Arbitrary Skepticism: Difference between revisions

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{{trope}}
[[File:arbitrary_skepticism_gg_350_2_6169arbitrary skepticism gg 350 2 6169.png|link=Girl Genius|rightframe]]
 
[[File:arbitrary_skepticism_gg_350_2_6169.png|link=Girl Genius|right]]
 
{{quote|'''Wash:''' Psychic, though? That sounds like something out of science fiction.
'''Zoe:''' We live in a spaceship, dear.
'''Wash:''' ... So?|''[[Firefly]]'', "Objects in Space"}}
|''[[Firefly]]'', "Objects in Space"}}
 
Real skepticism entails requiring evidence of good quality before believing something is true. [['''Arbitrary Skepticism]]''' is the tendency of characters who deal with the strange and bizarre on a daily basis to dismiss anything "strange" off-hand rather than consider that, in light of everything else they've seen and experienced, a "fantastic" explanation really isn't that far-fetched.
 
Sometimes it makes sense -- aftersense—after all, [[If Jesus, Then Aliens|just because aliens exist, it doesn't follow that something unrelated does as well]] - but the viewer is often left wondering how a character who has seen ghosts and vampires can feel so comfortable in immediately dismissing the possibility of, say, zombies. (If the character has a plausible explanation of ''why'' zombies can't exist, it's not [['''Arbitrary Skepticism]]''', since he or she obviously came to their conclusion through research and thought.)
 
Sometimes this is used to define the extent of the fantasy of the world: for example, letting the viewer know that in ''this'' [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink]], there are no vampires or ghosts, even if there are unicorns. Sometimes characters will discuss this, comparing someone's cynicism about talking bats to their fighting dragons last week. Can cause [[Fridge Logic]]; if dragons are a regular and accepted occurrence in the characters' world, then why would they use it as an example to compare with something that doesn't? That would be equivalent to saying "the duck-billed platypus exists, why would you ever be skeptical of unicorns?"
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Compare [[This Is Reality]]. A staple in [[Crossover Cosmology|Crossover Cosmologies]] and [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink]] humor. Effectively the [[Averted Trope|aversion]] of [[All Myths Are True]]. See also [[Flat Earth Atheist]], [[If Jesus, Then Aliens]], [[Skepticism Failure]], [[How Unscientific]] and [[No Such Thing as Space Jesus]].
 
{{noreallife|we'd be here all day.}}
'''[[No Real Life Examples, Please]]'''
 
{{examples}}
 
== Advertising ==
* How about [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Knidq8QClHw this M&M's commercial] that's been making the holiday rounds for years? The giant anthropomorphic candies have already been shown interacting fairly well with humans (short of the times said humans [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|want to eat them]]), so why should Santa Claus have been such a skeptic? (Besides symmetrical [[Rule of Funny]].)
 
== Anime &and Manga ==
 
== Anime & Manga ==
* ''[[Bleach]]'':
** Ghosts? Fine, most of the cast can see them. [[The Heartless|Heartless monsters that eat ghosts?]] Again, fine, pick up the [[BFS]] and let's go kill something. Talking cats? ''That'' takes some getting used to. The only cast member who ''isn't'' wigged out by Yoruichi on first meeting is [[Cloudcuckoolander|Orihime]], and that's because she has an overactive imagination.
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** After Yoruichi reveals her true form and Ichigo says he thought she was a cat, she says "Cats don't talk. Use your head a little, Ichigo," implying that she also thinks it's supposed to be impossible and that she's merely an exception due to not being an ''actual'' cat (the nature of her cat transformation is never touched upon).
** Ukitake and Kyoraku are baffled by Lilynette transforming into a gun and, specifically, arguing with Starrk. Both have their own Empathic Weapons, albeit ones which (filler excluded) don't talk so openly.
* In ''[[Dragon Ball]]'', Karin gives Goku a bell around his neck so that that he can ring it when he reaches the abode of God. Yajirobe scoffs at this, saying God isn't real, despite having fought along with Goku several demons and cowering at the prospect of challenging Demon King Piccolo. Ironically, God and Piccolo turn out to be [[StarfishLiteral CharacterSplit Personality|two halves of the same coin]].
* ''[[To AruA MajutsuCertain noMagical Index]]'': Touma sees esper powers on a regular basis (including being blasted by lightning the previous dayfrequently) but initially dismisses the idea of magic as nonsense. To him, esper powers at least have a scientific basis. This changes when he sees magic in person. Other science-side characters have varying reactions to magic: some (e.g. Accelerator) realize that it's different from esper powers; others (e.g. Mikoto) remain convinced that it's the result of esper powers and/or technology.
* In the two-part ''[[Kino no Tabi]]'' episode "Coliseum", Hermes tries to tell Kino that a one-off character's dog can talk. Kino's response is "Stop being such a liar." Kino's a traveler. Just on screen, she's seen practically every crazy thing under the sun. Ignoring all that, she's talking to a ''talking motorcycle''. To make this a little bit weirder, everyone in Kino's world seems to think like this. No one is ever surprised when Hermes talks, but a talking dog? No way. And in an odd example of [[Schizo-Tech]], there are plenty of countries with highly advanced technology, including hovercrafts, but apparently no body's ever built a working airplane.
* ''[[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]]'': When Jotaro is told about Dio being a vampire, he thinks he's being BS'd, until Avdol helpfully points out to him that he just got [[Psychic Powers]] a few hours ago.
** Likewise, the protagonists dismiss the initial observations of Silver Chariot and The Hanged Man with the statements "No user can have more than one Stand" and "It's impossible for a Stand to exist inside of mirrors" respectively, which they announce as though they are ultimate authorities on Stand abilities, despite the fact that Stands keep having new and strange abilities. Ironically, while their dismissals prove true, both "rules" are broken later on - Man in the Mirror explicitly exist within a mirror dimension, Bad Company takes the form of a miniature army (with soldiers, tanks and helicopters), Echoes have multiple forms with distinct separate abilities, and Killer Queen have two sub-Stands (Sheer Heart Attack and Bites The Dust) that can operate independently.
* ''[[Hell Girl]]'': A client accepts one of Hellgirl's contracts -- youcontracts—you pull the red string, and the object of your scorn goes straight to Hell. When Hellgirl explains the price for this service (the one pulling the string also goes to Hell when they die), the client scornfully dismisses the idea that Hell really exists. And Hellgirl magically transported him to her crimson field before they started negotiating.
* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]''
** Negi cannot convince the other Mages that {{spoiler|Chao}} is from the future, despite the fact that he ''has a working time machine''. They reject the idea on the basis that no-one's ever been able to do it, ignoring the fact that somebody could have figured it out, ''in the future''. You know, where {{spoiler|Chao claims she's from}}. It's like going to 1900 and saying that airplanes are impossible because no one's ever built one. While having a working airplane.
** Humorously, [[Meta Guy|Meta Girl]] Chisame goes out of her way to deny the existence of magic -- evenmagic—even after she obtains magic powers herself. She doesn't accept it until she [[I Just Want to Be Normal|finally frees herself from the madness]], only to realize that her life is now too boring. She then goes along with it, albeit grudgingly.
* ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (anime)|Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'': In the first [[Fourth Wall Mail Slot|Megami Sound Stage]], Nanoha attempts to see if Fate will believe in [[Santa Claus]]. It fails the moment Fate, [[I Believe I Can Fly|one of the many mages who can fly on her own]], reads his description.
{{quote|'''Fate:''' Also, according to this picture he rides through the sky on a sleigh pulled by reindeer. I don't recall hearing of such an aviation method for small aerial vehicles.
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** Averted in the manga when Sidoh picks up the Death Notebook. Mello, who is unable to see Sidoh at the time, wonders why it's flying, and a member of his gang notes that if it can kill people, it wouldn't be a surprise if it were alive.
* ''[[One Piece]]''
** The crew meets a skeleton who came back to life with a Devil Fruit's power, but since only one person can have a given Devil Fruit's power, [https://web.archive.org/web/20090124125242/http://www.onemanga.com/One_Piece/447/08/ Usopp becomes suspicious as to how there could be an island full of zombies] and wonders if there's some kind of natural explanation.
** Zoro, in a world where people can slice entire fleets in half with one swing of their sword ''at a distance'', his best friend is made of rubber and he fights people made of sand, and his own moveset is based on Buddhism to the extent of turning ''himself'' into an Asura, refused to believe that Enel was actually God when first hearing about him. Turns out Enel ''was'' a God (it was a title), and for the most part he was powerful enough to be a [[Physical God]], [[Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors]] aside.
*** This is hardly an example since Enel assumed what was merely a title of "God" and was [[Touched by Vorlons]], the power it gave him and his ego had convinced him he was [[A God Am I|literally divine]].
*** Actually, all of the crazy things Zoro had seen prior to that point counts more as proof that Enel ''wasn't'' God. If mere mortals are capable of all of the feats listed above, then [[No Such Thing as Space Jesus|being able to throw lightning bolts around]] doesn't really seem like a definitive mark of Godhood anymore.
** Luffy, whose crew consists of a talking reindeer, a perverted cyborg and a talking skeleton, is amazed that Trafalgar Law has a talking bear in his crew.
** The whole crew - sans Robin - find the idea of a ghost ship laughable until Robin reminds them that the kraken was considered a myth until it was proven real. [https://onepiece.wikia.com/wiki/Flying_Dutchman And the ghost ship is quickly confirmed too.]
** Blueno - a former assassin and [[Murder, Inc.| member of C9]] - is a variation, in that his policy is to only believe things he can confirm - or has confirmed - with his own senses.
* ''[[Nagasarete Airantou]]''
** Ikuto has been on the island long enough to know that the standard rules don't apply to the island, and indeed has gotten to the point that he can talk to the animals of the island, his usual first reaction to a new oddity of the island is to reject any simple fantastic explanation from anyone else (even from the oddity itself) and instead comes up with his own explanation that's usually even more ridiculous (for example, he thinks that all the ghosts on the island are polar bears).
** Ikuto finds himself on the other end of this trope in a later chapter when Ikuto sees an ''alien'' and is unable to convince anyone else that it's an alien -- theyalien—they just think it's another talking animal or spirit.
* ''[[Durarara!!]]''
** Shinra is dating a fairy and has it on good authority that werewolves and vampires do exist; nevertheless, he finds the idea of alien abductions, psychic powers or doomsday prophesies to be laughably absurd. He justifies this by claiming that the existence of one previously unknown seemingly supernatural being has no implications regarding unrelated phenomena. Shinra actually does acknowledge the possibility of such paranormal phenomena (he says as much [http://anni-fiesta.livejournal.com/40061.html at the end of this]), it's just that it's not exactly productive to respond to your girlfriend's fears that we'll all die in 2012 with, "Yep, we're probably doomed."
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* In ''[[Ah! My Goddess]]'', Sayoko Mishima starts picking up that [[Physical God|Belldandy]] has supernatural powers, but when Belldandy tells Sayoko that she's a goddess, she doesn't believe her and instead assumes that she's a witch. Why exactly she thinks that a witch is more believable than goddess is anybody's guess.
* In ''[[Digimon Tamers]]'' episode five, when discussing strange markings on the school soccer pitch, a random fifth grader states: "Oh come on, there's no such thing as ''crop circles''! What it really was was a ghost. And that dinosaur the principal saw? That was a ghost dinosaur."
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh (anime)|Yu-Gi-Oh]]'':
* In the Orichalcos arc of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh (anime)|Yu-Gi-Oh]]'', Rebecca and her father explain what they know about the enemy, which involves Atlantis. Honda/Tristan laughs and calls them crazy. Joey/Jounouchi calls him out on it, reminding everyone about all the crazy adventures they've had so far.
** This is one of Seto Kaiba's character traits in the dub version - despite all the weird things he has seen that could only be explained by the supernatural, he consistently denies the existence of magic, seeing as he is such a control freak he cannot accept things he cannot control. Note that this is not true in the original version - he accepts the existence of magic there, but just doesn't see it as any different than any conventional obstacle.
** In the Orichalcos arc of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh (anime)|Yu-Gi-Oh]]'', Rebecca and her father explain what they know about the enemy, which involves Atlantis. Honda/Tristan laughs and calls them crazy. Joey/Jounouchi calls him out on it, reminding everyone about all the crazy adventures they've had so far.
** ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]'': In episode 5 of season 1, Judai doesn't believe a Shadow Duel is possible, even though he has had a [[Non-Human Sidekick]] (Winged Kuriboh) since day-one. It doesn't help that Titan is in fact just an "out of work carnie" creating a fraudulent fake Shadow Game; although, when Titan is [[Demonic Possession|possessed by a demonic entity]] that turns it into a real one, Judai is still skeptical. [[Skeptic No Longer|He ''does'' start to believe]] eight episodes later when he has to duel Jinzo, a duel spirit and ''actual'' demon.
* ''[[Bungaku Shoujo]]'': The eponymous Book Girl is a supernatural being who feeds on stories. She doesn't believe in ghosts.
 
