(Originally posted on
The “You’re Crazy Kolchak!” Trope is a trope exclusive to science fiction, fantasy and horror. It’s a very annoying one. It started out all right, but has been repeated so many times past its expiration date, that it does vex me so.
What am I talking about? Okay, for youngsters out there, a television series ran back in the seventies called Kolchak: The Night Stalker. This was a goofy series that was essentially was a “Monster of the Week” outing. In fact, it might be the first official “Monster of the Week”, but others might differ. The series was spawned by two made-for-television movies called The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler.
The series is straightforward. It follows the tabloid reporter Carl Kolchak (played by the late, great Darren McGavin) as he runs into a gamut of various monsters. No story arc and completely episodic. It lasted a single season (1974-75) but became a cult hit after it was put into syndication. That was how I saw it.
The series is fun, but hampered by a limited budget in a time before CGI. Makeup and rubber monster suits are almost the sum total of “special effects”.
Anyway, it was a late-night session watching reruns that made me aware of the “Crazy Kolchak” trope. The series didn’t invent it, but it sure ran it into the ground.
The trope works like this: the protagonist witnesses something unearthly/supernatural and tries to explain it to the authorities as something unearthly/supernatural. Said authorities respond with “You’re crazy, Kolchak!” Rinse. Repeat.
The disbelieving authority figures are nothing new. In fact, it’s usually an integral part to a supernatural horror. There’s the “The police will never believe this!” moment. Perfectly understandable. It serves to ground the writing, since most regular people will more readily believe in a deranged person than something that alters their worldview. In horror, it also works to isolate the protagonist. He can’t get any help and the monster is closing in. Any horror writer recognizes this tactic.
Where Kolchak jumps the shark is that, quite often, these supernatural creatures are seen doing supernatural things by the authorities. Kochak will be there when the vampire shrugs off gunshots and beats up a dozen policemen without a sweat, or (the one I remember) the invisible alien blows up a store and wrecks a bunch of policemen without making a sound. There are a lot of examples in the series. Worse, after the police find out several times how right Kolchak is, the next time he tells them about the next threat, the disbelief has “reset”.
TV Tropes has a version of this called You Have to Believe Me. “Crazy Kolchak” is even worse, though, because this occurs even with evidence and right in front of the cops. I can get the disbelief from one hysterical witness, but if it happens right in front of you…? Bad movies continue with a variation of this trope even up to this day.
I have seen plenty of better-written movies and series mocking this trope, however. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel did plenty of tongue-in-cheek mockery. My favorite line might be from From Dusk Till Dawn (the movie), however: “I don’t want to hear anything about ‘I don’t believe in vampires’. Because I don’t fucking believe in vampires, but I believe in my own two eyes, and what I saw was fucking vampires.”
It follows it up with another great line: “Psychos do not explode when sunlight hits them, I don’t give a fuck how crazy they are!”
I’d just like to see this trope a little less. Is that too much to ask?
