Dating What Daddy Hates

Android 17: Look, if this is about pissing off Mom and Dad, you could just date a black guy.
Android 18: Oh my god.
Android 17: Oh right, they're dead.
Android 18: Oh my god.

— Dragon Ball Z Abridged

It frequently is seen in American television and movies: a Bratty Teenage Daughter brings home or is picked up by a date that her father would never, ever approve of. There's various forms:

• He rides a motorcycle, wears leathers and dark sunglasses (even at night), and enters swaggering, chewing something indeterminate, and calls the father "pops". Hilarity Ensues.
• Her date's of a different race, religion, political affiliation, social class, or is the same gender (and/or gender non-conforming).
• He has some other characteristic that offends Daddy's sensibilities: he's too nerdy, too quiet, too loud, a fan of the wrong sports team, has bad table manners or atypical fashion sense.
• He may be a lout with No Social Skills.
• He might be the son of (or otherwise related to) someone the father doesn't like.

The main requirement is that the potential date has some qualities that the father hates in people, and this motivates the daughter to love her date more. Usually a comedy trope, could be a love trope, can lead to a Parental Marriage Veto if the character lasts more than one scene/episode. If the relationship works in the end, it's become Nobody Thinks It Will Work. If at any point the boyfriend comes to pick up the daughter for a date, this will almost without exception result in Twerp Sweating.

If the father is depicted more sympathetically, he may be a Troubled Sympathetic Bigot who ends up having to reconcile his desire to see his daughter happy with his own personal hang-ups about her boyfriend. In other cases, he might see something of how he himself used to be, be it pluckiness or some immature behavior, in the boy and be worried that he will make the same mistakes. That might make the father mellow out if the boyfriend shows some Character Development. Alternately, he may realize that his daughter's boyfriend really is a dangerous scumbag or a mooching bum, and he ends up turning into a Papa Wolf to protect her when her boyfriend puts her in danger or is leading her towards a dead-end, futureless life.

Sometimes it might not even be the father, it could be any other relative who doesn't like whoever that the person they're related to is dating.

Contrast with Parent-Preferred Suitor. Overlaps a bit with All Girls Want Bad Boys and Maligned Mixed Marriage. Often involves a Boyfriend-Blocking Dad. When the dating is done because that is what daddy hates, it's a Shock Value Relationship. Often, the parents will ask Where Did We Go Wrong? See Like Parent, Like Spouse for cases where a character's significant other is similar to a parent. Contrast Parent with New Paramour for cases where it's the child objecting (or sometimes not) to a potential or actual step-parent.

The adult version of this is Obnoxious In-Laws. Either one can be Love-Obstructing Parents.

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Examples

Anime & Manga

• A Dog of Flanders (1975): Friendship example (though it does bloom into romance later). Alois and Nello are best friends, but her father thinks it is embaressing for the daughter of the richest man in town to hang out with a "pauper", and the two get into arguements over it. Alois' father even threatens to send her out of the country if she doesn't listen to him.
• A side story in Fairy Tail involved the guild working security at a party where they are on the lookout for a criminal. He eventually arrives and fights for a bit till eventually calling it off and revealing he was there to see the princess of the castle whom both are in love. However, her father didn't approve of this and had kicked him out in the past simply because he was a commoner, forcing the man to turn to a life of crime just to see her again.
• Gokusen: Kumiko's yakuza family doesn't have any problem with Shin, who's the son of a police chief, but Shin's dad is more than a little disappointed with his son's taste in women.
• In the anime of Gungrave, Maria dates Brandon, a street thug. Uncle Jester (who acts as Maria's guardian/foster father), knowing Brandon's and his gang's tendency to get into fights with another gang, doesn't like the fact that Maria is in a relationship with Brandon. When Maria walks home with Brandon, Uncle Jester angrily tells Brandon to never see Maria again and says that he (Jester) hates street thugs. He then drags Maria into their house, leaving Brandon behind.
• I Married My Best Friend to Shut My Parents Up: Machi Morimoto's parents are pressuring her to marry someone of respectable standing, and Machi knows full well that they're only doing it to have a son-in-law they can brag about. Machi starts contemplating a marriage to someone they hate just to spite them, but doesn't want to be attached to a deadbeat. Meanwhile, her kouhai Hana Agaya recently got booted from her apartment in Mitaka for renovations, and can't afford a new place on her own. Hana proposes that they both get a place in Shibuya, which allows for a legal partnership that is, for all intents and purposes, a same-sex marriage, simultaneously spiting Machi's parents and solving Hana's residential troubles.
• In Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Louise's mother is against her dating Saji at first simply because he's a commoner while Louise's family is pretty wealthy. Saji wins her over through his cooking skills, however (much to Louise's chagrin since she liked that her mother was against it. Though this doesn't break them up).
• In Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, Chika Fujiwara is greatly opposed to her sister Moeha's attraction to Shirogane, mainly because she's endured his lack of talent firsthand multiple times and doesn't want Moeha to suffer like she has.

Comic Books

• Archie Comics (2015): Veronica fell in love with Archie right away because he enraged her father.
• Batman:
  • Gender-Inverted excample: Batman definitely would not approve of Nightwing hooking up with Huntress, and both Nightwing and Huntress know it.
  • Subverted with Batman and Talia al Ghul; despite them being an example of Dating Catwoman, Talia's father Ra's al Ghul approves of their on-off relationship, mainly because he desires an heir to be born from it.
• Robin (1993): When Stephanie Brown and Tim Drake start dating, Bruce disapproves as he thinks it encourages her to continue acting as Spoiler, Cluemaster disapproves when he finds out since it means his daughter is dating a hero, and even Tim's bio-dad Jack has something to say about Tim dating a girl who is the daughter of a supervillain and has had a child already while still in high school. Tim and Steph don't care.
• The Incredible Hulk: One of the best-known cases in the Marvel Universe is Bruce Banner and his long-time love interest Betty Ross. Her father, General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, didn't approve of the relationship when Banner was just a nebbish scientist. Then the Hulk happened and Ross went General Ripper, determined to either kill the Hulk or use his power for his own benefit. He blames everyone except himself for what this did to his relationship with his daughter.
• League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century offers a platonic example; in the middle of her Roaring Rampage of Revenge against London, men, and the world in general, Janni Nemo encounters Mina Murray and mentions that her racist, sexist father used to rant constantly about how awful and wicked Mina was... which probably means that Mina's okay.
• In Runaways, one of the things that attracts Gert Yorkes to Chase Stein is the knowledge that her evil elitist parents would almost certainly have hated her hooking up with a Dumb Jock.
• Shock SuspenStories had a one-off strip in which a racist man who loathes Mexicans is horrified to discover his daughter has begun dating a Mexican boy who has recently moved into the local area. At the end of the strip, he gets up a lynch mob to beat the Mexican boy to death, only to find out that they grabbed the wrong person and have killed his daughter - she had secretly married her boyfriend and was waiting for him to come home from work.
• Superman has his own General Ripper father-in-law in Sam Lane, whose behaviour has ranged all the way from Jerk with a Heart of Gold to anti-alien zealot. Unlike Ross, however, Lane has no idea Clark and Superman are the same person; to Clark, he mostly fits Obnoxious In-Laws. Ironically inverted in the Flashpoint timeline, where he is a Fatherly Scientist who comes to view young Kal-El (raised in a government lab in this universe) as the son he never had.
• Most Wonder Woman continuities recontextualize Hercules' fight with the Amazons by having Ares rather than Hera send the hero against them. This twists things since Ares is Hippolyta's father and Herc and Poly end up in a very abusive relationship as a result with Ares having always despised Herc and liking him even less for what he ends up doing instead of fighting the Amazons properly by drugging and enslaving them.
• X-Men: Wolverine's clone "daughter" had a brief relationship with the time-displaced teenage Cyclops, his mortal enemy (at that point).
• In Y: The Last Man, the actual lesbian Dr. Mann was dumped by her lesbian-until-graduation college girlfriend, who seemed to be under the impression that the only reason a girl would ever want to date another girl is to invoke this trope. She told Mann that now that they were graduating, it was time to grow up and start acting like adults, and if Mann still wants to piss off her dad, she should date a black guy instead, because apparently that's the mature thing to do.

Comic Strips

• Dating what Momma hates: The eponymous Momma (Sonja Hobbs) is forever pressing daughter Marylou to marry specifically a doctor or a lawyer or anyone she thinks is in money. Marylou, though, has no interest in being a Gold Digger and has no qualms opting for the bum types that her brother Francis is like.

Fairy Tales

• "The Devil With the Three Golden Hairs": Even though the king attempts to murder the main character to prevent him from marrying his daughter, the princess considers him a good husband.

