownfall'', claiming you're unfit for military service because you have a bad back rings as true as the lodger, naked in bed with the landlady, claiming the laundry's late.
-->Only in my case... the laundry ''was'' late.
* In ''Literature/TheGodfather'', it was mentioned that one of the services that the Mafia provided to their men and the families who paid them tribute was a network of crooked doctors willing to provide fake medical deferments to draftees during WWII. Michael Corleone notably did not use this service (he enlisted voluntarily), but Vito eventually pulled some strings to get him a medical discharge instead of a Purple Heart and return to duty after he was wounded in combat. The last flashback scene of the second movie actually has Sonny expressing his displeasure over Michael enlisting after the strings their father pulled to get everyone in the family a deferment.

[[AC:Live-Action TV]]
* Parodied in ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' when Buster tries to avoid re-enlistment:

* Another ''Series/DadsArmy'' example. Private Walker (the platoon's CMOTDibbler) was called up for service but dodged it because of an 'allergy to corned beef'. Unlike Pike's rare blood type, it was strongly implied that this was another of Walker's scams.
* An episode of ''Series/FoylesWar'' featured a man with a heart condition who ran a racket where he would turn up at the medical exam of someone who had been called up, claiming to be that person, and fail due to his heart condition, thereby allowing them to avoid conscription.
* A ''Series/{{QI}}'' episode discussed how during WWI, Germans and British propaganda teams bombed each other with leaflets carrying information on how to fake symptoms of tuberculosis so that you can be sent back. Methods including smoking 30 cigarettes per day to get the heart palpitations, raspy voice, and cough; putting toothpaste into your eyes to make them watery and bloodshot, and mixing some smegma into your sputum samples to fool the people doing the biopsy.
* One episode of ''Series/HogansHeroes'' gives the impression of this, with Klink being on the verge of being involuntarily transferred to the Russian Front. Calling on the Heroes (who want him to stay where he is because his replacement might be competent) for help, they put him on an extreme diet, make him sleep outside for a few days, and then not sleep at all for two days in the hopes of getting him declared unfit for front line service. Unfortunately, despite being in terrible shape, Klink does meet the one criteria they care about: he's still breathing.
* On ''Series/{{MASH}}'', Klinger tried to fake many ailments that were getting other soldiers discharged, like having fainting spells. In one episode, Klinger really did lose his hearing. When it returned, he was excited until Potter informed him being deaf would have been his ticket out of the Army.
** Another time he pretended not to believe that he wasn't in the Army or in Korea. He was so convincing Colonel Potter started to fill out the discharge form. Even as Potter asked him for details for the form Klinger pretended not to know he was letting him out of the army. Then the colonel asked his ranks and he replied "Corporal".

[[AC:Music]]
* ''Music/JustAnotherBandFromLA'' by Music/FrankZappa has a track named "Billy The Mountain", in which Billy the mountain is persecuted for draft evasion. Zappa also recorded "I Don't Want To Get Drafted", a song appearing on "You Are What You Is" (1980) and "The Lost Episodes" (1995).

[[AC:New Media]]
* The Website/DarwinAwards Web site includes a story of a farmhand who was killed while trying to dodge the draft in WWII. He tried to get a horse to kick him and injure him enough to disqualify him. He [[GoneHorriblyRight succeeded too well]] and received a lethal injury.
** Another tale involves a Pole who attempted to get a lion to bite him. It bit off his arm.

[[AC:Urban Legends]]
* Several {{Urban Legend}}s, such as the story of one guy who pretended to be deaf. It seems that the doctors are buying it, but when he leaves, one of them asks him to close the door on his way out; when he answers, they know he isn't really deaf.
* Another story (UrbanLegend?) from West Germany: A man substituted his diabetic girlfriend's urine sample for his own in order to convince the draft board that he had diabetes, but his plan failed because the urine sample also tested positive for pregnancy.
** Definitely UrbanLegend -- they would have to have specifically ''tested'' for a pregnancy hormone to detect it.

[[AC:Video Games]]
* In the second ''VideoGame/DestroyAllHumans'', one of the side missions has you get a draft-dodging hippy to the base so he could serve.

[[AC:Western Animation]]
* ''ComicStrip/{{Popeye}}'': Bluto tries in the 1943 short "Seein' Red, White 'N' Blue", initially pretending to be sick and then to get injured. However, once he and Popeye are attacked by Japanese spies, he changes his mind and enlists.
* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'': Averted and played with by Hank Hill. Hank's dad, [[JerkAss Cotton,]] lied about his age and enlisted at age 15 so he could fight in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and makes fun of Hank by calling him a draft dodger for not serving in the Army. The real reason Hank did not serve in the Army was that when he tried to enlist at age 18, he was disqualified due to having a narrow urethra, and the UsefulNotes/VietnamWar had been over for some time.

[[folder:Gay option]]
[[AC:Comic Books]]
* In ''ComicBook/TheFabulousFurryFreakBrothers'', Fat Freddy gets his notice, and when his poor physical shape and massive drug use don't get him rejected, he sheepishly claims to be gay...and they tell him he can be in General Gaylord's Homosexual Battalion (We're VERY disciplined!). He freaks and bolts out the fire escape.
* One issue of ''Magazine/{{Mad}}'' had a comic satirizing army life. At one point, the protagonist tries to get out of enlisting by pretending to be gay. It doesn't work, because the psychiatrist is gay and sees right through his act.

[[AC:Fan Works]]
* In the "In All Kinds Of Weather" series of ''Series/{{MASH}}'' fanfics, Hawkeye and Trapper both got an "undesirable discharge" after Frank Burns caught them having sex together.

[[AC:Film]]
* In the Israeli movie ''Film/LemonPopsicle'', two guys do this.
* In the movie ''Film/{{Stonewall|1995}}'', the DragQueen is frightened to go to the draft board and say he's gay, so his StraightGay boyfriend goes in his place. ...in drag.
* The 1969 comedy ''Film/TheGayDeceivers'' has two guys doing this to keep out of Vietnam. [[spoiler:It turns out they needn't have bothered, because the guys from the draft board are themselves gay and trying to keep '''straight''' people out.]]

[[AC:Literature]]
* The German novel ''Der Untertan'' has a one-shot character, an actor, doing this. (This novel is set in UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany.)

