That Makes Me Feel Angry

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
(Redirected from Informed Emotion)

"Your lyrics lack subtlety! You can't just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!"

—Robot Devil, Futurama

A classic rule in writing is to Show, Don't Tell. That includes emotions. If a character is happy, that should be obvious from his actions—not from the fact that he says "I'm happy" out loud. Imagine what real life would be like if people did that.

This trope can be used for comedic effect. It can also be rather scary when the "so happy" line is delivered with barely concealed rage by a skilled actor. Tropes Are Not Bad, after all.

See As You Know for the expository version of this trope. Compare And That's Terrible or Flat Joy.

Appears quite a lot in cases of Lull Destruction. Do not confuse with Is This What Anger Feels Like?, in which the perpetually jubilant character deals with anger for the first time, or I'll Kill You!.

Examples of That Makes Me Feel Angry include:

Anime and Manga

  • This is part of the superficial way a Misaka Sister speaks in A Certain Magical Index and A Certain Scientific Railgun, and once you know how a Misaka Sister is different from Misaka Mikoto, it's both creepy and tragic.
  • Axis Powers Hetalia, from Kiku/Japan: "An unpleasant sensation..." Cue the Discretion Shot.
  • In Black Lagoon, Gretel says or implies she feels a little bad about using 2 local orphans as decoys pretty much insuring there death.
  • One of the things that Kyon does as an Unreliable Narrator in Suzumiya Haruhi. For example, he'll say he's terrified about something but only rarely will he show actions that actually show it. Once he was narrating how scared he was about a monster; when Itsuki mused that he sure didn't act scared, we were treated to him devoting a paragraph or two of him listing how he had the traits of being scared... until that trails off and it isn't addressed again.
    • What's more, one of the common devices that the series uses is to have Kyon's actions contradict his words; he tells us things that are different than what's shown. Example from the anime's chronological first episode: Kyon tells us that he's not interested in Haruhi, while the animation shows us that he's very obviously checking her out over the course of a few weeks.
    • Kyon's "That Makes Me Feel Angry" style is also in contrast to the story's treatment of Haruhi's inner state, which is almost exclusively Show, Don't Tell.
  • Sagara Sousuke from Full Metal Panic!, when he's attempting to convince Muggles that he's feeling normal human emotions.

Sousuke: You perceive wrongly. I feel unimaginable happiness wasting time talking with women. I'm that type of human.

Comic Books

Fan Works

  • Invoked for humor's sake by Saurial in the Worm/Luna Varga crossover Taylor Varga when she leans against Amy and says, "Hold me, I'm sad" because her other aspect -- herself -- is being mean to her during prep for the third study session.

Film

"That makes me angry! And when Dr. Evil gets angry, Mr. Bigglesworth gets upset! And when Mr. Bigglesworth gets upset ... people DIE!"

  • Enchanted has this when Giselle gets angry, but here it's justified because it's the first time she's actually felt the emotion anger.

Giselle: You make me so...so...ANGRY!...Ha ha! I'm angry!...I'm angry...I'M ANGRY! *punches Robert in the arm*

    • This also happens to be her Love Epiphany, so it's possibly the first time she felt any strong emotion toward someone.
  • Daft Queens has Yihoshi's semi-imaginary friend strangling him while she says, "I am very angry!"
  • Used for comedic effect in the finale of Ghostbusters, where calm, collected and rational Egon calmly explains to his fellow Ghostbusters that he's "terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought". (Anyone would be, seeing how he's facing the end of the world as administered by a giant version of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man. Blame Ray...)
  • Played for laughs in a scene in The Incredibles, when callous insurance executive Mr. Huph begins his reprimand for his employee Mr. Incredible with "I'm not happy Bob, not happy", and indeed looks like he's never been happy once in his entire life.
  • The albino ghost twins in The Matrix Reloaded. Probably to show that they're Uncanny Valley Guys. "We are getting aggravated." "Yes, we are." All the while utterly deadpan.
  • Similarly, in Star Trek Generations, Data states how he feels about a drink in Ten-Forward, justified because he had just installed his emotion chip:

Data (gleefully):Yes! I hate this! It is revolting!
Guinan: More?
Data: Please!

