->''"Strange and bizarre things happen to you with alarming frequency. You are the one with whom demons will stop and chat. Magic items with disturbing properties will find their way to you. The only talking dog on 20th-century Earth will come to you with his problems. Dimensional gates sealed for centuries will crack open just so that you can be bathed in the energies released... or perhaps the entities on the other side will invite you to tea. Nothing lethal will happen to you, at least not immediately, and occasionally some weirdness will be beneficial. But most of the time it will be terribly, terribly inconvenient."''
->-- '''"Weirdness Magnet" disadvantage from ''{{GURPS}}'''''

For some reason, the character is always standing at the intersection of [[AlliterativeName Strange Street and Bizarre Boulevard]]. They run into situations or creatures that most people don't even ''believe in'', much less have to deal with on a regular basis. Through no fault of their own, they constantly suffer through the effects of the [[ParanormalTropes paranormal and supernatural]]. Alternatively, the character may not think of the weirdness about them as particularly strange; after all, this sort of thing [[SeenItAll happens to them all the time.]] However, if something starts getting surreal on the show, chances are, they're at the center of it.

Often seen in comedy, especially when the writers get lazy and don't even bother to HandWave their plots anymore. Also used egregiously in SciFi and fantasy series, with the chain of weirdness catalyzing in the [[{{Pilot}} pilot]], and each specific occurrence resolved at the end of the episode. Bonus points if, at some point, one of the characters [[LampshadeHanging brings it up]] and questions, "Why does this kind of stuff keep happening to me/us," or notes that that "Ever since [the events of the pilot happened], you've been a magnet for the freaky."

Compare CoincidenceMagnet. If the events surrounding the character are ''possible'', just staggeringly ''unlikely'', then they're a CoincidenceMagnet. The title of WeirdnessMagnet is reserved for those who draw the outright impossible -- involving [[OurMonstersAreDifferent monsters]], [[AlienTropes aliens]], [[MagicAndPowers magic]], {{psychic powers}}, TimeTravel, etc. {{Weirdness Magnet}}s are also more likely to be explicitly [[LampshadeHanging noted by characters]]. If a WeirdnessMagnet is the focus of external forces that causes things to happen around them, then they're a CosmicPlaything. If there's ''something'' literally about the person that makes them attractive to the Supernatural, they're SupernaturallyDeliciousAndNutritious. If the WeirdnessMagnet is a location rather than a person, it is either a CityOfAdventure or a town where [[NothingExcitingEverHappensHere nothing exciting ever happens]]. In anime, [[TokyoIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse Tokyo]] is particularly vulnerable. In the US, [[BigApplesauce New York]] is the place to go for excitement. In general, [[EarthIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse Earth]] tends to get more than its fair share of craziness. In any case, it may be [[JustifiedTrope justified]] by a MagneticPlotDevice.

WhatYouSeeIsWhatYouGet is a specific, character-based version of this trope, where the character draws the weirdness in because they are capable of sensing the weirdness in the first place. Or perhaps the weirdness came first and they merely became alert to it out of self-preservation.

Some characters tend to be more prone to this than others: like the ArthurDent, CosmicPlaything, MacGuffinGirl, StrangeGirl, and YuppieCouple. The OnlySaneMan is often one of these as well. Often, it's because they have a ClingyMacGuffin, in which case these people consider themselves to be BlessedWithSuck. If it goes on long enough, expect the character to start [[PalsWithJesus getting chummy]] with some [[FantasyKitchenSink very diverse "people".]] This trope is one of the causes of the SuperheroParadox.

The original TropeNamer was the ''Blue Devil'' comic books published by [[TheDCU DC]] in the 1980's, where the main character's status as a Weirdness Magnet is noticed (and explicitly named) within the series. It was later adopted and popularized by the ''{{GURPS}}'' {{RPG}}.
----
!!Examples

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* Osaka Naru from ''SailorMoon'' was notorious for [[DesignatedVictim attracting almost every kind of supernatural creature in existence]] as the most frequent VictimOfTheWeek, earning the FanNickname "youma bait". However, her role in later seasons was downplayed until she was finally PutOnABus.
** Luna [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] this early in the second season.
* The entire cast of ''UruseiYatsura'', but especially the lead character, [[PropheticNames Ataru Moroboshi]].
** As a cultural note, the very first story has Ataru's mother reminiscing about all the bad omens that took place on the day that Ataru was born. It reads like a beginner's guide to superstitions with particular references to Japanese beliefs, starting with the fact that he was born on the anniversary of the Buddha's death. Also, his name can be translated to mean "Many stars will hit him on the head". And finally, the name of the series itself can be translated as "Those Annoying Aliens", suggesting that the galaxy and series' version of Earth is teeming with sentient species who are all irritating in their own ways. Ataru is therefore simply unlucky enough to catch the attention of ''all of them''.
* Played with in ''[[XxxHoLic xxxHoLic]]'', as Watanuki is fully aware that he is a weirdness magnet, and starts the story by making a DealWithTheDevil (Yuuko, actually, but Watanuki seems to consider them one and the same) to get rid of his unwanted ability.
