History Main / ObviousRulePatch

** Episode 12 of ''Ghost Island'' technically has Wendell finishing his puzzle first in the immunity challenge. The problem is that he did not have the sense to call Jeff Probst over to check his slide puzzle, allowing Laurel to finish next, who ''did'' call him over. As a result, Jeff Probst was unable to notice that Wendell end up finishing his puzzle, and he declared Laurel to be the winner. While Wendell ultimately decided to accept him losing, a new rule would end up being added that contestants have to call him over when they finish a puzzle.

* During a filler episode of the Davy Back arc in ''Manga/OnePiece'', the Straw Hats are pitted against the Foxy Pirates in a game of Pirate Dodgeball, which comes with [[{{Doorstopper}} an absolutely massive rulebook]] full of an absurd amount of rule patches (including a rule for ''accidentally swallowing the ball'').

** A very subtle example, but notice that the houseguests are cutting with plastic knives. This was because of a Season 2 incident where Justin held a knife to another houseguest's throat and said "Would you mind if I killed you?"

* in the pilot episode of ''Series/{{Deputy}}'', the sheriff of Los Angeles County has a sudden heart attack and dies, and the county charter is consulted to determine who will become acting sheriff until the next election. The designated successor turns out to be the "longest serving member of the sheriff's mounted posse". This rule has been in the charter since 1850 (when the "mounted posse" would have consisted of the sheriff's most senior and trusted deputies) and no-one thought to amend it to fit with the changing nature of the sheriff's department. In 2020, most sheriff's deputies don't know how to ride a horse and the closest thing to a mounted posse is the department's mounted division, a secondary department that uses horses to patrol the rough rural areas of the county. So the job of acting sheriff goes to Bill Hollister, who is the longest serving member of the division because he is very unpopular with his superiors and [[ReassignedToAntarctica has been permanently exiled there]]. The county government is bound by the charter so [[ReassignmentBackfire Hollister gets to serve as acting sheriff until the next election]], at which point the charter will then be revised so that something like this never happens again.

* In ''Fanfic/PokemonResetBloodlines'', trainers are allowed to face a special challenge when they fight a Gym Leader of facing the team they use against trainers with seven badges. If they win, the resulting badge functions as eight badges so they can skip straight to training for the region's Pokemon League. After Gym Leaders had to deal with endless trainers thinking they can take on the challenge with untrained low level Pokemon, a new rule was added so that if a trainer enters such a challenge and loses, they can't challenge any gyms for a year. As a result, the only trainers who do said challenge are generally veterans of other regions who don't want to waste time gathering another eight badges, or skilled trainers unable to travel around their home region for whatever reason.

* In ''Fanfic/TheInfiniteLoops'', a lot of additions have been made to "Da Rules" from ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents'' thanks to looper antics. For example, there is now a rule against wishing that Vicky and Mr Crocker were fairy godparents, thanks to Cosmo and [[WesternAnimation/WinxClub Musa.]]

* At first in ''Fanfic/MyHeroPlaythrough'', the "Lions and Gazelles" game really only had two rules: 1) Anyone who goes out of bounds is out, 2) Getting tagged by a "Lion's" hands marks a "Gazelle" as out. Within a few weeks, All-Might has had to make an entire paragraph of convoluted rules due to Izuku and Ami (along with the rest of the class to a lesser extent) finding loopholes that are technically allowed, but against the spirit of the game. The first known example is Izuku simply grabbing Mina, one of the lions, by the back of her shirt and placing her out of bounds.

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'': The Director of Project Freelancer exploits a loophole to argue that his torture of the Alpha AI does not break any laws regarding the ethnical treatment of AIs. The investigating Chairman confirms that the laws are now being extensively revised to close the loophole, and suspects that the Director will end up with an entire section of legal code [[RuleBreakerRuleNamer named after him]] as a result. [[spoiler:The Alpha AI was a copy of the Director's own mind; he therefore argued that a person choosing to torture themselves does not break any rules or laws. The investigating body was so unimpressed that they immediately began the legal process of ensuring it can never happen again.]]
* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Relics [[TimeStandsStill freeze time]] when activated for use. When Ruby exploits that ability to buy herself some time, the [[ArtifactOfPower Relic of Knowledge]] closes the loophole to prevent that from happening again. [[spoiler:The [[OurGeniesAreDifferent spirit of the Relic]] is impressed with Ruby's ingenuity in solving the problem of having run out of time to save everyone with her [[MagicalEye silver eyes]], which is why she permits it to work this one time. However, Jinn's warning is very firm: she will never again permit anyone to summon her unless they are seeking knowledge.]]
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** In the first Christmas episode, Timmy wishes that everyday was Christmas, which eventually messes things up since fairies lend their power to Santa for the holiday. Once everything is fixed, a new rule is added to Da Rules that forbids an "Everyday Christmas wish" from ever being granted again.
** In ''Fairly Odd Baby'', it's discovered that fairies are no longer allowed to have children after Cosmo was born (since Jorgen Von Strangle feared there being another idiot like Cosmo). Timmy decides to wish that Cosmo and Wanda would have a child. Jorgen intervenes in order to stop the wish, but as it turns Jorgen never got around to actually putting the wish in Da Rules. Jorgen allows the wish to be granted, but from that day forward Da Rules now states that such a wish can no longer be granted.

