Sandbox / Wick Check In Audacity

On this page, we will be doing a wick check for Refuge in Audacity.

Why? Refuge in Audacity is supposed to be a character getting away with an illegal, immoral, or objectionable action by taking it to such an absurd extreme that nobody believes they actually did it. Instead, it tends to get used as a synonym for Crosses the Line Twice.

Wicks checked: 90/90.

Correct Use (22/90)

1. Manga.Ratman: Jackall posted a blog on the internet telling everyone that they were a secret evil organization. Not believing that a ‘Secret’ organization would actually do this everyone figured it was a parody site.
2. Big Finish Doctor Who Short Trips S5 E8 "Foreshadowing":
   The Doctor: I'm an alien, Charley is from 1930, and we have a time machine. Somewhat low-context, but it seems correct, as Appeal to Audacity mentions the specific response the officer has.
3. Characters.Game Of Thrones Petyr Baelish: When Littlefinger returns to the Vale announcing his intent to "rescue" Sansa from the Boltons, Lord Royce accuses him (completely accurately) of selling her out in the first place. Littlefinger's rebuttal boils down to No, You, and it's such a brazen bit of Baelish bullshit that it really shouldn't work, but it does, backed by an Implied Death Threat. Seems correct
4. Series.Gilmore Girls: Chekhov's Gag:
   • When she was a teen, Lorelai went into labor and went to the hospital by herself, leaving a note for her parents instead of telling them where she was. Emily complained about how ridiculous it was that she just left a note, and later in the episode, her parents find that Lorelai left another note when she ran away from home. Seems correct? If all they do is complain...
5. Recap.The Sandman 2022 S 01 E 09 Collectors: A serial killer convention masquerades in plain sight as a "cereal convention". This gets lampshaded a little by Gilbert, who notes that it's strange that children aren't allowed there. Seems correct
6. RuneScape.Tropes A To G: Bank Robbery: The Wise Old Man pulled one of these in Draynor Village.He lives right across the street from the bank, but he's too dangerous to actually confront about it. The best the guards can do is keep an eye on him at all times.
7. Recap.Cobra Kai S 3 E 3 Now Youre Gonna Pay: Pay Evil unto Evil: Stealing is wrong, especially in the form of straight up carrying someone's possessions out of their house in broad daylight, but show of hands: did anyone feel sorry for Sid after Johnny swiped that silly modern art sculpture? Didn't think so. Obnoxious First-Person Writing aside, I think this is correct?
8. Recap.Breaking Bad S 2 E 8 Better Call Saul: Saul's reaction to two guys marching him out to the desert and sitting him in front of an open grave? After he figures out they're not after him personally and are amateurs, he does the old trick that Kim used on him when Chuck was trying to get him disbarred: he gets them to put a dollar in his pocket as a "retainer," claims that they're now under attorney-client privilege, and offers them advice on better ways to handle their problems. This isn't remotely how attorney-client privilege works, but savvy Saul guesses - correctly - that these guys wouldn't know that.
9. Recap.Bobs Burgers S 1 E 5 Hamburger Dinner Theater: The robber has the balls to come back to the restaurant as a customer. And then he has the balls to outright confess to Linda. Bob immediately calls the cops. Seems correct, since Bob recognized who he was right off the bat, while the others were already too caught up in his charisma by the time they realized it was him.
10. Recap.Kim Possible S 4 E 8 Clothes Minded: Because Drakken built his lair by concealing it as a college, he managed to secure government grants to build almost everything he needs for the lair and his scheme, minus a few key parts he still needs to steal.
11. Recap.Static Shock S 2 E 8 Attack Of The Living Brain Puppets: An indirect example. When Virgil tries to explain to Sharon about Madelyn being a bang baby with telepathy and mind control powers, Sharon laughs it off. Probably doesn't help that Virgil referred to Madelyn's victims as "brain puppets", which is what sets off Sharon laughing at the idea.
12. Roleplay.Scary News Out Of Tokyo 3: Paper-Thin Disguise: No prizes for guessing who ZeroGirl00 is. Especially as she gives away knowledge that only a deep NERV insider would have, and frequently talks about Rei Ayanami in I Have This Friend fashion.