== Comic Books ==
* DC Universe characters Bruce Wayne ([[Batman]]) and the late Ted Knight ([[Starman (comics)|Starman]]) claim to be atheists, and Ted has explicitly stated that he doesn't believe in anything supernatural. This is despite having both of them having had regular interactions with magicians, clairvoyants, angels, demons and Norse gods. This could be a question of definition -- suredefinition—sure, there are [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|powerful beings with abilities we don't understand]], but [[Flat Earth Atheist|that doesn't necessarily make them actually supernatural or divine]].
** Mr. Terrific (Michael Holt) actually makes this very argument when justifying ''his'' atheism; he points out that the Justice League has encountered a great many nigh-omnipotent beings who ''haven't'' claimed to be gods, so he sees no particular reason to believe those who do. This became especially hilarious when he would encounter his [[Dead Little Sister|dead wife and child]] (their deaths having led to his atheism) in the afterlife and later actually meet God. As Ragman points out, there are explicitly souls (Ragman's powers coming from them). Mr. Terrific promptly [[Hand Wave|Handwaves]] this with a comment about energy. To a man who "is literally wearing a suit made of corrupted souls".
** A particularly arbitrary example is Batman's second post-Crisis encounter with Bat-Mite. In the first encounter, he understandably assumes his momentary glimpse of the being is his imagination. In his second, a [[Superman]] team-up, he concludes Bat-Mite is a creation of Mr Mxyzptlk. In other words, it's perfectly acceptable for eccentric, [[Reality Warper|reality-warping]], extradimensional imps to ''exist'', [[Somebody Else's Problem|just as long as they're Clark's problem and not his]].
** In one three-comic story arc, Robin is contacted by what appears to be a version of Alfred from the near future, complete with futuristic phlebotinum... and Robin is unable to convince Batman that it actually happened, because, quoth the Bat, "Time travel is scientifically impossible." Even though Batman himself works with time travelers in the Justice League and has traveled through time dozens of times himself.... It's made worse by the fact that the "encounter" turns out to have been some sort of "test" that Batman himself had set up to see how clever and/or credulous his new Boy Wonder actually was. Yes, [[Super Dickery|Batman is a prick.]]
** Moving right along, in one Batman graphic novel, Batman meets up with aliens -- thealiens—the [[Alien Abduction|abducting]], [[Anal Probing]] kind. This rattles him badly, as he always considered such beings to be pure myth. For those unaware, one of Batman's closest friends, Superman, ''is an alien''.
*** This could at least be a "type" thing more than general genre. He's actually met probably at least a hundred different kinds of alien, and none of them were the big-eyed, cow-mutilating, anal-probing kind. He may have thought ''those'' aliens were a myth.
* In ''[[Ultimate Spider-Man]]'', Ben Urich wants to run a story on recent vampire activity in New York and Jameson refuses to publish it. As Urich lampshades, mutants, Spider-Men, frozen people and supersuits are all plausible but Jameson chooses to draw the line at believing in vampires for some reason. (This is made even more amusing by the fact that in the main Marvel continuity, Jameson's son is a ''werewolf''.) This may actually be making fun of a moment in the ''Peter Parker'' comic series where main universe Spider-Man suddenly draws the line at believing in vampires... despite having fought a massive number of bizarre entities before. And living in the same universe as [[Blade]]. And actually having ''fought'' vampires before, like [[Morbius]] (who isn't technically a supernatural vampire), and Count [[Dracula]] (who, well, is). This is merely so Spider-Man can be proven "right" when the vampire in question proves to be a science-based rather than supernatural vampire, like Morbius. Despite the fact that Morbius, despite not being a supernatural monster, is ''still'' a vampire for almost any useful definition of the term.
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* ''[[Asterix|Asterix and the Magic Carpet]]'' boils this trope down to its fundamentals with the following quote.
{{quote|'''Owzat:''' I don't believe in that kind of miracle, o divine master. Flying carpets are one thing, but rain-making is sheer science fiction!}}
* In ''[[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]'', despite the fact that [[King Solomon's Mines|Allan]] and [[Dracula|Mina]] live in a world in which every work of fiction exists, they'll occasionally decide that the idea of, say, a mindreader or a magician is just too far-fetched. This is justified, though; the 1890s setting is when the fantastic really came to the fore in fiction, and the British government has tried its damnedest to keep fantastic elements a secret from the public anyway. Mina doesn't ''know'' that a man named Gullivar Jones flew to Mars on a flying carpet, for instance -- andinstance—and had all this time thought her encounter with Dracula to be an anomaly, not akin to something she would soon deal with every day.
* In an ''[[Uncle Scrooge]]'' comic book, Scrooge and company are on a quest to track down the fabled Philosopher's Stone -- butStone—but when Huey, Dewey and Louie suggest visiting the Labyrinth in Crete, Scrooge and [[Donald Duck]] laugh it off as a myth.
* In one ''[[DC Universe]] Holiday Bash'' story, "No, Bart, There Really Isn't a Santa Claus", Max Mercury doesn't believe in Santa, and is rather surprised that [[The Flash|Impulse]] does. But Impulse correctly points out that a guy who can travel around the world in a single night, knows what everyone wants for Christmas, and can enter and leave your house without you noticing ''makes perfect sense'' in the DCU. Max is finally reduced to arguing that if someone ''did'' have all those amazing powers, they wouldn't be selfless enough to devote their lives to others, from their secret base in the Arctic...
* The [[Green Lantern]] known as Saarek has the power to communicate with the dead. Despite using it to great effect, the other Lanterns doubt his talent.
* A [[Pre Crisis]] Superman story actually featured a group of people who refused to believe that Superman was really an alien. It turned out that these people were in fact ''aliens'' themselves, but, being stranded on Earth seemingly forever, [[Zany Scheme|opted to erase their own memories]] so they could live normal lives among humans. Their skepticism was a side effect of the brainwashing. In the end Superman helps them return to space. Not only didn't they believe that Superman was an alien, they claimed that there was no such thing as space travel and all reports of missions that had been flown were hoaxes.
* In an early ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X Men]]'' issue, Iceman encounters the Super-Adaptoid -- aAdaptoid—a robot villain -- alonevillain—alone in the woods and goes to tell the rest of the team. Despite the fact that the team has fought monsters, aliens, and, yes, robots many times, they refuse to believe his story for no apparent reason. Not only that, their resolute belief that if there really were sinister robots about it certainly would have been someone other than Iceman who spotted them is so convincing, Iceman himself starts to wonder whether he's remembering the incident correctly.
* In the [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]] comic "Tesseract", the Tenth Doctor refuses to believe that his new companion Emily has encountered beings called the Tef'Aree that live in the Time Vortex, because they're the subject of Gallifreyan fairytales. His rationalization that she heard the word somewhere is particularly flimsy -- WHEREflimsy—WHERE would she have heard it?
* [[Atomic Robo]] absolutely refuses to believe in [[Time Travel]] -- even—even as he's talking to three past versions of himself.
{{quote|'''Atomic Robo:''' No such thing as time travel. We're only experiencing this nonlinear episode due to interacting with physics outside our universe.}}
* After the 2011 DC Universe Reboot, Dan Didio was quoted as saying that one of the reasons it was decided that Barbara Gordon should able to regain her mobility (after spending two decades since being shot by the Joker in a wheelchair as the information-brokering Oracle) was that it required "too much suspension of disbelief" for her to remain wheelchair bound in a universe where all sorts of magical cures were available. Critics immediately brought up the suspension of disbelief required in all aspects of super hero comics (e.g. Clark Kent's glasses are able to fool people, the concept of [[Joker Immunity]], the mechanics of the muiltiverse etc.), that saying that ''this'' is where readers would draw the line of incredulity seems suspect at best.
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'''Solar:''' Doctor Clarkson, I came into your kitchen through the ''phone''. Are you really going to doubt what I'm saying?
'''Clarkson:''' Well... in for a penny, in for a pound, I guess. }}
* ''[[Dilbert]]'' tried to prove Ratbert is not psychic.
{{quote|'''Dilbert''': Just because you [[Heads-Tails-Edge|guessed a hundred coin flips in a row]] doesn't mean you're psychic. Coincidences do happen.
'''Ratbert''': I call seven rotations followed by inexplicable hovering and hen noises. }}
** Then he called "Skeptics Association" for help. The only one who shows would "have to debunk the so-called Hubble Telescope later today". A few strips later Dogbert [http://dilbert.com/strip/1998-01-19 blindsides] him, then attacks his methodology:
{{quote|'''Dogbert''': If your controlled tests have <u>never</u> found psychic powers, how do you know the tests work for that sort of thing? Isn't that like using a metal detector to find out if there are unicorns in your sock drawer?
'''Ken''': NO!
'''narration''': Later that night... }}
* Dancy Flammarion from ''Alabaster'' (by Caitlin R. Kiernan) had this problem with monsters… repeatedly. And she's a monster hunter.
{{quote|'''Dancy''': I didn't even ''believe'' in mermaids until a couple hours ago.
'''Maisie''': ([[Face Palm]]) Here we go again. Didn't believe in werewolves, either, till I almost ate you. Didn't believe in vampires until that bunch up in Augusta.}}
 
