History Main / HowUnscientific

** Arguably also applies to the {{''Literature/Lensman''}} series. The way the Hell-Hole in Space works, and what happens to someone who goes through it, are nothing like anything else that happens in the series, and do not make sense even in terms of the most far-out reaches of the series's mental or physical science. Up until this point everything that happens is basically a more extreme version of something that has happened before, but the Hell-Hole in Space is on a different track altogether. Even the description of it flounders, and resorts to using words like "binding" and "geas". The literal invocation of ThePowerOfLove as a DeusExMachina to put right what the Hell-Hole put wrong could also be considered as this; it is presented as an aspect of the series's mental science, but if that segment was read in isolation with the characters' names changed the connection would not be at all obvious.

* ''{{Hellboy}}''. The eponymous OccultDetective discovers that Aliens exist the hard way when they try to [[spoiler: give him an AnalProbing]] in "Buster Oakley Gets His Wish".

* DependingOnTheWriter, Franchise/{{Batman}} goes from "deep distrust of magic, but respects those who do use it" to "dismissing the supernatural as 'stuff we'll figure out eventually, but it ain't magic'".
** [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Reed Richards]] also believes that magic is simply another kind of science, and one he has no interest in studying. This, despite being closely allied with magic-users like Comicbook/DoctorStrange and Agatha Harkness. In "Unthinkable," Strange tries but fails to teach Reed magic and, in desperation, gives him a magical gauntlet [[spoiler: that runs on humility, forcing Reed to spend an entire fight loudly proclaiming that he has no idea what he's doing]].
*** [[RunningGag Then again]], as we all know, ReedRichardsIsUseless.

* The 1st Edition ''Advanced DungeonsAndDragons'' adventure ''Expedition to the Barrier Peaks'' starts out like any other fantasy dungeon-crawl of the era ... at least until the heroes enter the mysterious "cavern", actually the airlock of a crashed spaceship full of weird life forms and hostile robots.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' was an ordinary show at first, but became a FantasyKitchenSink starting with Season 10. For example, there's the episode [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goo_Goo_Gai_Pan "Goo Goo Gai Pan"]] (Season 16) which features, amongst other gems, Homer's heart being ''ripped out of his chest,'' '''''then put back in with no after-effects whatsoever'''''. [[spoiler:Also, there are dragons. Or something.]]
* ''ScoobyDoo'' has occasionally been known to replace the guy in a monster mask with an actual monster.
** Generally, if Shaggy and Scooby are alone (or with Scrappy), the monsters are real. If Fred or Velma is there, they aren't. The films, both live-action and Direct-to-Video, usually have real monsters regardless of their cast.

* In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'', Bruce Wayne's response to Terry [=McGinnis=] telling him of a suspected haunting is "why not?", but that the incident in question is rather... childish. [[spoiler:He's right.]]
-->'''Bruce:''' These people believe anything they can't explain is magic. \\
'''Terry:''' Naturally, you don't believe in those kind of things. \\
'''Bruce:''' Of course I do. I've SeenItAll. Demons, witch boys, immortals, zombies. But this thing, I don't know, it just feels so... so ''high school''.

* Similar to the [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Reed Richards]] example above, [[EmperorScientist Princess Bubblegum]] from ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' firmly believes that all of the show's setting's magical and supernatural elements can be explained with science.

** Also nicely mocked in "The Girl in the Fireplace," where the Doctor gives the usual Technobabble explanation for portals to 18th century Paris in a spaceship, before admitting he made it up just because he didn't want to say "magic door."

-->-- '''Edgeworth''', ''PhoenixWrightAceAttorney:Trials and Tribulations''

This usually falls outside the main characters' GenreBlindness, allowing them to see and [[LampShade comment]] on how manifestly [[ThisIsReality weird]] it is. It is not, however, based on [[TheParody parodying]] of the intrusive element (though some [[SatireParodyPastiche satire]] may be involved).

* ''TransformersGenerationOne'' was primarily a sci-fi show centered around giant robots. However, there were several occasions where the plot delved into supernatural areas--in one episode they ran into a wizard in the past, in another they dealt with a Quintesson who used magic, and two episodes were devoted to Starscream's [[spoiler: ghost.]]

* In the ''VeronicaMars'' episode "Normal Is the Watchword" our titular heroine is saved by a hallucination of (or possibly the actual spirit of) her dead best friend Lilly. Lilly had appeared frequently the previous season (as Veronica tried to solve her murder), but it had certainly been implied she was not a literal ghost, just Veronica's way of working through her emotions and thoughts. At least until "Normal Is the Watchword", when Lilly's sudden and unexplained appearance distracted her friend from getting on a doomed bus.
** It is later implied that Veronica may be suffering from a neurological condition brought on by various traumas.

* ''VideoGame/IndigoProhecy'', also known as, ''VideoGame/Farenheit'', has a notorious game shift toward this. What begins as a dramatic murder mystery in an American city with vague supernatural elements transforms halfway through into a fantasy game featuring ancient Aztec temples and fight scenes straight out of ''Series/Dragon Ball Z''.

** Episode 67 had so little to do with the overall plot, it was actually left out of DVD releases of the series. The DVD release simply skips over it.

