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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"He always smiled, and he always chuckled, but inside he did not notice anyone, did not care; it was his body that smiled, nodded and shook hands. Nothing touched his mind, which remained remote."''
|'''[[Philip K. Dick]]'''|''[[Ubik]]''}}
Everyone loves [[Purity Sue]]. [[Love Is in
It's all a lie, of course.
The
These are the three main types of Stepford Smiler:
* '''Depressed Type''': The character seems to be happy, cheerful, is always smiling and seems to live a perfect life, [[Beneath the Mask|but inside she feels very sad and depressed]].
* '''Empty Type''': The character seems to be kind and cheerful, but her [[True Self]] is [[Extreme Doormat|motiveless]] and [[Empty Shell|hollow]].
* '''Insane Type''': The smile [[Cute and Psycho|hides a very unstable and crazy person]].
Depressed Type [[Heroes|Heroines]] or show co-stars that are Stepford Smilers can either be played straight (they really are that [[The Ditz|shallow]]) or to gain viewer sympathy as they struggle to live up to their own impossible ideals. [[Villains|Villainesses]] like the [[Evil Matriarch]] who are Stepford Smilers are usually played one of two ways: it can either humanize them, much like the heroine, or it can accentuate their evil by contrasting it with their soullessness. Feminine pronouns are used throughout this trope because the '''Stepford Smiler''' is a [[Always Female|traditionally female]] role, though there are many male examples too. Sometimes, they're even a couple.
The Empty Type's mask itself can also hide a terrible secret... ''there is '''nothing''' behind it.'' The void is either a result of using up so much energy [[I Just Want to Be Normal|pretending to be normal]] that nothing is left over, or because there was [[The Soulless|nothing there to begin with.]] The [[Trope Namer|trope-naming]] [[The Stepford Wives|Stepford Wives]] fall into this second category, naturally.
Scared yet? It gets worse.
There is a very good chance a
Not every [[Housewife]] is a
The
See also [[Attention Whore]] (a common mask for these types), [[Sad Clown]], [[Faux Affably Evil]], [[Beneath the Mask]], [[Bitch in Sheep's Clothing]], [[Broken Ace]], [[Comedic Sociopathy]], [[The Fake Cutie]], [[Evil Matriarch]], [[Extreme Doormat]], [[I Just Want to Be Normal]], [[Mary Sue]], [[Masquerade]], [[Think Happy Thoughts]], [[Uncanny Valley Girl]], [[Yandere]], and the darker variants of [[Minnesota Nice]]. Contrast with [[Nietzsche Wannabe]], [[The Stoic]], [[The Pollyanna]], [[Yamato Nadeshiko]]. Compare/Contrast with [[The Snark Knight]], whose demeanor is typically the [[Inverted Trope|inverse]] of the
Contrast [[Drama Queen]].
----
{{examples}}
== Female Examples ==
=== [[Advertising]] ===
* Internet telephone service provider Vonage has a commercial where a smiling couple, looking like they are the perfect example of two drones, show up on the doorstep of a new couple to the neighborhood, offering a pie along with a basketball-sized pile of wires as the "bundled" cable, phone and internet service, and even admit the disadvantages: incomprehensible bills and unexplainable charges. The new couple explain they have Vonage phone service. The welcoming female's entire persona - clearly a type "C" Stepford Smiler - "cracks" as she tries to explain that "everyone" in the neighborhood bundles. Her husband (more calmly) echoes her, also saying (with a lot of emphasis) that ''everyone'' there bundles.
=== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ===
* ''[[Pretty Sammy|Magical Project S]]'''s tough Misao Amano is the [[Shrinking Violet]]. While she appears to be cheerful, in reality she's hiding her lack of self-esteem, and her loneliness and jealousy which manifests as [[Dark Magical Girl|Pixy]] [[Split Personality|Misa]].
* {{spoiler|Mima and Rumi}} in the [[Satoshi Kon]]'s movie ''[[Perfect Blue]]''.
