History Main / ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney

* In the end scene of ''Franchise/{{RoboCop}} 2'', [[MegaCorp Omni Consumer Products]] management mentions putting the blame on someone else, bribing witnesses, etc.

** The Academy wasn't also victims to bribery from Fox. Universal also used expensive dinners to bribe Oscar voters to nominate their flop ''Anne of the Thousand Days'' for the major nominations (it only won an Oscar for Costume Design). Warner Bros. was also accused of this for getting the Academy to nominate ''[[Literature/ExtremelyLoudAndIncrediblyClose Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close]]'' for Best Picture, because of its negative reception; the organization had already stopped accepting bribes by then.

''[[Manga/RurouniKenshin Ask money to save you, then!]]''

* Should he get caught in an illicit activity without a back up plan to get him out of it, Oswald Cobblepot aka the Penguin usually either bribes the corrupt Gotham police force or relies on his lawyers to get him out of it, much to Batman's frustration.

* A recurring trope in the Burke books by AndrewVachss. A few times, it is noted that real wealth can persuade the otherwise-ineffectual police to get off their arses and be serious about their work, to the detriment of Burke's not-quite-legal BadassCrew.

* An OlderThanFeudalism example was Vitrasinus(?), a filthy rich Roman {{gladiator|Games}} (that's right, a rich slave--it wasn't a contradiction in AncientRome) who purportedly threw feasts for his army of fans so that they voted "spare" when he lost and "kill" when he won.
** Speaking of Rome: an interesting example of this trope is that in the Roman Republic, there was a fixed fine for assault, which was not adjusted for inflation, and after several centuries of currency debasement, the fine was worthless. Rich sociopaths used to walk down the street punching people in the face and then handing over purses full of small change; legally, this was adequate compensation and the victims couldn't bring charges.

** One of ProfessionalWrestling'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}}s [[LoopholeAbuse 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.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leona_Helmsley Leona Helmsley]] was the poster-girl for this trope and RichBitch for a good two decades (and still is, depending on who you ask). While there are ''many'' reasons she was called the "Queen of Mean", and makes [[{{Archer}} Malory Archer look reasonable in comparison]], one quote from her solidifies her under this trope.

* The Black Black Club from ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'' ''runs'' on this trope. It reaches a peak in [[TournamentArc The Dark Tournament's]] third round, which one guy turns into his own little Screw-the-rules fest.
** And then, ironically, when the other members of the club use ''their'' money to screw with the rules further, [[EvenEvilHasStandards he has them all killed]].

* ''SinCity'''s Yellow Bastard could get away with anything (especially {{rape|AsDrama}}) 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.

* [[ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse Scrooge McDuck]] is well-known for his meanness, but when it comes to treasure hunting, it's nearly the opposite. For example, in DonRosa's "Guardians of the Lost Library", it seems that the Library of Alexandria is buried under a modern football stadium. A match is going on and the digging after the library will break it, which will be a breach of the rules. But Scrooge just says to the officials: "Okay, then I buy both teams and stadium."

* [[http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5b812lqXa1qayy2qo1_500.gif This]] piece of FanArt, based on [[http://cacophonylights.livejournal.com/tag/acitw this]] ''{{Glee}}'' FanFic, mentions this trope by name. (It's also [[HilarityEnsues hilarious]], if you have read the fic.)

* The Biff Tannen of the alternate universe in ''Film/BackToTheFuture Part II'' killed Marty [=McFly's=] father and then told him that they'd [[DevilInPlainSight never convict him of murder]] because he "owned the police."
** "I own the police" is also attributed to notorious early 20th century gangster AlCapone, thus making this TruthInTelevision. 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.

* In the end scene of ''Franchise/{{Robocop}} 2'', [[MegaCorp Omni Consumer Products]] management mentions putting the blame on someone else, bribing witnesses, etc.

* Julia Evans, the young billionairess in the "Greg Mandell" sci-fi series by PeterFHamilton. Granted, she lives in a world virtually owned by multinationals, but even a CorruptCorporateExecutive 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 ''HumanxCommonwealth'' series, is an AntiHero user of this trope, thanks to having some {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s rig his bank account (as a favor). He mainly uses it to bribe his way around the Commonwealth, but loses some of that advantage after coming to the attention of the peaceforcers on Terra in ''Reunion''. It's also blatantly subverted in ''Flinx Transcendent'', where passing counterfeit [=AAnn=] currency on Blasusarr is what blows his cover.

* Done in ''[[QuadrailSeries 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 blackmails Larry Hardin, the richest man on Earth, into paying a trillion dollars to build another Quadrail station on the other side of the system.

** [[GreenArrow Oliver]], when not busy CrimefightingWithCash.

* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': Simon manages to do both at the same time. He gives up his fortune to save River, thereby saying ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules. He also uses his money to rescue River in defiance of the law, thereby saying ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney.

* Happened pretty frequently on ''BostonLegal''.

* This was {{Wrestling/WW|E}}F wrestler "The Million Dollar Man" Wrestling/TedDiBiase's whole character, right down to attempting to buy the WWF World Heavyweight Championship from Wrestling/HulkHogan 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 Wrestling/AndreTheGiant 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. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking OK, maybe not blackjack]]. His CatchPhrase was, "Everybody's got a price!"

* The ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'' campaign setting of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' introduced the Merkhants, a sect with this outlook. The Merkhants were an organization of wealthy people who believed that the secret to understanding the universe was to own enough material wealth to ''buy'' its secrets. They believed that everything had a price, and that if there were things that couldn't be bought, such things weren't worth owning. Player Characters could join this group, so long as they were incredibly wealthy and had a non-Good aligment (because aquiring wealth for its own sake, while not necessarily Evil, is not considered a Good act).

