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{{quote|''"Your species has the most amazing capacity for self-deception, matched only by its ingenuity [[In Your Nature to Destroy Yourselves|when trying to destroy itself]]."''|'''The Seventh Doctor''', ''[[Doctor Who]]''}}
In some universes, ignoring the antics of the main characters goes beyond [[Somebody Else's Problem
Sometimes invoked for seriousness, such as an explanation in which exploits go on ignored by most people... but often, this is just ''one'' part of the [[Rule of Funny]]. Magic battles, alien invasions, and all other sorts of supernatural happenings often happen ''right'' in front of people's faces... and yet they merely glance out the window, and go back to their morning coffee, sometimes either not noticing it or just saying some excuse.
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If it's ignored because they're incapable of seeing it, it's [[Invisible to Normals]]. Compare [[Bavarian Fire Drill]], which exploits similar psychological tendencies. Contrast the [[Fisher Kingdom]], where the world itself is the censor. Frequently [[Pink Elephants]] are invoked when the only evidence of the character's having drunk anything is what he claims to have seen that is being dismissed as a hallucination.
One of many things that enables the [[Masquerade]], especially its [[Extra-Strength Masquerade|extra strength variant]], and allows [[Muggles|Muggle]] characters to act like real people despite the extraordinary things that go on in their universe every day. When it's an actual [[Stock Super Powers|power,]] becomes subject to [[You Can See Me?]] And they, in fact, can be seen [[By the Eyes of
This can sometimes lead to [[Artificial Atmospheric Actions]] where NPCs merely treat all sorts of odd stuff as an everyday occurrence.
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== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Ah!
** They ''do'' live in the same town as a technical engineering college. If those people get bored enough, they can disassemble your car and then reassemble it. Inside your living room.
** Amazingly enough, the fire brigade actually turned up in one of the latest manga chapters. They ended up thinking it was a false alarm though, as all the damage had already been fixed with supernatural means.
* ''[[
* The citizens of the [[Dragonball Z]] universe seem to quickly get over the fact that several towns and cities suddenly explode when a [[Monster of the Week]] comes by. In one episode, Nappa is seen destroying a naval fleet sent out to stop him, but after that, the military is never seen retaliating against future villains other than against Perfect Cell.
** Perhaps the most blatant example of this was how the entire world became convinced that Cell was just a monster and chi attacks were just special effects. This despite the fact that not two decades earlier one of those special effects ''blew up the moon on global television''.
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* In ''[[Windy Tales]]'', almost nobody notices the huge amounts of cats that ''fly around'' on air streams, not even when they're cluttered together in a huge ball consisting of dozens of them during a typhoon.
* In ''[[Princess Tutu]]'', the typical townsperson (and the majority of the main cast in the beginning) doesn't question any of the "odder" stuff that goes on in Kinkan, including ballerina-dancing Anteaters (and other anthropomorphic animals). Even visitors to the town are affected--one women wonders if her troupe leader used to be an electric eel before arriving to the town, then quickly brushes it off. Later on in the series, it's revealed that it's because of {{spoiler|the story magically controlling the town and the people inside of it}}. The only people that ever seem to realize something's off with the town are either important to the story, or actively go ''looking'' for something odd in the town.
* Nobody seems to notice their friends strange behavior and obvious paranoia, or at least do anything about it, in the answer arcs of ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro
** {{spoiler|This trope is subverted in Tatarigoroshi-hen, or actually ''any'' arc where they try to save Satoko. In Tataragiroshi-hen in particular, Rena and Mion notice Keiichi's paranoia, unlike Onikakushi-hen, and try to cover his actions up.}}
** And in [[Umineko no Naku Koro
* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' has this is spades early on when it seems like the even with [[Unusually Uninteresting Sight|Unusually Uninteresting Sights]] abound within the [[Elaborate University High|Academy]], no one with the exception of Chisame could care to notice the blatantly odd things surrounding them. It was later revealed that mages keep their [[Masquerade]] protected by spells put in place to heighten people's ability to dis-believe information they intake (they also rely on people's inherent ability to doubt). This naturally makes for interesting situations whenever the very odd is shown.
{{quote| ''[[Muggle]] 1: I see, if it''s a robot, it all makes sense [nod nod].''<br />
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** Although, there are occasions where the fights actually caused damage to nearby structures, which is hardly ever mentioned. The only times it's mentioned is in the first episode, where a Hollow breaks the glass on a nearby building, (only Ichigo can see what did it). Also when Shinji fights Grimmjow, he mentions that their fight is breaking the roofs of houses and asks him to be more careful.