Fan Works

• In SilfofinaDragon's Sengoku Basara fanfic The adventures of Mori Motonari and Yuki and onwards, Date Masamune and Sanada Yukimura's daughter Yuki has a relationship with Ishida Mitsunari, though Dad Masamune is very disapproving of this until later on.
• In the Altered Destinies Fan Verse, Vlad Tepesh nearly choked on his own tongue when Alucard revealed that Integra had Taken a Third Option and became his Familiar. She was around four months pregnant when D found out and convinced Alucard to tell their father. The fact that Alucard used his mother’s ring to propose didn’t help.
• Aunt Salem: There are several reasons that Weiss is dating Jaune (some good and some bad), but she doesn't even attempt to hide the fact that she is aware that her father will hate him and she considers it a plus.
• Bequeathed from Pale Estates:
  • Ned Stark is absolutely furious when he learns that the Martell his oldest daughter Lyarra (a gender-flipped Jon Snow) will be marrying is Oberyn. Unfortunately, since it was willed by the gods, he doesn't have much of a say in the matter.
  • Clearly not wishing for a repeat and having some actual agency in the situation, his goal is to subvert this with his middle daughter Sansa, who was almost betrothed to Joffrey, by making a coordinated effort with Lyarra to turn her attentions to Domeric Bolton (someone he does approve of). It works.
• In A Brief History of Equestria, it's shown that Private Pansy (revealed to actually be Commander Hurricane's daughter) eventually fell in love with an Earth pony. When he found out who (or rather, what) her beau was after she gives birth to an Earth Pony foal, Hurricane's overreaction to the relationship ended up being a contributing factor in starting the war that would eventually summon the Windigoes.
• Coeur Al'Aran's Dating What Daddy Hates: As the name implies. Weiss brings the Faunus Sun to a meeting with her father, who is infamously racist against Faunus. Though the truth is that it's a Fake Relationship and Sun was simply the only boy available, and Weiss also notes that her father would have hated anyone she brought. At the end, Weiss does end up dating Sun for real, but only after she gives up ever earning her father's approval. He's been controlling her for her entire life and likely wouldn't let up until the day he died, so she's better off just doing what she wants and trying to do good that way.
• In Everything Changes (Milkyway Scribbles), Delia's father Ernest has always hated her estranged husband Jay. As teen Jay was an aloof, jacket-wearing motorcyclist from a rich family. He fit a lot of negative stereotypes in Ernest's mind. Delia's parents don't get along with Jay's parents.
• Zigzagged in the Facing the Future Series, where the Mansons don't so much mind Sam dating Danny; it's Danny's parents that they can't tolerate.
• Foalsitting Follies: Played With. Seville fears his parents' reaction to his relationship with Twilight not because they'll disapprove of her, but because she's much further up in the feudal system that they're still part of.
• The Glee fanfic Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (the title, of course, is a Shout-Out to the film mentioned below) is an interesting example because it's about a triad, not a couple. Kurt and Blaine have been together since high school, and have more recently gotten together with Sebastian. Kurt's father Burt approves of Blaine but not Sebastian because he remembers those few months in high school when Sebastian tormented Kurt and tried to steal Blaine from him, and he's convinced that their current arrangement only exists because Sebastian and Blaine want to sleep with each other, and Kurt is too nice to say no. Kurt has to desperately try to get his father to understand that Sebastian has changed drastically since high school and is now a good person and that they're together because they all love each other. It doesn't go all that well.
• In Glitter Reunion, Rio and Jerrica are nervous about their daughter Zoie dating Riot and Rapture's son Raoul. Riot is Jerrica's ex and she's had bad experiences with both of Raoul's parents. As it turns out, Raoul doesn't take after his parent's troublemaking personalities.
• In any Gravity Falls fanfiction shipping Dipper with Pacifica Northwest, this trope will pop up with at least Pacifica's father, if not both of her parents. They will hate Dipper for any number of reasons, such as him not being rich, him helping get Pacifica out from under their thumb, and the fact they just plain hate him (and the feeling is mutual). If the story gets really serious about the issue, they will either flat out disown her or try to drag her back home in away way they can.
• Sometimes this trope comes up in Harry Potter fanfiction using the characters introduced in the epilogue. It's probably one of the reasons the pairing of Scorpius Malfoy with Rose Weasley is so popular, as Ron tells Rose she shouldn't "get too close" to Scorpius and that her grandfather would "never forgive her if she married a pureblood" in the epilogue itself. Some writers like the idea of the pairing because of the way Ron and Draco would be so upset about it.
• In Heir, the Weasley family are NOT happy when they learn that Ron's accepted a formal courtship with an anonymous party in Slytherin House. From the hints his suitor has dropped and the gifts he's received, Ron guesses that his suitor is an older male pureblood of higher status.
• In Hellsister Trilogy, Supergirl dates Dev-Em, a reformed delinquent/bully who is still kind of an obnoxious, smug jerkass. Kara's birth parents don't like Dev, Kara's adoptive parents are wary of him and Kara's cousin/erstwhile surrogate father would love pummelling Dev one mile into the ground.
• Here There Be Monsters: Edith Bromfield was okay with her daughter Mary Marvel dating Freddy Freeman -a. k. a. Captain Marvel, Jr.-, but as soon as Mary talked about marriage, Edith tried to put her foot down. Mary wants to believe her rich mother is not a snob, but it is clear Edith is not happy with her daughter marrying a newsstand owner.
• In the Punch-Out!! fanfic Hold Me, Narcis Prince mentions being afraid that his homophobic parents will be upset if they find out that he's dating Heike Kagero.
• The Infinite Loops: Anakin does not like Han until their Billy forged friendship and the feeling is completely mutual. Leia actually views this as a perk in her relationship with Han.
• Defied in Ivory Bones. Blake is the very embodiment of what Weiss' father hates. Weiss is attracted to Blake but she doesn't want to drag her into her troubled life.
• Junior Officers: Both of Humphrey's daughters do this by dating boys outside their species. Margaret briefly dated a moose in high school, and Deborah dates Shellington, an otter.
• Kunoichis Like Us: Several people believe that this is the only reason that Nanako bothered with Alex, as her father was a strict traditionalist Japanese man, whereas Alex is an ethnic French-American born in Japan.
• In Kyon: Big Damn Hero this happens in the backstory of Kyon's parents. It was successful to the point of becoming a Happily Married couple by the time the events of the fic happen.
• Learning How to Be a Witch
  • Odalia Blight hates Lucila and disapproves of her relationship with her son Edric and her friendship with her other children, Emira and Amity. Even those Lucila was not dating her son at the time, with the two of them still working out their relationship issues, Odalia was petty enough to use a loophole to keep Lucila expelled from Hexside, even those she promised to unexpelled Lucila and her friends in Escaping Expulsion. Lucila returns the hatred to Odalia for going back on her promise, expelling her friends, and endangering her sister Luz, and uses an ice glyph to launch an abomination goo on her. Lucila's also not a big fan of Alador; as in Reaching Out, she tells him that if he weren't her sister's girlfriend's father, she'd punch him all the way to Larissa.
  • Played for Horror. While it was hinted beforehand that Emperor Belos disapproved of Hunter getting together with Lucila, Hollow Mind shows how much Belos hates Lucila and wants her dead, which is horrifying. While Lucila, Luz, and Hunter explore Belos mind, they discover a picture of Lucila…but melt to the bone, and they know it was her because her glasses were on the ground nearby, with Luz crying over her. While Hunter tries to deny that Belos initially hates Lucila, he is forced to confront this truth in a memory where Belos said he planned to keep Hunter separated from Lucila. Later, when they meet Belos, in his mind, he confirms the truth and tries to kill both Hunter and Lucila.
• In Luminosity, one of the native American werewolves imprints on a blonde girl whose dad is a racist.
• Zig-Zagged in Naru-Hina Chronicles. Hinata initially thought that Hiashi wouldn't approve of her dating Naruto because the latter was not exactly up to Hyuga standards. As it turned out, her father had no problem with that (besides the fact that Naruto wouldn't have been his first choice, but she could have picked worse as he said). Unfortunately, following the Chunin Exams, Hiashi forced her to break up with Naruto because his reckless way of saving everyone that day could have killed everyone instead. Hinata responded by leaving the Hyuga residence and moving in with her boyfriend. Afterwards, Hiashi wanted nothing to do with Naruto, even refusing to visit Hinata's new house just because it was Naruto's as well. However, it turned out he initially was against forcing his daughter to break up with her boyfriend, even going so far as to speak in Naruto's defense, but the rest of the Hyuga Clan forced him to agree to this solution to preserve the clan's reputation. Fortunately, after Naruto won his fight against Hiashi to earn the right to be with Hinata, Hiashi has been giving his full support to the couple, even giving his blessing when Naruto asked for Hinata's hand.
• In Natural Selection, Ryuko's in a loving relationship with Mako, a human, and as such part of a species that Ragyo detests and is planning on sacrificing to the Life Fibers. Chapter 19 reveals that Ragyo doesn't even know about Ryuko's relationship with Mako, with Ryuko herself indicating that she's painfully aware that her mother would never approve of her girlfriend.
• Invoked in Nymphadora's Beau. Ted and Andromeda know that their daughter would never date anyone that they approve of, so they use Reverse Psychology on her when she expresses interest in Remus. They encourage their daughter to pursue him while warning her about that dangerous Potter boy. Tonks falls for it hook, line, and sinker and proceeds to try and date Harry. When left alone, Ted and Andromeda both agree that Harry is a much more preferable choice for their daughter than Remus.
• Halfway through RWBY: Scars, Weiss begins dating a female Faunus who also happens to be a former terrorist who killed several of her father's peers and family. Not even Weiss' sister is fond of her girlfriend because she worries her love is a ruse to get Weiss' guard down and kill her. This trope goes both ways as Blake's parents dislike Weiss' parents for their infamous Fantastic Racism towards Faunus. However, when Blake tells her parents about Weiss, they don't mind Blake dating Weiss because she's not like her father anymore.
• A platonic example in Second Bloom as Sasuke makes friends outside the Uchiha clan, especially Naruto and Sakura. At first, it was accidental, but when Fugaku tries to force Sasuke to end his relationships, Sasuke puts his foot and now does it intentionally.
• In the Miraculous Ladybug story A Small but Stubborn Fire, the story brings up what many fans feel that the rice in bread metaphor in "Bakerix" was Rolland not liking that Tom was dating a Chinese woman.
• To say Poseidon in Son of the Western Sea isn’t happy when he finds out his beloved mortal son is in a relationship with Amaterasu is an understatement. Not only is she a foreign goddess, but she is also the leader of a foreign pantheon who despises the Olympians and has a husband with a Hair-Trigger Temper who has killed gods for lesser transgressions. Poseidon isn’t much happier when he learns Percy is in a relationship with Tsukuyomi (the aforementioned husband) as well.
• In AU versions of Star Wars that are even slightly comedic, Darth Vader will more often than not be less-than-pleased with Leia's choice of beau, Han Solo, either because he's still a mercenary smuggler or the fact that Leia is 19 and Han is ten years older.
• In A Sword to Pass, Alrich returns home for the first time since he ran off. He is met by his father, Adger, and when he tries to enter the house with Tristan, Adger stops [[Tristan]] from entering because he is a warrior (Adger is a pacifist). Alrich reveals that Tristan is his son and in doing so reveals that he married a warrior. This causes Adger to kick him back out and a scuffle breaks out. Alrich mother comes in and puts an end to it. Welcoming her son and grandson into the home.
• Played for Laughs in chapter 550 of Tales of Fairies, which focuses on Aquarius as a Parental Substitute to a male Lucy, named Luca in this adaptation. She disapproves of any girl that's near him, especially the female Natsu, who is a loud and reckless tomboy that keeps breaking into Luca's apartment.
• In the Miraculous Ladybug fic Teenage Rebellion, as part of his ongoing campaign to give Gabriel Agreste a heart attack, Nino gets a friend of his cousin to be Adrien's date for an upcoming gala. Said friend is seventeen, tattooed, drives a motorcycle, and has been to jail; sure enough, when Gabriel sees them together, he chokes and faints.
• In That Epic Plan Chief Yagami is understandably not happy when his son begins dating Beyond, a known Serial Killer.
• In Total Drama Legacy, Tophella is dating Keith, whom her father Topher hates and doesn't want anywhere near his daughter. The reason Tophella decided to go to camp in the first place was so she could spend more time with Keith without Topher getting in the way. This is most heavily emphasized in "Aftermath: Double Trouble", in which Topher blows up at Tophella for spending so much time with Keith on the show and demands she break up with him, but Tophella's mother Ella then steps in and reminds Topher that his daughter isn't a baby anymore and he needs to let her grow up.
  • In addition, Courtney reveals that her parents didn't approve of her boyfriend Duncan at first, and Lightning mentions that his father hated it when he started dating Cameron.
• Played for Drama in Tough Love, when Charlie makes it clear that he hates how Bella's obsession over Edward and their unhealthy relationship has caused her life to go down the toilet in more ways than one.
• A rare Gender Flip occurs in Ultimate Spider-Woman: Change With The Light when Ben Reilly's dad loathes Mary Jane Watson and bluntly threatens her unless she stays away from his son. Ben himself isn't amused when he finds out.
• In the crossover fic Empathy, Hiro and Riley begin dating shortly after Riley's twelfth birthday. While their friends, Aunt Cass and Riley's mother approve of the relationship, Riley's father plays this trope straight for most of the fic. He never tries to keep them apart or break them up, but he's clearly on edge whenever Hiro and Riley spend time together. To be fair, the Andersons first met Hiro when he, his brother, and Riley were being bailed out of jail for being involved in a bot fight. He drops this attitude when Hiro makes it clear that he's ready to put his life on the line for Riley, and finally gives their relationship his full support.
  • In the sequel, Fred/Kaiju starts dating Violet/Ultraviolet. While the two are happy together, Fred worries about what Mr. Incredible will think of their relationship, as Fred doesn't think of himself as that impressive a person or superhero. Averted hard when Mr. Incredible supports the relationship, as he realizes right off the bat that Fred would never do anything to hurt Violet. The entire Parr family clearly likes Fred, and even laugh a little bit at some of the lengths he goes to try and make a good impression.
• What is a Person Worth?: A sibling version. Ronnie Anne dislikes Lori, viewing her as a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, and learning of the events of "No Such Luck" did not help her opinion of Lori. But seeing how Lori was regretful of her actions and her wanting to make up for them improves her opinion of Lori.
  • Interestingly, Chapter 22 reveals that Lynn has this towards Ronnie as she doesn't approve of the younger girl's Loving Bully behavior, even openly stating she's not sure Ronnie actually likes Lincoln or just his new reputation since the pair only started openly dating after the incident with Chandler. Like above, this is ultimately subverted when Lynn sees how much Ronnie cares for Lincoln.
• In With this Ring... (Green Lantern), the only reason that Carl and Yvonne Ferris put up with cocky, reckless Hal Jordan is that their daughter Carol is dating him.
• Discussed in Dragon Ball Z Abridged when Android 18 starts showing interest in Krillin.
  Android 17: Look, if this is about pissing off Mom and Dad, you could just date a black guy.

