Overprotective Dad

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
(Redirected from Overprotective Mom)
He's talking to a bunch of three-year-olds.
"If you have a son, you only have to worry about one swinging dick. But when you have a daughter, then you have to worry about every swinging dick in town."
—Proverb

You know this guy. You might even BE this guy, if you're a dad. (Or you WILL grow into one, when you have a little girl.) Well aware of the sex-obsessed horndogs that teenage guys can be—probably because he was one—the Overprotective Dad wants to protect his daughter from being exploited. Unfortunately, he tends to take it all too far, holding the Eight Simple Rules For Dating My Teenaged Daughter as his personal bible.

Once he gets over his denial that his baby is all grown up, the Overprotective Dad becomes convinced that her smiling at a boy, let alone kissing or dating, is half a step away from having sex and getting pregnant. Parties are always an orgy if she is going. Thinks of himself as a Papa Wolf, but unless his concerns are a lot better justified than usual, he's probably closer to being a Knight Templar Parent. It's not just a matter of My Girl Is Not a Slut (translated for the father/daughter dynamic); it's that he doesn't trust guys around her, and he's probably also displacing some angst about "losing" his little girl. Unfortunately for the poor young man who eventually attracts her interest, the Overprotective Dad isn't going to be inclined to give him an inch—he will receive No Sympathy for any chaos that results from their courtship, and even the slightest or most obvious misunderstanding or misconception about the man will have the Overprotective Dad warning him to "stay away from her!" if he knows what's healthy for him—of course, in some occasions, it's obvious to everyone that the Overprotective Dad is merely using that as a (fairly weak) excuse to keep the suitor away from his baby girl. In the rare event that he finds a suitor he can tolerate, he will still inevitably threaten the boy with dire consequences If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her....

This trope is especially common in stereotypes of the Deep South, where every sweet Georgia Peach has a very large (usually fat, hairy, and drunk) father in a white tank top that usually keeps a rifle with him at all times.

If Adults Are Useless, then he'll probably just be comic relief as he huffs and puffs ineffectually. Otherwise, he may serve as a Parent Ex Machina to deliver the message that you Can't Get Away with Nuthin' and ground his daughter at some point. Somewhere between those two is the Overprotective Dad who ends up enforcing a Shotgun Wedding after the condom breaks.

The entire concept is very easy to suffer a Squick over, especially if you believe that Freud Was Right, or if the father is a Pervert Dad.

Ironically, if he has a son, he may even applaud or encourage him if he treats girls in the exact way he doesn't want other guys to treat his own daughter.

See also Twerp Sweating. Compare My Sister Is Off-Limits. Spear counterpart of My Beloved Smother. Contrast Fantasy-Forbidding Father.

Nowadays sometimes a Subverted Trope due to Gender Flip. Meaning fathers who are more concerned about the girls/women their sons date. This is due to the breaking of some Double Standards regarding Abuse Is Okay When It Is Female On Male and cougars (i.e. older women dating younger men), so it is Truth in Television in a way.

Examples of Overprotective Dad include:

