Rule 34

Rule 34 (English for rule 34 ) is a meme and a term from the zeitgeist. It states that pornography exists for everything that is available on the Internet . Rule 34 literally reads: "There is porn of it, no exceptions" ("There is pornography of it, without exceptions."). One variant is “If it exists, there is porn of it. No exceptions " (" If it exists, there is pornography from it. Without exceptions. ").

origin

There are numerous Internet rule sets. The exact origin of Rule 34 is unknown. Since the early 2000s, there have been more sources referring to the rule. In 2003, the then 16-year-old British student Peter Morley-Souter created a webcomic that addressed Rule 34. He had grown up with the children's comic book Calvin and Hobbes and received an email that, according to his own account, traumatized him: The email was accompanied by a drawing showing cartoon characters having sexual intercourse with the mother of the cartoon character Calvin. In response, Morley-Souter drew a webcomic with the text: “The Internet, raping your childhood since 1996” and the headline “Rule # 34 - There is porn of it. No exceptions. ”(Rule # 34 - There is pornography of it. Without exception). The line drawing shows a young man sitting in shock in front of a computer screen. The comic was published in 2004 on the Zoom-Out website, where it is still located today.

distribution

The reasons for the spread of Rule 34 are unknown. In 2006 there was an entry in one of the most widely read internet dictionaries , the Urban Dictionary . Accordingly, "Rule 34 is a generally accepted Internet rule that states that sexually oriented material can be produced from any imaginable object."

From around 2009 onwards, numerous media and media theorists described Rule 34 as one of the top 10 laws on the Internet. There are now many variants and additions to this, such as Rule 35 , sometimes also called Rule 34b : "If no porn is found at the moment, it will be made." (If no pornographic material can be found at the moment, it will be produced .)

literature

Charles Stross : Rule 34 . Ace, 2011. ISBN 978-0-441-02034-8
Sebastian Bartoschek , Thomas Koch, Peter Böhling : Rule 34… and other internet rules . JMB Verlag , Hannover 2015, ISBN 978-3-944342-98-6

Individual evidence

↑ Rule 34 on fanlore.org
↑ The original comic Rule # 34 at knowyourmeme
↑ See e.g. B. The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs , Yale University Press 2012, ISBN 978-0-300-13602-9 ; Marcus Herzig: Memoirs of a Johnny's Fanboy , CreateSpace 2012, ISBN 978-1-4782-5550-5 ; Tom Chivers: Internet rules and laws: the top 10, from Godwin to Poe , Daily Telegraph, October 23, 2009; Ogi Ogas, Sai Gaddam: A Billion Wicked Thoughts: What the Internet Tells Us About Sexual Relationships , Penguin, 2011; Susanna Paasonen: Carnal resonance affect and online pornography , MIT Press, 2011, ISBN 978-0-262-01631-5

[1] Rule 34 on fanlore.org

[2] The original comic Rule # 34 at knowyourmeme

[3] See e.g. B. The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs , Yale University Press 2012, ISBN 978-0-300-13602-9 ; Marcus Herzig: Memoirs of a Johnny's Fanboy , CreateSpace 2012, ISBN 978-1-4782-5550-5 ; Tom Chivers: Internet rules and laws: the top 10, from Godwin to Poe , Daily Telegraph, October 23, 2009; Ogi Ogas, Sai Gaddam: A Billion Wicked Thoughts: What the Internet Tells Us About Sexual Relationships , Penguin, 2011; Susanna Paasonen: Carnal resonance affect and online pornography , MIT Press, 2011, ISBN 978-0-262-01631-5