History Main / JockDadNerdSon

* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' Season 5 finale, "The Family Tree," reveals that Chuckie's grandfather, Marvin Finster, is much more conventionally manly than Chas Finster, who is Chuckie's father.

** Randyll Tarly is a brilliant, no-nonsense warrior while his eldest son Samwell is a fat bookworm. Randyll spent Sam's entire life trying to whip him into shape without success. Finally, when his wife birthed a second son, he gave Samwell a choice: Join the Night's Watch and renounce his claim as heir to House Tarly, or suffer a "{{hunting accident}}".

* ''WesternAnimation/BigCityGreens'': Remy, Cricket and Tilly's best friend, is a mild-mannered, geeky, nerdy-type kid whose into science, math, music, and video games than typical manly or athletic endeavors. His father, on the other hand, is a wealthy retired professional football player, who was the star jock at both his high school ''and'' university. The episode "Football Camp" even revolves around Remy's dad trying to get him into playing football by making him and Cricket come with him to a football camp, until Cricket convinces Remy to tell his dad that he's okay with being better at football on his video game than in real life, and that he doesn't have the same sports dreams as his father.

* Subverted in ''ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}'' #1: Young Matt Murdock wants to become a jock, but his father, the small-time prizefighting boxer "Battling" Murdock, forbids him to do that (or to "rassle" with the neighborhood kids) so that he can concentrate on his studies and have a better life than his past-his-prime dad. Thus very much against his will, Matt becomes a nerd and the butt of cruel jokes by the boys of his Hell's Kitchen neighborhood.
* {{Inverted|Trope}} in one 90s ''Franchise/SpiderMan'' story, where a {{Flashback}} showed us that Flash Thompson's dad was a brilliant academic, who was totally unimpressed by his son's prowess on the football field. Flash bullied Peter because he saw him as the sort of son his father wanted. However, this was eventually made [[{{Retcon}} non-canon]] with his father actually being established as an abusive alcoholic and a cop who pressured Flash into athletics.

* Inverted in ''Comicbook/{{Runaways}}''. Chase is initially presented as a jock, and his parents are both super-geniuses. His father is [[AbusiveParents less than impressed]] with his son's athletic abilities.
* Comicbook/{{Cyborg}} is an inversion. Even though Victor ''is'' brainy, he resents his scientist parents pushing him into academics and chooses to pursue athletics...until, of course, the accident that nearly killed him, at which point his dad made him [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a cyborg]] to save his life. Later versions of his origin have Victor's father brushing off his son almost entirely because of his athletic focus, even when it's made clear Vic's academically excelling as well.
* Played for drama in ''ComicBook/UltimateFantasticFour''. Gary Richards is a huge sports nut and obsessed with "manly" behavior. His son Reed's quiet nature and fascination with science elicits his scorn, to the point that he [[WhyAreYouNotMySon openly regards Ben Grimm as being the son he wanted]] but never had.
* An odd variation in ''{{ComicBook/Preacher}}'': Jesse's father was a Vietnam veteran but was murdered when he tried to take his family away from the clutches of his wife's EvilMatriarch. Jesse spent his childhood forced to train to be a preacher, but his grandmother's henchman Jody made sure to teach Jesse all about horses, cars, guns, and fighting (well, taking beatings), apparently honestly concerned that Jesse was a weakling just because he cried when his friend was murdered or his puppy nailed to a fence. His last words just before Jesse kills him were "Prouda you, boy".
* ''ComicBook/{{Robin|1993}}'': While Tim is plenty active he's also a nerd whose into photography and doesn't care for American Football, which his dad doesn't seem to be capable of understanding. As a matter of fact, Jack only figures out Tim is Robin after he tears his son's room to shreds after hearing that the high school football coach doesn't recall Tim trying out for the team and discovers the Robin suit hidden behind a discrete panel in Tim's closet.

* Stan and Steve Smith from ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' provide the page image. Stan constantly tries to help his son with various "masculine" activities to avoid letting Steve repeat the same poor experience Stan had in high school.

* Inverted in ''WesternAnimation/TheDragonPrince'' with Viren and Soren. Harrow and Callum could be considered a straightforward step-parent version, with Harrow as the archetypal KnightInShiningArmor and Callum as the artist and mage-in-training. Unlike Viren and Soren, there's no friction between Harrow and Callum over their differences.