    • Ironically, in-universe the disguise DOES work. Opinion varies on whether "she" is Ritsuko, Shinji, or someone else entirely; it takes months before anyone thinks it could be Ayanami, and even then nobody believes it until she outright admits it. Feels like natter, though I think the trope is being used correctly in this context.
13. Recap.Uncharted 4 A Thiefs End: With the two towers on opposite ends of King's Bay, Sam takes a Shoreline jeep to head to one tower to save time. Nate and Sully find the other tower in the middle of a massive market, both noting the Refuge in Audacity. Passing through a lively street of apple sellers and lemurs, they find the tower locked from the inside, necessitating their sneaking in through a broken window. Inside the tower of the scale sigil of Captain Edward England, they look around until spotting a dais under the clock tower with a mechanic to place the Avery coin. Popping out of the wall are statues of zodiac constellations as bells start to ring further up the tower. Stairs also rise up, but the wooden planks are rotten and fall apart as soon as they appear. Between collapsing lumber and a fully functioning clock tower, Nate rings the four bells to lock away the statues, releasing a lock on the floor that forms Avery's sigil. Climbing higher to the main bell, Nate rings it. Seems correct, since this implies the tower goes completely unnoticed most of the time.
14. Recap.Better Call Saul S 4 E 1 Smoke: Mike steals a Madrigal worker's identification badge, infiltrates their Las Cruces warehouse, and exploits any weaknesses he can find. No one pays him any mind, not even noticing the fact that he's wearing someone else's ID pass. When the manager states that he's unfamiliar with Mike's position, he simply tells him to give Lydia Rodarte-Quayle a call.
15. Recap.Psych S 01 E 03 Speak Now Or Forever Hold Your Piece: Shawn pretends to be an Interpol agent to get past a receptionist who doesn’t believe in psychics.
16. Recap.Kim Possible S 1 E 16 Kimitation Nation: Drakken's choice of mobile base of operations while tracking down Kim to clone her is... a truck with an image of him sitting on a toilet labelled as "Mr. Potty".◊ Somehow, he reached Middleton High and was casually driving around Middleton searching for Kim without attracting any attention from law enforcement, with Wade only picking up on his presence because the truck radiated the same amount of power as his usual lairs.
17. Recap.Community S 3 E 06 Advanced Gay: Vice Dean Laybourne cites this as the reason he kidnaps the recruits and chooses to have a black Hitler and a panini-making astronaut present at the recruitment ceremony. If anyone does talk about it, no one will believe them. Seems like it fits both this and Crosses the Line Twice
18. Recap.The Batman S 1 E 1 The Bat In The Belfry: The Arkham guard is utterly perplexed that someone would sneak into a cell. Joker takes advantage of this.
19. Recap.What We Do In The Shadows S 4 E 4 The Night Market: When Guillermo gets anxious over going to the Night Market as a human, Nandor tells him to simply tell people he's an orc, should any problems arise. Guillermo is upset at what this says about his looks, especially when it actually works.
20. Recap.Grimm S 5 E 16 The Believer: Dwight Eleazar, woging in public as part of a stage show. He's obviously been doing so before the Wesen Council were murdered, using the same loophole as the circus in "The Show Must Go On", where the Kehrseite audience think it's all a trick.
21. Recap.Death Battle S 10 E 13 Scooby Doo VS Courage The Cowardly Dog: Mistaken Identity: While discussing Scooby’s talents in disguise, Boomstick seemingly walks onscreen dressed as an old woman, at which Wiz tries to use “him” as an example of how the disguises work when they really shouldn’t. Then Boomstick actually walks onscreen, at which point Wiz realizes he accidentally insulted Boomstick’s mother.
22. TabletopGame.Tyranny Of Dragons: Early in the adventure, one of the ways for the heroes to get into the Cult's camp is to just walk straight through it without even attempting to hide their identities or act like they're going to be stopped. This will work this one and only time because the camp is already disorganized, and because the cultists don't expect anyone to be so brazen as to just walk in.

Crosses The Line Twice (25/90)

1. Blaming the Victim: Parodied by The Whitest Kids U' Know in the sketch "The Grapist". It involves a consultant pitching an ad for a creepy fruit soda mascot who's a blatant rape metaphor: he bursts into people's bedrooms (including children's) in the dead of night and "grapes" them in the mouth. At one point, the consultant claims that the little girl in the ad deserves to get graped.