** The cause of his weirdness magnetism is actually explained later on -- suicidal thoughts and desires that have been magically amnesia'd away. He may not ''remember'' that he wants to die, but he still smells like it to spirits and stuff.
** A second reason, seemingly taken directly from ''{{Futurama}}'', is that [[spoiler:as a time travel duplicate, he's doomed, as reality itself tries to excise him. He just manages to hang on regardless]].
* Ranma from ''[[RanmaOneHalf Ranma 1/2]]'', to the point that most fans suspect that Ranma's curse isn't [[GenderBender gender bending]] so much that it's his almost supernatural ability to attract weirdness wherever he goes.
** Others have theorized that it might actually be ''Akane Tendo'' who's the real weirdness magnet; Ranma, and the trouble associated with him, could be considered the weirdness that ''she'' attracts. Or perhaps they're both weirdness magnets, and their mutual presence is strengthening the effect, hence why more and more whacked out stuff happens as the anime/manga goes on.
** Though it's never outright stated that any character in Ranma 1/2 is a weirdness magnet, it is a fairly easy conclusion to leap to. While the world itself clearly is full of weirdness -- the existence of the various MartialArtsAndCrafts practitioners proves it -- it does seem that Ranma, Akane and the other characters do have a particular knack for getting involved with the more bizarre parts of life. Kuno manages to be the 1 millionth customer to a "Pull the Wish-Granting Sword from the Stone" contest, which means he gets the three wishes. Shampoo brings back a supposedly haunted set of bells as a present for Ranma, and sure enough, out pops a ghost. In the first NonSerialMovie, a young woman who is the third generation of her family to have possession of a relic that will supposedly bring a prince or princess to marry the one who holds it has gone her entire life waiting to be swept off her feet. When she tracks down OldMaster [[DirtyOldMan Happosai]] to express her disgruntlement at its failure to work, guess who shows up the second the relic falls into Akane Tendo's hands? Ryoga just happens to stumble upon a creepy merchant selling [[LovePotion toy fishing rods that make the person you "catch" fall head-over-heels in love with you]]. And these are just a ''few'' examples.
* More or less the entire premise of ''SuzumiyaHaruhi''. It's not that weirdness gravitates toward Haruhi, though, so much as that she generates it. Relating to the ''Monk'' example below, at one point two characters in the series have a conversation to the effect that fictional detectives cause bad things to happen by virtue of their very presence, and that Haruhi, at that point on a "detective" kick, might subconsciously will such a disaster into being. [[spoiler:Completely subverted when the expected murder actually happens -- Kyon immediately knows it's a hoax precisely because he trusts that Haruhi ''wouldn't'' really wish for someone to die just so she could play detective.]]
** The series doesn't portray this very well, but Kyon himself has some pretty weird acquaintances from middle school. There's Nakagawa, [[spoiler:who falls in love with Nagato at first sight because he just happens to be a semi-esper who can see her link to the Integrated Thought Entity]], and Sasaki, a very strange girl who's also [[spoiler:the center of attention for a collection of aliens, time travelers and espers who are rivals to the SOS Brigade's members' factions]].
* ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh GX}}'': In Season 4, Judai almost drops out of [[WizardingSchool the Academy]] under the assumption that, as TheChosenOne, he is the WeirdnessMagnet attracting all the evil, psychotic villains to the place. Two former said psychos clarify that it's ''Duel Academia'' that is the MagneticPlotDevice (Sameshima actually revealed it was ''built for that specific purpose''), and Judai can best protect it by staying, not leaving.
*In the early chapters of ''{{Bleach}}'', characters with spiritual affinity were weirdness magnets. Ghosts appeared to such characters, and hollows hunted them. Ichigo's spiritual attunement spilled over to his classmates making them weirdness magnets as well.
* Akari of ''{{ARIA}}'' tends to stumble into all sorts of supernatural phenomena -- many of them involving the king of cats, Cait Sith. These include, but are not limited to: traveling back in time, visiting TheLittleShopThatWasntThereYesterday, nearly taking a ride on the [[SoulTrain soul train]], and an attempted abduction by a ghost.
* Guts and Casca have this literally carved into their bodies (Guts on the back of his neck, Casca over her left breast) in ''{{Berserk}}''; they're called the Brands of Sacrifice. Though it's less "weirdness" and more "ravenous demons".
* Mizuki in ''{{Mokke}}'' has the talent to get haunted by lots of different kinds of ghosts. Her older sister Shizuru can see them, but is lucky not to be influenced by them directly.
* As the ''{{Mai-HiME}}'' quote above attests, Mai (and possibly the rest of Fuuka Academy) appears to be a magnet for the surreal. Nagi specifically mentions in one episode that the Orphans are drawn to girls like her. However, it later turns out there are [[AncientConspiracy more sinister forces at work]]...
* Lina seems to be this in the first third of ''{{Slayers}} Next'', as she inexplicably keeps tripping on one Mazoku plot after the other. [[spoiler: As it turns out there's nothing accidental about this, as Xellos was leading her into these situations by order of the Hellmaster]].
