Unfazed Everyman



""No, I'm very ordinary... but, some very strange things have happened to me. You could say I'm more differed from than differing.""

- Arthur Dent, The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy.

""The only thing he (Arthur Dent) could think was that they were obviously going to die, and if he wanted anything other than the obvious to happen he was going to have to do something other than the obvious. Here he felt he was on familiar territory""

- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

A specific type of Token Human, The Unfazed Everyman is an ordinary human with no special powers, who happens to hang around with aliens, time travellers, espers or wizards, and assorted other weirdos. Unlike most of their kind for whom such oddbods are invisible, Unfazed Everymen have a great capacity to cope with and accept the incomprehensible wackiness that surrounds them; in many cases with a wise and rational demeanor.

Generally, they are in there so that the audience has somebody to relate to. Commonly the main character, and may be a Fish Out of Water or/and an Unlucky Everydude. May or may not be played up as a loser. They've probably been dragged into this by a Magnetic Plot Device, and usually end up so blasé that everything they see only causes a Dull Surprise at most. Heck, they might even rise to the ranks of Genre Savvy if they've experienced enough (see below). Expect them to become Pals with Jesus.

Compare Badass Normal, a person whose lack of superpowers doesn't get in the way of kicking evil ass; Ordinary High School Student, who may look like this in the beginning, but eventually is revealed to be another thing; Superpower Silly Putty, who is actively affected in weird ways by the strangeness around him; and The Everyman, who is like this trope but with less personality. Contrast Only Sane Man, who loudly insists that none of this can possibly be happening. Compare Heroic Bystander, who despite his powerlessness actually manages to help, and the Action Survivor.

The ever so rare evolved Unfazed Everyman is one who has become Genre Savvy and is one of the most formidable forces ever. No, really. They're not "bound" by the rules of being in any of the other groups and can follow or break the rules of genre to their benefit. In many ways, this is better than just being a Badass Normal (unless you are in a Crapsack World where knowing the rules doesn't mean you can change anything.)

If they are a protagonist, they tend to be Muggle Weight on the Super Weight scale. If they join a team, they are The Team Normal.

See also Weirdness Magnet, The Watson. Compare Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?.

Anime and Manga

 * Kyon from Haruhi Suzumiya. He does have one thing that sets him apart from everyone else: . This fact puts him in Badass Normal territory, because it allows him to control Haruhi, Yuki's boss, and almost anyone who knows of Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody. It also explains why Haruhi gravitated towards him:.
 * Mahou Sensei Negima's Asakura; she's one of the first girls to discover Negi's magical abilities, yet never gained any sort of magic or kung fu abilities of her own until recently, and even then, it was an emergency situation. Despite that, she was still able to be more or less self-sufficient when she was forced to fend for herself in the Magic World.
 * Jonny "Blazing Rumbling Trucker" Raidein is one in the Magic World arc, being nearly the only non-empowered person in the crew. He helps out Ala Alba purely because he's friends with some of the girls, and takes the whole "saving the world" thing in stride.
 * Despite the extreme, glass-shattering reactions to her companions' antics most of the time, Beauty has no issue with staying with Bo-bobo and his downright insane group of rebel fighters; in fact, she embraces her life with them with joy.
 * Nenene Sumiregawa and Drake Anderson from Read or Die.
 * Kaede from Ninin ga Shinobuden. She apparently spends a good chunk of her free time hanging around a ninja mansion despite being an Ordinary High School Student.
 * Ataru Moroboshi of Urusei Yatsura. Though, this might be subverted as time goes on, as he seems to gain an inhuman level of super-speed (whether running away from trouble or running after a woman) and a comic invulnerability that would make Daffy Duck proud.
 * Nabiki Tendo of Ranma 1/2. For the most part she's totally unfazed by the gender-bending, shape-shifting, and martial arts insanity surrounding her, getting involved only to the degree that she can make money from it. Her sister Kasumi is an even better example. She's never even phased fazed at the insanity surrounding her family, to the point where she constantly refers to Ranma's various mortal enemies as his "friends."
 * Haruhi Fujioka, from Ouran, who starts out utterly weirded out by the bishonen antics of the aforementioned club, but gradually learns to cope, even enjoy herself a bit.
 * Naru Osaka, from Sailor Moon, in both senshi and youma knowledge. It rendered her the nickname of Youma Bait; to a lesser extent, Umino fits this trope.
 * Kawachi from Yakitate!! Japan is an average guy stuck in a world of overly-dramatic bakers who break out all sorts of crazy recipes and techniques and get entangled in life-or-death bread-making contests.
 * Bulma in Dragon Ball. Krillin and Vegeta's daughters, Marron and Bra respectively, later on.
 * Everyone in the Pokémon anime that follows Ash and Pikachu. This is especially evident in the movies. The Japanese name of the guy from the first Unova Gym that follows Ash (Dent) seems more likely a coincidence than a Lampshade Hanging, though.
 * Played with in Fullmetal Alchemist when Ed finds himself surrounded by Homunculi and chimeras and humorously realises that he, as the only normal human, is the minority, even though it's hard to consider cybernetic limbs and alchemy as normal.
 * Tsukune Aono in Rosario to Vampire is initially very unnerved upon discovering the true nature of Youkai Academy, but he adapts quickly (in both senses), makes some friends, and becomes quite comfortable with his new lifestyle. It helps that he's the Only Sane Man.
 * Only Sane Man Furuichi from Beelzebub eventually becomes one, and gets Mistaken for Badass as a result.
 * Oz from Pandora Hearts takes pride in his ability to accept the oddities he encounters and adapt to them. Keep in mind, this manga is one big Alice Allusion Mind Screw, so having that kind of adaptability deserves some applause.