Films — Animated

• In El Cid: The Legend Count Gormaz disapproves his daughter Jimena being in love with Rodrigo, mainly because he wants her to marry Ordonez. His loathing for Rodrigo leads to Gormaz trying to kill him and ending up getting killed himself.
• In the backstory to Corpse Bride, Emily's father put a Parental Marriage Veto against her lover. Turns out that she should have listened to him when she tried to run away and the lover murdered and robbed her.
• In The Croods, Eep and Guy begin a relationship, much to Grug's dismay. Grug eventually accepts their relationship after Guy explains to Grug what his family told him.
• In The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, Simba disapproves of his daughter Kiara's relationship with Kovu - even banishing him from the Pride Lands after a misunderstanding, causing Kiara to run away. The two reconcile at the end of the film, however, and he allows Kovu to be with Kiara and become his eventual successor as king.
• The Little Mermaid: Triton is furious when Ariel declares her love for Eric. It's also implied that part of the reason why Ariel agrees to her dangerous deal with Ursula to try to become human and join the human world is to spite King Triton, though she winds up regretting this decision later.
• Pocahontas sees John Smith behind her authoritative father's back. We are never shown his exact reaction to her kissing a white man, but judging from his reaction to her sneaking off to see one in the first place, it wouldn't have been pretty. He accepts his daughter's love for John Smith after she performs a Rousing Speech saying the path of compassion and understanding should always be chosen over the path of hatred and fear, and names Smith as an honorary member of the Powhatan Nation after Smith almost dies in a Heroic Sacrifice for him.
• Rio 2 has a variant of this trope in the main plot concerning Blu and Jewel, who already raised offspring together at the end of the previous movie; here, the bulk of the plot involves them attempting to win over a wild flock of blue Spix's macaws led by Jewel's father, Eduardo. The problem is that Eduardo wants nothing to do with human civilization due to his flock being displaced by logging, and once he finds out that Blu never really grew out of having been raised in suburbia, he grows to resent him. It's only because Blu and Jewel are already married with kids that Eduardo tries to give him a chance, but he becomes even more hostile to Blu when the latter screws up every one of his attempts to fit in. Eduardo doesn't come around until Blu finds out about an illegal logging operation threatening the macaws' home and rallies the jungle animals to save it, and particularly after he's rescued from the loggers by Blu's former owner who was trying to stop them as well.
• Sausage Party: When Sammy and Lavash return to their aisles, they are scolded by Gefilte Fish and Baba Ghanoush respectively for traveling back together.
• In Shrek 2, Shrek's initial meeting with Princess Fiona's parents goes exactly as he expects - they are the king and queen of Far Far Away, and while Queen Lillian is fairly reasonable, King Harold can barely contain his rage that his daughter is married to an ogre and not Prince Charming like she was supposed to. He gets better by the end, though, and by Shrek the Third he's proud to have Shrek as a son-in-law.
• In Strange Magic, the King actually faints when he sees his daughter Dawn kiss Sunny because he's an elf. He also tries covering his eyes when he sees his other daughter Marianne with the Bog King.
• In Turning Red, Ming's mother Wu heavily disapproved of Ming's marriage to Jin Lee, and on that day Ming snapped about it. Considering the fact that Ming previously injured her mother when in her teens, leaving a scar on her mother's right eyebrow, which Ming still heavily regrets to this day, this speaks volumes of how much she loved Jin.
• In Elemental (2023), Ember, a young fire woman, falls in love with a water guy, Wade, and secretly dates him behind her water-hating father's back. When Ember's father finds out about his daughter's relationship with Wade, he doesn't take it very well. However, after Wade sacrificed himself to save Ember, her father comes to accept him and his relationship with Ember. Though he cringes when Ember kisses Wade.

