History Main / SkepticismFailure

** There was also an episode where a psychic got killed because she managed to divine the place a murder victim's body had been hidden, and the villain heard of this. In the end of the episode it was revealed that she had no supernatural knowledge, and her assessment of the victim's soul's current location (She is in 'Summerland') got misheard for 'Sommerlin', which was the area the body was hidden.

* ''Night of the Demon'' (1957) walks a very noble line past this trope with a skeptical protagonist who approaches situations in a reasonable way right to the resolution of the film.

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-->-- ''{{Metalocalypse}}''

Ironically the ''more'' heavily focused on the paranormal a show is, the less likely this seems to be the case. In settings with a [[TheMasquerade Masquerade]] ordinary people are often depicted as being ''so'' utterly skeptical that clear evidence of paranormal goings on is dismissed with a flimsy and [[WeirdnessCensor wildly implausible 'rational' explanation]], which itself is a form of [[ArbitrarySkepticism skepticism failure]].

There is TruthInTelevision in that [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic people do believe in "mystical" things without proof]]. It just depends on exactly which things and [[ViewersAreMorons who is being asked]] to believe.

* ''CityHunter II''--an anime which features lots of ATeamFiring but no science fiction or fantasy elements, has a girl in episodes 41-42 who can read minds with perfect accuracy.

* ''ThisUglyYetBeautifulWorld'': Everybody is surprisingly easily convinced that Hikari and Akari are aliens. Also, nobody bats an eyelid when Hikari's servant, a RidiculouslyHumanRobot, shows up.
* An episode of ''{{xxxHOLIC}}'' had Watanuki being tricked by his friends into thinking the house he and his friends were staying at was haunted (in an attempt to make him realise he can ask them for help). At the end of the episode they admitted to staging everything, except putting a blue flower in the kitchen when they first arrived. The episode ends with Watanuki looking up at the house to see the real ghost looking out at them.

* A running theme in TheSookieStackhouseMysteries is that Sookie is a telepath, a fact she hides with mixed results. But most of the people of Bon Temps, up to and including her own brother, would rather believe "Crazy Ol' Sookie" just has a knack for reading people's body language than accept the fact that they have no privacy around her.
** Averted in [[TrueBlood the series based on the books]], where those who don't know her mistake Sookie for stupid, but those close to her know she hears thoughts.
* JudgeDee often proclaims that he is not an impious man, as not believing in the supernatural was positively irreligious in ImperialChina. However he temperamentally prefers natural explanations for apparently ghostly phenomena and usually finds one. Usually. There are however distinct indications that the Judge himself is 'psychic'. Certainly he is extremely sensitive to atmosphere, often sensing evil before he even knows there's been a crime.

** Butters had this - in his first interaction with the supernatural[[labelnote:*]]second, technically - he got [[ProfessionalSiberia where he was]] by declaring the Red Court victims to be "humanoid but not human"[[/labelnote]] he continues to point out impossibilites during a car chase involving Necromancers, wind magic, and ''zombies''. Harry invokes this trope, and Butters has a brief [=BSOD=].

* ''{{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 [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane no explanation either way for how he knew what he did]].
** Almost this [[RecycledScript exact same story]] appears in an episode of ''NowAndAgain'', 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.

* Seen in an episode of ''{{NUMB3RS}}'' where Charlie scoffs at a psychic who's brought in to work on a case; Charlie is treated as the unreasonable one, surprisingly for a show that focuses on math and logic in solving crimes.

* ''TouchedByAnAngel'' [[strike:claims]] revolves around how God works in mysterious ways even when you don't believe it.

* ''{{Bones}}'':

* ''SaintsRow 2'' is a mostly mundane WideOpenSandbox game where one of the rival gangs is the Sons of Samedi. For the most part, they just seem to be drug dealers who happen to worship the loa. Then you end up fighting one of their bosses, who has a [[HollywoodVoodoo voodoo doll]] that can make your character fall on his ass.

* Played with in ''TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutron'', "The Phantom Of Retroland": Jimmy scoffs at the phantom that supposedly haunts an abandoned amusement park. However, Cindy points out that ''everyone'' knows it's fake, but only he would be such a party-pooper about it. At the end, after a string of impostors of the titular ghost, the ''[[RealAfterAll real]]'' Phantom shows up.