** It's implied by Yumichika that Soul Society actually factors in this sort of damage into their missions- when the battle against Grimmjow's Fraccion seems to be getting more heated than expected, he calls up [[Mission Control]] telling them to set a 'spatial freeze' around the battling shinigami and add repairs to the mission budget.
* ''[[Detective Conan]]''. In order for [[The Masquerade]] to be sustained, there are [[Elephant in
* Used maybe as irony in ''[[Code Geass]]'': "You will disregard any strange events." The geassed people usually reply if they're asked why they're not doing anything about a crisis situation, or even reassure themselves, or warn the watcher that they are geassed with the line "I see nothing out of the ordinary."
* In ''[[Uta Kata]]'' nobody wonders about the tsunami that threatens Kamakura out of the blue, or about the fact that it is deflected by a flying, screaming young girl.
* In the anime version of ''[[Prétear]]'', Shin's spell Beyondios creates a [[Phantom Zone|dimensional zone]] wherein the Leafe Knights can fight Demon Larvae without destroying nearby real estate. Obviously this is impossible to do when Shin isn't around, or when the monsters can't be placed under the shield for whatever reasons -- but they ''still'' manage to stay unnoticed even by the [[Magical Girl|protagonist's]] family, who only become aware that ''something is going on'' when the [[Big Bad]] invades their [[Big Fancy House]]. And ''then'', it takes awhile for them to notice. At least a few episodes. In which they go on a "ghost hunt".
* In ''[[Venus Versus Virus]]'', only a few people can see a Virus. Not only that, the Virus likes to attack people who are able to see it.
* Played with in ''[[Love
* In ''[[Mononoke]]'' almost no one takes notice of the Medicine Seller's [[Facial Markings]], [[Cute Little Fangs]] and [[Pointed Ears]]. Only once does anyone remark upon his unusual clothing. Usually, the most anyone notices about him is that he's very attractive.
* ''[[
* Much of the humor in [[Buso Renkin]] stems from the fact that the author took all the usual components of sci-fi superhero series, reached over to switch labeled "Weirdness Censor" and flipped it to "off." All of this is completely unknown to the main cast (except Tokiko, who lampshades it occasionally) who behave as flamboyantly as possible, fully believing that the Weirdness Censor is in full effect.
* This is often played for laughs in the typically bizarre world of [[One Piece]]. Particularly because the captain of the Strawhat Pirates, who is ''literally'' [[Rubber Man|made of rubber]], and who has recruited a large cast of truly freaky charaters into his crew, finds extremely random things to be weird. For example, he has a talking reindeer as his ship's doctor, but is shocked and baffled to meet a talking bear on another crew.
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* In ''[[The Invisibles]]'', it is revealed that babies are capable of seeing all kinds of strange beings and concepts but lose the ability once they learn [[Newspeak|language]], which makes it impossible for them to express these concepts and thus impossible for them to register them in their heads.
** The same is used in ''[[Mary Poppins]]'' with the twins.
* A running joke in the ''[[
* Up until the "Gang War" storyline several years ago, the writers of DC [[Retcon|retconned]] [[
* ''[[Aztek]]'', for [[DC Comics]], is about a technologically enhanced superhero working in the town of Vanity. Aztek's support group, believing his existence will help save the earth, employ active weirdness censors to help him out. Shouting out his secrets in the halls of his workplace does nothing.
* ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]''
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== Fanfiction ==
* The villain uses a actual device to keep up the [[Masquerade]] at his hideout in ''[[The Man
== Film ==
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* ''[[Transformers]]'' in any number of incarnations sometimes pushes this pretty far. How can people not see the ''giant alien robots''?
** In one early (possibly the earliest) incarnation, a few episodes after the Decepticons became active on Earth it seems the entire planet is put on a war footing, factories pumping out weapons intended to be used in the war against them, complete with old-fashioned propaganda posters.
** The [[Transformers Generation
** [http://www.moviemistakes.com/film5953/corrections Moviemistakes.com], correcting a submission for the [[Transformers Film Series|live-action film]]: "This isn't a movie mistake; the passengers [of a car turned into a Transformer - its steering wheel, at least -] ARE oblivious to the fact that giant robots are destroying their city."