== Fan Works ==
* Averted and lampshaded in ''[[Light and Dark - The Adventures of Dark Yagami|Light and Dark The Adventures of Dark Yagami]]'': Dark asks Blud if ghosts exist, and Blud says it is impossible. Dark asks if this would mean Blud, as a Shinigami, is impossible, too, and Blud says that shinigami are possible in the ''[[Death Note]]'' universe. It soon turns out that Blud's wrong about ghosts, though, as L comes back as one with the help of God's Ghost Note.
* Used then averted in ''[[Shinji and Warhammer40K|Shinji and Warhammer 40 K]]''. Despite working for an organization that uses colossal biological warmachines made of reverse-engineered alien body parts to fight against the equally collosal aliens that border on [[Eldritch Abomination]] from which they are derived, numerous characters are initially immediately dismissive of things such as [[Psychic Powers]] or the existence of [[Ave Machine|Machine Spirits]]. Then follows about a year of physics regularly being torn a new one to cause destruction on a scale the world hasn't seen since Second Impact, then all but the most mind-boggling things become almost mundane.
* ''[[Streets of Rage Saga]]'': Skate scoffs at the idea of ninja-themed magical powers during the [[Crossover]] adventure with [[Shinobi|Joe Musashi]] in the fourth book, ''The New Syndicate''...despite the fact that Skate has fought robots and clones and has teamed up with a cyborg to fight [[The Syndicate]].
* This permits ''[[Reflections Lost on a Dark Road]]'' (A crossover of '''two''' crossovers -- ''[[The Road to Cydonia]]'' and ''[[Dark Titans]]'') to get started as a case of [[Let's You and Him Fight]]. In TRTC, the [[Ranma ½]] crew is abducted by aliens, then escape into the (not-so) gentle clutches of ''[[X-COM (Video Game)|X-COM: UFO Defense]]'', joining them in a [[Grimdark]] war against aliens and suffering severe cases of PTSD in the process. In DT, the Ranma crew befriend the [[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]] and become part of [[The DCU]]. Several years later, Ryoga and several of the Titans are transported to the TRTC universe. Bad enough they're spandex-clad metahumans, or that the aliens' latest gimmick seems to be creating fake "metahumans" whom X-Com has responded to with a [[Mutant Draft Board]], but as TRTC already has a Ryoga(with severe combat fatigue), he's more than ready to kill his alternate on sight rather than inquire as to the strangeness. [[Sociopathic Soldier|Sociopathic Soldiers]]s armed with [[Supernatural Martial Arts]] versus [[Thou Shalt Not Kill]] superheroes is a [[Foregone Conclusion]] - the only surprise is that X-Com didn't ''kill'' any of the Titans.ç
* Happens to [[Ace Attorney|Phoenix]] in ''[[Turnabout Storm]]'' after he gets told the reason why lightning only makes the sound when it hits the ground in [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|Equestria]]. He himself is the one that notes how he just pulled this off.
{{quote|'''Phoenix:''' ''(I'm no meteorologist, but I'm pretty sure lightning doesn't work like that. Then again, I keep forgetting I'm in a land full of magical talking ponies who can [[Painting the Frost on Windows|manually change weather]]...)''}}
* Psycho Mantis in the ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' fan [[Web Comic]] ''[[The Last Days of Foxhound]]'' is vehemently opposed to the idea of ghosts existing despite increasing evidence that they do when Big Boss possesses Liquid and being confronted by The Sorrow later on. This despite the fact that he is a ''psychic''. The Sorrow [[Lampshadeslampshade]]s this. The comic seems to provide a [[Justified Trope|reasonable explanation]] for Mantis' skepticism, namely that he might ''really'' want there to not be ghosts, since if there are, that means he's going to have to face a ''lot'' of pissed off victims of his when he dies.
** Rather ironically, ''his ghost'' shows up in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots]]''.
* The ''[[Transformers]]'' [[Fan Web Comic]] ''[[Insecticomics]]'':
** Starscream's Brigade has encountered the distilled power of [[Crystal Dragon Jesus|Primus]] in the Matrix, battled against the priest and servants of a chaos god, and communicated with hyperevolvedhyper-evolved extradimensional beings. Starscream himself is immortal, has seen the afterlife and simply becomes a ghost when his body is destroyed. And yet their master strategist Thrust is repeatedly mocked for his trust in astrology and tarot cards.
** [[Flat Earth Atheist|Flat Earth Atheists]]s Skyfire and Dreadmoon.
 
== Film ==
 
* ''[[Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom]]'', in which Indy encounters magical artifacts, comes before ''[[Raiders of the Lost Ark]]'', in which Indy at one point dismisses all superstition involving the Ark of the Covenant. After all he has gone through, you'd think Indiana Jones would at least be a bit more open-minded in ''[[Kingdom of the Crystal Skull]]''. Despite previously encountering healing rocks, Nazi-killing golden boxes, and life-saving cups, he still sneers at the prospect of magical telepathic skulls.
== Films -- Live-Action ==
** In the final film, ''[[Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny]]'', Indy still claims he does not believe in magic, but admits there are some things beyond the ability of mortals to comprehend. Whether or not traveling to the past and meeting up with Archimedies himself (a man he has idolized all his life) will change his skepticism, we can only guess, although ''this'' particular film seems to be a case of [[Clarke's Third Law]] at work.
* ''[[Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom]]'', in which Indy encounters magical artifacts, comes before ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'', in which Indy at one point dismisses all superstition involving the Ark of the Covenant. After all he has gone through, you'd think Indiana Jones would at least be a bit more open-minded in ''Kingdom of the Crystal Skull''. Despite previously encountering healing rocks, Nazi-killing golden boxes, and life-saving cups, he still sneers at the prospect of magical telepathic skulls.
* In ''[[The Last Mimzy]],'', the brother has already found a strange cube that deposited several mysterious items, including a strange crystal that makes noise that only he and his sister can see (adults think it looks like a flat rock), a crystalline conch shell that enhances his hearing and teaches him how to command spiders through sound, and a set of stone "spinners" that his sister can spin to create a strange portal that causes her hand to split harmlessly into a million particles. Yet he still refuses to believe that her stuffed rabbit, which also came through the cube, speaks to her, despite it being the one that taught her how to spin the spinners. It takes the mimzy predicting their father's arrival to convince him.
* ''[[Eight Legged Freaks]]''. The conspiracy-believing radio host is unwilling to believe the others' tales of giant killer spiders. This may have been as much him suspecting they were making fun of him, as him actually finding the idea itself unbelievable.
* ''[[Sabrina the Teenage Witch (TV series)|Sabrina Down Under]]'': a merman, sitting in a bathtub next to a talking cat, refuses to believe in witches. One spell later:
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** In the sequel ''Hypercube'', Max calls the rest of the group crazy for even considering that space and time could be distorted in the cube (despite repeatedly witnessing things that are physically impossible, such as the rooms instantaneously moving around) and argues that there has to be a logical explanation, such as an optical illusion. At the same time he berates the others for not believing in his conspiracy theories, and is convinced that the cube is operated by a mysterious superhacker called Alex Trusk.
* ''[[Independence Day]]'': Even though the White House had just been destroyed by an alien death ray, the president laughs off Julius' belief in Roswell and Area 51, saying it's all a myth. As the President he probably assumed this is the kind of thing someone would have told him, only to find out he was left out to create [[Plausible Deniability]].
** Also people disbelieved Russel's story of being abducted by aliens despite the fact that aliens were ''invading at the time''.
* In the film version of ''[[The Voyage of the Dawn Treader]]'', Caspian and Edmund scoff at Drinian and the other sailors for being afraid of sea serpents, in spite of living in the original [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink]] and being personally acquainted with a wide variety of mythological creatures, as well as well-versed in the lore of many others - including dragons. When Eustace mistakes a seagull for a sentient being and tries to talk to it, a minotaur laughs at him.
* In ''[[The Haunting of Molly Hartley]]'', Molly's dad simply refuses to believe that a [[Satan|Satanic]]ic [[Cult]] is coming for his daughter, even though ''he made a [[Deal with the Devil]]'' to save her. And how did he not notice that Molly's {{spoiler|guidance counselor at school was the exact same person who acted as the Devil's agent in the deal}}?
* In ''[[Plan 9 from Outer Space]],'' people encounter flying saucers and a zombie that melts into a skeleton, yet have trouble believing that someone could have risen from the dead to break out of his own grave.
* Right from ''[[A New Hope]]'', Han Solo's doubts about the "hokey religion" the Jedi spoke of were evident, mostly as he refused to believe in Fate:
 
{{quote|'''Solo:''' Kid, I've flown from one side of this galaxy to the other; I've seen a lot of strange stuff. But I've never seen anything to make me believe that there's one all-powerful Force controlling everything. There's no mystical energy field that controls my destiny.}}
 