Barbossa: "I feel...cold..."

  • This is probably Dug's defining trait in Up: "I do not like the cone of shame." Not that you can expect much nuance out of a dog or anything.
    • Also justified as an artifact of the computer translation of what the dog is -- Squirrel!!
  • The Producers: "I'm hysterical! And I'm wet!"
    • [Slap] "I'm in pain! I'm in PAIN, and I'm WET, and I'm STILL HYSTERICAL!"
  • The Rocky Horror Picture Show has the line "I'm cold, I'm wet and I'm just plain scared!"
  • Sin City: "I can only express puzzlement, that borders on alarm."
  • Unfortunately, the only line most people know from Network is the end of Howard Beale's rant: "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"
    • And that wasn't him expressing his own feelings (at least, not directly), but what he was instructing the viewers to do.
  • Monty Python's Flying Circus in the sketch of the cook he says "And it makes me feel so mad!"
    • And in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a peasant who doesn't want to go on the cart of dead plague victims tries to convince everyone that he's just fine: "I feel happy! I feel happy!"
  • From Twins: "For the first time in my life I... PISSED OFF!"
  • Rare dramatic example: in the film Manhattan, Mariel Hemingway's line "Now I don't feel so good" is delivered with such innocence that it's just heart-breaking.
  • Actually used very well in The Godfather. "Only don't tell me you're innocent. Because it insults my intelligence. And makes me very angry." Michael Corleone shows no anger while delivering this line, instead exhibiting a cold lack of emotion that makes the line very sinister and somewhat chilling.
  • In Mickey Blue Eyes, a woman who had been left at the altar isn't dealing with it well. She keeps saying "I'm so happy for you!" while breaking down and crying.
  • Miss White in Clue has trouble even describing the emotion, and stumbles through metaphor.
  • Gladiator has a particularly silly example from Emperor Commodus. "It vexes me. I'm terribly vexed." A deleted scene does give a little more weight to this scene, however, since we see that just before saying this, Commodus had been in a rage and hacked at a statue of his father with a sword for a good long time. At least in that form it would have shown how, just below the surface, Commodus was becoming more and more unhinged and his behavior was erratic.
  • Played for Laughs in Signs:

Graham: Ahh! I'm insane with anger!

  • In one scene of A Cinderella Story, Fiona told her daughters she was upset. When one of the daughters told her she didn't seem to be upset, she said it was because of botox.
  • Played with in Scream 3. Disguised as Dewey, the killer has a phone conversation with Jennifer Jolie's bodyguard while he's looking through Dewey's trailer. When he insults "Dewey" over the phone, the killer responds with "That makes me... angry!" (with a definitive emphasis of rage on that last word), while bursting in and stabbing him in the back.
  • "Oh, Black Dynamite. I'm so happy."
  • Happens frequently in Let Me In, the remake of Let the Right One In.


Literature

"I believe the smell is causing me to become deranged," Ax said calmly. "I may have to run away in panic."

  • There is a Winnie the Pooh in the "Lessons from the Hundred-Acre Wood" series titled Use Your Words. In this book, Kanga encourages Roo to use his words to express how he feelings instead of keeping his feelings bottled up inside. Sample dialogue: "If you have something to tell me or want to share how you're feeling, please use your words, Roo." "I'm mad because I had to come back inside!" "All right. But you still need to wear your scarf."
  • A species trait of the Martians in S.M. Stirling's In The Courts of the Crimson Kings. A woman asks if her ragtag hired crew fears her, and they reply, "We fear you exceedingly, even unto the relaxation of sphincters." Martians who are pissed off mutter things like, "Extreme annoyance!" It's hilarious and surprisingly effective.
  • Justified with Keladry of Mindelan as she hide her emotions so thoroughly that even saying she's angry shocks her friends.