* Mentioned in the background material for the ''[[The Matrix]]'' films. Apparently (it's not well conveyed on-screen) as well as the The Matrix's ability to revert an area and people's memories to remove an incident from history, the leads are supposed to have a "bubble effect" which prevents passers-by ([[NPC|NPCs]], if you will) from noticing them or interacting with them unless they do something dramatic (like stealing their phone).
* The ''[[Ghostbusters]]'' franchise sometimes takes this trope to extreme levels. Despite the Ghostbusters very public defeat of Gozer in the first movie, a judge in the second movie still referred to them as conmen, making one wonder "Did he NOT see the 50 feet tall marshmallow man?" Another example is in the first episode of ''[[
** The spinoff cartoon ''[[The Real Ghostbusters]]'' had averted this trope by portraying the world as largely accepting the existence of the supernatural and the legitimacy of the Ghostbusters after the first movie. This made things awkward when the cartoon writers tried to work ''Ghostbusters 2'''s story, in which the public had initially gone back to treating the Ghostbusters like frauds, into the cartoon timeline. The results were so awkward, in fact, that the effort was quietly dropped after one season.
** ''[[
* In [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[IT]]'', despite the fact that Derry has had far, ''far'' more child deaths, arsons, psychotic breaks, and industrial accidents than is healthy for a small town, no one notices it's out of the ordinary because It does something to the townspeople. It gets to the point where the characters wonder if It has become part of Derry, or if Derry's just always been an extension of It. Given that, in the book at least, {{spoiler|It's destruction is immediately followed by Derry falling apart (literally!)}}, the latter seems more likely.
* In ''[[Shaun of the Dead]]'', Shaun goes a whole day (actually, a whole morning) without noticing the countless zombies wandering London.
** This is actually a big huge lampshade hanging and [[Affectionate Parody]] of z-movies that give hints to the viewer (but not the characters) about the oncoming [[Zombie Apocalypse]]. The "hints" here are made comedically obvious to the viewer, yet the character manages to stay unaware of them through a variety of often [[Genre Savvy]] yet always unintentional means.
* Averted in ''[[
* In the first ''[[Blade]]'', no one even glances at the dude driving the souped-up muscle car, with the funny hair and tats, dressed in a black leather duster with a sword handle sticking out of it. He beats up a uniformed cop on a populated street in broad daylight and no one cares.
** This is inverted in ''Blade 3'', which admittedly had some plot holes, where the vampires use a recording of Blade shooting a human masquerading as a vampire with a stake gun in a public street.
* ''[[The Sixth Sense]]'' is a weird case--the ghosts themselves "see what they want to see," protecting themselves from the [[Tomato in
* In prose, at least early on, the police denied that the Shadow existed, claiming he just represented a contemporary rumor. In the 1994 Alec Baldwin film, a woman scoffs at the Shadow as just a rumor to get people to listen to the radio and read newspapers. (Earlier, the Shadow, while as Lamont Cranston at the Cobalt Club, used his powers of suggestion to dissuade Commissioner Wainright Barth from assigning his officers to investigate the rumors of the Shadow.)
* "[[Iron Man|Just a regular training exercise.]]"
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* In ''[[Guyver]]: Dark Hero'', a newspaper headline reads "Verdict Still Out on Armored Vigilante" perhaps indicating that much of the public has not accepted him more than a rumor.
* In one of the ''[[Darkman]]'' sequels, a newspaper headline refers to Darkman as "an urban Bigfoot", suggesting that the public thinks of him as a rumor.
* In ''[[
* Notably and hilariously averted in the diner scene in ''[[When Harry Met Sally]]''.
* The [[X-Men (
** Justified in that mutants are a minority who mostly try to keep their powers a secret. As such, seeing them use their powers would be unusual even if you knew they existed.
* In ''High Anxiety'' wanted Richard Thorndyke invokes this trope when he tells Brisbane that people tend to ignore strange things so they start to behave obnoxiously (in the most over-the top way possible) to pass the customs unnoticed.
* In the ''[[Indiana Jones]]'' franchise, the weirdness censor is Dr. Jones himself. This serves also as a disclaimer that the movies are not what real archaeology is about.
* One of the primary responsibilities of the [[Men in Black (
* In ''[[The Howling]]'', there is a live werewolf transformation on the evening news. Many of the locals pass it off as special effects.
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== Literature ==
* In ''[[The
** In the final book in the series, Arthur ends up on a planet that has a race of birds that ignore everything out of the ordinary that happens around them. For example, they fail to notice a giant crashing spaceship. On the flip side, everything normal comes as a huge shock to them. In the author's own words: "...and the sunrise always took them completely by surprise."