[[AC:Live-Action TV]]
* According to (apocryphal) legend, Creator/LennyBruce wore a dress to his draft bureau in order to avoid service.[[note]]Creator/LennyBruce actually enlisted in the US Navy at age 16, serving in WWII. He wore a WAVES uniform [[NeverLiveItDown one time]] as part of a skit. His superior ordered a psych-evaluation so out of spite, he pretended to be gay.[[/note]] Klinger on ''Series/{{MASH}}'' is a direct reference to these myths, except that in Klinger's case his cross-dressing was an attempt to convince the Army that he was insane rather than gay.
** Note that when he was offered a discharge for actually ''being'' gay, he took offense. (And another episode featured the reverse -- a gay man who wanted to ''stay'' in the Army.)
** The reason Klinger refused was that if he ''had'' taken the discharge, [[ValuesDissonance he would have been unemployable in the civilian world because he was gay]].

[[AC:Urban Legends]]
* A Swedish urban legend says that draft dodgers who claimed to be homosexual were sent to a gay-only boot camp on the isle of Gotland. The idea of an island full of armed gays, who would presume that all rookies were gay as well, would deter teens from feigning homosexuality. Apparently, the gay unit was a fiction made up by the military. During periods of Swedish history, homosexuality has been considered a disease or a crime, but it was never considered a valid reason to avoid the draft.
* Another urban legend claims that some men would avoid being drafted by sitting on a bottle. This would make them look an [[strike:active]] [[{{Pun}} passive]] gay during the medical test.

[[AC:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'': CampGay Ray Gillette mentions a (straight) friend pretended to be gay and interested in him to avoid the draft. Ray figured out his friend wasn't gay, so Ray alerted his draft board and had him sent to Vietnam.
-->'''Ray:''' Well who's laughing now, mister [[HookHand hooks for hands]]! ''[beat]'' A {{booby trap}} blew off both his hands.

[[folder:Madness option]]
[[AC:Comic Books]]
* ''ComicBook/{{Sturmtruppen}}'' had an arc based on this and the famous ''Literature/CatchTwentyTwo'' example (see below), with a soldier finding out that the regulations allow to demand discharge for madness... Only for the sergeant to dub all his attempts at being proving himself crazy as proof he's an ''idiot''. In the end, he succeeds when he volunteers to dispose of [[StuffBlowingUp avariated nitroglycerin]] (much more likely to explode on a whim than normal nitroglycerin, hence the sergeant not actually expecting volunteers and ''asking him if he was insane'' when he did)... Only for the doctor to point out that, according to the [[ShoutOut Catch 22]] of the regulations, asking to be discharged on grounds of madness is proof you're ''not'' crazy, and thus he's stuck with the disposal. [[spoiler:He gets the discharge anyway when the fear literally drives him mad, the sergeant delivering it while he's been dragged to the asylum]].

[[AC:Film]]
* ''Film/DriveHeSaid'': In the days leading up to his induction physical, Gabriel subjects himself to SleepDeprivation and takes lots of drugs. When the day comes, he behaves in as disruptive a manner as possible, eventually getting kicked out for brawling with a doctor. Unfortunately for him, the stress ends up driving him insane for real.

[[AC:Literature]]
* A rather funny aversion from UsefulNotes/RichardFeynman's autobiography: he was denied entry on the grounds of being a loony, simply because he would occasionally hold one-sided conversations with his deceased wife. Also, he answered honestly the question of whether he thought people were staring at him. There are a bunch of people waiting in the room to take their test, but it's a mostly empty room with nothing to look at except the people who are currently being tested, so Feynman drew the logical conclusion.
** His guess was dead-on too, at least before other people started looking. And he reported each new person too. The psychiatrist, not even looking up from his clipboard to verify the number, thought he was a narcissist.
** Another version goes that everything was going smoothly until the shrink asked him what he thought was the value of a human life, to which Feynman responded "64". When asked why he picked 64 and not, say, 72, he replied "[[MathematiciansAnswer 'Cause then you would have asked me "Why 72?"]]." The upshot of all this is that Feynman later wrote a letter to the draft board protesting his failed psych-eval, on the grounds that he was insane enough not to want to take advantage of it. See below.
* ''Literature/CatchTwentyTwo''. Well, attempted, as the clause Catch-22 makes it so that trying to be declared insane to avoid combat is a lose-lose situation - if you are insane, filing the forms to declare yourself insane proves your sanity. You'll be flying combat missions, deal with it.
* OlderThanFeudalism example: In Literature/TheTrojanCycle, Odysseus tries to get out of fighting the Trojan War by hooking a donkey and an ox to a plow and [[SaltTheEarth sowing a field with salt]]. King Agamemnon's messenger, Palamedes, calls the bluff by placing Odysseus' infant son in front of the plow; Odysseus proves that he's sane by swerving out of the way.
** Odysseus took his revenge and Palamedes died early in the siege, according to one version because Odysseus planted evidence that "proved" Palamedes' collusion with the Trojans, leading to his death by stoning, according to others by Odysseus and his good friend Diomedes killing him.
* Advocated by Abbie Hoffman in ''Steal This Book'':
--> When you get your invite to join the army, there are lots of ways you can prepare yourself mentally. Begin by staggering up to a cop and telling him you don't know who you are or where you live. He'll arrange for you to be chauffeured to the nearest mental hospital. There you repeat your performance, dropping the clue that you have used LSD in the past, but you aren't sure if you're on it now or not. In due time, they'll put you up for the night. When morning comes, you bounce out of bed, remember who you are, swear you'll never drop acid again and thank everyone who took care of you. Within a few hours, you'll be discharged. Don't be uptight about thinking how they'll lock you up forever cause you really are nuts. The hospitals measure victories by how quickly they can throw you out the door. They are all overcrowded anyway. In most areas, a one-night stand in a mental hospital is enough to convince the shrink at the induction center that you're capable of eating the flesh of a colonel. Just before you go, see a sympathetic psychiatrist and explain your sad mental shape. He'll get verification that you did time in a hospital and include it in his letter, that you'll take along to the induction center.

[[AC:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/{{MASH}}'':
** Corporal Max Klinger is an interesting case, in that he kept this up even ''after'' it failed (he did decline the gay option when it was offered, though; see the above section). He was also apparently not the first member of his family to attempt it.
** At one point, Klinger worried he really was going crazy. He gestured towards the dress he was wearing and asked Sidney Freeman, "Would a sane man dress like this?"
** Another episode featured a soldier, Corporal "Boots" Miller, who really was nuts. He talked to his shoes and socks and conducted man-on-the-street interviews in the mess tent with a ladle. One night on guard duty, he began shooting at imaginary gliders with his rifle, which disturbed Klinger so much he said, "If they offered me a Section 8 right now, I'd give it to ''you''!"

