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"Watching your daughter being collected by her date feels like handing over a million dollar Stradivarius to a gorilla."
Jim Bishop

When a teenage girl has a date, the date always comes over to pick her up, and because it takes women forever to get ready, he ends up spending some quality time in the living room with her Boyfriend-Blocking Dad. Depending who the audience is sympathetic towards, we either watch a domineering tyrant taking this opportunity to brutally intimidate the crap out of the poor kid, or we see a loving and indomitable guardian instill some much-needed restraint into a disgusting teenage male — a vile creature he remembers only too well from his own teenage years.

Topics of discussion may include Dad's gun collection, combat experience or prison time, or perhaps the mysterious, unfortunate fates of the daughter's former suitors. The date will become emphatically aware of the daughter's curfew, as well as the fact that he's dating Daddy's Little Girl, and that if he ever does anything to hurt her, he will live only long enough to regret it.

Generally, the girl is cheerfully unaware of her father's threatening of her date. Though in modern works, there's an increasing trend towards Genre Savvy girls intentionally leaving Daddy alone with her boyfriend to invoke this trope. If both the boy and the girl are supposed to be sympathetic though, she'll often get mad at her father for trying or threatening to give the boy a hard time.

The name is a pun on Perp Sweating, a situation this is probably intentionally meant to echo. A bit of a Dead Horse Trope in fiction these days, as almost all modern instances will be heavily lampshaded, but it remains Truth in Television.


Examples

    open/close all folders 

    Advertising 
  • A commercial for a cell phone company has the girl's father showing the suitor his daughter's cell phone contacts. He comments that their entries are next to each other, and it's like "[He's] watching you, all the time." He continues to mouth "All the time" at the couple as they walk away.
  • A commercial for Oscar Meyer deli meats is showing all the times a man says no (before he says yes to Oscar Meyer bacon, of course). A wannabe gangster shows up to his door, asking for his daughter. He takes one look at him and says no.

    Anime & Manga 
  • One episode of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood features a particularly silly example, with Maes Hughes telling a group of three-year old boys playing with his daughter not to "try anything funny", all while holding a pistol and looking threatening.
  • Averted in Bakemonogatari. On a date, Senjougahara Hitagi suggests Koyomi has a chat with her father while she gets things ready, who unexpectedly turns out to be the one driving them to the woods. But instead of sweating him, Mr. Senjougahara is ashamed for being a bad father and grateful to Koyomi for curing Hitagi and making her happy again.

    Comedy 
  • Billy Crystal tells about his first date. The girl's father identifies himself as a sergeant, so is either police or military, and asks Billy if he's ever seen a .357 Magnum.
  • Bill Engvall includes this in his stand-up comedy routine, claiming to tell his teenage daughter's new boyfriend, "I've got no problem going back to prison."
  • Phil Jupitus in his Quadrophobia show:
    I've got me own problems. I'm a dad, I've got two daughters, and the other day the eldest brought a boy home for the first time. And I think it's safe to say that I reacted quite badly. She came in and she went "All right, Dad? This is Billy" And I went "Billy?" [twitch] "You go and put the kettle on, darling, while I talk to Billy". She went out of the room, and I went up to this Billy, and I said "If you so much as touch her, I'll cut you". So this Billy starts crying! Still, that's seven-year-olds for you, no spine.
  • Christopher Titus had to deal with some of this from his new girlfriend's family - her father was a Marine sniper, and her brothers both work for Federal agencies. He mentioned their seeing one of his shows where he joked about how, if he screwed up, you'd hear on the news that his body was found in 5 states - "Federal agents are baffled". Their response? "They'd never find ya."
    • And on his first meeting with her father and brother, his parting advice was this.
    Father: Hey, If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her..., just remember - 'One shot, one kill'.
    Brother: Yeah, and don't bother running! You'd just die tired.

    Comic Books 
  • In Gold Digger by Fred Perry, Theodore Diggers is the master. As it's put by his adoptive daughter Brittany, "Some dads polish a shotgun in front of their daughters' dates. My dad magically sets his head on fire." He even quips "Mind if I smoke?" It's a sign that he really likes Stryyp'Gia (Brittany's boyfriend and eventual husband) that he doesn't does that.
  • In New Warriors, Marvel Boy gets this treatment from Firestar's father on their first date. (The fact that Mr. Jones is a normal human that Marvel Boy could smack down without lifting a finger makes absolutely no difference to the intimidation factor.) She's apparently used to it, only smiling and commenting that he used to be worse.
  • Done with several entertaining twists in Secret Six; the "twerp" is a good-natured adult lesbian, the "innocent girl" is Scandal Savage, team leader and immortal badass, and the Boyfriend-Blocking Dad is Bane.

