History Main / AnticlimacticParent

* ''Manga/SgtFrog'''s father causes quite a scramble, until he leaves much sooner than expected when the weather doesn't agree with him.
* ''Anime/PleaseTeacher'' has Mizuho worry what her family will say about her being married to a student. Her mother Hatsuho has no complaints, though slyly implies to the reader both of them show an interest in younger men. (This also works as a slight [[LampshadeHanging lampshading]] of the show premise, suggesting Mizuho isn't entirely inconvenienced by her situation.)

* In ''Literature/HarryPotter'', Mrs. Weasley has the whole family scrub the house for the arrival of Fleur's parents, apparently based on the logic that they will be as critical as Fleur is. Instead they turn out to be incredibly jovial.
* In ''Literature/{{Everworld}}'', Senna goes to meet her mother in Everworld-Egypt fully expecting her to be an all-powerful witch who may well choose to smack the crap out of her. Instead she discovers that her mother is little more than a sycophantic servant of [[StrawFeminist the Amazons]] and nowhere near the intelligent villainess that her daughter grew up to be. If anything, Senna seems angry that [[ParentalAbandonment she was abandoned]] for a life that wound up being so pointless.

%%* ''Series/KamenRiderRyuki'' did an episode of this.
* In the Myth/RobinHood spoof ''Series/MaidMarianAndHerMerryMen'', Marian never admitted to her mother that she was an outlaw. This leads the main characters to keep up the charade of being The Merry Dentists. However, when Marian is captured, her mum leads the rescue effort and ultimately reveals she has her own geriatric gang of outlaws.
* In ''Series/PowerRangersSPD'', the doofus character Boom flunked out of the academy in three days but told his parents he was the heroic Orange Ranger. Hilarity ensues when his parents visit and learn the truth.
* ''Series/WillAndGrace'':
** There is a version of this where Jack envisioned his stepdad as cold, unloving, and ubermacho. When the gang visited him, he was a friendly guy who got along very well with Jack's son. Jack's ''very straight'' son. When Jack confronts him, the step-dad admits he really was all those things to Jack, but regrets it and is trying to make amends.
** Similarly in another episode dealing with grandparents treating the grandkids differently, Will was trying to protect his presumably gay nephew from criticism by this mother (the child's grandmother) over wanting to stage a play for the family. But the mother is totally cool with it and very encouraging. Because he got the exact opposite treatment growing up, Will feels offended until his mom explains that she had mellowed ''because'' of Will, and learned from her mistakes and the experience she had gained raising Will.
* On ''Series/{{Chuck}}'', Ellie spent the Thanksgiving episode stressing out over the arrival of the Awesomes (her fiance's parents), only to have them not show up at all. Then they show up in the next episode, where they mainly get on her nerves for taking over her wedding planning.

* On ''Series/{{Spaced}}'', Brian's mother visits and he spends the whole episode pretending to be a lawyer, only to discover that she'd always wished he was an artist. Then he gets to reveal to her that he actually is!
* In an episode of ''Series/TheMonkees'', Davy's grandfather is flying in from England for a visit, under the impression that Davy is a big star. Panicked, Davy convinces the rest of the band to pose as his chauffer, houseboy, and personal chef to keep up appearances. Of course, given what show we're talking about, it fails, but the grandfather allows him to stay (rather than taking him back to England) because he has "such loyal friends".

* [[SoapboxSadie Britta]] [[GranolaGirl Perry]] from ''Series/{{Community}}'' always described her parents as stifling and overbearing. When we get to meet them, we find out they've secretly been paying for her apartment for years, and they both get along well with all her friends. Turns out they've mellowed out over the years.

* ''Webcomic/OzyAndMillie'' plays with this when introducing Ozy's adoptive father Llewellyn. Ozy states matter-of-factly that his father is a dragon, and until Parent-Teacher Day, Millie freaks out that her best friend is merely being raised to be snack food for a demonic monster from beyond her (already pretty wild) imagination. On meeting him, she is[[spoiler:, along with her mother,]] immediately charmed by Llewellyn, who becomes one of the strip's iconic and most charming characters-- oh, and is completely harmless (aside from the fire-breathing thing).
** Even the fire breath is pretty harmless. Which is to say it doesn't have to be, but it's never been used in anger (an emotion Llewellyn seems incapable of feeling to begin with).

