Refuge In Audacity misuse

I noticed that the Refuge in Audacity examples fall under two distinct categories:

• Someone doing something so absurd or unbelievable that they get away with it.
• Someone saying something absurd or unbelievable - often in the form of Blatant Lies - to cover up / get away with something else.

I keep finding many examples of this trope, but which one is it?

Examples that I can think of on top of my head:

• First type:
  • Luke Cage invading a foreign country to demand back his 200 dollars. The ruler is incredulous but gives them back and let's him get away with it.
  • The evil teacher from Matilda inflicting such outrageous punishments that the parents don't believe the students when they talk about it (also provides page quote).
• Second type:
  • In Cardfight!! Vanguard, a guy gets a gang to lay off his friend by claiming outrageous things like said friend being the grandson of the Prime Minister and being a martial arts expert and whatnot.
  • Spider-Man hiding his Secret Identity by claiming that another guy is Spider-Man using a ridiculous justification (It was a Cover-Blowing Superpower incident).

Edited by Lermis on Aug 9th 2020 at 3:23:42 PM

Both.

However, the description of the trope only refers to examples of the first type, and even compares this to Sarcastic Confession (a confession of a true thing made to sound unbelievable). So by trope description, examples of the second type - using Blatant Lies to get away with something - would be misuse of the trope.

I think you’re making an unnecessary distinction between saying something and doing something. If you just count “talking/lying” among “doing something” the trope description works fine for both types.

Edited by JoeyFromSchool on Aug 17th 2020 at 10:13:08 AM