    Comic Strips 
  • A The K Chronicles strip starts off with Keith doing this to his mother's date, but then the date starts talking about how much he respects cartoonists and what a shame it is when newspapers cut them. In the last panel, Keith asks the visitor whether he needs a condom.
  • Happens to Peter the first time he arrives to take Denise out in FoxTrot.

    Fan Works 
  • This trope is incredibly common in Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfics, with nearly every named character getting in on the action in one fic or another, because as everyone knows, "a vague disclaimer is nobody's friend."
    • Combined Force sees Spike and Giles join forces to scare the living daylights out of Dawn's date.
    • The series The Chosen does the same thing with the whole gang; Dawn's date is mostly completely smooth and prepared in the face of all their questions...except when Giles enters and goes a bit Ripper on him.
  • Downplayed in Child of the Storm. Magneto looms over Harry Dresden when he starts dating his daughter. This is a neat trick, considering that while Magneto's relatively tall, Dresden is 6'9 - though he's also trying and failing miserably to hide behind Wanda (5'6) at the time. However, he backs off with good grace before he can even get beyond a speculative look when she warns him off, and later proves surprisingly friendly. Of course, the flip side is that, him being The Dreaded for just about anyone who's ever heard of him, he doesn't need an If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her... speech.
  • Fantasia Times: When asking for permission to date Sera, Rob gets this from not only Sera's dads, but the parents of Sera's best friend as well. Given that Sera's last boyfriend was a Love-Interest Traitor, it's justified.
  • Naru-Hina Chronicles: Hiashi Hyuga wants "no funny business" between Naruto and Hinata, and requires them to sleep in separate rooms as a requirement for approval of their cohabitation. When called on the difference between Naruto's relationship with Hinata and Neji/Tenten or Konohamaru/Hanabi, he simply replies that Naruto is a known pervert and requires more rules. Also, to Hiashi, the Hyuga family sword apparently only exists to hunt down the boyfriends of his daughters... and Neji when he manages to get Tenten pregnant.
    • It gets worse for comedy in the Mini-sodes, as this attitude is turned up to eleven, with the knob broken off.
  • Foobar137's Phineas and Ferb works:
    • Phineas attempts to use a Lie Detector on his daughter's date in "No Shovel Required".
    • Ferb inadvertently does this to his daughter's date in "The Silent Treatment", because his silence causes the boy to babble.
  • In the NCIS fic Shards to a Whole, shortly after newlyweds Tim and Abby McGee announce their impending first baby will be a girl, Gibbs has Tim and Jimmy Palmer go through "boot camp," in part to generally improve their fighting skills, and in part so they can successfully instill the "Fear of Dad" in any boys who glance at their daughters.
  • A memorable Supernatural fic called That's My Story involved Sam Winchester winning an informal dorm competition that started with a neighbor's crazy father doing this to a boyfriend, and something about a really long multiple-choice test before prom. Then they manage to draw Sam out, and his story has Dean epically trolling some school friend of Sam's who came over to do homework, with a knife covered in blood and Ominous Latin Chanting.
    "And then I jumped up and started yelling at him, but I was yelling in Latin, and he started yelling back, so we were having this huge fight, and in the middle of it Wendell just kind of snuck away and never talked to me again."
  • Superwomen of Eva 2: Lone Heir of Krypton: One Omake in the epilogue has Kal-El (who, even if he died as a baby when his ship crash-landed in Germany's Black Forest is still Asuka Langley Soryu's biological father) meeting Shinji Ikari (Asuka's boyfriend) in the kid's dreams and telling Shinji that he better treat Asuka right while cradling a shotgun. Shinji takes a second to ask Kal-El that, if he has the same powers as Asuka, why the heck does he has a shotgun? Kal-El's response is to shrug and say that "it just felt right".
  • Quite a few Transformers Film Series fanfics feature Ironhide becoming part of the Lennox family as an Honorary Uncle to Will and Sarah Lennox's daughter Annabelle and Twerp Sweating her prospective dates. In some fics, he uses a holographic projection (usually of a very big and scary man), but in others, he Twerp Sweats the hapless boys in his alt mode.note 
  • Gender Flipped Ultimate Spider-Woman: Change with the Light. Instead of the Boyfriend-Blocking Dad threatening his daughter's potential boyfriend, in this case, he is threatening his son's potential girlfriend. Andrew Reilly hates Mary Jane Watson and bluntly warns her to stay away from his son Ben, threatening to make her life very miserable if she doesn't stop dating him. Ben himself is not amused when he finds out.
  • White Sheep (RWBY):
    • Taiyang to Jaune, twice. First, Taiyang interrogates Jaune on various hypothetical scenarios, such as what he'd do if Yang got pregnant. Then Jaune accidentally agrees to let Taiyang sleep in his dorm room, which gives Tai more time to sweat him. Jaune is mostly unconcerned through all this, as he and Yang have just started dating and he's done nothing wrong. The second time, he's significantly more worried, since Jaune has announced on international television that he is the Prince of the Grimm, Yang is his fiance who is pregnant with his child, and he'll destroy Atlas if she's not released. Tai is not happy that he was not informed about any of this, and Jaune quickly decides that he'd rather fight a war than deal with an angry Taiyang Xiao-Long. Tai does, however, give him a pass, as long as he's invited to the wedding.