Comic Books

 * In Batman, Alfred Pennyworth is an example of this trope. His duties as butler at Wayne Manor include cooking, cleaning, laundry, tending -the often serious- injuries of the Bat-Family, maintaining crimefighting equipment and sometimes using firearms to defend the Manor and Cave. He does this all without losing his composure, wrecking his suit or missing tea.
 * Jimmy Olsen is the lord of this trope. Of course, the entire city of Metropolis seems to get their superhero-supervillain battle updates after the weather report, so he might not be as unique as he seems...
 * Snapper Carr, the Justice League of America's mascot/collective sidekick back in the '60s.
 * ...and his Marvel Universe equivalent, Rick Jones.
 * Jeremy Feeple from Ninja High School is no doubt this, especially considering the weirdness he attracts to himself.

Film

 * Agent John Meyers in the first Hellboy film, an FBI agent who gets transferred to the "nonexistent" Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense. He's chosen by Professor Bruttenholm specifically to be Hellboy's conscience and moral helper. Too bad he's
 * Janine Melnitz from Ghostbusters. She is surrounded by men who hunt ghosts, half of whom are mad scientists. She even has a ghost in a cage close to where she works that the busters keep as a "pet". Not once has she ever batted an eye at any of this.
 * Winston Zeddmore was this in the first film, casually commenting "As long as there's a steady paycheck in it, I'll believe anything you say."
 * The Love Interest from Red. Sarah is kidnapped, drugged, shot at, almost blown up, and kidnapped again. She is surrounded by old and young spies, assassins and government agents who are fighting over her life all the time. What does she say when she is confronted with the death sentence or life in prison if she is caught? And when she finally is? The movie is full of lines like this from her.
 * There's a strong indication that Sarah is taking to life with the spies Like a Fish Takes to Water.
 * Kolya Gerasimov (Alexei Fomkin) in Soviet Sci Fi classic Guest From the Future is an Ordinary High School Student who one day accidentally winds up 100 years in the future. He does pretty well, given how confused he is.
 * Francesco Dellamorte, Cemetery Man - for some reason, unbeknownst to both the townsfolk and the audience, all corpses in the Buffalora cemetery reanimate seven days after burial. Despite having no clue as to why this happens, Francesco expresses neither surprise nor concern, and instead dispatches zombies nightly without batting an eyelid. He refuses to inform the authorities of the situation because he does not want the cemetery closed, which would put him out of a job.
 * "This is my business. They pay me for it." "There comes a moment in life when you realize you know more dead people than living." "Disposing of dead people is a public service, whereas you're in all sorts of trouble if you kill someone while they're still alive." "Hold on a minute Franco - *shoots zombie* - You were saying, Franco."
 * In his time, Agent Phil Coulson of the Marvel Cinematic Universe meets a Super Soldier, a guy in Powered Armor, a Norse god, and a green rage monster while still remaining a slightly jaded Deadpan Snarker.
 * Though he's a bit less blase about the Super Soldier.