* Being a magnet for mushi, the MetaOrigin for weirdness in ''MushiShi'' is apparently a common affliction for members of the title profession, including main character Ginko.
* The titular character of ''NatsumeYujinCho'' has spirits (Youkai) coming at him from every direction. It's a genetic thing.
* Sousuke from ''FullMetalPanic''. Not that he [[CloudCuckooLander isn't weird himself]], but... good lord, even the "normal" people he interacts with are later revealed to be oddball psychos. Sure, he causes things to become weird, but a ''lot'' of situations that occurred were outlandish before he [[ItGotWorse made it even weirder]].
* In ''ShakuganNoShana'', it seems that almost all of the main characters in high school get pulled into something related to the Crimson Realm.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* JohnConstantine has spent most of his life as a weirdness magnet, as have many of his ancestors. It seems to run in the blood...
* Shade, the Changing Man lived in Hotel Shade, which the Angels told him would "draw madness to it like a magnet." John Constantine visited there, as a matter of fact.
* The main character of the comic ''MajorBummer'' is a WeirdnessMagnet by design -- the [[ImportedAlienPhlebotinum implants]] that give him and various other characters in the series powers are programmed to attract one another as well as other weirdness, like demons.
* Peter David played with the concept of a 'chaos river' for his ''Supergirl'' series. This partly explained why a superhero fought so much oddness while living in a small town.
** For 'chaos river', read 'Hellmouth'. The series was basically an expy of ''Buffy''. (But still very good.)
* The protagonist of ''Blue Devil'', as noted above.
* Aardvarks in ''{{Cerebus}}'' act as magical amplifiers; one consequence of this is that strange things tend to happen around them without their conscious control.
* Ivy Town from ''The Atom'' was described as a WeirdnessMagnet by one of the series antagonists. I blame the writer.
* ''AstroCity''. It's mentioned that there are superheroes in other cities and countries, but most other places with heroes seem to only have one major one (Silversmith in Boston, Iron Cross in Stuttgart, etc), whereas Astro City seems to have ridiculous amounts. One character compares the city's abundance as the equivalent to LA's earthquakes.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* The namesake character in ''{{Candide}}'' makes this trope OlderThanRadio.
* ArthurDent, in all incarnations of ''[=~The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy~=]'', is perhaps the quintessential WeirdnessMagnet.
** From the same author, Dirk Gently -- in two and a fragment books, he encountered a ghost, a time machine, Thor, God of Thunder, had an eagle turn into a jet and fly out the front of his house, and narrowly avoided employment to track down the rear half of a cat named Gusty Winds. This isn't counting the minor difficulties with probability during his education.
* Rincewind in the ''{{Discworld}}'' books was one of these, and it bothered him; he didn't [[IJustWantToBeNormal just want to be normal]], he wanted to be actively ''boring''. It's no coincidence that one of the books with him is titled ''Interesting Times''.
** He's a favorite of Lady Luck, and Fate hates him personally. Death actually ''gave up'' on trying to collect him, as he can no longer tell when Rincewind's due to die (due to massive deformation of his life hourglass -- that Death now keeps on his desk as a curio), and treats him rather like an amusing show he drops in on occasionally to see what's happening this episode.
**Tiffany Aching could also be said to be one, though that seems to go with the territory for a Discworld witch, even one still in training.
** Considering that even before Agnes Nitt was an official witch she could sing harmony with herself and had [[PrehensileHair hair that would occasionally eat combs]], I'd say it comes with the package.
* In ''Blood Debt'', the last of TanyaHuff's ''[[BloodBooks Blood]]'' books, Henry Fitzroy wants to know why he is being haunted by ghosts that he does not know, and his lover/regular snack, Tony Foster, points out that "like attracts like", and as a vampire, Henry should expect ghosts and things like that to show up on his doorstep.
* The Armitage children from the various Armitage stories in JoanAiken's collections have this peculiarity, but it has its genesis in a wish their mother made with a genuine wishing stone, that she would have two children and they would have interesting magical things happen to them one day a week, usually but not always on the same day. She got her wish...
** What an oddly specific wish.
* The whole premise of ''ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents''.
* The protagonist of Warren Ellis' ''Crooked Little Vein'', described as a "shit magnet", is never more than a few pages away from coincidentally bumping into something extraordinarily weird or disturbing.
* The title character of TerryPratchett's ''JohnnyMaxwellTrilogy''; though that seems to be more Johnny being the only one who notices the weirdness (due to his chronic lack of imagination, he lacks the mental filters "normal" people have that tell them "This can't be real").
* Callahan's Place in the ''[[CallahansCrosstimeSaloon Callahan's Crosstime Saloon]]'' series at least begins as a magnificent but otherwise ordinary bar that just happens to draw alien observers, talking animals and darts masters who cheat with telekinesis.
* ''Gil's All Fright Diner'' by A. Lee Martinez:
-->''"That happen a lot?"''