    • When Jaune and Weiss get in a Fake Relationship to distract Weiss' sister Winter from some illegal activities they were involved in, Winter decides to interrogate Jaune. When she asks what his intentions are, Jaune claims he plans to marry Weiss, to Winter's surprise. When Weiss chews him out for this, Jaune points out that he couldn't exactly say he planned to dump her in a few weeks.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • 3 Days to Kill: Ethan digs into Hugh, his daughter's boyfriend, after the two meet.
  • One of the absolute best examples is in Bad Boys II where Marcus and Mike threaten the hell out of Marcus' daughter's date Reggie. Cluster F-Bomb and N-Word Privileges ahoy. Mike actually pulls a gun on him, then threatens the poor boy with anal sex. Reggie looks like he's about to cry by the time Marcus' daughter comes to the door. It must be seen to be appreciated. Even better, the poor boy playing him had no idea what he was in for. The fear is quite genuine.
  • From Clueless: "Anything happens to my daughter, I have a .45 and a shovel. I doubt anyone would miss you." Doubly funny because the father spends most of the movie buried in his work. His entire perp-sweating consists of the above line, during a (very) brief break from his work. Not that he had to worry about that particular guy.
  • Den of Thieves: When Levoux's daughter's date shows up to collect her for the prom, Leveaux leads him into a room filled with Tattooed Crooks who very politely threaten him.
  • Subverted in Grosse Pointe Blank, where Debbie's dad tries to sweat Martin over asking his little girl to prom and promptly vanishing off the face of the earth for ten years. However, his heart clearly isn't in it, and Martin, who has spent the past ten years travelling the world and killing people, first for the US government and later as a freelance assassin, is unimpressed. Eventually, the older man just shrugs and the two bond over scotch.
  • Referenced in High School Musical 3's number "A Night to Remember" (re: the senior prom).
    Guys: Her mother opens the door, I'm shaking inside...
    Girls: He's here! It's time! The hour's arrived!
    Guys: Don't know why her father's staring me down!
    Girls: Where's my purse? Lip gloss? Now I'm really freaking out!
  • A good part of the premise of Meet the Parents was Robert De Niro blurring the line between Twerp Sweating and Perp Sweating.
  • Please Turn Over: When Edward meets Robert, he sends Jo, Janet, and Gladys off to bed to learn of his prospects. When he learns that Robert earnt £20,000 last year, Edward doesn't know what to say.
  • Used darkly in Spider-Man: Homecoming when Peter is escorting Liz to the homecoming dance. Her dad, as Peter learned when they met, is Adrian Toomes aka the Vulture. At first, Adrian goes through a typical Twerp Sweat procedure — waggling a very large knife as he prepares some food, offering Peter alcohol that he doesn't want someone underage to accept — but during the drive to the dance, Adrian figures out that Peter is Spider-Man. When Adrian drives them to the dance, he sends her in first, saying he has to give Peter "The Dad Talk". He then makes it clear that dating his daughter is the good option, but if Peter tries to thwart the Vulture's next heist, he and possibly his family will be killed, a threat Adrian tries to make good on later.
  • In Tragedy Girls, Sadie's (very large) dad does this to Jordan when he arrives to pick Sadie up for the prom just by standing in the doorway—and completely filling it—and staring silently at Jordan as he blathers nervously.
  • Subverted in Twilight the movie, when Edward is obviously not intimidated by Charlie, Bella's dad. Though Charlie is the sheriff, not to mention cleaning his shotgun at the time... none of that really matters, as it's not at all close to an even match physically or mentally.
  • Uncle Buck
    • A variant appears in this movie, where Buck realizes his niece's boyfriend, Bug, is only interested in sex and sets out to scare him off, constantly talking amiably. It's actually creepy:
    Buck: We can talk about burying the hatchet. You know what a hatchet is, don't you, Bug?
    Bug: It's an ax?
    Buck: Sort of, yeah, yeah. I got one in my car if you'd like to see it.
    Bug: I'll pass.
    Buck: Fair enough. I like to carry it, you never know when you're going to need it. A situation may come up, say for example, someone has been drinking, and about to drive a loved one home, then I'd like to know I have it. Not to kill, no. Just to maim. Take a little off the shoulder. Swish! The elbow. Slash! Shave a little meat off the old kneecap. Fowap! Ooooo! You got both kneecaps? I like to keep mine razor sharp. Sharp enough you can shave with it. Why, I've been known to circumcise a gnat. You're not a gnat, are you, Bug? Wait a minute, bug, gnat. Is there a little similarity? Whoaaa, I think there is! Ha ha ha. You understand what I'm talking about? I don't think you do. I'll be right back. Heh heh heh heh.
    • And when Tia tells Bug that Buck is "all talk", Buck produces the hatchet from the trunk of his car! Later, when the kid does turn out to be a slimeball who's only interested in getting it on and takes some liberties with Buck's niece, Buck gets to make good on the spirit of his threats (if not the letter)... by practicing his golf. And using the kid as a target.

