Quirky Household

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
That was this family's specialty: strange conversations.
Tomoya to Mei Sunohara, regarding the Furukawa household following a conversation about who Nagisa would allow to check for a nonexistent scar on her butt, Clannad

Now remember, as far as anyone knows, we're a perfectly normal family...

An ensemble of bizarre characters who are related, or might as well be. Unlike the Dysfunctional Family, we as the audience plainly see the family is extremely well adjusted, supportive and loving—more so than some "real" families. They are also easily able to absorb friends, acquaintences, and distant relatives into their structure.

This is coupled with a range of quirks easily labeled "bizarre" by any of their peers.

It's also very convenient for heroes to have these, as they're not bound by the Masquerade, weirdness is normal.

Arguably started with the Oscar-winning play/film, You Can't Take it With You, and The Addams Family on television. Later supplanted by the trend of "realistic" but dysfunctional families (except in Anime), probably as a Deconstruction of the traditional family system.

Arguably part of the natural growth of a Pretty Freeloaders group. For a larger grouping, see Quirky Town.

Examples of Quirky Household include:

Anime and Manga

Comic Books

Film

  • The titular Robinsons from the Disney movie Meet the Robinsons.
  • In Unstrung Heroes: young Steven Lidz' home, to a lesser extent. Especially quirky, however: the labyrinthine apartment (filled with hoarded junk) in which he lives with his eccentric uncles for awhile, after his mother's illness exacerbates the awkwardness of Steven's relationship with his father. Franz—actually Steven, now rechristened by his uncles; It Makes Sense in Context—undergoes an disorienting yet often enjoyable identity crisis. Then, as it turns out, at least one of his uncles is a bit more than merely eccentric. Franz must navigate between his uncles' pride in their heritage (complicated by imagined anti-Semitism lurking everywhere), and his inventor father's 100% materialist (i.e. anti-spiritual) worldview.

Literature

  • The Moomin family, from the childrens' book series by Tove Jansson.
  • Roleplay example—the cafe in Kokoro.
  • The Bagthorpe family in the Bagthorpe Saga.
  • The Cassons of Saffy's Angel and it's sequels.
  • The Weasleys arguably fit this, due to their seven children (nearly all with extremely different personalities), Mama Bear mother, eccentric father, weird pets (hyperactive owl, ancient, infeebled owl, and ghoul), all crammed into a small, ramshackle house and, oh yeah, they're all wizards.
    • If they qualify, then they're normal compared to the Lovegood Household.

Role Playing Games

Television

Theater

Web Comics

Dan: I also liked that reasoning because it gave me the idea for this comic, and I love writing scenes like this. There's a certain madness to the Dunkel household that, in my opinion, makes the Verres household look relatively sane. It's enough that I feel I must now assure you, the audience, that there are no questionable ingredients in Mrs. Dunkel's brownies.

    • To clarify, the Dunkels show almost no concern (compared to most people) when their son randomly changes sex or breaks into a government installation and bringing back a mysterious twin sister. They just give a lecture then offer their kids brownies. It gets really, really weird after a while.
  • The River family from Irregular Elis. A spanish webcomic about a Badass Family of "Superheroes" with a lot of Hanna-Barbera influence.

Web Original

  • Agents of the Protectors of the Plot Continuum tend to come in pairs, and while antagonism between them is sometimes played up for comedic effect, this trope applies almost universally

Western Animation

  • The Planet Express staff from Futurama straddle the border between the Quirky Household and True Companions. In the episode "Future Stock", Fry even says, "We're not a traditional family, like the Johnsons next door or the lesbian coven across the street, but we're still a family!"
  • The boarders in Hey Arnold! are portrayed this way in several of the later episodes.
  • The residents of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.
  • The Oblongs. 'Nuff said.
  • The Chan family, in Jackie Chan Adventures, have a rather strong sense of this, consisting of a twelve year old who can sneak in anywhere with almost ninja-like efficiency (whether she's wanted or not), a grumpy, snarky old witchdoctor, a former sumo wrestler turned villianous Tank, turned Gentle Giant chi wizard in training and a rather stressed out archeologist with a knowledge of martial arts as good as... well, he's Jackie Chan, you do the math.
  • The Flyn-Fletcher Family from Phineas and Ferb. A father whose an expert on random and obscure antiques, a mother who was once a one-hit-wonder, a semi-neurotic teenage girl who likes screaming at cheese, a pet platypus whose secretly a special agent, and two brothers who do everything.