Refuge in Audacity/Web Comics

"Dr. McNinja: Oh, how silly of me. That was the sound of chainsaw-nunchuks."
 * In Something*Positive, Aubrey describes a variation of the trope when, asked why she's never been arrested, she responds that "the key is to commit crimes so confusing that police feel too stupid to even write a crime report about them."
 * In True Magic, one character is repeatedly mistaken for a "gentleman of the evening."
 * The Adventures of Dr. McNinja absolutely revels in this trope.
 * In one of the earliest examples, vigilante paleontologists discover living dinosaurs, so they dress as gunslinger banditos while riding velociraptors, thus preventing the authorities from doing anything about them because they refuse to believe the reports.
 * And then there's this gem:

"Dan: Oh, don't give me that look! We wouldn't have had to do this if you hadn't made such a big deal about the gorilla! Honestly, so rude."
 * Dan McNinja manages to make terrorists hijacking a plane funny.

"Vole: De pipple of Mechanicsburg vould not ekcept dot as proof dot she iz a Heterodyne. Gil: No, neither would my father. Vole: ...not unless she danced nekked through de ruins vile trying to shoot down de moon... turned all the tourists into monsters -- and den built a very dangerous fountain out of sausages. (beat) Gil: Well... yes, that goes without saying."
 * In Girl Genius, Captain Vole & Gil are discussing how the Heterodyne pretender must be trying to kill (Shut down) the sentient castle:

"Tagon: Get as mad as you want, you're going to have a hard time suing me."
 * In this universe being completely crazy is often considered to be a POSITIVE sign of leadership potential and intelligence given how prevalent mad scientists are. Except in the lands of anImmortal God-Queen, where the local Mad Scientists as a rule don't act up — as Dr. Mittelmind pointed out, they become much less competitive and aggressive when there's no doubt whatsoever as to who's the boss.
 * Schlock in Schlock Mercenary escaped punishment for spying on his commanding officers from the air vents by being utterly shameless about it and exploiting the fact there Aint No Rule.
 * Tagon shot all of his employer's attorney drones, then followed it up with:

"For three years [my sponsors]'ve put up with all the sick and twisted stuff I've done in this strip but missionary position sex [for procreation] is appearently when I'm crossing the line."
 * Mike of the Walkyverse. Nearly all of his actions are played for laughs. So much so that you almost feel bad for Mike when he's blackmailed twice by two different woman into dating him when they find out that he is a nicer person when drunk.
 * In the latest Shortpacked! arcs, Amber has begun to delve into Refuge in Audacity territory. The fanbase is split on whether she's hilarious or in the too-realistic offensive category.
 * Ghastly's Ghastly Comic used this... what's notable is what made it fail when he stopped for a moment (detailed in The Rant here)

"Richard: Listen, like I told your Captain, that orphanage attacked me. It was self-defense."
 * In The Order of the Stick, Haley passionately complains of the injustice of suspecting her of theft because she is a rogue -- while she is holding the thing she stole.
 * Looking for Group, Ansem Retort, and 8-Bit Theater give us... well everything.
 * Some shining examples from 8-Bit Theater: sword-chucks, surviving a fall from great heights by blocking the ground, because it's the ground hitting you that does damage, anything Fighter says, anything Red Mage says that isn't hilariously overcomplicated, Black Mage throwing Fighter as a missile, Black Mage using Hadoken as a method of transportation, most or all of their battle plans.
 * Some shining examples from 8-Bit Theater: sword-chucks, surviving a fall from great heights by blocking the ground, because it's the ground hitting you that does damage, anything Fighter says, anything Red Mage says that isn't hilariously overcomplicated, Black Mage throwing Fighter as a missile, Black Mage using Hadoken as a method of transportation, most or all of their battle plans.

""These are my antennas, because clearly I am a robot. Also, robots never lie.""
 * Zexion is into this in Ansem; his stint as governor of Pennsylvania has been marked by, among other things, emails to tell everyone "I'm stealing your tax dollars and there ain't jack you can do!", looking after American interests abroad by chanting "AMERICA! FUCK YEAH!", and leaving an android version of himself sitting on TV shouting random phrases like "Fuck Tibet!" Similarly, his good friend Axel has his entire life and most of his hobbies, such as claiming that he couldn't be responsible for some murders because he was busy murdering some other people at the time.
 * Polk Out runs on this.
 * Axis Powers Hetalia.
 * This CVRPG comic shows the aftermath of a character's attempt to invoke this trope.
 * Red Meat likes this trope. This, for example.
 * Invoked by Unwinder of Unwinder's Tall Comics here.
 * Buwaro and Kieri of Slightly Damned at one point decide to drop their disguises and walk around Riverside City as the angel and demon that they are. This ends up being a more effective way of blending in with the Medians than what they had going: (most) everyone refused to believe an angel and a demon would willingly hang out with each other, so they assumed they were a couple of kids wearing elaborate costumes for some publicity stunt. Hey, it beats being mistaken for a pimp and prostitute.
 * In Gunnerkrigg Court, Antimony tried to get into a robots-only area of the building by wearing a clever disguise.

"TT: He eventually came to be regarded as the third and final Antichrist. TT: No other human in history was responsible for more death and suffering."
 * In Loserz, there was a comic that depicted the character Ben portraying stereotypical jokes. The comic apologized in this strip; then immediately followed up with this, this, and this. ...with kittens... and the grand finale.
 * Blur the Lines lives for this trope. The author is an unabashed gay chubby chaser, the content is about such subject matter as that would imply and is as unabashed as the author.
 * Erfworld's Parson seems to understand that taking Refuge in Audacity is the best way to skirt the rules. Uncroaking a dormant volcano is so audacious that it shouldn't be possible, and nobody has even considered trying it before, which means when Parson pulls it off successfully, it catches everyone so far off guard that he turns the tide of a war.
 * Platypus Comix's comics, and occasionally the articles as well, show no limits in the realism of their gags or the pop culture aspects worth mocking.
 * In Questionable Content this fairly well describes Faye's sense of humor, which is apparently based on the author's.
 * All over the place in Homestuck, which seems to delight in mixing the serious and terrible with the utterly ridiculous. It especially shows up when real people are involved. Making Guy Fieri is a horrible person in canon? Kinda mean. Making it canon that Guy Fieri is a traitorous spy who caused the deaths of millions on the orders of the insane alien overlord empress Betty Crocker and is effectively the anti-Christ? Hilarious!

"Ayne: Oh, yes, I know how it goes! 'All em elves look alike' eh? And they all look pretty dodgy too eh? Any old excuse to bother foreigners I bet! I should complain to the King!"
 * In Chasing the Sunset Ayne stopped the guards from arresting Leaf who escaped from their prison by loudly taking offense.


 * Back to