Films — Live-Action

• A Slight Case of Murder: Marco is a Reformed Criminal who hates cops, and his daughter Mary becomes engaged to State Trooper Dick Whitewood. Unusually for the trope, this is a complete accident, as 1) Mary doesn't know about her father's criminal past and 2) Dick only recently became a policeman, without Mary's knowledge.
• The Amazing Spider-Man has Gwen Stacy, daughter of firmly Law & Order Captain Stacy dating the outlaw vigilante Spider-Man. He doesn't know she's dating Spidey, only Peter Parker, but when mortally wounded supports Peter's crime-fighting... as long as he stops dating Gwen. Captain Stacy doesn't want her to be put in danger.
• In Bachelor Party, Tom Hanks' character is this, a working-class Catholic school bus driver marrying into a snobby and disapproving rich WASP family.
• La Bamba. Donna's father wasn't exactly thrilled she was dating a rock-and-roll singer of Mexican-American heritage.
• Beast (2017): It's clear part of the reason Moll likes being with Pascal is because of how much her family, especially her controlling mother, doesn't approve of him.
• Discussed in Bend It Like Beckham: Jess mentions to her football teammates that, even though she's not been set up for an Arranged Marriage, her very traditional parents wouldn't approve of her dating anybody but another Indian. This makes things interesting when she falls for the team's Irish coach, Joe. They eventually decide to try anyway, and the epilogue shows Joe playing cricket with her father in hopes of befriending him to make it easier.
• The Breakfast Club implies this will happen post-movie between Bender and Claire:
  Bender: Remember how you said your parents use you to get back at each other?
  (Claire nods)
  Bender: Wouldn't I be outstanding in that capacity?
• Initially played straight in Clueless when Cher brings Christian home and her father, Mel, detests his general style and attitude. But subverted when it turns out Mel has no need to fear Christian being inappropriate with Cher, as the relationship doesn't go anywhere since he's gay.
• In Crazy, Stupid, Love, after Jacob and Hannah begin dating, she invites him over to meet her parents. Her father turns out to be Cal, the protagonist, who doesn't approve of their relationship since Jacob is a notorious womanizer. He later comes around by the end of the movie, however.
• A gender-flipped version occurs in Drag Me to Hell, in which the protagonist, Christine, is dating Clay, who is from a wealthier family than she is. Clay's mother makes it very clear that she doesn't think Christine is good enough for her son.
• Cindy from The Generation Gap, who is in love with Ling, a biker punk and school dropout, even though Cindy's father forbids their relationship. His over-controlling nature on his daughter eventually takes an ugly turn when Cindy decide to just elope with Ling, and everything goes to hell after that.
• Goosebumps (2015) had Hannah being forbidden from dating Zach by her father, R.L. Stine.
• Guess Who's Coming to Dinner was the racial version of this. This example is especially interesting because the parents are in fact liberals who consider themselves tolerant people.
• In The Hangover Part II, Stu marries a Thai girl whose father is a very stereotypical strict Asian parent. He emasculates Stu, compares him to tasteless rice porridge, and is all too ready to call off the wedding when the Wolfpack is running late. After Stu stands up for himself at the end, he grows to accept him.
• Just like in the comics, The Incredible Hulk has Betty Ross still in love with Bruce Banner (a scientist), much to her father's consternation. It's incredibly ironic in this case, seeing as in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Betty herself is a scientist.
• Rita Talbot from Keep Off My Grass! tries to seduce Doc and later has sex with You Know because her redneck family's disapproval makes hippies seem so much sexier.
• In The Power of One, Maria Marais, the daughter of a high-ranking Afrikaans official, begins dating the protagonist, Peekay, who is not only English (people of English descent were considered enemies and inferior by the Afrikaans leadership) but is also a vocal opponent of much of what Maria's father's party stands for, especially apartheid. Her father is furious when he finds out.
• The entire plot of The Shrimp On The Barbie. A wealthy young Australian heiress has a history of dating men that her parents hate. After they forbid her from marrying her latest boyfriend Bruce, they make a bet. If her next boyfriend is even more reprehensible to them than Bruce was she will be allowed to marry Bruce. Enter Cheech Marin acting as a stereotypical crude, offensive Mexican gangbanger.
• Subverted in Spider-Man: Homecoming: Adrian Toomes turns out to be the father of Peter's crush, Liz Allan, but because Peter saved her life, Toomes allows him to go the homecoming dance with her, on the condition that he doesn't interfere with his plans.
• A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas has Harold (a Korean-American)'s overbearing father-in-law arrive to spend Christmas with Harold and Maria. Apparently, for the father-in-law, Christmas trees are Serious Business, as his mother was killed by Korean gangsters on Christmas Eve. It doesn't help that the father-in-law is played by Danny Trejo in his typical "tough angry Latino" role. When Harold finally stands up to him in the end, the father-in-law reveals that this is what he wanted all along, a son-in-law who is strong enough for his daughter and that he always saw Harold as a good man.
• An inverted trope in the film Why Be Good? since Winthrop Peabody Jr is going out with Pert Kelly, a girl with a dubious reputation. However, it’s his father that disapproves of her. Peabody Sr goes to great lengths to make sure his son is safe from such a girl who might not be marriage material.
• In Youngblood (1986), Coach Chadwick disapproves so strongly of his daughter's relationship with Dean that Dean spends several games as The Benchwarmer before they even start going out. Dean lists the fact that Jessie's father doesn't like him as one of the reasons they should date.

Literature

• In the Amelia Peabody series, Evelyn Barton-Forbes elopes with her painting tutor and is disinherited, though later re-instated. Her cousin, Luigi is the son of an Italian father, and his mother was disowned for marrying him.
• In the Disgaea novels Captain Gordon, Defender of Earth! and Jennifer have a daughter named Jane, who eventually falls for Laharl. It’s not that Captain Gordon, Defender of Earth! hates Laharl (they had been allies in Disgaea: Hour of Darkness), but he is a hero and Laharl is a demon Overlord, Captain Gordon, Defender of Earth! is also a Boyfriend-Blocking Dad. Jane is a rebellious teen, so there are hints that she does it partly to piss Captain Gordon, Defender of Earth! off. Not that he has any reason to be concerned, because Laharl is not interested, not that it stops Jane from pursuing him.
• The Dresden Files: Molly Carpenter is the daughter of a virtuous, conservative Catholic household. Her holding a torch for brooding bad boy wizard Harry Dresden is sure to upset her father right? Harry is much older than her, dresses in a leather duster, and has always had a contentious relationship with the forces of law and order. The subversion is that her father, Michael, is one of Harry's best friends and ally in the fight against evil. Her mother HATES Harry's guts and until she warmed up to him later in the story would never approve of Molly dating someone like Harry let alone the man himself.
  • In fact, her crush is closer to Like Parent, Like Spouse given that once you look below the surface Harry and Michael have a lot in common since they are both brave warriors who are willing to risk their lives to protect others and stand up for what they think is right. Plus Michael rescued Charity from a dragon and Harry rescued Molly from Arctis Tor
• In The Half Life Trilogy, Annalise's attraction to the black witch Nathan is definitely looked down on by her white witch family. She's told not to even speak to him, but they end up in a relationship.
• Harry Potter:
  • Andromeda Black's blood purist family disowned her and burned her name off the family tree after she married the Muggleborn Ted Tonks.
  • Likewise, Marvolo Gaunt, a pure-blood supremacy believer himself, considers his daughter Merope marrying a Muggle man an act of treason and, according to Dumbledore, refused to either mention her name or acknowledge her existence for the rest of his life.
• Helen and Troy's Epic Road Quest: Imogen briefly dated some Belgian guy because both of them wanted to piss off their parents. While they parted on good terms, Imogen broke it off with him because her mother grew to like him.
• InCryptid: Despite his Covenant background, Alice Healy finds herself head over heels for Thomas Price, to Jonathan's horror.
• It was the driving force in the plot of Erich Segal's Love Story. Because wealthy lawyer and Harvard legacy Oliver Barrett III believed his son must be rebelling against him by wanting to marry a working-class Italian-American who went to Radcliffe on a scholarship, this exchange happened:
  Oliver IV: What offends you most, Father? That she's Catholic, or that she's poor?
  Oliver III: What attracts you most?
• In The Mark of the Lion trilogy, Julia Valerian’s older brother strongly objects to her second marriage to a man who is known to be a rake and deeply in debt, and whom he suspects (rightly) to be violent and abusive. Her third marriage, which is more cohabitation for convenience than anything, appalls her whole family since the man is known to be a boor and keeps on a catamite. Does ''not'’ lead into Parental Marriage Veto because she coaxes her father into agreeing to the first one despite her brother’s doubts, and in the second she simply moves in with him without notice, making it very similar to this trope.
• Marty Pants: Mr. and Mrs. Pants don't approve of Erica dating Salvadore, referring to him as "That hoodlum". She later breaks up with him when he starts to bully Marty in front of her.
• Matt Thompson from Miracle Creek can't help but wonder if his Korean wife, Janine Cho, married him partly because his parents didn't want white in-laws.
• The Mortal Instruments: Isabelle dates anybody but other Shadowhunters, intentionally bringing home boys she knows her parents would disapprove of. Jace says it's to get attention, it works - in the wrong way. Alec winds up in a gay relationship with a warlock. Jocelyn isn't wild about her daughter dating the boy that Valentine raised.
• Beren and Lúthien: When Human Beren asks for Elf maiden Lúthien's hand in marriage, her extremely overprotective father Thingol is very very not pleased. He tries to get rid of Beren by sending him on an impossible quest, but Beren succeeds thanks to Lúthien help, and Thingol does come around to Beren in the end.
• In the Star Wars Legends: X-Wing Series, we have Corran Horn and Mirax Terrik. Corran served in the Corellian Security Force with his father Hal Horn, before having to flee his homeworld and joining the Rebellion as a pilot. Mirax is the daughter of the notorious smuggler Booster Terrik, who was sent to the spice mines of Kessel by Hal Horn for five years, leaving Mirax to take over his business and inherit his Pulsar Skate when Booster decided to retire. Corran and Mirax are therefore hostile when they first meet, but they quickly discover they have more similarities than differences, put aside their fathers' enmity, and eventually end up Happily Married. They still note the improbability of their attraction early in their relationship. When Booster finds out who his daughter is dating he is not too happy but eventually comes to more or less accept the relationship between the pair.
  Mirax: If I wanted to kill my father I'd send him a holo and say Hal Horn's son said he wished he could help me make some runs.
  Corran: Somewhere in orbit between Corellia and Selonia my father's ashes are trying to recoalesce to stop me.
• The Twilight Saga shows repeatedly that Charlie does not approve of his daughter's relationship with Edward, and is an active Shipper on Deck for Bella/Jacob. To be fair, he's seen his daughter become catatonic when Edward left her. At one point, he tries to ground Bella, just because Edward brought up the tickets to Phoenix his parents got Bella for her birthday and mentions they should use him, and that one of the tickets was his. Bella's not dating Edward to annoy her dad, but she makes it clear that if he bans her from seeing him, she'll move out because she knows the Cullens will let her live with them.

