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Screw the Rules, I Have Money: Difference between revisions
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'''Kaiba''': Yeah, so?<br />
'''Yugi''': That's against the rules, isn't it?<br />
'''Kaiba''': [[Trope Namer|Screw the rules, I have money!]]|''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!:
Let's face it: life sucks. Especially when you don't have much money to your name. This goes double in the world of fiction, where [[Rich Bitch|those that have money]] always try to find ways to make things miserable for those who don't. Such things as [[The Power of Love]] and [[The Power of Friendship]] generally have no effect on them. As long as they have money, [[Villain With Good Publicity|they can do anything]]... even [[Devil in Plain Sight|get away with murder.]] Or [[Buy Them Off]] for whatever evil deeds you did commit.
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Compare [[Appeal to Wealth]], [[I Thought It Was Forbidden]], [[Conspicuous Consumption]], [[Undisclosed Funds]], [[Idle Rich]].
{{examples
== Anime and Manga ==
* Seto Kaiba from ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh (Anime)|Yu-Gi-Oh]]'' got away with a ''lot'' because of his wealth. [[Trope Namer|The trope name]] comes from a line (quoted above) in the first episode of the [[Gag Dub]] ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!:
** Also in the same episode:
{{quote| '''Kaiba''': I'm going to hire some thugs to kidnap you now. I'm a billionaire, so nobody will even think of pressing charges.}}
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{{quote| '''Kaiba''': "This was back when I didn't have any money, so I was unable to screw the rules."}}
** The joke is then reversed in the YGOTAS movie, naming another trope in the process:
{{quote| '''Kaiba''': "[[Screw the Money, I Have Rules]]... Wait, let me try that again."}}
** Then later brought back in the form of the CSI one-liner meme:
{{quote| '''Kaiba''': "Looks like the rules *puts on shades* just got screwed"}}
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'''Foster:''' Talk is cheap, young duelist.<br />
'''Chazz:''' That may be, but I'm rich! And I'll spend whatever it takes to be the best out there!<br />
'''Foster:''' Ha-ha, that's just your problem -- no amount of money can ''buy'' you that. [[Self
** And as a video showed, by Season 3 it seemed the GX writers were deliberately tossing in jokes in the vein of ''The Abridged Series'':
{{quote| '''Ojama Yellow:''' Take it easy boss, you'll pop a blood vessel!<br />
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* Momoka Nishizawa, from ''[[Keroro Gunsou (Manga)|Keroro Gunsou]]'', uses her money in ANY possible plan to declare to Fuyuki. [[Up to Eleven|She even bought an island and built a five-star hotel so she could spend time with him!]]
** Also, she has her own satellite to spy his house.
* The Kunos from ''[[Ranma
** Sometimes the Kunos ''really'' are this way. After steadfastly rejecting to sell a Phoenix Egg to Kuno, on the basis that it bears a terrible secret and the Phoenix Sword it bestows is too dangerous to exist, the owner of an antiques store quickly folds and sells the egg when slapped with a wad of bills. Twice.
* Kazuharu Fukuyama from ''[[Girls Bravo (Manga)|Girls Bravo]]'', mostly to be an antagonist to the milksopy but ambivalent Yukinari.
* Halekulani from ''[[Bobobobo Bobobo (Manga)|Bobobobo Bobobo]]'' might be a parody of this. As a master of "Gorgeous Shinken" ("Fist of Gorgeous"), for him, money is power; his energy attacks are rated by their dollar value, and he can increase his strength by absorbing all the profits from the amusement park he owns. One of his more dangerous attacks actually turns his opponents into coins.
* In ''[[Hana Yori Dango (Manga)|Hana Yori Dango]]'', the F4 is allowed to do whatever they want at school, including harassing students they haven't found a reason to like, just because their families donate the most money to the school. Later on, it's learned that Domyoji got away with beating a guy until his organs ruptured due to his family paying off the school and the boy's family. And later still, Domyoji's mother Kaede attempts to pay Tsukushi's family hundreds of thousands of dollars just to keep Tsukushi from dating her son.