* In ''[[Harry Potter]]'' the entrance to Diagon Alley, a street filled with shops for wizards, is hidden behind a pub called The Leaky Cauldron which muggles never notice because they don't pay attention to their surroundings and don't expect it to be there. Though with memory charms, "Muggle repelling wards" and the charms that make Hogwarts [[Invisible to Normals|look like a pile of rubble]], it's not so much that Muggles wilfully ignore magic as that any interaction with magic tends to involve them getting parts of their cortex melted.
** Arthur Weasley also notes that [[Muggles]] who are the victims of such magical prankings as shrinking keys will always insist that they simply lost them.
{{quote| "Bless them, they'll go to any lengths to ignore magic, even if it's staring them in the face..."}}
* This is a big part of [[
** Perhaps in the later stories by other authors; Lovecraft's own stories involved people being traumatized and unable to ''forget'' the weirdness that they encounter, even if it was just a photograph, a shadowy image, or a cloaked figure.
** In Lovecraft's stories, the terrible truth is normally so out of sight people don't need to censor it... except perhaps in the form of not acknowledging how vast the cosmos is and how little they know. The stories tend to be about when it ''does'' come into view.
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** It also helps that the various supernatural powers in play have a pretty big stake in making sure humanity does ''not'' find out about them, given that for all the contempt most of these creatures have for humans, the last thing they want to do is get humanity as a whole riled up.
* In [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld]]'' novels, the [[Narrator]] explains that most humans have formed a very strong idea of what is "normal", and anything that doesn't fit into that idea is [[Invisible to Normals]]. This includes [[The Grim Reaper|Death]] and other [[Anthropomorphic Personification|Anthropomorphic Personifications]], and [[Talking Animal]] Gaspode the Wonder Dog (since "everyone knows dogs can't talk"). There are some exceptions, including witches and wizards, by training, and small children, because they haven't learnt what "normal" is yet.
** Employed more subtly in the Discworld novel ''[[Discworld
** An unusual example is in ''[[Discworld
** Inverted in ''[[Discworld
** Subverted in ''[[Discworld
** The Weirdness Censor appears to have been (mostly) left out of ''[[Discworld
** Lord Rust in ''[[Discworld
** Moreover, it is described in both ''[[Discworld
** There's also ''[[Discworld
{{quote| "The historians paid him no attention. Horses did not walk into libraries."}}
* This is one of the central themes of Pratchett's lesser known works, the ''[[Johnny Maxwell Trilogy]]'', where the title character explicitly lacks those kind of mental filters, so he's usually the first (and sometimes only) one to notice the weird things around him. Ironically, that same lack of mental agility makes him best equipped to actually ''deal'' with said weirdness, as his friends tend to try to deal according to the way things are "supposed to" go.
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** ''Secret City'': While a general [[Masquerade]] is in effect, most humans will easily believe claims that data were forged, witnesses drunk or drugged and people claiming to use magic used clever technology or hypnotism. The eponymous Secret City dwellers also actively support skepticism in the population.
** ''Enclaves'': In an otherwise cyberpunk setting, several [[Ancient Tradition|AncientTraditions]] survived and some changed, generally working by [[Religion Is Magic]]. People will yet actively ignore obvious supernatural events, e.g. a person outrunning a projectile, and cite secret research or evidence failure to that end.
* In [[
== Live Action TV ==
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** In the new series, there's often several large events in modern day person season that no government can, and therefore doesn't, try to cover up. It's a running joke that London evacuates at Christmas now because they're expecting trouble. And in the fourth series it was a running joke that Donna missed all these events and didn't believe they actually happened. Of course, her eyes were opened when she travelled with the Doctor... ("Except that thing about the ''Titanic'' flying over London, I mean, that had to be a hoax.")
** The 11th Doctor episode "Vampires in Venice" has a very weird example of this. The titular vampires are actually piscine aliens using a perception filter to disguise themselves as humans. The vampire part is that, when the machine is working, they look like humans with fangs and no reflections. According to the Doctor, this is because the disguise doesn't change their image in a mirror, and so, when a person sees the reflection of a scary fish monster for the first time, they don't know what to make of it, so their gets rid of the image. At the same time, it claims that we can see their fangs because our survival instincts are powerful enough to override the disguise, which is actually sort of reverse weirdness censor.