2. Music.BROCKHAMPTON: Kevin's "Empty" music video was how many people found out about his homosexuality. How did he make the big reveal, exactly? By having another man fellate him.
3. YMMV.Soviet Womble: Several jokes that get thrown around in Womble's videos reference things like the Nazis and the Holocaust. Edges towards Refuge in Audacity when it's the German clan members like Gambit or Poro who get in on the jokes. Soviet is usually the one to lampshade this.
4. PerspectiveFlip.Live Action TV: How I Met Your Mother:
   • One episode has Ted and Barney at a club taking Refuge in Audacity, pushing karma to the limit to see if doing bad gets good results (for the most part, it does). In the morning, just as Ted is set to start bragging to Marshall, Marshall reveals that Ted butt-dialed him seventeen times, and the significant events of the night before are shown from a different perspective. Rather than being audacious and charismatic, Ted was a Jerkass thief who nearly knowingly had sex with a married woman. Ted felt shame and Marshall scorned him. Entry implicitly admits that this is just Crosses the Line Twice, because of how amusing it is that it went horribly wrong for the characters
5. Series.Drew Careys Improv A Ganza: Inherently Funny Words:
   • A game of "Sentences" churned out the phrase "sex-butt", which Ryan started milking for all it was worth.
6. Radar.Anime And Manga: Potholed twice here, the first instance being about the sixth episode of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann almost entirely devoting its runtime to Naked People Are Funny jokes, and the second being about Gintama and its in-your-face sex jokes.
7. Pantheon.Words [under George Carlin's folder]: Knowing How Far to Push a Joke, Swearing, Age-induced cynicism, Nice People Who Play Mean Characters, Enjoying Suffering, Refuge in Audacity Can tell right off the bat where this belongs lol
8. Series.Absolutely 1989: John Sparkes's character Frank Hovis always gave his talks to camera while sitting on a toilet. His customary self-introduction was "This is Frank Hovis" but in one sketch, that's as far as he got before giving into an extraordinarily long cascade of invisible but all-too-audible diarrhoea, which was apparently so excruciating that he couldn't speak. When it was over, he just muttered "Bye-bye" and the sketch ended.
9. PlayingWith.Comic Sutra: Enforced: Refuge in Audacity, Bow Chicka Wow Wow, Rule of Funny.
10. Series.Big Time Rush: Establishing Character Moment: The show is VERY good at this.
    • Griffin for his pitch-perfect, yet over-the-top Corrupt Corporate Executive entrance. Bonus points for siting down, having his assistants turn Gustavo's desk around so that he's sitting at it, having an assistant lower Gustavo's chair to emphasize the point of who's in charge, and having a pair of warm pants brought in to him. And then, after delivering the bad news, he stops to savor the anguished sound of Gustavo's shriek of disbelief.
11. Pantheon.Religious Practice [under Flying Spaghetti Monster's folder]: Portfolio: Invisible and Intangible, Satire of Creationism Turned "Religion", Eldritch Abomination, Made of Spaghetti and Meatballs, Gravity Is Him Helping You Down, Pirates Are Nice Guys And Lovable Scamps, Bit of A Ditz But Ultimately Benevolent, Heaven is Beer and Strippers And Hell is Stale Beer/Strippers with STDs, May Have Become An Actual Religion
12. Theatre.Operation Mincemeat: The Nazis as a boy band. ZCE, but I can already tell what this is
13. Recap.Star Vs The Forces Of Evil S 4 E 34 Here To Help: Vengeful Vending Machine: Eclipsa tries to get candy from a vending machine by tipping it in a way where it could fall on top of her, even while she's holding Meteora. Both are unharmed, and Eclipsa then manages to get Meteora to crawl into the machine and pull the candy out directly.
14. Funny.ExcelSaga: Welcome to Episode 26, Going Too Far. Not so much an exercise in crossing the line, but shooting the line in the knee, tossing it in a shallow grave, raping its mother and not paying the alimony. Refuge in Audacity up to eleven. Let us count the ways:
15. NightmareFuel.Half Life 2: The zombies have nothing on Antlions. Guards in particular.
    • Via quirk of the Source engine, Antlion Guards can actually fling Striders with their ramming attack. Whether this is hilarious or even more disturbing is up for debate.
