Rule 34

Rule 34 is a concept I’ve been familiar with almost as long as I’ve been on the internet, but until recently I didn’t know that it was actually a named “rule.” I’ve seen Rule 34 worded a couple of ways, but my favourite wording is:

If it’s on the internet, there is porn of it.

There is also a corollary that exists, which is Rule 35:

If no porn is found at the moment, it will be made.

I first came across the term when I found a found a picture of a toon getting it in the ass and posted it to Smutty, whereupon someone added the hashtag #rule34 to it. Which led me to a blog about it, and a nice page on Know Your Meme about it.

I don’t bother following the Smutty hashtag for it, though. Much as I enjoy porn, spending a lot of time on porn sites also reduces my faith in humanity, and something tells me that if I spend a lot of time exploring Rule 34 my faith will be reduced even more.