* Ratchet, of ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClank'', generally only survives whatever it is he's gotten involved with because he can buy [[{{BFG}} guns significantly larger than himself]].

* ''GalacticCivilizations II''. Did you pick the Evil choice in every KarmaMeter event, then researched the tech that unlocks the alignment bonuses and decided you like the Neutral or Good rewards better? Don't worry, just buy whatever alignment you want with the money you made from being so bad.

* Mom is basically a female expy of Mr. Burns in the year 3000 in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}''

* There was an episode of ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales'' in which a [[YourWorstNightmare nightmare version]] of the boys' Uncle Scrooge tells them, "I'm RICH! I can do ANYTHING!!"
** Scrooge's biggest rival, Flintheart Glomgold, is a much more geniune example of this trope on the show.

* This was the attitude of the Terrible Trio, a three-man gang who appeared on ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries''. Basically, they were three [[SpoiledBrat Spoiled Brats]] from very rich families who committed crimes simply for fun (brutally injuring more than one person in the process) and thought they were untouchable because of it. Batman's opinion of them summed it up perfectly:

* A recent experimental finding by UC Berkeley researchers revealed that people with higher socioeconomic standing were more likely to commit unethical acts such as cheating to win a prize, taking candy from children, and saying they would pocket extra change handed to them in error rather than give it back. Because rich people have more financial resources, they're less dependent on social bonds for survival, resulting in heightened self-interest, decadent hedonism, and greed over the needs of others. This was demonstrated in a driving experiment where owners of the priciest cars were 4 times more likely to enter the intersection when they didn't have the right of way. However, the researchers carefully pointed out that anyone's ethical standards could slip if they suddenly won the lottery and joined the top 1%.

** The Academy wasn't also victims to bribery from Fox. Universal also used expensive dinners to bribe Oscar voters to nominate their flop ''Anne of the Thousand Days'' for the major nominations (it only won an Oscar for Costume Design). Warner Bros. was also accused of this for getting the Academy to nominate ''[[Film/{{ExtremelyLoudandIncrediblyClose}} Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close]]'' for Best Picture, because of its negative reception; the organization had already stopped accepting bribes by then.

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* On /tg/, 4chans' traditional gaming board, there are many tales of that rude, cheating, unwashed neckbeard who stinks up the entire game shop...but the owners don't kick him out because he spends so much money there.

* ''Literature/ExilesVioloin'': When Clay encounters an obstacle to Jacquie's investigation, he pays it "an exorbant amount of money" to convince it to get out of her way.

* Hans Ebert in David Wingrove's ''ChungKuo'' relies on this trope to get away with being who he is.
* Lucius Malfoy from ''Literature/HarryPotter'' weaseled out of many problems thanks to his wealth and social position. Fortunately, by ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', his wealth couldn't get him out of staying in Azkaban until there was a second mass breakout due to the defection of the Dementors. This coming from the fact that he was caught red-handed in the middle of the Department of Mysteries in the company of other Death Eaters.

* ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'' loves this trope. Not surprising, considering that the title character is a TeenGenius with his entire family's fortune at his disposal.

* The eponymous character of ''Literature/TheGreatGatsby'' 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.]]

* Subverted, inverted, ''and'' played straight in ''Literature/AtlasShrugged''. 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.

The sad fact is, this trope is literally OlderThanDirt. Since the dawn of civilization, there have been rich people who have been shallow enough to believe that everything and everyone could be bought, and the old proverb, "Money is the root of all evil" is based on a passage from the Bible[[hottip:*:the full quote starts "love of money"]].

** Remy Buxaplenty. The fact that [[WriterOnBoard Butch Hartman]] was picked on by rich kids in high school has ''absolutely nothing'' to do with the character's horribly exaggerated portrayal, really. To be fair, he was given a FreudianExcuse when it was revealed that his parents constantly ignore him and he antagonizes Timmy because he's jealous of the fact that Timmy has both a set of loving parents (well, more loving than Remy's, at least) and Fairy Godparents. As the series went on, Remy's actions seemed to have less to do with his family issues and more to do with Remy just acting like a douche for no reason.

* Lucius Malfoy from ''Literature/HarryPotter'' weaseled out of many problems thanks to his wealth and social position. Fortunately, by ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', his wealth couldn't get him out of staying in Azkaban until there was a second mass breakout due to the defection of the Dementors.

* Phileas Fogg in Creator/JulesVerne's ''Literature/AroundTheWorldInEightyDays'' had a habit of throwing large volumes of money at his problems, at one point going so far as to hijack a ship and then buy it (it had no cargo) from its owner en route to Ireland. The original owner got the iron hull and the engine back in the end -- that is, by far the majority of the valuable parts of the vessel; the wooden superstructure (cannibalised for fuel) would cost a comparative pittance to replace.

** Mom fulfills his role in the year 3000 in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}''

* [[http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5b812lqXa1qayy2qo1_500.gif This]] piece of FanArt, based on [[http://cacophonylights.livejournal.com/tag/acitw this]] ''{{Glee}}'' FanFic, mentions this trope by name. (It's also [[HilariyEnsues hilarious]], if you have read the fic.)

Usually done to characterize the CorruptCorporateExecutive, MrViceGuy and/or a member of the {{Fiction 500}}. Compare AppealToWealth, IThoughtItWasForbidden, ConspicuousConsumption, UndisclosedFunds, IdleRich.

* Lobbying. Sure, the law says that bribery is corruption and is illegal, but [[LoopholeAbuse you need campaign donations]]. Amped up with the Citizens United court decision, which means you can provide unlimited money in support of someone without declaring where any of it is coming from; ''Series/TheColbertReport'' has had a pretty extensive segment skewering this.