[[AC:Music]]
* Subverted in Arlo Guthrie's famous "[[Music/AlicesRestaurant Alice's Restaurant Massacree]]". He goes to the draft office and starts jumping up and down shouting "Kill! KILL!" and stating that he wants to [[ImAHumanitarian eat dead burnt bodies]]. They give him a medal.
** The gay version is also alluded to: Guthrie tells the audience that if two people go to the Army psychiatrist and sing this song together in harmony, "they'll think they're both faggots and they won't take either of them."

[[AC:Urban Legends]]
* There is the story of the Saxon who came to draft smiling and giggling asking when he is going to get his gun. When asked about anything he just said he didn't care and just wanted to be handed his gun already. The examiners became incredibly creeped out when he started whispering "Bang. Hehe." and he became angry about all the examinations and shouted "I just came here to finally get my damned gun. GIVE ME MY GUN ALREADY!" In the end, they told him his gun would come in the mail and shooed him home. Security was tightened and laughs between friends were shared respectively.
* Sweden, being one of the last countries in the world to practice universal conscription even in peacetime, has a rich OralTradition of stories of this type, particularly since psychiatric disability is one of the easiest "outs" to fake. Some are purely humorous (My buddy rolled himself up in the rug and said he was a hot dog!), others have a moral ending (My cousin claimed he was narcoleptic, so they took his driver's license.) The abolition of conscription means that this tradition is slowly dying. It was dying beforehand, too -- the end of the Cold War didn't mean the end of formal universal conscription, but it ''did'' result in a massive drop of how many actually were drafted, with a corresponding increasing ease in not being drafted. However, Sweden brought back conscription in 2017 due to Russia's actions across Eastern Europe, meaning that such stories are likely to be bandied about by a new generation of Swedes (both men and women, as now the Swedish draft is gender-neutral).
* In Finland universal draft for men is still going strong and until relatively recently was very difficult to dodge. Back when it was extremely hard to get out there was more sympathy for dodgers than today, and from those days there comes this amusing little anecdote / urban legend: When a man came to the army, he kept pretending to ride an invisible scooter everywhere, making motor sounds with his mouth and holding his arms extended in front of him. No matter how many disciplinary measures were taken on him, and even after a couple of beatings from his fellow privates he just kept going relentlessly. Finally his superiors had enough of his antics and had a psychiatrist declare him unfit for military service. At the gates of the garrison, he suddenly stopped, mimed taking a key from his imaginary scooter and handed it to one of the [=MPs=] saying: "I hereby relinquish the army vehicle to your care, sir", and walked away normally, whistling happily as he went.
** Another version of the story has the man break into laughter when someone asks him to give a ride with the bike, thus proving that he is not insane.

[[folder:Escape option]]
[[AC:Comic Books]]
* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'': The first Bloodsport, Robert [=DuBois=], fled to Canada when drafted into the Vietnam War. His brother Mikey enlisted, pretending to be him, but lost all four limbs in combat. When Robert heard, he went insane with guilt and became obsessed with the war, to the point of delusionally believing he served alongside his brother.

[[AC:Fan Works]]
* In ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' fic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11536013/9/Hyperemesis-gravidarum Hyperemesis Gravidarum]]'' by Creator/AAPessimal, an Assassins' Guild graduate is seen industriously finding new and pressing reasons to extend her stay in Ankh-Morpork so as to avoid national service in [[UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica her native country]]. The expectation is that after being sponsored through the toughest school on the Disc for seven years and having been taught lots of skills which would be useful to her Staadt, as one educated overseas at State expense she is expected to return Home and repay her country's investment in her. by signing up in a useful capacity. Heidi van Kruger has other ideas that do not include two years in the paramilitary SecretPolice. She notes to herself, seeing the example of a compatriot, that marriage and pregnancy would be a heroic last-ditch exemption. By the end of the story there is, in fact, a potential husband.
* In period piece fanfiction ''Fanfic/XMen1970'', a group of activists hold people hostage to force the authorities to provide an escape vehicle with which flee to Canada and dodge the Vietnam draft.

[[AC:Film]]
* ''Film/AmericanGraffiti'': While it's not stated outright, the WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue hints that this was what Curt ended up doing. (As of 1973, he's "a writer living in Canada".)
** ''Film/MoreAmericanGraffiti'': Terry "The Toad" is drafted by the Army as the film begins, and is shipped off to the Vietnam War. The culmination of his story results in him [[DeathFakedForYou faking his death]] by entering an outhouse that he subsequently wires to explode, with his comrade playing it up by claiming the VC wired the building when no one was looking. Terry is last seen heading away from his unit, with a cache of supplies given to him by his friend and plans to head to Europe.
* ''Film/GirlInterrupted'': Susanna's friend flees to Canada to avoid being sent to Vietnam. He invites her to come with him, but she declines.
* In the documentary ''Film/HeartsAndMinds'', one young man who has been hiding out from the draft decides, against his mother's advice, to turn himself in and make a public statement.
* ''Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacreTheBeginning'': Dean has been drafted to fight in UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, but plans to flee to Mexico instead. He ends up regretting it when it turns out facing off against [[HillbillyHorrors Leatherface]] [[LesserOfTwoEvils is worse than the war]], [[spoiler:[[CantGetAwayWithNuthin and he and his friends end up dying horribly as a consequence]]]].
* ''Film/Vixen1968'': Niles is from the USA and moved to Canada to avoid getting drafted into Vietnam and explains he did so because he doesn't feel like risking his life fighting for a country that doesn't treat him fairly on account of the color of his skin. The racist Vixen is unsympathetic and calls him a coward.