16. Pantheon.Gaming [under Buckshot Holmes' and Kreese Kreely's folder]: Portfolio: Jerkasses, Refuge in Audacity, Alliterative Name, Cluster F-Bomb, Toilet Humor, Comically Missing the Point, DeathWatch commentators, Only heard, never seen
17. PersonOfInterest.Tropes N To S:
    • On discovering the Villain of the Week is a Federal Marshall, Reese storms into his office and beats him up (along with several of his colleagues) just to deliver a death threat.
    • Reese flashing the badge of the deceased Detective Stills always exasperates Fusco. He's not the only one either — several villains walk right into the precinct house to commit crimes while impersonating law enforcement officials. It finally backfires when Reese initially introduces himself as Stills to the number he's protecting, and then while in the precinct, the number discovers Stills's MISSING poster.
    • Hersh pulls a Get into Jail Free gambit by drawing his pistol in the middle of New York and Firing In The Air Alot, right in front of several policemen.
    • Who would honestly expect the murderer of Cal Beecher to stand up in front of a bunch of cops and give the man's eulogy?
    • One episode has Finch posing as a patient in a mental hospital. He poses as a paranoid schizophrenic by enumerating the multiple legitimate threats against him. A bit nebulous since these are all technically ridiculous schemes in general, but the Funny page for this show includes 3/5 of these moments, two being potholed directly to RIA and one being referenced in an RIA pothole to "amusing", so I'm just sticking them here.
18. Roleplay.Kaiserreich Roleplay: The destruction of Australasia's fleet, Brazilian interventionism, anything Outer Heaven does.
19. Series.Drop Dead Diva: In "Fifty Shades of Grayson" Kim goes into labor during a trial. She somehow manages to convince the judge to allow her to continue the trial over video while she's in labor.
20. Series.The Whitest Kids U Know: And how. ZCE, but given how much the other entries on the page talk about the Black Comedy aspect, it feels appropriate to put it here.
21. Quotes.President Evil: "Yes, General, I am masturbating into the American Flag. It relaxes me. Do you have a problem with that? Would you rather that I used you?"
    — President Callahan, Transmetropolitan
22. PlayingWith.Chainmail Bikini: Exaggerated:
    • The guys are fully clothed, but the girls are beyond Stripperiffic, wearing only chainmail thongs and chainmail pasties in the Arctic.
23. Recap.The Simpsons S 11 E 3 Guess Whos Coming To Criticize Dinner: An in-universe example occurs when Luigi reveals he left a horse's head in Homer's bed as a threat. Luigi then reveals how appalled he was that Homer not only ate the head, he gave it a bad review. Trope is already IUEO, so I can tell what this is leaning towards
24. Recap.Mystery Science Theater 3000 S 09 E 08 The Touch Of Satan: Making fun of the elderly in this episode are what mocking Joe Don Baker for being fat is to Final Justice.
25. VideoGame.Tropico: The game draws much of its humour from "how to do more and more devilish things to the citizens and get away with it".

Character has a ridiculous scheme in general (16/90)

1. Series.Wiseguy: Rather than spend years working his way up the ranks of Sonny Steelgrave's organisation, Vinnie provokes a fight with Sonny, knowing he's Golden Gloves boxer who won't turn down a challenge. Naturally everyone thinks Vinnie will flee when he finds out he's antagonized a Mafia boss; when Vinnie turns up for the fight anyway, Sonny is impressed. Vinnie makes sure to lose the fight of course, but it's enough to get him recruited as a prospective member.
2. Radio.The Navy Lark: Pertwee's plans usually end up revolving around this to varying degrees. For instance, he once got Commander Povey to believe he was really selling the Troutbridge to derail Povey's plans to get the entire crew Reassigned to Antarctica ^note The reason was that due to a clerical error, the Royal Navy had no actual record that Troutbridge existed. Therefore with no ship, Povey reasoned that he could get the entire crew of thorns in his side reassigned to whatever far-flung hellhole was the furthest distance from him.. When Povey's plans to throw the book at Pertwee failed (since the ship wasn't techically Navy property at the time, Pertwee couldn't be charged with selling a warship), he decided to outbid everyone at auction, an auction otherwise completely composed of Pertwee's relatives. Povey won, and then found out what he'd actually bought: The "veteran, ex-naval vessel" in the advertisement was actually an old ricketty tug owned by Pertwee's even more larcenous uncle, who demanded Povey pay up. When he refused, Pertwee had him over the barrel because not paying lawful debts was conduct unbecoming an officer!