* The ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "The Biggest Douche In The Universe" had Stan say at the end that John Edward was a fraud and there were plenty of things in the real world that people could be fascinated by. It's a sort of strange message seeing as how the exact same episode featured Kenny's ghost being taken out of Cartman's body. An even weirder example is the episode "Dead Celebrities" where the Ghost Hunters come to look for ghosts and look like complete idiots for believing in ghosts, despite that fact that ghosts existing is the premise of the entire episode.
** Belief in ghosts aside, they mostly mock John Edward for being a fraud, and the Ghost Hunters for jumping at shadows and imaginary noises.
* An episode of ''{{Fillmore}}'' involves a crime that takes place during the magic act at the school talent show. While working on the case, Fillmore tries to figure how the trick at the finale was done but kid who did the trick keeps shaking his head no. At the end it's implied he really did do the trick through magic.
* Winston Zeddemore initially didn't believe in the supernatural when he applied to become one of ''TheRealGhostbusters'', and only signed up because he was having trouble finding a job after getting out of the army. He quickly changes his mind once he starts seeing the ghosts and goblins for himself.
* Brian from ''FamilyGuy'' is a FlatEarthAtheist, and the show seems to agree with him... which would hold more water if Brian hadn't met God and Jesus personally, and that Peter has died and met Death several times. Of course, the God and Jesus he runs into bear little resemblance to the religious figures beyond outfit and name. Then again, they're still shown to have genuine miraculous powers, and Brian never states that they ''aren't'' who they appear to be. Actually, he never comments on them at all, one way or the other.

* Considering ''{{XxxHolic}}'' is a highly supernatural anime, this was a bit of a shocker. Yuuko thoroughly debunks a fake fortune teller, noting and disassembling her verbal sleights of hand and keen psychological tricks. However, they later go on to meet a real fortune teller, who is pretty much spot on legitimate.

* ''UminekoNoNakuKoroNi'' 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.
* In ''{{Twentieth Century Boys}}'', the villains make all of humanity think it's faking increasingly outlandish threats: mass germ warfare, giant robot attacks, and finally aliens. The heroes are continually disgusted with how eagerly most people eat it up.

* Subverted in an episode of ''{{CSI}}'' where one investigator's firm belief in spontaneous human combustion -- as both a phenomenon and the solution to a case -- is debunked by a scientific experiment they conduct.

* An episode of ''{{Monk}}'' had a psychic who mysteriously woke up in her car in front of a dead body. She attributed it to her PsychicPowers, which previously hadn't really accomplished everything, but Monk found a decidedly non-supernatural explanation by the end.
* The show ''{{Psych}}'' is an inversion of this. The main character is a brilliant detective, but his superiors find it easier to believe that he can solve cases with psychic powers.

* ''TheMentalist'' is an interesting inversion of this: the main character, Patrick Jane, is a former TV psychic (and [[PhonyPsychic admitted fraud]]) who gave up that line of work after his insulting "psychic reading" of a serial killer wound up [[DeathByOriginStory getting his family killed]]. The skills he picked up while faking psychic powers (a [[HyperAwareness keen sense of observation]] and a good understanding of human nature) turn out to be quite useful for police work, though...

* ZigZagged in ''DragonQuestVI'': Your party comes across a village in the middle of nowhere where it is said a floating island will take you to an enchanted place called the Isle o'Smiles. You meet a warrior by the name of [[MeaningfulName Skep Tickle, who's dubious of the whole story]]... until the island sails in, and he joins in the boozing and feasting provided by the cheerful waiters and bunny girls. Then when you wake up, the staff have returned to their true demonic forms so they can enslave the fools who believed in the Isle o' Smiles.

* ''{{Metalocalypse}}'', of course, as [[Quotes/SkepticismFailure quoted]]. In a later episode, Dethklok one-upped even ''that'' by negotiating the standard DealWithTheDevil 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 ''ScoobyDoo''. [[ScoobyDooHoax 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 ([[http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/06/27/the-corruption-of-scooby-doo/ disappointing some skeptics]]) in the ''ScoobyDoo'' 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 [[LampshadeHanging 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 ''ScoobyDooOnZombieIsland'' where Fred [[MistakenForAnImposter 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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* The DresdenFiles has this in spades - basically any recurring character has to have this - except Sanya, a parody of the StrawAtheist archetype who survived ''possession'' (most of the puppets end their careers more abruptly), and is now employed by ''God''. [[note]] ... Aliens.[[/note]]

** The majority of the Fey go to war "over" Chicago? Storms.

* In the WheelOfTime, this mixes with superstition in wacky and zany ways. People will believe the absurd of Aes Sedai, and not the mundane. Aes Sedai openly acknowledge that they have no idea how ter'angreal from the last Age work... and refuse to believe in new discoveries or rediscoveries. Nobody believes Mat about the gholam, despite the presence of magic and previously-unknown artifacts. Admittedly, they haven't been seen in 3000 years and appear to be made of magic, but still, from someone who controls people who can ''call thunder from the sky, fire from their hands, and rip the earth asunder'', it's a little absurd.

* In the ''QuantumLeap'' episode "A Portrait for Troian," Sam Beckett leaps into a paranormal investigator. Over the course of the episode, he plays the skeptic regarding the existence of ghosts, and Al plays the believer. By the end of the episode, [[spoiler: he has proven the primary haunting is a hoax, but then discovers that one of the secondary characters was a ghost all along. This is enforced with a shot of the ghost vanishing.]]

