Legally Allowed to Leave
About
Legally Allowed to Leave is an image macro series featuring images captioned with jokes about how if certain conditions are not met in a variety of scenarios then those who are present are "legally allowed to leave." The jokes are based off widely-circulated rumors that students are "legally allowed" to leave a classroom if the teacher is more than 15 minutes late to class, often referred to as the "15 minute rule."
Origin
The origin of a widely-circulated urban legend asserting that students are allowed to leave class if the teacher is more than 15 minutes late is unclear. On June 13th, 2011, Snopes[7] published an article about the myth titled "Obligatory Wait," which labeled the rumors as "false." On October 12th, Redditor drpeppershaker submitted an image macro of Sonic the Hedgehog with the caption "If the teacher is 15 minutes late / we're legally allowed 2 leave" to /r/me_irl.[1]
Spread
On January 19th, 2018, Redditor 2SmoothForYou submitted a post titled "we're legally allowed to leave if the teacher is 15 minutes late" to /r/teenagers[3] (shown below).
On March 28th, Redditor _Edison_Was_A_Fake posted a Hide the Pain Harold image macro captioned with a joke about commiting suicide "when the suicide hotline hasn't convinced you not to end it all within 15 minutes" to /r/dankmemes[6] (shown below, left). That day, Redditor Supersteel12 posted a photograph of a Christian pastor with the caption "If God doesn't show up in 15 minutes, we're legally allowed to sin, garnering more than 2,600 points (94% upvoted) on /r/dankmemes (shown below, right).
Meanwhile, Redditor Bilkkk submitted a picture of a human ovum captioned with the message "if a sperm doesn't arrive in 28 days I am legally allowed to leave" (shown below, left). Within 24 hours, the post gained over 31,000 points (93% upvoted) and 180 comments on /r/me_irl.[2] Also on March 28th, Redditor Jaspertje1 submitted a Loss-themed variation of the meme to /r/me_irl[4] (shown below, right).
Various Examples
Search Interest
External References
[3] Reddit – /r/teenagers
[5] Quora – If a teacher doesn't show up in the first 15 minutes of class, am I free to leave?
[7] Snopes – The Obligatory Wait
Top Comments
BALL BREAKER!!
Mar 29, 2018 at 03:06PM EDT
H.UNgrammar
Mar 29, 2018 at 02:35PM EDT