* This trope can be attributed to ''[[Hayate the Combat Butler (Manga)|Hayate the Combat Butler]]'''s Mask the Money (really Nagi wearing a [[Paper
** The <s>[[Yakuza]]</s> [[Bowdlerise|Very Nice People]] chasing Hayate prior to this point do an inversion of this, "She has money, obey the rules." When one less-than-intelligent member asks why they don't kill everyone anyways, aren't they [[Card
* Shinzen Tennozou, among several other ''[[Speed Grapher (Anime)|Speed Grapher]]'' characters.
** [[Big Bad|Suitengu]] actually lampshades this often in the series, as well as invoking the trope constantly. When he encounters the son of a debtor that he had just had murdered, Suitengu says "If you want my life, make money, then come and buy it."
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* In ''[[Full Metal Panic (Light Novel)|Full Metal Panic]]'', Sousuke is allowed to violate so many laws it's not even funny while attending school. He points loaded guns at people (and sometimes even shoots at them), places landmines and bombs everywhere, destroys people's private property without remorse, makes threats filled with killer intent... all of this is ignored by the head of the school. Why? Because Mithril makes HUGE donations to her for allowing Sousuke to attend school.
** Plus the president of the student council seems [[Strange Minds Think Alike|to have the same mindset as Sousuke]], and usually agrees with his crazy conclusions.
* ''[[Eden of the East (Anime)|Eden of the East]]'' features several characters with ludicrously large cash reserves and a concierge who helps them do whatever they want with it, including {{spoiler|bribing the Prime Minister, serial murder, launching missiles at Japan, and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|building a nice hospital]].}}
** {{spoiler|Bribing the PM only cost 60 yen}}.
* In ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro Ni (Visual Novel)|Umineko no Naku Koro Ni]]'', you find out that Kinzo used a special scheme to buy up Rokkenjima against the laws of the Japanese government, and then bribed a bunch of people in order to keep it.
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* ''[[Sin City]]'''s Yellow Bastard could get away with anything (especially [[Rape As Drama]]) because his father was a US Senator, and the patriarch of an excessively powerful and wealthy family that owns the bulk of Basin City.
** Until Hartigan got ahold of him, the Yellow Bastard got away with ''child'' rape ''and'' murder.
* Odin Quincannon in the comic book ''[[Preacher (Comic Book)]]''.
* Also from [[The DCU]], there's foppish dilettante Most Excellent Superbat, who proudly claims this as his superpower. As he puts it in ''[[Final Crisis]]'' # 6: "I have the greatest power of all, Mister Miracle. I am so rich, I can do ''anything''." Although it's left somewhat ambiguous as to whether he's referring to this (using his money to keep himself out of trouble) or [[Crimefighting With Cash]], as he deliberately modeled his superhero persona on Batman. It's both, really; he's so rich he {{spoiler|''bought Japan''}}.
** Another pair of DCU examples - Niles "the Chief" Caulder and Steve "Mento" Dayton of the [[Doom Patrol (Comic Book)|Doom Patrol]]. The former got implicated in arranging the "accidents" which turned the team members into freaks. The latter whipped up a gadget cranking his psionic abilities [[Up to Eleven]], but has a side effect of [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity]] which has caused him to turn into a criminal mastermind and try to kill his own adopted son! Furthermore, the only reason Dayton made that helmet in the first place was because he was a [[Stalker With a Crush]] trying to impress Rita "Elasti-Girl" Farr.
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** "I own the police" is also attributed to notorious early 20th century gangster [[Al Capone]], thus making this [[Truth in Television]]. Ironically, Capone's money (due to tax evasion) is what brought him down.
** It's also strongly implied that the only way he keeps Lorraine from leaving him is by threatening to cut off financial support from her children which would land them all in jail.
* The mean and evil banker, Mr. Potter from ''[[
* The end scene of ''[[Small Soldiers]]'' is most likely a parody of this. Stuart (the father of the protagonist) tells the CEO of the company that made the titular soldiers that money cannot possibly compensate for the trauma they've been put through. Turns out it can, and he does several times just to prove the point.
