Every single rule we follow is in place because one person decided to push the limits and steeped too far. Some of the rules make sense, like speed limits and seatbelts. Those rules save actual lives.
There are some rules, however that are implemented because someone decided to bring a typewriter to class and cause a ruckus. Many of those folks are sharing rules that were implemented ted because of their shenanigans in this hilarious AskReddit thread.
Here are our favorites:
1.
No sign language during silent lunch punishment
My lunch period was so loud we got put on silent lunch for over a month straight. I decided the only clear solution was to teach my entire table sign language so we could still talk without getting in trouble. Apparently, it was “unfair” to the kids who didn’t know how to sign, so we had to stop.
2.
A friend of mine in a military school found out the regs never stated what color the bed sheets for a bed made for inspection had to be in. So this mad man went and bought power ranger sheets and made the perfect regulation bed. I have never seen so many Sgts lose their shit but be unable to do anything since the regs were perfectly followed. Needless to say, the next year they were updated to state sheets must be plain white.
3.
Back in the day a radio station had a weekly trivia contest. The prize was a free pizza and movie rental.
Somehow my mom figured out which book they were using for the trivia questions. She bought it and memorized all the answers.
Each week we would call in immediately. Sometimes we were the first but even if we weren’t it didn’t matter because other people were usually just guessing. We won almost every time.
Even though we changed up who would actually make the call they eventually figured out we were all from the same household. So they made it a rule you couldn’t win if your family had already won in the last month or whatever.
Up till then, we enjoyed a lot of free pizzas.
4.
My brother and I got into a cattle prod sword fight at a farm store. We shocked the hell out of each other a few times and now they are locked up. We were in our 30’s.
5.
I put a croissant in one of those hotel toasters. It soon became engulfed in flames and needed extinguishing. Next day at breakfast they made a sign that said “if you’d like your croissant toasted, please ask a member of staff”
6.
I got our HR box taken away at work because the HR lady threatened not to pay us if we missed a clock in or clock out (in our defense the phones didn’t always work and the clock in the system was really unreliable) and I printed out the law stating that was illegal, highlighted it, and put it in her box when no one was around.
She threw an unholy fit and tried to figure out who put it in her box, and from then on everything had to be handed in personally lol.
7.
When I was walking home from school, I had to walk next to the road to get to my house. I decided to see if I could walk with my eyes closed.
I didn’t feel the transition from gravel to road, and the cars didn’t honk at me (as they made a line), because they thought I was deaf. I heard a noise, looked back, and ran off the street into an orchard.
Two weeks later, they put up Deaf Child Area signs on both sides of the road I live on.
8.
My junior high made a rule against yo-yos in class after I tried to do a trick and my yo-yo flew across the room and broke a glass beaker set. I’m sorry, guys.
9.
At a ballpark I worked concessions at, they had an all-you-can-eat promo day where tickets were more expensive than usual, but concessions around the stadium were free (excluding alcohol). So I worked that day and of course, it was chaos, but when the lines started dying down later in the game they started sending some of the hourly employees home, myself included. But of course, I didn’t go home. After I clocked out, I stayed in the stadium and got some cheeseburgers and Philly steak and soda and found an empty seat in the crowd for the last few innings.
Next year, the same promo, but a new rule for staff: if you get sent home early, you have to actually leave the stadium.
10.
In middle school i would use sharpies to tattoo myself, other kids thought it was cool so i started charging $1 per drawing wherever they wanted. Principal found out and after i wouldn’t stop, she put a ban on sharpies for the entire school. even the teachers couldn’t bring them in. i’m a tattoo artist now.
11.
My younger brother was always late to school (small school) and was tardy. He figured out if he just skipped first period and went to second he was counted as being on school and no late penalty because he was at 2nd period on time. They changed this the following year.
12.
No typewriters in class.
I was kind of a shit kid and while my school allowed us to use laptops, I would play video games. Primarily Warcraft 3. In class. No sound or anything so I wasn’t being a complete nuisance, but I wasn’t doing my work.
A teacher told me I couldn’t use my laptop.
I happened to have a 1950’s Remington Quiet-Riter portable, all-mechanical typewriter. It was anything but quiet, with all of the TAKKA TAKKA TAKKA TAKKA… DING! you’d expect from a typewriter.
After one full day of studiously taking notes and doing my assignments via typewriter, my teacher said I could use my laptop as long as I didn’t bring the typewriter to class.
13.
My elementary school was located in the center of the neighborhood, and my 5th-grade class was the first to get outdoor trailers for classrooms. We’d ask for bathroom passes and then walk home. Next year they built a fence around the school
— u/YT4000
14.
