Skepticism Failure: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
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{{quote|''"In movies and TV series about the paranormal, the stereotypical "skeptic" figure always seems to convert into a believer by the end. And why does this occur? Well, because in ''fiction'', the author can control the laws of nature, and in these fictional narratives (which show an abundant lack of creativity), the supernatural always turns out to be ''real''."''
|'''Chris Mooney''', [http://scienceblogs.com/intersection/2007/06/hollywoods_offensive_and_deepl.php 'Hollywood's Offensive and Deeply Unoriginal "Skeptic Conversion" Narrative']}}
The paranormal has a way of creeping into TV shows, even those which don't have a paranormal premise. In real life, being neither skeptical nor a believer of various paranormal forces is the default, and a better option than either dogmatic belief or [[Arbitrary Skepticism|dogmatic skepticism]]. On TV, characters are far less likely to express any doubt, and those who are skeptical are often treated as naive or ignorant, and the plot will go out of its way to prove them wrong.
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Contrast with [[Invisible to Normals]] and [[Weirdness Censor]] in which an alien, a robot and a werewolf can be having a fight in right front of someone's nose and still be ignored or dismissed.
{{examples}}
== Played Straight ==
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* Kyon in ''[[Haruhi Suzumiya]]'' experienced this trope when he realizes that aliens, espers, and [[Time Travel|time-travellers]] exist. He now regularly spends much of his time in damage control to make sure ''more'' of this weirdness doesn't manifest—i.e. [[Defied Trope|he tries to prevent Skepticism Failure]] in the local unconscious [[Reality Warper]], Haruhi in case she ends up destroying the world accidentally.
* Seto Kaiba from ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' is a shining example of a disbeliever to the point of seeing the past, his ancestor, and still brushing it off as fake.
** Well, mostly in the dub version. He's more open-minded about it in the original version. He just doesn't see magic or Duel Spirits as any more of a threat than problems he's already overcome.
* ''[[This Ugly Yet Beautiful World]]'': Everybody is surprisingly easily convinced that Hikari and Akari are aliens. Also, nobody bats an eyelid when Hikari's servant, a [[Ridiculously Human Robot]], shows up.
* An episode of ''[[
** One episode, Watanuki nearly got killed because he cut his toe nails at night.
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* ''[[CSI]]'': the episode "Stalker" had a man who kept claiming that he was receiving visions related to the crime, and knew stuff that the CSIs hadn't released to the press. By the end of the episode, he's dead, and there's [[Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane|no explanation either way for how he knew what he did]].
** Almost this [[Recycled Script|exact same story]] appears in an episode of ''[[Now and Again]]'', an ill-fated science fiction series from the late 90's about a man who was rebuilt out of spare body parts by the government.
* The early run of the 2000s ''[[Battlestar Galactica
* A major plot point of the second season of ''[[Lost]]'' revolves around characters being convinced to push a button every 108 minutes in order to save the world. Jack vehemently protests the belief that anything will happen if they don't push the button, and the others treat him as if he is being completely irrational. Locke later losing his faith in the button is also treated as a bad thing, even though evidence seems to suggest that the whole thing is a hoax. Now granted it turns out pushing the button was necessary, but there was nothing wrong with disbelieving on the available evidence, which remained true of their situation for the most part, up until the end of season 4 (when ''anything'' was now possible and should probably be believed).
** It's because on Lost's island, there are many things that are crazier than the button. It's a case of [[If Jesus, Then Aliens|If Jesus, Zombies, Bigfoot, Unicorns, Flying Pigs, Tap-Dancing Cutlery And Psychic Hamburgers, Then Aliens.]]
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** For a work to be "realistic" doesn't strictly mean "identical to reality." Most people can easily accept that a universe has FTL travel, or magic, or superheros. ''However,'' accepting characters acting in ways that no human allegedly in possession of a modicum of rationality would, even though the characters ''are supposed to be'' similar to identical in nature to "real" humans, is a whole different issue.
** The works also need to be consistent; if the internal logic of the story is being blatantly broken, it doesn't matter how much magical weirdness it has.
*** For example, we all know that the world of [[The Lord of the Rings]] is pure [[High Fantasy]] and has no basis in reality. However, if Frodo or one of the other characters were suddenly to sprout wings for no explained reason and fly to Mordor, that would still violate the realism of the story.
=== [[Western Animation]] ===
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== Subversions and Aversions ==
=== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ===
* Considering ''[[
** There was an episode where Watanuki presumed that there was a supernatural cause for the problems of a young woman that he helped. He notice that light flashed from her shoulder and he presumed that it was the cause of the problems. When she met Ms. Yuuko, Yuuko explained to him that it's actually purely physiological and the light just reflected from a buckle on her shoulder bag.
* ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]'' loves playing with this trope, with Battler, the main character, representing logic and order and Maria and Beatrice - depending on whether we're on or off the board - representing belief in magic and the inexplicable. Most of the other characters run around in the middle, and shift their orientations throughout the story.
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=== [[Western Animation]] ===
* ''[[Metalocalypse]]'', of course, as [[Skepticism Failure/Quotes|quoted]]. In a later episode, Dethklok one-upped even ''that'' by negotiating the standard [[Deal with the Devil]] contract down to a $5 Hot Topic gift card in exchange for options on the soul of ''the Blues Devil himself''.
* One notable exception to this rule is ''[[Scooby Doo]]''. [[Scooby-Doo Hoax|The skeptical perspective is consistently proven correct]], to the point where one wonders why the gang continues to even entertain the notion of ghosts and monsters. However, this is inverted ([https://web.archive.org/web/20111221170235/http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/06/the_corruption_of_scooby_doo.php disappointing angry skeptics everywhere]) in the ''[[Scooby Doo]]'' movies, both theatrical and [[OAV]], where the monsters are real. Typically in these movies there is also a fake version of the monster that is unmasked before the real one shows up. They [[Lampshade Hanging|Hang A Lampshade On It]] in the first live-action movie, in one scene where Scooby tries to tell Shaggy that his new girlfriend isn't what she appears to be. He says, "Mary Jane is a man in a mask!"
** Also [[Lampshaded]] in the more recent cartoon movies, such as the scene in ''Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island'' where Fred yanks a genuine zombie's head off in an attempt to remove its "mask". When the head moves in his hand and he stammers that it must be animatronic, the girls declare: "You're not a skeptic, Freddy, you're in denial!"
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