Arbitrary Skepticism: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

{{quote|'''Wash:''' Psychic, though? That sounds like something out of science fiction.

'''Wash:''' ... So?|''[[Firefly]]'', "Objects in Space"}}

 

 

 

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?"

* ''[[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.

* ''[[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.

* ''[[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.

* ''[[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).

* ''[[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."

 

== Comic Books ==

** 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.]]

*** 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.

* ''[[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 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.

{{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.

* 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]].

* 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]]...)''}}

** 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 ''[[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.

 

** 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.

* ''[[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.

{{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.

** 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|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.}}

* 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.

** 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]].

** 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.

** 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.

** 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.

'''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.

* ''[[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]].

** 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]]''

** 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?"

* 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.

* ''[[The Librarians|The Librarians (US TV Show)]]'' lampshades it:

{{quote|'''Jenkins:''' There are no such thing as UFOs.

 

== Music ==

 

== Theater ==

 

 

 

== Visual Novels ==

{{quote|'''Edgeworth:''' And here I just finished saying that I don't believe in spiritual power...}}

 

** 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."

{{quote|'''Antimony:''' We have seen stranger. Remember that cursed teapot?

'''Kat:''' Yeahhhhh... But that was... I don't even '''know''' what '''that''' was about... }}

* ''[[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]].

* 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.

* ''[[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.

* 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.

** 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.}}

** 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.}}

* [[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.

** 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.

** [[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.

** 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..."

* ''[[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.

** 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.]]

** 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?

** 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.

* 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).