    Literature 
  • Discussed in the Vorkosigan Saga book Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen: Gen. Fyodor Haines complains that even being a base commander doesn't give him enough credibility with boys interested in his 15-year-old daughter.
    Adm. Jole: I'd think you were in an excellent position to intimidate suitors.
    Haines: But everyone knows I'm not allowed to use the plasma cannons for personal purposes.
  • Dave Barry claims he wouldn't even bother with the sweating part — any boys that got through the minefield in the front yard would find a ballistic Dave passing through the screen door to strangle them. This became Hilarious in Hindsight when he did have a daughter years later.

    Live-Action TV 
  • 8 Simple Rules. Number Six: "No complaining while you're waiting for her. If you're bored, change my oil."
  • Parodied in Angel, when Angel and Doyle take the opportunity to do this to one of Cordelia's dates... in order to rile Cordelia.
  • Jefferson Pierce does this in Black Lightning, and it's Played for Laughs (and Jefferson has a little smile on his face when he's done, implying that he's not actually too worried). However, it quickly becomes Harsher in Hindsight at the end of the episode, when said boy is shot and crippled, which means he won't be having sex any time soon.
  • Inverted in one episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, where Jake pulls this on his mother's new boyfriend... his own father. Justified as his dad is a slimeball who previously cheated on his mom (a lot) and then abandoned them. However, Jake eventually accepts that his mother is a grown woman, and he really doesn't get a say in who she dates... though he does threaten his father one more time for good measure.
  • Parodied in Burnistoun, where a teenage girl tells her date to wait in the living room with her dad and 'all her mad uncles' while she gets ready. After grilling him over his intentions and even the movie he's taking her to see (which is described in the paper, much to their chagrin, as a 'saucy sex romp'), the girl comes back downstairs and finds the boy and one of her uncles having a spoon fight in their underwear. While handcuffed together.
  • Castle
    • Analyzed and ultimately subverted: Castle gets all excited at the opportunity to terrify his daughter's prom date... but his daughter intercepts him before he can greet her date at the door with a fake severed head. The trope is discussed further when Ryan and Castle reflect on the things the fathers of their prom dates did regarding this trope — which leads the previously clueless Beckett to come to the dawning realization that when she was getting ready for her date, this is what her dad was doing.
    Beckett: Now you mention it, he looked terrified. All this time, I thought he was scared of me.
    • Then played with further in the episode "Punked", when Castle does it by accident. He doesn't realize Alexis's friend Ashley is a boy, and walks in waving a very large antique revolver. note  The boy is, understandably, rather disconcerted.
    • Then Kate's father does it to Castle in a deleted scene. Though it's mostly Castle's fault. This is entirely in keeping with Castle's Manchild tendencies - the character is in his late 30s or early 40s, but often acts like someone who would expect to be Twerp Sweated.
  • Cheers:
    • In Season One's "The Coach's Daughter", Diane notes that her father was very prone to this.
    • Gender-inverted when Carla does it in one episode's cold open with her daughter's date (Carla having spent most of her teenaged years pregnant making her very suspicious). She seems to get over him, but once he's gone tells Sam to hold on to the glass the young man was drinking until the forensic lab techs show up.
  • In one episode of CHiPs, the captain's adult daughter comments to her father about the habit he had of greeting her dates while cleaning his gun.
  • Deputy: Hollister is very protective about his daughter Maggie, an attitude her mom and grandma note is common among fathers. Though polite, after meeting her boyfriend he browbeats the kid a bit while making clear he'll never tolerate any mistreatment of her. He later apologizes for not trusting her judgment and doing this however.