== Literature ==
* ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'':
** Mostly subverted: while Hermione's refusal to believe in Crumple-Horned Snorkacks might appear to be this at first, there's documented evidence for vampires and thestrals, but none for the Snorkack. It's rather like saying [[If Jesus, Then Aliens|if apes exist, Bigfoot must exist, too]].
*** Part of the problem is the scale of it. Hermione somehow finds it perfectly reasonable that ''dozens'' of different magical animals, some of them quite large (among them literal ''giants''), have managed to live and thrive in the world for centuries without "muggles" ever finding real proof of their existence. (Believing in bigfoot is quite reasonable compared to believing in dragons, note. And yet Hermione knows ''which'' is real, again?) Apparently Hermione's assertion that the cryptids Luna believes in is based on the fact that '''wizards''' haven't been able to find them... meaning her skepticism is either arbitrary or, well, kind of racist.
** Her disbelief in Divination is a bit more complicated: most of the "Divination" in the books is like real-life fortune-telling (bogusness included). None of the methods that Trelawney teaches actually work, so Hermione is right to reject them. The catch is that ''real'' magic predictions do occasionally happen in the Potter universe -- Harryuniverse—Harry witnesses one in the 3rd book --third butbook—but Hermione never sees one, so she doesn't think they exist. After using {{spoiler|a magic time machine}} for a year, you'd think magic prediction would seem plausible to her... though Trelawney is both a flake and a terrible teacher.
** Hermione, and sometimes Ron, are pretty quick to shoot down Harry's theories about Voldemort's latest schemes. They are pretty far-fetched by wizard standards, but this whole thing started with Harry surviving an unblockable curse that causes instant death which no one has ever found a counter to--whento—when he was an INFANT''infant''. They really ought to think outside the box, there.
* ''[[Discworld]]'':
** Things like gods, wizards, trolls and dragons are perfectly acceptable, but things like Death and talking dogs are so impossible that [[Weirdness Censor|people just ignore them]]. Arguably explained in ''[[Discworld/Hogfather|Hogfather]]'', where it's stated there's an upper limit on things people can believe in.
** Talking trees. Notice that Rincewind here uses a perfectly fine [[Logical Fallacy|logical analysis]], but it fails because the premises aren't true:
{{quote|''"I can't be talking to a tree. If I was talking to a tree I'd be mad, and I'm not mad, so trees can't talk."''}}
** Witches and wizards on the Discworld ''can'' see death (and hear talking dogs). They also interact with gods, oh gods, and demons on a regular basis, but don't believe in them, as this only encourages them.
** Carrot and a few other characters can hear Gaspode, as could anybody he makes an effort in talking to. Plus, at several points in the series, there are statements to the effect of "there's no point believing in what already exists" -- such—such as the space turtle on which the world rests. It's like believing in the postman.
** On the other other hand, certain Ephebians, parodying ancient Greek philosophers, claim to be atheists. This is particularly difficult to do when the gods like to throw stones through the windows and lightning bolts at them in the street. Similarly in ''[[Discworld/Soul Music (novel)|Soul Music]]'', Susan is raised to be a "sensible" girl, trained in reason and logic and not believe "such nonsense", which is ultimately futile once you realize [[The Grim Reaper|who her grandfather is]].
** A rather dark variant occurs towards the end of ''[[Discworld/Thud|Thud!]]!''. {{spoiler|After he's possessed, Vimes kicks the demon out of his mind by sheer force of [[Lawful Good]] and loses consciousness. When he awakes, he promptly starts rationalizing what he did as sleep deprivation and his mind playing tricks on him.}}
** In ''[[Discworld/Feet of Clay (novel)|Feet of Clay]]'':
{{quote|'''A Priest:''' But the gods plainly do exist.
'''Dorfl:''' It Is Not Evident.
''(a bolt of lightning hits Dorfl on the helmet; however, being a golem, he is unharmed)''
'''Dorfl:''' I Don't Call That Much Of An Argument. }}
** Granny Weatherwax has been known to criticize people for ''not'' being AribtrarilyArbitrarily Skeptical. She gets mad at Weaver for assuming she used magic to detect his presence while not noticing the fact that her cottage overlooks the path, and she tells off a bunch of opera people for assuming she used magic to block a sword, claiming she might well have had a bit of metal in her palm. The fact that she ''did'' use magic for these things is irrelevant in Granny's book.
* Jasper Fforde's Jack Spratt novels feature a reasonable amount of this. This world features aliens, talking bears, giant superhuman gingerbread men and the like. Yet when Jack tells his staff, whose job it is to investigate things like the murder of Humpty Dumpty and Rumpelstiltskin's illegal straw-into-gold operation, that his car heals itself, they think he's gone mad. As does his boss when he reports on exploding cucumbers. And so on.
* Used for humor in [[Robert Asprin]]'s ''[[Myth Adventures]]'' series. During a war, the main character, a wizard in training, recruits a bunch of different helpers from different dimensions to prevent it. One of them is a blue Gremlin. The main character's mentor, a demon, insists that there's no such thing as gremlins, and the little monster in question always remains just out of sight. Until the very end...
* ''[[The Belgariad]]'' is full of this.
** In a world of seven-thousand year old sorcerers, [[Physical God|Physical Gods]]s, demons, and [[MacGuffin|magical artifacts]] capable of rending the world apart, it's [[Played for Laughs]] that people like the Tolnedrans and Melcenes steadfastly refuse to believe in the supernatural as a matter of principle even when confronted with it directly. This leads to statements like "I'm pleased to have met you, though I still don't believe in you, naturally. My skepticism, however, is theological, not personal." At one point Polgara mentions that the Tolnedrans have come up with a complicated theory involving [[Identical Grandson|successive identical people]] to explain away her long life.
** On the other side, we have Belgarath, a [[Older Than They Look|seven thousand year old]] sorcerer who routinely deals with magic and the gods. After spending that much time dealing with the weirdest stuff in the world, it's probably tempting to assume that you've seen everything.
** ''[[The Tamuli]]'', by the same author, has most of the heroes who indulge in this learn to knock it off as steadily more things that "don't exist" turn out to be pretty damn real. Although it still has [[Flat Earth Atheist|people professing agnosticism]] ''to the face'' of a [[Physical God]].
* Contrary to the popular belief this was ''not'' a trait of [[Sherlock Holmes]].
** For example, in ''The Hound of the Baskervilles'' he does not outright eliminate the possibility that said hound is supernatural -- hesupernatural—he merely states that all other options have to be investigated first and if it proves to be so, he is powerless to do anything about it.
** Though he outright scoffs at the very idea of a vampire in ''The Sussex Vampire''.* Mostly because he immediately finds bucketloads of clues pointing to a more lively culprit.
** Unsurprising, given that Holmes was written by an author who believed in fairies. Though the whole Holmes canon except for ''The Valley of Fear'', ''His Last Bow'', and ''The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes'' were written before he became a Spiritualist.
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* In ''[[Soon I Will Be Invincible]]'', a [[Deconstruction]]/[[Reconstruction]] of superhero tropes set in a [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink]], the [[Hollywood Cyborg|cyborg]] Fatale believes that her teammate Mr. Mystic is a real sorcerer, but is convinced that teammate Elphin (who claims to be the last of [[The Fair Folk]]) must actually be some sort of alien or mutant. [[Villain Protagonist]] Dr. Impossible, meanwhile, flatly disbelieves in all things magical, despite the fact that he battles magicians and fairies, he's worked with magically-empowered villains in the past, and {{spoiler|part of his plan depends on exploiting a magic artifact}}.
* In ''[[The Vampire Files]]'', Charles Escott is uncomfortable with the idea that ghosts could exist. This despite the fact that his partner is a genuine Undead vampire.
* [[Straw Atheist|Uncle Andrew]] in [[C. S. Lewis|C.S. Lewis's]]'s ''[[Narnia|Magician's Nephew]]'' believes that he can perform magic and travel to different worlds, yet he's utterly incapable of accepting talking animals in one of them! He's [[Anvilicious|a deliberate parody]] of scientists who have no problem with bizarre stuff in science (i.e quantum physics) but are skeptical about [[Author Tract|the supposed "supernatural"]].
* In ''[[Curse of the Wolfgirl]]'' when 'Vex claims she can talk to cats she is disbelieved by Daniel, Moonglow, and Kalix. For the record Kalix is a werewolf, 'Vex is a fire demon, and whilst only human, Daniel and Moonglow have witnessed and been a part of more magical events than mundane ones.
* Nicely justified in the ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' series: when people are warned of dragons or giants, they say that such things don't exist... anymore. They all died out years ago.
* ''[[The Magic Treehouse]]'': In a relatively early book, Annie is afraid to go into a "ghost town" in the Old West. Jack says "There's no such thing as ghosts." to reassure her, to which Annie replies "Yes, there are, we saw one in Ancient Egypt.", which did indeed happen in an earlier adventure. Jack's reply? "Yeah, but that was Ancient Egypt." What makes it even funnier is that they had way more interaction with the Ancient Egyptian ghost in the previous book (talking to her and finding objects to help her reach the afterlife) than they do with the cowboy ghost when he finally shows up.
* [[Patricia Briggs]]' ''Mercy Thomas'' novels. Werewolves have recently gone public; the fae have been officially out for a decade or so, but the protagonist has to spend some time explaining to people that vampires are also real, her ability to see ghosts is frequently disbelieved, and by the sixth book, someone who has relatives who shapeshift doesn't believe that Mercy can do so too. There is much [[Lampshade Hanging]].
* ''[[In Death]]'': Eve Dallas, being just a pragmatic soul, could be considered this. She has a hard time believing in the existence of vampires in ''Eternity In Death'', ghosts in ''Haunted In Death'', sensitives in ''Visions In Death'', and supernatural things like in ''Ceremony In Death'' and ''Ritual In Death''. Some supernatural things did occur in some of the books, but Dallas automatically goes with "I don't believe in this!"
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== Live-Action TV ==
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''
** Leprechauns are clearly absurd, right? Yeah. By the end, leprechauns were the ''only'' thing that didn't exist in their world. Well, [[Loose Canon|unless you believe that the comic book series was canon.]]
** In one meta-incident, a preview for an episode seems to indicate they'd be hunting an ''alien''. Turns out it was just a summoned demon who manifested really high in the sky.
{{quote|'''Xander:'''I still don't get why we had to come here to get info about a killer snot monster.
'''Giles:''' Because it's a ''killer snot monster from outer space!'' ...[[Can't Believe I Said That|I did not say that]]. }}
*:* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in "Inca Mummy Girl".
{{quote|'''Xander:''' ''(sarcastically)'' Hey, maybe he awakened the mummy.
'''Willow:''' Right, and it rose from its tomb.
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** General Landry invokes a version of this trope quite early on in his career, when Daniel suggests that there might be a hidden cavern of treasure built by the Ancients underneath Glastonbury Tor in Britain.
{{quote|'''Landry:''' Well two years ago, I wouldn't have believed we would find a Ancient outpost under a mile of ice in Antarctica!}}
** A straight up example has the team hearing that according to legend, the Sangraal is protected by a dragon. They immediately dismiss the possibility of dragons existing, saying that it is infinitely more likely to be a hologram or machine of some sort. Considering all the weird aliens and creatures they've met, it's surprising that they are so willing to dismiss the possibility that an alien planet might have a flying, fire -breathing reptilian creature. It turns out they are right, and the dragon is a simulation created by advanced technology, but still.
* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' often shows people extremely skeptical about Hiro's powers, even if they have powers themselves.
** The most obvious example is Nathan Petrelli, who flies under his own power to escape a kidnapping -- andkidnapping—and then treats Hiro like a complete nutcase just minutes later.
** Matt (a psychic) is equally skeptical in the dystopian future of "Five Years Gone":
{{quote|'''Mohinder:''' Hiro Nakamura can stop time. Teleport by folding space. Theoretically, he can fold time as well.
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** Despite making a career out of hunting supernatural menaces and retaining enough experience and [[Genre Savvy]] to fill an aircraft carrier, Sam and Dean Winchester almost inevitably have an argument over whether or not the [[Monster of the Week]] could be the real thing or not. Most of this is justified, because presumably the brothers get a lot of dud cases where it's nothing supernatural at all. We never see those cases because an episode consisting of Sam and Dean rolling into town, poking around for a while, concluding "Oh, some guy just got spooked by a barking dog," and rolling out again would be really boring. It's therefore always a legitimate question whether there's actually anything weird going on. Another arbitrary element of this is that the role of the hard-line skeptic switches every time between Sam and Dean.
** Subverted in a first-season episode where the MOTW turns out to be only [[Mundanger|an ordinary human serial killer.]]
** One memorable scene has Dean explaining to Sam why he doesn't believe in angels (their mother said that angels were watching over them, but she was murdered by a demon), despite hunting demons straight out of Hell on a regular basis. When Sam points out that there's more folklore on angels than any other creature they've fought, Dean says that there's a lot of folklore on unicorns as well. Sam's response? "Wait, there's no such thing as unicorns?" In this same scene, Dean says that there's no God. This is an odd belief given that in this series the name of God and holy water are harmful to demons, and Christian exorcism rituals are effective. (According to the series creator, he just sees the rituals as another example of the hoodoo they regularly run across.) By the end of the episode, Dean is less certain that no higher power is at work. Worse, his atheism has been shaken by the events of the episode {{spoiler|despite the fact that the "angel" in that episode turned out NOT''not'' to be an angel}}.
** The episode "A Very Supernatural Christmas" featured a series of Christmas-related disappearances (including somebody getting ''dragged up the chimney''). The brothers start to wonder if the monster is some sort of "Anti Claus". They end up doing some research on the concept, investigate Santa's village and try to apprehend the guy playing Father Christmas (who matches the profile of the Anti Claus, but turns out to just be a drunk). After that failure, they consult Bobby who tells them there is no such thing and that Sam and Dean are idiots.
** Then comes another episode where all sort of weird things are happening in a single university campus. The only one that throws Bobby is an alien abduction. However, he doesn't act like it's impossible, he just says that even if aliens do exist, he's never come across any evidence of them.
** "Clap Your Hands if You Believe" revolves around supposed alien abductions. Dean eventually begins to talk about how they have to "change their entire worldview" after one such abduction. {{spoiler|It's actually a leprechaun, posing as an alien expert, and working with the rest of [[The Fair Folk]], who fakes the "abductions" as part of a [[Deal with the Devil]] he has with various people.}}
** Since season one, the most consistent mantra has been that "everything's real but Sasquatch". It's actually ''exactly that''. By season 4, angels and God are confirmed. Aliens have been confirmed by angels and above stating there's other planets and life forms they could be dealing with. Still no sight of Sasquatch.
* In the show ''[[Strange]]'', the title character explains at length the presence of demons on earth, but flatly denies the possibility of ghosts.
* In ''[[Special Unit 2]]'', everything from gargoyles to werewolves are actually real, except for vampires. "Never heard of anything so ridiculous in my life".
* ''[[Doctor Who]]''
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'''Doctor:''' Two minutes ''(begins working to open the door)'' }}
** The Doctor is a bit of a different case, though, given that, between his schooling and travels, he has enough knowledge to deduce the planet of origin of aliens based off a handful of disjointed observations, and can provide the [[Techno Babble]] for any given event that occurs. While his knowledge of the universe is not absolute, it's fair to say that he knows enough to say that witches and vampires are fair game, while cold stars aren't.
** The Doctor lampshades his own [[Arbitrary Skepticism]] in "The Impossible Planet"/"The Satan Pit", saying that he would have no problem believing that "the devil" came from ''outside'' of the universe, but he can't accept that he's from ''before'' the universe.
* ''[[Torchwood]]''
** Particularly ridiculous is the episode "Meat", in which Gwen's fiancé refuses to believe that her job is "catching aliens", ''despite having seen one himself not two hours earlier''. Although to be fair, he probably thought that was just a ''regular'' giant mutant land whale. His response is an incredulous "Aliens? In ''Cardiff?''". London has been invaded, publicly, by various aliens constantly over the last few years. [[Aliens in Cardiff|But Cardiff? No f'in way]].
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** Stottlemeyer sometimes averts this, though; in "Mr. Monk and Sharona", he says to Monk "if you're right, and you probably are, because you always are".
* ''[[Red Dwarf]]''
** In the early seasons in particular, Arnold Rimmer sneers at the idea of believing in God, yet remains fanatically devoted to the idea of meeting an [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien]] species -- particularlyspecies—particularly those consisting of gorgeous multi-breasted women who will be able to construct for him a new body out of nothing -- tonothing—to the extent that he blames every slightly unusual occurrence, such as using up a toilet roll in a day, on aliens despite there being just as much evidence for the existence of either in the ''Red Dwarf'' universe (i.e. [[Absent Aliens|none]], the strange creatures seen on the show are all GELFs -- GeneticallyGELFs—Genetically Engineered Life Forms).
** Kryten laughs at the idea that there's such a thing as heaven for people, but is (up until partway through Series V, at least) a believer in the existence of ''[[Robot Religion|Silicon Heaven]]'', a belief which he only questions when faced with apparent destruction and supports with the simple question, "where would all the calculators go?" In a deleted scene from "The Inquisitor", Rimmer calls him out on that. In fact, Kryten's arbitrary skepticism is because he, like apparently almost all machines with artifical intelligence, was programmed to believe in Silicon Heaven so he wouldn't turn against his creators.
* ''[[Firefly]]'':
** Wash says that River being psychic sounds like "something out of science fiction". His wife points out that they live on a spaceship, to which he glibly replies, "So?"
** In the commentary for "Objects in Space", [[Joss Whedon]] points out that he meant for {{spoiler|River's supposed merging with Serenity to seem plausible until it was revealed that she was merely hiding}}, since they wanted the audience to think that maybe ''Firefly'' wasn't as "hard" SF as it looked -- thatlooked—that there might be magic at work there too, which would have opened up a new playing field. [[Screwed by the Network|Alas...]]
* Happens on multiple occasions in ''[[Highlander the Series]]''. At various times, MacLeod has scoffed at the concept of Methos ("the world's oldest Immortal? He's a legend"), the idea of a Dark Quickening (absorbing the essence of an endless number of evil Immortals would eventually make ''you'' evil as well), and the Methuselah Stone (an artifact that makes normal folks immortal). He's eventually proven wrong each and every time he makes such a pronouncement, usually in a fairly dramatic way. These reactions would be a little more believable if MacLeod himself wasn't ''over four hundred years old'' and incapable of being killed by anything other than decapitation. He also tends not to listen to those who offer him alternate viewpoints on such matters, despite them being (a) the aforementioned world's oldest living man, with over five thousand years of research and exploration under his belt, and (b) a friendly member of an organization that has been studying such phenomena since before the invention of the written word. This is subverted in an episode where it looks like people are being killed by a vampire, an idea that MacLeod scoffs at. Turns out he's right, it was just a regular Immortal pretending to be a vampire. On the other hand, living four hundred years and not encountering any real sign of the supernatural ''besides'' immortality (prior to the events of the series) might make a man very skeptical.
* [[Lampshaded]] in ''[[Pushing Daisies]]''. Ned states firmly that he doesn't believe in ghosts, witches or the like, saying "this may sound strange coming from a guy who can shoot sparks from his finger, but that's what I believe." This is reasonably [[Justified]], as Ned has never before encountered anything paranormal other than his own power. Plus, it's possible that having the ability to resurrect people is ''why'' Ned doesn't believe in ghosts, as no-one he brings back ever remembers doing anything beyond dying. As ''native'' inhabitants of a blindingly colorful and relentlessly quirky existence, all the characters in ''[[Pushing Daisies]]'' surely have suspension of disbelief on a different scale than the audience.
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* ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]'': In "Old Ares Had A Farm", Xena and Gabriel speculate about the presence of ghosts, Ares mocks them and humans in general for inventing weird supernatural creatures just to explain any unknown phenomena, ya know, like, gods. It's even more ridiculous when you consider that Ares himself was face-to-face with ghosts in ''[[Hercules: The Legendary Journeys]]'' episode, "The Vanishing Dead."
* George, ''[[Being Human (UK)]]'''s neurotic [[Wolf Man|werewolf]], thinks that the idea of wizards is "ridiculous".
* One episode of ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'' saw Doctor Crusher insisting that there were "no such things as ghosts!" This, in spite of the fact that the ''[[Star Trek]]'' universe contains many, ''many'' instances of humanoids having their consciousnesses de-coporealized and surviving in the absence of their bodies. Most of these have [[Hand Wave|hand-wavey]] [[Techno Babble]] explanations, but still...
** Occasionally subverted: When Barclay (a hypochondriac loon) tells Captain Picard that there's something living in the transporter beam, and that he'll stake his career on it, Picard gives him a long look... then tells LaForge to start stripping down the transporter until they find something.
** Similarly, on ''Voyager,'' if things start to get weird, Janeway will first try to rule out clones, time travel, mirror-universe entities, holographic replicas, and all the strange stuff they've previously encountered, as a matter of course. "Weird is part of the job."
* An episode of ''[[BeastMasterBeastmaster]]'' has Dar's sidekick explain that the hostile panther they're chasing is the [[Familiar]] of a guy who has come [[Back Fromfrom the Dead]]. Dar dismisses this as nonsense. His sidekick retorts, "You can talk to animals!" but Dar refuses to believe until later.
* For the first few seasons of ''[[Smallville]]'', Clark Kent ironically believed the ability to fly was impossible. Also, at the end of an episode where Clark battles a [[Wicked Witch]] and her cohorts, when Clark has to explain why the house is trashed, his parents scoff at the idea of magic, even though they've already faced people with superpowers that seem to defy the laws of physics.
* ''[[Wizards of Waverly Place]]'' episode "Helping Hand":
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** Stefan manages to say with a straight face, while wearing a magic ring given to him by a witch that protects him from dying, "That's impossible" to the idea that {{spoiler|Alaric has a magical ring that protects him from dying}}. Alright, so his {{spoiler|protects him from burning up in sunlight while Alaric's resurrected him when he was stabbed in the chest, but ''still''.}}
** Stefan may learn his lesson from this, since in the next season it's his brother Damon who finds the possible existence of Werewolves ridiculous. To be fair, he explicitly points out that he would have expected to run into some before in his centuries wandering the earth.
* In ''[[Kung Fu|Kung Fu: The Legend Continues]]'', Peter would scoff whenever Kwai Chang judges that there is a supernatural element to the case, even after they face real magicians, bad guys who could turn into and/or control animals like snakes and spiders, etc.
* ''[[Big Wolf on Campus]]''
** Tommy Dawkins occasionally expressed disbelief that certain supernatural beings, such as vampires, actually existed. The fact that Tommy should have been more open-minded given that he was a ''werewolf'' was something his companion often pointed out.
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* The 3rd film in [[The Librarian]] series features a nice example, in which the protagonist acts like vampires are too ridiculous/impossible to believe in, despite having personally played with Pandora's Box, Excalibur, the Philosopher's Stone and a variety of other artifacts that can conquer the world/raise the dead/etc.
* A Halloween episode of ''[[Honey I Shrunk the Kids (TV series)|Honey I Shrunk the Kids]]" centres around using and subverting this. A lot of weird things (even for this show) have been happening, and near the climax, the younger son says bluntly to his father, "Mom is vomiting pins. [Sis] is spouting Latin." He names various other such phenomena. "The logical, rational, scientific conclusion is: We've been cursed." He and his father then use logic and reason to deduce who cursed them and what to do about it.
* ''[[The Librarians|The Librarians (US TV Show)]]'' lampshades it:
 