Literature

 * Former Trope Namer and current image holder Arthur Dent in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Though he notably
 * He is also very good at.
 * And he carries a very useful towel.
 * In the original radio series, he progresses to Badass Normal over the course of the Brontital storyline, even holding his own in a firefight with the Footwarriors (granted those guys couldn't run very fast), and by the end he
 * He also actually takes some time to actually come into the "coping and rationality" part of the trope. Heck, in the movie, he actually comes close to cracking under the weird a few times.
 * In the books, he actually decides that he will go mad. And then he does. Although that was due more to loneliness than the weird, the weird still played a major part.
 * Jason Wood in Digital Knight. By the end of the book, he has fought, befriended, and had interaction with vampires, werewolves, demons, and basilisks. He even.
 * Jim in Skunk Works
 * Kit's older sister Carmela in the Young Wizards series, though she's a secondary character who doesn't get much "screen time" until the later books.
 * Richard Mayhew in Neverwhere
 * Older Than Radio example: Lemuel Gulliver from Gullivers Travels.
 * Though he does eventually crack and end up a broken misanthrope after being rejected by the passionless horse-people in book four, who he looks up to despite their coldness and talk of genocide.
 * Bella Swan of the Twilight saga. She figured out that Edward wasn't human and then decided that "It doesn't matter". Much to the chagrin of Edward himself. Since she was born with a special shield on her mind, that is not revealed till the end and is implied allows her to cope with weird stuff, Edward Lampshades often enough how her reactions are not human, she might just be The Everyman.
 * She also manages to bump into countless other vampires and werewolves, just because.
 * Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit. He lives in a world well known to contain wizards, dragons, dwarfs and the like, but he, like most hobbits, has spent most of his life comfortably away from all that and is certainly dragged into it.
 * And now, none other than the former trope namer's actor (Martin Freeman, not Simon Jones) is going to play him in Peter Jackson's upcoming film adaptation.
 * Not forgetting that his version of The Watson in the recent Sherlock series is pretty much this anyway. Sure, every now and again his medical skills and gun-toting habits are slightly useful, but really he just is an ordinary man dragged along for the ride.
 * The first of John Brunner's Traveller in Black stories has a 20th-century Londoner called Bernard Brown find himself, for some reason which is never fully explained, trapped in the stories' setting of a far-distant past where magic still works. He makes his way to the nearest city where he gets treated as a god.
 * It's fairly strongly implied, though never stated explicitly, that the Traveller brings Bernard to the city so that he will do precisely that, . This unexpected change in the city's collective behavior can be interpreted as a move made by the forces of Chaos, but that requires reading between the lines.
 * Waldo Butters, in The Dresden Files. Well, he's a Muggle who accepts the supernatural easily and hangs around with a powerful wizard who's always getting him into danger... his freakish love for polka might discount him from being considered "normal", exactly.
 * A case could also be made for Karrin Murphy. Her life was fine and dandy until she tried choking a literal troll to death, and met Harry. You could also make an argument that it's a Deconstruction, as she nearly gets killed several times before Harry realizes that she needs to get clued into the supernatural if she's going to survive.
 * Lyra Volfrieds from Black Dogs. Starts out as an unathletic bookworm, wide-eyed and surprised at everything from dog soldiers to lesbians.
 * Rincewind the "Wizzard" (Discworld) is the perfect example. He is such a bad wizard that if he died, the per capita magical capacity of the Disc would go up. Despite his ineptitude, he has been to hell, heaven, Earth, the dawn of ages, the court of the fabulously rich and good-natured serif Creosote of Klatch, the court of the fabulously rich and Obliviously Evil emperor of Agatea, the the abode of an Eldritch Abomination, Dungeon Dimensions (from which the latter originally came), Death's Domain, and outer space, and not necessarily in that order . This is not a full list, and he was scared to death at all of these times.
 * Although it is worth keeping in mind that he is a wizard, and can still, for example, see Octarine (he does not know the time of his death, but that is because his timeline is so screwed up that even Death doesn't know, rather than any incompetence or tendence towards muggledom).
 * Newton Pulsifer from Good Omens is a wages clerk turned witch-finder out of desperation for some excitement in his life. He eventually gets entangled in all matter of supernatural weirdness, up to and including The End of the World as We Know It.
 * Daniel in Lonely Werewolf Girl. Whether it is an angry werewolf, or an upset fire demon he can be relied upon to have one constant response. Spot of Tea?
 * Faile in The Wheel of Time is introduced as one of these. She gets more interesting (marginally) as the series progresses, but she is introduced as a normal person who just gets caught up with a cast of strange characters.
 * Alice in Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Though her adventures regularly give her fairly concrete evidence that she's gone out of her skull, she takes it pretty well, given that her standard reaction is generally along the lines of "Golly, that's unusual", followed by a brief philosophical discussion with said unusual thing about whether or not she's objectively justified in considering it unusual.
 * The protagonist of The Subject Steve pulls this off, despite a lack of supernatural elements in the book.
 * Shin-tsu, the protagonist of The Longing of Shiina Ryo, tries to convince himself of this every day.
 * David Wong and John Cheese from John Dies at the End are Unfazed Everymen who  eventually become unaffected and Genre Savvy.
 * George Dorn from the Illuminatus-trilogy definately qualifies: he gets recruited to the League of Dynamic Discord implicitly due to this quality, and promptly sent to deal with the International Crime Syndicate for a job vital to the safety of the human race after being member only for a day or two, and only getting a brief explanation for the goals and history of the organization. Though it's not directly stated, it's implied that Hagbard Celine does this because he wants a person who's mostly free even from the Discordian preconceptions to be his representative. In fact most people in the Discordian organizations are like this when they first join.
 * Kamele Waitley from the later Liaden Universe books by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller, who over the course of knowing Professor Jen Sar Kiladi goes from being a naive, cloistered ivory-tower academic (Fledgling, Saltation) to (Ghost Ship, Dragon Ship).
 * Kamele Waitley from the later Liaden Universe books by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller, who over the course of knowing Professor Jen Sar Kiladi goes from being a naive, cloistered ivory-tower academic (Fledgling, Saltation) to (Ghost Ship, Dragon Ship).

