History SelectiveObliviousness / WesternAnimation

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Marge Simpson can sometimes adopt this philosophy in addition to being a StepfordSmiler. One example is her saying that Homer used to be a fat, immature slob before they dated and now he's an entirely different person. There's also this.
-->'''Bart:''' I've got to go teach some kids a lesson.\\

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': Amity Blight does this when she first met Luz, she disregards and/or ignores the majority of what she says, when she confronts Amity for [[DisproportionateRetribution nearly getting her killed]], being mean to her and her friends or [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking trying to have a friendly conversation]], thinking that anytime Luz is around or tries to have any kind interaction with her, [[HairTriggerTemper it automatically bothers Amity]] or [[NeverMyFault gets her in trouble or humiliated]], [[ItsAllAboutMe being mainly occupied with her problems and ignoring the harm she inflicts]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': [[Characters/TheOwlHouseAmityBlight Amity Blight]] does this when she first met Luz, she disregards and/or ignores the majority of what she says, when she confronts Amity for [[DisproportionateRetribution nearly getting her killed]], being mean to her and her friends or [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking trying to have a friendly conversation]], thinking that anytime Luz is around or tries to have any kind interaction with her, [[HairTriggerTemper it automatically bothers Amity]] or [[NeverMyFault gets her in trouble or humiliated]], [[ItsAllAboutMe being mainly occupied with her problems and ignoring the harm she inflicts]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': [[Characters/TheSimpsonsMargeSimpson Marge Simpson]] can sometimes adopt this philosophy in addition to being a StepfordSmiler. One example is her saying that Homer used to be a fat, immature slob before they dated and now he's an entirely different person. There's also this.

--->'''Squidward''': Great Neptune, I had no idea. [[LampshadeHanging The depth of his delusion is awe-inspiring.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDragonJakeLong'': In the episode "The Ski Trip", Rose starts letting hints to her identity as Huntsgirl slip. Jake, however, refuses to realize that he's dating his archnemesis, even when Trixie and Spud point it out to him. To quote Spud, "Denial, party of one, your table is ready." It takes seeing that Rose and Huntsgirl have the same BirthmarkOfDestiny for Jake to realize the truth.
* ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'': Despite Bob stating many times before that he is not fond of [[ObnoxiousInLaws her family]], Linda seems to believe that he loves them deep down inside. To be clear, Bob has legitimate issues with his wife's family. Her sister Gayle is a borderline psychopath who is lazy, overemotional and dependant on Linda to the point of making her go out of her way to help without any concern for inconveniencing her or her family. Her mother is even worse, as she's very loud, controlling and [[UngratefulBastard ungrateful]] when she makes Linda do her favors or steal her daughter's cell phone charger while insisting it's her's. Her father, while not intentionally terrible, is often sick and is hard of hearing. Linda cannot at all grasp that Bob outright hates being around any of them.

** In one episode Lois' brother, Patrick, is revealed to be the eponymous Fat Guy Strangler. Lois refuses to believe Patrick is the killer, despite the several glaring pieces of evidence that point to Patrick, including a half dead fat guy lying in Patrick's room who outright states that Patrick tried to kill him, until Lois sees more and more damning evidence piling up and Brian screaming at her to wake up.
** The Griffins, except for the children and Brian, never seem to be aware that Stewie is highly intelligent for a baby his age. Every time he talks they never exactly react to what he says. In the episode "The Courtship of Stewie's Father", Lois meets with Stewie's preschool teacher and she shows Lois several drawings Stewie made, which show Stewie killing Lois in various horrible ways. The two women then have this exchange regarding the images:

** Zim himself is completely incapable of processing any evidence that he's ''not'' a great hero of the Irken Empire. No matter how much he destroys on his own side, how blatant the Tallests' contempt for him is, or how obviously they try to get rid of him, he always bounces back just as convinced of his own greatness as before. [[spoiler: He realizes that the Tallests aren't coming for him in ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZimEnterTheFlorpus''... for a few minutes before he rationalizes it away and is back to his old self.]]