Live-Action TV

• Archie Bunker and his son-in-law Mike ("Meathead") Stivic in All in the Family, with Archie being the archetypal working-class WASP conservative, while Mike is an intellectual Polish-American progressive. They naturally argue all the time.
• Arrested Development: Michael almost doesn't ask out Sally Sitwell because he thinks his father wants him to date her. Then he finds out that his father knew he would act that way and pretended he wanted Michael to date Sally so Michael wouldn't. So Michael asks Sally on a date... and she turns him down because she'd rather date someone her father doesn't like.
• Arrowverse
  • Arrow:
    • Quentin Lance really doesn't like Oliver or Tommy dating his daughter Laurel. His dislike isn't necessarily unfounded either.
    • Played with regarding his younger daughter Sara's relationship with Nyssa al Ghul. While he didn't care that Nyssa was a woman, glad that Sara had some form of happiness during those five years in hell, he was still apprehensive of her. Hard to blame him, considering that Nyssa poisoned Laurel and kidnapped his ex-wife Dinah to try and force Sara back into the League of Assassins.
    • Subverted when Thea starts dating Roy Harper whom she met when he stole her purse. One would presume that this would be met with strong disapproval from her mother and her very protective brother but they actually see Roy as a calming influence on Thea who has previously acted too much like a Spoiled Brat.
  • The Flash (2014)
    • Joe West forbids his daughter Iris West from becoming a cop like him; she later starts dating a cop, Detective Eddie Thawne, who also happens to be his partner. That being said, it's been implied that Joe has been like that with all of Iris's boyfriends. The only love interest he ever approved of was her best friend and future husband Barry Allen, and that's because he raised Barry, so the man was basically his son already anyway.
• In The Basil Brush Show, Molly dumps her first boyfriend when he quickly bonds with her uncle. She then dates a string of boys hoping to find one he doesn't like, only for him to befriend each of them and her to dump each of them. She eventually finds someone he doesn't immediately get along with: a Stereotypical Nerd, but then breaks up with him too because she doesn't like him either.
• Belgravia: Lady Templemore dislikes her daughter Maria's relationship with Charles Pope; aside from the fact that she's arranged to be married (to Charles' cousin no less), Charles is of a lower social class as a businessman and of illegitimate birth. In the book she lightens up when Charles is revealed to be his grandfather's legitimate heir through a secret marriage, while in the adaptation she remains as frosty as ever.
• The Big Bang Theory:
  • Howard meets Bernadette and they start dating. He remarked with some pleasure that he knew dating a Catholic would kill his mother, and she similarly takes the opportunity to offend her parents by dating someone Jewish. Ultimately both sides of the family end up happy with the couple because of how good they were together.
  • Penny's father actually likes Leonard, but Penny has a long history of using this trope. When he realizes that they have broken up, he "gives him a head start" getting her back by shouting at him very audibly for a minute or two.
  • Priya dates Leonard in the fourth season despite her parents' disapproval because Leonard isn't Indian. It doesn't work out for reasons other than that, mostly trying a Long-Distance Relationship that falls apart after a few months.
  • Invoked by Sheldon's mother after his and Amy's first break up in order to get them back together.
• In The Book of Daniel the daughter of a parishoner who harbors strong anti-Asian prejudices is dating the adopted Chinese son of the parish priest.
• In season 2 of Breaking Bad, Jesse starts dating his landlady but he's offended when she hides their relationship from her strict father seemingly for this reason. It's later revealed that she's a recovering heroin addict and her father worries that hanging around delinquents like Jesse would cause her to fall Off the Wagon, which is exactly what happens.
• In an episode of Boston Public, Meredith Peters (aka The Hook Lady)'s son begins dating Steven Harper's^note No, not that one daughter, who is black, merely to anger his mother. She is also angered when she catches her son having sex with another man.
• Cheers:
  • Older than most examples, but there's Hester Crane's reaction to Diane. Initially dinner seems like it's going well, but the minute Frasier's out of earshot, Hester tells Diane to stop seeing Frasier or she'll kill her. When confronted on it, she says she just doesn't want to see Frasier marry a "pseudo-intellectual barmaid", and even after everything's apparently patched up, she tries to bribe Sam to sabotage their relationship. Of course, given Diane dumps Frasier, leaving him with severe emotional scars, seems Hester was right to be concerned.
  • Kelly Gaines's father really doesn't approve of Woody, and makes no secret of his sheer dislike for the dim but good-natured bartender, even telling Woody to his face he's sending Kelly off to Europe in an effort to break them up.
  • In one episode, Sam began dating the daughter of John Allen Hill, his Sitcom Arch-Nemesis from the restaurant above the bar. When Hill eventually gave his blessing to the relationship, Valerie said: "Now I'm just dating a greasy bartender" and dumped him.
• Cobra Kai:
  • Early in season 1, when Daniel is becoming wary of his daughter Sam's relationship with Kyler Park, his cousin Louie suggests that he engage in a little Twerp Sweating with Kyler to keep him in line. Anoush objects that doing so will result in this trope:
    Anoush: Exactly. You're going to drive Sam right into this guy's arms. Trust me, I date girls with daddy issues, they're the worst... (lower) and the best.
  • After Sam breaks up with Kyler, she gets together with Miguel Diaz, the prize karate student of Johnny Lawrence. Miguel is painfully aware that her father isn't going to smile on her dating his rival's protege. Luckily for her (we guess), Miguel becomes a jackass and ruins their relationship before the issue can come to a head with Daniel... though Sam's inability to be open with her dad about her boyfriend was the core of their initial relationship troubles. They eventually do reconcile and get back together late in season 3. And when Daniel catches them making out in the Miyagi-Do dojo, Sam stands her ground and convinces her dad to talk to Miguel.
• Degrassi: Manny tries to upset her father by pretending to date Jay. It backfires because even though Jay was a Bad Boy/delinquent in high school and didn't graduate, by that time, he had a job and career plans he was serious about and Manny's father respected that. Manny and Jay eventually fall in love and get engaged.
• Downton Abbey:
  • While Robert Crawley doesn't initially hate Branson, the Irish radical chauffeur, it gets pretty ugly when he finds out about Branson's feelings for his little girl Sybil. Lord's daughter with a servant, that was rich back then. He comes round (mostly) in the end.
  • Cousin Rose (of Scottish aristocracy) engages in a Shock Value Relationship with African-American jazz singer Jack Ross. While she does have some feelings for him, her main motivation is to "see Mummy's face crumple" when she finds out. Jack, who has a more realistic idea of the racism they'd be facing, calls off the engagement.
  • Lady Rose does get to see Mummy's face crumple in Season 5 when she genuinely falls in love with the Jewish Atticus Aldridge. Her father, in the process of divorcing his horror of a socially-acceptable wife, is happy to see her Marry for Love. His father, on the other hand, takes exception to both the divorce and the fact that his grandchildren won't be Jewish by birth, but comes around when Rose saves him from an even worse scandal.
  • From what Tom mentions about his family, they aren't happy that he's coming home with an English lady as his fiancé.
  Violet: What does your mother think of this?
  Tom: If you must know, she think's we're very foolish.
  Violet: So, at least we have something in common.
• Amusingly in the first season of Empire, all three of Lucious' sons have love interests that he disapproves of. Andre is married to a white woman, Jamal is gay, and Hakeem is with a woman at least twice his age.
• Everwood: Amy Abbott starts dating Tommy who is a junkie. Her father is usually ok with her dating; for example, he had no problems with Colin, but he forbids her this relationship. She insists she will help him stop but she starts using drugs herself. (They break up before it gets worse.)
• Taken to extremes in Fargo, where Simone Gerhardt sleeps with Mike Milligan, a low-level enforcer for her family's hated rivals in the Kansas City Mafia, in the hopes that she can get Mike to kill her abusive, bigoted father. That the very act of sleeping with a black man would probably piss off her daddy probably adds to the appeal of this plan. This ends up backfiring terribly when her uncle Bear finds out; as much as he hates Dodd, Bear can't abide betrayal of the family, and thus he kills Simone.
• First Kill:Cal, though it's the objections of her mother that get the most attention. As she's a vampire hunter dating Juliette, who's a vampire, both of their families are obviously less than thrilled about their relationship. Margot herself having fallen in love with a human, Sebastian (Juliette's father) and turned him, their objections are about what Cal and her family do rather than the fact that she's human.
• An episode of Frasier had Frasier's street-performer cousin Nikos marrying Mary-Ann, a woman from a rich family, whose parents hated him. When Nikos leaves her for a street performer he loved more, Mary-Ann yells "I will never forgive you for this! See how happy you've made my parents?"
• Friends:
  • At first, Monica's parents despised Chandler since he had been wrongfully blamed for a pot-smoking incident Ross committed years ago. Once they find out the truth, they immediately warm up to him.
  • Also, Rachel's father and Ross had a strong mutual dislike for each other. They warmed to each other a bit when they found a common topic: criticizing Rachel.
  • Gender-flipped when quirky hippie Phoebe attempted to impress the snooty upper-class parents of her boyfriend Mike, but failed miserably. When they expressed their disdain to Mike, he made it clear that he loves Phoebe and will continue their relationship regardless of what his parents think.
• In The George Lopez Show Carmen starts dating the factory owner's rebellious son without George's knowledge. In fact, he prank calls the place and George remarks "I wonder what poor skank would get with him".