  • Derry Girls: Parodied Trope. Joe gives this treatment to Gerry, his daughter's husband of 17 years. Gerry endures it with the patience of a saint.
    Joe: I'll find some dirt on you yet, boy. I've a few people working on it!
  • Doctor Who. In "The Caretaker" the Doctor is being a Jerkass towards the boyfriend of his current companion. We're meant to believe this is down to jealousy, but the boyfriend realises it's because the Doctor is worried he's not good enough for her. He helps to save the world by the end of the episode, so the Doctor grudgingly accepts he's good enough.
  • During an early episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Will meets a father who brutally rapid-fire interrogates anyone who even tries to talk to his daughter. When the intimidated boy of course can't even answer him, he tells him, "You disgust me, boy. Get out of my sight."
  • Done in The George Lopez Show when Carmen's first boyfriend is at her house. George tells him that he will be watching him everywhere. Done with another boyfriend when he says that he has another boyfriend buried under the roses and that's what makes them bloom, causing the kid to run out of the backyard. Done again with Carmen's boyfriend Jason, when they interview him but can't find anything wrong with him.
  • Good Witch has Sam Radford doing this for his stepdaughter Grace when her new boyfriend Luke comes over, complete with Death Glare and asking about his intentions.
    Luke: You're a doctor, right?
    Sam: Surgeon. I cut people open.
    • Mostly, though, it's Played for Laughs, since the audience knows that Sam is a pretty sweet guy, and he even admits to Luke that he's messing around.
  • Done once with style in Hannah Montana where after very blatantly hitting on Miley while her dad is in the room, then insulting Robbie Ray's choice of guitars, the date manages to announce that he's not afraid to say that Hannah Montana sucks, prompting Robbie Ray to comment, "Well waddya know, the boy's got three feet!"
  • In one episode of Just the Ten of Us, Wendy recruits a ringer to pass her father's "dinner test", then drive her to meet her real date. All the sisters want to actually date the ringer, as he is played by a young, charming Matthew Perry.
  • Lie to Me: Emily Lightman is the sixteen-year-old daughter of the world's foremost expert on deception, Cal Lightman. She expects her father to pull something like this on her date for the evening, so she makes him promise not to use any "covert tactics" to freak out the guy. But, since she never said anything about overt tactics:
    Cal: (opening the door) Hi, Dan!
    Dan: Hi, Doctor Lightman.
    Cal: Are you going to try and have sex with my daughter tonight, Dan?
  • Modern Family:
    • Dylan is sitting (uncomfortably) on the couch with Phil, waiting for Haley, watching baseball. Phil makes a comment about one of the players being "stuck at second base, and thinking about trying to steal third, which is just a terrible idea" then turns to him and asks how things are going with Haley. Phil may or may not have even realized the double entendre, but Claire, in the background, seems pleased to see Dylan squirm awkwardly.
    • In the pilot, Phil explains his technique of acting perfectly friendly to his daughter's boyfriends, except for giving them a cold, dead stare. He doesn't pull it off as well as he thinks.
  • Inverted in NCIS: New Orleans. Pride gets along with his daughter's boyfriends better than she does, and it freaks her out.
  • That '70s Show: Red Forman, upon finding out Michael Kelso is dating his daughter Laurie, kicks him out of the house when he comes over for dinner and later has Eric summon him into the garage, locking the two of them in it until Kelso gets the gist of what Red wants to happen. Kelso struggles, as he is a dumbass and cries before they are done.
  • Veronica Mars: Keith does this to Troy early in Season One.
  • On The West Wing, the first time President Bartlet's daughter Zoey brought a boy home, he was greeted with the immortal line, "Just remember these two things: She's nineteen years old, and the 82nd Airborne works for me." And when Ellie sent her (rather weedy-looking and nervous) fiance to meet the father, Bartlet "just happened" to be flanked by all of the joint chiefs of staff.