** Superman falls prey to this exact same trope in the same Cadmus storyline. Despite later giving his NoMoreHoldingBackSpeech in a different episode, at no point does Superman apologize to Hamilton or acknowledge that a human might have panicked at the reminder that his friend is an immortal alien with laser beam eyes. It later takes Green Arrow AND the Flash to point out that to most people, the difference between a Kryptonian superhero and a Kryptonian alien monster is a matter of how careful the Kryptonian is about damaging things. Like relationships, buildings, and people.

** [[ShrinkingViolet Fluttershy]]'s introverted tendencies throughout her life result in a tremendous lack of self-awareness, to the point that she considers herself "a loudmouth" when others sometimes strain to hear her. In "Putting Your Hoof Down," this carries over into her resolve to stop being such a pushover (a status which she needed her friends' objective input to realize), causing her to fail to notice [[JerkassBall just how far in the other direction she's going]] until she notices [[WhatHaveIBecome how monstrous her reflection has become]].

** Pinkie isn't fond of Mudbriar's stoic attitude and mannerisms, despite her sister Maud's own personality being similar to his. Case in point, when Maud and Mudbriar take out their pets to play, they marvel at the fun they have together. Pinkie, however, whispers to Maud that Twiggy is just a stick even though Boulder itself is just a rock. When Starlight points this out to her, Pinkie retorts that Boulder has "ten times the personality of some random stick!" Similarly, Pinkie thinks Starlight is joking when she points out that Maud is just as undeniably awkward and strange just as Mudbriar is.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Marge Simpson can sometimes adopt this philosophy in addition to being a StepfordSmiler. One example is her saying that Homer used to be a fat, immature slob before they dated and now he's an entirely different person. There's also this.

** Eric Cartman is so wrapped up in his own ginormous ego that he will ignore anything which contradicts his glorified self-image, and what he cannot ignore he will twist in his own favor. The best example is, of course, claiming he's not fat, but "big boned", but there are other examples too. On one occasion he frantically tries to avoid a fight with Wendy who's mad at him, because if he loses to a girl, nobody will think he's cool anymore. When he's forced to fight Wendy anyway and loses, the other kids tell him that not only did they ''never'' think he was cool, but they couldn't possibly think any less of him than they already did. Cartman thinks that they're just saying it to make him feel better, [[InsaneTrollLogic meaning they care about him, meaning they STILL think he's cool]].
** "Asspen" finds Stan spelling out the fact that he's not interested in competing against the resident JerkJock of the ski resort, only for the latter to take every single word as a challenge.

** In "A Pal for Gary", [=SpongeBob=] not only completely ignores the words of warning a woman gives him about the ''Film/{{Gremlins}}''-like creatures she sells, but also ignores when it turns into a massive killer eel in favor of chastising Gary for "bullying" it even when ''he is in its mouth and about to be eaten''.
** What ''really'' sells [=SpongeBob=] (ditto for Patrick) as this is the fact that he just ''cannot'' seem to comprehend the obvious fact that not only is Squidward not his best friend, but in fact hates him to the point of madness, even though Squidward has flat-out told [=SpongeBob=] to his face that he can't stand him on at least one occasion. This is best shown in "Little Yellow Book," where we're shown a scene of Squidward chewing [=SpongeBob=] out; while in reality, Squidward was furious at [=SpongeBob=] for letting Gary into his home and Gary chewing up many of his possessions, complete with Squidward screaming "horrible words that should never be used around strangers" in his face, [=SpongeBob=] sees it as Squidward giving him "his profound opinions on how to properly raise and care for a household pet."

** Squidward is oblivious to the fact that he's not that good a clarinet player. It's implied that even [=SpongeBob=] knows it, but doesn't have the heart to tell him.