{{quote|'''Jenkins:''' There are no such thing as UFOs.
'''Eve:''' [[Sarcasm Mode|Minotaurs, haunted houses, Santa Claus, yes. But UFOs? Don't be silly.]]}}
 
== Music ==
* A campfire song (to the tune of "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes") seems to be about this effect:
{{quote|''There are no bananas in the sky, in the sky.
''There are no bananas in the sky, in the sky.
''There's a sun and a moon and a coconut cream pie,
''But there are no bananas in the sky.'' }}
 
 
== Radio ==
* ''Creatures of Beauty'', a [[Big Finish Doctor Who]] audio drama, features the Doctor and Nyssa encountering the Veln. They know about aliens, but refuse to believe that there is more than one ''kind'' of alien: Even after blood-testing Nyssa they discover she's not Veln and assume she's Koteem. After finding no match with Koteem blood samples, one remarks that it must mean that she's a Koteem with a "different sort of blood".
 
 
== Tabletop Games ==
* At Animenext we have this game, ''Are You a Werewolf'', which we developed into a deep, complex game by adding more character types, among which is the Skeptic. The person who draws that card must refuse to believe in werewolves until someone adjacent to them is killed by one, no matter how many nightstimes someone is mauled mysteriously in the middle of the night.
* The Palladium game ''Beyond the Supernatural'' included the Nega-Psychic class, who can spend all night fighting ghosts and evil wizards and still refuse to acknowledge their existence, or at the very least, rationalize away their experiences. Ironically, Nega-Psychics ''are'' psychics whose extreme skepticism weakens supernatural powers around them (including their teammates', unfortunately).
 
 
== Theater ==
* In [[Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Julius Caesar (theatre)|Julius Caesar]]'', Caesar accepts superstition regarding the Lupercal festival as fact, and then refuses to believe a soothsayer telling him that March 15th15 will be a bad day.
 
