Basic Trope: An animal plays a sport, since there isn't any rule forbidding it.
- Straight: A donkey plays soccer, since there ain't no rule...
- Exaggerated: The entire team is replaced with animals.
- Downplayed: The team teach their pet to play the sport but he isn't entered in serious matches and is mostly used to entertain the crowd.
- Justified: The rulebook states that anything goes unless specifically noted otherwise.
- Inverted: "There ain't no rule saying you can't enter a human in the Kentucky Derby!"
- Subverted:
- As it turns out, there is a rule against donkeys playing soccer.
- There is no explicit rule against donkeys playing soccer, but the donkey can't play because he does not meet other established age, medical or educational criteria.
- Double Subverted:
- As it turns out, there is a rule against donkeys playing soccer... but not mules.
- If the donkey is an Uplifted Animal capable of talking (and thus consenting to contracts) and getting that 3.0 GPA the educational requirements enforce, then referees will look the other way about the "it's a donkey" part.
- Parodied: "Ain't no rule about donkeys playing soccer." "Yes, yes there is. It's right here in the rulebook!" "Shush."
- Zig Zagged: The rulebook has such criteria that certain animals are automatically barred from participating, but not other animals.
- Averted: Despite the movie heavily featuring a specific animal that does tricks, animals and the sport in question are never mentioned in the same sentence.
- Enforced: "We want to make a movie about a donkey playing soccer, so we'll just pretend the rules say nothing about the species of the players."
- Lampshaded: "Don't you think they'd've been smart enough to close the animal loophole after Air Bud?"
- Invoked: The sports league deliberately leaves this kind of loophole in its rules in order to encourage its coaches to think outside the box.
- Exploited: The leader of the Opposing Sports Team gets a violent predator (like a velociraptor) to play defense. The other teams decide to allow touchdowns rather than risk being torn apart.
- Defied: The sports league does have rules about the species of the players, just to prevent this kind of situation.
- Discussed: "I remember last year, when one football team had a bison. That was a crazy season...."
- Conversed: "What is it with movies about animals playing sports? There should be a rule!"
- Deconstructed:
- Shortly afterwards, either the other teams start training their own donkeys, or the rules are amended to prevent this sort of abuse.
- The donkey proceeds to demonstrate in detail why no one wants a donkey playing said sport.
- The team becomes a laughingstock for needing to have an animal play for them.
- The human players are forced in the bench.
- It turns out the only dog who can meet the eligibility for the high school team are elderly giant breed dogs - and they already have short lifespans.
- Reconstructed:
- Shortly afterwards, either the other teams start training their own donkeys, or the rules are amended to prevent this sort of abuse...and they find "no mules" in the rulebook.
- Shortly afterwards, the donkey helps the team win.
- That is, the human players from the other team are forced in the bench. Everyone on the donkey's team is still in play.
- Implied:
- An opposing coach makes a racist remarks towards a Wolf Man player. "I thought they were banned after the incident in 1973." - and the reveal of the supernatural involved cellphone cameras.
- The first time we see the bus of the Troperian High Wildcats, there is a horse hauler strapped to the back for some reason.
- Played For Laughs: PETA develops a sports-agency wing to ensure animal athletes get paid top-dollar.
- Played For Drama: The player who gets benched in favor of an animal enters a deep, suicidal depression and people start protesting the use of the donkey as animal abuse.
- Played For Horror:
- The donkey is abused both on the field and off, with very direct parallels to game scandals such as the Mitchell Report
. Because the donkey is not human, the abuse is allowed to go further and once it reaches a certain point of no return... - Placing an animal on the game field is all fun and games until they attack and maul a player.
- The donkey is abused both on the field and off, with very direct parallels to game scandals such as the Mitchell Report
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