    Music 
  • Subject of the Rodney Atkins song "Cleaning This Gun (Come On In Boy)." The singer recalls getting a brief, pointed talk from his date's father, which he admits he needed and fully intends to give to any guy his daughter brings home who is the same kind of person he used to be.
    Come on in boy, sit on down and tell me about yourself
    So you like my daughter, do you now? Yeah, we think she's somethin' else
    She's her daddy's girl, her momma's world
    She deserves respect, that's what she'll get
    Now, ain't it son?
    Y'all run along and have some fun
    I'll see you when you get back, bet I'll be up all night
    Still cleaning this gun.

    Video Games 
  • In The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II, while Rean is aboard the Pantagruel he encounters Xeno and Leo, who used to work for Fie's adoptive father in his mercenary company and are essentially her adoptive elder siblings. While Rean explains to the two of them about how Fie is doing in school, both sense that Rean seems to be close to Fie, regardless of whether the player pursues any romance to her or not, with Leo deliberately pulling a Scary Black Man routine over the possibility of Rean courting Fie. Hilarity Ensues as Rean thinks that the two look more like overprotective dads than anything.
  • During Maru's 2-heart event in Stardew Valley, you end up alone for a few minutes in the lab with Demetrius, who warns you not to interfere with his daughter's career. Your options when Maru returns are to tell her he was acting weird, costing relationship points, or to pretend nothing happened. (While Maru's dialogue does get flirty over time, it's not till 8 hearts that she'll officially be your girlfriend. If you talk to Demetrius again right after the event, he admits that he may have jumped the gun there.)

    Visual Novels 
  • Daughter for Dessert gives a highly unusual example in the “good” Lily epilogue. The protagonist has to convince Lily’s parents that even though he has no income due to the fact that he no longer owns his diner, he’ll make a suitable husband. Fortunately for him, in the end, Lily’s parents just want her to be happy.

    Web Animation 

    Web Comics 
  • In a Crossover between Eerie Cuties and Magick Chicks, Melissa's "Daddy", Dakota, does this to Ace, offering to show off "his" sword collection. (Slightly subverted in that Dakota actually has a far better reason to be "showing Ace the sword collection" and is using this trope as an excuse.)
  • Crops up in MegaTokyo to the point of deconstruction; the father is a government agent, and plans on using his connections to commit privacy invasion on a massive scale and follow him very closely. Or was it?
    Yuki's Father: *Handing his daughter the phone after 3 comics' worth of threats* He didn't hang up.
  • Ash's father in Misfile uses a sausage and a pair of scissors to tell Rumsiel why sleeping with Ash would be a bad idea.
  • Subverted in Sandra and Woo: Larissa's boyfriend braces for this when her father wants a talk with him, but the father is all too happy she's dating a nerdy nice guy and gives him tips on how to avoid sinking the relationship instead.
  • In The Whiteboard, it's not Cara's father, but her friend Miki who does this to Doc. As she's seen Cara get hurt by previous boyfriends, and also knowing that Doc is indeed that nut she sees on television, she clearly has good reasons to question him.
  • In Lunar Baboon the father does this but with an interesting twist. Instead of saying he will beat up the boyfriend, he says that his daughter will do it herself, and points out how strong she is while she stands there flexing her muscles.

    Web Video 
  • Parodied and Subverted in Brony D&D. Amber's father Varaugh tries to do this with Ivan, but the latter is such a dorky Nice Guy that Varaugh can't bring himself to keep up the act for more than a minute.
    "Curses! how does anybody stay mad at you?"