 
== Video Games ==
* ''[[Deus Ex]]'': {{spoiler|1=JC calls out Tracer on mentioning the Illuminati when the former was on his belly trying to escape the [VersaLife] labs with his life, thinking Tracer was making a poorly-timed joke. Tracer wasn't, and it's strange that JC would doubt him, after having escaped a hidden base beneath his old workplace, and discovering the existence of a shadow government.}}
* The ''[[Might and Magic]]'' series, known amongst other things for its humour, lampshades this trope by having Roland Ironfist say the following on his first letter to his wife, in ''Might and Magic VI'':
{{quote|''No, Catherine, Lord Kilburn was probably slain by something much more mundane than devils; perhaps a pair of dragons.''|'''Roland Ironfist'''}}
|'''Roland Ironfist'''}}
:: This was clearly meant to be a joke, since Enroth, the realm which Roland rules, sports angels. The "devils" turn to be demon-like aliens.
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' series takes place in a world with its share of magic, powerful artifacts, and fantastic creatures. So it's rather odd that in ''[[Twilight Princess]]'', Link has to go out of his way to ensure that [[Masquerade|no one knows]] that he can [[Wolf Man|turn into a wolf]]. Well, [[Animal Talk|not the humans]], at least. ''The Minish Cap'' is similar, hiding the existence of the eponymous magical race from [[Adults Are Useless|anyone who's not a child]]. In defense of the game, Link's deeds are not known to most people, but the terrible horror they felt when they were in the Dark Realm is, and Link's wolf form is clearly a Dark Creature. People who are more aware of Link's activities, like the Zora, are more accepting of his alternate form.
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** In ''[[Metal Gear Acid]]'', Snake is skeptical of the ostensibly psychic Alice Hazel. {{spoiler|He turns out to be right... sort of. She was really just familiar with the layout of the base, which was why she was able to provide help there, but also involved is the reincarnation of ghost children... or something. [[Voodoo Shark|It's complicated.]]}}
* The ''[[Metal Gear]]'' examples above are parodied in ''[[Merry Gear Solid]]'' with Otacon asking Snake about the abovementioned supernatural(-seeming) events, and how he's fine with those, but not the concept of Santa Claus. They then hypothesize that Santa uses nanomachines too.
* ''[[Travians]]'' includes a pig that can talk, two hats possessed by the souls of dead robbers, a physical land of the dead (apparently controlled by the military), and magic spells cast by a good witch and several druids... including a spell that turns a man into a frog for quite some time and some spells to protect houses and people, plus a love spell. Despite all this being pretty common knowledge among the NPC's, one NPC scoffs at his brother believing in a dowsing rod (which works, btw).
* Subverted in ''[[Evil Dead|Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick]]'', when Ash travels back in time to the 1700's, meets his colonial-era ancestor, and explains how he's the man's descendant from the future and came back to fight a time-traveling army of demons. His ancestor immediately agrees to help and when Ash skeptically remarks that he seems to be accepting the situation a little too easily, his ancestor responds that after a night of fighting demons from another dimension, he's ready to believe anything.
* In the Case Files included with the Collector's Edition of ''[[Batman: Arkham Asylum]]'', it's noted that Dr. Penelope Young ''refuses'' to believe that the Ratcatcher can actually command rats, and believes he just has a bizarre form of Messiah complex. This is a person who treats inmates including Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, The Mad Hatter, the Scarecrow, and Clayface. Being able to talk to rats is downright ''normal'' compared to the abilities these guys have.
* ''[[Persona 3]]'' has a ''[[Scooby Doo]]'' subplot about the high school being haunted. The members of SEES treat the rumor with varying levels of skepticism and fear. That would make sense, if it weren't for the fact that SEES [[Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World|fights dozens of "shadows" in the high school several times a week]]. This may be more of a [[If Jesus, Then Aliens]] case, as the shadows had thus far followed a strict set of rules regarding their appearances and ability affect reality, being confined to the Dark Hour and all. The idea of a supernatural event taking place outside of that time would skeptically be a hoax, or fearfully an actual incursion beyond their previously established limitations.
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* In the 3rd ''[[Time Splitters]]'' game, Cortez brushes off the idea of zombies, even though he's a time-traveler from a world that is currently under siege from ravenous, lightning-shooting creatures and ''he fought zombies in the previous game.''
* Tommy of ''[[Prey]]'' doesn't believe in what his grandfather is trying to tell him about his mystical heritage. This is understandable at the game start, but is a little strange that his beliefs are nearly unchanged after dying multiple times, visiting two different afterlifes, routinely separating his spirit from his body and running around a giant bio-mechanical spaceship. In fact, when Tommy first expresses his disbelief over the spirit world, while ''in'' the spirit world, to ''the glowing blue ghost of his dead grandfather'', said grandfather just stares at him in a way that lampshades the absurdity more than words ever could.
* In ''[[No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle|No More Heroes 2 Desperate Struggle]]'', Travis can't believe Sylvia when she says he's just fought an undead child powered by the devil. This is coming from a guy whose master's ghost ran his own gym for a while after dying, guided him through a forest, and handed him a farewell note. This boss was at the first of three [[Akashic Records|Akashic points]] in the game. The mere fact that he even got there by some strange sort of teleportation should tell him something's off. It's lampshaded after Travis beats the first Akashic boss, where Sylvia tells Travis the undead devil kid's story, and Travis simply shrugs and replies with "All assassins are fucked up somehow. Hell, nothing surprises me anymore."
* In ''[[The Reconstruction]]'', the main characters bring {{spoiler|Tezkhra}} ''[[Back Fromfrom the Dead]]''... but his claims to be a god? Preposterous! Lampshaded by himself at one point:
{{quote|'''Ques:''' So, you really are a god?
'''{{spoiler|Tezkhra}}:''' Of course. You did not believe me?
'''Ques:''' 'Twas a preposterous claim. }}
* Eavesdropping on random mooks in ''[[Batman: Arkham City]]'' can reveal some real gems. Working for a crazed supervillain with a clown motif? No problem. Biggest enemy is a man in a bat costume who drops out of the sky and disappears into the darkness? All in a day's work. Dealing with a monster who resurrects every time he dies, a woman who controls plants with her mind, drugs that can double your height and bring mass from nowhere? Pshaw, no big deal. Claim you saw ninjas? What, are you ''crazy'' or something? (The fact that they happen to be in America and not Japan is the main reason for them mocking the one witness.)
* In ''[[Fallout 1]]'', several characters are skeptical of the existence of Deathclaws, believing them to be just ghost stories. This is a world where giant, bloodthirsty mutant beasts of all kinds roam the wastelands. Yet, a beast that's just a little bigger and scarier is apparently nonsense. In later games though, the skepticism seems to have disappeared as Deathclaws have become more widely known about.
* Lynne from ''[[Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective|Ghost Trick]]'' says she doesn't believe in a sixth sense. Sissel points out that she is currently a ghost.
** Subverted hilariously with Missile, who doesn't find Sissel's ability to travel back to 4four minutes before his death strange at all. His logic being something along the lines of "If human can walk on two legs, it's not so out there that they can walk backwards in time." Given Missile is a Pomeranian, one can't fault him for his logic.
* ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]''
** Professor Hojo occasionally falls into this. He has two one-of-a-kind species in his lab at one point, he's trying to clone an ancient race of magic-using humans who no longer exist (Aerith is half-Cetra), he accepts that the Planet's giant self-defense Eldritch Abominations exist with little more than a shrug, his company uses souls to make batteries...yet he's openly hostile to any mention of magic and he refuses to believe Chaos is a real thing until Vincent transforms right in front of him. Apparently, he thought Vincent's ressurrectionresurrection after Chaos supposedly fused with him was a total coincidence.
** Professor Gast is acknowledged as a better scientist mostly because he has morals, but he also seems to keep a more open mind, having been the first person both to think of the Jenova Project AND to acknowledge that he was wrong about Jenova being an Ancient.
* Happens in ''[[Diablo III]]'', spoofed in this ''[[Penny Arcade (Webcomic)|Penny Arcade]]'' [http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2012/05/21 strip].
 
 
== Visual Novels ==
* In ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney|Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney]]: Trials and Tribulations'', Edgeworth lampshades his own [[Arbitrary Skepticism]] when he scoffs at the impossibility of spiritual power, then finds himself {{spoiler|[[Psychic Powers|looking for any of the "Psycholocks" produced by Phoenix's magatama that would indicate that Iris is lying]]}}.
{{quote|'''Edgeworth:''' And here I just finished saying that I don't believe in spiritual power...}}
 
 
== Web Animation ==
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{{quote|'''Strong Sad:''' I'm sure it's just a weather balloon or a foreign exchange student. These strange beasts just aren't real!
'''Strong Bad:''' ...said [[Stylistic Self Parody|the elephant-footed ghost man]]. }}
* ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'': "There is no such thing as ghosts!" To be fair, most of the other weird stuff that goes on can be [[Hand Wave|handwaved]] as alien or sufficiently advanced technology. It's a sci-fi setting, disbelief in something as clearly supernatural as ghosts is reasonable. {{spoiler|And ultimately true, although it's [[Fan Wank|debatable]] what exactly the difference is between a ghost and a [[AIA.I. Is a Crapshoot|transparent electromagnetic person]].}}
 
 
== Web Comics ==
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** Krosp tries to invoke it on another person later on only to be waived off as not being strange enough.
* Played with a bit in ''[[Scary Go Round]]''. After scaring off a ghost with a holograph, The Boy expresses surprise that it would fall for such a trick. Ryan's response: "Ghosts got to be superstitious! Tell them there's a flying top-hat full of yoghurt out to get them... you'll get the benefit of the doubt."
* Kat Donlan of ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' seems to be mentally distinguishing between [[Magic Versus Science|magic and science]], in a 'verse where that dichotomy may not exist. She has no difficulty accepting the explicitly supernatural: [[The Grim Reaper|psychopomps]], [[Our Ghosts Are Different|ghosts]], [[The Fair Folk|fairies]], [[Our Demons Are Different|demon]]-possessed stuffed animals, [[Living Shadow|shadow-men]], [[Physical God|Physical Gods]]s, [[Playing with Fire|pyrokinesis]], and [[Metamorphosis|people turning into birds]]. But she [http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=517 doesn't believe in magic], even though her own parents are both science teachers who practice magic. And when it comes to robots, she's reluctant to consider the possibility of [[Magitek]], and outright scoffs at the idea of androids realistic enough to pass for humans. Lampshaded by Antimony [http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=404 here].
{{quote|'''Antimony:''' We have seen stranger. Remember that cursed teapot?
'''Kat:''' Yeahhhhh... But that was... I don't even '''know''' what '''that''' was about... }}
* Psycho Mantis in the ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' fan [[Web Comic]] ''[[The Last Days of Foxhound]]'' is vehemently opposed to the idea of ghosts existing despite increasing evidence that they do when Big Boss possesses Liquid and being confronted by The Sorrow later on. This despite the fact that he is a ''psychic''. The Sorrow [[Lampshades]] this. The comic seems to provide a [[Justified Trope|reasonable explanation]] for Mantis' skepticism, namely that he might ''really'' want there to not be ghosts, since if there are, that means he's going to have to face a ''lot'' of pissed off victims of his when he dies.
** Rather ironically, ''his ghost'' shows up in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots]]''.
* ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' usually avoids this, at least with its main characters anyway. The bartender Crystal, however, falls pretty squarely into this trope. If she hears the other characters talking about aliens or vampires, she just assumes they're very drunk (which, granted, they usually are around her). She does this despite the fact that she's been to their Halloween parties (where a demon appears each year to devour Torg's soul), and regularly serves alfalfa margaritas to a talking rabbit.
* In one ''[[Misfile]]'' arc Ash refuses to believe that a guy who just challenged her to a race could (a) talk to cars, and (b) be haunted by a dark force. For the record Ash [[Weirdness Magnet|lives with two Angels, has been intermittently stalked by a third, befriended by another racer who was haunted by her dead sister]] oh, yeah, and she [[Gender Bender|used to be a guy]].
* ''[[Megatokyo]]'': Piro (and Erika, and sometimes others) openly discredits the concept of zombies, and seems to be [[Invisible to Normals|completely unaware]] of the existence of [[Kaiju]], [[Magical Girl|Magical Girls]]s and, possibly, ninjas. This is coming from a guy who takes advice from an [[Good Angel, Bad Angel|angel and devil]] and, oh yes, has a [[Robot Girl]] living with him. There's also his gunslinger friends, the odd gadgets Largo creates, and [[Apple Geeks|Hawk]], but these may be negligible compared to everything else that happens. Course, there ''was'' a certain amount of vagueness on how much of Largovision was actually real, or at least, in the same universe that Pirovision was seeing. Piro seems to mistake zombies for fanboys, or Largo mistakes fanboys for zombies, [[Mind Screw|or both, or something.]] Piro's not noticing giant beasts, [[Magical Girl|Magical Girls]]s, etc. is probably due to a [[Perception Filter]] combined with (or created by) his general obliviousness.
* In ''[[Chaos Pet]]'', we have two characters discussing whether dogs can think like humans think. Then, we cut to [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]] discussing if humans can think or not.
* You'd think [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|Raphael]] wouldn't be so fast to discount a few oddities in his world, but in ''[[Mutant Ninja Turtles Gaiden]]'', he's completely (violently) unwilling to believe that a human could've been turned into a mutant turtle. It's even lampshaded [https://web.archive.org/web/20140704212036/http://www.obscurezodiac.com/mntgchapter10.php?p=18 later on].
* ''[[Insecticomics]]''
** Starscream's Brigade has encountered the distilled power of [[Crystal Dragon Jesus|Primus]] in the Matrix, battled against the priest and servants of a chaos god, and communicated with hyperevolved extradimensional beings. Starscream himself is immortal, has seen the afterlife and simply becomes a ghost when his body is destroyed. And yet their master strategist Thrust is repeatedly mocked for his trust in astrology and tarot cards.
** [[Flat Earth Atheist|Flat Earth Atheists]] Skyfire and Dreadmoon.
* You'd think [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|Raphael]] wouldn't be so fast to discount a few oddities in his world, but in ''[[Mutant Ninja Turtles Gaiden]]'', he's completely (violently) unwilling to believe that a human could've been turned into a mutant turtle. It's even lampshaded [http://www.obscurezodiac.com/mntgchapter10.php?p=18 later on].
* ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja]]'': The eponymous doctor is from a family comprised of ninja who never remove their masks for any reason; he lives next to a haunted forest; his hometown has a zombie contingency plan (and yes, it gets used); his mentor was a clone of Benjamin Franklin; and it only gets weirder from there. So what strikes him as unbelievably absurd? 1. A family legend about Irish proto-ninja defending their village by throwing frozen shamrocks, and 2. an ancient South American doomsday device that will go off if no one plays tennis with it. For the record, he doesn't disbelieve them so much as think they're completely ridiculous. Which they are.
* ''[[Skin Horse]]''
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** Played for laughs again later, when a New Orleans doctor they meet is accepting and completely used to zombies- but is utterly freaked out when the dog starts talking.
{{quote|'''Remy:''' Sorry. There's weird, there's New Orleans weird, and apparently there's a third tier I wasn't aware of.}}
** And then it turns out that he believes in the voudon "death-like state" zombies -- hezombies—he hadn't realised Unity was an actual deadgirl.
** Remy in turn lampshades Sweetheart's reluctance to believe in possession.
{{quote|'''Remy:''' No, I'd never say anything so absurd to a talking dog.}}
* ''[[Hijinks Ensue]]'' refers to this as [https://web.archive.org/web/20130504200923/http://hijinksensue.com/2009/05/13/a-severe-case-of-scullyosis/ "Scullyosis"].
* [[Discussed Trope|Discussed]] in ''[[Homestuck]]''.
{{quote|'''TG:''' dude monsters aren't real
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'''TG:''' skepticism is the crutch of cinematic troglodytes }}
* By the eighth story arc in ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]],'' scientist Jean Poule is rather appalled to realize she has [http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20081025.html ''lost'' her arbitrary skepticism where Bob is concerned. ]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130901155157/http://shawntionary.com/clockworks/?p=1302 Seen here] in ''[[Clockworks]]''
* Ellen in ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' anticipated her friends will doubt her story about {{spoiler|living another life while asleep}}. [[Unfazed Everyman|Sarah]] pointed out that they aren't in position to say an idea is "so out there":
{{quote|'''Sarah:''' Look at us! We've got an [[Half-Human Hybrid|alien hybrid]], two [[Functional Magic|magic users]], a [[Mad Scientist]] and [[Gender Bender|we're all the opposite sex]] for a party!}}
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{{quote|"I don't believe in angels. Now if you want to talk about aliens, those are totally real. But angels? Nah."}}
* ''[[Beyond the Canopy]]'': When Glenn tells his friends about getting attacked by [[Dem Bones|ambulatory skeletons]] and accidentally acquiring a stick with magic powers, they naturally think he has an overactive imagination. What pushes it into Arbitrary Skepticism is that, even after his friends eventually accept that the stick has magic powers, they continue to insist that walking skeletons can't be real.
* Thief from ''[[8-Bit Theater|Eight Bit Theater]]'' refuses to believe that dragons exist, and actually starts this belief after actually seeing one, and before that he didn't deny they existed when he was told about a dragon. Late in the comic it appears he believed this because he felt it made him less likely to encounter them.
* Discussed in the notes for one of the Ravenholm strips in ''[[Concerned]]'':
{{quote|''"... and others wondered how exactly he could be a zombie and not be a mindless undead creature like the rest of the zombies. It just didn't make sense to some people (oddly, no one has yet questioned how he is able to not only write letters to Dr. Breen, but also have them promptly delivered)."''}}
* ''[[Moonstuck]]'' has Science Woona (a magical unicorn pony with wings) [http://woonastuck.tumblr.com/post/17150752489 gets pretty upset when science is openly defied.]
 