** That's definitely an instance of MaybeMagicMaybeMundane, though, as it could easily have been a coincidence. Water is a ''very'' recurring element for {{PhonyPsychic}}s.

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* Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt's Kat falls victim to this [[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=885 while discussing golems]]. Her friends include a ghost, a talking shadow, a fox god, and a [[spoiler:descendant of a fire elemental]], and has met multiple gods and fairies, besides.

[[/folder]]

* Played with in ''TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutron'', "The Phantom Of Retroland": Jimmy scoffs at the phantom that supposedly haunts an abandoned amusement park. However, Cindy points out that ''everyone'' knows it's fake, but only he would be such a party-pooper about it. At the end, after a string of impostors of the titular ghost, the ''real'' Phantom shows up.
** This happens so often, it's probably a trope unto itself. The protagonists prove that the supernatural entity isn't real, but, at the last second, the audience is shown that [[RealAllAlong it really is]].

** This happens so often, it's probably a trope unto itself. The protagonists prove that the supernatural entity isn't real, but, at the last second, the audience is shown that it really is.

[[/folder]]

[[quoteright:300:[[Webcomic/LeveL http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/leveLc4p107_1408.jpg]]]]

Compare ArbitrarySkepticism, IfJesusThenAliens, FlatEarthAtheist, ReligiousRussianRoulette, HowUnscientific, and SkepticNoLonger. The most common manifestation of this trope is PsychicDreamsForEveryone. Compare also with ApathyKilledTheCat, where people are curiously un-inquisitive about fantastic things and events.

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* The doctor known as [[AwesomeMcCoolname Mr. Chillingworth]] in the penny dreadful ''Literature/VarneyTheVampire'' plays this role, both with regard to the vampire and the literal interpretation of the Bible.

** Dresden's theory is that the supernatural is damn terrifying, and it's a pretty normal reaction to not ''want'' to believe it. Like just about everything in the series, it's plausible to a paranoia-inducing extent. Possibly corroborated by Murphy's [=PoV=] short story ''Aftermath'', where she mentions that she's terrified of LetsGetDangerous Dresden, and if any muggle were to acknowledge the reality, they'd feel they'd have to kill him preemptively.

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* There was an episode of ''Diagnosis Murder'' where a series of people were murdered in methods that pointed to a vampire or something similar. It was all played as if the killer was mentally ill and only believed she was a vampire until she flew across the room at Dick Van Dyke. Very unusual for a show that was, as much as a TV show can be, very realistic.

** The Episode's title is ''Angel of Death.''

* In the ''Series/CriminalMinds'' episode "Cold Comfort", a psychic mentions that the victim will be found near a rocky shoreline. She's actually found in the middle of the city, but then the skeptical team member looks out the window... and there's a huge ad with a rocky shoreline on it.

** Played straight in the season 5 premiere with the psychic who locates a mass grave. By the end of the episode, even Bones, the AgentScully of the cast, is a believer.
** Other instances where spooky stuff comes up, however rare, tend to turn into cases of MaybeMagicMaybeMundane by the end.

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* ''SaintsRow 2'' is a mostly mundane WideOpenSandbox game where one of the rival gangs is the Sons of Samedi. For the most part, they just seem to be drug dealers who happen to worship the loa. Then you end up fighting one of their bosses, who has a [[HollywoodVoodoo voodoo doll]] that can make your character fall on his ass.

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* Winston Zeddemore initially didn't believe in the supernatural when he applied to become one of ''TheRealGhostbusters'', and only signed up because he was having trouble finding a job after getting out of the army. He quickly changes his mind once he starts seeing the ghosts and goblins for himself.

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** Harry Potter is an interesting case, because Hermione is technically right, the evidence for these theories is ridiculously slim. Heck, one is a children's fable, which nobody believes. At the same time, she is Muggle-born, so she must realize that according to most Muggles, the last 6 years of her life couldn't have happened, and they'd view her as hallucinating or lying if she told them.

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* Kyon in ''HaruhiSuzumiya'' experienced this trope when he realizes that aliens, espers, and [[TimeTravel 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. [[DefiedTrope he tries to prevent Skepticism Failure]] in the local unconscious RealityWarper, Haruhi in case she ends up destroying the world accidentally.

* ''{{Scratches}}'' plays it with both sides: First, by reading the diaries and letters it is clear that the former owners of the mansion (where the game is set) were rational and intelligent people, subsequent findings show how they slowly began accepting supernatural explanations for everything that happened to them. The player character also starts experiencing strange unexplained phenomena culminating on fully embracing a supernatural solution, then a major twist occurs and a natural (and shocking) explanation presents. The Director's Cut goes even further by showing more evidence, but the final coda hints that there is still a missing piece while panning to the source of "the curse".

