History Main / ItRunsInTheFamily

* Caulder/Stolos's "children" in ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars: Days of Ruin/Dark Conflict''. Cyrus is fairly levelheaded, but Penny/Lili and Tabitha/Larissa... notsomuch.

* Loz, Yazoo, and Kadaj from ''Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren''. Like their father, they all want to help their mother Jenova in whatever they can. If that includes threatening dormerly {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s, kidnapping children, and summoning a dragon to destroy a City, all the better!

* Loz, Yazoo, and Kadaj from ''Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren''. Like their Father, they all want to help their Mother Jenova in whatever they can. If that includes threatening Formerly Corrupt Corporate Executives, Kidnapping Children, and summoning a Dragon to destroy a City, all the better!

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' all Simpson men are born intelligent, but suddenly become idiots at the age of eight.

* Music/AmandaPalmer's "Runs in the Family" describes people who have inherited various complications from their bloodlines (''My friend has maladies, rickets and allergies/ That she dates back to the seventeenth century'') and goes on to talk about what the singer believes to have inherited from their family.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'', Mei discovers her giant red panda transformation is a hereditary thing.

* {{Inverted|Trope}} in ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'': the Baudelaire siblings are the only people who aren't insane, evil, or completely oblivious.

* Amanda Palmer's "Runs in the Family" describes people who have inherited various complications from their bloodlines (''My friend has maladies/ Ricketts and allergies/ That she dates back to/ The seventeenth century'') and goes on to talk about her own family.

* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'':

* ''Manga/InuYasha'': {{Youkai}} view compassion for [[ToServeMan humans]] as eccentricity at best and [[LoveIsAWeakness weakness]] at worst. Even the great Dog Leader was brough down by his compassion, an "infection" Sesshoumaru blames Inuyasha's human mother for even though Myouga states he was genuinely compassionate. Eventually, even Sesshoumaru succumbs to the family "curse" causing his mother to observe he's turned into his father.

* ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}'''s Laforet family is a proud family line consisting of {{Mad Scientist}}s, [[PsychoKnifeNut knife-wielding]] [[LoveMartyr fanatics]], {{Enfante Terrible}}s and, [[spoiler:once Claire finds his way into the bloodline]], [[TheAce hypercompetent]] [[InsufferableGenius but insufferably arrogant]] solipsistic teenage girls. Only one can arguably be considered reasonably sane (Luchino Campanella), and he's a teenage assassin.

** ''ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}'', a SociopathicHero, hooks up with Shiklah, an evil [[HornyDevils succubus]] who's crazier than he is. Both have shown an attraction to one another's violent sides. Their relationship was as stable as one could expect. They can be lovebirds one minute , and literally going to war with one another the next, while having sex in the middle of that. They have a daughter together sometime in the future. Needless to say their daughter, Warda is just as violent as both of her parents. She doesn't have a high opinion of Deadpool, held him hostage and tortured him for years trying to get info on what he'd done with Shiklah, while also causing another war. Deadpool's first child, Ellie, fights against her. While Ellie isn't as crazy as Deadpool or her half-sister, she is not shy to solving problems through violence. Even as a kid, she got into many fights after changing schools, with Deadpool encouraging her to tell teachers about bullies, instead of fighting. But no luck.

A family full of eccentric, weird and sometimes insane relatives. Preferably all of them, but as long as it's the majority of them then it's okay. Commonly it's all of them except [[OnlySaneMan one perfectly normal one]].

* In the Wiki/TVTropes original webseries ''WebVideo/EchoChamber'', [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Zack's]] entire family seems to be severely messed up.

** The "ComicBook/HouseOfM", currently made up of [[Characters/MarvelComicsMagneto Magneto]], [[Characters/Avengers60sMembers Quicksilver]], the Characters/ScarletWitch, and [[Characters/XMen60sMembers Polaris]] ([[LukeIMightBeYourFather probably]]), all of them pretty much known for periodically leaving their sanity at home. The third-generation kids may or may not be affected, but so far, they're... mostly doing well. Except for the ones who may or may not have just been a physical manifestation of [[RealityWarper Wanda]]'s psychosis. Oh, and the one who's currently being treated for an addiction to ComicBook/{{the Inhumans}}' Terrigen Mists... which her father got her hooked on after taking a few hits himself.

* ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}'''s Laforet family is a proud family line consisting of {{Mad Scientist}}s, [[KnifeNut knife-wielding]] [[LoveMartyr fanatics]], {{Enfante Terrible}}s and, [[spoiler:once Claire finds his way into the bloodline]], [[TheAce hypercompetent]] [[InsufferableGenius but insufferably arrogant]] solipsistic teenage girls. Only one can arguably be considered reasonably sane (Luchino Campanella), and he's a teenage assassin.