* The resolution of ''[[Chinatown]]'' revolved around this concept. It was alluded to rather blatantly in an old draft of the script, but it was removed at the behest of the director, who felt it was too obvious.
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'''Tommy:''' Terry, tell me something. With all this money coming in from both sides, how does anything ever get done? <br />
'''Lobbyist:''' It doesn't! That's the genius of the system! }}
* In the end scene of ''[[
* [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] E.P. Royalton in the [[So Cool Its Awesome|film version]] of ''[[Speed Racer (Film)|Speed Racer]]''. Pops Racer explicitly states he distrusts Royalton for this very reason.
* Following a violent bank robbery in ''[[Dead Presidents (Film)|Dead Presidents]]'', one of the robbers (who is also a preacher) feels remorse for his crimes and reflects that God cannot forgive him now. He even refers to the crooks' loot as "dirty money." One of his partners tries to reassure him by saying: "Now you can buy your way into Heaven."
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== Literature ==
* Hans Ebert in David Wingrove's ''[[Chung Kuo]]'' relies on this trope to get away with being who he is.
* Lucius Malfoy from ''[[Harry Potter (Literature)|Harry Potter]]'' weaseled out of many problems thanks to his wealth and social position. Fortunately until ''[[Harry Potter (Franchise)/Harry Potter and
** He later finds out the hard way that wealth and prestige don't help when you've screwed up [[Evil Overlord|the Dark Lord]]'s orders.
* Flashman in ''[[Tom Browns Schooldays (Literature)|Tom Browns Schooldays]]'', though eventually his behavior was too out of control for even his family connections to save him.
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* The eponymous character of ''[[The Great Gatsby (Literature)|The Great Gatsby]]'' earns his fortune for the sole reason to get with Daisy. He even thinks that he could reverse five years just because. {{spoiler|But it's a subversion, given how epically Gatsby fails.}}
* Julia Evans, the young billionairess in the "Greg Mandell" sci-fi series by Peter F. Hamilton. Granted, she lives in a world virtually owned by multinationals, but even a [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] she has a grudge against is shocked when she buys the controlling interest in a ''Swiss bank'' in order to expose his scheme to steal from her corporation.
* Flinx, of the ''[[Humanx Commonwealth]]'' series, is an [[Anti
* Subverted, inverted, ''and'' played straight in ''[[Atlas Shrugged (Literature)|Atlas Shrugged]]''. Inverted in that the strikers are punished ''because'' they make money; subverted when Hank's Rearden's money fails to protect him during his divorce trial; played straight when Rearden is allowed to buy resources and sell his products how he wishes, despite legally binding orders to the contrary.
* Subverted hard in Robert Aspirin's ''[[Phules Company]]'' books; and one of the few examples of the trope being consistently employed effectively on the side of good. Most of the time, it's the titular Williard Phule, aka Captain Jester, using his vast wealth to foil [[Obstructive Bureaucrat|Obstructive Bureaucrats]] who have the letter, if not the spirit, of the law on their side.
* Used in one of the books in ''[[The Once and Future King (Literature)|The Once and Future King]]'' series. Mordred argues with Arthur that their judicial system - two champions jousting, on behalf of the defendant and persecution - was unfair since it was more of a battle of muscles. Arthur pointed out that the law allowed for each party to hire whomever they liked to be their champion and pointed out that if they switched to using lawyers it would just be the same (each party could hire whichever lawyer they thought would best save their bacon). He finishes by pointing out that in the judicial system, whoever has the most money will most likely win.
* Lady Schrapnell, the [[Upperclass Twit]] funding projects for Oxford's time travel department in [[To Say Nothing of the Dog]], puts the staff through a lot of abuse, which they only put up with because they really need those funds. One of her mantras is "rules are meant to be broken", which the department heads keep fruitlessly trying to explain to her doesn't work for the laws of physics.
* The rich members of the [[Six
* Done in ''Night Train to Rigel'' by Timothy Zahn. The infiltrating alien enemy is convinced that its relocation to a new homeworld has gone undiscovered because there is only one interstellar Quadrail station in the {{spoiler|Yandro}} system and it has it continuously under surveillance. However, the protagonist works for Larry Hardin, the richest man on Earth, who simply paid a trillion dollars to build another Quadrail station on the other side of the system.
