History Main / LoopholeAbuse

** The climax of ''Unseen Academicals'' hinges on a long-forgotten, sometimes-derided football rule [[spoiler: specifying that the first object handled by three consecutive players in a game shall be considered the ball. This, of course, allows the young hero to put his tin-can-kicking skills to brilliant use. ]]

* Both Leonard Apollo and Himura Youichi in ''{{Eyeshield 21}}'' used loopholes to get out of their obligations back into their repective countries. Apollo stated that if they failed to beat the Devilbats by at least 10 points, the NASA Aliens would never return to America. When they failed to meet that goal, Apollo revealed that he was just going to change the team's name to the NASA Shuttles; That way, it technically wouldn't be the NASA Aliens going back. Likewise Hiruma said that if the Devil Bats didn't beat the Aliens by at least 10 points the entire team would leave Japan. However he never said they would leave Japan forever.....

*** And then ''[[FanNickname It's Wet Outside]]'' let's someone make a heal check to stop drowning.

->'''Calvin (writing)''''' Yakka foob mog. Grug pubbawup zink wattoom gazork. Chumble spuzz.''

->'''''Q:''' Explain Newton's First Law of Motion in [[TemptingFate your own words.]]''
->'''''A:''' Yakka foob mog. Grug pubbawup zink wattoom gazork. Chumble spuzz.''

* When a minor SuccessionCrisis occurred in Poland in 1384, the Polish nobles decided that Jadwiga, the younger sister of the Hungarian Queen Mary, should become the ruler of Poland. One problem: Polish law made no provision for a ruling queen (queen regnant); all previous female Polish leaders (including Jadwiga and Mary's mother Elisabeth) had been [[TheManBehindTheMan The Woman Behind The Man]]. On the other hand, they found (to their surprise, no doubt) that there was nothing that said the ''King'' of Poland had to be a man. Ergo, Jadwiga was crowned as ''King'' of Poland (!) and wend on to rule long and well. (She even became a saint; she is known in English and German as St. Hedwig, patron of a United Europe).

* In ''XiaolinShowdown'' the monks in training are faced with a circular obstacle course that they must complete by taking a small statue off a pedestal at the end. All of them compete for the best time until Clay looks at the obstacle course for a few moment and then turns around and takes the statue, setting an unbreakable record. In Zen (sorta) tradition this is the correct result.

* Both Leonard Apollo and Himura Youichi in ''Eyeshield21'' used loopholes to get out of their obligations back into their repective countries. Apollo stated that if they failed to beat the Devilbats by at least 10 points, the NASA Aliens would never return to America. When they failed to meet that goal, Apollo revealed that he was just going to change the team's name to the NASA Shuttles; That way, it technically wouldn't be the NASA Aliens going back. Likewise Hiruma said that if the Devil Bats didn't beat the Aliens by at least 10 points the entire team would leave Japan. However he never said they would leave Japan forever.....

* Part of the backstory of David Gerrold's ''WarAgainstTheChtorr'' series is that the United States had severe arms limitations imposed on it after the last world war. There was no such restriction on weapons ''research''. Therefore, the U.S. funnelled tons of money into advanced weapon design programs and built modular factories that could be turned to war production with the flip of a switch.

* The Lore of BloodBowl is rife with coaches doing whatever it takes to win. For example, players are stricly forbidden from carrying weapons on the pitch. Where most players figured it didn't count as a weapon if the blades were [[ScaryImpracticalArmor fixed to the armour]], the Dwarves argued it meant riding a bulldozer on the field was allowed - it's not carried, is it? The actual gameplay reflects that spirit. In first and second edition of the game, the rulebooks for the various ways a player could cheat were almost as long as the actual game's rules (and even more byzantine).

** Similarily Jack and Omi had a showdown in which they had to get to the end of an obstacle course with a glass of water "Without spilling a single drop". So Omi held the water in his mouth for the last leg of the course and ran.

*** Uh, [[MissingThePoint wasn't that scene about]] [[StayOnThePath how Yugi wasn't staying on the path of a]] [[NiceGuy good, true duelist]] [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie becoming more like the other duelists]] a [[CompleteMonster Complete Monster?]] I mean...

* On ''{{iCarly}}'' There's no rule that specifically states that a full-grown adult can't wrestle in a community wrestling league. The pamphlet only ''recommended'' the activity to boys 6-10.

