Basic Trope: A father gets overly defensive when a boy shows interest in dating his daughter.
- Straight: Bob regularly threatens the potential boyfriends of his daughter, Alice.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob wields a shotgun at all times, and, when any male so much as shows the slightest bit of interest in Alice, puts the gun to their face.
- Knight Templar Parent
- Charlie, who's openly gay or asexual says "good morning" to Alice, and Bob reacts by stabbing Charlie to death.
- Turns out that Bob's "No dating till you're 35" is literal. Alice is out of the house with a well paying job, but Bob still demands she not date anyone.
- Downplayed:
- Bob is very clear about demanding that potential boyfriends follow his rules or suffer dire consequences, but the rules themselves aren't unreasonable.
- Bob sets up Arranged Marriage for Alice by letting only one potential husband to have a proper relationship with her, otherwise he won't allow her to dating anyone.
- Logical Extreme: Bob threatens cause a Class Z apocalypse if even someone gets even in a 100-meter radius on Alice.
- Justified:
- Bob really wants to protect his daughter Alice from any bad influences; also, he figures that any guy who's man enough to stand up to him is of good stock himself.
- Bob comes from a time or place that was extremely misogynistic, where a woman without a male protector was in real danger of being victimized. His behavior would be perfectly appropriate or even liberal there.
- Evan is a reckless, misogynistic Jerk Jock who could very well get Alice hurt.
- Bob is a male misandrist and he lost his trustworthiness towards other men since his past experiences with a rivalry love interest.
- Bob's primary fear is Teenage Pregnancy, which could justify some of the scenarios where Bob doesn't notice or doesn't care that Alice is bringing girls home instead of boys.
- (For logical extreme) Alice and her father are both immortal and can reproduce on their own, but all Alice wants is just to have friends.
- Inverted:
- Bob practically pimps his daughter—he doesn't care what any guy (or guys, or girl, or girls) do with his daughter.
- Alice is a Girlfriend-Blocking Daughter; when any woman tries to date her dad—who's single—she doesn't take kindly to her.
- Bob forces Alice to go out and date boys, but Alice doesn't want to.
- Alice's boyfriend threatens her abusive father that if he ever hurts Alice again, he will pay.
- Bob threatens Alice when she goes on a date. In other words, Bob is overprotective of Alice's boyfriend.
- Bob pressures Alice to get hitched to a man because he wants to be a grandfather.
- Evan is a Stalker with a Crush and a Villain with Good Publicity who has Bob trusting him even though Alice is begging him to keep Evan away.
- Gender Inverted:
- Carol, Danny's mom, is a Girlfriend-Blocking Mom. She warns Danny's potential girlfriends that if they do anything to hurt Danny, she will make them pay.
- Bob is a Girlfriend-Blocking Dad to his son Danny. He makes it very clear to all of Danny's girlfriends that if they try anything with his son, they're going to regret it.
- Bob is a Girlfriend-Blocking Dad and grills all of his daughter Alice's girlfriends.
- Subverted:
- Alice warns her boyfriend Evan that her father is overprotective. When Evan shows up to pick up Alice, her father greets him warmly and doesn't threaten him once.
- Evan turns out to be a sleazy pervert, and Alice admits her father was right to keep him away from her.
- Evan turns out to a Stalker with a Crush who's relationship with Alice exists only in his head. Alice agrees entirely with her father's desire to keep him away from her.
- Bob seems to threaten Evan at first, but then he laughs. "Oh, you should've seen the look on your face! Don't worry, I'm just messing with ya. You two have fun!" "Dad, what the hell?!"
- Double Subverted:
- ...but at the end of the date, he takes Evan aside and gives him the "she's my little girl" speech.
- "...but seriously, treat my daughter well, or else!"
- Parodied:
- Bob insists on following Alice around on the date to make sure she doesn't do anything funny. Awkwardness ensues.
- Bob doesn't really bear any ill will towards the guys Alice dates, he just plays up the trope and scares the crap out of them for fun.
- Bob is fiercely overprotective when Alice brings boys home... but blissfully oblivious when she starts bringing girls home, regardless of how blatantly obvious it may be that Alice and the girls are not "just friends". Double humor value if Alice is 100% lesbian and the visits from boys were always innocent and the visits from girls never were.
- Bob is a polar-opposite of Heteronormative Crusader and/or a big Yuri Fan, and even begs Alice to only date girls because heterosexual relationship is disgusting for him. Further than that, Bob even tries to "cure" Alice from heterosexuality too.
- Zig-Zagged:
- Alice warns Evan that her dad is overprotective. When Evan shows up, Bob greets him and doesn't threaten him... but after the date takes Evan aside and begins the "my little girl" speech. Evan casually mentions that his dad is a retired Marine and really protective of his family, too. Bob backs down... but Evan was bluffing.
- Bob is overprotective when Alice and Evan are dating, but once they're married, the same old-fashioned values that made him overprotective now make him feel helpless to intervene if Evan turns out to be abusive, since those values hold that outsiders shouldn't interfere in matters between husband and wife.
- Averted: Bob—like most fathers—is rather protective of his daughter to some, but he doesn't take it to an extreme level.
- Enforced: The executives urge the producers to add a scene where Bob threatens Alice's potential boyfriend Evan, believing that this would appeal to the show's primary viewers — middle-aged men.
- Lampshaded: "Listen, boy, I've got no problem going back to prison."
- Invoked: Twerp Sweating
- Exploited:
- Bob is a Magnificent Bastard who wants Alice to actively rebel against him; so he dons the guise of a Boyfriend-Blocking Dad.