3. RedDwarf.Tropes R To Z: Rule of Funny:
   • One of Red Dwarf's strategies seems to be finding Refuge in Audacity. The sheer amount the show uses is perfectly exemplified in the famous introduction scene of Ace Rimmer, where he, for starters, dislocates his shoulders to escape from ropes (yet retains full control of his arms for the remainder of the scene), and shrugs off bullets with mild annoyance at his clothes being ruined, along with many, many other things. ^note Really, it's probably easiest if you just watch it. (What a guy!)
4. Recap.The Office USS 7 E 9 WUPH Fcom: The only clue Michael can remember about the web server password set many years ago is that it made him laugh but offended Pam. Kevin immediately guesses "Big boobs!" Pam asks Jim why he's actually typing it, and Jim responds "I'm trying everything." Dwight then advises him to type "bigboobz".
   Jim: That's... *DING* ..the password. We're in.
5. Recap.Phineas And Ferb Meapless In Seattle:
   • Quite a few of the instances where they fit the trailer clips in. Monogram demanding Perry's hat on his desk? It's for a cool waterproofing spray because it rains in Seattle. Perry throwing his chair at the monitor? A new unbreakable one was installed and Monogram suggested throwing the chair at it as a test. Candace freaking out about Jeremy being somewhere? Her explaining potential anxieties to Stacy.
   • As mentioned above, the Suzy fighting Meap clip was worked in...as part of a trailer for a third part that will never happen.^note Until season five... Seems more like non-sequitur style Quotes Fit for a Trailer
6. Recap.Mash S 7 E 6 None Like It Hot: Sergeant Rhoden is well aware of his reputation and apparently enjoys it.
   Hawkeye: Ah, Sergeant Rhoden, of Sears and Rhoden. Offers a large variety of contraband even if he has to sell his own mother to get it.
   Rhoden: [grinning] You've read my brochure. Seems more like The Unfettered; this is audacious, but I'm not really sensing the "refuge" part
7. Roleplay.Anything Agency Vs Lawbreakers RP: Ka-Shi Nou frequently gouges people's heart's out... WITH A SPOON! Not Hyperbole?
8. Recap.The Office USS 6 E 14 The Banker: Michael's changes to the office. ZCE, but this is referring to the way Michael bombs several interviews by pretending to replace employees, which is just his usual brand of stupidity.
9. Recap.Gilmore Girls S 02 E 19:
   • Rory wants Jess to concentrate on homework, but he says he's too busy prying into her personal life.
   • Later, he tells Rory he will help her in her dream to be an overseas correspondent by having her stand in the middle of the road while he drives towards her screaming in a foreign language. Rory points out he'd need to learn a foreign language first.
10. Recap.Haven S 1 E 11 The Trial Of Audrey Parker: Audrey's plan to throw off Ezra. ZCE, but this is just The Perry Mason Method, since they won't leave Ezra room for his own thoughts.
11. Podcast.All Fantasy Everything: Done as literally as possible in the Countries To Flee To episode. Ian names Italy as the first place he'd go if he had to flee the US. If the heat followed him to Italy and he was forced to leave, where would he go? Deeper into Italy, to The Vatican.
12. Recap.Bobs Burgers S 12 E 3 The Pumpkinening: A kid dressed as The Grim Reaper keeps coming back for more Sour Sack Babies, making only the smallest attempts to even act like he's a new trick-or-treater (which Bob points out). This, plus Unusually Uninteresting Sight
13. Recap.Supernatural S 11 E 18 Hells Angel: Blasphemous Boast: During his appeal to be made the new Ruler of Heaven, Lucifer makes one of these to the Host of Heaven around him.
    Lucifer: Hey. If it makes you comfy, you could call me God.
14. Recap.With This Ring Episode 111: When in mediation talks, the Reach Negotiator/Ambassador continues to insist that the Reach have been entirely peaceful and that NEMO's attacks on them are entirely unprovoked and unjustified. Paul isn't buying it for a moment.