* Many female characters in ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', the most notable ones being Asuka, Misato and Ritsuko.
* ''[[Kare Kano]]''' is defined by this trope. Both Arima and Yukino are Depressed Type. However, Yukino's version is played for laughs because hers stems from her own narcissism and desire to have people compliment her. Arima's, on the other hand, is played as drama as he tries to coverup his insecurities of that developed from [[Abusive Parents|being abused and abandoned]] by his parents and being considered the [[Black Sheep]] by the rest of his extended family.
** This all culminates into a relationship between the two, with Arima thinking some...terrifyingly possessive thoughts about his girlfriend who is oblivious to the dark turn his thoughts took.
* It is strongly implied that Yoko Nakajima, the main character of ''[[
* Masane from ''[[Witchblade (
* Tohru Honda from ''[[
* ''[[
** And then the [[Eldritch Abomination]] that feeds off of despair showed up. Cue Juri getting [[Mind Rape|mind raped]] with the memory of Leomon's death, over and over.
* Asakura Ryoko from ''[[
** It becomes especially disturbing when you consider that it's likely the only time only time she's ''really'' smiling is when {{spoiler|she's trying to kill Kyon}}. She's also, arguably, a deconstruction of both the
*** In [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5B-KZNIZYs the Disappearance movie] (spoiler warning, it shows a scene from the film), it gets particularly egregious. That smile seems even more sinister than it did before once you've seen it.
* It's plainly obvious that the overly optimistic and cheerful Kafuka Fuura from ''[[Sayonara, Zetsubou
* Wakaba Shinohara in ''[[
** To say nothing of [[Emotionless Girl|Anthy]]. She is initially presented as a demure, somewhat shy and even submissive girl, but by the end of the series
** Utena herself shows signs of being one at times. She was rather depressed in the past to the point of wanting to die after her parents died because she saw life as pointless if all humans eventually die.
* In ''[[Ef:
** Another example, while less extreme, would be
* Orihime Inoue from ''[[
* Dawn from ''[[Pokémon (
** Not odd at all. She lost a good 3 or so contests in a ''row'' before her self esteem broke. She seems to naturally have self esteem problems, maybe due to bullying as a child, and maybe her mother's wanting for her to be like her, and since she is a bubbly cutie who worries about her friends. Not at all odd.
* Mary Magdalene in ''[[
* Mai Tokiha from ''[[Mai-HiME (
** The anime version of [[Psycho Lesbian|Shizuru]]: She manages to keep up a cool and semi-cheerful facade for the vast majority of the series, all while trying to content herself with being Natsuki's friend despite believing that she can't tell her how she feels. We don't see it break until Natsuki rejects her.
* The [[Genki Girl|over-enthusiastic]] [[Royals Who Actually Do Something|princess]] Amelia from ''[[Slayers]]'', if one looks deeper, is a
{{quote|
* Kyouko Mogami from ''[[Skip Beat
** Complicating Kyoko's case is that after [[Unlucky Childhood Friend|she]] discovers her "prince" Shou's heartless betrayal of her and snaps (in the first chapter), she continues from there. And the skills and habits she learned in her previous life and her tendency to live for others coexist really ''strangely'' with her new life goals. She wouldn't have made it so far if she wasn't the person her childhood made her, but she had to break with her childhood to go anywhere.
*** ''Really'' complicating her story? She has had a truly, deeply miserable, loveless life, but she always kept her spirits up. On the other hand, her [[Orphan's Plot Trinket]] was received ten years ago from a talented ten-year-old [[Hollywood Brat]] whose main sources of suffering were "I can't live up to my father's legend", and "My parents (who adore me)
* There's also Takako Shimizu from ''[[
* Dita from ''[[
* In ''[[
** In the live-action ''[[Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon]]'', a somewhat similar theme's explored when Usagi learns from Mamoru that
** Minako could have become one at the end of the [[Codename: Sailor V]] manga. In the final chapter she recovered the memories of the fall of Silver Millennium, discovered she's about to embark in a battle that may well end with her own death and bring [[The End of the World
* Seras Victoria from ''[[
* {{spoiler|Himawari Kunogi}} from ''[[
* Most of the members of the "Scratch" cult in ''[[
* The girls from St Arsenal Academy in the manga ''Mission! School''. At first they seem like your average happy schoolgirls. However, it turns out that they have been brainwashed and when they are provoked are revealed to be highly trained killers. The scary thing? They never stop smiling, even as they are taking on their enemies.
