History Main / SupernaturalProofFather

* In ''Anime/MyNeighborTotoro'', Kusakabi-sensei is unable to see Totoro, the Soot Sprites, or the Cat Bus, unlike his daughters. However, it's not so much because he's ''dad'', but [[ChildrenAreInnocent simply because he's an adult]].

* Nobody in ''Film/ManosTheHandsOfFate'' shows much common sense, but dad Mike is probably the worst. He insists that the family stay at the obviously suspicious, dilapidated lodge, even as his wife pleads with him to leave, and the CrustyCaretaker warns him that "[[{{Catchphrase}} The Master would not approve]]."

You see, the father, as the head of the family and the most "sensible and grounded" member, is the last person to encounter (or admit to encountering) these bizarre events. The children see them, the [[HauntedHeroine wife/mother]] sees them, Hell, even the [[EvilDetectingDog family dog]] [[AnimalReactionShot sees them.]] But the dad is always the last person to see and believe. Although it's debatable whether or not they're the least susceptible, [[ObsessivelyNormal too obsessed with "normal" life]] for the weirdness to affect him, or just plain [[FlatEarthAtheist in denial]]. This is a common trope in "Haunted House" style stories, and may also be used by elder brothers/best (male) friends, etc.

You see, the father, as the head of the family and the most "sensible and grounded" member, is the last person to encounter (or admit encountering) these bizarre events. The children see them, the [[HauntedHeroine wife/mother]] sees them, Hell, even the [[EvilDetectingDog family dog]] [[AnimalReactionShot sees them.]] But the dad is always the last person to see and believe. Although it's debatable whether or not they're the least susceptible, [[ObsessivelyNormal too obsessed with "normal" life]] for the weirdness to affect him, or just plain [[FlatEarthAtheist in denial]]. This is a common trope in "Haunted House" style stories, and may also be used by elder brothers/best (male) friends, etc. Could also be a very cynical way for writers to keep the male out of the way of the story. Seeing as some writers see women as more believably "vulnerable". Of course, quite a few people see this trope as sexist.

* Subverted in ''Manga/{{Bleach}},'' where Isshin Kurosaki appears to be this at first, complaining about being the only member of his family not to see ghosts, then later turns out to be faking it, and, technically speaking, ''being'' a shinigami in a fake body the whole time. Point is, he's the ''source'' of their genetically heritable supernatural wackiness, and not an exception.

* Inverted in ''[[Anime/HareGuu Haré+Guu]]'', where Guu's WeirdnessCensor renders her horror inconspicuous to everyone except Haré, the main character, and to a much lesser degree Dr. Clive, Haré's father. And the Village Elder who always turns into quivering jelly when Guu is around. Though that could be more due to what Guu did to him in the first episode than fear of the supernatural.

* Doctor Terrance Thirteen, the Ghost Breaker, is Franchise/TheDCU's preeminent example, earnestly believing that aliens (like Franchise/{{Superman}}), magicians (like ComicBook/DoctorFate) and supernatural beings (like Comicbook/TheSpectre) simply don't exist at all, even though his daughter, Traci, is a member of the Homo Magi, magic-using humans such as ''ComicBook/{{Zatanna}}''. He's treated unilaterally as a joke. Ironically, in his original appearances before continuity held sway (that is, before Franchise/TheDCU was firmly established as a SharedUniverse where nearly all DC properties resided), the ghosts and magicians he went up against always ''were'' fake and his skepticism was presented as a virtuous trait; but when continuity started drawing all DC books into one reality, he was first shown the spirit of his dead father by the Spectre, then he was teamed with the very mystical [[ComicBook/ThePhantomStranger Phantom Stranger]], and from then on he was always wrong, simply because the Stranger's very existence demanded it be so. Dr. 13 currently lives outside of the time stream, aware of his own fictional nature; he is teamed with an alien, a vampire, a French caveman, and a talking vampire gorilla with Nazi leanings, his daughter is a rather powerful witch, and he believes none of this.
** There have been two alternate takes on Dr. 13, making his skepticism something other than the IdiotBall. In Creator/NeilGaiman's ''ComicBook/TheBooksOfMagic'', the fact he doesn't believe in magic means it simply doesn't work around him, in a cross between ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve and WeirdnessCensor. In Creator/GrantMorrison's ''ComicBook/{{Zatanna}}'' he visits a mystical dimension and is happy to admit ''something's'' happening, but defines it all in scientific terms. (Quantum mechanics and M-theory get a lot of crap past the scientific radar.) There's also the ''Architecture and Morality'' take, wherein he's simply strongly in denial of reality.

** In the Comicbook/{{New 52}} ''ComicBook/ThePhantomStranger'' title, he's been reinvented as a "scientific occultist" in the mould of [[Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}} Egon Spengler]]. His ancestor, the ''[[RetroactiveLegacy original]]'' Terrence Thirteen in ''[[Comicbook/JonahHex All-Star Western]]'', on the other hand, is the ultimate Flat-Earth Atheist: at one point his ''ghost'' chides the modern-day Terry for believing in the supernatural, believing that he himself is just a {{hallucination|s}}.

[[folder:Fanworks]]

* ''Film/{{Insidious}}'' cleverly plays with this trope, and deconstructs it. The father Josh rejects the idea that anything supernatural is happening to his son because [[spoiler:he's repressing his memory of a ghost that had haunted him and tried to possess him when he was a kid. Him abandoning his skepticism turns out to be the worst thing he could've possibly done, as it gets him possessed in the end. Furthermore, his son inherited his ability to astral project into the spirit world (or the "further").]]