[[AC:Literature]]
* Played realistically/averted in Tim O'Brien's partly fictional novel ''Literature/TheThingsTheyCarried''. O'Brien attempts to escape to Canada, waiting in a rented room at a lodge for days to cross the border by canoe. He realizes he doesn't have the courage to do it (how much of the story is actually true is [[UnreliableNarrator up for debate]]).
* In ''The Good Soldier Švejk'', the protagonist misses a train to the army base and tries to go there on foot, getting completely lost on the way. He meets several draft dodgers during his "anabasis", and can't convince them that he isn't one.
* ''Literature/IntruderInTheDust'': When Crawford Gowrie got a draft notice at the start of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI in the BackStory, he spent eighteen months hiding in caves before being captured after a thirty-hour shootout where, fortunately, no one was killed. The Federal agents who arrested Crawford were quick to point out that the prison sentence for refusing to join the army was six months shorter than the time he spent living like a hermit, and he still had to serve that sentence anyway.
* In ''Literature/{{Reamde}}'', Richard Forthrast's backstory involves him fleeing to Canada to avoid the draft. This earns him the nickname "Dodge," which he doesn't seem to mind. After starting a video game company, he even calls an in-game avatar "[[SdrawkcabName Egdod]]."
* In the ''Literature/KateShugak'' novels, this is part of the backstory for Bernie Koslowski, who runs The Roadhouse in the Park. He fled to Canada during the Vietnam War to avoid the draft. He kept drifting north and eventually wound up in Alaska. He has an OddFriendship with Bobby Clarke, a Vietnam vet who lost both legs to a landmine.
* ''Literature/AThousandAcres'': One of the triggers for the disasters to come (the book is a WholePlotReference to ''Theatre/KingLear'') is the reappearance of Jess Clark (the Edmund character) after 13 years away in Canada, having fled the country in 1966 to escape Vietnam.

[[AC:Live-Action TV]]
* Michael, a one-shot character appearing the ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "1969," gives the time-displaced SG-1 a lift to New York on his way to an unnamed concert (likely Woodstock). During the trip, he and his girlfriend Jenny talk about how he received his draft notice and is considering going to Canada to avoid the war.
-->'''Michael:''' Hey, we're cool. After the concert, me and Jenny, we're even thinking about crossing the border up to Canada.
-->'''Teal'c:''' For what reason?
-->'''Michael:''' You know, man... the war.
-->'''Teal'c:''' The war with Canada?
-->'''Michael:''' ... No.
* ''Series/AmericanDreams'' had Helen use her travel agent job to help at least one boy escape to Canada and it was implied she helped others. Had the show continued she would have been arrested for her trouble. The show also had dealt previously with Nathan, member of the Nation of Islam, choosing to serve jail time rather than violate his pacifist beliefs.
* An ''Series/AllInTheFamily'' Christmas special had one of Mike's friends, a draft dodger living in Canada, coming down to the Bunkers' place after Mike invites him over for Christmas dinner. One of Archie's friends, who lost his son in Vietnam, also comes over. ''Awkward''.
** It didn't turn out so awkward after all. The friend understood why Mike's friend went to Canada, told Archie that he didn't like the war, and would've like to have Christmas dinner with the guy. Archie was the one who felt and looked foolish.
* Neelix's backstory in ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' included this, as seen in "Jetrel". He was afraid to die in the war (though he tried to convince himself he was a conscientious objector) between the Talaxians and the Haakonians, and went into hiding to avoid the Talaxian draft. Then the Haakonians used a [[WeaponOfMassDestruction WMD]] on Talax's inhabited moon Rinax, an event that was basically Hiroshima RecycledInSpace. Talax surrendered the next day.
* ''Series/{{Community}}'' mentions that Pierce moved to Canada to sit out the Vietnam War.
* Hyde's father on ''Series/That70sShow'' mentions he was a "conscientious Canadian" during the Vietnam War.
* Subverted on ''Series/BorderSecurityCanadasFrontLine''. A Korean man arrives in Canada to study. A CBSA agent suspects he's trying to hide out to avoid military service. It's eventually cleared up he was planning to apply as a CombatMedic, which took several months to process, so he's cleared to enter Canada, albeit with the caution he could only stay for six months in a year without a visa.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS24E2ParadiseTowers Paradise Towers]]", Pex was called up to fight in the GreatOffscreenWar, but instead stowed away on the ship carrying the children and old folk to Paradise Towers. He is universally reviled by all of the inhabitants of the Towers.
* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'':
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1985S1E19 Dead Run]]", a man who dodged the draft and crossed the border to Canada during the Vietnam War is sent to {{Hell}} by the fundamentalist Dispatcher who has recently taken over the CelestialBureaucracy.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1985S2E7 The Road Less Traveled]]", Jeff [=McDowell=] was drafted in 1971 but went to college in Canada instead of going to Vietnam. His high school girlfriend and future wife Denise went with him. In an AlternateUniverse, however, Jeff went to Vietnam and [[AnArmAndALeg lost both of his legs]].
* ''Series/AFrenchVillage'': There's a non-military example with many young Frenchmen running off to avoid forced labor in Germany which they're conscripted into.

[[AC:Music]]
* The Music/LedZeppelin song "Night Flight" is about someone doing this.
* The Flying Burrito Brothers' "My Uncle" is a jolly country song about "headin' for the nearest foreign border/Vancouver might be just my kind of town" to escape the Vietnam draft.
* Briefly {{Discussed}}/{{Defied}} in the Charlie Daniels song "Still in Saigon":
-->I coulda gone to Canada, or I could have stayed in school\\
But I was brought up differently; I couldn't break the rules
* Jesse Winchester was a dual citizen who headed to Canada when he was drafted. "Mississippi You're On My Mind " is about being homesick.

[[AC:Mythology]]
* OlderThanFeudalism example: Achilles' immortal mother knew that he would either die in inglorious old age or not return from fighting before Troy, so she unsuccessfully tried to get him out of serving in the Trojan War by hiding among the daughters of king Lykomedes of Skyros dressed as a woman. The deceit was exposed by Odysseus and Achilles was so ashamed of having participated in this deceit that he joined the army against Troy even though he was no former suitor of Helen and therefore not oath-bound. In other words: If she had done nothing, he wouldn't have had to fight and no need to restore his honor? NiceJobBreakingItHero, er, side character.

[[AC:Stand-Up Comedy]]

[[AC:Theatre]]
* In ''Theatre/TheSoundOfMusic'', Captain von Trapp and his family escape from Nazi-occupied Austria so that he may avoid serving in the German navy.

[[AC:Western Animation]]
* This is {{discussed}} in the ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' Veteran's Day special. While recounting his experiences during The Vietnam War, Gerald's father explains how the war was very unpopular with the American public and several draftees fled to Canada to avoid serving. While he considered doing it himself, he ultimately decided it was his duty as an American citizen to serve whether he agreed with the war or not.

