What is 'Rule 34?' The Most Iconic 'Rule Of The Internet' Explained

If you've ever looked up an old cartoon from your childhood online, such as Dexter's Laboratory, you've likely seen an autofill search result or a search filter category called "Rule 34." If you didn't click it, good job and well done, but if you did, sorry for the ruined childhood.

Explaining Rule 34, arguably the most iconic of all Rules of the Internet, isn't that hard to do, but finding a way to justify and make sense of it is where it gets complicated. That being said, let's explain.

What Is "Rule 34?"

Rule 34 is, at its simplest, an "Internet Rule" that has stood the test of time and is as core a part to the ideals of internet culture as cats being funny. The rule stipulates that anything which exists, anything at all, will have adult content made about it and posted online. It doesn't matter what the subject is, if it exists, adult content about it also exists.

This rule is stipulated to have no exceptions, and with over two decades of internet fan art communities existing, that has been proven correct.

In most cases, Rule 34 exists as both a meme and a source of shock value, with the most common examples of Rule 34 art being the ones from Western children's animation, such as Teen Titans and Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends. However, the meme has evolved to where it is an expected part of reality, with it now being guaranteed that a new brand mascot will automatically have lewd drawings of them shortly after their reveal.

Where Does Rule 34 Come From?

Much like the other early internet meme Loss, the name comes from a webcomic of the time that had the caption "Rule #34 There is porn of it. No exceptions," which was created in 2003 by the artist Peter Morley-Souter, also known as TangoStari.

This naming convention for what to call adult content made of non-adult subjects and topics stuck as the name then became a catch-all for this type of content, making it easier for fledgling communities to use the reference as a way to gather together, with its own dedicated website for archiving examples being made in 2007.

What Is Considered Rule 34?

Rule 34 is considered almost any type of drawn or animated adult content that is found online, but when looking at things such as Doujinshi, there's a certain level of parody that has to be attached to it.

While Rule 34 of original characters can exist, if it's the original creator making it, then it's not really a parody piece of the original character, just a normal action for the character — thus not necessarily qualifying for Rule 34 status.

What Is There No Rule 34 Of?

There is typically no Rule 34 of extremely old or niche characters that have almost been forgotten by the internet, such as a random background one-off character from a show like FraggleRock or one of the many hundreds of background imaginary friends featured in Foster's.

However, there is a lesser-known stipulation within Rule 34 that if adult content of the character does not exist, it will be made, which is true in so much that it takes an online creator less than five minutes to quickly create something that could count as Rule 34 of these un-lewded characters.

If you want to learn more about the meme, check out our entry on Rule 34 here.