-->''"More often that it should. When you cross over into the weird stuff, there's no going back. Hector has a theory on it. Calls it the law of 'Anomalous Phenomena Attraction.' He explained it to me once. Didn't really pay attention, but it boils down to 'weird shit pulls in more weird shit.' Figure it's gotta be true. Ever since I killed that guy, I keep runnin' across cults and monsters and fallen gods."''
* This troper recalls a series of young adult books about a place called Eerie, Indiana. It involved these two kids called Marshall and Simon who were in a small town in Indiana where lots of weird and crazy stuff happened (like running into kids from the future, or a TV cable salesman ripping holes in reality). It turns out the town literally was a weirdness magnet, for two reasons. One, a meteorite filled with a material called "eerieum" had landed, and it soaked into the local landscape. This material causes weirdness. Two, the Roswell aliens are being stored there, attracting even more weirdness. Guess you could call them [[DavidBowie space oddities]].
** Paralleled by the TV series ''EerieIndiana'', as noted below.
* KittyNorville.
* Tom Holt's character Paul Carpenter. He gets a job with a major firm of unknown purpose, despite confusing [[ChekhovsGun Anton Chekhov]] with [[StarTrek Pavel Chekov]]. The building seems to reshape itself more or less at random, the stapler will disappear across the building if you put it down for two seconds (even if you're the only one in the room and the door is locked), new employees are left to sort graph printouts that have been scrambled and draw circles around anything on an aerial photograph that looks like a bauxite deposit, and claw marks and sinister glowing eyes appear to pop up occasionally. Paul's misadventures last for ''three'' books, all of them introducing new elements of the FantasyKitchenSink any of Holt's characters find themselves stuck in...and ''all'' of them seem to need Paul for some purpose in their great (ten-sided) game of XanatosSpeedChess. It turns out [[spoiler: he's been pretty much developed as a living weapon by a couple of blood relatives, one of whom is a) God and b) his real father, and as an additional bonus he's the reincarnation of a Norse warlord]].
*Jasper Fforde's character ''ThursdayNext''.
* In L. J. Smith's ''Vampire Diaries'', the town of Fell's Church was a weirdness magnet, because of all the souls buried there.
* One of the (many) drawbacks to being a demi-god in the ''PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'' series is this; monsters are literally drawn to their presence.
* As the quote (from the [[Film/HarryPotter Half-Blood Prince movie]]) shows, the PowerTrio from the HarryPotter series suffers from this constantly.
* Justified with Harry Dresden of TheDresdenFiles, since he's the only openly practicing wizard in the country. Name's in the phonebook. Conjure by it at your own risk.
* Most detective books make it seem that whenever the main character shows up, someone's gonna die. And it's probably going to be pulled off in the most arbitrarily complicated fashion possible. Whenever there's a Live Action TV adaptation of a series of detective books, this trope usually becomes much more noticeable.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''{{Lost}}'': The Island has a habit of attracting strange and often insane people.
** In the fifth season, Sawyer complains that he spent three years in peace, only for chaos to return along with some of his fellow survivors.
* ''DharmaAndGreg'': Dharma was definitely a WeirdnessMagnet; out-of-the-ordinary folk just seemed to naturally gravitate to her.
* ''{{Friends}}'': Phoebe was usually the source or the focus of surreal happenings.
* ''MarriedWithChildren'': Even in the strange world that we see around the Bundys, Al always seemed to attract the oddest things to him.
* ''[[MrBean Mr. Bean]]'' was both a WeirdnessMagnet and, we presume, the prime source of weirdness to others who knew him.
* ''{{Scrubs}}'': J.D.'s problems at the hospital often stem from the weirdness that seems to be attracted to him, including drawing the considerable and creative ire of the Janitor in the very first episode.
* He may be a [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien time-travelling alien from an old and powerful race]], but even by those standards, ''DoctorWho'''s Doctor manages to get caught up in cosmic trouble with an absurd frequency. Even if he just pops out for a bit of air on a street corner in Cardiff, you can bet an intergalactic conspiracy will be brewing within spitting distance. By extension, [[EarthIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse the entire planet Earth]] may be considered a WeirdnessMagnet for the series; a disproportionally large number of Evil Alien Schemes happen to involve the blue marble and a disproportionally large number of alien craft happen to crashland here, and, for that matter, 20th to 21st-century London in specific.
** A nice [[LampshadeHanging Lampshading]] was done on this in the story ''Battlefield'', where the modern-day version of UNIT regarded the Doctor as a troublemaker, since wherever he turned up, all hell broke loose.
** Somewhat averted in the new series, where a couple of times he mentions those visits to planets that did ''not'' involve crazy adventures. However, one short trip gives a good half a season of adventures.
* Photographer Chance Harper in ''StrangeLuck'' had his entire life defined by the bizarre swings of good and bad luck that afflicted him.
* A decade earlier, Tom Chance in the [[BritCom British Sitcom]] ''Chance in a Million'' was also surrounded by freak coincidences.
* Victor Meldrew from ''OneFootInTheGrave'' was afflicted with a low-grade version of this. The writer, David Renwick, seemed to delight in putting him through bizarre situations at least once an episode (ranging from the next-door neighbour installing a door in ''his'' fence to facilitate a nice chat to having to deal with an old lady's suicide), so it's not surprising he was so disgruntled.