[[folder:Payment option]]
* ''Film/GangsOfNewYork'' follows the build-up to the historical [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_draft_riots New York City Draft Riots]] as the major B-Plot of the movie (and the riots themselves eventually interfere with the A-Plot, killing most of the cast as collateral damage). The reason why these riots occurred was that the New York rich paid to be left out of the draft on the Civil War and the poor (including shanghaied immigrants) were unable to do so.
** Similar rioting happened in Wisconsin, where the largely recently immigrated Belgian community revolted against the perception that they were being preferentially drafted so that rich [=WASPs=] and more settled English-speaking immigrants could dodge service in the Union armies. Troops desperately needed for the front lines, at a time when the Confederacy was winning all the battles and looked like driving to Washington, had to be diverted to Wisconsin to restore order.
* ''Literature/TheCurseOfTheBlueFigurine'': In the eleventh book of the series, ''The Bell, the Book and the Spellbinder'', the book's antagonist Jarmyn Thanatos (under the name Jarmyn Nemo, one of his many aliases) is noted to have paid a substitute to join the Union Army in his place in 1862.

[[folder:Mixed/other/unspecified]]
[[AC:Comic Books]]
* In ''ComicBook/SupermanAndBatmanGenerations'', both Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne's sons are offered deferments but refuse, Joel Kent because [[FreudianExcuse he feels like he has to prove himself]] and Bruce Jr. because he doesn't think it's fair to use his father's wealth and status that way. [[spoiler:When the Joker kills Dick Grayson (Batman II), BJ takes the deferment because the world needs a Batman.]]
* A ComicBook/DonaldDuck story presents Donald as having pulled it ''accidentally'', as his notification had been lost in the mail and he was under the impression he had been exempted due to his duck physiology giving him flat feet and making him short and chubby -- an argument shot down by the general on his case for the accidental dodging being a duck himself. When the army finds out and decides to draft him he tries to get exempted by crouching just enough to appear too short, only for the general seeing it coming and straightening him (Donald is ''just'' tall enough to qualify). Then, at the end of basic training, he asks for a license before deployment because his nephews are coming home from the Junior Woodchucks camp and he needs to find them a new home... At which point [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone the general realizes he's forcing the sole caretaker of three orphans to serve in the army]] and exempts him.

[[AC:Fanfiction]]
* ''Fanfic/AuthorsOfOurOwnFate'': In order to avoid being sent to the frontlines during the War (which ended with him getting paralyzed for several months in the original timeline), Matthew manages to meet General Allen Lothrop, who is a member of the War Economic Board, and gets himself and Thomas jobs as part of the war effort to inspect potential swindlers. Unfortunately, this causes a rift between him and Robert (who thinks WarIsGlorious and doesn't realize the horrors that are about to be unleashed in Europe) that leads to Matthew and Robert's daughters leaving Downton Abbey.
* ''Fanfic/MythosEffect'': A turian doctor notices that as the war goes on, there's a rising number of "sports accidents" and other injuries along with teenage pregnancies to either delay or prevent a young turian from going to bootcamp and thus serving in the war against the NEF.

[[AC:Film]]
* ''Film/SergeantYork'' is [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034167/ a movie]] about... well, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_C._York Sergeant York]] and how he was a pacifist due to his interpretation of the Bible, and so attempted to resist being drafted. But he gets drafted anyway, as the church he followed was so remote that the draft board couldn't prove it even existed for the purposes of a Conscientious Objector exemption. As a country boy from the Appalachian Mountains, he was extremely effective at killing Germans and became a famous American hero, and the most decorated American soldier of WWI.
* ''Film/AcrossTheUniverse2007'' has Max comically opting for "all of the above". He swallows some cotton before he goes in for his physical exam when he is drafted, with the idea that it'll come up as a fuzzy spot on his X-ray. They don't even do an X-ray. Other options suggested are pretending to be a sociopath so he'll flunk a psych screening, claiming to be a pedophile, and eating lots of beets the night before the test so it looks like he's peeing blood.
-->''' Army Sergeant''': Is there any reason you shouldn't be in this man's Army?
-->'''Max''': I'm a cross-dressing homosexual pacifist with a spot on my lung.
-->'''Army Sergeant''': As long as you don't have flat feet.
** All of the above ''except'' going to Canada. He doesn't want to go there at all.
* Inverted in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger''. Steve Rogers gets rejected by the draft board nearly eight times (for a variety of health issues that make it a minor miracle that he'd lived long enough ''to'' enlist). They finally let him join the army if he agrees to be part of Dr. Abraham Erskine's experiment... and we all know how that turns out.
* ''Film/GettingStraight'': After dropping out of college, Nick converts to Buddhism to avoid being sent to Vietnam. When that doesn't work, he carries a purse and talks with a lisp, but nobody buys it. [[spoiler:He comes back from the recruitment center gleefully crowing about how he defeated the draft once and for all... by joining the Marines. He can't wait to serve his country by firing a machine gun from a helicopter. Harry is shocked by his attitude transplant. Nick soon gets rejected by the Marines for being "constitutionally inferior," thereby dodging the draft without trying.]]

[[AC:Literature]]
* The beginning of Creator/RobertAHeinlein's novel ''Literature/GloryRoad'' has an extensive description of various means used to dodge the draft in the United States during the Vietnam War. The protagonist finally chooses to be voluntarily drafted because he has no other viable options.
* In ''Literature/APrayerForOwenMeany'', the main character avoids the draft during the Vietnam War by cutting off his index finger. He later leaves for Canada.
* At the beginning of ''Literature/TheGreatGatsby'', the narrator Nick Carraway is talking about how he was born into money and mentions that his grandfather was wealthy enough to hire a substitute to serve in the Civil War.
* In ''Literature/TheBrothersK'' by David James Duncan, one brother, a gentle pacifist, is drafted during the Vietnam War. The family attempts to have the local church vouch for him, but the preacher has a grudge against him. He is sent to Vietnam and the stress takes a heavy toll on his sanity.
* Lt Keith of ''Literature/TheCaineMutiny'' voluntarily signs up for Naval OCS and becomes a Navy officer to avoid being drafted and becoming an Army grunt. During the enlistment process he nearly ends up getting a medical exemption from serving at all over a spinal condition.
* Happens at the start of ''Literature/TheStainlessSteelRat Gets Drafted'' (through fake documents), but is naturally averted, as the title reveals.
* It's stated in ''Literature/PhoenixAndAshes'' that Robbie uses his ability to dislocate his shoulders at will to avoid the [=WWI=] draft. In his case, it's because he's much happier acting as a bodyguard/enforcer for a crooked lawyer (TheDragon for the novel's villain); he would have been quite capable of acting as a soldier.
* ''Literature/OddlyEnough'': In "With His Head Tucked Underneath His Arm", there are people who avoid being drafted into their kingdom's army because they're physically unfit and others who avoid it because they're too frightened, too smart or simply "too loving"; this last category is the most dangerous, because objecting to the war has been made illegal. The protagonist, Brion, fits the last category and fakes being crippled to avoid serving in a war he doesn't believe in, but ends up revealing his true status and is arrested and [[OffWithHisHead executed]] for it.
* Creator/IsaacAsimov's "Literature/InAGoodCause": Altmayer is jailed on June 17, 2755, because he refused to accept {{Conscription}} against the human government of Santanni. He would rather fight against the alien Diaboli.
* In Creator/DavidEddings' ''Regina's Song'', it's mentioned early on that Les Greenfield, the narrator's father's boss, tried to get an educational deferment during Vietnam years before the story started, but after his alma mater flunked him out for majoring in partying rather than an actual academic path, he got drafted anyway.
* ''Literature/TheLandMine'': [[TheProtagonist Derek]]'s mom suspects her brother, Derek's uncle Ted, did this. According to Derek, when the war began, Ted transferred from being a meat counter in Sainsbury's to working as a storekeeper for a munition's factory, meaning he couldn't be enlisted into the army. It earned him the nickname "The Artful Dodger" from Derek's dad.