* The [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|amnesia pill]] invented by Captain Jack Harkness in ''[[
** Ianto also has mad [[Hollywood Hacking|hacking]] skills, allowing him to see what other people are typing on their computers and shut them down remotely. This is only done in the premiere, though, to stop Gwen from writing down all she knows before the pill takes effect.
* Inverted in ''[[Quantum Leap]]'', in that small children, crazy people, the dying, and animals (all of whom lack a weirdness censor) can see the hologram Al, who is invisible and inaudible to everyone else but Sam. Children and crazy people can also see Sam for who he really is; Sam leaped once as the mother of a little girl, who could tell he wasn't her mother, but Sam turned the difficulty by asking her to play a "pretend game".
** There was also a psychic who saw the real Sam (but not Al).
** Plus the time where the "future" part of [[Yet Another Christmas Carol]] is made possible by the Scrooge stand-in having a remarkably similar brain chemisty to Sam (as the hologram was set up to be visible specifically to him).
* The TV series ''[[
* Occurs in virtually every series of ''[[Power Rangers]]'' where no one seems quite able to make the connection between those 3 (or 5 or sometimes 6) extremely fit martial arts obsessed kids who all dress in a single colour and are always running off, and the equally mono-coloured Power Rangers who show up moments later.
** [[Lampshaded]] in the ''Dino Thunder'' series when Tommy gains the Black Ranger powers, he tells his students he has to go shopping as there is a distinct lack of black in his wardrobe. True to form, he spends the rest of the season wearing lots of black. And in ''Jungle Fury'', mentor RJ wears various clothing until he becomes the purple-colored fourth ranger, at which point all he wears besides his chef-related clothing is an outfit with a purple shirt. This happens with every [[Sixth Ranger]] arrival, and you'd think it'd get ''really'' conspicuous when a person who wore a variety of colors ''suddenly'' starts wearing one color - the same color as that new Ranger - when he begins hanging with that group of colorcoded teens.
** ''Lightspeed Rescue'' also had one episode where a receptionist told a little girl "now dear, there's no such thing as monsters". In a series where a giant monster rampages across the city at least once a week. Yeeeeeahhh.
** Dustin in ''Ninja Storm'' was the only Ranger of that season to believe that Rangers were more than something out of a comic book when the situation was first explained to the new team.
** Humanity has gotten savvier since then - just how much they know and what team they were familiar with is usually not elaborated upon, but new teams tend to at least have some idea of what a Ranger ''is.'' When amnesiac Dillon of ''[[
* In ''[[Young Dracula]]'' most of the breathers fail to notice the oddity that seems to surround the Dracula family.
** Subverted when {{spoiler|Vlad finally says the word "vampire" to Mr. Branaugh he realizes immediately what's been in front of his face the entire time.}}
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* ''[[The Lost Room]]'' had a subculture of collectors, hobbyists, organizations and criminals looking for some [[Artifact of Doom|conspicuously destructive objects]] that shunned the laws of physics, thermodynamics and entropy while [[Artifact of Attraction|consuming / destroying the lives of most people who came across them.]] Despite having been tracked, coveted and recklessly experimented with for 40 years, the Police (including [[Papa Wolf|our hero]]) seem to have no way of anticipating or dealing with them. Moreover, these quirky little atom-age [[MacGuffin|MacGuffins]] subtly influenced the laws of probability to get closer to one another, making them even easier to track. Either some unseen government power tries to keep all those pesky cases of spontaneous combustion out of the news with a hypnotic roll of toilet paper, or [[Agent Mulder|organizations like "The Order" and "The Legion" are just too damn nerdy for most people to take seriously.]]
* The ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' sketch "The Dull Life of a City Stockbroker" features a very boring stockbroker going about his business, not noticing things like the fact that the bus on which he is traveling is full of terrorists shooting everyone, or that the newsagent where he purchases a paper is staffed by a topless woman.
* ''[[The Flash (TV series)|The Flash]]'' TV show had episodes where the Flash met Dr. Desmond Powell, an African-American doctor who had, in the Central City of the 1950s, operated as "the mystery man" Nightshade. More in line with the Shadow, the Nightshade, not a metahuman, ended up dismissed by most people as just a rumor, since the police hushed up his activities. (The show admitted that some of this attitude at least initially also applied to the Flash, but since the Flash had actual metahuman powers, he could not "lurk in the shadows" for very long.)
** A running gag in ''The Flash'' was that police officer Bellows was constantly seeing the Flash in action but his more cynical partner Murphy always missed it, so that Murphy thought Bellows was delusional and dismissed the Flash as an urban legend.
