X-Fleas, why I hate that show!

[Pyrrho]

For Superman to be as unrealistic as the X-Files, there would need to be earthly supernatural nonsense.

Mister Mxyzptlk?  One of Superman's weaknesses is magic.  He has had various encounters with magic, including "earthly" witches.

Not having read many Superman comic books, I had to look that up on Wikipedia to know who that character is supposed to be.  Okay, I accept your claim, and regard Superman as being about equally unrealistic as the X-Files.  I had already more or less accepted the general idea from my previous claim about the odds of either stories being an accurate representation of reality.

[AFTT47]

Lots of people think soaps are real as well, sending flowers when a character is killed off.

Incredibly, yes. I had a coworker with a relative on her husband's side who went searching through local newspapers looking for the obituary of a soap character. It was funny because she was just drop-jawed incredulous when she talked to me about it.

Maybe even worse than this, the U.S. Coast Guard told Sherwood Schwarz - the creator of Gilligan's Island - that they received dozens of letters from people angrily demanding to know why the castaways were not rescued.

There are no bounds to human stupidity.

[Alex K]

You must admit though, that with today's reality formats, the TV creators have kind of caught up with viewer stupidity. Nowadays, Gilligan's Island would be some actual stranded people.

[Pyrrho]

... Lots of people think soaps are real as well, sending flowers when a character is killed off.

That is really sad.

...  I know some people who claim to be Jedi's (this is a pretty small movement, but it exists as a religious movement), and Star Wars was the direct cause of that.  ...

I am going to go out on a limb and not blame Star Wars for that, and presume that there was something seriously wrong with those people before they ever saw any of the movies.  Either that, or they suffered a serious blow to the head or some sort of brain damage afterwards that converted them.

But it does remind me of one of the reasons the Star Trek franchise is much better:

(Of course, the original series is the best, as what can compare to the gaudy colors, cheesy sets and special effects, short skirts, and William Shatner's inimitable acting?)

Plus, the subtle humor ...

Without the humor, I would have found the show unbearable.  A few of the episodes that are particularly humorous I actually enjoyed.  Probably, they are among the episodes that the crazies liked the least.

[Cyberman]

One example of X-Files humour I liked is when the agents discover a corpse literally burned in half. Scully asks if they should arrest David Blaine, to which Mulder replies in deathly serious tones, "Yes. Yes, we should. But not for this."

Another is a little moment when Scully has to autopsy a completely invisible body. She gets the idea to stipple blue powder paint (or something similar) onto the corpse so she can at least see it; as I recall, she's doubtful that it's even there. She dabs on the first brushful and is fascinated by part of the face being picked out. After that, she has a rare old time dabbing the stuff on. No dialogue, just pure performance and it's delightful.