* In ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward,'', the Nonary Game's rules are so vague and general that they need a lot of obvious patches. To name a few:

* One of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' most infamous [[AmoralAttorney Lionel Hutz]] jokes is when he asks for a payment in advance and Bart shows him his newspaper ad that claims "Works on contingency -- No Money Down". He hastily claims they got it all screwed up and, right in front of them no less, changes it to read "Works on contingency'''?''' -- No''',''' Money Down'''!'''"

* One of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''' most infamous [[AmoralAttorney Lionel Hutz]] jokes is when he asks for a payment in advance and Bart shows him his newspaper ad that claims "Works on contingency -- No Money Down". He hastily claims they got it all screwed up and, right in front of them no less, changes it to read "Works on contingency'''?''' -- No''',''' Money Down'''!'''"

* One of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''' most infamous [[AmoralAttorney Lionel Hutz]] jokes is when he asks for a payment in advance and Bart shows him his newspaper ad that claims "Works on contingency. No money down". He claims they got it all screwed up and, right in front of them no less, changes it to read "Works on contingency? No, money down!"

Or maybe your game is out there already. Thousands, maybe millions of people are playing and enjoying it. Then some Power Gamer figures out how to game the system and auto-win with some horrific combination of moves. You certainly can't "uncreate" the game once it's out there, nor can you radically modify the rules so that particular combo doesn't work, because that would fundamentally change the game and honk off millions of customers. What do you do?

** ''ObviousRulePatch/DungeonsAndDragons''

* In ''Pinball/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', the [[SmartBomb Hadron Enforcer]] originally was able to collect various important jackpots (such as the WizardMode’s Super Jackpot, or the hurry-up that both starts Orb Multiball and determines how much every subsequent jackpot is worth). Version 0.95 removed both of these.

* ''Series/{{Deputy}}'': In the first episode the sheriff of Los Angeles County has a heart attack and dies. The county charter is consulted to determine who will be acting sheriff till the next election. The designated successor turns out to be the "longest serving member of the sheriff's mounted posse". This rule has been in the charter since 1850 (when the "mounted posse" would have consisted of the sheriff's most senior and trusted deputies) and no-one thought to amend it to fit with the changing nature of the sheriff's department. In 2020, most sheriff's deputies don't know how to ride a horse and the closest thing to a mounted posse is the department's mounted division, a secondary department that uses horses to patrol the rough rural areas of the county. So the job of acting sheriff goes to Bill Hollister, who is the longest serving member of the division because he is very unpopular with his superiors and [[ReassignedToAntarctica has been permanently exiled there]]. The county government is bound by the charter so [[ReassignmentBackfire Hollister gets to serve as sheriff until the next election]], at which point the charter will then be revised so that something like this never happens again.

* ''Series/{{Deputy}}'': In the first episode the sheriff of Los Angeles County has a heart attack and dies. The county charter is consulted to determine who will be acting sheriff till the next election. The designated successor turns out to be the "longest serving member of the sheriff's mounted posse". This rule has been in the charter since 1850 (when the "mounted posse" would have consisted of the sheriff's most senior and trusted deputies) and no-one thought to amend it to fit with the changing nature of the sheriff's department. In 2020 most sheriff's deputies do not know how to ride a horse and the closest to a mounted posse is the mounted division which is a secondary department that uses horses to patrol the rough rural areas of the county. So the job of acting sheriff goes to Bill Hollister who is the longest serving member of the division because he is very unpopular with his superiors and has been permanently exiled there. The county government is bound by the charter so Hollister gets to serve as sheriff till the next election and the charter is then going to be changed so something like this never happens again.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', there is a sport called pro-bending, in which two teams made up of one waterbender, one earthbender, and one firebender compete (there are a single digit number of Airbenders in the world, so they aren't included). Korra, as the Avatar, is the ''only living person'' capable of bending more than one element, so it's a little weird how she fits into the rules. When she reflexively earthbends to block a shot despite being the teams waterbender, the referee calls "Foul!...I think." After a brief recess, the officials come up with a simple solution: the Avatar can compete, but may only bend her designated element.

* In ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'', the Director of Project Freelancer argues that the outright torture he inflicted on the Alpha AI does not break any laws regarding ethical treatment of AIs, because [[spoiler:the Alpha AI is a copy of ''his'' mind, so it can be argued that he was torturing ''himself'',]] which there is no law against. The Chairman investigating him replies that that may be the case, but the laws are being extensively revised to take that into account, and he suspects the Director will have [[RuleBreakerRuleNamer an entire section of the new laws named after him for this.]]

* In ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'', at one point, Ruby summons [[OurGeniesAreDifferent Jinn]] (who keeps the world in a TimeStandsStill while summonned to allow her summoners to ask and recieve the answer to their question undisturbed), not to ask a question, but to take advantage of the TimeStandsStill to get enough time to activate her silver eyes. Jinn admits that, while impressed by the ingenuity, she won't allow it to happen ever again.

** The Final Two became the Final Three. While not all fans like this, Probst says that this was so people would have to face a competitor and not just drag TheLoad into the finals. Chances are, everyone's thoughts towards Courtney in ''Exile Island'' (intending to bring her to the finals because everyone ''hated'' her) made the producers think. Probst has pointed out there have been plenty of seasons where [[UnpleasableFanbase everyone complained the final two was a wash anyways]], one of them conveniently being ''Exile Island''. This didn't stop Earl from claiming the first unanimous victory against two disliked players in ''Fiji'' and Boston Rob from pulling the [[TooDumbToLive two dumbest and laziest players]] to the finals in ''Redemption Island'', but most other seasons have had closer votes in the final three.