* The [[Franchise/MarvelUniverse House of M]], currently made up of Magneto, Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch, and Polaris (probably), All of them pretty much known for periodically leaving their sanity at home. The third-generation kids may or may not be affected, but so far they're... mostly doing well.
** Except for the ones who may or may not have just been a physical manifestation of [[RealityWarper Wanda's]] psychosis.
** Oh, and the one who's currently being treated for an addiction to the Inhumans' Terrigen Mists.
*** Which her father got her hooked on after taking a few hits himself.
* ''ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}'', a SociopathicHero hooks up with Shiklah, an evil Succubus who's crazier than he is. Both have shown an attraction to one another's violent sides. Their relationship was as stable as one could expect. They can be lovebirds one minute , and literally going to war with one another the next, while having sex in the middle of that. They have a daughter together sometime in the future. Needless to say their daughter, Warda is just as violent as both of her parents. She doesn't have a high opinion of Deadpool, held him hostage and tortured him for years trying to get info on what he'd done with Shiklah, while also causing another war. Deadpool's first child, Ellie, fights against her. While Ellie isn't as crazy as Deadpool or her half-sister, she is not shy to solving problems through violence. Even as a kid, she got into many fights after changing schools, with Deadpool encouraging her to tell teachers about bullies, instead of fighting. But no luck.

* In certain stories, we learn that [[ComicBook/ArchieComics Archie Andrews']] ancestors were just as girl-obsessed and clumsy as he is.

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: Evidently becoming a--well meaning--MadScientist runs in Paula von Gunther's family, as her daughter Gerta ends up accidentally creating a number of superpowered villains as a young scientist on Paradise Island.

[[folder:FanWorks]]

--> '''Fiona, clearly impressed:''' Mom!
--> '''Lillian:''' Well, you didn't think you got your fighting skills from your father, did you?

* Inverted in ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'': the Baudelaire siblings are the only people who aren't insane, evil, or completely oblivious.
* The title family in ''Literature/TheBagthorpeSaga'' by Helen Cresswell (they start with ''Ordinary Jack''). Tess, Rosie and William are all somewhat eccentric, and their parents and grandparents might edge into mildly deranged, as might their cousin Daisy... They all (well, except Daisy) believe wholeheartedly in their genius as a family and individually, and take themselves very seriously. In one of the books in the sequence, they try to break as many Guinness World Records in a summer as they can... And in keeping with the trope, Jack and his ally Uncle Parker are the only sane ones people can bear to have anywhere near them. Also Grandpa (though he's less developed as a character).
* ''Literature/HarryPotter''

* The [[Literature/VorkosiganSaga Vorkosigans]]:
-->'''Cordelia''': Counts Vorkosigan have come to horrible ends throughout your history. You've been blown up, shot, starved, drowned, burned alive, beheaded, diseased, and demented. The only thing you've never done is die in bed.

* Subverted in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures novel ''The Taint'': Fitz's maternal relatives are mostly more or less insane. It turns out it's due to alien brain slugs, which the Doctor deals with. It seems, however, that Fitz has a slightly different view of matters, as in one or two later stories, he thinks he's hallucinating and blames it on the craziness that runs in his family, even though he hasn't got a brain slug any more. Naturally, he's not hallucinating.
* The Pendergasts, in the thrillers of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, have a strong streak of insanity in the family. Sometimes this takes the form of a [[BunnyEarsLawyer brilliant, unorthodox]] approach to [[DefectiveDetective investigating crime]]. More often, it takes the form of [[ScienceRelatedMemeticDisorder finding novel ways]] to [[KillEmAll wipe]] [[InsaneEqualsViolent out]] [[NietzscheWannabe humanity]].

* In Creator/GKChesterton's ''Literature/TheManWhoWasThursday'', it's mentioned in passing that Syme grew up in an extremely odd family and eventually got so BoredWithInsanity that he rebelled by being as sane as humanly possible. In fact, he's so sane that he's almost ''too'' sane, and therefore, in his own way, just as crazy as the rest of them.

** As for OcularGushers, they seem to run in the Casagrande family as well. Frida is shown to be ProneToTears, sometimes [[CryingARiver flooding her apartment with her tears]]. Episodes like "Flight Plan" and "Perro Malo" show that her [[OutnumberedSibling daughter and three sons]] also cry OcularGushers, and "Rook, Line, and Sinker" shows that [[BirdsOfAFeather her husband cries like that too]].

* Left-wing ideologies and a love for the theatre run in the Redgrave family, as seen in Sir Creator/MichaelRedgrave, his daughters Creator/VanessaRedgrave and Lynn Redgrave, and his son Corin Redgrave. Other members of the Redgrave dynasty include Creator/NatashaRichardson, her sister Joely (both Vanessa's daughters), and Jemma Redgrave (Corin's daughter).

** The [[RuleOfThree third]] is a certain unflinching courage. It could be argued that Manolo got his due to La Muerta's blessing. But his mother, Carmen, on meeting Xibalba, bitchslapped him.

* Shinichi's father in ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' is a mystery writer who doesn't investigate because he's BrilliantButLazy. Fellow detective Heiji's father is a well-known police investigator. Haibara's parents are scientists. Ran's parents were highly proficient in martial arts.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': A gift for banter and sarcasm runs deep in Summers women, as shown by Buffy, her sister Dawn and their mother Joyce.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "A Fishful of Dollars", off of Leela questioning Fry's sanity, Professor Farnsworth claims madness runs in their family. Given what we see of Fry's family (particularly, his CrazySurvivalist father), he just might have something.

[[folder:Video games]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', the royal family of the Fire Nation have a tendency to be sociopathic nutjobs. For some odd reason it only seems to happen to one family member per generation, unfortuanetly, until the last two generations that one person was the eldest son. Zuko seems to have put a stop to it for good by the time of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' because his SpinOffspring are well adjusted, good folks.