* Inverted in ''Film/{{Brightburn}}''. The mother Tori, who had been infertile before [[CreepyChild Brandon]] arrived, still treats her son (an [[EvilCounterpart evil version]] of a young [[ComicBook/{{Superman}} Clark Kent]]) as a miracle sent from God until it is well past too late, while the father Kyle is the first one who realizes that Brandon is evil. [[spoiler:He even tries to kill Brandon to stop his rampage, though [[NoSell it does no good]] except to get him [[YourHeadASplode brutally killed]] in response]].

* Not a literal father, but a priest in ''Film/CarnivalOfSouls'' takes on - somewhat ironically - the role of the unreasonable skeptic, literally unable to see the terrifying ImplacableMan stalking the HauntedHeroine church organist. Even when she's clearly mentally unraveling before his eyes, he remains unsympathetic, ultimately firing her for playing dissonant, "blasphemous" music on the organ.

* This trope is analyzed in detail in Berkeley professor Carol J. Clover's treatise on gender in horror films ''Men, Women, and Chainsaws''.
* Wonderfully subverted in Creator/CliveBarker's short story "Literature/TheYatteringAndJack". The premise is that a demon has been assigned to drive the owner of a house mad or corrupt him by haunting him, but the demon cannot leave the house or reveal himself nor harm him or even affect him directly. The only problem is that man is completely boring, has no vices to be corrupted by, and ignores everything the demon does, which drives the demon to suicidal frustration. When the man's daughters comes over for Christmas dinner, the demon pulls out all the stops and animates the Christmas tree. His youngest daughter is freaked out, while the man still just shrugs and says he's going to go for a walk. The demon finally comes out and grabs his arm. The man turns and says "Ah ha! Got you!" Turns out the man knew about the demon all along and was only faking disbelief, and knew if the demon ever affected him directly then the demon would become enslaved to him.

* Discovery Channel has a surprisingly creepy show about real-life hauntings called ''Series/AHaunting'', and it's usually the father/husband who's the last to freak out. In some episodes, he never acknowledges whatever weirdness drove his family from their home. Some examples seem to imply that whatever may have been haunting the family was specifically aiming for this trope, by only tormenting the ones that believe most and driving a wedge between the family members when they still don't believe.
** In fact most of the POV seems to be that of women recalling their ordeal. Although most of the males on the show seemed like they were in denial.

You see, the father, as the head of the family and the most "sensible and grounded" member, is the last person to encounter (or admit encountering) these bizarre events. The children see them, the [[HauntedHeroine wife/mother]] sees them, Hell, even the [[EvilDetectingDog family dog]] [[AnimalReactionShot sees them.]] But the dad is always the last person to see and believe. Although it's debatable whether or not they're the least susceptible, [[ObsessivelyNormal too obsessed with "normal" life]] for the weirdness to affect him, or just plain [[FlatEarthAtheist in denial]]. This is a common trope in "Haunted House" style stories, and may also be used by elder brothers/best (male) friends, etc. Could also be a very cynical way for writers to keep the male out of the way of the story. Seeing as some writers see women as more believably "vulnerable".

* Inverted in "Literature/KidStuff" by Creator/IsaacAsimov. An {{Ultraterrestrial|s}} "elf" uses the dad, because he, as a fantasy writer, can accept elves as real, but a comic book raised son proves problematic

* Discovery Channel has a surprisingly creepy show about real-life hauntings called ''A Haunting'', and it's usually the father/husband who's the last to freak out. In some episodes, he never acknowledges whatever weirdness drove his family from their home. Some examples seem to imply that whatever may have been haunting the family was specifically aiming for this trope, by only tormenting the ones that believe most and driving a wedge between the family members when they still don't believe.

** FridgeBrilliance: The demon won. Anybody who thinks that having an enslaved demon doesn't count as "corruption" (or won't quickly lead to it) is ''off the chart'' on the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism.
*** This was pointed out in the story. Jack's reply was the same as it always was before he trapped the demon. It was a crestfallen demon who had to clean up the destroyed tree and dead cat.

* Some literary scholars claim that the father in ''Literature/TheErlKing'' by Creator/JohannWolfgangVonGoethe represents the enlightened attitude of his time and is thus unresponsive to the supernatural phenomena his son (and for that matter all children -- and women due to their sensitive nature) are capable of sensing.

* ''Literature/HouseOfLeaves'': Inverts this. The wife/mother of the family is in denial about the supernatural nature of the House; the dog and the cat are explicitly stated to not be affected by the supernatural stuff at all; the two children pick up on it but don't seem to grasp the full severity of it. But the husband/father of the family gets totally sucked into it - to the point that he makes his long-lost brother arrive, plus a team of explorers, and decides (he's a filmographer by living) to go make a movie about the weird stuff happening - against his wife's wishes.

* In the film ''Film/TheOrphanage'', the female lead, [[HauntedHeroine Laura]], notices all the creepy stuff thats going on, while her husband, Carlos, sees nothing, and remains relatively uninvolved. A big theme of the movie was how belief change's one's perception. The husband didn't want to believe in ghosts, so he got minimal exposure, while the wife and the alleged psychic got full treatment.

* Nobody in ''Film/ManosTheHandsOfFate'' shows much common sense, but dad Mike is probably the worst. He insists that the family stay at the obviously suspicious hotel, even as his wife pleads with him to leave, and the caretaker warns him that "[[{{Catchphrase}} The Master would not approve]]."

* In ''TheCantervilleGhost'', people can only see ghosts if they already believe in ghosts. The dad, because he doesn't believe in ghosts, can't see them, and because he can't see them, it reinforces his belief that ghosts aren't real. He blames the ghost's activities to pranks on the part of the children, to the shock of the ghost in question.

* Taken even further in ''TheCantervilleGhost'', where the ''entire family'' is supernatural proof, reacting to bloodstains-that-will-not-leave by applying detergent, and asking the ghost clanking down the hall if he would mind putting some lubricant on his chains.