* The Canadian kids' series ''TheZackFiles'' was about the titular Zack and his friends, who chronicled all the weirdness that would inexplicably happen to him.
** Not only is the audience expected to accept that weird stuff just happens to Zack, he even has his own theory to explain it -- "maybe it's life that's weird, and I'm just the first person to notice it".
** It gets to the point where Zack just assumes that ''anything'' happening to him is due to the ambient weirdness of his life, [[YouFailLogicForever rather than anything more sensible]]. Case in point: assuming that his bank account not decreasing when he takes money out is the first time general bizarritude is working in his favour, rather than being, say, a computer error.
* After ticking off a Scottish god thingie, Harris Pembleton in the Canadian kids TV show ''SeriouslyWeird'' is cursed (in the god's own words, to "become a magnet for all that is weird") for strange things to happen to him. Mind you, this is a show with episode titles like "When Gods Get Angry", "When Yoghurt Attacks", and "When Fairies Get Mad".
** A Greek god thingie with a Scots accent. Yes, [[SoBadItsGood it's that kind of program]]. One in which the lead automatically goes straight to DeadpanSnarker without even two seconds of "hey, that was odd" (in the pilot episode, food is hurled out of the fridge at him; he makes a smart remark to his brother). One in which his [[DoggedNiceGuy first actual success]] in going out with TheLibby leads to one of his friends ''nearly being hurled around to the other side of the earth''. [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs What in the nine hells were they ON?]]
* Used, then lampshaded, then subverted in ''{{Monk}}.'' In the episode "Mr. Monk Gets Cabin Fever", Natalie observes that everywhere Monk goes, people get murdered, supposing he's followed by some karmic cloud of disaster. By the end of the episode, [[spoiler: she changes her mind about him: he's not a WeirdnessMagnet for murder, he's cosmically drawn to where murders occur so he can solve them.]]
** Natalie's one to talk here. Before her daughter got her driver's license, she was involved one way or another in at least six murders and a museum heist!
* There's a specific variant which happens in any series featuring a supernatural detective. For some reason every time they get a case, the case will be related to the supernatural--for instance, nobody walks in the door with a normal missing person's case, the missing person will have turned into a werewolf or have been sacrificed to a demon. This despite the fact that the person with the case doesn't know that their own case is supernatural, let alone that the detective is supernatural and is the only one who knows how to handle it. Series which do this include ''{{Angel}}'', ''BloodTies'', ''{{Moonlight}}'', and ''TheDresdenFiles''; it's hard to think of a supernatural detective series which doesn't.
** Although you could claim that they do get normal cases, they just aren't the ones we see. After all, we only see them for a small part of their lives, a show might detail one or two days a week for six months out of the year, not every day of their lives.
*** And the series listed usually have the characters at least refer to more mundane cases, if not show them as tiny side-stories; Dresden, for examples, mentions at one point that he's usually just asked to find things. And, at least in the case of ''TheDresdenFiles'', Harry openly identifies himself in the phone book as a wizard.
*** Harry specifically mentions in ''Storm Front'' (and probably one or two of the other books [[spoiler:set before he effectively retires from the "wizard in the Yellow Pages" schtick by being drafted into the Wardens]] that he has referral-exchange deals with various other non-magical investigators in Chicago. This troper submits that most of the other investigators who are subject to this trope have similar arrangements.
* The entire cast of ''Dead Last'' ended up as {{WeirdnessMagnet}}s after finding a medallion that let them see ghosts.
* The various crews of the ''StarTrek'' franchise seem to come across an inordinate number of [[UnknownPhenomenon rare phenomena]]. This was {{lampshaded}} in ''Q-Squared'', with a scientist researching temporal phenomena explaining that she specifically requested transport by the ''Enterprise'' (even calling in favors) because it encounters more {{Negative Space Wedgie}}s in a year than most ships encounter in their lifetimes. In that same book, most of the anomalies are explained as creations of Trelane, but why the ''Enterprise'' itself keeps running into them, no answers are forthcoming:
-->'''Trelane''': It's a massive sort of kismet, I suppose.
* Lt. Barkley. Period.
* [[BuffyTheVampireSlayer Xander Harris]] attracts the attention of demonic females. In one episode Willow accidentally curses him to attract vicious demons all the time.
** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in the season 7 episode "First Date" when Willow receives a text message from Xander. It's coded in such a way that it could mean either "I'm getting lucky don't call me for a while" or "Help, a demon's eating my head." Playing the odds, the Scooby Gang save Xander from being a sacrifice for the Hellmouth just in time.
*** I've always theorized that Xander is simply attracted to power -- whether it's supernatural (Mrs. French being one of the first, also Buffy herself); social (Cordelia); or both (he didn't like Willow until she dated a guitarist / became a witch).
** Buffy herself, as the Slayer, is an explicit weirdness magnet, because of all the {{Big Bad}}s that come to Sunnydale specifically to kill her. Also Sunnydale itself, as the Hellmouth is another weirdness magnet.