[[AC:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/DadsArmy'' (a WWII BritCom): There's a variant -- Frank Pike doesn't want to evade military service, but his medical test reveals a rare blood group. He's excused from active service on the grounds that they'd have nothing to transfuse him with in the event of injury. So he stays in the Home Guard instead.
* Brazilian soap opera ''O Rei do Gado'' (''The King of Cattle'') featured several Brazilians getting married as soon as possible because the Brazilian military was drafting bachelors to serve during World War II.
* ''Series/{{JAG}}'': Several variations of service members trying to get out of the military happen throughout the series, along with a few cases of individuals who really want to join the Navy or Marines but don't qualify (usually because they're too young).
* ''Series/MadMen'': An episode has Don try to find a way to get his mistress's son out of the Vietnam War draft. The kid used to be exempt because he was in college but lost his exemption due to a stupid anti-war stunt. Unfortunately Don does not have the right connections to accomplish this and it looks like the kid will have to flee to Canada. In the end, one of Don's partners calls in a favour to get the kid into the Air National Guard.
* ''Series/{{Weeds}}'': Andy's Army Reserve unit is called up for duty in Iraq. He gets a deferment by enrolling in rabbinical school, as theology students qualify for the chaplain corps.
* ''Series/{{MASH}}'': In addition to the other examples listed above, Klinger tried other methods including making up family emergencies (to the point Col. Blake had a drawer full of them), gaining enough weight to count as disabled, and in one episode [[spoiler:[[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome building a hang-glider to fly his way out]]]].
* ''Series/MotherlandFortSalem'': Witches who do not answer the enlistment call are hunted down by the military and are either killed or imprisoned, the former of which happened to Scylla's parents.
* ''Series/BlakesSeven'': Vila claims he bribed someone to give him a lower intelligence rating so he wouldn't be drafted as a Federation officer. [[TheSnarkKnight Avon of course]] replies that in his case the bribe was unnecessary.

[[AC:Music]]
* Several are mentioned in "Draft Dodger Rag" which provides the page quote: aside from homosexuality and sicknesses, the narrator also mentions his "poor old invalid aunt", that he's "addicted to a thousand drugs" and that he's working at a defense plant.
* The dialogue of "Music/AlicesRestaurant" claims that singing this song to the draft board, alone or in groups, will convince the board that you're crazy, gay, and/or part of an organized protest against conscription.
** Although these days, when Arlo Guthrie sings it live, that bit's been changed to say that singing this song to the draft board, alone or in groups, will prompt the board to make a sarcastic comment about your old-fashioned taste in music.
** There's a double subversion earlier in the song. When Arlo is called up, he fakes being a [[AxCrazy murderous lunatic]] during his psychiatric assessment. It fails -- they give him a medal instead. However, he's later rejected when they discover he has a criminal record... for [[FelonyMisdemeanor littering]].
* Music/FrankZappa's mini-RockOpera "Billy The Mountain" is about a secret government agent tracking down a mountain (yes, a literal mountain) who's refusing to report to the draft office. It ends badly for him, since
-->A mountain is something you don't wanna [[PrecisionFStrike fuck with]]!
* Creator/AllanSherman's "Dodging the Draft" offers several tips for doing such. Aside from the inevitable homosexuality, sickness, and disability claims, he also suggests saying that "you don't need the army 'cause you've seen Creator/BobHope", bragging that "you studied under [[UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli Cassius Clay]]" and that "[[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution Benedict Arnold]] was on [your] father's side", and offering the officer a light for his cigarette by [[RefugeInAudacity burning your draft card]]. "If the draft board acts in the usual way", he says, "you'll be what I call... 1-A!" [[note]](1-A means "available for unrestricted military service" in the Selective Service classification system.)
* In the music video for Music/BillyJoel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" a man is seen burning his draft card.[[/note]]

[[AC:Theatre]]
* ''Theatre/{{Hair}}'': Several of these are mentioned / discussed in the musical.

[[AC:Video Games]]

[[AC:Webcomics]]

[[AC: Web Video]]

[[AC:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/DrafteeDaffy'': In this WWII-era Daffy Duck cartoon Daffy is trying to evade "that dope from the draft board". Daffy's approach is simply to run and hide from anyone trying to draft him until the drafts stop. Unfortunately, the person trying to give him the draft card, the aptly named "Little Man from the Draft Board", is about as persistent as Droopy.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLooneyTunesShow'': In "Semper Lie", Bugs tells a lie to avoid himself from getting in the Army. And Daffy ends up as the one in the service. However, Bugs [[HoistByHisOwnPetard gets convicted at the end of the episode]].
* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'': Prowl is revealed to have tried this in his backstory, simply by avoiding getting drawn into the war, until he was captured by Warpath (who referred to him as a "draft-dodging peacenik") and forcibly brought to the Cyber-Ninja master Yoketron for training.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Abe once claimed to have disguised himself as a woman to avoid military service. While in drag, he joined an all-women's baseball team and the masquerade ended when his wig fell during a game. Then again, [[UnreliableNarrator given how inconsistent the tales about his past usually are]], one must wonder if it really happened. (''Especially'' as in at least one episode it was shown he was a Squad Leader of a group of soldiers in World War II and a bonafide WarHero.)