* In ''[[Twin Peaks]]'' no one seems to mind weird things such as Nadine's supernatural strength. Then again, it's arguably a case of [[City of Weirdos]].
* "[[Bewitched
* While not magic or [[Sci Fi]], on ''[[Wiseguy]]'' high ranking figures in organized crime never seemed to notice that within a few months of Vinnie Terranova joining an organization, the whole operation comes crashing down.
* In Lars Von Trier's Danish miniseries ''[[Riget]]'' which takes place in a haunted hospital, the head of administration Moesgaard seem completely oblivious to all the strange things that happen. For example, when one of the doctors come back ''from the dead'' (more or less), Moesgaard's first comment is an annoyed "Why am I always misinformed?". Then he just reintroduces the resurrected doctor to the staff as if nothing out of the ordinary has happened, and quickly changes the subject. In another scene, he walks in on Rigmor who is holding a gun, and she accidentally points it at him ''three'' times without him noticing it.
* An episode of ''[[Lie to Me (TV series)|Lie to Me]]'' has the Lightman Group discredit a witness by revealing (to her as well) that she has the [[Real Life]] condition called change blindness, meaning she ignores anything that has changed around her while she wasn't looking. They do this by having her watch a short video and focus on certain aspects of it. They then quietly substitute the people questioning her. When the witness turns back, she just treats them as if they were sitting there the whole time.
* Used liberally in the 80's ''[[War of the Worlds (TV series)|War of the Worlds]]'' television series. The population at large believe that the 1953 radio broadcast (and the events of the original film) were a hoax, and (as main character Harrison Blackwood says) have suffered a form of mass amnesia about the event. This continues on into the second season, albeit differently: several characters (including a military general and a main character) are killed off, and the army refuses to assist the surviving main characters in any way, even though said deceased characters had ties to a secret government project concerning extraterrestrial invaders.
* The same technique was used by Anthony Bourdain on the Washington, D.C. esisode of ''[[No Reservations]]'', when a spy guest demonstrated how spies in the Cold War hid things in drop-off points. In one particular instance, Bourdain feigned public urination to keep eyes off of him as he hid a "tip" in a discreet spot.
* Stargate has two massive spaceships popping in at the end of the first season that should have been noticed very quickly.
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* One of the character classes of the Palladium RPG ''Beyond the Supernatural'' is the "Nega-Psychic": a person whose disbelief in the supernatural is so strong that it provides him with enhanced saving rolls versus supernatural phenomena and allows cancellation of supernatural effects. (This means that the nega-psychic character spends the entire game loudly wondering why everyone else in the party is getting so excited by "swamp gas," something which appeals to certain types of role-players, but drives others up the wall.)
* The Third Edition of ''[[GURPS]]'' included an advantageous character trait called "[[Muggles|Mundane]]", which at its most expensive and intense level would actively turn anything odd and unusual into the normal and boring while the character was around it.
* Practically a part of everyday human existence in the various ''[[
** Vampires [[Vampire: The Masquerade
** ''[[
*** In ''[[
*** In ''[[
*** In ''[[
** ''[[
*** ''[[
*** A similar effect occurs in the ''Second Sight'' splatbook, where almost all humans are latent psychics, but since they don't believe in psychics, end up using their abilities to suppress the unbelievable psychic acts of others. Conversely, it's possible for characters to gain an advantage in the form of a believing hanger-on who actually makes their psychic abilities perform better.
*** In ''[[
* Averted in the ''[[
* The Swedish horror game ''[[
* In two of the four main variants of the [[Tabletop Games]] ''[[
* The ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' core rule books advise the DM and the players to ''avoid'' this; if you're playing in a setting where you can buy and sale magic items fairly easily, it kind of behooves the [[NPC|NPCs]] to notice magic, and not knock it as "superstition."
** Except in ''[[Ravenloft]]'', where noticing what's ''spooky'' and magical can get you killed. Natives of domains such as Richemulot or Zherisia, where the populace is infiltrated by monsters, find it a ''lot'' safer not to admit they've seen anything suspicious, even to themselves.
** There are also the ancient [[Demon Lords and Archdevils|demon lords]] ''Pale Night'' and ''Dagon''. When a mortal being encounters them, the [[Weirdness Censor]] is the only thing that keep your head from exploding.