Live Action TV

JD: "You know what's funny, Turk? She's not saying "That's so sad," she's ACTUALLY crying."
Turk: "You're an IDIOT."
JD: "Yes I am."

    • Also when Jordan got botox and tried to smile Dr. Cox had to guess her emotion. Jordan did this after her neighbor's son called her "ma'am."
    • The exact same thing was done in Seinfeld.
      • George is getting upset!
  • Done humorously in Boy Meets World. Harley Kiner, The Bully, was supposed to be tough and emotionless, so whenever some sort of event would happen, he would state his reactions to them by saying, "I am hysterical" or "I am distraught."
  • Top Ground Gear Force, the gardening special for Sports Relief hosted by the presenters of Top Gear; "I'm unspeakably angry at you," James May tells Clarkson, sounding a bit put out. Being a British show, this may have been combined with a bit of Understatement and Stiff Upper Lip.
    • Ridiculously, that is actually how we express anger over here. At least on TV.
  • Possibly justified as the closing gag in an episode of Will and Grace. Will obtained botox treatments in his face in an attempt to appear younger. Of course, botox works as a paralyzing agent (basically), so when Grace arrived to boast of some accomplishment, Will's expressionless delivery of "I'm so happy for you" was taken for Sarcasm Mode. Grace promptly stormed out, which caused Will to sit back down with the same look.
  • Likewise in Sex and the City: Candice Bergen's character announces "I am so angry right now" with a blank facial expression. Not only has it been established that she's had botox, but this line is actually a callback to early in the episode when Samantha goes for a botox treatment and the nurse warns her that, because of her reduced facial expressiveness, she'll have to explicitly announce her emotions.

Nurse: Some patients have said they found it difficult to register emotion on their faces after the procedure. So you may have to say things like, 'I am so angry right now.'

I AM WOUNDED!

John Cleese: You bastards! You vicious, heartless bastards! Look what you've done to him! He's worked his fingers to the bone to make this place what it is, and you come in with your petty, feeble quibbling and you grind him into the dirt! This fine, honorable man whose boots you are but worthy to kiss! [[[Beat]]] Oh, it makes me mad.

You see, I'm not making myself very clear. "Funny" is like this:
D
"Not funny" is like this:
>: (
And right now, I'm not like
D
I'm like
>: (

    • Best description of that scene ever!
  • This trope made for one of the world's most favorite Narm moments in a Very Special Episode of Saved by the Bell, when Jessie, having become addicted to caffeine pills, starts singing "I'm So Excited" (itself an example of this trope, see below), and it ends up "I'm so excited! I'm so excited! I'm so... so scared!"
  • Used rather pointedly by Mal in Firefly when Zoe and Wash's marital disputes started getting on his nerves.

"Okay, uh, I'm lost. I'm angry. And I'm armed."

Colin Mochrie: I'm feisty!

  • Malcolm in the Middle: One episode had Malcolm's grandmother drugging a wealthy man to get him to marry her. When her family found out, she drugged them so they'd not interfere. While under the effect of the drugs, Malcolm revealed he had pierced his tongue. His mother said she'd punish him as soon as the drugs wear off (until then, she didn't seem upset). Don't worry about the rich man. The drugs on him wore off just when he was about to partake on the vows.
  • Castiel in Supernatural, eating hamburgers: "These things make me very happy."
  • One episode of Two and A Half Men concluded with Alan dressed in a Gay Nineties "barbershop quartet" outfit and handlebar moustache, staying in character (with an Italian accent!) as he reacted to various real-world (within the episode) incidents: "I'm-a so happy!"..."I'm-a so sad!"


Machinima

Caboose: Now I am thinking about Kittens... Kittens covered in spikes... That makes me angry.