    Paul: So if this meeting is actually going to get anywhere… Please, stop pretending. It's not even annoying, really. It's just stupid. This isn't a court. There's no neutral jury. There's no unconvinced party to impress. It's a mediation for two peoples who hate each other to maybe find an agreement they could accept.
    Negotiator: If you're going to engage in baseless slander-.
    Paul: Pointless.
15. NotAlwaysWorking.Tropes F To L: Loophole Abuse:
    • This police station will cancel fingerprint appointments and delete your info if you're so much as five minutes late, but you can arrive any amount of time early and be seen. After being late to a Friday appointment, the submitter reschedules for Monday, then claims to be seventy-two hours early to their Monday appointment. The officer is aggravated but can't do anything about it.
16. Narm.Metal Gear: The scene where Snake meets Cecile. Let's see: Snake is asking an attractive, half-naked frenchwoman to come back to his place where she can have all the cigarettes she wants. Nope, everything seems COMPLETELY innocent here~!
    • The entire reason Cecile as a character exists is funny, too - she's named after the communications manager of Konami's French branch at the time, who got a character named after her after Kojima misheard her middle and last name, Cosima Caminades, as "Kojima kaminandesu" - i.e. "Kojima is God". A bit nebulous, but this feels like an over-the-top (naming) scheme in general. Also feels like an intentionally funny moment mixed with a meta-funny one, but oh well, that's typical Narm misuse for you.

Other (24/90)

1. Recap.Cheers S 6 E 18: Discussed Trope. In order to sneak Rebecca out of Evan Drake's bedroom, Frasier suggests that if Norm tells a sufficiently outrageous lie, Drake will have no choice but to believe it. First Norm goes with killer bees, but when the continuing presence of Grayson the butler ruins that, Norm comes back with a bigger lie: that he has always dreamed of carrying a rich man in pajamas across a lawn. This feels like the opposite concept.
   Frasier: The more outrageous a lie one tells, the more readily the victim will believe it.
2. Recap.Glee S 6 E 02 Homecoming: : By Sue, but not in her customary "you think this is hard?" Instead she says that the Homecoming dance has been canceled because of Shariah Law. Partial context, but I think this is just Blatant Lies.
3. Quotes.Boring Insult: "Davis, I'm not one to badmouth anyone. Your joke was amusing, but come on, man. You had one fatal flaw: Bateman is such a dork. Such a boring, spineless lightweight. Now if you said Bryce or McDermott... Otherwise, it was amusing. Now if you'll excuse me, I really must be going."
   — Harold Carnes, not realizing he's actually talking to Patrick Bateman, American Psycho (just denying Bateman's proof of concept, which better fits Hidden Harasser)
4. Recap.The West Wing S 01 E 21 Lies Damn Lies And Statistics: Blowing a Raspberry: Joey does this to Josh - in the Oval Office, no less - when Josh once again tries to get an answer from her about English as a national language.
   Josh: You see that? That’s what I've been dealing with all week. Quote just indicates he has Skewed Priorities in terms of the drug trafficking ring vs. minor, petty things
5. Recap.Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger Ep 02 The Roaring Wild Beast Is A Huge Pain Kai: The entire public didn't mind that the Tozitend caused mushrooms to grow everywhere, due to them being mostly harmless (and some even calling it cute). That is, until they started releasing poison spores. Mushrooms growing everywhere does indeed seem perfectly mundane, so at most this just feels like Tempting Fate.
