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See also [[Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught]]. Related to the [[Lord British Postulate]], which may require some '''Loophole Abuse''' to actually pull off the kill.
{{Examplesexamples on subpages}}
== Advertising ==
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jUzIxnbkpI This] [[Segata Sanshiro]] commercial. Apparently there's no rule against ''grabbing a guy off the sideline and hurling him at the ball'' to score a goal for your team.
== Fan Works ==
* [[Fanfiction.net]] explicitly forbids [[Real Person Fic]]s due to defamation concerns from the persons portrayed and/or their relatives/estates. Not that it kept people from writing one anyway, especially if the persons in question are either [[Historical Domain Character]]s or if they were portrayed in a work of fiction (examples of which include Niki Lauda and James Hunt in the 2013 sports drama ''[[Rush (film)|Rush]]'' and the officers of the 1997 epic ''[[Titanic]]'').
* This is the specialty of Hermione Granger in the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' fic ''[[The Parselmouth of Gryffindor]]'', to the point that at age 13 she is already in the process of engineering an unexpected resolution to the Prophecy concerning Harry and Voldemort by exploiting its [[Exact Words]].
== New Media ==
* [[Tool Assisted Speedrun|TASVideos]] often uploads runs that beat the game in a ridiculously low amount of time. The catch is that "beat the game" is defined as "trigger the [[The End]] screen", even if that's done by [[Good Bad Bugs|exploiting an obscure glitch]] rather than actually, you know, beating the game. A few [[Egregious]] examples literally jump into the ending sequence from the middle of the game for no [[All There in the Manual|apparent]] reason.
** [[Super Mario World (video game)|Super Mario World]] [http://tasvideos.org/1945M.html in two and a half minutes].
** [[EarthBound]] [http://tasvideos.org/1946M.html in nine minutes].
** [[Kirby's Adventure]] [http://tasvideos.org/1947M.html in five and a half minutes].
** Also, even if the ending screen is glitched up and scrambled due to prior hi-jinks, it still counts, which happens in at least one run.
== Puzzles ==
* A puzzle requires drawing a full box with an X in the middle without taking your pencil off the paper. Normally, this would be impossible...but there Ain't No Rule that says you ''can't fold the paper over'' before you start to draw; with this trick, you just draw a square "C" over where the paper overlaps, unfold the paper so the "c" "breaks" into two horizontal lines, then draw an hourglass in the empty space, all without lifting up the pencil. A Variant: draw a circle with a dot in the middle without taking your pencil off the paper.
** Since the exact dimensions the x in the middle of the box must be aren't specified, you can also get away with this one: Draw one side of a square and then draw a diagonal line, which will connect to the other end of the opposite side of the square, which you then draw. Repeat this on the other side to finish the x, and then complete the box by drawing the final two sides of the square, tracing over previously drawn lines to avoid having to lift your pencil.
** In that case, you take a pencil, place it on a piece of paper, then casually whip out a pen with which you then draw the dotted circle... Without the pencil leaving the paper.
** Alternately, use a mechanical pencil, draw a circle, press on the button to retract the lead, move to the center of the circle, press the button again to extend the lead, and complete the dot.
*** Do note that that puzzle also makes no mention regarding overlapping lines, meaning you can draw the box, draw a diagonal from the last corner, retrace a side, then do the other diagonal.
**** Yes it does, but I am not sure that it makes mention of using two pencils...
***** Does it specify not using extra lines? If not than you can just draw all you need to in order to solve both of these.
* It's not uncommon to encounter a number puzzle that has no solution unless you exploit the rules in this fashion. For example, there's a famous Henry Dudeney puzzle where you have to circle six of the following numbers to make a total of 21:
{{quote|9 9 9 7 7 7 5 5 5 3 3 3 1 1 1}}
** It can't be done as intended, because the total will always be even. Dudeney's solution? There Ain't No Rule saying you can't ''turn the paper upside-down first'', letting you circle three 6s and three 1s.