“Golf users can no longer return an unlimited # of balls for tokens. “
When I was maybe.. 12ish there was a kid’s outdoor play area. Go-karts, batting cages, and indoors were something like a Chuck-E-Cheese, token-based games, etc.
You could get a wristband for maybe $15 and it’d get you unlimited rides, mini-golf, and some other activities. Everything else costs tokens.
When you finished golfing you’d get 2 tokens for bringing your ball back. Unlimited golf, $0.50 worth of play value inside. So my friends and I would go there, speed run two golf games, and give the balls back. $1 to our pockets.
Later on, we started just fishing balls out of the water hazards and turning them in. Subtly at first and then in bulk later. The guys working there didn’t care or actively laughed at it.
So we’d have a few hundred tokens.. then we started selling them 5 for $1. We stopped buying the unlimited bands. I’d bike there and earn $25 in a couple of hours. Management eventually caught on and altered the token for ball exchange.
15.
Male students are not allowed to wear hair accessories. We had the rule about hair not touching collars, couldn’t be past eyebrows, or over the ears. I grew my hair out and just put it up in head bands. After receiving multiple detentions and fighting them and winning, the next year, they made the rule
16.
Minor one, but when I was in elementary school we had one of those bridge-building challenges using toothpicks and hot glue. My partner and I realized if we just coated the entire thing with a thick ass layer of hot glue it would make our bridge strong as hell. So we used a full pack of hot glue sticks, like 20 of them, it was more glue than toothpicks. So after that, they limited the number of glue sticks you could use.
17.
In history class in high school, there was about 10 of us really close friends. We would take every opportunity to make “your mom” jokes. A couple months into class the teacher made us sign a “treaty” promising to stop making fun of each other’s moms. We signed it, and started making fun of each other’s dads.
18.
“No more than 4 margaritas per person” on dollar margarita (& beer) night…..In college, some friends and I used to go to a mexican restaurant every Thursday (?) and often on Saturdays for $1 margaritas. As a group, we would go through A LOT….then they put the rule in….then they changed it to $2 margaritas (& $1 draft beers)
19.
Local amusement park added a “no blindfolds on rollercoasters” rule because of me.
When I was in middle school, my friend and I thought it would enhance the overall experience if we blindfolded ourselves on the biggest roller coaster at a local amusement park. We got one of those pictures they take on the ride and there we are, blindfolded in the middle of a tunnel, having the time of our lives. Looking back, we easily could have strangled ourselves or worse because we literally just used scarves tied around our heads. Next year we went back to the same roller coaster and they had added “no blindfolds or loose accessories” to the list of rules before the ride.
20.
Uber expense with drinks for clients at my work. Years ago we took a bunch of clients out and everyone had way too much to drink so I ordered everyone Ubers home. Turned in the expense report to our account manager ( just under 400 bucks in Ubers) and she had no clue what an uber was. I explained to my bosses that we expense drinks for clients and why not expense Ubers. Now if we pay for drinks for clients we also pay for Ubers.
21.
I got the Ryan’s Steak House buffets in Louisville, KY to put baby changing stations in the men’s bathrooms back in the 90’s.
22.
“No makeup”.
I went to an all-boys school, and apparently, this never came up until me and my emo friends rocked up in black eyeliner and lipstick.
23.
Oh, I was a teacher who coached debate and took the team of high school students on weekend tournament trips.
I had new rules every year and my co-coach and I privately called them the name of the student. E.g. the Jess rule was that if you assaulted anyone, you were sent home. The Annie rule was no debating in fake accents. There was the Dylan rule, which was no communal porn watching in the hotel rooms. Jess rule #2 was do everything you can to vomit into the garbage can or toilet and not on the floor. Jess rule #3 was no yelling at nurses in the ER that you are a virgin when they ask you to take a pregnancy test. Jess rule #4 was we can cut you off after 12 minutes of no stop talking.
Jess was a character, obviously.
24.
I had to sue my school district back in high school just to leave special education after fighting it for over a decade.
Special education students now have the right built into every single IEP to attend any standard education class in their grade level or below, earn the associated credits, and also go to both health education and driver’s education. They could do none of that before the lawsuit.
25.
You can no longer skip to the end of training videos at Wendy’s.
I completed about 10 hours of this training when it was implemented, after I’d already been working there a year, in about 45 minutes.
Open, skip, skip, skip, skip, do the test, rinse and repeat. I was quite proud of my “estimated time 45 minutes, time to completion 2 minutes”.
My store which is a franchise location got a call from corporate like an hour later. I didn’t have to redo any of it though.