Crosses the Line Twice

Refuge in Audacity

These tropes seem very similar in concept, (going further than too far is funny) the same quotation is a page quote for each, and each makes reference to the other without specifying what the distinction between them is. What exactly IS the distinction?

Crosses the Line Twice is where something offensive is taken so far that it becomes funny again. It's a function of the story and medium. It's also an audience reaction because any given person's definition of the "line" differs.

Refuge in Audacity is when a character does something that's so absurdly stupid, over-the-top, or unrealistic that it bypasses common sense and works anyway. It's an in-story trope, done by the characters for in-story effect.

Now, I can see why you're confused - the same Ebert quote is at the top of both pages, and Refuge in Audacity seems to have Dissociative Identity Disorder in its description, veering back and forth between being a carbon copy of CTLT and its own trope. It needs serious fixing.

edited 25th Mar '11 11:49:16 AM by Fighteer

Refuge in Audacity is when the situation is just so ridiculous that it's impossible to be offended. Crosses the Line Twice is when something is funny, then goes too far and is not funny anymore and you are offended, then goes even further until it is funny again.

Subtle, but definite distinction.

EDIT: Aw...ninja'd by a mod.

edited 25th Mar '11 11:48:23 AM by BadWolf21

Well, since we've already established the definition of Refuge in Audacity according to the other thread...

I've seen uses of Crosses the Line Twice applied to Springtime for Hitler, Refuge in Vulgarity, So Unfunny It's Funny, So Bad, It's Good, and even out-of-universe Refuge in Audacity... so I'd like some clarification: is this misuse of the trope, or the real definition of Crosses the Line Twice as a supertrope?

Crosses the Line Twice is not a supertrope of any of those, but may overlap with most, if not all of them.

In practice they tend to be interchanged (an example from one often fits the other) but they are distinct in principle.

Refuge in Audacity is somewhat of a meta concept that something is too outrageous to be treated in the same manner as something less extreme. Such as sending your heist plan to your target and then executing the plan exactly and it working, making the targeted too embarrassed to admit what happened. If the target wasn't informed then they would go to police with no reservation or embarrassment.

Crosses the Line Twice is when something would seem horrible if they went part-way but becomes comically absurd because it went to the extreme. The prime example is the ED-209 from Robocop shooting a board member during a demonstration. If it was a precise three round burst it would just be shocking, but the hail of bullets pelting the now-dead body (along with the "mildly perturbed" response of the rest of the board when it's over) falls into this category.