* In [[The Dark Eye]] German Pen&Paper, its fairly normal for elves and dwarfs roam the cities. The bigger cities have their mage academies. Goblins and orcs are fairly well known in the wilderness. Yet [[Muggles]] are particularity shocked whenever something magical happens around them, and are fast to shrug it off as something mundane instead of magic. This is played [[Up to Eleven]] with the kobolds, which in this setting are supernatural beings of near infinite power... and only use it for mischief or if enlisted by an deity for a particular job to guard an area. Like in [[Real Life]] if some mishap is going on, they are going to handwave it towards the kobolds as fairy tale, [[All Myths Are True|but maybe more true as they want it to be]].
* ''[[
* ''[[Rogue Trader]]'' mentions this as a [[Required Secondary Power]] for Navigators- their Warp eye allows them to gaze into the Warp, but also edits the input into an appropriate metaphor- the examples in the book are finding a path through a storm-racked wood or navigating a roiling sea. It's actually a good thing, as [[Go Mad From the Revelation|Going Mad From The Revelation]] can be harmful to your health.
** In addition, the Unremarkable trait from [[Dark Heresy]] can work like this. The Moritat assassin who is anti-social and obsessed with murder? All I see is a businessman with a bit of red on him...
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** Even in one of the novels, a necromancer comments that their seers ''suspect'' that Baal is responsible for the destruction of Mount Arreat in the Lord of Destruction expansion pack. Not only do the necromancers usually seem more aware of what's going on than the rest of the world, but Baal was anything but subtle during his assault. Baal wasn't exactly skipping merrily to the summit, though. He killed cities and possibly ''kingdoms'' that were in his way. Who's left to say what really went on besides some reclusive, not terribly credible barbarians?
*** In the absence of forensics science, evidence of the Prime Evils rests entirely on eye witnesses. The demons weren't exactly leaving a lot of those... and most of them would likely be [[Cassandra Truth|thought insane]] by anyone who hadn't been involved in the previous conflicts. Marius is a clear example of this, narating his misadventures with the wanderer from inside an [[Bedlam House|asylum cell]].
* In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda:
* Hilariously done in ''[[Fate/stay
* At the end of ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 2'', {{spoiler|a gigantic superweapon crashes into New York City. From the wreckage emerge a white haired pretty boy wielding a sword and the former president wielding two swords and wearing a suit of tentacled power armor. They proceed to fight a battle on the roof of Federal Hall, culminating in the villain being stabbed and falling from the roof.}} You'd think the cops or someone would take interest, but it just shows everyone going about their daily business like it was Japan and they were used to that.
** [[
* Only partly averted in ''[[Prototype (
* Huh. That ten-year-old is [[Pokémon|running around with a giant, super-rare, legendary creature following their every whim]]. Nah, that's probably just a transformed Ditto.
* [[Banjo-Kazooie]] runs on this (and [[No Fourth Wall|fourth wall breakage]]).
* [[The Elder Scrolls|Tamriel]] has one, partly thanks to [[Artificial Atmospheric Actions]]. NPCs will calmly continue to discuss just how horrid mudcrabs are regardless of what's going on around them.
* [[Touhou Project|Touhou Project's]] Koishi Komeiji [[Superpower Lottery|has the ability to manipulate the subconscious]], the most common application of which seems to be to trigger peoples' Weirdness Censors, [[Perception Filter|thereby making herself invisible to them]].
* For some reason in ''[[Kingdom Hearts: 358 Days Over 2
** {{spoiler|[[Fridge Brilliance|But they probably would have forgotten about seeing Xion, actually]].}}
* In ''[[Golden Sun]]'' and both sequels, Psynergy itself is [[Invisible to Normals]]... but people still should be able to see the objects that move without being touched, fires starting and stopping, sprouts growing into giant vines in a matter of seconds, puddles freezing into giant ice pillars, and that group of [[Anime Hair|Anime Haired]] teenagers that always seems to be around when strange things happen. The number of situations where anybody notices Psynergy in use or the effects thereof, in all three games, can be counted on one hand.
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== Web Comics ==
* ''[[
** Moreover, the aliens in the comic, when [[Alien Among Us|walking among humans]], use a system of disguise that involves wearing shirts bearing the label 'human'. Despite their natural forms looking like [[Little Green Men]], this method somehow successfully convinces anyone who has not been explicitly informed of their existence.
** It's not a huge leap for Elliot's parents. After all, Ellen {{spoiler|is not their biological daughter but a magical gender swapped clone of their son created by a cursed diamond.}}
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* This is how people miss magical events in [[Errant Story]]. When they see something impossible (like the talking cat with wings) they think that there's no way they just saw that and then promptly forget it even existed.
