The internet rule that explains how Overwatch, Pokemon and even Zootopia can become subjects of pornography
So, What Is Rule 34?
Rule 34 is a generally accepted internet rule, which states that, “if it exists, there is porn of it – no exceptions“. You can use it as either a noun or a verb.
It means that pornographic and sexual material relating to every conceivable subject is available on the internet. The material itself usually comes in the form of fan art, and can be a picture, animation, GIF or comic strip. The most popular subjects are fictional characters from video games, television series, cartoons and comics.
Creators of pornographic fan art can display their work on specialist websites, or on social media such as Tumblr and Twitter.
Although less common, pictures of everyday objects appearing to behave sexually and accompanied by a caption referring to Rule 34 are often shared on social media.
While Rule 34 states that there are no exceptions, some argue that it does not apply to abstract ideas, such as Rule 34 itself. For something to be Rule 34’d, you have to be able to represent it in a physical form.
Popular Rule 34 Subjects
1. Hentai is a word of Japanese origin, which means a perverse sexual desire. Internationally, it is a catch-all term to describe anime and manga pornography.
2. Overwatch is a team-based multiplayer first-person shooter video game that was released in May 2016.
3. Pokemon collectively refers to over 800 fictional species that have made appearances in the Pokemon media franchise.
4. Naruto is a Japanese manga series that tells the story of Naruto Uzumaki, an adolescent ninja who searches constantly for recognition and dreams of becoming the Hokage, the ninja in his village who is acknowledged as the leader and the strongest of all.
5. Undertale is a role-playing video game, in which players control a human child who has fallen into the Underground, a large, secluded region underneath the surface of the Earth, separated by a magic barrier.
6. Zootopia is a 2016 American 3D computer-animated comedy-adventure movie, which tells the story of the disappearance of predator inhabitants of a mammalian metropolis.
Examples
@TechnicallyRon:
@LauraSparling I just typed rule 34 lego into google. CHILDHOOD. RUINED.
@c089:
Status: got internet rule 34’d on my innocent memories of Alice in wonderland.
@SlaughterPony:
My mom just asked me what My Little Pony Rule 34 was, and I was really tempted to say, “I don’t know. You should Google it.”
@Stonekettle:
If you come across a tape of Trump, Russian hookers, and urine, I don’t need to see it. EVER. Let’s make this the exception to Rule 34.
History
The earliest known record and most likely origin of Rule 34 was a 2003 webcomic drawn by Peter Morley-Souter to depict his shock at seeing Calvin and Hobbes parody porn. Morley-Souter posted his comic on the UK website Zoom-Out in 2004, and is shown below:
Rule 34 became the best known and most widely accepted of the Rules of the Internet, which were originally written by members of the internet group Anonymous. This group began in 2003 on the imageboard 4chan, representing its online community users as an anarchic, digitized, global brain.
Rule 34 resonates with people and has become a prevalent meme, due to the ubiquity of internet pornography. Anyone who has spent time on the web knows that porn is very easy to find, even if you’re not looking for it.
On October 12, 2006, an early Rules of the Internet was posted to the cyberculture wiki Encyclopedia Dramatica. This list included Rule 34, as well as a Rule 35 corollary, which stated that, “if no porn is found at the moment, it will be made.” Rule 35 reflects the concept that if you can’t find porn of something and you point it out, someone will create it or find it for you, even if only to maintain Rule 34.
In May 2007, a Rule 34 database was launched on Paheal.net, with a searchable archive of images.
In 2008, users of 4chan began posting sexually explicit parodies and cartoons illustrating Rule 34. 2008 also saw the launch of the subreddit rule34 on Reddit. It currently has over 220,000 subscribers.
The British science fiction writer Charles Stross released a novel called Rule 34 in July 2011. This was of course a reference to the famed Rule of the Internet. The novel was set in a near future Edinburgh, and involved a detective investigating memes that jumped from the web to the real world. The book was nominated for the 2012 Arthur C. Clarke Award and the 2012 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.
Judging by data from Google Trends, interest in Rule 34 peaked around 2013-14, but still remains very strong, despite the Washington Post predicting its demise in 2016.
Related Slang
As Rule 34 is used in reference to pornographic and sexual material, NSFW is a closely related slang term. NSFW stands for Not Safe For Work, and is used to indicate that a hyperlink contains material that would be inappropriate to be viewed in the workplace, e.g. nudity, pornography or profanity.
Alternative Meanings
None found.