Arbitrary Skepticism: Difference between revisions

* ''[[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".

** 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."

* 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":

* 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."

{{quote|'''Ques:''' So, you really are a god?

'''{{spoiler|Tezkhra}}:''' Of course. You did not believe me?

{{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]]. }}