** To refine that pronoun, the ''protagonist'' paid the trillion... after blackmailing it out of Larry Hardin, who'd already fired him and didn't know where the money would be going. Said protagonist is back on Hardin's payroll as of the third book; Hardin hasn't noticed yet and nobody is looking forward to when he finds out.
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* [[Cop Rock]]: the upper class people arrested for using narcotics sing that they should be ignored since they pay high taxes. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cftN2nimH3s Cop Rock - Don't Mess With My Pursuit of Happiness]
* On ''[[News Radio (TV)|News Radio]]'', Jimmy James is a likable guy in some respects but he frustrates Dave to no end because he can make up any rules and do anything he wants with his unlimited wallet. He secretly bought a newspaper and published a negative review in it just to motivate his staff; he plays around with the bonuses in one episode; he's motivated more by a sadistic sense of fun rather than bottom line profit in terms of whether to give Matthew his job back
* One of the first examples on TV was probably Thurston Howell, III on ''[[
* ''[[Law and Order (TV)|Law and Order]]'' often has these characters as defendants, as they usually hire the best lawyers; a [[Recurring Character]] named Arthur [[Punny Name|Gold]] putting in an appearance is a dead giveaway. If anyone's likely to get away with murder on these shows, it's them.
** Gold seems to have been replaced as the go-to shyster by [[Law and Order Special Victims Unit (TV)|SVU's]] Lionel Granger.
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* Edward Vogler in Season 1 of ''[[House (TV)|House]]'' starts running the hospital like an [[Evil Overlord]], making calls about things like a dying cancer patient getting a C-Section, purely because he can threaten to withdraw a 100 million dollar donation if everybody doesn't say "How high?" whenever he says "Jump!"
** {{spoiler|Eventually subverted when he begins attempting to pick off board members who stand up to him; the rest of the board finally says, effectively, "Screw your money, we're going home."}}
** Much later in the series, a wealthy man ''demands'' that House be the one that treats his son (as it turns out, House {{spoiler|had his license revoked}}, but they go along with this anyway. Eventually, when even House can't figure out how to save his son, the man acknowledges that he's been practicing this trope all his life and blames the fact that his wife is dead and his son dying on "[[Laser
*** What makes it worse is that he was specifically told that dissolving his company would make hundreds of workers redundant...and he did it ''anyway'', which if anything would make karma even more pissed at him.
**** Actually, he gave everything up after House ''gave'' a diagnosis that said the man's son was incurable.
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* Subverted with Jonas Hodges of season 7 of '' [[Twenty Four (TV)|Twenty Four]]''. As the wealthy head of a government contract army, it is assumed he's doing what he's doing to ensure his company gets contracts. It's revealed that he actually feels he's providing a service and protecting the country. The money is actually the last thing on his mind.
* Much of the cast of ''[[Dallas]]'' or ''[[Dynasty]]''.
* ''[[Firefly (TV)|Firefly]]'': Simon manages to do both at the same time. He gives up his fortune to save River thereby saying [[Screw the Money, I Have Rules]]. He also uses his money to rescue River in defiance of the law, thereby saying [[Screw the Rules, I Have Money]].
* Becomes a plot point in ''[[Gossip Girl]]'' where Dan automatically assumes everyone on the UES has this attitude, which causes problems in his relationship with Serena. Has been played straight, or at least been attempted to, on a few occasions, yet not nearly as often as one might expect.
* ''[[
* On ''[[Angel (TV)|Angel]]'' the law firm Wolfram and Hart (it's actually more of a [[Mega Corp]]) existed essentially to help its clients screw the rules as much as they could afford. A good example of this came from Russel Winters, who used Wolfram and Hart to help him get around rules both legal, such as "don't eat young women" and supernatural, such as [[Vampire Invitation|being unable to enter homes without an invitation]]. He simply owned the building.
