Sunnydale Population: stupid, or something more sinister?

[palabravampiress]

I was reading a fanfic. In said fanfic, Spike pulled one of his throw the blanket over the head and bolt out, smoking, into the daylight moves. He does that a lot in the show, too.

Here's what I don't get: how is it that none of Buffy's neighbors (or Anya's magic box neighbors) seem to notice this crazy crap that's always going on around Buffy & co.? I mean, really... does the Hellmouth act as a sort of supernatural toxic waste dump and ooze creepy toxins into the air and drinking water, causing brain damage of the supernatural memory variety? Cuz the third or fifth or twentieth time I saw my neighbor's weirdo guest spontaneously combust, I think I'd notice. And maybe show up with a fire extinguisher (which would have been funny). Or when shark-headed gangsters started rioting in front of the shop next door, albeit at night, maybe I would have leaned out of my apartment window for a looksee, then dialed 911. Or when droves of teenage girls started showing up and doing combat exercises in the back yard, maybe I would have tipped the authorities off to the terrorist training ground that had cropped up next door.

I mean, really... what's up with Sunnydale? Why don't people notice this stuff? I think THAT -- the big evil that was keeping most of the population ignorant (implied to be the mayor until his demise at the end of season 3) -- would have made a great season arc and a great big bad.

What does everyone else think?

[Joyce Summers]

Hmm...I've always wondered that myself. Denial and ignorance can only stretch so far after all. But then I thought maybe the writers were stretching the stereotype of Californians being accepting of anything, no matter how strange, because it is the land of the quirky and the weird.
I mean my Mother has the strangest habits. She takes New Age to a whole new level and has all sorts hanging outside of her house, in her garden and her neighbor once caught her singing a lullaby to her plants (don't ask) and she's just very eccentric and quirky in general. I once asked her, in my teens obviously as this is a time when generally you're constantly asking yourself 'WHY CAN'T MY PARENTS BE NORMAL?!', isn't she worried about people point her out as 'the crazy eccentric lady down the street' and she replied 'No, because everyone is strange in California dear. It's why we blend in so well'. And I think Sunnydale is just stretching this to a whole new level. Maybe the writers are poking fun at Californians (And being a member of this group, I may be slightly insulted haha)

But then if you take it on an entirely practical level- you see a guy with a ridged face burst into flames. The show Buffy doesn't exist so you're not really constantly exposed to the conceot of vampires and the supernatural. Your first thought is not going to be 'THAT GUY BURST INTO FLAMES!' or even 'VAMPIRE!'; you're instead going to instantly rationalize what you saw. A dummy perhaps. Maybe a practice prank? Dress rehearsal? Stunt rehearsal? The denial cover-ups are endless because never in a million years would you even think to consider vampires or demons until someone showed it you in an obvious manner. Such as Willow and Xander getting attacked in the premier episode, or the invisible girl after Cordy, Oz and Joyce both saw vampires slain before their eyes. It was all undeniable evidence. But seeing random unrelated yet equally strange events from afar such as you've mentioned- you would tend to rationalize it rather than worry. Perhaps even thinking 'If it was really a problem, he/she would say something'.

Add to the constant cover-ups by the police and politicians of Sunnydale, Buffy and co doing some covering up themselves, and the willingness to not know as knowing it was all real is far too scary a concept to accept then yep...Sunnydale is topping the ignorance scale.

[LittleMissLikesToFight]

well like snyder said, the police in that town were deeply stupid... so maybe the residents were too lol.

Also, maybe people DID call the cops, but what can the cops do? I think some on the force knew there were things they couldn't deal with, so maybe it came down to it being things people figured they couldn't handle, so they did their best to keep safe but would rather not even bother with reacting.

[Blondie Bear]

I vote for stupid, too. :) I can't think of any other good explanation. Like Nancy says in "Beneath You,"
You hear things in this town, living here in Sunnydale, but nobody actually believes them. You’d have to be crazy and… you guys think that I’m crazy, don’t you?

[white avenger]

Maybe it's something like the thing about Glory and Ben in Season 5. Just as soon as someone recognizes that something just isn't right, they forget it immediately. Of course if that's the case, there would have to be some explanation as to why the Scoobies and all of the support cast wasn't affected...

[littlewilly]

I think the sunnydale residents know exactly what goes on but, what are they gonna do about it. There is so many examples of crazy stuff that they just HAVE to know.

[Clem Rocks]

Maybe it's just people can't be bothered to take notice

As The Doctor said in an episode of Doctor Who "You put a big old-fashioned police box in the middle of a city, what are people gonna do? Walk right by it"

You see something weird, you just ignore it and go about your day

[caitaintdead]

I guess most of the people that live in Sunnydale have lived there all their lives so maybe they have grow accustomed to the strange things that happen. Perhaps there's a strange chemical imbalance in their head to overlook the bizarre things that they see... You know, so they don't die of shock. Kind of a comfort blanket inside their head that whispers explanations to them.

I guess since Season 2 or 3 I always assumed that the higher powers of Sunnydale (and the world) went to a lot of effort to cover up any demon knowledge in the greater community(there were many episodes that showed Snyder and the police exchanging cover up stories)... Maybe the watchers council were even involved in keeping things under wraps - after all they were always saying that the slayer had to work in secret. A tabula rasa spell here, a tabula rasa spell there...

Or maybe Joss just overlooked some of this detail so that he could write an enjoyable TV series... It would have been a giant pain in the backside if the police arrived every episode and Buffy and co had to cover up what was going on.

[Aussie]

I think Giles says in season 1 something like
"People have a tendency to rationalise what they can and forget what they cant"

Maybe people push unexplainable and unusual things to the back of their minds, Its too much trouble trying to find an explanation so its easier just to forget about it!

I know I'm guilty of pretending not to see things so I don't have to do anything about it, for example, an extra horse poo in the paddock at work, if I pretend not to see it then I don't have to pick it up (lol But that is just laziness on my part really!). That doesn't compare to a smoking blanket running through the front yard, but it could be the same sort of deal - If I pretend I didn't see it then I don't have to do anything about it and that means less work for me. ;)
Or I would figure out some sort of idea in my mind that would explain the situation.

[Kana]

Angel said something similar in Prodigal as did Virginia Bryce:

"Most people, they don't even acknowledge the evil, let alone try to fight it."