  • primal scream as he jumps into a fight and slaughters everyone*


Music


New Media


Theater and Opera

  • William Shakespeare in Henry V has King Henry say "I was not angry since I came to France/Until this instant" when he sees a bunch of slaughtered boys.
    • Fully justified in Shakespeare's time—modern acting (where we actually, y'know, act) didn't exist until the 19th century. Before that, "acting" consisted of standing up on stage in a costume to denote various characters and reading lines off the script—often in a monotone. Think of all the times in high school English where the class had to read from the play and you'll soon realise why Shakespeare had his characters saying their emotions out loud.
  • Happens in too many operas to count. Of course, rather than saying "I'm happy," characters will be singing "Sono felice," but it's the same idea.
  • Act II of Into the Woods opens with the main characters singing about how perfectly happy they are—mostly to set up the huge subversion of Happily Ever After that immediately follows. They are arguably not perfectly happy even in that song; it's strongly implied that they are trying to convince themselves they are by repeating it over and over again.
  • In The Musical High Spirits (an adaptation of Blithe Spirit), Charles pulls out a record his recently-returned-as-a-ghost wife played on their wedding night and finds she doesn't remember it. She claims "it's all coming back" to her, but Charles tells her, "It isn't, and I'm upset."
  • In the sequel to A Very Potter Musical, A Very Potter Sequel, Harry screams, "I'M IN A RAGE! THIS IS THE MADDEST I'VE EVER BEEN!"
  • In Romeo and Juliet, this is the nurse's reaction to being teased by Mercutio: "Now, afore me, I am so vexed that every part about me quivers, scurvy knave."


Video Games

  • "...And it makes me violently angry..." as spoken by John Marston from Red Dead Redemption, to Irish when discussing how whiskey affects the brain.
  • From Cave Story, Misery's "Heavens, that felt good!" after dumping Balrog into the Labyrinth.
  • The third verse of the bizarre boss fight/opera hybrid in Conker's Bad Fur Day begins with the line "now I'm really getting rather mad" (subsequent lines unprintable).
  • Knights of the Old Republic 2 has the HK-50s' prefixes, such as "Mocking Query:" or "Condescending Statement:". HK-47 does this as well, but to a lesser extent, as he doesn't use adjectives.
    • Usually because HK-47 is the Straight Man to the HK-50's Comic Relief. HK-47 can go on and on about philosophy with only a "Statement:" or two thrown in, but the HK-50s get more and more ridiculous as the game goes on, from "Condescending Explanation" up to "Unnecessary Statement" and "Ineffectual Command" (the last two from cut content, sadly).
      • It gets to the point where the HK-50s actually start undermining themelves, such as by preceding an explanation of events with "Fabrication:".
  • "I have fury!", Fawful's famous Engrish catchphrase in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga.
  • Justified in Mass Effect, in which the elcor race always states the tone of their statement before speaking. For example, "Delighted surprise. I greet you". This is because among their own race, most of the communication is done via pheromones and body language too subtle for other races to detect. Their voices are always in a sort of dull monotone. When you hear elcor talking in background conversations, they don't preface their words.
    • Also, because it's Bioware, at least partly a Shout-Out to HK-47 above.
    • In-universe, there was an all-Elcor run of Hamlet.
    • "Wait, did you hack your translator so you could control your kinetic language processing?" "With a sincerity such that skepticism would be deeply insulting: no."
    • Also "With barely contained terror: You drive a hard bargain, human."
  • When you defeat Anubis in your second encounter with him in Metal Combat: Falcon's Revenge, he shouts "You have succeeded in making me angry!" as his body is exploding. A few seconds later, he gets a brand new one, and you have to fight him all over again.
  • Losing in the Meltokio Coliseum with Raine in Tales of Symphonia will have her reply "This does not make me happy."
    • Likewise, when Colette goes into overlimit, her response will be "I'm mad now."
  • In a Warcraft III cinematic, Malfurion Stormrage says "That angers me greatly" when he sees Scourge forces tearing down the forest around his home. He can be forgiven, though, seeing that he just woke up from a 10,000-year nap.
    • Given the game itself, the only way to express anger is vocally, and Furion is supposed to be The Stoic, so it wouldn't fit easily without looking odd. He really does get angry in the expansion, and this time it's more natural.
      • He's still not exempt from this. An example is "The pain is... excruciating!" said in an unnaturally bored tone of voice.
  • Raging Raven in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. See, they already had Screaming Mantis, so instead of just shrieking incoherently, Raven has to fly around telling everyone how angry she is. "Rage! RAAAAGE!"
    • There's also The Cobra's from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. The Pain says "Pain" anytime you shoot him, The Fear announces his fear after you beat him, The End says "The end" anytime he sneaks up on you (which doesn't count unless Oh Crap counts as an emotion), The Sorrow tells us how sad he is. The only one exempt from this is The Fury.
    • The infamous Engrish translation of the original Metal Gear game features guards which, to let you know they were about to fall asleep at their posts, would shout "I'M GETTING SLEEPY!!", followed by "I FEEL ASLEEP!!" to announce that they were, in fact, asleep and safe to sneak past.
    • Whether you find it a Tear Jerker or Narmtastic, Psycho Mantis' final words are to declare how helping someone for the first time feels nice.
  • Agent Superball from Telltale's Sam and Max series of games:

"I'm sorry. I'm gushing."
"I'm crying from the inside."

    • In this case, played for laughs because he's a Secret Service agent. He actually does break his emotionless demeanor once, when the duo are trying to fix Bosco using time travel; even forty-ish years ago, Stinky's is well known for it's food, and Superball is frankly shocked that the president would go someplace as lowbrow as that.
  • In Star Control 2, the Utwig's culture is built around this concept. They have a tendency to state their emotions ("You find us in a state of moderate depression instead of our normal cycle of self-destructive tendencies.") And instead of expressing their emotions, they wear masks to represent them, such as the Expression of Ultimate Gratitude, the Mask of Rampant Jubilation and Jumping With Ecstatic Glee, and, of course, the Mask of Ultimate Embarrassment and Shame. They believe that physical expression of emotions holds them back from achieving a higher level of civilization, and therefore attempt to repress it.
  • In Kingdom Hearts II, after all of the crap Roxas had to endure, he finally confronts DiZ. By this time, Roxas is pissed-off and exhausted, but what line does he deliver? "I hate you so much!"
  • Interesting version shows up in Ar tonelico. Not so much as the game itself as the game's Fictionary; the language of Hymmnos places heavy emphasis on emotions or emotional state.
    • Considering the discrepancies between what Reyvateils say outside and in their Cosmosphere, and what you have to do for them to be able to craft new songs, this is less this trope and more of them needing to be able to express their feelings better.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. For a particularly noticeable example, try wearing different masks as Child Link and talking to Saria.

Ghirahim: [Zelda] was nearly ours when that loathsome servant of the goddess snatched her away. Do you have any idea how that made me feel inside? Furious! Outraged! (teleports) Sick with anger!

  • Fujin from Final Fantasy VIII, though it's all part of her shouty monosyllabic schtick.
  • One of the responses to a successful taunt in Morrowind is "That makes me... angry".
  • A line characters may speak in Oblivion: "Your presence annoys me."
  • In Subterranean Animism, Parsee introduces herself to Reimu (and Yukari) by cheerfully chatting about how dreadfully jealous she is of everything and everybody. This, like everything else in Touhou fandom, gets exaggerated by the fandom, often to the point where she rarely speaks about anything else.
    • Komeiji Satori from the same game turns this around by telling other people what they're thinking or feeling, whether they mind it said or not. This bothers Marisa more than it does Reimu, the latter even goading Satori to read the bullet patterns she's going to use against her.
  • Taizo during the opening cutscene of Dig Dug: Digging Strike.