• On Gilmore Girls, Lane tends to fall for boys that her mother would disapprove of (because they're white and generally slackers). At one point she meets a guy at a party and panics when she realizes that he's exactly the kind of Korean future-doctor her mother would want her to date — and she also really likes him.
  • Lorelai loathes Rory's Second Love, Jess. In a Wrong Genre Savvy moment, she chalks up Rory's interest in him to a phase, a combination of teenage fancy and All Girls Want Bad Boys. In reality, Rory likes Jess because they have quite a bit in common and she really wants Lorelai to like him. That never happens, but Jess doesn't like her either, so there's no angst about it.
• Subverted in Good Luck Charlie: Teddy tries to hide her relationship with her new Romantic False Lead biker boyfriend as she's sure her father, Bob, won't approve. It turns out that Bob is something of a biker-wannabe and in fact, they get along well... until Bob crashes the boyfriend's bike into a tree, that is.
• A The Kids in the Hall sketch has a college student (Dave Foley in drag) bring home Scott Thompson (in blackface) to meet her parents. In an absolute subversion, her parents are fine with the whole thing, but she continually acts as though they're being offensive. The implication is that she's chasing black men intentionally to piss off her parents - and it's not working.
• Last Man Standing: Zigzagged. Mike actually likes Kyle and introduced him to Kristin, considering him a good kid and with a surrogate parent/son relationship between them that keeps Kyle around even after he and Kristin broke up. Mike does think Kyle has some way to go before becoming a husband or father, which is what annoyed him when Kyle and Mandy started dating. Played straight with Ryan in multiple ways, the core of it that Ryan ran out on Kristin for several years and exacerbated by Ryan being every liberal stereotype you can imagine.
• Married... with Children: Kelly Bundy's taste in men tends towards various sleazy hoods, bikers, and ex-cons. No wonder her father Al beats up her boyfriends on a regular basis.
• Moesha's thuggish on-and-off boyfriend Quentin was the bane of her father's existence.
• In the Murder, She Wrote episode "Murder at the Oasis", the Victim of the Week's daughter outright tells her boyfriend that, with him dead, there is literally no reason for them to be dating. She's quite contemptuous that he hasn't figured this out for himself.
• In My Wife and Kids, Claire specifically stops dating someone because her father loves him. The person in question is a strict Christian who believes in waiting until marriage for sex. Even though she likes him, she wants to irritate her father, so she starts dating a rough gang banger.
• Once Upon a Time: Belle's father acts this way about her relationship with Rumplestiltskin. In fairness, it's Rumplestiltskin. Though kidnapping her and trying to force her over the Storybrooke line to erase her memories is kind of an excessive way to deal with the problem.
• In Our Miss Brooks, Mr. Conklin loathes his daughter's boyfriend, Walter Denton. It isn't uncommon for him to kick Walter down his porch steps. Why? Walter is something of a nuisance to Mr. Conklin, as the episodes "Cure that Habit", "Wild Goose", "Cafeteria Boycott" and "Space, Who Needs It?" attest. However, there are other reasons as well. In "Spare That Rod!", Mr. Conklin complained that the worst thing about Walter was his squeaky voice.
  Miss Brooks: I expect it's his age. His voice is probably changing.
  Mr. Conklin: Well, I wish it would hurry up. He sounds like a canary with a mouthful of rancid birdseed.
• Invoked in the series finale of Parks and Recreation, where Leslie sees her daughter and Ann's son sitting together and concludes excitedly that they're going to fall in love, and Ann cautions her that if it's ever going to work they have to pretend to disapprove. Leslie naturally fails this immediately by giving two thumbs up the moment her daughter glances in her direction.
• In Party of Five (2020), Beto initially draws Ella's attention because it tickles her to date a working-class Mexican-American boy, as her dad's a racist, elitist dick and she figures dating Beto would piss him off. While she soon develops genuine feelings for Beto, Beto's fear that she's only dating him as an act of teenage rebellion causes considerable strain in their relationship.
• Double Subverted in Porridge, career criminal Fletcher strongly disapproves of his daughter Ingrid dating and becoming engaged to his cellmate Godber. However, Fletch doesn't hate Godber, he actually likes him a lot, but he's also painfully aware that he was a poor husband and father due to being in and out of prison his whole life, and fears the same thing happening again.
• Deliberately invoked in an episode of Prank Patrol where the prank involved setting up a father to think his daughter was dating a tattooed punk rocker with a mohawk who drove a panel van.
• This was woven all the way through Roseanne:
  • On at least one occasion, it was mentioned that Roseanne started dating Dan because he was the type of boy that her parents wouldn't like (Roseanne and her sister Jackie, to be perfectly blunt, hate their parents.)
  • Daughter Becky truly seemed to love the leather-clad biker Mark, but Roseanne firmly believed for the longest time that she was only dating him to torture her.
  • Lastly, they actually used their hatred of the potential boyfriend as a benchmark to gauge how long the relationship will last. When Becky dates a perfectly nice football player who Dan instantly takes a liking to, Roseanne and Jackie inform him that he's the rebound, will be gone by the end of the month, and the next guy that Dan absolutely despises will be the "keeper." They were right, as the character never appears again and the end of the episode even kills him off after his actor pisses off Roseanne.
• They're not dating (yet), but in The Sarah Jane Adventures, one of Rani's best friends is the class clown Clyde, who immediately got off to a bad start with her Stern Headmaster father, and their relationship remains antagonistic (which isn't helped by Clyde deliberately winding up Haresh Chandra).
• A non-parental example in Scrubs, when Dr. Cox starts flirting with a new surgical intern. Turk (her boss) gets fed up and outright tells her that she's not allowed to see Cox. When Cox threatens to destroy him, Turk asks Cox if the latter understands women at all. Cue the intern coming to Cox's apartment, invoking this trope.
• In Shadowhunters, Izzy's relationship with the seelie Meliorn is heavily frowned upon and is given as a reason for her being unsuitable for the arranged marriage plans. In general, Shadowhunters dating Downworlders is not well regarded.
• On Shameless (US) Lip's college girlfriend specifically dates him because it drives her stuck-up parents nuts. Lip does not mind because she buys him stuff and they have a lot of sex. She even coaches Lip on what to say to her father so the father will offer Lip money to stop dating her. She is then upset because Lip took less money than her previous boyfriend.
• In The Sopranos Tony gets very angry when his daughter dates a boy who is half African American and half Jewish.
• On Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Dukat strongly disapproves of his daughter Ziyal's interest in Garak. In this case, it's not that Garak is different, but that he's too much like Dukat himself. The fact that Garak literally tortured Dukat's father to death might have also been a factor
• Played with in the backstory of Supernatural: Mary's dad HATED John Winchester because he was too much of a skinny, white-bread pansy to be good enough for his daughter. Ironically, Samuel would have also hated the Badass Hunter John ends up becoming because he also absolutely opposed the idea of his daughter getting involved with a Hunter.
• In Switched at Birth Melody is congenitally deaf as is her son Emmett. She strongly disapproves of hearing/deaf relationships for reasons slowly being explained. So, of course, Emmett falls in love with a hearing girl.
• Much of the drama of the first two seasons of Teen Wolf was centered around the relationship between the hero Scott McCall and Allison Argent. Scott is a werewolf. Allison's family are werewolf hunters. You can see the problem.
• Sarah Connor's mortal enemy in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is the terminator robots. Too bad her son is awfully close to Cameron ...
• Played with in an episode of The Unit. Unit member Hector Williams is dating the daughter of a retired paratrooper NCO. The man disparages Hector because he is a logistics clerk. He even goes as far as cornering Colonel Tom Ryan and asking him to transfer Hector to a combat branch. When Colonel Ryan very subtly informs the father of Hector’s true status, he backs off. Only problem is, his behavior suddenly changes from dismissive to accepting, which tips the daughter off that something may not be on the level. When Hector reveals that his logistics billet is actually a cover, she dumps him. Turns out, she wanted to get with someone who had a prospect for a good civilian job after getting out of the army; she didn’t want to end up married to a “gun fighter”
• On Veronica Mars, part of the backstory is a gender-flipped version. Duncan Kane's mother hates Veronica. Lilly states that Celeste would hate anyone that Duncan might love more than her. Lilly also warns that Celeste would do anything to break up Duncan and Veronica. Celeste tells Duncan that Veronica might be his 1/2 sister. He breaks up with her without telling her why. Veronica finds out on her own. Two DNA tests later (she throws one out without looking because Keith is her real Dad. Before opening the 2nd one she signs away her rights to the Kane fortune because Keith is her real Dad) it turns out they aren't 1/2 siblings and get back together for a while. It is unclear if Celeste really believes Veronica could be her husband's daughter or she just used it to break them up because she is obsessed with her son. In flashbacks, Veronica's Mom and Duncan's Dad don't seem to have any concerns about the two dating. Jake's concern with Duncan and Veronica dating in "present" time seems to be more about knowing Keith doesn't believe that Lilly's murder has been solved, and Jake believing that Duncan accidentally killed his sister during a seizure.
• On The West Wing, President Bartlet has a brief monologue noting his exasperation at his youngest daughter leaving his aide Charlie for a French Jerk, his oldest daughter marrying a total twit, and his middle daughter dating a stoner. His Servile Snarker secretary chimes in that she's heard girls look for their fathers in the men they date. Regarding the French Jerk, Bartlet tells a member of Zoe's protection detail, "Before I forget: if something comes up, and you're faced with the choice of killing the boyfriend or not killing the boyfriend... kill the boyfriend."