 
== Web Original ==
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{{quote|''Without breaking my gaze with the TV, I said, "To John, something being funny is more important than being true."''}}
** The narrator actually notices birds whose feet have apparently frozen to power lines, and describes it in just enough detail for the audience to realize what happened even if the narrator's oblivious to it.
* Jamie from ''[[Tales of MU|More Tales Of MU]]'' has a habit of dismissing as ludicrous rumors that readers know to be true (from [[The Original Series|''MU'' classic]]).
* Phase in the ''[[Whateley Universe]]'' has been trying to convince her friends (mainly Fey and Chaka) that the New Olympians are really avatars of the original Greek Gods, and not just teenagers who have a cool theme team. Fey, Chaka, and the rest refuse to believe. Fey herself is the incarnation (or something) of a Faerie Queen who is far, far older than the Greek Gods! And they all know Carmilla, who is the child of the demon Gothmog, who some of them have ''met''. And Fey has faced [[H.P. Lovecraft|Mythos-related]] magics.
* Achilles, leader of the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe|Global Guardians]]'' is a genetically engineered super-soldier whose father is an immortal [[Diabolical Mastermind]] warlord. He's on team with a man who belongs to [[The Chosen Many|an interstellar police force]], a [[Super Speed|super-fast]] [[Everything's Better with Monkeys|talking gorilla]], a [[Time Travel|time traveler from the 40s]] who gained his powers from [[Stupid Jetpack Hitler|a NazyNazi super-science experiment]], and a neanderthalNeanderthal who [[An Ice Person|survived being frozen in a glacier for 40,000 years]]. That all said, he does not believe in magic, and thus refuses to believe that his teammate Arachne received her powers from the goddess Athena.
* [[The Nostalgia Critic]]
** In the review of ''[[Last Action Hero]]'', the Critic finds it strange that a story taking place in the real world would have a magic movie ticket. However, the Critic himself has had things happen to him like being revived by Optimus Prime, a demonic teddy bear attacking him, and people with ''[[Street Fighter]]''-like powers which is fairly unrealistic as well.
** Additionally, his co-workers include: [[The Spoony Experiment|a future mad scientist]] and [[Atop the Fourth Wall|a guy with a magic gun]]. Both of whom have [[Robot Buddies]]. Well the "universe" for the Nostalgia Critic is kind of wonky -- hiswonky—his default for the reviews is treating them like he's in the real world (the ones his viewers are in), but occasionally has bizarre occurrences by way of [[Rule of Funny]].
** There's a similar instance of this during Suburban Knights when the Nostalgia Critic wants to go after a magic gauntlet, but doesn't actually believe that magic exists, to Linkara's chagrin.
* In H-M Brown's ''[[The First Run]]'', the Reporter doesn't believe that there are farmlands in New Jersey despite the fact that farmlands still exist in the future.
* Parodied in ''[[Loading Ready Run]]'' with their video "War of Christmas". The basic plot is that Christmas-related objects (tree ornaments, ribbons, inflatable Santas, etc.) are attacking people. Somebody asks if this could be the work of [[Santa Claus]], leading another person to reply along the lines of "Santa Claus? Grow up! This is serious...like the Easter Bunny!" Worth noting that it's never actually stated if it ''is'' Santa or not.
* Kirby from ''[[Perfect Kirby]]'' is shocked when he's told that he has to rescue an alien about the existence of aliens, and his boss points out that Kirby is an alien.
 