Anime and Manga

  • Pictured above: In Fullmetal Alchemist, Maes Hughes holds three-year-old boys at gunpoint as they attempt to play with his daughter Elysia on her birthday. Complete with Scary Shiny Glasses.
  • Kenji-papa, Usagi/Serena's dad in Sailor Moon, flips out whenever he thinks Usagi/Serena could be seeing someone, and that's before she even gets together with Mamoru. Her mother Ikuko, on the other hand, quite likes the idea and suggests Usagi/Serena invite Mamoru over one day when Kenji isn't home. He actually does have some point with his behaviour, considering that Usagi is 14 at the start of their relationship, while Mamoru is further along (older high schooler—17/ in college—from 18 to 21, depending on whether it's the manga or the anime). And then we see that, in the manga, they're all but stated to be sexually involved.
  • Momomiya Shintaro of Tokyo Mew Mew and his wife Sakura have the exact same dynamic as Kenji and Ikuko. One advantage that Ichigo has is that, when her mother isn't holding back her raging husband, they're usually too wrapped up in each other to care who she's seeing. Her father eventually decides to put a stop to her relationship with Aoyama, and challenges him to a kendo match for him to have the right to continue seeing her. Ichigo then intervenes and promises to fight her father in Aoyama's place, much like her mother did.
  • UFO Robo Grendizer: Danbei Makiba. Unlike other fathers in the Mazinger trilogy -Gennosuke Yumi and Kenzo Kabuto come to mind- who were, at the best, neglecting, Danbei was overprotective to the point his daughter found it annoying. He threatened with -or outright attempted- killing whoever hang around with Hikaru. And if someone offered to drive her to some place, he loaded his shotgun in front of that person while he stated: "You better bring her back without ever one scratch."
  • San's father in Seto no Hanayome is overprotective to the point of homicidal mania when his daughter gets married. He repeatedly attempts to kill his son-in-law.
  • Similar to San's father, Matsudaira from Gintama repeatedly tries to assassinate his daughter's boyfriend or whoever approaches her.
  • Maka's father Spirit in Soul Eater, albeit somewhat subverted; in the first episode, there is a short scene where he warns Soul not to make any moves on Maka ... and quickly goes on to tell him that he should give Maka a grope. He does seem to be a decent guy overall, since he was not amused with Medusa's treatment of her child, Crona; when he learns about it from Medusa herself, it's the first time we actually see him angry and goes on to prove just how dangerous he really is when his daughter or her friends are threatened.
  • Fujioka "Ranka" Ryouji, Haruhi's father in Ouran High School Host Club. Or he could just be a sociopath, he did recognize Tamaki. Though considering that Ryouji has been raising Haruhi alone ever since the death of Kotoko... The trope also applies to Tamaki himself in his guise as Haruhi's 'father'.
  • Ranma ½: Sōun Tendō. Any indication that Ranma isn't being entirely faithful to his little girl Akane is usually met with him going into Demon Head mode to rip the boy/girl a new one. The unusual (and hilarious) twist to this trope is that Sōun wants Ranma to marry Akane because without that, his dreams of a early retirement will be lost. It's also worth noting that Sōun seems protective of Kasumi and Nabiki as well—particularly interesting in Nabiki's case, considering all the crap she pulls, yet Sōun never seems to hold a grudge. Also, what makes this particular example hilarious (or at least, unique) is that unlike most of the other examples on this list, Sōun wants nothing more than for Ranma and Akane to screw each other. He's heavily encouraged it multiple times throughout the series.
  • Bleach
    • Ichigo's father Isshin is always having fits about protecting his two young daughters (Karin and Yuzu) from any and all dangers. Later subverted in that he's always known about supernatural dangers much of the world is unaware about. That, and he's actually a Shinigami, too. Also subverted in that while he's obsessed with ensuring the safety of his daughters, he is and has always planned on using his son as a living weapon, even admitting that a father willing to kill his son is a better father to his son than him. He himself isn't very happy about it.
    • Orihime's hollowfied brother Sora also qualifies, trying to kill Ichigo (and Tatsuki, though less so) for taking his place in Orihime's heart. He then says he'll kill Orihime just so no one else can have her. Ichigo is not impressed.
  • Akane Hino's father in Cannon God E Xa X Xion turns into this temporarily (after spending all his other appearances as a mostly useless wimp) after he finds out that male lead Hoichi Kano had sex with his daughter. Kano got punched a lot. Which is kinda fair considering that Hoichi is currently fighting the alien occupation on earth, meaning that his daughter would be in danger by being in a relationship with him. Heck, she was interrogated and used as a secret weapon against him, her sister was nearly killed by Hoichi's giant mecha, and now her entire family must remain in hiding to be safe, all because of her just being friends with him. Probably the most rightfully protective dad on this page.
  • Dragon Ball
    • Mr. Satan from Dragonball Z made it adamantly clear that his daughter Videl wasn't allowed to date anyone that couldn't beat him in a fight. Naturally, Videl just happens to fall for the one half-alien teenager that can.
    • Vegeta seems to be this to his daughter Bra, going so far as to attack teenage punks that were hitting on his daughter—and because they made fun of him and his mustache (though they might have a point with the mustache). Gods help the poor boy Bra will actually bring home to meet her parents.
    • A lesser example is Piccolo to Gohan. Even when Gohan becomes far more powerful than him, he wouldn't hesitate to make sure that no one tries to hurt the boy.
  • In Ai Kora, Sakurako's dad is pretty overprotective (he even gets into an "overprotectiveness battle" with Maeda in chapter 35), but this is a bit more understandable, given that he knows his daughter has been burned by bad relationships before.
  • Subverted in Kare Kano when Yukino brings Soichiro home for the first time. Upon hearing whispers of a BOY in the house, her father goes full-on into this mode, rampaging through the house to confront the unlucky suitor at the front door... only to immediately drop into a kowtow and welcome him into their home at first sight. Apparently, Soichiro just has the look of a perfect husband.
  • Inami's dad in Working!!. He didn't want his daughter to marry, so he brainwashed her that all men are dangerous and out to get her, and put metal sheets in her bag to train her muscle for punching out guys. Of course, the first guy she punched was her father... Oh, and when he saw Takanashi and suspected that he was a guy he pulls out a shotgun.
  • Izumi Segawa's dad in Hayate the Combat Butler freaks at the idea of his little girl getting involved with anyone, pounding anyone he thinks is a would-be suitor senseless. Oh, and we should also mention being perfectly willing to challenge said would-be suitors to a fight above a pit of lava.
  • Pokémon Special
    • Byron is a relatively minor but understandable example when it comes to his son, Roark. After hearing that a single Galactic admin managed to beat two other Gym Leaders and the girl who had been defeating Gym Leaders, he is very reluctant to send his son out to battle, even though it's kind of the job of Gym Leaders here to fight terrorist groups. Of course, later on Roark is there to fight Team Galactic with the other Leaders at the top of Mt. Coronet, with Byron providing support and healing items to everyone from down below.
    • Sir Berlitz is thoughtful enough to hire a pair of professional bodyguards to accompany his journeying daughter. Points for him, except due to accident which was not his fault she ends up going with two aspiring comedians instead.
  • Soichiro Yagami from Death Note goes this way in regards to his kids, specially young Sayu when She's All Grown Up. He was very NOT impressed when his subordinate Matsuda seemed to have a crush on Sayu's Tall, Dark and Bishoujo teenaged self...
  • Miho Azuki's father in Bakuman｡ has not been seen yet, but has shades of this. He moves his family to Hachioji so that Miho, who goes to high school and auditions there, will not have to leave too early or face potential sexual harassment on the train, and the action strikes Takagi as fairly drastic ("How over-protective is he?"). It remains to be seen whether he knows or approves of her relationship with Mashiro.
  • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Vi Vid: Fate, the "father" among Vivio's two mothers, is also significantly more protective of Vivio than Nanoha is, largely the result of her worrywart personality.
  • One Piece
    • Genzo has shades of this in regards to Nami, such as threatening to kill Luffy if he ever makes her cry and complaining that her bounty poster was going to attract more suitors than bounty hunters. While he was holding a life-sized enlargement of said bounty poster.
    • Another one is King Neptune, who locked his only daughter Princess Shirahoshi in her room for ten years. However he was Properly Paranoid as the poor girl was being stalked by a dangerous Stalker with a Crush who continually sent her "love letters"... that consisted of swords and axes bigger than him! And was also after poor Shirahoshi's powers.
  • Akio Furukawa in Clannad. Most extreme example in After Story, where he became rather enraged at the prospect of Tomoya having sex with Nagisa despite them being married already.

Akio: Congratulations... YOU BASTARD!

Rather, he tends to act like one in order to tease Tomoya, but it's apparent that he really likes Tomoya and approves of his relationship with Nagisa. How many overprotective dads let their daughter's boyfriend live at their house?
  • Kenichi the Mightiest Disciple
    • The Elder is selectively protective of Miu. Keeping her by his side as he travelled the world battling evil, fine. Sending her out to protect Kenichi, encouraged. But any prospective suitors (i.e. Kenichi) must defeat the Elder first.
    • There's also Kenichi's dad. The man's first and foremost reaction to his son in danger is to whip out a shotgun. The shotgun's name is SEBASTIAN, and it can take care of two bit punks bullying his son just as easily as it takes care of the squirrels that infested the backyard.
  • Rahzel's adoptive father in Hatenkou Yuugi (a.k.a. Dazzle). Even though he sent Rahzel off to travel on her own, he planned to put a tracking device in her bag. (He forgot to put that one in, but there must have been another one, because he was able to find her later.) While teaching her to fend for herself, he was secretly following her to make sure nothing happened. He was very upset to learn that Rahzel would sleep in the same hotel room (though in different beds) as Baroqueheat and Alzeid to save money. And don't even get us started on his reaction when Rahzel told him all the stuff Baroqueheat got up to...
  • Aki's father in Silver Spoon is less than happy when Yugo gets a bit too close to his daughter. Or so much as looks in her direction.
  • Detective Conan: Kogoro Mouri lives and breathes this trope. Please, don't you ever dare to look at his beautiful daughter Ran in any way he doesn't like, even when she can protect herself decently. At best, hilarity will ensue. At worse, you'll be on the receiving end of a powerful judo throw..
  • Full Metal Panic!. Mardukas isn't Tessa's genetic father but that doesn't prevent him from issuing threats to Sōsuke against trying anything with her during the time she's at his place. Specifically, the submarine XO threatens to launch Sōsuke from a torpedo tube with a 300 kg explosive if he "commits some shameless act on her". Naturally, poor Sōsuke is scared out of his wits... not that he'd even try. And the funny thing is, it later turns out that it's Tessa who should be looked at so that she won't try to molest him in his sleep.


Comic Books

  • Mostly subverted in Spider-Girl, since Peter Parker is much less concerned about his daughter May having sex than he is worried that she'll be seriously hurt or killed while acting as a super-hero, given that he obviously knows first-hand how dangerous the job can be. He flips out when he realizes May has been crime fighting behind his back, although more recently he's come to accept his daughter's role. Later Gender Reversed when Mary Jane nearly had a nervous breakdown when May was almost killed fighting one of her father's old enemies, leading May to voluntarily give up being Spider-Girl, until circumstances forced her back into costume. Also played straight in a few instances, such as when May goes on a date with J. Johan Jameson's grandson, which rankles Peter's hide to no end, and when he asks why she couldn't date Jimmy Yuma (who Peter likes), Mary Jane says that Jimmy is terrifed of Peter.