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'', "[[Recap/DuckTalesS1E12TopDuck Top Duck]]": The ordinarily relaxed Launchpad [[WellDoneSonGuy becomes absolutely desperate to have some way to show off for his parents]] when he hears they're coming into town, which might suggest they're super-critical... but it turns out they're already quite proud of their son, who has spent years freaking out unnecessarily.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': Twilight Sparkle, and by extension everyone else in town, tend to overprepare for Princess Celestia's appearances. In line with this trope, she generally is appreciative of the efforts, but actually enjoys a casual visit much more. [[spoiler:In the first season's finale, she lets her own palace get wrecked specifically to avoid the standard boring gala.]]
* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/KappaMikey'' uses a distant permutation of this.. Mikey lies to a reporter about his life in Tokyo, then forces his castmates into an elaborate ruse to fool his parents when they come to visit after reading the article, making them cancel a vacation at the beach for a visit that, ultimately, never comes: killer bees force the airport to close, and Mikey then decides, rather than coming clean, to go find stand-ins for his parents and fake the visit. Needless to say, everything falls apart in utterly ridiculous ways.
* In ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'', Patrick Star is in a panic because his parents are due for a visit. Because they constantly belittle him for being an idiot, Spongebob volunteers to pretend to be even dumber than Pat. This works well until all three begin to ridicule Spongebob and he storms off. Only then do Patrick's "parents" realize that they're complete strangers: "Oh, that's right. We don't have a son!" Patrick's real parents arrive[[note]]delivered by Squidward as they were outside his place asking where Patrick is ''for several hours''[[/note]], and are just as stupid as their son, if not more so.
* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' in the form of Trigon. At first, he appears in all his extradimensional demonic terror, but then immediately dons regular clothes (including a pink sweater vest) and [[DidWeJustHaveTeaWithCthulhu acts nice around the Titans for the entire episode]], even giving them extra powers ([[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext like Cyborg's new]] [[RuleOfFunny dog for a hand]]). And then he tells Raven to kill her friends and become a demon.

** In another episode, the eponymous Doug is given an assignment to write a report about a classmate's home life, and he's assigned [[CreepyTwins the Sleech brothers]]. Everyone believes their dad is some kind of MadScientist, and Al and Moo try to keep Doug from interviewing their dad. [[spoiler: It turns out, he works as a baker, and works on donut recipes at home in his spare time. And the reason no one really sees him during the day is that he works an evening or night shift.]]

* In ''Literature/{{Everworld}}'', [[MagnificentBitch Senna]] goes to meet her mother in Everworld-Egypt fully expecting her to be an all-powerful witch who may well choose to smack the crap out of her. Instead she discovers that her mother is little more than a sycophantic servant of [[StrawFeminist the Amazons]] and nowhere near the intelligent villainess that her daughter grew up to be. If anything, Senna seems angry that [[ParentalAbandonment she was abandoned]] for a life that wound up being so pointless.

* ''WesternAnimation/GreenEggsAndHam'': Even after starting to warm up to Sam, Guy is adamant about not staying with his parents (even when they have nowhere else to go), giving the impression that they're hyper-critical. When they do turn up, the whole family is welcoming and supportive of both Guy and Sam. It turns out that Guy is projecting his own insecurities onto his parents' view of him (they're all highly successful, whereas literally everything he invents blows up).

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': Twilight, and by extension everyone else in town, tend to overprepare for Princess Celestia's appearances. In line with this trope, she generally is appreciative of the efforts, but actually enjoys a casual visit much more. [[spoiler:In the first season's finale, she lets her own palace get wrecked specifically to avoid the standard boring gala.]]

** Judy has a boyfriend named Kyle, and her parents invite him over for dinner, but she's ashamed of her family. So she has them put on an elaborate play, with Doug as the butler, Phil as a struggling writer, and Theda as an anthropologist or something. It does not go well at all, and [[GirlOfTheWeek Kyle is never seen or mentioned again]] after that episode, implying that he and Judy broke up not long afterwards.

** When Arisa first meets Tohru she's a gang member who admires Tohru's mother who was once a ruthless gang leader. She goes to Tohru's home to visit her and finds out she's a devoted and loving mother. As she says in the flashback: "The Kyoko-san I had looked up to had developed a total mother complex." After spending time with the family Arisa leaves the gang, [[spoiler:is rescued from them beating her up by Kyoko]] and returns to school.

* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' in the form of Trigon. At first, he appears in all his extradimensional demonic terror, but then immediately dons regular clothes (including a pink sweater vest) and [[DidWeJustHaveTeaWithCthulhu acts nice around the Titans for the entire episode]], even giving them extra powers ([[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext like Cyborg's new]] [[RuleOfFunny dog for a hand]]). And then he tells Raven to kill her friends and become a demon.

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* ''Manga/FruitsBasket''

** When Arisa first meets Tohru she's a gang member who admires Tohru's mother who was once a ruthless gang leader. She goes to Tohru's home to visit her and finds out she's a devoted and loving mother. As she says in the flashback: "The Kyoko-san I had looked up to had developed a total mother complex." After spending time with the family Arisa leaves the gang, [[spoiler: is rescued from them beating her up by Kyoko]] and returns to school.

[[folder: Live Action Film ]]

* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'':
** In "Former Student Visits", Miss Brooks is worried that a visiting former student (who's now a doctor) will reveal her true age (her early thirties) to Mr. Boynton's mother. Mr. Boynton's mother was advising her son to marry a young woman. The cat gets out of the bag; fortunately Miss Brooks' former student's ''father'' was a student of Mr. Boynton's mother in elementary school. The elder Mrs. Boynton then suggests her son marry a woman his age.
** In TheMovie GrandFinale, the elder Mrs. Boynton appears near the end of the picture. Agreeing to board with Mrs. Davis, she frees Phillip Boynton to marry Connie Brooks and give Connie [[KarmicJackpot a much deserved]] and [[SeriesGoal long desired]] HappilyEverAfter.