6. Series.Billions: Take a Third Option:
   • Chuck is forced into this throughtout season 4. His enemies are powerful and are determined to prevent Chuck from salvaging his political career. If Chuck tries to wait them out, he will be marginalized and forgotten. If he tries to take them on directly, they will crush him. So he has to make unorthodox, Refuge in Audacity moves that will make him both admired and feared and give him a power base that his enemies cannot subvert. He arrests dozens of state legislators on corruption charges, thus shattering the old power structure in the state and making the other politicians afraid to move against him. It also means that the new governor has tied his career to Chuck's and has to back Chuck against the federal government no matter what happens. Just seems like your regular Xanatos Speed Chess
7. Recap.Teen Titans S 5 E 8 Lightspeed: The Gadfly: Kid Flash. He steals Mammoth's candy bar... that Mammoth actually paid for. He also eats Mammoth's sandwich and asks Jinx where they keep the mustard. Just him being a Troll
8. Recap.Star Wars The Clone Wars S 5 E 14 Eminence: Dispense with the Pleasantries: In a universe where everyone from Luke Skywalker to even Palpatine refer to Jabba as "Mighty Jabba" or "Your Excellency", Maul and Savage pretty much break protocol and make sure to let Jabba know that if he doesn't join, he dies. And they succeed. Godzilla Threshold
9. Recap.Star Trek Deep Space Nine S 06 E 08 Resurrection: The Guards Must Be Crazy: The Bajoran deputy doesn't seem to notice that "Kira" is acting more overtly sexual than usual. Could be a Refuge in Audacity situation, considering that it's unlikely many people are aware of the full details of the Mirror Universe and hence are unaware of even the possibility of Kira's double coming to the station. This would just be Locked Out of the Loop
10. PlayingWith.Coitus Uninterruptus: Zig Zagged: Carol scolds Bob and Alice for engaging in sex while she's there. They stop for a moment to apologise, then continue. Carol eventually leaves them to it out of resignation. Parody/subversion of Forgot to Gag Him?
11. Recap.Arrow S 7 E 8 Unmasked: Oliver puts his old green back on ... not as vigilante but an employee of the SCPD. Mayor Pollard is not happy! Seems like Godzilla Threshold; he's dealing with a mysterious assassin, and the only one that pays attention to cops' identities anyway is the mayor
12. Recap.A Thing Of Vikings Chapter 43 Is Mightier: Eochiad apparently had heard of Berk's anti-thrall policies and dismissed it as "bardic exaggeration." Word of God is that he knew full well about Berk's laws and is just using "bardic exaggeration" as a cover. Obfuscating Stupidity?
13. Recap.Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger Ep 18 The Times In Life Are Short So Fall In Love Zenkai: Sentai Gear #15 invokes the ending scene of Jetman, allowing Twokaizer and Zenkaizer to get the upper hand when Renai Wald is stuck on the iconic bench, weakened by Vroon's attack.^note For context, Gai was stabbed by a thief in the ending and died on the bench after Ryu and Kaori's wedding. Seems like Reading Ahead in the Script
14. NightmareFuel.Revenge Of The Sith: Three words: Execute Order 66. Watching several Jedi be shot down by the clone troopers they trusted is not only sad but fairly disturbing. Especially hard-hitting is Ki-Adi Mundi's death, where he's leading a group of clone troopers through a dark and snowy area, only for them to point their blasters at him and shoot him to death. Notice Mundi's expression as he turns around and slowly realizes that the clones have stopped and are aiming at him.
    • Order 65: "In the event of either (i) a majority in the Senate declaring the Supreme Commander (Chancellor) to be unfit to issue orders, or (ii) the Security Council declaring him or her to be unfit to issue orders, and an authenticated order being received by the GAR, commanders shall be authorized to detain the Supreme Commander, with lethal force if necessary, and command of the GAR shall fall to the acting Chancellor until a successor is appointed or alternative authority identified as outlined in Section 6 (iv)."
      # Recap.Law And Order Special Victims Unit S 14 E 3 Twenty Five Acts:
    • Rafael Barba's Establishing Character Moment is goading Adam Cain into strangling Barba with a belt, from the witness stand, right in front of the judge and jury.
    • Adam Cain, despite not being on the guest list of a magazine party for Jocelyn, storms in, gives a public toast, then rapes Jocelyn inside the elevator... that had security cameras on. Nightmare Fuel again
15. NightmareFuel.Monster Hunter: Khezu. A weird mashup between a traditional wyvern and a Sand Worm with a lumpy, veiny white hide that lives in caves and whose modus operandi involves effectively tasing its prey before devouring them whole.
    • One of its materials, Pale Extract, which is also shared by Gigginox, is used as material for drinks. This video sums it up perfectly:
      "You're telling me that people take this thing's nasty white mouth juice... And you put it in your drinks? Oh my god, you people really are savages."' Ditto
16. Recap.Inside Job S 2 E 4 We Found Love In A Popeless Place: LOL, 69: Reagan guesses that one of a guard's social media username is JesusDaddy69... She was right. Again feels like the opposite concept
17. Series.Casanova: Blatant Lies: The woman Casanova rents a room to initially insists her husband is off fighting in a war. When Casanova asks which war, she claims The Punic Wars. When he points out that the Punic Wars ended in 150 BC, she responds that he has been gone a long time Just an exaggerated version of Blatant Lies
18. Quotes.Jimquisition: It's a petty little trick at its core but one which gives me no small amount of smug self-satisfaction.