Peter: That's why I like him!

  • In Gold Digger, Gina and Brittany's magically inclined father likes to set his head on fire (making it, in fact, a flaming skull) when meeting boys his girls bring home. Brittany considers it significant when he doesn't do it when meeting her paramour and later, husband Strype.
  • Mr. Lodge (Veronica's father) isn't overly fond of Archie dating his daughter, mostly because accident-prone Archie typically destroys at least one precious antique whenever he visits the Lodge mansion. On the other hand, having been repeatedly saved from thieves, swindlers, blackmailers and underhanded business rivals by Archie means Mr. Lodge is able to accept him, at least. And he shows his complete support of Archie when he proposes to Veronica, even going as far as to give him a cushy job so that he will be able to support Veronica on his own. It's also been indicated that Mr. Lodge tolerates Archie because interaction with the boy keeps Veronica from becoming too much of a Spoiled Brat.
  • Hippolyta from Wonder Woman is an example of an Overprotective Mom. Not only does she try to keep Diana out of the contest that made her Wonder Woman in the first place, but after receiving visions of Wonder Woman dying, she rigs another contest so that Diana will lose and another Amazon dies in her place.
  • Batman, which can be more or less obvious depending on the story. When Barbara was raging against him for using her and Cass and sending them out on a cruise for "vacation" when he knew that a certain target was there, and accusing him of only seeing Cass as a weapon, he was completely stoic about it, even smiling at one point. Until Barbara casually mentioned that Superboy had met up with Cass. Then, he proceeded to smash the keyboard up.
  • Although not her biological nor step-father, Jay Garrick is this way to Stargirl, especially with adult supers (or Captain Marvel) trying to date her. Good to know the oldsters in the JSA aren't just Cool Old Guys.
  • When Knives Chau's father finds out his daughter is (actually, was) dating Scott Pilgrim, a white boy, he puts on sunglasses, a Badass Longcoat, takes one of his antique swords, and goes after Scott. After Scott starts fighting his own battles (by killing Roxanne) and explaining he barely touched Knives during their time together, Mr. Chau goes home and tells his daughter he's OK with her seeing a white guy. Since she doesn't speak a word of Chinese, she has no idea what he said.
  • Of all people, hotheaded god of war Ares struggles with trying to prevent this in Dark Avengers. When he finds out his son Phobos has been training with Nick Fury, he gets quite angry and looks quite willing to tear everything in arm's length apart. At the same time, though, he admits that he resented his father Zeus acting in a similar fashion and doesn't want to drive his own son away like Ares felt driven away from Zeus. Ares eventually relents, but warns Fury that, should the boy get killed, it's quite likely that Zeus will still act like an Overprotective Granddad and act accordingly, even if Ares is more understanding.
  • Tobias Knopp in one story by Wilhelm Busch. Justified because three of the suitors of his daughter aren't exactly Nice Guys.
  • Fantastic Four villain Philip Masters, the Puppet Master held a personal grudge against the Thing when the hero started dating his stepdaughter Alicia.

Fan Works

  • In Kyon: Big Damn Hero, Kyon realizes his father will be one when his sister gets older. His father already thinks that way, though.
  • Gender Flipped in Ultimate SpiderWoman: Change With the Light when Ben Reilly's father threatens to make Mary Jane Watson's life very, very miserable if she doesn't stay away from his son. Ben himself is not amused when he finds out.
  • The fanon portrays Hiashi Hyuuga from Naruto (when he's not being portrayed as a Complete Monster) as this over Hinata and Hanabi. Also Kurenai over Hinata as well.
  • Ensei in The Tainted Grimoire is said to be this by Sasasha. An example includes his reaction to learning his daughter Kanin is going on a date. It is exactly what you'd expect from someone labelled overprotective.
  • In Evangelion fanfic Father by Lord Talon Shinji mused about doing this.

I feel sorry for the first guy our daughter brings home to meet us! I don't know if I'd be sitting there sharpening a sword or if I'd take him to work and show him what kind of toy I drive!

Fairy Tales

  • In The Bear, the heroine turns into a bear to escape her Overprotective Dad.

Film

  • The Little Mermaid
    • King Triton . Granted, the surface IS probably dangerous for merpeople, but he kind of takes it to extremes. This is explained in the prequel, when the audience finds out that his wife Athena had a BOAT dropped on her!. Yikes.
    • Heck, even Ariel is like this to her own daughter, Melody. She doesn't even let her go in the water, probably to keep her safe from Morgana and to hope she doesn't do a repeat of she did with Ursula.
  • Tramp from Lady and the Tramp, particularly in the sequel, because he didn't want his son to make the same mistakes he did.
  • This trope is the driving force behind the entire plot of Finding Nemo. This is justified because Marlin lost his wife and the rest of his children to a barracuda.
  • Simba turned into this in The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride, but considering the amount of trauma he endured as a cub in the original, perhaps it was well justified.
  • Roxanne's dad in A Goofy Movie, in all his huge, fat, ugly glory. Although all he does is glare ominously at Max and growl.
  • Less Egregious than other examples, Dr. Houseman from Dirty Dancing is still pretty damn strict.
  • Bruce Willis and his shotgun in Armageddon.
  • In 10 Things I Hate About You, Kat and Bianca's father is an obstetrician who obsesses about his daughters' chastity. Unlike in the play Taming of the Shrew from which the film is loosely adapted, his motivation for requiring his shrewish daughter to enter a romantic relationship first is that he hopes both will remain chaste. Although he's a little too late in one case...
  • Roger Ebert once condemned the Tony Danza movie She's Out of Control for dragging this into Squick levels.
  • John Mahoney plays one in Say Anything.
  • Jack Byrnes (played by Robert DeNiro) of the movie Meet the Parents. He goes so far as to force his daughter's boyfriend to take a polygraph test. In the middle of the night. This is a common theme throughout the entire movie and both sequels.
  • Subverted in the Colin Firth plot in Love Actually; when Firth travels to Portugal to ask the woman he loves to marry him, he encounters her father... who, thinking that he's wanting to marry her (less attractive) sister, has no problem—and when she indignantly asks him whether he'd sell his daughter to a perfect stranger, blithely replies "Selling? I'll pay him." Even when the misunderstanding is clarified, he still isn't particularly bothered that a complete stranger (to him) wants to propose to his daughter completely out of the blue.
  • Subverted in The Wackness. It looks as if Squarez is rearing to rip Luke a new one when he finds out that he and his stepdaughter Stephanie are dating; however, it's actually Luke that he's worried about, warning him that Stephanie is likely to dump him once her friends return from vacation. Considering the fact that he's Luke's friend, therapist, and that Luke hinted at considering suicide, it's not as strange as it seems.
  • Lancelot in Monty Python and the Holy Grail "rescuing" Galahad from the "clutches" of the girls of Castle Anthrax. Though the fact that Galahad was Lancelot's son was never mentioned in the film, it can be assumed that he was intended to be (as in the source material) as the Pythons knew their Arthuriana.
  • Nathan Wallace in Repo the Genetic Opera takes this to some scary extremes with his daughter, Shilo. When the story begins, she's been locked in her bedroom for 17 years. It seems like he has good reason for this, as she has a rare blood disease. Until it turns out that she doesn't, and he was actually poisoning her so he could keep her with him and away from the outside world.
  • Troll 2: "If my father knew you were here, he'd cut off your little nuts and eat them. He can't stand you."
  • In Bad Boys II, Marcus' daughter is being picked up at her home by her boyfriend Reggie. Despite specific instructions from his wife to not go into the overprotective "Her daddy is a policeman, so watch out!" routine, he immediately proceeds to lay down the law punctuated with threats of violence. (Language warning.) The scene then Crosses the Line Twice when his partner Mike pretends to be a family friend who just got out of prison, and chimes in with his own outright psychotic threats, including pointing a gun at Reggie's face and then pretending he will rape him if Reggie exceeds the dating boundaries:

Mike Lowery: You ever made love to a man?
Reggie: (horrified) No.
Mike Lowery: You want to?
Reggie: (almost crying) No sir...

  • In the 2008 Liam Neeson film Taken, Neeson's character Bryan Mills comes across as this at first, with the rules he tries to impose for his daughter's safety. She's annoyed by them and thinks he's too strict, as does his ex-wife. Shortly after, he is proven right when he has to storm his way through the Paris Underworld to try and save his daughter from sex-traders. Mills, an ex-CIA agent, fights off thugs left and right with mostly hand-to-hand combat and even ties one of the unfortunate traders to a chair, sticks a long nail into each leg, hooks a jumper cable to each leg nail and to the house's wiring, and shocks him so he reveals who he and his group sold his daughter to. After the interrogation, he leaves him in the chair, to have volts and volts of electricity flow through his body until "it is shut off for not paying the bill." Mills did say that he would kill him after finding him, and kill him he did!
  • Although he does warm up to his daughter's boyfriend by the end of the movie, Beldar from Coneheads can be quite the Overprotective Dad too, in his own peculiar way (backed up by Super Strength):

(Beldar tears open the roof to Ronnie's car)
Ronnie: H-hi, Mr. Conehead.
Beldar: I find you unacceptable!
Ronnie: Yes, sir.
Beldar: If I did not fear incarceration from human authority figures, I would terminate your life functions by applying sufficient pressure to your blunt skull so as to force its collapse!
Ronnie: Th-thank you.

  • College Road Trip. Giving a nice greeting to a male study partner of the protagonist's daughter seems to cause him physical pain.
  • There's a Lifetime Movie of the Week that features Robert Urich as an overprotective father who takes it to the extreme. He kills his daughters' husbands for the life insurance money. Gwyneth Paltrow plays one of the daughters.
  • Clueless has the dad drop this little hint to a guy taking his daughter out:

"Anything happens to my daughter, I've got a .45 and a shovel. I doubt anybody would miss you."

  • In the Rom Com New in Town, Harry Connick Jr. plays one, especially when his little girl is going to her first dance.

"Just remember: anything you do to her, I do to you." (insert menacing glare)

  • The Sound of Music: Captain Von Trapp was this towards his eldest daughter Liesl when he suspected she was seeing a German boy, Rolf. However, he was right about the matter when Rolf became a Nazi and threatened to turn the whole family in. The Captain tries to talk him out of it and fails, so they have to leave the country.. However, Rolf may very well have done so because of the Captain's former treatment, and couldn't find it in himself to forgive the old man.
  • In the Ice Cube film The Players Club, Blue, the local DJ at the stripper club the protagonist, Diana, works at comes to pick her up for a date. While he waiting for her to get ready, he meets her dad who just happens to be practicing his marksmanship with a gun. As you can imagine, the scene is far from comfortable to Blue.
  • The father from Critters is a low-key example, glaring at her daughter's new boyfriend all through dinner and dismissing his flashy sports car as a "fancy toy". Also a severe case of fatherly denial, as he's floored when his wife reassures him she'd told their daughter the facts of life "years ago"... this, while said daughter is busily making out with her date in the barn.
  • In Disney's My Date with the Presidents Daughter, when Duncan is about to take the titular girl out (he had no idea who she was when he asked her out), her father comes in and tells him to have her back by 10 PM. He even threatens to institute the draft if anything happens to his daughter (of course, if Duncan knew anything about how US government works, he'd know the President doesn't have that power). He also sends two Secret Service agents with them. At the end of the film, he seems to have mellowed a little and even shows up at Duncan's school to tell him he's ok with them dating and has accepted that his daughter is just a regular teenager. Then, when Duncan takes Hallie out again, the camera pulls back to reveal their car flanked by four Secret Service vehicles with a helicopter providing aerial support.
  • John McClane in Live Free or Die Hard is this, even though his daughter is well in her 20s and doesn't want anything to do with him.

Literature

  • Gender Flipped example in Jo's Boys, the third sequel to Little Women: Daisy's father John Brooke died when she was 10, so her mother Meg has to play the overprotective mother who doesn't believe Nat is good enough for her daughter.
  • In To Kill a Mockingbird, the description of Finch's Landing mentions that its original owner designed the upstairs so that the son's bedroom would be accessible by one staircase, and the daughters' bedrooms only by another... which took you directly through the parents' room.
  • Savagely deconstructed in the Vorkosigan Saga series. Sergeant Bothari is crazily overprotective of his daughter Elena and gets violent in The Warrior's Apprentice when a guy tries to start a relationship with her. It's typical of this trope for the dad to be overprotective because he knows All Men Are Perverts. Well, in Bothari's case, he is a former rapist and she herself is the product of him raping a prisoner-of-war. After Elena finds this out, she is utterly disgusted by him.
  • Done very darkly with Beverley Marsh's dad in Stephen King's IT. He beats her up whenever she does something odd (commenting that he worries about her A LOT) and when he finds out that she's been spending time with the rest of the Loser's Club, he demands that she take off her pants so he can check her barrier. Thankfully she gets away, but wow.
  • Percy Jackson and The Olympians: Gender flipped, but Athena does not approve of the son of the guy she hates being around her daughter.
  • Jean Valjean in Les Misérables, even though he isn't Cosette's real father. At first this is partly from self-preservation, as he believes Marius (who has been exchanging glances with Cosette) is an agent of the police, but once he finds out that they have been secretly meeting he wishes Marius dead.
  • A mild version in those parts of Legacy of the Force written by Aaron Allston. Wedge Antilles has two daughters. He insisted on having them carry two blasters when they were going out, and despaired when he found that one of them was dating another pilot, and due to the mission and secrecy he couldn't talk to her.
  • Captain Gordon, Defender of Earth! becomes this when he and Jennifer have a daughter named Jane in the Disgaea novels. The most noteworthy proof of this is that he absolutely does not approve of Jane’s romantic feelings for Laharl, even though he should know that Laharl would never hurt her and is not interested in a romantic relationship to begin with.
  • The Dresden Files: Harry Dresden. When his daughter is kidnapped in "Changes", although it wasn't his original plan, he wipes out an entire RACE OF VAMPIRES WITH THE SPELL THEY WERE PLANNING ON USING HER FOR.
  • Washington Square brutally subverts this—while the way Catherine's father treats her paramour Morris comes off as him wanting to protect his little girl from a man who's not up to snuff, in reality he only wants to protect his money from a prospective Gold Digger.
  • A Rose for Emily paints the image of Emily in the background, and her father at the door with her back to her, bullwhip in hand. It is implied this is why she never got engaged.