** It's also inverted for Peter himself. He's the nerd dad and in differents universe like Spider girl or renew your vows), his daughters are more athletics and less interrested in sciences than him (Mayday parker was on the basketball team until she had her powers and Annie May was a BullyHunter when she was a kid and has her spider powers since birth)

* Comicbook/{{Cyborg}} is an inversion. Even though Victor ''is'' brainy, he resents his scientist parents pushing him into academics and chooses to pursue athletics...until, of course, the accident that nearly killed him, at which point his dad made him [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a cyborg]] to save his life.

* ''ComicBook/RobinSeries'': While Tim is plenty active he's also a nerd whose into photography and doesn't care for American Football, which his dad doesn't seem to be capable of understanding. As a matter of fact, Jack only figures out Tim is Robin after he tears his son's room to shreds after hearing that the high school football coach doesn't recall Tim trying out for the team and discovers the Robin suit hidden behind a discrete panel in Tim's closet.

* A GenderFlipped version (more like Tomboy Mom, Girly Daughter) is shown in ''[[Anime/{{Pokemon}} Pokémon X&Y]]'' with Serena and Grace. Grace was a famous professional Rhyhorn Racer (a rather rough sport in the Pokémon world), and tries to enforce it on Serena, who eventually settles down for Pokémon Showcases.

->'''Kent Brockman:''' Rainier Wolfcastle... star of McBain and the upcoming film, ''"Help, My Son Is A Nerd"''.\\

->'''Kent Brockman:''' Tell me about your new movie: ''"Help, My Son Is A Nerd"''.\\
'''Rainier Wolfcastle:''' My son has just returned from college, and I'm horrified to find he's a nerd.\\
'''Kent Brockman:''' I'm laughing already.\\

* ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow'': Highlighted in the episode, "Field of Streams", where Cleveland (who was once a star athlete in high-school) wants his son, Cleveland Jr., to join the baseball team and carry his legacy but the latter is more invested in joining the Math Club.

* ''Franchise/DragonBall'': Son Goku and Son Gohan. Goku is a martial artist who loves fighting and training who spends all of his days with training whenever possible. Gohan on the other hand, while being a powerful martial artist himself, is more of a scholar, which is his profession. In days of peace, Gohan spends his days studying or doing his job, leading him to become out of shape. Goku has already accepted that Gohan is not a fighter and doesn't expect him to fight alongside him. However, Gohan would briefly returned to fighting during serious crises. Depending on the media, Goku might show a little disappointment towards his eldest son.

* Subverted in ''ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}'' #1: Young Matt Murdock wants to become a jock, but his father, the small-time prizefighting boxer "Battling" Murdock, forbids him to do that (or to "rassle" with the neighborhood kids) so that he can concentrate on his studies and have a better life than his past-his-prime dad. Thus very much against his will Matt becomes a nerd and the butt of cruel jokes by the boys of his Hell's Kitchen neighborhood.
* {{Inverted|Trope}} in one 90s ''Franchise/SpiderMan'' story, where a {{Flashback}} showed us that Flash Thompson's dad was a brilliant academic, who was totally unimpressed by his son's prowess on the football field. Flash bullied Peter because he saw him as the sort of son his father wanted. However this was eventually made [[{{Retcon}} non-canon]] with his father actually being established as an abusive alcoholic and a cop who pressured Flash into athletics.

* An odd variation in ''{{ComicBook/Preacher}}'': Jessie's father was a Vietnam veteran, but was murdered when he tried to take his family away from the clutches of his wife's EvilMatriarch. Jessie spent his childhood forced to train to be a preacher, but his grandmother's henchman Jody made sure to teach Jessie all about horses, cars, guns, and fighting (well, taking beatings), apparently honestly concerned that Jessie was a weakling just because he cried when his friend was murdered or his puppy nailed to a fence. His last words just before Jessie kills him were "Prouda you, boy".
* ''ComicBook/RobinSeries'': While Tim is plenty active he's also a nerd whose into photography and doesn't care for American Football, which is dad doesn't seem to be capable of understanding. As a matter of fact Jack only figures out Tim is Robin after he tears his son's room to shreds after hearing that the high school football coach doesn't recall Tim trying out for the team and discovers the Robin suit hidden behind a discrete panel in Tim's closet.

* ''Film/LifeOfAHorseTrader'': Yone is a BoisterousBruiser who is also a champion sumo wrestler while his son is quiet and bookish. This causes some tension when it's time to make decisions about Daihei's education.