* Bluto tried this in a classic ComicStrip/{{Popeye}} short. However, once he and Popeye are attacked by Japanese spies, he changes his mind and enlists.
* Averted and played with by Hank Hill in ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill''. Hank's dad, [[JerkAss Cotton,]] lied about his age and enlisted at age 15 so he could fight in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and makes fun of him by calling him a draft dodger for not serving in the Army. The real reason Hank did not serve in the Army was that when he tried to enlist at age 18, he was disqualified due to having a narrow urethra, and the UsefulNotes/VietnamWar had been over for some time.

** Definitely UrbanLegend - they would have to have specifically ''tested'' for a pregnancy hormone to detect it.

** Note that when he was offered a discharge for actually ''being'' gay, he took offense. (And another episode featured the reverse--a gay man who wanted to ''stay'' in the Army.)

* Corporal Max Klinger on ''Series/{{MASH}}'' is an interesting case, in that he kept this up even ''after'' it failed (he did decline the gay option when it was offered, though; see the above section). He was also apparently not the first member of his family to attempt it.

* A ComicBook/DonaldDuck story presents Donald as having pulled it ''accidentally'', as his notification had been lost in the mail and he was under the impression he had been exempted due to his duck physiology giving him flat feet and making him short and chubby-an argument shot down by the general on his case for the accidental dodging being a duck himself. When the army finds out and decides to draft him he tries to get exempted by crouching just enough to appear too short, only for the general seeing it coming and straightening him (Donald is ''just'' tall enough to qualify). Then, at the end of basic training, he asks for a license before deployment because his nephews are coming home from the Junior Woodchucks camp and he needs to find them a new home... At which point [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone the general realizes he's forcing the sole caretaker of three orphans to serve in the army]] and exempts him.

* ''Fanfic/Fanfic/AuthorsOfOurOwnFate'': In order to avoid being sent to the frontlines during the War (which ended with him getting paralyzed for several months in the original timeline), Matthew manages to meet General Allen Lothrop, who is a member of the War Economic Board, and gets himself and Thomas jobs as part of the war effort to inspect potential swindlers. Unfortunately, this causes a rift between him and Robert (who thinks WarIsGlorious and doesn't realize the horrors that are about to be unleashed in Europe) that leads to Matthew and Robert's daughters leaving Downton Abbey.

* There's a variation in the WWII BritCom ''Series/DadsArmy''. Frank Pike doesn't want to evade military service, but his medical test reveals a rare blood group. He's excused from active service on the grounds that they'd have nothing to transfuse him with in the event of injury. So he stays in the Home Guard instead.

* Several variations of service members trying to get out of the military happens in ''Series/{{JAG}}'', along with a few cases of individuals who really want to join the Navy or Marines but don't qualify (usually because they're too young).
* An episode of ''Series/MadMen'' had Don try to find a way to get his mistress's son out of the Vietnam War draft. The kid used to be exempt because he was in college but lost his exemption due to a stupid anti-war stunt. Unfortunately Don does not have the right connections to accomplish this and it looks like the kid will have to flee to Canada. In the end, one of Don's partners calls in a favour to get the kid into the Air National Guard.
* In ''Series/{{Weeds}}'', Andy's Army Reserve unit is called up for duty in Iraq. He gets a deferment by enrolling in rabbinical school, as theology students qualify for the chaplain corps.

* ''Series/BlakesSeven''. Vila claims he bribed someone to give him a lower intelligence rating so he wouldn't be drafted as a Federation officer. [[TheSnarkKnight Avon of course]] replies that in his case the bribe was unnecessary.

** There's a double subversion earlier in the song. When Arlo is called up, he fakes being a [[AxCrazy murderous lunatic]] during his psychiatric assessment. It fails - they give him a medal instead. However, he's later rejected when they discover he has a criminal record... for [[FelonyMisdemeanor littering]].

* Several of these are mentioned / discussed in the ''Theatre/{{Hair}}'' musical.

* If you enact the Conscription defense edict in ''VideoGame/{{Tropico}} 4'', the Tropican emigration rate increases as some people leave the country entirely to avoid the draft.
* Ilmari Gasotto in ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChroniclesIII'' dodged the draft simply because he didn't feel like going. [[DisproportionateRetribution He got drafted into the Nameless for this.]]

* In ''Webcomic/GumballWarrior'', once Bate is given a notice by the army that his wife Ellie was being sent to war, he tries to exploit a ruling about pregnant women not being able to go to war. [[FakePregnancy He lies about Ellie being pregnant]] to delay the departure notice as much as possible. [[spoiler:It doesn't work. And considering what happens [[FamilyExtermination after Ellie finally leaves...]]]]

* In ''WebVideo/WithinLapenko'', Shershnyaga tries to evade the draft by pretending to be dead. He does so and even gets to the morgue, but doesn't get drafted anyway because he is a drug addict.

* There was a WWII-era Daffy Duck cartoon, ''WesternAnimation/DrafteeDaffy'', where Daffy was trying to evade "that dope from the draft board". Daffy's approach is simply to run and hide from anyone trying to draft him until the drafts stop. Unfortunately, the person trying to give him the draft card, the aptly named "Little Man from the Draft Board", is about as persistent as Droopy.
** In WesternAnimation/TheLooneyTunesShow episode, "Semper Lie", Bugs tells a lie to avoid himself from getting in the Army. And Daffy ends up as the one in the service. However, Bugs [[HoistByHisOwnPetard gets convicted at the end of the episode]].
* Prowl of ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' is revealed to have tried this in his backstory.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Abe once claimed to have disguised himself as a woman to avoid military service. While in drag, he joined an all-women's baseball team and the masquerade ended when his wig fell during a game. Then again, [[UnreliableNarrator given how inconsistent the tales about his past usually are]], one must wonder if it really happened.
** Especially as in at least one episode it was shown he was a Squad Leader of a group of soldiers in World War II and a bonafide WarHero.

* He ideologically objects to war in general

* ''Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacreTheBeginning'': Dean has been drafted to fight in UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, but plans to flee to Mexico instead.
* ''Film/Vixen1968'': Niles is from the USA and moved to Canada to avoid getting drafted into Vietnam, and explains he did so because he doesn't feel like risking his life fighting for a country that doesn't treat him fairly on account of the color of his skin. The racist Vixen is unsympathetic and calls him a coward.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS24E2ParadiseTowers Paradise Towers]]'', Pex was called up to fight in the GreatOffscreenWar, but instead stowed away on the ship carrying the children and old folk to Paradise Towers. He is universally reviled by all of the inhabitants of the Towers.