** A reader came up with an alternative solution; drawing a single circle around two 1s to get 11, then circling three 3s and the other 1.
* The classic "nine dots" puzzle challenges you to connect a square of nine dotes with just four straight lines without lifting your pen from the paper. It's impossible to do this unless you literally "think outside the box" and notice that there's nothing in the puzzle that forbids letting the lines run ''outside'' of the square.
** Or you can fold the paper, use a very thick line, connect your four straight lines with a few curvy lines, etc.
** Nobody said what shape it had to be, you can start at one corner, go out, go diagonal, go back, and go diagonal again.
* Tie a knot in a length of rope with both hands without letting go of the rope. There Ain't No Rule saying you can't tie your arms in a knot first (ie, fold your arms).
** Or tie the knot around your arm, or tie an [[wikipedia:Unknot|unknot]], or stop holding it with one hand, but keep a firm grip with the other, and thus not letting go, or tying the knot in a different part of the rope, or don't hold on with your hands in the first place (but still use your hands in some other way) or hold the rope in a circle around you while tying a knot with a piece of string while inside the circle.
* One worksheet that is sometimes given to students in (usually elementary) school describes the classic "You are in a supermarket but find that your cart can only make left turns. Navigate the supermarket, getting everything on your list making only left turns"-maze scenario. There was no rule stating people can't draw a U-turn back to the start (where they get the cart" and write "Get a new cart that isn't broken."
== Theatre ==
* For quite a while ''[[Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark]]'' exploited a longstanding critic tradition of not releasing a review until after opening night by labeling all of their productions as "dress rehearsals"—despite selling tickets for them to the public at full price. In fact, rumor had it that the producers intended to keep it in dress rehearsals its entire run and never formally open it.
** Then again, there's no rule that says critics ''have'' to wait for opening night to review a show either—a fact many reviewers took advantage of when the official opening had been delayed one too many times. To say they were unkind would be a massive understatement.
== Web Original ==
* Elaine E. Nalley in the [[Whateley Universe]] is so notorious for doing this at Whateley Academy that the headmistress gave her the codename Loophole. As a [[Rules Lawyer]], this can cause problems. Eventually, she discovers that the administration believes in Rule Zero.
** In another Whateley example, Jobe Wilkin's mandatory school codename is... Jobe Wilkins. It's not just megalomania, given his notoriety as the only son<ref>At least at first, this is Whateley after all</ref> of the setting's [[Captain Ersatz]] of Dr. Doom he figures he's not going to go unrecognized in any event.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD9UkVfkPHM Ain't no rule that vampires can't be gymnasts!]
* [http://www.x-entertainment.com/messages/649.html Skeletor competes in a Pokémon match]{{Dead link}}
* In the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'', the 1964 Summer Olympics saw both the United States and the Soviet Union field teams filled to the brim with super-humans. In some cases, the "athletes" were quite obviously superhuman. Olympic officials swiftly closed the loophole that allowed superhuman "athletes" and disqualified both teams before competition actually began.
* A big problem in the ''[[Salvation War]]'' is that nobody has made laws pertaining to the dead, which causes quite a few legal headaches.
** Another time, a British colonel tried to take over the command of Free Hell, only to be stopped by {{spoiler|Julius Ceaser}} who points out that because of the amount of people under his command, he is technically a general.
* ''[[Skippy's List]]'' has examples:
{{quote|124. Two drink limit does not mean first and last.
125. Two drink limit does not mean two kinds of drinks.
126. Two drink limit does not mean the drinks can be as large as I like.
127. "No Drinking Of Alcoholic Beverages" does not imply that a Jack Daniel's® IV is acceptable.
135. An order to put polish on my boots means the whole boot.}}
* The alt text of the final illustration on [http://what-if.xkcd.com/111/ this installment] of [[xkcd|Randall Munroe]]'s ''What If?'' column (concerning [[Scrooge McDuck]] and zoning regulations), invokes the former [[Trope Namer]]:
{{quote|There's nothing in the basketball rulebook that says a duck can't build a giant bin of money to swim in.}}
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