* ''[[Castle (TV)|Castle]]'' gives us the rare heroic version in the person of Rick Castle himself. He's very rich, very famous, and shows absolutely no hesitation when it comes to using those things to help his cop friends get through roadblocks he finds annoying (for example, calling the Mayor to complain to get a forensic test moved up the priority list).
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* ''[[Degrassi]]'' gives us Peter Stone, a [[Rich Bitch|rich bastard]] who films Drunk!Manny stripping and makes it into a meme, but still dates her best friend Emma. In the next season, Emma's ex-boyfriend Sean, who is the school's hero after saving them all from a shooting, comes back, and Peter plants drugs in his locker. Then Peter and Sean start racing, and Peter goes to jail. His mother was the principal.
* ''[[Raising the Bar]]'' has Richard Woolsley, a public defence attorney from an extremely wealthy family who tries to invoke this trope for the good of his clients. Subverted when his boss makes him understand why he cannot and asks to him to follow the rules. Invoked heroically yet again when he {{spoiler|uses his money to set up a civil law division so his clients can have access to appropriate legal support after their criminal cases}}.
* Averted on ''[[Bones (TV)|Bones]]'' with Jack Hodgins, who's the owner of a company that owns practically the whole Jeffersonian and a lot of other stuff, but he doesn't put himself above the rules. Also a [[Screw the Money, I Have Rules]].
* ''[[CSI (TV)|CSI]]'' has Catherine's dad, Sam Braun, who flirts with this trope a lot, rather typical for a casino magnate in TV-land. In one episode, he gets away with murder because he only ordered the murder and didn't actually do anything to convict himself. He's also not afraid to stick it to other casino guys from time to time, although not actually ordering any of them killed.
* Chi Soo from ''[[Flower Boy Ramyun Shop (TV)|Flower Boy Ramyun Shop]]'' lives by this trope and tries to do anything he likes. He goes into a melodramatic breakdown when he's told by his dad he can't drive his car to school anymore.
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== Professional Wrestling ==
* This was [[WWE (Wrestling)|WWF]] wrestler "The Million Dollar Man" [[Ted Di Biase (Wrestling)|Ted Di Biase]]'s whole character, right down to attempting to buy the WWF World Heavyweight Championship from [[Hulk Hogan (Wrestling)|Hulk Hogan]] for one million dollars when he couldn't win it in a match (no matter how much he cheated), and then using the money to hire [[Andre the Giant (Wrestling)|Andre the Giant]] to get it for him when Hulk refused to sell. Once that failed, he simply made his own championship belt. With diamonds. And blackjack. And hookers. [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|OK, maybe not blackjack]]. His [[Catch Phrase]] was, "Everybody's got a price!"
** One of [[Professional Wrestling]]'s oldest ones in the book: since (in most wrestling organizations) the champion retains through an indecisive finish, and a disqualification is defined as indecisive, many [[Heel|heels]] [[Loophole Abuse|holding the belt will get themselves disqualified intentionally during a match in order to keep their status as champion]], thus leading to the variant: "Screw the rules, I have a title!" Fans often refer to this as a "Honky Tonk Finish", after the WWF wrestler The Honky Tonk Man, who built up a 15-month reign as Intercontinental Champion by doing this repeatedly.
** [[John Bradshaw Layfield (Wrestling)|John Bradshaw Layfield]], a more recent [[WWE (Wrestling)|WWE]] superstar and a [[Real Life]] self-made millionaire, has essentially become an [[Expy]] of the Million Dollar Man, with additional reactionary, racist and jingoistic overtones. Imagine putting [[Lex Luthor]], David Duke, J.R. Ewing and [[The O Reilly Factor (TV)|Bill O'Reilly]] in a blender, and you'll have JBL.
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== Theatre ==
* In the [[Crapsack World]] of the Weill/Brecht opera ''The Rise and Fall of the City Mahagonny'', Jimmy Mahoney is sentenced to death for the [[What Do You Mean
* Used in ''[[Urinetown (Theatre)|Urinetown]]: The Musical''.