*** The origin comic stated that Buffy, as the Slayer, is a "creature of destiny". Fate will ensure that she always ends up where she needs to be.
* Short-lived series ''Eerie Indiana'' -- clearly related to the book series cited above, although which inspired which is not known to this troper -- depicted a town that attracted Weird the way Sunnydale attracted Evil.
* Anyone who has the misfortune to be a friend of the PowerRangers tends to get any and all excess weirdness dumped on them. Of particular note is Toby from ''PowerRangersMysticForce,'' who was kidnapped by demons at ''least'' twice. They put him back promptly when they realized that, A. he didn't know anything important, and B. he was incredibly annoying.
* The eponymous private school of ''Strange Happenings At Blake Holsey High'' aka "Black Hole High" because there ''is'' a black hole in the basement which is the source of all the weirdness.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Newspaper Comics ]]

* Samantha in ''Safe Havens'', while not so strange herself, keeps meeting and befriending bizarre characters.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* Lampshaded by Adell in ''{{Disgaea}} 2'', quoted on the quote page.
* Noted in ''{{Tsukihime}}'' to affect Shiki quite drastically. His [[EvilEye Mystic Eyes of Death Perception]] are a bizarre anomaly and tend to attract others. So far, he's run across the last remaining True Ancestor, the most powerful seat of the Burial Squad in the Church, his sister is a super powerful half demon, Nero Chaos incident, Roa, SHIKI, Sion, Walachia, (who showed up precisely ''because'' Shiki has these kinds of incidents) Len and the Kagetsu Tohya events. All above females are also in love with him for some reason. Aozaki Aoko is not, but she showed up simply because his eyes are so weird without even knowing that herself. This is ''clearly'' the real reason that Shiki will not live long, not the eyes themselves.
* Vayne from ''ManaKhemiaAlchemistsOfAlrevis''. He has "attracted" a ''ghost'' and an ''alien invader'' to be members of his workshop. And then there are the quirks of the ''rest of his friends'' (a boy-crazy {{catgirl}}, a {{superhero}}[=-=][[FaceHeelTurn turned]][=-=]EvilOverlord, to name a few). In the end, though, they will ''always'' [[{{Nakama}} remain his friends]] ([[AndZoidberg yes, even]] TheRival), regardless of what happens to him in the game.
* GaiaOnline's Johnny K. Gambino. Seriously. No matter what's going on in the world of Gaia, he's got his foot in it somewhere. [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Vampires]]? He pissed them off twenty years ago. [[ZombieApocalypse Zombies]]? Oh, yeah, they're part of his science corporation's latest failed experiment. [[AlienInvasion Aliens]]? ''He is inexplicibly on a first-name basis with their leader.'' The [[EverythingTryingToKillYou Animated]]? [[spoiler: Powered by a NegativeSpaceWedgie created when he came back to life, facilitated by a [[CloningBlues disillusioned clone]]... of him, natch.]]
** Possibly the only competition he has in this department is his son, Gino, whose accomplishments include (but are in no way limited to) a FusionDance with dear old dad, creating a NegativeSpaceWedgie by ''exploding'', and getting possessed by a demigod in the form of a large clam, who does this by eating his head. GaiaOnline is ''[[WidgetSeries weird]]''.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Comics ]]

* Roger Pepitone from ''[[CollegeRoomiesFromHell College Roomies From Hell!!!]]'', who at times seems to be weirdness personified.
*Dave Davenport from ''{{Narbonic}}'', due to [[spoiler:his latent madness]].
*Monica Villareal from ''[[http://www.wapsisquare.com/ Wapsi Square]]'', though she appears to actually be a CosmicPlaything for Aztec gods.
*Dominic Deegan, from ''DominicDeegan Oracle for Hire''. Fortunately, he can usually see it coming.
** Arguably a reversal; he sees that weird stuff will be happening, so he goes there. Weirdness is a Dominic Deegan magnet.
* Many, ''many'' characters from ''[[http://go-girly.com/ Girly]]'', but especially Otra and Winter; the effect is multiplied exponentially when they're together, to the point of occasionally being so strong it pulls in ''another''' weirdness magnet from the supporting cast, such as Officer Policeguy, and so on until either the magnets are pulled apart by the plot or the weirdness reaches critical mass.
*Any member of the cast of ''SluggyFreelance''.
* Shelley Winters certainly, and maybe just the whole cast of ''ScaryGoRound'' in general. Shelley seems to get the worst of it though: recently she was unable to report on a summer fete without her and two others regressing to primal states through various forms of intoxication and having to fight a bee the size of a cow.
* Antimony from ''GunnerkriggCourt'', partly because of curiosity, [[spoiler:partly because she's a medium.]]
-->'''Headmaster:''' Tell me, do you find strange things seem to happen around you?
-->'''Antimony:''' ... [[{{Understatement}} On occasion.]]
* Jenn from ''CaseyAndAndy.'' The author has said that when strange things happen, they happen to Jenn.
* Tedd from ''ElGoonishShive'' has been generating his own weirdness for a while.