* {{spoiler|Misaki}} from ''[[
* Oh, ''[[D
*
* Mercedes Morcerf of ''[[
** Also Heloïse Villefort. She seems perfectly normal in her first few appearances, with a warm motherly appearance and pleasant smile. She is the stepmother of Valentine and is the second wife of the crown prosecutor Villefort. She is the biological mother of her young son Edward, from her first marriage. Valentine is to inherit all of the fortune, leaving her stepmother jealous because Edward doesn’t get a single penny. So when the Count seduces her and innocently introduces her to toxicology and gives her a deadly ring which releases a deadly poison Heloïse becomes murderous and tries to poison Valentine and her husband, as well as inadvertently almost poisoning Albert and poisoned one of the servants of the Villefort household. And she does all this while maintaining her angelic motherly facade up till near the end of the series when her husband finds out what she's been doing and points out that she's nothing more than a murderous insane woman. She tries to deny his accusations before she breaks down and collapses to the ground, finally giving in to her insanity. Her husband then puts her in an insane asylum for the rest of her life.
* Yuno Gasai of ''[[
* Madame Red from ''[[
* Mami Tomoe from ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
** Arguably [[Shrinking Violet|Yuka]] is one as well, since, despite the fact that she smiles all the time, she was
* Kaede of ''[[
* Hayate of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' shows signs of being a
** Shamal implies that Nanoha was this during while she was injured and when her recovering her ability to walk or fly was in doubt.
* Izumi Maki constantly amuses herself by telling bad jokes and laughing at them alone [[Martian Successor Nadesico]]. While she appears initially as a [[Cloudcuckoolander]], she falls under this catagory as a Type -A, as the puns are designed as a coping mechanism
*
*
**
* Like Misao, Tsubomi Hanasaki of ''[[
* ''Everyone'' in [[Soil]] [[Stepford Suburbia|New Town]] but especially the missing Suzushiro family who remain cheerful in the face of vicious harassment and continuously
** As for everyone else:
* ''[[
* Mio Hio from ''[[
* Lemilia of ''[[Reimei no Arcana]]''.
* {{spoiler|Rika Furude}} from ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro
** The series' main villain, {{spoiler|Takano Miyo, also counts; she constantly acts like a friendly, helping hand to the arc's protagonist, sweeter than sugar, only to reveal herself as a cold [[Magnificent Bastard]] with one hell of a [[God Complex]] in the final arcs, who guns down anyone willing to mock her goals and beliefs.}}
** How could we forget {{spoiler|Rena? Underneath her cheerful facade, obsessed with all things that she believes are cute, lies a girl who is utterly broken over her parent's divorce, tried to kill herself, and lives every day with a smile just to make others believe she is happy.}}
* Hino Kahoko of ''[[
* ''[[
* Asayo Katsuragi from ''[[
** Sakurako is
* Koharu of ''[[Koharu no Hibi]]'' is [[Yandere|
* Koala from ''[[One Piece]]'' is a
* Chikane and Himeko both from ''Kannazuki no Miko''. Himeko had a really terrible childhood and tries to hide her insecurities. Chikane {{spoiler|is constantly trying to hide her feelings of love for Himeko...and eventually remembers that she killed her in a past life for a ritual to rebirth the world.}} Because of this, she was unable to help in the ritual to summon Orochi's nemesis {{spoiler|so she wore the mask of the villain at this point in the series when she realized the reason why she couldn't help, because a deep part of her still hated the god. That was Himeko would become stronger and kill her to complete the ritual.}}
* Farnese from ''[[Berserk]]''. She used to be a spoiled, pampered [[Lonely Rich Kid]] that had she needed to be happy. In appearance. It appears she was actually a [[Pyromaniac]] [[Enfante Terrible]] who was suffering from her parents' [[Hands
=== [[Comic Books]] ===
* When fans fell in love with [[Spider-Man|Mary Jane Watson]], many writers attempted to reconcile her "devil may care" party girl image from her first couple of years of existence by revealing that her party girl facade was something she came up with to cover up her screwed up homelife, which included [[Abusive Parents|a physically and mentally abusive father]]. Variants of this characterization has appeared in other spinoffs of the Spidey-franchise, particularly in ''[[Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane]]''.