** Aegon the Conqueror was a muscular, charismatic general who brought about the union of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros through military force. His son and heir apparent, Aenys, was a spindly nerd who had no interest in fighting, and preferred the company of septons and maesters than knights. Many people at the time complained that Aenys was not fit to be his father's successor, and dreamed of Aegon's other son, Maegor, who did inherit his father's physical prowess, of becoming king. Unfortunately, Maegor would go down in history as [[TheCaligula Maegor the Cruel]]...

* ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir'': Uncle Phil was an AcademicAthlete and a star athlete in college, while his son Carlton is academically oriented but terrible at sports, especially basketball. When his cousin Will starts playing basketball and becomes the star of the team, Carlton becomes jealous of his father bonding with Will over their common interest in sports.
* ''Series/{{Friends}}'': A bit of a DownplayedTrope in the relationship between the somewhat nerdy Ross and his father, even though he was generally portrayed as on the positive side of the ParentalFavoritism; "The One With The Male Nanny" revealed that Jack Geller once saw the young Ross playing with his toy dinosaurs and asked why he wasn't outside "like a real boy". A similar, in-law version involved Ross and Rachel's dad, an stereotypical "All-American Boy" bordering on JerkJock.

* ''Series/SchittsCreek'': Johnny brags about being his school baseball team, but it was a Hebrew school team called The Flying Latkes, and it's clear Johnny was a nerd. However, he's a better player than his CampGay son David who only agrees to play in an amateur game to please his boyfriend. [[spoiler: The storyline turns out very sweet as Johnny, who is on the opposite team, loses interest in playing to cheer on his adult son who makes a surprise hit and wins the game.]]

* ''Series/That70sShow'': Red is a War Veteran instead of a former High School Jock. He still has this type of relationship with his son Eric. One episode also made reference to Red having been on the wrestling team when he was in high school.

* Creator/PattonOswalt talks about being the younger half of a variant of this -- ''Military'' Dad, Nerd Son. And also, its flip-side.

* Inverted with Roy Greenhilt and his father, Eugene, of ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick''. Roy chose a career as a fighter class as opposed to a wizard like his father, which are seen as a jock and nerd class at least in universe. Played straight with Eugene and his own father, Horace, who had inspired Roy's career path. Interestingly, Roy was apparently a nerd compared to ''other'' fighters (possibly because Roy tries very hard to avert the "fighters are DumbMuscle" stereotype)

* One ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons: WesternAnimation/TreehouseOfHorror'' episodes shows us Prof. Frink's dad, who, although also an academic, is more of the AdventurerArchaeologist sort.

* Hank and Bobby in ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill''. Hank was a high school athlete; Bobby is pudgy, lazy and more interested in becoming a comedian, not to mention more sensitive than Hank ever feels comfortable with.
* On one episode of ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'', Dexter's dad tries to teach him how to do sports, but is always thwarted by Dee Dee. Not that Dexter's dad is athletic, but his interests goes that way.

* ''WesternAnimation/AaahhRealMonsters'' had Slickis, 'this Academy's most esteemed graduate', a world-renowned top athlete and professional scarer. His son Ickis was often mistaken for a cute bunny rabbit on scares, and once even got his foot run over when he tried to frighten two teenagers who wanted to make-out at an isolated location. That said, Slickis supports Ickis despite his shortcomings, even emphasizing his own failures to make his son feel better.

* An in-law version in ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'' between the socially-awkward, sensitive Mordecai and Frank, Margaret's intrepid helicopter-piloting dad.

* For a given value in ''WesternAnimation/MyDadTheRockstar'' between Willy Zilla and his father Rock. Both are musically talented, but whereas Rock is a boisterous rockstar, Willy is far more reserved and into jazz with his trombone. The inverted relationship exists between Rock and his own father who is a world famous classical cellist. In the physical sense, Rock has a muscular build while Willy is a scrawny nerd.
* Inverted in ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'' with Bow and his parents. Bow's dads are both historians who want him to inherit their library once they retire. However Bow is secretly a talented archer fighting against the Horde.

* WesternAnimation/HeyArnold: In the episode "Rich Guy", there is eccentric sporty billionaire Sammy Redman and his artsy photographer son Alan.

** Another episode has the body discovered by a pair of father and son deer hunters, with the son being more preoccupied with worrying about making it back in time to watch a ''Series/ProjectRunway'' like-show and read a biography on Diane von Furstenberg. His dad is chagrined, berates him a little bit about being unmanly, and [[HypocriticalHumor Then proceeds to]] [[ScreamsLikeALittleGirl make a high-pitched scream when they find the victim of the episode]].