* This is the explanation for how the angels and demons of [[Elijah and Azuu]] are able to integrate into society... humans still physically see their horns and haloes, but simply don't process them. Though if someone is too weird looking they're simply [[Invisible to Normals]].
* In ''[[
== Web Original ==
* The [[PPC]] use actual SEP fields taken from the ''[[The
* ''[[New York Magician]]'': Lampshaded repeatedly; most New Yorkers people won't notice [[Invisible to Normals|unless something really incredible is happening]]. In fact, Michel muses that it's easier for him to get away with using magic in public than it is to get away with waving a gun around; people rationalize magic, but they call the cops for guns.
* In the ''[[Paradise]]'' setting, humans are randomly, permanently transformed into [[Funny Animal|Funny Animals]] (and occasionally [[Gender Bender|gender-changed]]) by causes unknown. A powerful "Reality Distortion Field", otherwise known as "the Veil", renders these changes [[Invisible to Normals]], who will continue to see the Changed as their original human selves (and genders). It is only able to cover their bodies, however; they will still leave animal footprints, and any fur, horns, claw trimmings, etc. they shed will be visible to others. It begins breaking down as the series goes on and finally starts failing completely in 2009, leading to [[The Unmasqued World]] as the Changed finally make themselves fully known.
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* ''[[The Simpsons]]'', full stop. The entire theme of ''Homer's Enemy'' was to plop a regular person (in the form of Frank Grimes) into the Springfield universe and have them react to just how ''bizarre'' that world really was. Frank was thunderstruck how a moron like Homer could have two cars, win a Grammy, tour with rock stars, be friends with Gerald Ford and been to space on the space shuttle.
{{quote| '''Frank Grimes:''' I'm saying you're what's wrong with America, Simpson. You coast through life, you do as little as possible, and you leech off of decent, hardworking people like me. Heh, if you lived in any other country in the world, you'd have starved to death long ago.}}
* ''[[American Dragon Jake Long]]'': [[Is This a Joke?|"I'm glad everyone bought the You've-been-Punked story we feed them."]]
* Became a running joke in ''Transformers: Robots in Disguise'', in which one woman is constantly harassed by Sideburn--who is trying to get jiggy with her car. By narrative convenience, she starts being in range of the giant robot battles nearly every episode.
* In contrast, ''[[Transformers Armada]]'' has maybe five people actually see the constant robot battles. This is partially justified as apparently all but a few of the Mini-Con panels appear in unpopulated areas, but still.
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* Citizens in ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' who notice the larger stuff the boys do never seem to find it worthy enough for the newspaper. Candace was pretty unlucky no one ever wanted to talk to her parents about what the boys had done, especially in [[The Movie]], where ''the entire town witnesses a robot takeover and never discusses it again''.
** And it's not just in the boys' hometown. In one episode, [[Humongous Mecha|giant robots of a dragon and Queen Elizabeth I]] were duking it out in downtown London. While this does make it to the news, the only thing that caught people's attention was the second story of a new version of ''Jane Eyre'' being made.
* In the ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]" episode "Operation T.U.R.N.I.P.", the farmer is completely oblivious to the fact that his giant turnip is sending smaller ones through its roots all over the place and attacking the Sector V kids. The only thing that causes him to freak out is when it falls over and rolls into the sea.
* Cartoons and movies that take place in a [[Mouse World]], such as ''[[An American Tail]]'', ''[[The Rescuers (Disney film)|The Rescuers]]'', ''[[Chipand Dale Rescue Rangers]]'' and others, rely on this trope. Humans never notice they're surrounded by clothed, talking mice with their own human-like civilization.
* Anyone who's not Stanley or part of his circle of frinds and such on ''[[Stanley]]'' seems to use this when confronted by things such as talking/singing pets, or wild animals popping up in places they shouldn't be, such as the roof of Stanley's house.
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* The internet
* In Cognitive Psychology, the concept of a weirdness censor exists as a natural effect of [[wikipedia:Memory bias|"memory bias"]]; a tendency to rationalize, dismiss, or otherwise distort memories that are unpleasant, unusual, or inconvenient enough.
* [[New York City]] is notorious for this, and for good reason. [[Thor (
* Everyone has a form of weirdness censor called change blindness. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voAntzB7EwE This video] is designed to highlight the viewer's weirdness censor in action.
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