* ''[[Empowered]]'' toys with this trope in respect to {{spoiler|Mindf██k, who instead of putting on a reasonably happy face [[Heel Face Brainwashing|actively and regularly tinkered with her mind]] so she would be <s>less psychotic than she would be otherwise</s> reasonably happy. Of course if her posthumous confessions of being nearly suicidal are any indication, she ultimately played this trope straight.}}
** {{spoiler|Sistah Spooky wound up playing this trope [[Tear Jerker|tragically straight]] after Mindf██k dies, literally using magic to force any expression aside from utter despair onto her face.}}
* Taken to downright depressing levels in issue #8 of the 2007 revival of ''[[The Brave and the Bold]]'', a story starring [[The Flash]] and the [[Doom Patrol]]. Elasti-Girl is constantly smiling throughout, even when things look horrifically dire. (Master artist George Perez takes great care to give make her expression ''completely identical'' every time: a bright grin with eyes that betray just a hint of utter desperation.) Flash explains to his freaked-out kids that she used to be a movie star and since gaining superpowers she feels like a freak of nature. She smiles because it's the only way she can still feel pretty, and she thinks it puts people at ease. Flash's daughter comments that it isn't working.
===
* It can be surmised that {{spoiler|Tsuruya}} has been raised to be a
* From ''[[One Piece: Parallel Works]]'', we have Daisuke Saburo, a
** And, then there are the [[Uncanny Valley|Stockholm Syndrome Pirates]].
* There is a fair share of ''[[
* ''[[
* [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
=== [[Film]] ===
* ''[[The Stepford Wives]]'' is the [[Trope Namer]]. The wives are a kind of Empty Type
* ''[[Mean Girls]]'': Gretchen (the 'one small step from a complete nervous breakdown' version, rather than the 'empty inside' version).
* Most characters in ''[[Pleasantville]]'' are a
* Gina McKee plays a particularly creepy variant of this in ''[[Mirror Mask]]''.
{{quote|
'''Guard:''' Not a home to Mr. Grumpy, Your Majesty.
'''Black Queen:''' Exactly! }}
* ''The Chumscrubber'' is essentially about an entire suburb full of
* In [[Tim Burton]]'s ''[[Charlie and
** Wonka himself has shades of this in the Burton version. That smile that ''never stops'', and when it does... [[Nightmare Fuel|scary time]]. And meanwhile he's cracking up with flashbacks to his suppressed childhood.
* Speaking of Tim Burton, ''[[Edward Scissorhands]]'' features a good number of Stepford Smilers.
* Child star Darla Dimple of ''[[Cats Don't Dance]]'' maintains a facade of being [https://web.archive.org/web/20150427121717/http://toonguru.com/CDD/screens/scenes/14/pages/CDD014_009.htm sweet and adorable.] Heaven help you if [[Yandere|she's angry]] at you when [https://web.archive.org/web/20150427115801/http://toonguru.com/CDD/screens/scenes/06/pages/CDD6_019.htm it breaks.]
* Carolyn Burnham from ''[[American Beauty]]'' is a prime example of this trope, subscribing to the adage, "In order to be successful, one must project an image of success at all times."
