In 2008, users of the imageboard 4chan posted numerous sexually explicit parodies and cartoons illustrating Rule 34. On August 20 that year, the webcomic xkcd published a comic titled 'Rule 34', which involved hypothetical sexual scenarios including homoerotic spelling bees. In May 2007, a Rule 34 database was launched on with a searchable archive of Rule 34 images, and similar sites began appearing soon after. Since then, this phrase has been adapted into different syntactic versions and even used as a verb. Though the comic faded into obscurity, the caption instantly became popular on the Internet. No exceptions.' The comic was drawn by TangoStari (Peter Morley-Souter) to depict his shock at seeing Calvin and Hobbes parody porn.

Rule 34 originated from a 2003 webcomic, captioned 'Rule #34 There is porn of it. From the 1920s to the 1960s, long before 'Rule 34' was coined, erotic mini comics called Tijuana bibles depicted popular comic characters such as Popeye and Little Orphan Annie.