Live-Action TV

  • Elliot Stabler of Law and Order Special Victims Unit: His growing obsession over his oldest daughters' sex lives eventually contributed to the destruction of his marriage. The only thing he had to say for himself was, "I Did What I Had to Do."
  • Danny Tanner of Full House, specially in regards to DJ.
  • The Fresh Prince of Bel Air
    • Philip Banks with Ashley. He could be that way with Hilary as well such as the episode when she was going to pose for Playboy. Though he was never as protective with her as he was with Ashley.
    • Will was also pretty protective of Ashley, to the point of throwing a fit when he sees her kissing boys.
    • Will meets one such dad of a girl he was currently dating. The dad however happens to be a pilot and tricks Will into a plane ride where he uses his flying skills to try and scare Will away from his daughter. It doesn't get much better when the plane stalls, they have to bail out and end up stuck alone in the forest together.
    • And another during the show's first season, who doesn't think ANYONE is good enough for his little girl, to the point where no one even bothers to ask her out because they know her dad will say "no".
  • Cain Dingle in Emmerdale has gotten violent on several occasions when he thinks someone is trying to take advantage of his little girl
  • Joel Nash and Rhyss Sutherland in Home and Away.
  • Tommy Harris in Coronation Street.
  • iCarly: As Carly's legal guardian Spencer can do this a few times, like in iDate a Bad Boy. Spencer generally averts the trope though, trusting Carly to make good decisions about her movements and activities.
  • John Ritter's 8 Simple Rules was also based on this concept, particularly a very funny list from such a father. The full title, of course, was Eight Simple Rules for Dating my Teenage Daughter.
  • Cleo's father in H₂O: Just Add Water.
  • Mr. Noah Bennet (aka HRG) in Heroes is also an Overprotective Husband. The writers of the show figured they couldn't go without this in Season 2, playing the stock plot almost to the letter. Despite everyone involved knowing there was a damn good reason for caution.
  • Ripley Holden in Blackpool veers into Squick territory over this, describing his daughter as a "wet dream" and trying to threaten and even bribe his daughter's "unsuitable" fiancée to get lost. Made worse by the fact that the man in question is her father's age. Add in the fact that the fiancé gets beaten up by Ripley's gay son because he thought that's what his father wanted and you have a family just MADE of Squick.
  • Played straight with Jed Bartlet for six seasons in The West Wing, particularly toward his youngest daughter Zoey. Often Lampshaded (especially in the sixth season), in which his wife would make fun of him for being a cliché. Fortunately for him, being President of the United States came in very handy for intimidating potential mates.

President Josiah Bartlet: Just remember these two things: she's nineteen years old, and the 82nd Airborne works for me.

    • These fears are kind of justified, as demonstrated by his rant from season 1 outlining how anything happening to Zoey would be the "nightmare scenario" and by her kidnapping in season 4, which causes him to invoke the 25th Amendment and temporarily relinquish power in a way that's very similar to the said rant.
    • In the seventh season, when his middle daughter, Ellie, was getting married to a nerd named Vic (and not a Hollywood Nerd, an actual nerd), he deliberately engineered a situation where Vic would get swarmed by backslapping military brass. The nerd eventually wins over Bartlet, of course.
    • The most hilarious thing, of course, is that eventually, the same actress comes to play a character who hangs around in bars and seduces unsuspecting young men.
  • Roseanne has a classic Overprotective Dad in Dan Conner as played by John Goodman, with an only marginally more rational Overprotective Mom in Roseanne herself.
  • Gene Simmons of Gene Simmons Family Jewels is shown as an overprotective father to his daughter Sophie, since he knows what young guys want from his own past experience. He might as well breathe fire to any guy trying to get close to Sophie. He was even called a hypocrite by one of his friends.
  • Married With Children
    • Subverted: where Peg's father actually approves of Al, so much so that he literally forced Al at gunpoint to marry Peg after Al mistakenly proposed to Peg while drunk and later tried to get out of the marriage.
    • Played straight when Al goes so far as to hurt each and every one of Kelly's boyfriends (and boy, does she have a fair amount). He does that to protect the family's reputation (Kelly's very low standards means that most of the guys she dates truly are scum, and this is one of the very few times when Al actually shows some responsibility as a parent), while he doesn't mind when Bud gets some (but once in a while)...
    • Also subverted with Kelly herself whenever she lands a rich guy, as Al actively supports the relationship and tries to exploit it for his own benefit.
    • And when Bud confides that he has been dating his 40 year old teacher, Al shows up at the school the next day to blast the woman as a "cradle robbing pervert" and bring in two cops to arrest her. Unfortunately, the woman was out, so Al just humiliated the completely innocent elderly substitute, but overall, kudos to Al for not buying into Double Standard Rape (Female on Male), even if the woman was "hot" and Bud was "consenting".
  • Parodied with Hermes Pinzan in Yo Soy Betty La Fea, who follows the trope to a T, but the daughter he protects so obsessively is such a ugly, nerdy and wholesome woman that he shouldn't have any reason for worry... Or has he?
  • In the "Explorer" episode of Another Case of Milton Jones, Annette, daughter of camping tycoon Mr Millet, complains of having an overbearing dad.

Milton: And my heart went out to her, as she sat there in her cycle helmet and bubblewrap dress.