 
== Western Animation ==
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** [[The Spock|Sokka]] seems to have trouble with this one from time to time. The second season episode "The Swamp" is one good example, in which he refuses to believe that the swamp called forth spirits. When [[The Chick|Katara]] points out that [[The Hero|Aang]] has contacted spirits regularly (and he was once kidnapped by one and stuck in the spirit world), he dismisses it with "That's Avatar stuff; it doesn't count."
** He later subverts it, though, by thinking up his own insane ideas for what can get in their way (particularly a "giant, exploding Fire Nation spoon" or a city being mysteriously submerged in an ocean of killer shrimp) and admitting "[[Weirdness Magnet|Weird stuff happens to us]]", just before a drooling and insane-looking man [[Invader Zim|with an ear of corn in his mouth]] comes by.
* The ''[[Scooby -Doo]]'' cartoons invoke this trope by having the gang generally dismiss the belief that the monster of the week is real, despite having seen and acknowledged several real ones.
* In one episode of ''[[Godzilla: The Series|Godzilla the Series]]'', Nick refuses to believe in the Loch Ness Monster. Elsie points out that "We've seen things in the last few months I never would have believed in before." The eponymous character leaps to mind. Monique mocks this is another episode, reminding the disbeliever they work with a giant lizard that breaths atomic fire.
* ''[[The Venture Brothers]]''
** Brock inquires if his boss's policy of "don't harm women and children" applies to female vampires. No, because they're undead, therefore technically not women, the boss replies. "Also? Fictitious." This is a world where ghosts, magic, and resurrections are downright common, and as a matter of fact, a later character is a Blacula hunter.
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* ''[[Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends]]'': Strangely it appears in this work (of all places), in the Christmas episode, "A Lost Claus". It's been long established that the series takes place in a universe where everything children can imagine comes to life. Therefore, you'd think there'd be '''no question at all''' that Santa Claus is real in this world. Imaginary Friends who happen to look and act exactly like Santa have a tendency to show up in droves around Christmas time. So the question is, is there one single "real" Santa?
* ''[[American Dragon: Jake Long]]'': In one episode, Jake scoffs at the idea of ghosts haunting his summer camp, despite being a human/dragon shapeshifter who deals with supernatural creatures all the time. He reassures the campers that, sure, unicorns and leprechauns exist, but ghosts? No way.
* The cynic Kevin 11 of ''[[Ben 10: Alien Force|Ben 10 Alien Force]]'' has this going for him in regards to magic and crop circles, despite being a mutant that battled countless alien species. He is right with {{spoiler|Gwen power's coming from her alien inheritance}} but the creators have confirmed that the magic ''exists'' and can be used by ''normal'' humans.
* ''[[South Park]]''
** [[Lampshaded]] in the episode "Cartman's Incredible Gift" where Kyle voices his skepticism of psychic abilities throughout and tries to convince the police to take a more realistic, scientific approach to the murder investigation. At the very end of the episode it is revealed that [[Real After All|Kyle may have psychic powers himself.]] The series as a whole has many episodes with skeptical themes, despite the fact that supernatural characters and phenomena are commonplace.
** In another episode, he convinces Hollywood and most of the adults in the show his hand is possessed by Jennifer Lopez (or at least someone pretending to be Jennifer Lopez). Kyle strongly believes that Cartman is full of crap. In the end, Kyle's skepticism wavers after Cartman reminds him that they have seen a lot of crazy shit... and then Cartman laughs at him because he really ''did'' make the whole thing up.
** Also, how can anyone in the ''South Park'' universe possibly be an atheist, considering the fact that Jesus, God, and Satan -- justSatan—just for starters -- havestarters—have all visited the town countless times?
** There was also the episode "Dead Celebrities" in which Stan and Kyle are skeptical of ghosts existing, despite the fact that they have encountered wizards, gnomes, zombies, dragons, aliens, and demons before.
* ''[[Family Guy]]'' has included Godly miracles, a visit from Jesus, a visit from Death, and countless events of the just plain ludicrous variety, yet Brian remains a staunch atheist. He even seemed to actively believe in God [[Characterization Marches On|in an early episode.]] "You want an explanation? [[Punctuated! For! Emphasis!|GOD. IS. PISSED.]]"
* In a [[Crowning Moment of Funny]] on ''[[Veggie Tales]]'', Laura Carrot and Junior Asparagus are at first suspicious of the talking Rumor Weed, like any schoolkids would be; the Rumor Weed points out, though, that "I'm a talking weed, you're a talking carrot..."
* Diana in ''[[Martin Mystery]]'' refuses to believe that any event The Center investigates is result of paranormal activity, claiming that there would be some logical explanation. Yet she works for an organization that employs aliens and cavemen, and it is a [[Monster of the Week]] show, so the fact that she brought this up so often really messes with the [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief]]. She has some reason to be skeptical of Martin -- althoughMartin—although a supernatural explanation always proves to be true, it's rarely the first one he provides. Or the second. Or the third. He always gets it right ''eventually'', but only after numerous downright absurd guesses that have no bearing on what's actually happening. The fact that she doesn't conclude that it's definitely supernatural, but Martin is wrong about ''how'' until evidence suggests otherwise is a bit problematic, though.
* ''[[Batman Beyond]]''
** Played with in an episode where Terry is telling Bruce about a so-called "ghost" his classmates believe to be haunting his high school. Terry expects Bruce to reject the notion out of hand because there's no such thing as ghosts. Bruce then turns to Terry and explains he's ''met'' ghosts, wizards, witch-boys, zombies, immortals and demons... but he doesn't believe it in this case, because it sounds "too high school". Turns out, he was right. It wasn't a ghost, it was [[Stalker with a Crush]], Willie Watt, who had psychic powers.
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* ''[[Gargoyles]]'': The eponymous characters are half a dozen creatures with superhuman strength and wings that turn to stone during the day and that only exist in modern New York after being put to sleep for a thousand years, yet their human friend tends to respond with disbelief every time they encounter new weirdness. She does get better as time goes on, though.
* While pinning down an in-universe chronology in ''[[Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (animation)|Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers]]'' is perhaps an exercise in futility, but as far as this trope goes, it really doesn't matter: in the first two volumes, they've seen ''bona fide'' aliens, magic lamps, ghosts, mummies who can walk and talk, fortune tellers, leprechauns, banshees, and a weather-predicting tail, and been under the influence of mind-control juice. Yet every time (including some others in which they turn out to be right, and it's all a trick), it seems like someone (or almost everyone) doesn't believe the thing in question exists, and is only willing to check it out when forced to. As a general rule, if only Chip is skeptical, then the ghost/psychic/whatever is for real. If Gadget is skeptical, then it is bound to be a trick. If Dale is skeptical, he'll be proven wrong one second later. And if Monterey Jack is skeptical, well, actually he's never skeptical, so never mind.
* ''[[Aaahh!!! Real Monsters]]'' has the monsters (who have supernatural powers besides looking scary) being very skeptical of ghosts, which don't exist (or do they?).
* ''[[Metalocalypse]]'' contains the following exchange:
{{quote|"There's no such thing as trolls!"
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** In an early episode, [[Green Lantern]] doesn't believe a story [[The Flash]] is telling him about a talking gorilla, before Flash calls him out:
{{quote|'''Flash:''' We both have a ''Martian'' on our speed dial. I think I deserve the benefit of the doubt here.}}
** In another episode, Deadman scoffs at the notion of Gorilla City, until [[Wonder Woman]] points out that he is a ghost who is possessing an alien (Superman). He concedes, "Good point."
** There was one where [[Batman]] dismisses the idea of reincarnation as nonsense. However, in Batman's case this is fair, particularly in the DCAU where dead people stay dead. And, quite frankly, [[Fridge Brilliance|not believing in something keeps you from being tempted to try it.]]
** In another episode, Batman suggests that Carter Hall might be psychologically unstable, as he believes that Egyptian architecture was built with the aid of aliens. Shayera responds that Batman's right, and Carter ''must'' be insane because everyone knows aliens don't exist -- especiallyexist—especially ones such as herself.
** This comes up a lot in ''Justice League''. In "Balance", Wonder Woman uses her Lasso of Truth to interrogate a demon. Hawkgirl, not having seen this power demonstrated before, asks her how she got him to talk so easily.
{{quote|'''Wonder Woman:''' Magic lasso. Who knew?
'''Hawkgirl:''' If you don't want to tell me, then fine. }}
** They're interrogating a DEMON''demon''. In HADES''Hades''. Where they've gone to restore the eponymous Hades himself to the throne since he's been ousted by an evil sorcerer. And Hawkgirl JUST''just SAWsaw'' Wonder Woman's mother give her an unspecified power upgrade.
** Minor instance in "Savage Time", set back during World War II. Vandal Savage, who took over Nazi Germany, revives reports of the Justice League aiding the allies, and initially dismisses the reports as propaganda. This coming from a man that received plans to [[Take Over the World]] from his future self via a time machine, and later turns out to have originally been a caveman that gained immortality from meteorite. Perhaps not so surprisingly he isn't skeptical for very long.
* The (excellent, FYI) [[Rankin-Bass]] [[Christmas Special|holiday cartoon]] ''[['Twas the Night Before Christmas]]'' brings this mind-twister to light: the closest thing to an antagonist in the movie, an atheist mouse, lives in a world in which Santa is very real... not a belief in him, but Santa himself. There is no question on this; it's a matter of demonstrable fact... he can be seen, touched, talked to, he has a '''secretary''' who ''answers the phone'' when you call the North Pole. Santa is as real and as important in their society as say Brad Pitt is in ours. The mouse kid says he's a myth. His reason? It's scientifically impossible to do what he does. Put into context, imagine being someone who lives in Metropolis and meeting someone who refuses to believe in Superman because he does things that defy physics... or someone who refuses to believe in Mutantsmutants in the Marvel 'verse because what they do is "impossible". It's like that. To be fair though, the thrust of the film is he's a nerd and generally insufferable douche who thinks he's got more brains than he really does, which is to say, none at all.
* ''[[Invader Zim]]''
** Dib, who is constantly trying to convince people of the existence of Bigfoot, ghosts, and tiny green aliens bent on world domination, is entirely dismissive of the claims made by "The Delouser", who believes lice originate from a subterranean Lice Queen, going so far as to [[You're Insane!|tell her she's crazy]]. At least he apologized when it turned out she was right.
** A sort of weird case is in "Career Day," when Dib disbelieves everything Bill says. Okay, he's impatient and wants to get back to the ''definitively'' real alien, but he seems disappointed Bill took him to a crop circle and outright denied that the cow was being controlled by aliens.
* ''[[Dilbert (animation)|Dilbert]]'' frequently has the eponymous engineeerengineer play Arbitrary Skeptic, only to let Dogbert then point out the "correct" belief and have it confirmed seconds later -- andlater—and for the rest of the episode.
* In the bat-related episode of ''[[The Magic School Bus]]'' Ralphie is firmly convinced that Ms. Frizzle is a vampire while Keisha continually says that vampires don't exist. However, they're used to continually going around in a magic transforming semi-sentient school bus driven by a mostly sentient iguana that can turn them into bats at the press of a button. Granted, Keisha is right (at least about Ms. Frizzle) but they've swallowed a lot of impossible things while trying to prove whether vampires exist.
* Children's cartoon ''[[Ned's Newt]]'' had an example of this in the Halloween episode, when Ned is home alone and Frankenstein's monster suddenly shows up at his doorstep (in reality his uncle who's coming by to check on him. He's on his way to a Halloween party, and can't get off his costume on his own).
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* Amusingly [[Lampshaded]] in the "Summer Belongs to You" episode of ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'', when Buford insists that it's impossible to travel around the world in order to have 24+ hours of continuous daylight.
{{quote|'''Buford:''' There's nothing I have ever seen that would make me believe you could pull this off. Except for that time machine thing, oh and the roller coaster. But other than that, nothing! Oh, and the time you played that song and the platypus came back. Aw, man, nature just bends to your will, doesn't it?}}
:: It's all but directly stated that he doesn't even really disbelieve, and is just pretending to to be a [[Jerkass]] and goad them into going through with it.
* ''[[The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes|Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes]]''
** Janet "[[The Wasp|Wasp]]" van Dyne thinks the idea of aliens is "just crazy". This from the girl who works with a [[The Mighty Thor|thunder god]], a [[Incredible Hulk|giant green monster-man]], and a [[Captain America (comics)|revived from cryostasis]] [[Super Soldier]] on a regular basis, and can herself turn into a laws-of-aerodynamics-breaking [[Winged Humanoid]]. {{spoiler|She's wrong.}} [[Justified Trope|Justified]] by the fact that Wasp was teasing her friend who didn't want to be thought of as crazy for thinking a strange object is alien.
** Played straight with Thor in that despite all the other odd things they've seen, [[Iron Man]] and [[Hawkeye]] think the Thunder God just delusional about being '''[[A God Am I|The]]''' Thor.
* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'':
** Twilight Sparkle exhibits symptoms of this character trait in the episodes "Bridle Gossip" and "Feeling Pinkie Keen", in regards to the concept of Curses and Hexes in the former, and Pinkie's ability to foretell the future in the latter. And this is in spite of Twilight Sparkle having magical talents, as do all Unicorn Ponies. Subverted, however, in that such magical powers are seen as a natural talent of Unicorns, having a valid explanation. Also, Twilight Sparkle herself has a far more [[Sufficiently Analyzed Magic|scientific approach to her methods]], rather then relying on mystical-babble.
** Subverted in "Feeling Pinkie Keen," where we can see that Pinkie herself has learned (through her own version of the scientific method) what all of her odd twitches mean, but Twilight Sparkle dismissively ignores it.
** In "A Hearth's Warning Tale", the idea of vengeful spirits that bring endless winter and famine as punishment to Ponies who are selfish and hateful - as in, the Windigo - is believed by the cast to be just a legend used to scare foals. Seeing as they've encountered dragons, manticores, giants, and Cerberus himself, the idea of a Windigo doesn't seem farfetched at all, and indeed they are very real.
* ''[[Aqua Teen Hunger Force]]'': Frylock once told a scared Meatwad, "there's no such thing as monsters!" despite encountering them on a daily basis and being ''living food items'' themselves.
* Misery from ''[[Ruby Gloom]]'' doesn't believe in monsters, despite regularly hanging out with a [[Dem Bones|a talking skeleton,]] a [[Cyclops]], a two headed guy, and a talking bird.
* In ''[[ThundercatsThunderCats (2011]] series)|the 2011 ''ThunderCats'' reboot]], most of the magical kingdom of Thundera outright dismissesdismiss [[Lost Technology|technology]] as the stuff of [[Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions|fairy tales]], and are likewise skeptical of the existence of the the magical [[Great Big Book of Everything]] the Book of Omens and [[Evil Sorceror]] Mumm-Ra. [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in that Thundera is depicted as [[Wall Around the World|fairly isolated]], and their history has long ago [[Legend Fades to Myth|fallen into myth]].
* ''[[Jackie Chan Adventures]]''
** Whenever they encounter a new supernatural threat and Uncle gives exposition, Jackie's usual reaction is "Are you making this up?" or "You're making this up!"
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* In the ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' movie Bugs Bunny's 1001 Rabbit Tales, Abba Cadabba has no problem with talking cats, but is incredulous to the idea of singing frogs.
* ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]'': Kid Flash, despite living and working with superheroes that include [[Badass Normal|Robin]], [[Making a Splash|Aqualad]], [[Physical God|Superboy]], and Miss Martian; does not believe in magic, despite the fact where this trait comes up is in an episode where he is in the tower of a magician that has been alive for centuries and is constantly being put through magic escapades.
* ''[[Underdog]]'' has fought several supernatural menaces, like the witch doctor in "Just in Case", a dragon in "Zot", and the eponymous villains in "Battyman", "The Witch Of Pickyoon", and "The Flying Sorcerers". However, in "The Silver Thieves", he refuses to believe that the incorporeal, lightning-throwing beings are ghosts, saying ghosts are "only in fairy tales". Downplayed a little, as he's right - the "ghosts" are actually living aliens whose bodies are made of clouds. Of course, this begs the question, how is ''that'' more believable than ghosts?
* This is played for laughs in the first episode of ''[[Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures]]''; when the ghosts begin their initial invasion, a [[Kent Brockman News| reporter is covering the chaos]] (as the ghosts are swarming around her):
{{quote|'''Reporter:''' We're coming to you live from Maze Prep School where a paranormal attack of unprecedented proportions is underway. Like most Pac-worlders, I don't believe in ghosts -
''(One ghosts sets its sights on her.)''
'''Reporter:''' - but I am willing to keep an open mind! [[Dead Line News| ''(Screams as it chases her offscreen.)'']]}}
* In ''[[DC Super Hero Girls]]'', Jessica is one of the [[Green Lantern Corps]], meaning her job is to fight aliens and cosmic horrors, but she claims not to believe in witches of zombies. Despite the fact that [[Zatanna]] (her close friend and teammate) is an ''actual'' witch who in one episode used magic to zombify a (presumed) dead octopus.
 
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[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:Arbitrary Skepticism]]
[[Category:No Real Life Examples, Please]]