NPC: I need to talk to Susumu.
Taizo: Listen here, Im Taizo Hori, I handled the Dig Du...
NPC: There's no time! I must talk to Susumu!
Taizo: Are you trying to make a fool of me? You've never heard of Taizo Hori?
NPC: No I haven't, please! you must get me to Susumu!
Taizo: Hmph! Now I'm angry!


Webcomics

Web Original

  • Sung merrily by Randy ofManwhores: "Broken heart. Sad feelings. Suicidal tendencies, are on my mind. I'm gonna kill myself. Doo, doo, dee, doo, I'm gonna kill myself." during his emotional downward spiral, before engaging in an incredibly transparent I Have This Friend dialogue with a sympathetic bartender.
  • Captain Hammer, in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog: "Oh, I'm in pain! I think this is what pain feels like!"
  • The "angry gorilla" in Auto-Tune the News on YouTube, while not acting very angry, continuously expresses verbally how angry he is.
  • The titular Irate Gamer does this constantly. Arguably justified due to his poor acting making his "anger" sound like indifference or even boredom.

Western Animation

  • Used constantly in Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-lot. Granted, the show is partially to help children learn to deal with their emotions, but that doesn't make it any less annoying.
  • Played with in Chowder. Truffles ones has to resort to telling everyone that she's angry because she had her voice changed by a radio dial thing and her new voice never sounds anything but calm.
  • Cartoon character Droopy does this all the time. ("You know what? I'm happy.") Justified in that it's the only way to tell when he is happy. And because... well, because it's funny.
    • Parodied in a few cartoons, where Droopy would deliver this line after showing a traditional exaggerated response, like jumping around shouting "Yahoo!" after receiving a massive reward for catching an escaped convict.
    • And if you ever hear him say "You know what? That makes me mad," head for the hills, because his Berserk Button has been hit.
  • The ex-finale of Futurama had Fry compose an opera in which the characters did exactly this. This prompted the above reaction from the Robot Devil.
    • It was used straight in an earlier Valentine's Day episode where alien conqueror Lrrr sampled a bag of candy hearts, and received one with the word "wuv" written on it: "This concept of 'wuv' confuses and infuriates us!" Then again, Lrrr always sounds and looks angry about something...
    • Futurama seems to like this trope (usually making fun of it). In "Bendless Love", Bender bends Professor Farnsworth's back multiple ways, with position he's in for most of the episode leaving him unusually happy, presumably due to blood flow pooling in the back of his brain. At the end when he's asked to bend him back to normal, he actually ends up bending him even more, resulting in Professor Farnsworth stating, "I'm sad now."
    • "Morbo is pleased, but sticky."
    • "Would a big, hallucinatin' baby do THIS?" -cries and whimpers- "I'm scared!"
    • Calculon at the end of "Bend Her": "your death fills me with sorrow, ANGER, fear, every emotion an actor can display." (he over-acts each emotion as he says it).
      • Calculon also at one point completely deadpans the line "I'm filled with a large number of powerful emotions", though this was for a scene on All My Circuits.
    • "As a robot, I have no human emotions, and that makes me feel sad."
    • Done throughout the entire episode of "I Second That Emotion".
    • "I am literally angry with rage!"
    • "I'm as angry as I've ever been!"
    • Farnsworth does this twice in "The Sting." First, after Leela blames herself for Fry's death, he pats her on the back, tells her it's not her fault, then turns to the others and announces "I'm lying to make her feel better!" Then when Leela starts to think Fry's alive and insists he's "still out there," Farnsworth tries to wisecrack, "Of course he is... As a frozen corpse in outer space! Ohohoho! Oho, oh... now I made myself sad."
    • "Fry stood me up and died? I'm so angry! I mean, I'm so sad. But I'm still angry! But also sad. Can I be both?...Then that's what I am!"
  • American Dad did this once. Francine walks in and is alerted to a zany scheme that Stan has been up to, but gives no reaction whatsoever. Klaus is amazed that she is taking the news remarkably well to which she responds:

"Oh, I'm filled with rage. It's just that the Botox has left my face paralyzed. Am I scowling now? I want to be scowling."