Millet forces Milton to row across the Pacific (as Product Placement) before he will let Milton marry his daughter, but reneges on this promise and locks her up in a fortress.
  • Eureka's Sheriff Jack Carter is a prime example. He's supposed to be a likeable protagonist, but when he interacts with his daughter... scary. Scary as in "she will need psychological help someday soon" scary. At the end of one episode, he handcuffed her to keep her from talking to a boy. And it was played for laughs... Hmmm. Considering how she's implied to have acted before coming to him, that's a fairly understandable level of caution. Besides, he gets much better about that whole thing later on as she gets a bit older and more mature. At one point, we think the APB he's been given is about the Mystery of the Week as he rushes off... to confront his fifteen-year-old daughter who is wanted on charges of credit card fraud to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars. All through the first season it was played with, as his being protecting her from the law (he is in the business of "law enforcement" after all). After that he started to relax as she became more comfortable and began to fit into the town. To the point that he has not voiced any problems with Zoey and her boyfriend going to colleges in the same city on the other side of the country from Eureka. When he walks in on them being... intimate, his only reaction is "now my day is complete" and then turns to work on the issue of the week. At the end of the episode it is commented on his self-restraint not making any threats while they are making out in public.
  • Played humorously on That '70s Show when Red decides to "convince" Kelso not to date his daughter Laurie. Hilarity Ensues.
  • Ben with Alex on Lost, though for good reason, as women who become pregnant on the Island invariably die. Still, locking the kid in a cage and then brainwashing him A Clockwork Orange-style was a bit extreme. It's even reinforced in a parallel dimension in the final season, Ben gives up dreams of school-wide domination for Alex's benefit. What a twist!
  • Pushing Daisies gives us Chuck's father Charles Charles, when he gets resurrected.
  • Subverted in True Blood when the vampire Bill Compton threatens to throw the mortal Hoyt Fortenberry through a closed window when Bill discovers Hoyt and Jessica, who is Bill's progeny (or is it his ward?), making out in his living room. Bill's physical threats were intended to protect Hoyt in case Jessica's love lust turned to blood lust.
  • Alias: Facing off with Jack Bristow is bad enough when you think he's just a very tall, broad-shouldered, poker-faced airplane parts manufacturing executive/bank manager/large glowery person who seems to know everything you get up to. Telling him you want to date Sydney when you know he's a Xanatos Speed Chess-playing double agent who keeps multiple caches of weapons around is the really fun part.
  • Richard Castle whenever he runs across a case that hurts teenage girls... Alexis may be the most responsible one in the family, but there's no denying that he loves his daughter dearly. Though the standard scene where the father intimidates his daughter's date is defied when she goes out with Owen, as she insists that he gets rid of the fake severed head and bloodstained coat, and is ready to leave immediately.
  • CSI: Miami: In an episode that was otherwise a homage to The Hangover, the bride's dad really disapproved of the groom and at the first sign that he had hurt her (emotionally, by going to a strip club after swearing he wouldn't) he bribed a stripper to bring him out back, hogtied him and left him to die at sea in a tiny inflatable raft.
  • CSI: NY: Lucy's still a baby, but Danny's already saying boys won't get close enough to get her pregnant.
  • Rob Fitch (Katie and Emily's dad) in Skins.

Rob: They're not still virgins tomorrow, I'll hunt you down like dogs.

It doesn't help that these girls are nowhere near virgins already.
  • The father of Eddie's girlfriend Greta in the later seasons of Family Matters, to the point where he stops paying her college tuition when she won't break up with Eddie.
  • In Flashpoint, the father in "Jumping at Shadows" had a really good case for being Properly Paranoid since his daughter and family were under Witness Protection and the people gunning for his daughter managed to find them after bribing the police.
  • The first rule of Lie to Me is that you don't mess with Cal Lightman's daughter. Ever. As people that make that mistake find out, he'll only begin with punching you in the face.
  • In Chuck Casey instantly becomes this on meeting his college-aged daughter. Possibly he feels he's missed out on years of overprotectiveness.
  • Even though he was only a one-shot character, the father of Jerry's Girl of the Week from "The Raincoats" episodes of Seinfeld is a good example. If you're still grounding your daughter and preventing her from seeing her boyfriend when she's old enough to rent an apartment (or at least a car), then I think it's safe to say that it's moved outside being a "tough but fair" approach to parenting and into the realm of control freakish-ness. Jack Byrnes didn't tell us he had family there.
  • An episode of Power Rangers Time Force had Ransik turn into this because his daughter Nadira fell for Blue Ranger Lucas. However, rather than threatening him, Ransik interrupts a fight with the Monster of the Week to help out, dusting off the young man's uniform, handing him some flowers to give Nadira, and then chewing out the MOTW for nearly ruining his daughter's date.
  • Proving that Even Evil Has Loved Ones, Gul Dukat from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine tends to overreact quite spectacularly to his daughter Ziyal's feelings for Garak. Roughing the tailor up in the middle of Quark's for holding Ziyal's hand before embarking on a dangerous mission comes to mind. Pretty dangerous, given Garak's past.
  • In a case of What Could Have Been, an episode was planned for Star Trek: The Original Series in which Kirk would have courted Dr. McCoy's daughter. The storyline would have involved McCoy being torn between his friendship with Kirk and his desire to protect his daughter.
  • In Community episode "Basic Genealogy", Pierce is shown to be this of his adult ex-step-children.
  • Turk in Scrubs has an infant daughter but already plans to be this. He claims he won't tell his daughter that she has a vagina until she's 18. On the other hand, he's eager to get Izzie married to JD's son Sam.
  • George in The George Lopez Show. He tries to scare almost all of her boyfriends away, and succeeded with all but two of them.
  • Frasier Crane's mother Hester is a gender-swapped version—in Cheers she threatens to kill Diane if she doesn't stop dating her son ("I've got a gun and I'm not afraid to use it!"), and later tries to bribe Sam into stealing Diane back from Frasier.
  • The River gives us Emilio, who won't even let his teenage daughter be alone with a guy. Of course, he ends up being right, but not for the reason he thinks.
  • Angela's dad on Bones. He's scared Hodgins plenty of times and knocked him out, then tattooed him and dumped him in the desert twice.
  • In Dinosaurs, Sinclair's evil boss B.P. Richfield takes this way too far - he actually ate four of his daughter's boyfriends. He claims he only wanted to talk to the first one, but he lost his temper, and "after that it was like eating peanuts".

Music

  • Tom Wilson (best known as Biff in the Back to The Future series) has a song called "She's my Daughter," which fits this trope like a glove.
  • This is the entire point of the Rodney Atkins song, "Cleaning this Gun (Come On in Boy)", in which the father greets his daughter's new boyfriend while, well, you probably guessed it. The listener hears no threats at all and is led to believe that the speech giver is giving a tame "overprotective dad speech". That is, until the second half of the speech (She deserves respect/ That's what she'll get/ Now ain't it, son/ Y'all run along and have some fun/ And I'll see you when you get back probably be up all night/ Still cleaning this gun.) The implication being that he was holding the gun through the duration of the speech. The song concludes with the father telling the very scared boy to have her back by ten, and the boy yielding an earlier nine thirty.
    • Note that this song is very much Truth in Television in Texas. One in five Texas dads greets their daughters' boyfriends while polishing guns, big ass knives, or other weapons.
    • Reminiscent of an episode of CHiPs, in which the captain's adult daughter complained about her father's habit of doing this when she lived at home.
  • Cat Stevens' "Father and Son" is an argument between the titular characters (it's not clear whether the latter is a late adolescent or a young adult, though he's probably the second of these); the son is hell-bent on leaving home for some unstated reason (though paternal overprotectiveness is implied to be part of it), the father is equally determined to make him stay.
  • From the list of comedic rock songs about how much the singer's girlfriend's parents are annoyingly overprotective twits: Frank Zappa's "My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama" (and burn your dad!) and Queen's "Tie Your Mother Down" (and take your little brother swimming with a brick—that's alright!).
  • José Luis Perales' song "¿Y cómo es él?" (and how is he?) talks about how an Overprotective Father is basically asking to his daughter about her recent boyfriend, and how He is a thief, because he stoled everything from me.
  • The Taylor Swift song "Love Story" has a father forbidding his daughter from seeing a boy she's in love with. The song has a Happy Ending, with the boy winning over the father and marrying the girl.
  • From Dierks Bentley's "What Was I Thinking", "She snuck out one night an' met me by the front gate / Her Daddy came out a-wavin' that 12-guage / We tore out the drive, he peppered my tailgate. / What was I thinkin'?"