Live Action TV
"Oz: Yeah. Hey, did everybody see that guy just turn to dust?
 * Many of The Doctor's companions in Doctor Who. Hell, even the Arthur Dent is hinted to have been one.
 * It has been lampshaded (in a rather dark way) that being one of The Doctor's companions turns you into a Badass Normal.
 * One of the stand-out moments being in "Delta and the Bannermen". After an initial shriek of fright, Mel is seen nonchalantly sharing her room with Delta and her newly-hatched green alien baby.
 * Gwen Cooper in series 1 of Torchwood, and her husband Rhys Williams from series 2.
 * John Watson from Sherlock. Yeah, every now and again his military and medical expertise come in handy, but he's usually just an ordinary doctor being dragged along on crazy cases by Sherlock.
 * Marilyn in The Munsters
 * John Crichton in Farscape, initially, though after a few years of being the universe's punching bag, he becomes Badass Normal on the grounds that whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. He may qualify as an evolved Unfazed Everyman after By the end of the miniseries, he creates
 * Penny in The Big Bang Theory is the Unfazed Everyman of the cast, as she is surrounded by Genre Savvy geeks and spends a lot of time being confused about what's going on.
 * Xander in Buffy the Vampire Slayer
 * Oz also had the potential for this before going all wolfie. Note his reaction to discovering the existence of the supernatural (though he did pretty much react like that to everything...).

Willow: Ohhh, well ... sort of.

Xander: Yep. Vampires are real. A lot of them live in Sunnydale. Willow will fill you in.

Willow: I know it's hard to accept at first.

Oz: Actually, it explains a lot."