Music

• The Trace Adkins song "Ladies Love Country Boys" is about a girl introducing her redneck boyfriend to her straight-laced suburbanite parents.
• Afroman plays with this idea in “Colt 45” when discussing his fling with a white girl;
  I let her ride in my Caddy
  Because I didn't know her daddy was the leader of the Ku Klux Klan
• Invoked by Body Count in the song "KKK Bitch" from Body Count, where Ice-T tells the story of his falling in love with a girl whose father is the Grand Wizard of the KKK.
• Part of the reason Cher is amenable to Meat Loaf's pick-up line in "Dead Ringer For Love":
  Ever since I can remember I've been hanging 'round this joint,
  My daddy never noticed, now he'll finally get the point.
• The protagonist of "Crashed The Wedding" by Busted says his girlfriend's father hates him because he's jobless.
• Colors Are All the Same is this about a Longhorn (University of Texas) and an Aggie (Texas A&M) falling in love.
• Dierks Bentley's What Was I Thinkin' is about going out with a girl whose father shoots at his tailgate when he picks her up and is waiting for him in the driveway at 2 am when he brings her back.
• Craig David's "Fill Me In," about a guy dating the Girl Next Door whose parents don't approve of their relationship, so they have to sneak around.
• Dinosaur Jr.'s video for "Watch The Corners".
• The Music Video for Fall Out Boy's “Sugar We're Going Down” has a girl falling in love with a boy with antlers, whom her dad, a hunter, hates so much, he tries to kill him. This has absolutely no relation to the actual lyrics of the song.
• In Toby Keith's song "God Love Her," a preacher's daughter falls in love (and eventually runs away) with a motorcycle punk, to the dismay of both of her parents. Seems she hasn't deviated too far from her roots, though; she helps the motorcycle punk find God and get on the right path.
• Rude by Magic! is about a girl who's dating (and eventually marrying) a man her father disapproves of. It's not clear why he disapproves of the boyfriend, though.
• Present in Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht in a variation. The plot centers on Dad's disapproval for his daughter's love for coffee, so in this case, it would probably be more accurate to say "Drinking What Daddy Hates".
• Britney Spears' "Criminal".
  He is a devil with a tainted heart
  And even I know this ain't smart
  But, mama, I'm in love with a criminal
• "Jacob's Ladder" by Mark Wills: the title Jacob is a poor farm boy whom a woman named Rachel is dating. Rachel's dad doesn't want her to date him, so Jacob sneaks into her upstairs bedroom every night. According to the second verse, Rachel's dad discovers the ladder one day and becomes angered, but reconciles when the couple has a child.
• Trisha Yearwood's "She's in Love with the Boy":
  Her daddy says he ain't worth a lick
  When it comes to brains, he got the short end of the stick
  But Katie's young and man, she just don't care
  She'd follow Tommy anywhere
  She's in love with the boy
  She's in love with the boy
  She's in love with the boy
  And even if they have to run away
  She's gonna marry that boy someday
  • Katie's mom comes to the couple's defense by pointing out to Katie's dad that the two of them were no different from Katie and Tommy back when they were teenagers. In fact, Katie's maternal grandfather apparently had the same opinion of Katie's dad as Katie's dad himself has of Tommy—but Katie's parents got married anyway and Katie's mom points out that Katie will likely do the same with Tommy.
  • "Walkaway Joe" is a more serious version of "She's In Love with the Boy," with Mama warning her daughter that her bad boy is bad news and will leave her. In this instance, she's 100% right, and the girl is abandoned after her boyfriend robs a gas station.
• The "Leader Of The Pack" lead singer of The Shangri-Las having to break up with her boyfriend because of her mother.
• Brazilian singer/songwriter Chico Buarque's "Jorge Maravilha" is about a man who decides to ignore the disapproval of his girlfriend's parents in the name of his love.
  Every day is a new day
  For my heart
  And it's not worth it to be
  To just be
  Crying, grumbling
  Until when no, no
  And like Jorge Maravilha said
  Full of reason
  A daughter in the hand
  Is worth two parents in the bush
  You don't like me
  But your daughter does

Standup Comedy

• Phil Jupitus has a diversion in his arachnophobia routine where he mentions that he doesn't get on with his father in law. He considered it was because of a complex class issue, but when he told a friend this, they replied: "Yeah, or it could be that you're shagging his daughter."
• Lisa Lampanelli at the Comedy Central roast of Flavor Flav:
  I haven't heard the N-word so many times since I told my father I was dating a black man!
• Chris Rock brings this up in one of his specials, saying that being prejudiced will only cause you to suffer Laser-Guided Karma and have whatever you hate end up in your family just to mess with you. If you hate gays, your son will turn out to be gay. If you hate Latinos, your daughter will come home one day and introduce you to her new Latin Lover.

Theatre

• This is a Gender-Inverted Trope in Bye Bye Birdie. Albert's racist mother Mae despises his significant other Rosie for being Latina (she and Albert are white). She tries to set her son up with a white woman named Gloria she met on the bus, but to no avail.
• In a farcical subversion of the trope, Matt and Luisa of The Fantasticks only think they're Star-Crossed Lovers and in actuality are their fathers' OTP. The fathers willingly invoked this trope by creating a fake Feuding Families situation because they know teenagers always try to do the opposite of what their parents want.
• In Fiddler on the Roof this happens three times—and they all get married to a man who challenges their father's faith. After a brief period of reflection in each case, he is able to accept his oldest daughter's desire to choose her own husband and his second daughter marrying a newcomer with radical beliefs, but his third daughter marrying a Gentile (a non-Jew) is just too much; he disowns her and doesn't speak to her until the end of the show.
• An interesting inversion of the usual trope occurs in Mame. The titular bohemian Blithe Spirit Mame is horrified that her nephew is engaged to a snobby WASP girl.
• In The Matchmaker and its musical adaptation Hello, Dolly!, Ermengarde falls in love with the artist Ambrose, to the strongly-expressed disapproval of her uncle and guardian, a merchant who wants her to marry someone with a proper job.
• In The Music Man, Mayor Shinn and his wife Eulalie dislike that their daughter Zaneeta is going out with the town troublemaker Tommy Djilas.
• Perhaps the most famous example occurs in Romeo and Juliet, as the families of the two eponymous characters are sworn enemies.

Video Games

• Dyztopia: Post-Human RPG: Chase's fiancé was a member of the Vulcanite Resistance and caused Chase to realize how oppressive Zeta's occupation of Vulcanite is. Unfortunately, Chase's mother, Morgalia, is the pro-occupation Prime Minister of Vulcanite. She has Chase's lover executed, both to demoralize the resistance and because she hates him for influencing her daughter.
• The quest in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind "A Cure for Vampirism" features something like this. The Daedric prince Molag Bal is displeased that his daughter Molag Grunda is in a relationship with a lowly Frost Atronach, so he orders the player to kill them both. (Being immortal Daedra, they won't really die. Their souls will merely be sent back to Oblivion for Bal's punishment.)
  • Molag Bal is the Daedric prince of rape. So the implication is that Molag Bal rapes his own daughter AND her date. For eternity.
• Implied in Mass Effect 3, where Tali muses while drunk about how much her father would have hated Male Shepard if the two are in a relationship.
• Yes, Your Grace: Asalia manages to check quite a few "parental approval is a long shot" boxes with her true love: she's another girl in a society that is implied to be heteronormative, the girl is from an enemy country, and the girl's father may very well get executed on orders of Asalia's father by the end of the game.
• Friday Night Funkin': Daddy Dearest hates that Boyfriend and Girlfriend are dating, and in Week 1 challenges Boyfriend to a rap contest for his right to continue dating her — though even after Boyfriend beats him fair and square, he still disapproves of the relationship, and frequently attempts to either sabotage it or screw with Boyfriend over the following weeks. His wife Mommy Mearest, first seen on Week 4, is none too happy with Boyfriend either.
• In Cyberpunk 2077 Jackie Welles' mother isn't very fond of his girlfriend Misty presumably due to her being Caucasian and off-handedly refers to her as "that putita". However, it's possible for V to encourage her to try and bond with her for Jackie's sake, upon which she instead tries to become a mother figure towards her.
• Gender-Inverted in Lamplight City. During the first case Miles Fordham investigates, an attempted murder of Madam DuPrée, a local upper class woman, he speaks with Juliette Montgomery, daughter of the victim and one of the leading botantists at the local university. During his interrogation of Juliette, he asks about her previous romantic relationship with Albert Martin, one of the suspects in the case. From what Juliette replies, she clearly implies that one of the things she enjoyed about her relationship with Albert was that he is both bi-racial and a "lowly" member of the university's custodial staff, and that dating him made Madam DuPrée, who was both a huge snob and a racist to boot, very upset.

Visual Novels

• Played for Drama in Being A ΔΙΚ with Maya's father Patrick's objection to her dating Josy leads to a large degree of the strife in her subplot, mainly through abusing her trust of him to ensure that he would control her college tuition, which he would only release if she stopped seeing her.
• Amnesia: Memories and Later show that the heroine's father is very much against the idea of her dating a playboy like Ikki. He believes that Ikki isn't serious about his daughter, unable to financially support himself and her for any potential future together, and is convinced that Ikki will grow tired of her soon enough and start cheating on her or breaking up with her for another woman because he used to be that type of playboy in his youth himself and that's why he knows how things will end. But Later has him come around and choose to support the relationship.