** [=SpongeBob=] not only completely ignores the words of warning a woman gives him about the ''Film/{{Gremlins}}''-like creatures she sells, but also ignores when it turns into a massive killer eel in favor of chastising Gary for "bullying" it even when ''he is in its mouth and about to be eaten''.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' has an entire city doing this in "The Sweaters".
* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDragonJakeLong'': In the episode "The Ski Trip", Rose starts letting hints to her identity as Huntsgirl slip. Jake, however, refuses to see it, even when Trixie and Spud point it out to him. Quote Spud, "Denial, party of one, your table is ready." It takes seeing that Rose and Huntsgirl have the same BirthmarkOfDestiny for Jake to realize the truth.

** It gets worse in later episodes where Vicky [[CardCarryingVillain doesn't even make any attempt to hide her evilness]]. In "Vicky Gets Fired", where Timmy is trying to get her fired ([[NegativeContinuity don't worry about that last example]]), Timmy even shows his parents incriminating evidence of Vicky torturing him, but they don't even bat an eye. [[LampshadeHanging Which he knew would happen]], so he included footage of her erasing their reality show audition tape, which [[SkewedPriorities does manage to horrify and disgust them]] enough to get her fired.

* ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'': Mr. Herriman can spot the tiniest speck of dirt, but he couldn't tell a crudely made decoy of Eduardo from the real Eduardo.

** [[ShrinkingViolet Fluttershy]]'s introverted tendencies throughout her life result in a tremendous lack of self-awareness, to the point that she considers herself "a loudmouth". In "Putting Your Hoof Down," this carries over into her resolve to stop being such a pushover (a status which she needed her friends' objective input to realize), causing her to fail to notice [[JerkassBall how she's been acting]] until she notices [[WhatHaveIBecome how monstrous her reflection has become]].

** Pinkie isn't fond of Mudbriar's stoic attitude and mannerisms, despite her sister Maud's own personality being similar to his. Case in point, when Maud and Mudbriar take out their pets to play, they marvel at the fun they have together. Pinkie, however, whispers to Maud that Twiggy is just a stick even though Boulder itself is just a rock. When Starlight points this out to her, Pinkie retorts that Boulder has "ten times the personality of some random stick!" Similarly, Pinkie thinks Starlight is joking when she points out that Maud is undeniably awkward and strange just as Mudbriar is.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': Timmy's [[AdultsAreUseless parents]], while already [[TooDumbToLive pretty unintelligent]], can ''never'' comprehend that Vicky is a BabysitterFromHell, even when the evidence is right in front of their faces. It gets worse in later episodes where Vicky [[CardCarryingVillain doesn't even make any attempt to hide her evilness]]. Taking the worse factor a step further, in "Vicky Gets Fired", Timmy shows his parents incriminating evidence of Vicky torturing him, but they don't even bat an eye. In fact, they only get upset at Vicky and fire her because [[SkewedPriorities she erased their reality show tape]]. Even Timmy, their own son, [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] it.

** Eric Cartman is so wrapped up in his own ginormous ego that he will ignore anything which contradicts his glorified self-image, and what he cannot ignore he will twist in his own favor. The best example is, of course, claiming he's not fat, but "big boned", but there are other examples too. On one occasion he frantically tries to avoid a fight with Mandy who's mad at him, because if he loses to a girl, nobody will think he's cool anymore. When he's forced to fight Mandy anyway and loses, the other kids tell him that not only did they ''never'' think he was cool, but they couldn't possibly think any less of him than they already did. Cartman thinks that they're just saying it to make him feel better, [[InsaneTrollLogic meaning they care about him, meaning they STILL think he's cool]].

** Eric Cartman is so wrapped up in his own ginormous ego that he will ignore anything which contradicts his glorified self-image, and what he cannot ignore he will twist in his own favor. The best example is, of course, claiming he's not fat, but "big boned", but there are other examples too. On one occasion he frantically tries to avoid a fight with a girl who's mad at him, because if he loses, nobody will think he's cool anymore. When he's forced to fight anyway and loses, the other kids tell him that not only did they ''never'' think he was cool, but they couldn’t possibly think any less of him than they already did. Cartman thinks that they're just saying it to make him feel better, [[InsaneTrollLogic meaning they care about him, meaning they STILL think he's cool]].