"Helping find Buffy after she was turned into a rat, then turns out to be naked when she's changed back.
 * He has more of a reaction to Willow being with Xander than he does to:

A student who's turned into Mr. Hyde wanting to kill him.

Willow appears to have become a vampire.

Buffy can read his thoughts."


 * Jerry Seinfeld in Seinfeld, who inexplicably surrounds himself with George, Elaine, and Kramer for the majority of his waking hours and rarely does more than than snark in reaction to them. Only Newman fazes him.
 * Ando Masahashi from Heroes was one for a while, but eventually he got powers of his own.
 * HRG's wife and Claire's adoptive mother, Sandra Bennett, seems to have adapted to her daughter having superpowers and her husband being an all-purpose spook rather well, all things considered.
 * Darren Stevens in Bewitched.
 * Tony Nelson in I Dream of Jeannie
 * Kaoru from Garo.
 * Sheriff Carter from Eureka qualifies for this trope most of the time, though he generally has to rise to Badass level by the climax of the episode.
 * Harper from Wizards of Waverly Place at least after she finds out about the Russo's secret. Also Theresa.
 * Frank Lapidus on Lost, a recurring character introduced in season four (and later made a regular for season six). He doesn't have any connection to the story or mythology, and his only personal problem (being a drunk) was dealt with before he arrived. He's possibly the only normal, well-adjusted person to ever set foot on the Island...and also accepts all the weird crap that happens on it without question.
 * Joel from Mystery Science Theater 3000.
 * Wendy from The Middleman was hired for her cynical, snarky attitude and matter-of-fact reactions to things like the eyeball monster.

Web Comics
"Sarah: Thanks, but i'm really not that cool. I just have some experience with this sort of thing..."
 * John Egbert of Homestuck is this, especially later on - even  doesn't seem to get to him that much. He's also an Unfazed Everyman in terms of powers - compared to Strange Girl Jade, Time Traveller Dave, and Black Magician Girl Rose, he's got nothing but the clothes on his back and a pretty cool hammer.
 * Although now he has, without even knowing what he was getting into.
 * Moloch VonZinzer of Girl Genius is an ordinary mechanic and soldier fallen on hard times, who against his best wishes, keeps getting caught up with Mad Scientists of all flavors, to quote "I've been around way too many sparks!" Even when he tries to stay out of the way ("I'm nobody's happy helper, got it?!"), he's clearly minion material, as he immediately accepts the job of carrying the Sparky heroine's tools and (unwillingly) following her through death traps.
 * Although sparks have a natural, almost supernatural charisma that makes anyone not Badass Normal into a willing (or in Moloch's case, unwilling) helper. Especially with Agatha, who is one of the most powerful sparks in the series.
 * Airman Higgs is another one - a common soldier being hauled along after a group of very important people and managing to maintain some degree of detachment. He may actually be a subversion, though, as it is strongly implied that he is something more than an ordinary human. He is incredibly durable, superhumanly strong, personally familiar with Castle Heterodyne, and
 * Sarah in El Goonish Shive. She wants to be in her friends' league, though.

"Sam: I was once like you...I had no idea there was an entire world of weird stuff out there. But then, bit by bit, my life got caught up in it. Soon, just dealing with it was practically a full time job!
 * Justin could also qualify. In fact, a lot of humor during his early appearances was how he reacted to the weirdness around him.
 * Then again, the recent story comics have Justin as more of a Ordinary High School Student who has just been revealed as a Badass.
 * Digger, of the Ursula Vernon webcomic of the same name, is an anthropomorphic wombat who manages to be an Unfazed Everyman. The rest of the characters are just that weird.
 * In fact, this is practically Digger's racial superpower. Wombats are so sensible and tied to realism rather than faith or magic that they gain a mild immunity from divine/magical/prophetic dealings.
 * Torg and Zoe from Sluggy Freelance play this role most of the time. True, Torg does have a magic sword, and Zoe's got the cursed tattoo that occasionally turns her into a camel. But compared to the Mad Scientists, witches, Aliens, and Talking Animals they hang out with, they're downright mundane (though Torg does occasionally enter Badass Normal territory).
 * Bob Smithson in ''The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob." has been an Unfazed Everyman since the beginning, and has gradually been turning into an Evolved Unfazed Everyman as he becomes more and more capable.
 * Susan (Susie) Bell in I Was Kidnapped by Lesbian Pirates from Outer Space, though
 * Saya and Jason from Emergency Exit. And even then, Saya, and Jason
 * Sam of Sam and Fuzzy. The poor sap is basically a walking Weirdness Magnet.

