Harold has a very cynical view of the world sometimes, nurtured by the fact that he has to deal with a lot of the dregs of society in his sporting goods store -- bikers, hunters, rednecks, crazy army vets, survivalists. He also tries to keep his kids in line with scared straight horror stories about ex-friends of his that died doing whatever it is he's afraid his kids are getting into. Harold thinks this to be a very effective method for controlling his kids, fairly unaware that they simply laugh about his stories behind his back (it's this goofy way of handling problems that almost makes Sam and Lindsay want to do whatever it is he's trying to scare them away from).