Oral mTradition, folklore, Myth and Legend

  • This is Older Than Dirt: In the face of prophecies about superpowerful grandsons, the grandfathers of many ancient heroes, like Perseus and Gilgamesh, weren't above locking their daughters in an Evil Tower of Ominousness to prevent them from getting pregnant. Unfortunately, towers are only protection against human men; no tower is horny god-proof. You Can't Fight Fate.
  • Also used in several Christian martyrologies, where several martyr girls are locked away by their fathers since daddies don't want them to become Christians (which equals to them being traitors to the Empire), and often they kill their girls or turn them to authorities when they defy their orders. Examples: Saint Barbara and Saint Christina. Inverted in the same place with a number of fathers that sold their daughters into forced marriage when said daughters were consecrated virgins, and the daughters took death rather than say "I do."
  • Japanese Mythology: Okuninushi fell in love with Suseri-hime, daughter of storm god Susanoo. Susanoo wasn't too happy about that. First Susanoo tried to kill Okuninushi by having him sleep in a room full of snakes. When that failed, he sent Okuninushi into a room of centipedes and wasps. After another failure, Susanoo then shot an arrow into the middle of an enormous meadow, told Okuninushi to retrieve it, and proceeded to burn the field with Okuninushi in it. However, he actually ended up approving of the couple since Okuninushi managed to survive all of that.

Theatre

  • Judge Turpin in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a Squick-inducing adoptive father who proves Freud right. Of course, Johanna's real father isn't someone she'd be happy to call Dad, either.
  • In Street Scene, Mr. Maurrant, who likes to vent his reactionary attitudes towards modern society, tries to exert hostile control over the lives of his wife and daughter, insisting that they shouldn't be staying out at night no matter what the reason. When he catches his wife Cheating with the Milkman, he shoots them both to death.
  • Chagal in Tanz der Vampire literally nails the door to his daughter Sarah's room shut while soliloquizing about how his own lusty nature has convinced him that any man, given the opportunity, would steal her away from him.
  • Prospero in The Tempest. Not content with taking control of Ferdinand's body and forcing him to do manual labour before he's allowed to woo Miranda, once they are engaged Prospero gives Ferdinand a very hefty lecture about how he's not allowed to sleep with her before marriage. Which he also mentions on a couple of other occasions. And summons a whole load of spirits to act, sing and dance a big masque, the message of which is also that Ferdinand isn't allowed to sleep with Miranda before marriage.
  • Grandpa in the opera The Tender Land.

Theme Parks

  • At Disney Theme Parks, The Phantom from The Phantom Manor. After finding out his daughter's getting married, he attempts to stop the wedding at all costs. After dying in an earthquake, he still comes back from beyond the grave to kill his would be son-in-law.

Video Games

  • Disgaea: Overlord Zenon raised his daughter Rozalin in an isolated mansion with hundreds of servants catering to her every whim. Rozalin actually liked it, at least until the plot happened. Then it's brutally subverted and deconstructed when it turns out Zenon's doing this for vengence, not love. Rozalin's the reincarnation of his greatest enemy, the original Overlord Zenon. Zenon's idea of a perfect revenge was to turn the once mighty Overlord into a weak, helpless little girl completely dependent and loyal to him. The manga does imply that he came to care for her, though.
  • In Final Fantasy XIII, Lightning serves essentially as this with her attitude toward Snow and Serah's engagement, despite being Serah's older sister rather than her dad. Their parents died a long time ago and Lightning raised Serah, though, so it fits in that regard.
  • Throughout Shadow Hearts: From the New World, Johnny interacts with the Ring Soul, a glowing ball of light with the personality of a young girl. After a while, she starts to get a crush on him. The next time you speak to it after this becomes obvious, Johnny is rather surprised when the Ring Soul starts yelling at him to stay away from his daughter... (Fans of the series will recognize the latter as the Ring Soul from the previous game, Covenant. They will also realize this means the Ring Soul you usually talk to is no more than ten years old.)
  • Bianca's father in Pokémon Black and White, but around Pokémon rather than dating. He eventually comes round to the idea, though.
  • A sidequest in Baldurs Gate 2 deals with one of these. The Overprotective Dad in this case is a Cowled Wizard who has forbidden his daughter from marrying her boyfriend since he doesn't think the young man is up to the task of protecting her. He has been building a Golem that he thinks will be a better guardian and asks you to obtain the last ingredient he needs to complete it. After you deliver it to him, the golem predictably goes out of control and nearly kills the wizard and his daughter. After you save the wizard's sorry behind, the boyfriend rushes in to see if the daughter is safe. Seeing the boyfriend's devotion to his daughter and realizing that his own controlling nature nearly killed her, the wizard gives the young couple his blessings for their marriage.
  • City of Heroes: The Clockwork King isn't Penelope Yin's real father, but he seems to think he is:

"Don't worry, Penny! I'm here to protect you!
 I'll keep you safe from everything!
Safe from villains, from Rikti, from heroes, from boys...
You'll be my little Clockwork Princess, safe and happy forever!"

Web Animation

  • Manolios Ugly One in Teen Girl Squad. "You lay one finger on my daughter, I gut you like sheep." He actually DOES gut the unfortunate guy like sheep.

Web Comics

Web Original

Western Animation

  • The Simpsons
    • Mr. Stanky from the episode "Bart's Friends Falls in Love" is Samantha Stanky's strict and overprotective father. After Bart calls him on the phone with new concerning Samantha, Mr. Stanky shows up to the Simpson residence and immediately goes up Bart's treehouse. Shock to see Milhouse and Samantha together, he let's out a prolonged "Noooooooooooooo!" that is powerful enough to make birds flee from the tree. Mr. Stanky then snatches her out of the tree and nervously asks her what happened. Before Samantha can even fully explain, he yells at her. As Mr. Stanky carries her off on his back, he tells her that she will be put in an all-girl school and that she will never see Milhouse again. After Milhouse and Samantha cry out for each other, Mr. Stanky puts her in the car, slams the door, and bitterly drives off, leaving Milhouse heart-broken.

Mr. Stanky: (To Samantha Stanky) I'm putting you in an all-girl school! You're never gonna see that boy again!

Oscar: (to Penny) No dating, until after you're married.