  • Marvin the Martian often says "You have made me very angry! * huff, puff* Very angry indeed!" Understandable, as it's often things that would prevent you from seeing the expression on his already hard to see face like... being disintegrated. Also, his voice doesn't emote... even after having been disintegrated.
    • Once he said, "I'm not angry. Just very, very, hurt."
    • This was immediately after a rocket ship from Earth had literally crashed into the telescope he was looking through, and he pulled himself out of the debris.
  • The Land Before Time TV series saw fit to write a song called: "I feel so happy." Unfortunately, someone at the studio thought it would be a good idea to make it a recurring song.
  • Mission Hill has an internal example, when the gay neighbors Wally and Gus reveal they fell in love during the filming of a movie. Wally, the director, cast Gus as an alien robot. But since Gus only has one facial expression, he had to make it obvious when he was angry by... installing two lights on his costume that went from "Calm" to "Angry!" Needless to say, the movie would have made Ed Wood proud, even curing a depressed man's sadness!
  • In the Peanuts TV special "He's a Bully, Charlie Brown", Peppermint Patty says "My jealousy has overcome my reason!".
    • Made especially Narmtastic by the delivery of the child actor.
      • Which is what makes it even funnier, because you know that the child has no idea what they're actually talking about, they're just repeating the lines they were told to say.
  • Parodied in The Simpsons episode "Mobile Homer." The made-for-TV movie that Marge watches is practically nothing but That Makes Me Feel Angry moments. And since it was a parody of Lifetime movies of the week, that just makes it funnier.
    • The episode "Skinner's Sense of Snow" features a low-budget Christmas movie entitled "The Christmas that Almost Wasn't But then Was" in which a smiling elf walks onscreen only to declare "I'm happy" before walking off-screen again.
    • In "Hurricane Neddy", as Ned Flanders is chewing out his neighbors, he turns to Bart:

Bart: Hey, back off, man!
Ned: Okay, duuuuuuuude! I wouldn't want you to have a cow, maaaaaaaaaan. Here's a catchphrase you better learn for your adult years: "Hey, buddy, GOT A QUARTER?"!
(everyone gasps)
Bart: I am shocked and appalled.

    • Employed masterfully by mobster Fat Tony, who is so obsessed with coming off as Wicked Cultured that he articulates his every thought in absurdly precise language - and boy, is it ever chilling. ("I am not so much disappointed, as I am blinded by rage.")
  • Pretty much the entire point of "The Transporters", a series of animations designed to help autistic children read facial expressions and understand the causes of emotions.
    • Seems clearly inspired by Thomas the Tank Engine, which is also popular with autistic children for similar reasons. The engines' emotions are always easy to read.
  • When X-Men foe Magneto gets angry, things begin to happen!
  • Project GeeKeR had a Stoic Big Bad that spoke in an even monotone most of the time, with no difference between normal speaking, "I'm filled with utter joy", and "I am furious, gentlemen. Positively livid."
  • The Real Ghostbusters: Egon, at Winston's birthday party, deadpans to him "I just want to let you know... I'm having a wonderful time."
  • Thomas the Tank Engine plays it straight twice in the course of a minute in Misty Island Rescue. Thomas tells the engines how losing an important bit of cargo "makes me feel badly," and Sir Topham Hatt says, when he enters, "that makes me cross."
  • Word for word by Superboy in Young Justice. As a six month old clone he's not very good at expressing his emotions.
  • Mad Stan in Batman Beyond at one point offers "Now I'm REALLY mad!" during a fight with Batman. In case you somehow couldn't tell by the 5+ minute fight scene he'd already been through and his constant rantings against the evils of information.
  • Inverted in The Ren and Stimpy Show for the episode "Sven Höek", where Ren announces "I'm so angry" and describes various horrible things he's going to do to Stimpy and Sven, all in a semi-insane happy tone of voice.