** In "Dead Run", a man who dodged the draft and crossed the border to Canada during the Vietnam War is sent to {{Hell}} by the fundamentalist Dispatcher who has recently taken over the CelestialBureaucracy.
** In "The Road Less Traveled", Jeff [=McDowell=] was drafted in 1971 but went to college in Canada instead of going to Vietnam. His high school girlfriend and future wife Denise went with him. In an AlternateUniverse, however, Jeff went to Vietnam and [[AnArmAndALeg lost both of his legs]].

* In the Creator/TimDorsey novel ''Orange Crush'', the Lt Governor of Florida was revealed to have never registered for the draft. To avoid the political fallout of him being seen as a draft dodger (even though there was no war in which the government was actually drafting people to fight in at the time), his handlers arrange for him to join the National Guard, intending to file paperwork claiming that he had an injury that prevented him from serving in the field. Unfortunately, said paperwork had not been filed by the time his unit was called up and sent to Kosovo.

[[AC:Web Comics]]
* In ''WebComic/GumballWarrior'', once Bate is given a notice by the army that his wife Ellie was being sent to war, he tries to exploit a ruling about pregnant women not being able to go to war. [[FakePregnancy He lies about Ellie being pregnant]] to delay the departure notice as much as possible. [[spoiler:It doesn't work. And considering what happens [[FamilyExtermination after Ellie finally leaves...]]]]

[[AC: Web Original]]
* In ''WebOriginal/WithinLapenko'', Shershnyaga tries to evade the draft by pretending to be dead. He does so and even gets to the morgue, but doesn't get drafted anyway because he is a drug addict.

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

[[AC:VideoGames]]

It's about this: A character (AlwaysMale for [[MenAreTheExpendableGender obvious reasons]]) doesn't want to be {{conscript|ion}}ed by the armed forces. He may have different reasons, and find different ways to do it, which may or may not work. The type of hero that usually gets put in this kind of situation is often an average worker, or even outright poor, as a person from the higher classes of society usually have relatively [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections easy]] [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney methods]] to exempt themselves from serving (or if they can't, use said methods to get themselves a cushy position away from the frontlines) while avoiding the negative repercussions in the process.

Reasons:

* He does not want to fight
* He objects for ideological reasons

# [[FauxYay Act like/openly claim you're gay]]. This may have other repercussions, though. (This mainly applied to the US before and during the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" era, when openly gay citizens were barred from military service. The repeal of that policy in favor of accepting the openly gay to serve has closed off this escape route, making it a DeadHorseTrope outside of period works.)

# Commit a lesser crime.
# Flee to another country. For Americans, this often meant UsefulNotes/{{Canada}}; for UsefulNotes/WestGermany, there was the option of West Berlin, since men living there were exempted from the draft for complicated legal reasons.[[note]]Berlin was considered occupied territory after World War II and was administered by the Allied Powers (the U.S., the USSR, the United Kingdom and France). As such, West German law did not fully apply to West Berlin.[[/note]]
# Earlier forms of military conscriptions, e. g. that in France during the Revolutionary and UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars and that in the US during the UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar, offered a legal way to avoid the draft that no longer exists: hire a substitute to serve in your place. Of course only the more affluent could take advantage of that option, especially when a war wore on and the casualty rates rose, causing the fees men asked to serve as substitutes to rise considerably.
# Declare yourself a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscientious_objector "conscientious objector"]] and convince a military tribunal that you're [[ActualPacifist objecting for ideological reasons]] (easier for members of certain religions, such as Quakers). There is a very chequered history of countries (a) allowing you the right to do this (although it's in the UN's [[UsefulNotes/TheLawsAndCustomsOfWar Universal Declaration of Human Rights]]) and (b) actually abiding by it if they do. Some objectors agree to serve as TheMedic, as stretcher-bearers, or in other non-combatant roles. Others are delegated for non-military work that can be every bit as dangerous as combat - fighting forest fires, disaster or marine rescue services, tending quarantined patients in contagious-disease wards - but doesn't force them to ''hurt'' anyone.
# Under some forms of conscription, only single men were taken or highly prioritized, so marrying someone was an option that people took advantage of.

# Get rejected either due to seemingly be (or ''actually'' being) unfit for service. As some of the examples below show, some people deliberately let themselves become ThePigPen when they presented themselves to the draft board, leaving the board thinking they weren't physically capable of serving. In other cases, the draftee either voluntarily enlisted or reported to the draft board, only to be rejected due to physical problems. [[https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/10/10/one-third-youths-too-obese-military-service-study-finds.html Even just being overweight can make someone unfit for service.]]

An alternative for Draft Dodging is ''getting smart''. That means volunteering in a unit with little to do with actual military, such as National Guard, Coast Guard, or Border Guard, or pulling the strings and/or gaming the system by getting yourself in a non-fighting position, such as company clerk, vehicle mechanic or drill instructor. Of course, even this isn't foolproof, as in the US, the Coast Guard and National Guard can both be (and especially in recent years, often are) mobilized to the front lines, and even SoldiersAtTheRear might find themselves on the front due to the needs of the service or surprise enemy attacks.

This is a trope that may become a DeadHorseTrope in the next few decades, as more and more western states abolish conscription. There is still draft registration in the United States, but it is so politically unacceptable that the laws regarding registration are not enforced. [[note]]The "Selective Service" system requires all eligible males between the ages of 18-25 to register for the draft. Failure to do so is punishable, but few, if any, are ever punished. Resident aliens, on the other hand, ''must'' register or face deportation, and this ''is'' enforced. Additionally, draft registration is ''mandatory'' to receive federal student aid or to apply for a government job. There's also the argument that the US military ''prefers'' an all-volunteer army, as the quality of troops tends to be much higher when the troops ''want'' to be there.[[/note]] Whether American conscription is ever revived is debatable. The US has proven it can fight protracted wars without conscription, but the full impact of this has yet to be seen and a future war with higher casualties may force the draft to be revived. This is also something of a required trope for the "chickenhawk" variant of MilesGloriosus: the WarHawk who claims the nation's military is their greatest pride, while quietly shoving a heavily doctored medical report under the table.

* In ''Film/{{Tigerland}}'' two soldiers about to depart to Vietnam contemplate jumping from a roof to injure themselves and avoid deployment. At the end of the film [[spoiler:a soldier deliberately injures another soldier's eye so that he will be discharged.]]

* In a Finnish military farce movie ''Vääpeli Körmy'' (''Sergeant Major Körmy'') a young man tries to avoid draft by pretending to have so bad eyes he can't even see the eye test. When the doctor says he will be released from service and asks him to bring him a form from the third pile by the wall the man makes the mistake by walking to the papers and bringing in the right one.