* Jamie Kingston from ''Kismetropolis'' has had the weirdness since day one, but its intensity is increasing.
* Ash Upton from ''{{Misfile}}'' has, to date, been one of only two people on the whole damn planet to be [[RetGone "misfiled"]] by a [[TheStoner stoned angel]] (who then moved in with [[GenderBender him]] and is [[TheBeard posing]] as [[PronounTrouble her]] boyfriend), been forced to race against a woman possessed by a vengeful ghost, been [[PsychoExGirlfriend stalked by Lucifer's niece]], and raced against a guy who can hold conversations with cars and is haunted by his [[ClingyJealousGirl girlfriend's]] psychically manifested Id. Oh, and apparently his car growls at people.
* Fox in ''FriendlyHostility'' is continually getting into bizarre situations, whether they're due to the demands of his job as newspaper reporter or some random person on the street who recognizes him from a long time ago and proceeds to greet/glomp/kidnap him. His boyfriend Collin [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this with the remark that he makes a great reporter as weird things keep on happening to him.
* In ''[[http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/ The Inexplicable Adventures Of Bob]]'', the title character apparently has a WeirdnessMagnet in the [[http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20060509.html roof]] [[http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20061005.html of]] [[http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20070421.html his]] [[http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20080812.html house]]. Yes, it is a RunningGag -- see panel 4 of [[http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20061028.html this strip]].
* Detective Franklin Clarke from ''[[http://www.tru-lifeadventures.com TRU-Life Adventures]]'' has a reputation among his fellow police for getting stuck with unusual cases. [[spoiler: Enough of them turn out to be related to TimeTravel that the [[TimePolice Time-Line Authority]] eventually recruit him as an agent.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* ''CourageTheCowardlyDog'' might be the king of this trope, with something strange happening each episode despite the show literally being set in the middle of Nowhere.
** This kind of makes sense. If nothing weird happens here (somewhere), what's the only place left?
*Another contender for the king of this trope would be the flash animated series ''[[OGrady O'Grady]],'' which aired on The N network. This series, featuring quite a few of the same crew and cast members as the UPN/Adult Swim series HomeMovies, was centered on the lives of four teenagers living in the town of O'Grady which was constantly plagued by "The Weirdness." The Weirdness was literally weird, unexplained occurrences that affected the entire citizenry in every single episode. The show was compared to the TwilightZone for this aspect of its premise. Examples of the Weirdness include the "Old Cold," a disease which caused sneezing-induced age shifts (the young turned old, the old turned young, and main character Abby went from about 15, to 30, to 60 something) and a a bizarre force-cord which caused two people to be inseparable for the duration of the Weirdness.
* The ''TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' were often subject to this, with Michelangelo usually providing the LampshadeHanging.
* ''{{Ben10}}''; be it the Big Apple or the Grand Canyon, no matter where Ben goes on his [[FrozenInTime four-season summer vacation]] road trip, he seems to have a knack for attracting weirdness in the form of various [[MonsterOfTheWeek monsters and aliens]]. This is lampshaded early on by Gwen. If the weirdness isn't immediately obvious, expect Ben to go looking for it. He'll find it within two minutes.
* Sokka, TheSmartGuy on Aang's team in ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'', known to [[GenreSavvy occasionally acknowledge tropes]], is the first to point out that "weird stuff happens to us" -- somewhat [[JustifiedTrope justified]] given that Aang is TheChosenOne.
* All the main characters of ''KappaMikey'' appear to be [[WeirdnessMagnet dogged by random events]], though considering the stuff that goes on in a typical episode, they might just live in a world where that sort of mayhem is an everyday thing.
* ''TheSimpsons'' [[LampshadeHanging hung a lampshade on it]] when Smithers told Mr Burns: "That's Homer Simpson. All the recent events of your life have revolved around him."
* The fundamental premise of ''AquaTeenHungerForce''. Indeed, in the series' infancy the network execs [[ExecutiveMeddling made the creators of the show]] turn [[TheyFightCrime the characters into detectives]], because they couldn't conceive of a show where every single episode consists of something completely crazy happening to the protagonists, apropos of nothing.
* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in ''SouthPark'' "Pandemic 2 -- The Startling":
-->'''Craig:''' That's a shock. I decided to follow you guys, and now I'm in the land of the giant lost world.
-->'''Stan:''' Craig, it isn't our fault! You make it sound like we always wanna be in situations like this but we don't have any choice!
-->'''Kyle:''' Yeah. Stuff just happens.
-->'''Craig:''' Stuff just happens.
-->'''Kyle:''' That's right!
-->'''Craig:''' You just wind up being sent by the government to take down the city of Lima only to wind up in the land of the giant lost world.
-->'''Cartman:''' That's right.
-->'''Craig:''' You know what stuff happens to most kids? They fall off their bikes. They get in fights with their parents. They get swindled out of their birthday money.
* Egon from ''TheRealGhostbusters'' seems to attract more than his fair share of strangeness, even though he's already in a profession known for running into weird things.
