50 Interesting Rules From Around the World

Clint Eastwood booted Phillip Kaufamn as director of The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) and assumed the job himself. In response, the Directors Guild of America created the Eastwood Rule that prohibits an actor or producer from firing the director and then becoming the director himself.

27. In South Korea, only visually impaired people can be licensed masseurs. This tradition dates back over 100 years to a Japanese colonial rule set up to guarantee the blind a livelihood.

28. The Goldwater Rule prohibits psychiatrists from giving professional opinions about public figures whom they have not examined in person.

29. One of the 'unwritten rules' of the Tour de France is that if the Tour is passing through where one of the riders grew up, everyone will slow down to let that rider lead the whole Tour through his hometown. Also, if the race leader needs to stop to take a pee break, everyone else slows down/stops too.

30. In 1990s, London underground workers gained concessions from management through a 'piss strike.' They apparently followed safety rules so exactly to the point that workers going to the toilet one after the other essentially shut down any work being done.

The "1 Percent Rule" states that only 1% of an Internet community creates new content. The rest of the community is divided between content editors (9%) and content viewers (90%).

32. One of the New York Mafia families' rules is that the members aren't allowed to grow facial hair.

33. According to the official Cards Against Humanity rules, the player who pooped last goes first as a judge.

34. Despite the common misconception, in most countries ship captains are not actually able to perform marriages, and the United States Navy had to make a rule specifically forbidding captains from doing so.

35. The most successful pirate captain of the Golden Age of Piracy, "Black" Bart, had very strict rules on his ship, prohibiting all lights and drinking after 8 in the evening. There was also a complete ban on gambling. If a crew member got hurt, he received a pension proportionate to his injury.

Norway has very strict rules on advertising cars as "green" saying, "cars can do nothing good for the environment except less damage than others."

37. Ryan's Rule is a medical precedent in Queensland where, if a person feels their medical concerns are not being taken seriously, they can request a re-evaluation. This rule came about after a 3-year-old child died of a bacterial infection after a hospital doctor declined to perform blood tests.

38. In 1384, 10-year-old Jadwiga of Poland, daughter of Louis I of Hungary and Elizabeth of Bosnia, was crowned king of Poland because there were no ruling queens allowed, but the rules didn't specify the king had to be a male.

39. There is a card game called Mao in which new players are told "the only rule you may be told is this one", which means that new players have to discover the rules by themselves. The player aims to be the first to get rid of all the cards in his hands without breaking any rules.

40. Many non-English languages have no concept of a spelling bee because the spelling rules in those languages are too regular for good spelling to be impressive.

The NFL has no written rule against female players. Women could be allowed if they met the league's eligibility requirements.

42. The guy who invented annoying password rules (must use upper case, lower case, #s, special characters, etc.) realizes his rules aren't helpful and has apologized to everyone for wasting our time.

43. An unwritten English rule makes "tick-tock" sound normal, but not "tock-tick". When repeating words, the first vowel is always an I, then A or O. "Chit chat" not "chat chit"; "ping pong" not "pong ping", etc. It's unclear why this rule exists, but it's never broken.

44. Ted Lindsay one of the greatest players in NHL history refused to attend his own Hall of Fame ceremony because women weren't allowed to attend. The league changed the rules to allow women the following year.

45. Toyota argued that, when empty, the Fuel Tank of the GT-One could theoretically hold a standard suitcase and be considered a trunk as required by the Le Mans GT1 rules. It worked, as the rules only required the suitcase to fit and didn't take into account if the "trunk" was actually usable.

The Society of Mutual Autopsy was established in 1876 by French anthropologists and rules were set in place according to which each member on their death had to donate their body (especially the brain) to the group for autopsy.

47. It used to be unlawful for South Koreans with the same surname and origin to marry and it was not until 2002 that this rule was amended.

48. Florentine society during Renaissance tacitly accepted male homosexuality but had a rigid rule: passive/receptive partner must be under 20 years of age while the active partner had to be older (the 20s or early 30s). Reversing those roles was considered shocking and a deviation from the "natural order."

49. Martin Brodeur was so good at handling the puck that it led to the creation of the Brodeur Rule, which prohibited for the goaltender to handle the puck behind the goal line that is not within a trapezoidal area. It aimed to reduce the effectiveness of goaltenders with good puck-handling.

50. It's illegal to play any audio of the Emergency Alert System on TV unless it's an actual EAS alert. The rule also bans audio of emergency alerts on cell phones.