- Someone who hates Evan (possibly Alice herself) tells Bob that Evan is abusing or cheating on Alice.
- Someone extorts Evan by threatening to tell Bob that he is abusing or cheating on Alice.
- Alice Mind Screws her father by begs her boyfriends to Disguised in Drag when he visits her home, it works!
- Defied:
- "And Dad, I swear if you threaten this one, no grandchildren for you whatsoever."
- "Nice bluff there, sweet cheeks. Next time load the weapon you're pointing at my head, it's a little more intimidating."
- "Don't worry sweetie. I'm not gonna get in the way of your relationships. My little baby girl is growing up, and what kind of father would I be if I didn't let her take risks?"
- Discussed: "Dude, have you met Alice's dad?" "Yeah, he's so overprotective! It's like he thinks all boys want to have sex with her."
- Conversed: "Damn, her dad is so overprotective, I wanna strangle him."
- Implied: While Alice is getting ready, Bob takes Evan aside to have a little chat with him. The conversation is not shown, but by the time Alice is finished getting ready, Evan reappears looking very spooked.
- Deconstructed:
- Bob scares away all of Alice's potential suitors, which causes her to die bitter and alone, and even becomes an Old Maid after Bob dies.
- Bob is very concerned for his daughter's well-being. Affably Evil Jerk Jock guys seem nice and are able to get into Bob's good graces (and into Alice's pants) while the Jerk with a Heart of Gold guys don't make a good first impression, and are left out in the cold.
- Evan is outraged at being threatened, and he bluntly tell Alice that the date is over before it's even begun because he doesn't appreciate being threatened by people like her father. He then storms out and leaves for good, leaving Bob with egg on his face as Alice proceeds to yell at him for ruining her date.
- Evan is so terrified by Bob threats that he swears off all further thoughts of dating Alice. By the time Bob decides that Evan is worthy of dating Alice, it's too late.
- Alice is a Violently Protective Girlfriend. She overhears Bob threatening her beloved, storms in, grabs his throat and threatens to kill him if he ever lays a finger on her schnookums.
- Bob threatens Alice’s boyfriend, and a week later the boyfriend is found dead. Guess who the main suspect is?
- Alice ends up running away from home because Bob wouldn't let her have her way with boys, and Bob is in remorse about it.
- Due to her lack of experience in dating men and her relationship with her father going horribly wrong from it, Alice loses her trustworthiness towards men and becomes a Straw Feminist, even deadly threatens all men who express attraction toward her just like how her father did!
- Bob's overprotection of Alice is not because he cares for her, but it's because it's one of his ways of mentally abusing her.
- Bob gets arrested for harassing and threatening Evan, since the authorities fear he may go through with his threats.
- Bob is projecting his own misogyny onto all men.
- Alice points out how hypocritical it is that not only does Bob allow her brother Carl to date, he encourages the exact kind of behaviour he wouldn't stand for in a boyfriend of hers.
- Bob has the mistaken belief that Alice doesn't know how to handle herself, and goes overboard in trying to protect her. It ends up alienating Alice, who's already able to defend herself and capable of identifying guys who won't be good to her, and his Unwanted Assistance really hampers her dating life. She's only able to get a proper relationship once she moves away, and Bob can't ruin everything by failing to defend her.
- Reconstructed:
- Bob scares away all of Alice's potential suitors... except one. Through his dogged determination, he's able to eventually win Bob over, which causes them to have a lifelong friendship.
- Bob scares away all of Alice's potential suitors... except he's okay with Alice making friends. Therefore, he approves Alice and Evan being Platonic Life-Partners.
- Bob's boyfriend-forbidden rule doesn't stop Alice from dating, She either secretly dates him or adopts a Situational Sexuality to date a girl who was introduced as her friend instead.
- Played For Laughs:
- Alice has been married to Evan for about 10 years, and they have kids—but Bob still calls him every day to threaten him with the "she's my little girl" speech.
- Bob is a scrawny, weak, pitiful example of a man, who makes the "she's my little girl" threat to Evan, the star linebacker on the Trope High football team.
- Bob asks Alice if she dating any boys in school. Alice says she's dating one. Bob's face turns red and he shouts, "You're Grounded Forever!" Then he asks Carl if he's dating any girls. Carl says he's dating one, and Bob shouts with tears of joy, "That's my boy!", but it turns out that the girl that Carl is dating also has a father who is also overprotective just like him, and when they finally meet, they start approaching each other just like how Jotaro and Dio did.
- Bob tends to get Alice to apply an excessive amount of sunscreen at the beach.
- Played For Drama:
- Bob is a working dad and is often away from home—he, in his mind, views that threatening his daughter's potential suitors is a way to compensate. Alice disagrees.
- Evan took Bob's threat so seriously he went to the police and pressed charges on Bob's threats.
- Bob's over protectiveness comes off as a sign that he wants her for himself.
- After mistaking Evan for abusing Alice, Bob follows through on his threat and kills or beats him up.
- After Alice goes missing or is kidnapped, Bob threatens Evan into searching for her.
- Played For Horror: Bob is a non-romantic Yandere who keeps Alice imprisoned in their home and kills everybody who he even suspects is getting close to her.
Listen son, you seem like a smart kid. That's my baby girl, and if she gets hurt, no one's gonna miss you. I've got a shotgun and a shovel, and I'll bury you myself. So make sure you're back at Boyfriend-Blocking Dad by a quarter to ten and we won't have any problems, OK?