    Western Animation 
  • Happens to Danny in Danny Phantom when he goes to pick up Paulina for the dance and her very large and scary looking father answers the door.
    Danny: "Uh, hi. You must be Paulina's dad."
    Paulina's Dad: "If you upset her, we're going to have a violent talk."
  • Non-date example: Trent has been unsuccessful in calling Daria (alas, it was just to help him buy Jane a birthday present) and shows up at her house. Before Daria comes down, he undergoes a bit of this from a befuddled and suspicious Jake (as Daria simply doesn't get "gentleman callers" while her sister Quinn has one every night), which all just confuses Trent.
  • Sent up in Family Guy when Peter poses as a teenager and has a date with a high-school girl.
  • Also parodied in Drawn Together when Princess Clara gives Captain Hero this treatment when he is about to date her cousin.
  • Attempted by Bob in God, the Devil and Bob, but he actually connects with his daughter's date based on their mutual love for the Detroit Pistons hockey team. Then it turns out that the boyfriend is actually Satan wanting to show Bob just how malevolent he could be.
  • In the Inside Out short Riley's First Date?, Mr. Andersen tries this on Riley's not-boyfriend Jordan, giving him the silent treatment and a Death Glare. It's not very effective, given that Jordan is kind of a space cadet. Then the two end up bonding over their shared love of classic rock music.
  • Slight variation in Lucy, the Daughter of the Devil. In the first episode, Lucy's date is made to wait in the living room while her father (literally Satan) distracts her with a phone call so he can telepathically induce her pet hellhound to convince her date to jump out of the window in her honor, a la the nanny in The Omen (1976).
  • Rocko's Modern Life: While older than most examples of this trope, Rocko was subjected to this once when he went on a date with a cute rabbit girl and met her father. While seemingly friendly when his daughter is present, the moment Mr. Rabbit is alone with Rocko he morphs into a hulking monster with several sharp claws that tells the wallaby in no uncertain terms what will happen if he touches the daughter. Naturally, the show being what it is and Rocko being a Chew Toy, the daughter turns out to be much more amorous than Rocko and almost immediately begins throwing herself at Rocko when they get in his car... and Mr. Rabbit is apparently a ninja who can sneak into cars unnoticed.
  • Inverted on The Simpsons when Seymour Skinner twerp-sweats his mother's date.
  • In the Tiny Toon Adventures episode "Dating Acme Acres Style," Buster picks up Babs for a date and has to spend some time with her father, who is portrayed as a huge hulking monster.

    Real Life 
  • Surveys suggest that most parents aren't actually too worked up about their teenage children dating (provided this is at a reasonable age), but some parents still do invoke this trope. Especially the dreaded "what are your intentions?" question. There is no right answer.
  • Some US presidents have used the Secret Service to do this. That must be fun.
    "Sasha and Malia are huge fans, but boys, don't get any ideas. Two words for you: Predator drones. You will never see it coming. ...you think I'm joking?" —Barack Obama, to The Jonas Brothers
  • Political blogger and occasional Let's Player Nate From the Sunshine State went on a long rant in one of his videos where he described how he, as the oldest member of his generation in his family, got to "welcome" all the men who married his female cousins to the family. He made that point quite explicitly: his female cousins weren't joining their husband's family, the new husbands were joining Nate's cousins' family. And naturally, there were rules to being in the family. Rule One was "She has male cousins, and like me they are all over 6'6" tall, we all are boxers, and we all have experience with firearms. And one of us is married to a Forensic Pathologist who knows how to successfully hide the evidence of a murder. So have a great marriage, and don't even dream about considering about maybe planning to think about raising your hand to her."
  • Sean Penn related in this interview on The Graham Norton Show how he sent his daughter up to her room so that he could get a few minutes alone with her first boyfriend. He attempted to be intimidating but didn't really do a good job of it. Penn noted that even if he really wanted to, he wouldn't have been able to intimidate the boyfriend because he was much larger than Penn and an MMA fighter to boot.
  • Mark Wahlberg also talked about this on The Graham Norton Show, where he attempted to be intimidating when he met his eldest daughter's boyfriend for the first time, even bringing along two burly friends to try and be even more intimidating. He was completely caught off guard when the boy brought his mother and was quickly won over by the fact that the kid was more polite and respectful towards him than his own child. He came to like the boyfriend so much that he was thinking up ways to ensure that the relationship would last and result in marriage.

 
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Bad Boys II

Megan's date Reggie arrives to the Burnett household to be greeted by Mike and Marcus, who put on a scary act so that he will behave with her.

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5 (3 votes)

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