Webcomics

• There was an arc in Better Days where Sheila visits her parents while her father is in hospital and discovers her sister has a Hyena boyfriend (this world's version of a black person). Sheila calls her sister out on bringing the guy, who seems decent enough from what we see, simply to upset their parents and her mother even makes a comment out loud about her having a 'nigger boyfriend' to Sheila's horror.
  • There's an earlier (though milder) example when Fisk dated Elizabeth briefly. Elizabeth's mother was bothered that her daughter wasn't dating a nice, Jewish boy. The only reason she goes along with it is that she thinks it would just be an innocent, youthful relationship.
  • As with the Fisk/Elizabeth example above there was a gender inverted version concerning Tommy and Lucy, Tommy's mother makes it very clear that she doesn't like her son dating a non-catholic woman.
  • Continued in the sequel series Original Life. Miko's mother is the stereotypical Education Mama who hates her daughter's boyfriend Thomas who is a chronic academic underachiever. At the end of the arc, Miko tells Thomas that the exact reason she likes him so much is her mother hates him.
• Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures: Hizell and Destania hate each other. To whit: Destania's mother Cyra tried to usurp Hizell's mentor, only to accidentally nuke the city they were both in. Hizell vowed revenge on clan Cyra, waging an endless war on the Succubi that drove Destania to become equally genocidal towards Hizell and the Dragons. Naturally, their children end up getting together. The only reason Hizell hasn't nuked Lost Lake with his son and potential daughter-in-law in it is because he disowned his son a long time ago, while Destania wants to concentrate on exterminating most of Hizell's race and doesn't really care if her potential son-in-law manages to survive the Familicide spell she's been cooking up, but isn't exactly making any exceptions in her spell's targeting.
• In The Dreamer, Beatrice Whaley, the daughter of a wealthy Boston merchant in the 18th century, falls in love with an apple farmer from Roxbury.
• Yep, an El Goonish Shive entry, although at least a Dream Sequence. Elliot ends up dreaming his Opposite-Sex Clone (which his parents and his clone tease about calling as his daughter) brings home a sleazeball. Then he talks to his "wife", Tedd. That's when he becomes lucid, and alters the dream by setting her up on a date with someone he approves.
  • Hilariously, when Elliot is confused as to why his "daughter" is dating a biker, she shouts "MOM! DADDY'S DISAPPROVING OF MY BOYFRIENDS AGAIN!", which suggests that this isn't the only time in the dream world that this had happened.
• In The Order of the Stick, Ian Starshine is quite upset to learn that his daughter Haley is romantically involved with Elan, the son of his enemy General Tarquin. Even though he can tell the difference between Elan and Nale, he refuses to see Elan as anything but Tarquin's mole.
• In Sandra and Woo The genders were inverted with Landon Hill and Larisa Korolev. The mother doesn't approve of Landon's girlfriend due to her promiscuous nature. At least until one of their classmates places a call telling her everyone thought her son was gay until he started dating Larissa (and warns her he just might turn out that way if the mother forces the relationship to end).
  • It generated a lot of flame wars and other online political activity.
• Slice of Life parodies this concept with Diamond Tiara and Snails. Diamond Tiara acts like this is the case and even declares to her father that there is nothing he can do to keep them apart, even though he's happy they're together because he believes Snails is a fine and upstanding young pony.
• In Sluggy Freelance Leono relies on this trope to convince women to bear his alien offspring.

Web Original

• CollegeHumor:
  • One strip◊ features a version of this...starring a teenage Little Sister and her Big Daddy.
  • Parodied in another College Humor sketch where a Mr. and Mrs. L33t are shocked to meet their daughter's n00b boyfriend. Complete with lines like "How dare you bring his kind into our home!"
• Lioden: Menhit is a relationship with Apollyon. Her father is furious because Apollyon is from the Burning Lands, while he and Menhit are royalty of another kingdom of lions. If you choose to help Menhit, many of the quests she gives you involve distracting her father so that she can sneak away to see Apollyon.

Western Animation

• Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake: Little Destiny and Jay have been secretly dating for quite some time. However, their parents, Big Destiny and Finn, are long-time enemies.
• In American Dad! Haley dates a Mexican boy just to tick off Stan, but Stan later hires him and a bunch of other Mexicans to make teddy bears for him. In revenge Haley rats him to the police because they were illegals.
  • In an episode where Stan becomes anorexic, his family force him to attend a therapy group made up of teenage girls. At one point the counselor begins a discussion with "Now, let's discuss healthier ways of getting back at daddy, like marrying a black dude".
• In Archer, Mallory Archer respects Lana as much as she does anyone (i.e. barely), but still doesn't want her son Sterling to get back together with her because she's ''a black'' (pause for drink) ''-ops field agent''. Mallory was one herself and always put her job first, and has just barely enough self-awareness to realize that she was a pretty awful mother as a result.
  • In later seasons, though, she seems more open about the idea, even being the one to suggest stealing Archer's sperm to conceive Abbiejean.
• Bao: Or rather, Dating What Mommy Hates. When the little Chinese dumpling grows up, he falls in love with a human girl, who his mother disapproves of. When he tries to leave in his girlfriend's car, his mother eats him. It turns out to have be a dream caused by the mother feeling guilty about driving away her real-life son away for falling in love with a white girl. Fortunately, they reconcile after she wakes up and she accepts her daughter-in-law shortly afterwards.
• Family Guy:
  • Lois Griffin's dating her eventual husband Peter is due at least in part to this trope. It may be that she's trying to get back at her father for being an incredible Jerkass, ranging from his refusing to let her become a model to his abandoning her to her fate when she was kidnapped for ransom. It is also stated in the early episode "Peter, Peter, Caviar Eater" that Lois was tired of her wealthy family's posh lifestyle and her snobbish suitors and decided to rebel by dating nice, humble, hard-working Peter, the antithesis of her family's snobbery.
  • A rare example of a Gender Flip occurs when it's shown that Peter's devoutly Catholic father hates the Protestant Lois, so it cuts both ways.
• In the Futurama episode, "Where the Buggalo Roam," when Kif expresses sadness that Amy's parents don't like him, Amy assures him that she loves him no matter, and even admits that part of the reason she's attracted to Kif is actually because her parents don't like him.
  • Later on though, I Want Grandkids trumps any issues they have with Kif.
• In The Goode Family, Bliss invokes this by dating a boorish creep to scare her parents into letting her date a boy she's actually interested in. Her parents are so busy with the main plotline, that they don't notice, and Bliss winds up stuck him although he eventually gets bored with her and breaks it off.
• A platonic version happens in Jem. Kimber becomes best friends with Stormer, who is the sweetest Misfit by far but can still play the rebellious 'bad girl'. Kimber's sister Jerrica (who goes by "Jem" when singing) is completely against their... friendship, and Stormer's friends hate her hanging around a softy like Kimber. There's even a Hologram-Misfits duet song called "Bad Influence" about it.
  Jem: She's too much of a rebel
  Pizzazz: She'll break your heart in two
  Together: She's a bad influence— a bad influence on you
  • The 2015 comic adaptation gave this plotline a Relationship Reveal.
• King of the Hill: Kahn and Minh Souphanousinphone look down on their white neighbors as "hillbillies" or "rednecks", and despite their best efforts at pushing their daughter Connie into dating Chane Wassanassong, one of their only other Laotian neighbors, she prefers her next-door neighbor Bobby Hill.
• The Legend of Korra:
  • While he hides it for a while, Hiroshi Sato hates Mako (and all other benders) who is dating his daughter, Asami. Mako was especially abhorrent to Sato, seeing as he was a penniless firebender. The first part is hypocrisy, since Sato himself started out penniless and even told Mako not to be ashamed of his poverty. The last part is because his wife was murdered by a firebender. The finale takes it to a whole new level when Asami gets together with Korra, though by that point Hiroshi was reformed, redeemed, and ever so slightly dead.
  • Gender inverted in season 4 with Suyin and her eldest son's fiancee Kuvira. She would have been thrilled with the arrangement if it had been before the Time Skip (she had been Kuvira's Parental Substitute and viewed her as a second daughter), but Kuvira had kind of turned evil in the interim.
• Post-marriage example with Rick and Morty where Rick hates son-in-law Jerry Smith for getting Rick's daughter Beth pregnant when they were teenagers and being weak-willed, cowardly, and covertly using other people's pity.
• A skit from Robot Chicken has Mario meeting Princess Peach's parents, who are turned off by him smelling like a sewer due to traveling through pipes, stealing a coin he found in their couch, talking about disgusting things while at dinner, and his firepower transformation accidentally destroying their castle.
• Rocko's Modern Life: Filburt the turtle dates and later marries Dr. Paula Hutchison, who is a cat whose mother doesn't want her with someone from another species. We later learn that Dr. Hutchison's father is actually a turtle.
• Though not exactly an example, this trope is referenced in the penultimate episode of Samurai Jack, after it's revealed that Aku is the biological father of Jack's "lady friend," Ashi, whom Aku is using to fight Jack.
  Aku: I mean, you try and raise them right, but then they run off with your mortal enemy. What's a dad to do?
• The Simpsons:
  • In a flashback episode, we see that Marge's family have never liked Homer even when they were teenagers. May not count since Marge never dated Homer to get back at her family — also, it's mostly just Marge's sisters, Patty and Selma (especially Patty), who don't like Homer (and the feeling is mutual). Marge's parents Clancy (her dad) and Jackie (her mom) do actually seem to like Homer (or are at least more willing to put up with him than Patty and Selma are).
  • In an episode where an older Lisa goes to college, Bart is dating college girls who want to piss off/extort their parents. He even invokes it.
• Star Trek: Lower Decks: Beckett Mariner once dated an Anabaj just to piss off her mother.
• In Star vs. the Forces of Evil, Eclipsa is infamous for abandoning her Arranged Marriage to run off with the Monster King, Globgor. Eventually we learn that her mother, Solaria, was a fanatically racist queen who tried to genocide all monsters.
• Stōked: Lo dating Reef is a serious sore spot for Mr. Ridgemount, as Reef is an obnoxious, lazy, and idiotic Surfer Dude. He goes as far as to bribe Lo with a new car to get her to break up with Reef, which she does and immediately gets back together with him. The trope gets hilariously inverted when Reef manages to keep his job, make George Jr. happy, and bond with his future father-in-law over golf, much to Lo's horror, as she doesn't like the idea of her dad and boyfriend being friends.
• In the pilot episode of the animated series Ugly Americans, the succubus character is immensely turned on by her father disapproving of her dating a human instead of a demon.
  • In "So You Want to Be A Vampire?", Francis, the head of an immigration force who is extremely bias against cryptids, finds out his daughter is dating a vampire and against the two of them getting married, owning to his own failed marriage where his ex-wife left him for a vampire. He ultimately relents when her boyfriend saves him from a virus that turns him into Larry King (it's an odd show).

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But I ain't mad
At her prejudiced dad
That was the best damn pussy I ever had!

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