  • The second Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series includes a gender reversed example in Casey Jones' mother, who, upon first meeting April, subjects her to an increasingly aggravating series of chores, all while being rude and bossy to her. When an exasperated April finally completes the tasks, Mrs. Jones becomes much nicer, even inviting April to call her "Mom", implying that the whole thing was a Secret Test of Character to see if April's devotion to Casey was strong enough that she'd be willing to go through anything for him.
  • Lao Bei Fong of Avatar: The Last Airbender was extremely protective of his daughter because she was blind, and even kept her existence a secret. When he finds out she wasn't learning just basic earthbending but was instead amazingly proficient, he decides she's had too much freedom and must be monitored around the clock. When she runs away he sends two people after her, one of which had just kidnapped her hours ago.
  • Family Guy
    • Carter Pewterschmidt just can't let it go. Despite decades of happiness Lois has experienced with Peter, he has and still tries to smash his skull in occasionally.
    • Peter's usually neglectful or abusive with Meg, but in one episode, after she ended up in a hospital, he became overprotective. Also when Quagmire tries to seduce Meg, he freaks out.
    • Played for laughs in one episode's off-joke where Ronald McDonald, of all people, tells his normal-looking teenage daughter to go wash off the excessive makeup.
    • Cleveland can be this. Most fans interpret his use of the word "careful" towards Peter as, "Don't even think about it, bub".
  • Kim Possible: Kim's father seems more concerned about the idea of his daughter dating boys than risking her life fighting supervillains. In the first movie, he's glad Kim's trapped in the timestream and not "messing around with boys", and his version of The Talk in "Emotion Sickness" is a threat to stick Ron on a deep space probe if he tries anything. It seems to be lessening in season four—after all, her boyfriend is... the safest guy on the planet.
  • Subverted on SpongeBob SquarePants, when SpongeBob agrees to chaperon Mr. Krabs' daughter to the prom. When he's dropping her off, Krabs runs out the door screaming "GET AWAY FROM ME PRECIOUS FLOWER!!!"... which turns out to be an actual flower that SpongeBob was in danger of stepping on. Also another episode has Krabs worried sick that boys will show up to his daughter's sleepover, though his overriding concern isn't anything the boys would do to Pearl, but the thought that boys would destroy any of his property and beloved possessions. It should also be noted that in the prom episode, Mr. Krabs totally subverts the trope by telling Pearl not to mess SpongeBob up too much. (because he needs him for work)
  • The father of one-off love interest Angela D'Angelo in My Dad the Rock Star is both completely neurotic and extremely overprotective. He's so overprotective that no-one has ever dated his daughter because every boy who ever tried got scared away during the "pre-date"... interrogation. Willy, the main character, fares no better in trying to woo Angela. Even when Angela decided to defy her father's decision, his response was to move the entire family out of town just to make sure he kept his daughter "protected." Appropriately enough, his wife is also an equally extreme example of a Beloved Smother.
  • On The Fairly OddParents, Big Daddy, Wanda's father, embodies this trope so well that he nearly got Wanda to leave Cosmo and Timmy in his first apperance. Unsuprisingly, he ends up hooking up with Mama Cosma.
  • Chief Emiliano Suarez, Frida Suarez's father, from El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera.
  • Rocko's Modern Life: "Let me tell you something; you lay ONE PAW ON MY DAUGHTER AND YOU'LL BECOME MY PERSONAL TOOTHPICK, YOU HEAR ME!"
  • In Batman: The Brave And The Bold episode "The Golden Age of Justice", the entire Justice Society treats Black Canary as if she were made of glass and will tell her to wait back while they do all the hard work—despite the fact that she's a competent crimefighter in her own right, as well as half their age. Eventually she learns from Wildcat that their over-protectiveness stems from a promise made to Dinah's mother, the first Black Canary, as she died in the middle of a rescue mission. Not to mention, they treat Batman kind of the same way, but not quite as severe.
  • Amusingly subverted in The Legend of Zelda cartoon. The king catches Link about to swing into Zelda's room for a kiss and tells him not to... until he has flowers, because "girls are crazy about flowers."
  • An episode of King of the Hill dealt with an extremely overprotective dad who treated all of his children this way, including his twin boys, who were Bobby's age. He treated them (and the rest of the boy scouts) like babies just because one had ADHD and the other was hyperglycemic. To the point he kicked Bobby out of the scouts simply because he was playing a fighting game, considering him a bad influence.
  • In the DVD Commentary for the Phineas and Ferb episode "The Chronicles of Meap", Dr. Doofenshmirtz states that he doesn't trust Ferb and disapproves of his crush on Vanessa when it comes up during the episode. When a biker hits on Vanessa, Dr. Doofenshmirtz sends him to another dimension.
  • Paulina's father in Danny Phantom. He threatens Danny within seconds of meeting him ("If you upset her, we're going to have a violent talk.") and then tells him he knows where Danny lives just before they leave for the school dance.
  • Played hideously straight in Camp Lazlo. "Valentines Day" reveals that Commander Hoo-Haw is Patsy's father. All hell breaks loose when he finds the Valentine Patsy intended to send, and when Patsy refuses to name its recipient (Lazlo), he orders her to beat up every scout she DOESN'T love so he can punish the one she does. When she beats up everyone and claims the valentine was for him instead, Hoo-Haw's delight is... disturbing.
  • In The Venture Brothers. Dr. Orpheus is shown to be very overprotected of his only daughter Triana. Where when Pete White tried to flirt with her at the Xmas Party (complete with mistletoe headband) he caused the mistletoe to burst into flames while giving Pete the Death Glare.

Triana Orpheus: Dad, I can take care of myself, you know.
Byron Orpheus: I'm sorry, pumpkin. I trust you to defend your honor. It's just that... MY PUMPKIN'S MAIDENHEAD IS NOT A PRIZE TO BE...
Triana Orpheus: DAD!

Real Life

  • Like The West Wing example above, the real President backs his words of warning for the The Jonas Brothers with the weight of being Commander-In-Chief of the US armed forces:

Barack Obama: Sasha and Malia are huge fans, but boys, don't get any ideas. Two words for you: Predator drones. You will never see it coming.

  • Nikki Sixx said in a Howard Stern interview that when he saw his 13-year-old daugher dressed to go on a date he told her:

"Not till you're 35. Get back upstairs, you're grounded!"

  • Eminem said he dreads his daughter Hayley dating and that he's going to "kill boys".
  • Bruce Willis told Jonathon Ross that he will tell his daughter's dates that they better bring her back "in the same state" she left because "you're a young guy and I'd hate to have to kill you."
  • Terrence Howard threatened to kill his daughter's boyfriend and told interviewers he would take her away where there are no phones.
  • Snoop Dogg also said his daughter can't have any boyfriends until she's 25.
  • Hulk Hogan gave his daughter's date a polygraph.
  • Jenna Jameson's father used to answer the door to her dates in his cop uniform. That worked well.
  • Cybill Shepard's father used to nail planks to her window to prevent her from sneaking out at night when she was a teenager.
  • Some people feel that the abstinence pledge for girls comes down to a statement by the fathers involved that says, "I will not let you have boyfriends until you're married."
  • This trope becomes a Subverted Trope to a degree in the United Kingdom; fathers can be more overprotective of their sons these days. Ironically, the "If you ever do anything to hurt her..." speech is virtually a Dead Horse Trope in Britain; now invectives are aimed at the son's partner about this.
  • Meat Loaf once met one of his daughter Pearl's dates with a baseball bat "casually" in hand and told the young man what he would do with said bat if anything happened to his daughter. They came home early.
  • Bill Engvall: "Boy, look at me. You see that little girl right there? She's my only little girl, man. She's my life. So if you have any thoughts about hugging, or kissing, you remember these words: I ain't afraid to go back to prison."
  • Oddly subverted by Charlemagne: although he refused to dine unless all of his available children (he accepted that sometimes, his sons would be out on kingdom business) were at the table with him and forbade all but one of his daughters from marrying, he also was more than happy to let his daughters have children out of wedlock with various courtiers.
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