Basic Trope: Character digs too deep, and ends up in China.
- Straight:
- Bob digs his way to freedom, and ends up in China.
- Alice, wanting a vacation to Hong Kong but knowing that air travel is expensive, digs her way there.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob drills his way, without anyone noticing, through China.
- Alice, after being told that the flight to Hong Kong is expensive, grabs a drill right in front of the travel agency and drills her way to Hong Kong.
- Downplayed:
- He dug his way to the sewers.
- He dug to Taiwan.
- She took a Wrong Turn at Albuquerque and ended up in Chinatown, San Francisco.
- Justified:
- He dug too deep.
- For Alice, it's cost- and time-effective.
- The earth in this series has a very soft crust.
- Bob didn't dig straight down.
- Inverted:
- Bob digs his way from China to Europe.
- Bob digs an incredibly convoluted tunnel and ends up back at the surface, at the same place he started digging.
- Alice digs her way from Hong Kong to San Francisco.
- Subverted:
- Bob ends up in Friendly Local China Town...
- Alice ends up seeing a poster of Hong Kong...
- Double Subverted:
- ...in Yokohama!
- ...in Hong Kong!
- Parodied:
- Bob, while escaping prison drills his way to freedom, while digging around in a non-linear manner, repeatingly going the wrong way, going through A Hell of a Time, incidentally finding lost treasures, chased away by dinosaurs, and digging in a non-linear manner, finally ending up in a Chinese prison!
- Alice, surprised at the five-digit dollar trip to Hong Kong, grabs a drill, turns a wrong turn to Albuquerque, ends up in San Francisco, and buys a ticket... to an ultra-speed elevator to Hong Kong, free of charge!
- Charlie, carrying a drill and ready to dig to China, sees a bunch of dirt and soil getting displaced by his feet. Then, a confused Chinese man pops out of it, looks up at Charlie, apologizes in Chinese, and disappears back into the hole.
- Bob digs a hole to "Kukistan". Alice points out that it's not even a real country.
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted:
- Bob didn't dig his way to freedom.
- Alice ends up buying the plane ticket anyway.
- Enforced: Rule of Funny
- Lampshaded:
- "I need a break from all this prison food. Maybe chopsticks and noodles will suffice."
- "I wonder if there's a faster way to travel just to visit Disneyland and eat all the dim sum?"
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: ???
- Defied:
- Bob/Alice chose not to dig to China in fears that he/she may be arrested there, or may be roasted inside the core like a Peking duck.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed:
- Alice dies when he/she enters the asthenosphere.
- Bob gets shot out of his tunnel by a geyser after hitting the bottom of the Indian Ocean.
- Played For Drama:
- When Bob, a prisoner, tries to escape the prison by digging all the way to China, but instead, he found himself ending up in North Korea.
- Played For Laughs: Bob worries he dug too deep because he wound up in China. Alice points out immediately that they /started/ in China and only went under the fence.
Back to Digging to China