* ''Manga/SailorMoon'' was, most of the time, a MagicalGirl show set in the modern day, where the only non-ordinary elements are the Sailor Team itself and the season-specific villain faction. The [[BeachEpisode beach episodes]] (once a season), however, were strange exceptions: episode 20 had Usagi, Ami and Rei confronted by an (apparently) real ghost, not connected to the Dark Kingdom in any way [[spoiler:it is actually the result of little esper girl manifesting something she couldn't control]]. Episode 67 featured no villains and thus no need for the girls to use their powers, instead presenting a couple of living ''dinosaurs''. Seriously.

* Similar to the [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Reed Richards]] example above, [[EmperorScientist Princess Bubblegum]] from WesternAnimation/AdventureTime firmly believes that all of the show's setting's magical and supernatural elements can be explained with science.

** Except, you know, the part at the end where Athena descends from the heavens to protect Odysseus from the disgruntled families of the dead suitors, the TropeMaker for DeusExMachina.

* ''Series/{{SeeingThings}}'' This light-hearted 1980's Canadian dramedy was usually squarely in the [[MundaneFantastic]] camp. It had a single fantastic element: Toronto Gazette reporter Louis Ciccone suddenly starts manifesting precognitive flashes, which allow him to uncover and solve mysteries. However, in one out-of-character episode, a mysterious, beffudled old man found wandering the streets of Toronto and claiming to be an alien actually turns out to BE an alien, complete with anti-gravity levitation powers and a laser battle with hostile reptillian aliens in a Toronto park.

* The ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' games, as a MassiveMultiplayerCrossover, have several of these, usually breaking the hard SF-DuringTheWar setting from Franchise/{{Gundam}} that usually forms the main backdrop of each story.
** In ''[[VideoGame/SuperRobotWars4 Super Robot Wars F]]'', [[BadAss Master Asia]] from ''[[Anime/MobileFighterGGundam G Gundam]]'' takes out several massive military machines using nothing except martial arts skills. [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Asuka]] [[TropeNamer utters the trope's title]]--which is rather hypocritical, given she herself is from a series where the main enemies are {{Eldritch Abomination}}s and the robots have human souls inside of them.
** An official comedy 4koma for ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsAlpha'' has Asuka repeating the line when [[GiantRobo Alberto the Shockwave]] does the same thing to an Angel, although at least he only fights it to a draw.
** Later, in ''Super Robot Wars Original Generation'', a new robot pilot shows up with two magical talking cats in tow.
** In fact, this happened so often in ''Super Robot Wars Original Generation'' that a bridge operator teases his vice-captain that when he leaves the ship, he'll miss the vice-captain's constant moments of this. The Vice-Captain doesn't know what he's talking about, but almost instantly has another one of these moments...

* ''{{Okami}}'' starts out as a FarEast version of FracturedFairyTale, including references to people from the Celestial Plain in the heavens. Sounds appropriately mystical at first, but you eventually see these people's vessels and the game portrays them as [[spoiler:spaceships]] (one - described the locals as a "metal bamboo shoot" - even looks like [[spoiler:a traditional rocket]]). The BigBad itself is [[spoiler:practically a robot]].

--> -- '''Edgeworth''', ''PhoenixWrightAceAttorney:Trials and Tribulations''

* JamesBond movie ''Film/LiveAndLetDie''

* ''Series/Castle'' generally goes for MaybeMagicMaybeMundane but in the episode Time Will Tell it seems to go for this involving time travel as the series of events makes no sense without it. Generally [[AgentMulder Castle]] has to try and come up with a rather convoluted series of events in order for it to be possible but yet in this case [[AgentScully Beckett]] couldn't come up with a logical series of events that worked. This is especially true when the supposed time traveler just disappears from lockup. [[spoiler: There was also the ending in which she spills her coffee on a letter that was a key piece of evidence and it matches the stain from a picture of that letter held by the killer.]]

* [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2]]'s Halloween events. [=TF=]2 is normally about a (not so) normal war going on between two companies, but every Halloween supernatural elements come into play. For example, in 2013 you had to send your employer's dead brother to Hell, while fending off skeletons with magic.

* [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2]]'s Halloween events. TF2 is normally about a (not so) normal war going on between two companies, but every Halloween supernatural elements come into play. For example, in 2013 you had to send your employer's dead brother to Hell, while fending off skeletons with magic.

* Some of the humor in ''AtomicRobo'' comes from LampshadeHanging on things that are too ridiculous for its universe, such as [[AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever giant ants]]. This really comes into play, however, when Robo fights the talking raptor Dr. Dinosaur, who claims to have time-traveled from the death of the dinosaurs with a [[PowerCrystal crystal-powered time machine]]. Robo points out the grossly bad science in this backstory before pointing out that Dr. Dinosaur is probably just a genetic experiment gone wrong (which is implied to be true).
* In the {{Tintin}} story ''Flight 714'', we had a [[spoiler:thrilling hijack plot and Tintin & Co. being trapped on a remote island. And then out of the blue... Aliens!]]

* In the chapter of [[TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen The Black Dossier]] that deals with Les Homes Mysteriux, its specifically mentioned that team leader, air pirate Jean Paul Robur from RoburTheConqueror and MasterOfTheWorld, specifically avoided using cavorite for his flying ships, instead developing heavier than air flight, for exactly this reason.