* Brian from ''FamilyGuy'' is a FlatEarthAtheist, and the show seems to agree with him... which would hold more water if Brian hadn't met God and Jesus personally, and that Peter has died and met Death several times. Of course, the God and Jesus he runs into bear little resemblance to the religious figures beyond outfit and name.

Contrast with InvisibleToNormals and WeirdnessCensor 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.

** In one episode, God (represented or channeled by the main character) is "put on trial," but the opposing counsel falls victim to fallacious reasoning, both committing fallacies in his own arguments and being (especially for a trained lawyer) overly credulous of the opposition's reasoning. This in effect sets up the prosecuting attorney as a [=Strawman=] for the defendant.

** In one episode, God (represented or channeled by the main character) is "put on trial," but the opposing counsel falls victim to fallacious reasoning, both committing fallacies in his own arguments and being (especially for a trained lawyer) overly credulous of the opposition's reasoning. This in effect sets up the prosecuting attorney as a {{Straw Man}} for the defendant.
* Played straight in virtually every episode of ''TheXFiles'' -- in fact, it's the ''raison d'être'' for AgentScully, who remains skeptical of AgentMulder's explanations throughout the series, [[ArbitrarySkepticism despite the number of times Mulder is proved correct]]. However, after Mulder left the series, AgentScully then became increasingly written as the more eager believer, with the newcomer to doubt ''her''.

* In the ''{{Castle}}'' episode "He's Dead, She's Dead" a psychic is murdered, and supposedly leaves a letter about her own murder for the police. Beckett is skeptical while Castle believes it wholeheartedly. In the end of the episode, everything is wrapped up, except for one tiny point in the letter that Castle reminds Beckett of that seems to indicate the letter actually was from the psychic, proving her amazing PsychicPowers.

* In the ''CriminalMinds'' episode "Cold Comfort", a psychic mentions that the victim will be found near a rocky shoreline. She's actually found in the middle of the city, but then the skeptical team member looks out the window... and there's a huge ad with a rocky shoreline on it.

For example, a character receives a psychic reading which foretells tragedy. He spends the rest of the episode actively worried about it. Various details foreseen by the psychic are borne out in the episode. A character who challenges the legitimacy of PsychicPowers will often be confronted with at least one detail he can't explain how the psychic knew.

Compare ArbitrarySkepticism, IfJesusThenAliens, FlatEarthAtheist, HowUnscientific, and SkepticNoLonger. The most common manifestation of this trope is PsychicDreamsForEveryone.

* ''TheBill'' had an episode called "Haunted" in which police officers on a stake-out in an allegedly haunted building recounted spooky but just-about-plausible things that happened to them (a lost girl with uncanny similarities to a murder victim; a woman who dies at the around same time as her psychotic and jealous husband, who left a message on her machine saying "I need you with me"), before ending with DS Stanton (the AgentScully) quite definitely encountering a ghost.

* The DresdenFiles has this in spades - basically any recurring character has to have this - except Sanya, a parody of the StrawAtheist archetype who survived ''possession'' (most of the puppets end their careers more abruptly), and is now employed by ''God''. [[hottip:*: ... Aliens.]]

* In the original comic, ''FromHell'', by AlanMoore, one of the main characters reveals that he had been faking his psychic powers... yet every fake vision/prediction turned out to be true.

* Averted in ''BestInShow''. While the book does have a psychic, it does not involve any predictions that need skeptical treatment.

* You wouldn't expect an exception in a series that's all about wizards, but ''HarryPotter'' nonetheless has Hermione Granger utterly unconvinced by any of Trelawney's predictions or the Lovegoods' beliefs in creatures that, even by ''Harry Potter'' standards, are bizarre. The only correct Trelawney predictions are the ones Hermione doesn't hear in the first place, and the Lovegoods are right about exactly one thing the heroes didn't already know about ([[spoiler:the Deathly Hallows]]).

* ''MySoCalledLife'', "So-Called Angels." As Angela tries to help out her friend Ricky, who's just been kicked out of his house, she keeps running into a girl who gives her advice on how to help him. Finally, Angela's mother figures out that the girl's a ghost who froze to death years ago.

* One notable exception to this rule is ''ScoobyDoo''. [[ScoobyDooHoax 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 ([[http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/06/the_corruption_of_scooby_doo.php disappointing some skeptics]]) in the ''ScoobyDoo'' 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 [[LampshadeHanging 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!"

* An interesting subversion comes up in ''{{The 4400}}'' where the show starts off with an event (4400 missing persons who disappeared over a span of 60 years suddenly reappearing, not a day older than when they left, in a ball of light near Seattle) so spectacular and public that not even the most skeptical can deny what has happened, yet everyone remains fairly skeptical about what caused it and what it means until the plot shows up to answer some questions.