Real Life

  • Truth in Television, at least, in the case of the business world. Calmly stating what you feel is one of the recommended ways to express your negative feelings if you're in a meeting, complete with an explanation of why you are feeling angry, so that the situation can be quickly defused before the discussion gets derailed from emotional outbursts.
    • The same is true for healthy and communicative romantic relationships, where calmly explicit expression of one's hurt feelings is preferred to cryptic allusions or overly dramatic acts of retribution.
    • Here is where this trope overlaps with Armchair Psychology.
    • And here is where this trope overlaps with Deadpan Snarker.
    • On the other hand, showing no emotion what so ever (or at least making the attempt not to), and speaking in very precise and polite language to acknowledge what a manager is saying can be very very worrying to some managers.
    • Some mental disorders cause sufferers to not display emotions, so they have to verbally state what they are feeling if they want others to know. Learning disabilities can also cause this; a not uncommon trait of autistic people is to regularly ask people to just flat out state, in terms as simple and unambiguous as "I feel angry" because they don't trust themselves not to misinterpret subtlety or hints at what emotion is being expressed/felt by the subject.
  • Nonviolent Communication's 4 steps: "I hear that you call me a liar. I'm angry because my need for trust isn't met. Is it okay for you to explain to me why you think I lied?". Or so...
  • A significant amount of Real-Life use of this trope, at least in the United States, is the result of the increases in popularity of psychotherapy in the 1970s and 1980s, many forms of which involved calm, emotionless statements about one's emotions ("I'm feeling some anger around this issue.") This is especially common among the relatively affluent population, because the working-class population was less likely to be in a position to pay for therapy.
  • While it does seem strange telling someone how you feel, it seems even more strange when you sign it. At least in Swedish sign language (which is the one I've studied), facial expressions are extremely important, and you typically don't even mention a certain feeling without making a matching expression.
    • Although most cultures have at least one commonly used hand gesture that suggests anger and contempt.
      • This is common amongst all sign languages, and it's not just emotions; there are a wide variety of statements that need an accompanying facial expression. This is because, as sign language doesn't use the spoken word, they don't have tone of voice to gather people's moods from, so they have to use facial expressions. This can feel extremely silly and unnatural to a hearing person learning the language, but to sign language users it is all part and parcel of the language! The feeling of embarrassment does go away eventually: as you get more used to using it and you become more involved in the Deaf Community, you realise everyone's doing the same as you. Sorry, got a bit sidetracked there, my point is that as facial expressions in sign language are used in the same manner as tone of voice is in speech. It is less an example of this trope than it is a part of the grammar of the language.
  • It is often advised to talk this way around small children and encourage them to talk this way, because they may have difficulty reading and expressing emotion.
    • Same deal with people with Asperger's Syndrome or some other kind of autistic spectrum disorder. Most of them will actually use this trope themselves so as to avoid having any confusion caused by misreading of their ways of showing emotions.
  • While this can be useful in certain situations, there's a reason this trope and so many others are noted to be considered creepy on The Other Tropes Wiki (namely, they're creepy in fiction because they're creepy in real life). To take an example at random, when Sartin and MacLennon reviewed FATAL, one of the first things they mentioned was the clinical, unemotional, wannabe-professional attitude the creator adopted on message boards when discussing the game, and how unsettling they found it (which is both describing an example of this trope, and an example in and of itself-my head's starting to spin). You know what they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder.
  • A common problem with political cartoons, as noted in this Cracked article.
  • Psychologists recommend this to deal with your negative emotions. Letting out your anger by, say, hitting your pillow is actually a destructive activity—it just increases your anger and makes it last longer, and it makes you more critical of the person you were mad at in the first place. Stating that you're angry and doing something constructive to solve the problem is the healthiest way to deal with anger.
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