Devahi: What did you do?

Sam: I made dealing with it my full time job.

Fuzzy: Here's our card!"

"A gamer: (to a big frog alien from whom everyone else flees in panic) Have a nice trip?"
 * Ben in Templar, Arizona
 * Red from Girls in Space is a normal human, traveling the universe, surrounded by aliens.
 * Marten and his friends seem to be Weirdness Magnets getting involved with anything from mating vacuuming robots, to government agents looking to take away Pintsize, to a Vespa riding vigilante and a parallel world coffee shop. And that's not counting the accepted breaks from the world as we know it such as talking small robots.
 * Dave in Narbonic.
 * What's New with Phil and Dixie had fun with roleplayers being so jaded one would merely turn into an Ascended Fanboy if something weird really happens.

Western Animation

 * Fry from Futurama, although it takes him a while to cope with the weirdness. Once he does, he realizes that he probably never really belonged in the 21st Century anyway.
 * The humans in all series of Transformers. They exist to not be awesome next to all of the cool robots. In fact, the most annoying humans have been some of the ones designated to be more equal to the Transformers themselves. Except for Sari, but she's unusual.
 * However, the fleshies of Transformers Prime seem to hold up quite well next to their co-stars, as each has perpetrated his/her fair share of badassery.
 * This is how Stan manages to cope living in South Park. The entire town is a Weirdness Magnet and his father is pehaps the most insane in a town of people with multiple personalities, illiterates, Knight Templar Parent, the son of the devil, a Depraved Bisexual teacher and Eric Cartman. Despite all this, he usually watches on unfazed by what is happening this week other than to hold the bridge of his nose.
 * Ben and Gwen Tennyson in the original Ben 10, pilot episode. In fact they only freak out for a couple minutes, as Ben had turned into a living candle and had accidentally started a forest fire. After Grandpa Max explained that Ben was an alien they calmed down quickly.
 * Julie Yamamoto in Ben 10 Alien Force, while she only finds out in the last 5-10 minutes of the episode she found out in. She had caught Ben in his Jet-ray mode and when questioned she said she thought it was "cool". And then she gets a pet that doubles as a Cool Ship.
 * In The Fairly Odd Parents, the Poorly-Disguised Pilot for Crash Nebula reveals the eponymous hero was like this once: the only human in an intergalactic school. Of course, once he gets the powerful space suit he begins to get less so.
 * Mark from Ugly Americans could probably out-Unfaze Everyman Arthur Dent.
 * Jimmy Two-Shoes has the eponymous character in this role.
 * Sokka from Avatar: The Last Airbender is this being the only non-bender in the group (before Suki joined mid-season 3) and actually coped quite well thanks to meat and sarcasm.

Video Games

 * Sigint in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, the Only Sane Man in a team of weirdos supporting a Badass soldier fighting even weirder enemies.
 * Johnny Cage is this for the first story mode chapter of Mortal Kombat 9, by way of being the most relatively normal kombatant.
 * The player character, of all people, in Knights of the Old Republic is simply a random Republic soldier who just happened to be one of the few survivors of the Endar Spire in the first chapter, and seems to cope rather well with Mandalorians, war heroes, Wookies, Jedi, and Sith. Somewhat subverted due to later events, though.
 * Derek Badger, unflappable Yorkshireman and protagonist of Yahtzee Croshaw's Poacher. Not even a tumble down the proverbial rabbit hole into a world of spirits and monsters can shake him.
 * Dudley from Street Fighter plays the role in Street Fighter X Tekken. Elena shows up on his dorrstep and tells him that a tree in Dudley's garden has told her about a great danger, so they must go to the South Pole and stop it. Dudley's reaction? It's all right, he'll help her in her quest, as long as he's back home in time for his next boxing match.