* FormulaOne also has many example of creative interpretation of the rules, especially getting around the rules against 'moveable aerodynamic devices' - over the years teams have tried flexible wings and floors that bend in the wind and reduce drag; the Brabham team built the infamous 'Fan Car' where a so-called "Cooling Fan" created a vacuum under the car. In 1981 minimum ride height rules were indroduced, to be policed by random checks in the pits. Brabham's Gordon Murray designed a hydraulic suspension system that raised the car in the pit lane (when it was being checked) and lowered it down again on the track. Lotus built the Type 88 double-chassis car, where the top chassis would lower down onto the track at speed creating ground effect suction. Ironically it was the more ingenious Lotus that ended up being banned. More recently in 2009 Brawn GP got round the rule specifying a 'single deck' rear aerodynamic diffuser by incorporating the mandatory rear crash structure into the diffuser, thus generating more rear downforce. In 2010 [=McLaren=] built a duct into their car that the driver could operate with his elbow (!); when used on a straight duct stalled the rear wing and reduced drag.

* When ABC bought the Fox Family Channel in 2001, they apparently had a legal staff that rubber-stamped the deal and didn't look at the contract closely. At the time the plan was to use the network as sort of a clone of FX in the style of ABC, and it was proposed that the channel be renamed "XYZ", which would stand for the end of the alphabet. Closer research of the contract though reminded everyone that Pat Robertson once owned the channel, and when he sold the channel to Fox he threw in all kinds of legal language which meant he kept three hours of airtime a day on the network, and that the moment "Family" was stripped from the name, every single deal made with every single cable system was null and void, and Disney would be stuck having to renegotiate with every system to get back on.
**Thus, "XYZ" was ditched, the channel flailed for awhile until a smart marketer realized that if you made the network's slogan "A new kind of family" and emphasized it as much as the network name, you could easily wiggle around what Pat thought of as a "family" and expand the definition. Thus the network was finally able to program for more than two kids and two parents, and now programming like ''PrettyLittleLiars'' can easily lead into ''The 700 Club'', which Pat Robertson can't do anything about.

** Another classic rule bend came from F1's near cousin Indycar (back before the 'Split' and today's spec series, when teams often built their own cars). 1994 Indy 500 rules allowed pushrod engines higher turbo boost levels, ostensibly to encourage road car engines. Except nothing in the rule book actually specified a stock block, so Penske Racing commissioned a custom Ilmor-Mercedes pushod engine that pumped out 200hp more than rivals and walked the race.

** Another classic rule bend came from F1's near cousin Indycar (back before the 'Split' and today's spec series, when team's often built their own cars). 1994 Indy 500 rules allowed pushrod engines higher turbo boost levels, ostensibly to encourage road car engines. Except nothing in the rule book actually specified a stock block, so Penske Racing commissioned a custom Ilmor-Mercedes pushod engine that pumped out 200hp more than rivals and walked the race.

* FormulaOne also has many example of creative interpretation of the rules, especially getting around the rules against 'moveable aerodynamic devices' - over the years teams have tried flexible wings and floors that bend in the wind and reduce drag; the Brabham team built the infamous 'Fan Car' where a so-called "Cooling Fan" created a vacuum under the car. In 1981 minimum ride height rules were indroduced, to be policed by random checks in the pits. Brabham's Gordon Murray designed a hydraulic suspension system that raised the car in the pit lane (when it was being checked) and lowered it down again on the track. Lotus built the Type 88 double-chassis car, where the top chassis would lower down onto the track at speed creating ground effect suction. Ironically it was the more ingenious Lotus that ended up being banned. More recently in 2009 Brawn GP got round the rule specifying a 'single deck' rear aerodynamic diffuser by incorporating the mandatory rear crash structure into the diffuser, thus generating more rear downforce. In 2010 McLaren built a duct into their car that the driver could operate with his elbow (!); when used on a straight duct stalled the rear wing and reduced drag. Another classic rule bend came from F1's near cousin Indycar (back before the 'Split' and today's spec series, when team's often built their own cars). 1994 Indy 500 rules allowed pushrod engines higher turbo boost levels, ostensibly to encourage road car engines. Except nothing in the rule book actually specified a stock block, so Penske Racing commissioned a custom Ilmor-Mercedes pushod engine that pumped out 200hp more than rivals and walked the race.

* FormulaOne also has many example of creative interpretation of the rules, especially getting around the rules against 'moveable aerodynamic devices' - over the years teams have tried flexible wings and floors that bend in the wind and reduce drag; the Brabham team built the infamous 'Fan Car' where a so-called "Cooling Fan" created a vacuum under the car; the Lotus type 88 double-chassis car to circumvent ride-height rules (the top chassis would lower down onto the track at speed creating ground effect suction).