* LIfe with Loopy has this pretty much as its main premise

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

* As mentioned above, ''{{GURPS}}'' has a disadvantage that turns you into this.
** Illuminated also tends to cause this.
* In ''Scion'', every single character has a "Fateful Aura" that basically turns them into this. No matter where they go or what they do, their own Legend draws things to them, forcing them to respond and thus increase their Legend. It ''is'' possible to tone down this aura and shed Legend dots, but characters can never be entirely free of it, and since Legend determines how powerful a character's Boons and Epic Attributes can get, shedding Legend may leave them ill-equipped to deal with the weirdness when (not if) it arrives.
* [[TheWorldOfDarkness White Wolf's]] ''Promethean: the Created'' has a similar effect. [[FrankensteinsMonster Prometheans']] own Azoth (part of the divine fire of creation which sustains their existence) can be felt by other Prometheans as a call, and will also awaken any Pandorans they go near.
* The Anchors of the [[PlayerCharacter Nobles]] in ''{{Nobilis}}'' suffer from this. However, they also have immunity from the [[RealityWarper Reality Warping]] magical powers of Nobles themselves.
* The Gifted in ''WitchCraft'' have an innate tendency to be drawn into supernatural events. Since the setting is unabashed FantasyKitchenSink UrbanFantasy this technically makes them [[CoincidenceMagnet Coincidence Magnets]], but it looks more like this trope. And they're ''also'' SupernaturallyDeliciousAndNutritious.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Truth In Television ]]

* There appears to be [[OnlyInFlorida something about the state of Florida]] that attracts a whole lot of weird stories (the Elian Gonzalez affair, the 2000 electoral recount, hurricane after hurricane, JackThompson, etc.) Eventually, so many out-of-the-ordinary stories kept coming in from that state that [=~Fark.com~=] had to devise its own tag ''just for that state''.
** The News show ''{{Countdown With Keith Olbermann}}'' has a regular segment of odd stories, called "Oddball." So many of them occur in Florida that Florida has its own wing in the "Oddball Hall of Fame".
*** Could it be the fault of our state motto? 'Florida; The Rules Are Different Here'. Not exactly 'Live Free or Die' is it?
** DaveBarry lives in the Miami area, and his columns are frequently full of stories about the state's ingrained oddness. He has jokingly recommended that the US actually expel it from the union, simply to save the rest of the country some headaches. In fact, he has literally referred to it as the Giant Underground Weirdness Magnet, and in a 2007 column he claimed it lay under the Golden Glades Interchange, making the only logical action the interchange's violent demolition.
** Before around 2000 or so, California was usually thought of as being The State Where Strange Things Happen, and it is still considered to be a weird place by most people. This was less due to strange occurrences as because of the large number of eccentric people who seemed drawn there, pulled by the twin Weirdness Magnets of Hollywood and San Francisco. The saying used to be that when they tipped the country, everything loose rolled into California.
** [[{{Joisey}} New Jersey]] also has more than its fair share of weird stuff. Pick up one of the ''[[http://www.weirdnj.com/ Weird NJ]]'' books (yes, there are multiple) or the semi-yearly magazine that spawned them, and you'll see what I mean.
* While there's a high chance of most (or all) instances being faked or psychological, when you hear about people who seem to have close encounters with ghosts, shadow beings and otherworldly horrors almost every other week you almost start wondering whether some people are real life [[WeirdnessMagnet weirdness magnets]]...
* Digipen Institute of Technology is bascially what you would expect to see if you culled your entire student base from the member lists of various video game forums. You know when you read some comment online you can't help but shake your head in disbelief at? The person who wrote that either goes to Digipen, is planning to apply, or (most likely) has dropped out after discovering it's not a big Nintendo tournament.
* Wizard lookalike and comedian Bill Bailey mentioned being 'A Mecca for those with no agenda'.
* Portland, OR seems to be one of these, and its citizens seem to embrace and even promote this. Ever seen a marathon race featuring [[{{Mario}} people crossdressing as Mario and Peach]], PacMan, billiard balls, [[{{Dune}} a sand worm]], and so much more? I can now say that at least I have.
* The Vancouver Art Gallery. If there's any kind of organised strangeness (including protests) going on in the city, its participants will, without fail, pick the Art Gallery as the place to do it. Or to meet up, or start or wind up there if it's mobile. (This troper doesn't spend enough time downtown to really comment on whether unorganised strangeness accumulates there too, but wouldn't be surprised.)
** It helps that The VAG used to be a courthouse, and so has these impressive steps flanked by huge granite lions to make speeches from. Next to that, a soapbox is pretty weak.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Original ]]

*Adam Dodd of ''SurvivalOfTheFittest''. Doesn't only get put into the act, but after he wins, he gets put in one of the sequels ''too''. Not to mention at one point in V1 he was attacked by various lunatics, including a sex-crazed schizophrenic and a sadistic (and gay) serial killer.
*Charlie of "Charlie the Unicorn" fame. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5im0Ssyyus Enough]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFCSXr6qnv4&feature=fvw Freaking]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaCCkfjPm0o&feature=channel Said]].
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