{{quote| Cladwell: It wasn't just cash, Ms. Pennywise. It was an ''awful '''lot''' ''of cash.}}
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** Just to make Colin's power even scarier, he has a 20% price cut on all his troops at the expense of some combat power. So he can get his neotanks for only a little more than his enemy is buying their heavy tanks. [[Zerg Rush]] is scary enough, but it becomes ''really'' scary when the "Zerglings" are doing 300% of your health in damage.
* The "Montana Legal" upgrade in ''[[Scarface the World Is Yours (Video Game)|Scarface the World Is Yours]]'' slows police response times to half the pre-upgrade speed, giving Tony Montana some much-needed time to carry out his questionable deeds. Interestingly, in the original film, it was attempting to evade tax for his considerable profits that started Tony's downfall.
* CEO Nwabudike Morgan from ''[[Sid
** And one of the winning conditions for the game is to take over the global economy.
* ''[[Resident Evil 4 (Video Game)|Resident Evil 4]]''. The rocket launcher. Able to [[One
** And then you unlock and buy the Infinite Launcher, which is more expensive but takes up no more space. [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|You can guess how many shots you get with it...]]
* ''Fugger 2'' lets you play a merchant in the 17th century who slowly increases their influence over the country. From controlling the courts over rewriting the law to building up an army of robbers (and laying siege to cities), nothing is impossible as long as you can pay.
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* ''[[Grand Theft Auto (Video Game)|Grand Theft Auto]]'', any one of them. Blow away a boatload of innocent people and cops? Lose your guns and pay a fine. Only much of a problem if it's early in the game and you have little money or it's later in the game and you lose all your good guns.
** Except, you can bribe cops and doctors to keep your weapons in ''Vice City Stories''. And in ''GTA IV'', you don't even lose your weapons if you die, only if you're busted.
* In ''[[
* In the ''[[Mass Effect (Franchise)|Mass Effect]]'' series, the Illusive Man has almost unlimited resources at his disposal. In the third game, there is a console that shows a video record of him ordering his lead scientists to bring a dead person back to life who was thrown out of an exploding spacecraft, was mostly burned up when entering the atmosphere of a nearby planed, and then crashed into the surface without anything to slow down the impact.
{{quote| '''Scientist:''' ''"It can't be done! It's not a matter of resources-"''<br />
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{{quote| '''Cave Johnson''' : Now, the beancounters told me we literally could not afford to buy $7 worth of moon rocks, much less 70 million. Bought 'em anyway. Ground them up, mixed them into a gel.}}
* The [[Fable (Video Game)|Fable]] trilogy has lot of this, especially II and III. Someone report you do the guards for...murder, public indecency, assault, theft, vandalism, setting people on fire, you simply pay them and they go away. Same thing if there's something in a house you want and its night. You buy the house, kick out the residents and take what you want.
** Also during the first part of ''[[Fable II (Video Game)|Fable II]]'', if you make enough money you can buy the second best class of longsword way before you should be able to, turning most sword fights for some time into a [[Curb Stomp Battle]]. You can also BUY experience vials, drink them, and get absurdly strong, fast and powerful. Similar with augments, so you can turn ordinary swords into an [[Infinity
** It is also possible to buy powerful weapons in ''[[Fable III (Video Game)|Fable III]]'', you still need the skills to make them effective, but good chance they will be stronger than current weapons, some upgrades also require you to spend money.
* The ''[[Civilization (Video Game)|Civilization]]'' series, particularly the earliest installments, feature this a lot. Bribing enemy units and whole cities to join your side? Easy as pie. [[Artificial Stupidity|Pay double and they won't realize it even happened]].
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== Web Comics ==
* Parodied in [http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1333#comic this] ''[[Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (Webcomic)|Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal]]'' strip.
* [[Non
* [http://www.tnemrot.com/ Tnemrot]. Despite the fact the organisers were ready to kill the main characters for violating the rules, once they realised the crowd was loving the show being put on, [http://www.tnemrot.com/?p=85 everything was forgiven] and they even mention ''changing the rules'' so it can happen more often.
* In ''[[Impure Blood (Webcomic)|Impure Blood]]'', [http://www.impurebloodwebcomic.com/Pages/Chapter003/ib014.html Caspian's father, after demanding he return Roan to slavery, offers to keep his name out of it if he does so.]
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