    — Copyright Deadlock, regarding the titular Loophole Abuse they used to stymie automated ContentID claims, a piece of Refuge in Audacity that helped convince YouTube to change their policy regarding ad revenue claims Not seeing how this is RIA; just seems like him turning the tables on them
19. Recap.My Little Pony Friends Forever Issue 16: Diamond Tiara's convinced her father that SHE is the one being bullied, there's no other explanation. Just her being manipulative
20. Recap.The Owl House S 2 E 10 Yesterdays Lie: Acting Unnatural: Upon first meeting Camila while disguised as Luz, Vee tries to act casual, but ends up babbling some nonsense. Fortunately for her, Camila just assumes she's joking around because such a thing isn't exactly out of character for Luz. The Power of Acting
21. Pantheon.Teachers [under Trunchbull's folder]: Wanted access to the pantheon after being humiliated by a brainy schoolgirl and being forced to flee for her sanity. Umbridge was willing to give up one of her three tropes so that her ally could ascend.
    • When the Trunchbull first ascended, she was completely broken down from the discovery that she killed Magnus Honey and took his house for herself. But now that she was a goddess, she could resume terrifying any children in the pantheon; this time, however, she's being more cautious. Some of these kids are more than capable of defending themselves. And since a lot of weird things happen in the Pantheon, she cannot take Refuge in Audacity for some things that worked before in her world. Seems like the opposite concept
22. Recap.Arrow S 2 E 18 Deathstroke: Thou Shalt Not Kill: Team Arrow track down Slade only to find him calmly waiting for them. He points out that killing him would not get Thea back, so they shoot him with a Tranquilizer Dart and call Quentin to have him arrested. When Slade is released for lack of evidence, Roy is furious because surely an ex-Assassin and ex-special forces operative could have forced the truth from Slade. Oliver unfortunately is the only person who knows just how tough Slade is from personal experience, even before he was given Super-Strength and Healing Factor. Xanatos Speed Chess
23. PoliceBrutality.Live Action TV: Angel:
    • "The Thin Red Line" features zombie cops whose brutality is so extreme that it would have been unbelievable for regular human cops to behave in such a way. They shoot Wesley just for approaching them while they're harassing Gunn and a few of his friends. While certainly not condoning police brutality, the episode briefly explores another side of this trope, when Gunn tells a drug-dealing acquaintance of his that it's people like him who can make police think they have to cross the line. It also notes that before the zombie cops were brought in, the neighborhood had one of the worst crime rates in the city... but it had plummeted since. Nightmare Fuel
24. Recap.Inspector Lynley S 04 E 01 In Divine Proportion: Mistaken for Evidence: The forensic team spend hours tracing a size 10 footstep next to the corpse, only to realise that it belongs to one of their own policemen, PC Garratt, who stepped all over the place while cordoning off the crime scene. [Later it turns out that] it was the killer’s footprint after all, making it Refuge in Audacity. Red Herring

ZCEs (3/90)

1. Manga.Chintsubu: Trope-Name Only
2. Pantheon.Gaming: Linked in Howard "Buckshot" Holmes and Kreese Kreely's folder.
3. YMMV.Final Fantasy XI: Never Live It Down: Pandemonium Warden made headlines when a group stubbornly sat for eighteen hours while fighting it (Which the game STRONGLY suggests against, hell, you gotta click past the warning every time you enter the game, not even Warcraft does that). The boss has been killed relatively quickly (that is to say, with a bit of time left on the two hour timer) multiple times since it was nerfed, but journalists (and this very wiki) continue to report on the evil online game that makes you sit at the computer until you're physically sick. (See Marathon Boss above.) A general rule of thumb nowadays is that no boss sticks around for more than two hours. After that, the critter despawns, but if it takes you that long to kill the guy, you are not doing it right (Underleveled, bad strategy, half the alliance being made up of bots).