[[folder: Literature ]]

* The book ''A Little Ray Of Sunshine'' is based on this. Emmy's mother is a MaternallyChallenged EvilMatriarch, and each chapter starts with various [[EncyclopediaExposita heartless quotes]] from her mother over the years. But by the time we meet Lily, she's undergone a massive personality makeover.
* In ''Literature/HarryPotter,'' Mrs. Weasley has the whole family scrub the house for the arrival of Fleur's parents, apparently based on the logic that they will be as critical as Fleur is. Instead they turn out to be incredibly jovial.
* In ''Literature/{{Everworld}},'' [[MagnificentBitch Senna]] goes to meet her mother in Everworld-Egypt fully expecting her to be an all-powerful witch who may well choose to smack the crap out of her. Instead she discovers that her mother is little more than a sycophantic servant of [[StrawFeminist the Amazons]] and nowhere near the intelligent villainess that her daughter grew up to be. If anything, Senna seems angry that [[ParentalAbandonment she was abandoned]] for a life that wound up being so pointless.
* In ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'', Percy naturally assumed from the way Annabeth talked about her father and stepmother that they treated her badly. When he came to visit her home, they were friendly and helpful.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''Series/KamenRiderRyuki'' did an episode of this.
* In the RobinHood spoof ''Series/MaidMarianAndHerMerryMen'', Marian never admitted to her mother that she was an outlaw. This leads the main characters to keep up the charade of being The Merry Dentists. However, when Marian is captured, her mum leads the rescue effort and ultimately reveals she has her own geriatric gang of outlaws.

* There was a version of this in ''Series/WillAndGrace'' where Jack envisioned his stepdad as cold, unloving, and ubermacho. When the gang visited him, he was a friendly guy who got along very well with Jack's son.
** Jack's ''very straight'' son. When Jack confronts him, the step-dad admits he really was all those things to Jack, but regrets it and is trying to make amends.

* On ''{{Series/Chuck}}'', Ellie spent the Thanksgiving episode stressing out over the arrival of the Awesomes (her fiance's parents), only to have them not show up at all. Then they show up in the next episode, where they mainly get on her nerves for taking over her wedding planning.
* ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'' has to impress his ultra-puritan Aunt and Uncle at a dinner party so he can earn his inheritance (a stunning feat considering his Aunt and Uncle consider things like chairs and mashed turnips "too decadent"). In the end, his uncle breaks his vow of silence and tells Edmund that he had a wonderful time. [[spoiler: Then everyone gets really drunk, including Queenie.]]

* ''Series/{{Friends}}''

--> '''Barney:''' If you were just gonna be some lame suburban dad... [[CallingTheOldManOut why couldn't you have been that for me?!]]

[[folder: Radio ]]

[[folder: Theatre ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

* ''WebComic/OzyAndMillie'' plays with this when introducing Ozy's adoptive father Llewellyn. Ozy states matter-of-factly that his father is a dragon, and until Parent-Teacher Day, Millie freaks out that her best friend is merely being raised to be snack food for a demonic monster from beyond her (already pretty wild) imagination. On meeting him, she is[[spoiler:, along with her mother,]] immediately charmed by Llewellyn, who becomes one of the strip's iconic and most charming characters-- oh, and is completely harmless (aside from the fire-breathing thing).

* Marena from ''Webcomic/KeychainOfCreation'' initially describes her mother as a manipulative EvilMatriarch. When Sonorous Aria actually shows up, though...

** Partial subversion in that she ''is'' a ManipulativeBastard, just an AffablyEvil one.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'', "[[Recap/DuckTalesS1E12TopDuck Top Duck]]": The ordinarily relaxed Launchpad [[WellDoneSonGuy becomes absolutely desperate to have some way to show off for his parents]] when he hears they're coming into town, which might suggest they're super-critical...but it turns out they're already quite proud of their son, who has spent years freaking out unnecessarily.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' Twilight, and by extension everyone else in town, tend to overprepare for Princess Celestia's appearances. In line with this trope, she generally is appreciative of the efforts, but actually enjoys a casual visit much more. [[spoiler: In the first season's finale, she lets her own palace get wrecked specifically to avoid the standard boring gala.]]

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'', Judy has a boyfriend named Kyle, and her parents invite him over for dinner, but she's ashamed of her family. So she has them put on an elaborate play, with Doug as the butler, Phil as a struggling writer, and Theda as an anthropologist or something. It does not go well at all, and [[GirlOfTheWeek Kyle is never seen or mentioned again]] after that episode, implying that he and Judy broke up not long afterwards.

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales'', "[[Recap/DuckTalesS1E12TopDuck Top Duck]]": The ordinarily relaxed Launchpad [[WellDoneSonGuy becomes absolutely desperate to have some way to show off for his parents]] when he hears they're coming into town, which might suggest they're super-critical...but it turns out they're already quite proud of their son, who has spent years freaking out unnecessarily.

** Ross is dreading a visit from Rachel's father. It starts out as badly as he feared, but they soon find common ground criticizing Rachel.