Stepford Smiler/Playing With

Basic Trope: A character puts up a cheerful appearance to hide their true insanity/depression.

Straight: A seemingly happy character turns out to be deeply depressed or psychopathic behind the mask of cheerfulness.
Exaggerated: The painfully sweet, eternally happy child is actually the angst-ridden bringer of death.
- The (wo)man who is charming, handsome, chipper, intelligent, talented, and sharply dressed to the extreme turns out to have a past that "dark and troubled" does not begin to describe.
Justified: The character is a villain who is completely insane but who operates more or less secretly, and would likely be locked up in an asylum if he showed his real nature, so he pretends to be happy and polite. Or, the character is a hero who is completely sad and depressed, with little or negative self-esteem, but to help his friends and everyone he cares for, or to hide his insecurities, he pretends to be happy and cheerful.
Inverted: Jerk with a Heart of Gold or The Snark Knight (type A), Kuudere (type B), or Obfuscating Insanity (type C).
Subverted: It looks like the cheerful character may be hiding a dark true nature, but then we find out it's all a lie, and they really are happy.
Double Subverted: Oh wait, the cheerful and happy character really isn't depressed at all... and then we learn that instead, their mask is hiding their insanity
Parodied: The character constantly switches between Ax Crazy and tasting like diabetes, without dropping the smile. Played for Laughs. The other characters openly discuss what the heck is with him.
Deconstructed: The character narrates the story, with their internal desperation and madness overwhelming the effect of their external serenity from the start of the narrative.
- Hiding all their problems behind a smile slowly takes a toll on their probably already fragile sanity. Finally, something happens and this character snaps, either in tears or into a homicidal rage.
Reconstructed: And despite all the characterization, they're still a hollow, empty shell of a human being.
Zig Zagged: The character seems to smile a lot and has been hiding some amount of depression, but his mask cracks and slips so often one must begin to wonder what is really happening inside the character's head.
Averted: Cheerful characters are cheerful, and aren't hiding any dark inner feelings at all. Depressed, hollow, and insane characters look and act depressed, hollow, or insane.
Enforced: The series has taken a turn for the Darker and Edgier, and now that happy character looks really out of place, but putting them on a bus wouldn't work... I guess we'll have to give them some secret angst or madness to let them fit in.
Lampshaded: "I alway knew she was hiding something! That perpetual cheerfullness isn't a natural thing!"
Invoked: "Uh-oh, that guy seems oddly happy. I betcha he's actually depressed or crazy- let's try to learn more about his past."
Defied: A happy character, after being broken, refuses to try seeming happy anymore and chooses to appear just as angsty as they are.
Discussed: Saner Character to Stepford Smiler: "You aren't hiding something bad inside, are you?"
Conversed: "You know how all those characters who seem happy are secretly depressed, or insane, or both... That creeps me out, man."

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