* Katherine in ''[[Cruel Intentions]]'' pretends to be an upstanding Junior League-type schoolgirl, when in reality she's an oversexed, scheming coke fiend who takes out her frustrations on her fellow female classmates by persuading them to sleep around and ruin their reputations as a result.
* Asami Yamazaki in ''[[
{{quote|
* The Other Mother in ''[[Coraline (
* [[Played for Laughs]] in ''[[
* [[Nicole Kidman]]'s character in ''[[
* From ''[[Toy Story
* The film version of the book ''[[
{{quote|
* Played with in the film ''[[Far From Heaven]]'' in that the housewife genuinely had a wonderful cliche 1950s suburban life. Then it began to crumble around her....
* Parodied with the camp counselors in the second ''[[The Addams Family
** Speaking of ''Addams Family Values''... What. About. DEB-BIE!?! Doesn't she deserve love? And jewelry?
* The "Machine Man" in ''[[
* [[Tilda Swinton]] in ''[[Michael Clayton]]'' makes every effort to appear a confident and poised professional who loves her job, but behind the scenes she's a timid, nervous wreck.
* Meryl in ''[[
* Janine in ''Animal Kingdom'': she maintains a sugary-sweet maternal demeanor as she {{spoiler|witnesses the criminal activity of her many sons, deals with the death of three of her children, plots to have her grandson murdered and blackmails a man into killing him.}} [[Complete Monster|Wow.]]
* Lucille Slocumb in ''Kingdom Come'' maintains the role of cheerful people-pleaser and peacemaker while under the stress of struggling with infertility, her recovering alcoholic husband, Ray Bud, planning her father-in-law's funeral, and dealing with a group of crazy relatives and friends. At one point she goes into a bathroom and downs "nerve pills". She [[Break the Cutie|finally snaps]] at the viewing when she comes across a [[Berserk Button|bucket of chicken that triggers memories of a traumatic experience]]. The next day Lucille nearly has another breakdown when the funeral is delayed because of the preacher's "intestinal difficulty" and Ray Bud threatens to yank the bathroom door off the hinges, telling Ray Bud, "I don't have my nerve pills on me today!"
* ''[[Bad Teacher]]'': Amy Squirrell.
* Karen from ''[[Love Actually]]'' is a more positive version of the trope. She tells one of her friends whose wife has recently died that he shouldn't openly cry because "people hate sissies". When she finds out that
* Esther in ''[[
=== [[Literature]] ===
* The Other Mother from ''[[Coraline (novel)|Coraline]]''.
* On the heroic side, Leitha from [[David Eddings]]'s ''[[The Redemption of Althalus]]'': she pretends to be cheerful and witty, but is secretly neurotic, insecure, and self-hating.
* [[William Sleator]]'s ''[[Literature/Others See Us|Others See Us]]'' has Annelise, who is well loved by everyone, including her cousin Jared, until he gains telepathy and realizes she's a Stepford Smiler of the worst sort. At one point he visits her mental landscape, it's an infinite sun-parched desert with her face as the huge sun, and the only other feature is a gigantic mirror, reflecting her face.
** [[C. S. Lewis]]' short story ''The Shoddy Lands'' also has its protagonist experience a telepathic vision of a Stepford Smiler's mental landscape.
* The Goddess Media from ''[[American Gods]]'' by [[Neil Gaiman]] was like this in her true form. As the humanoid manifestation of The Media, when she wasn't possessing characters on television she was described as looking like the sickeningly sweet hostess one of those morning shows filmed in a fake living room.
* Sansa Stark from ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' becomes this in order to survive being trapped in a [[Deadly Decadent Court]] ruled by a depraved boy king.
** Then there is Cersei Lannister, who tries to run said court. Becomes especially evident in ''[[A Feast for Crows]]'', when she becomes a point-of-view character.
** Varys and Littlefinger, the resident [[Magnificent Bastard]]s, are this, and in both cases, it's implied to be more than just a mask to wear in public...
* Countess Rostov from ''[[War and Peace]]'' is very much like this except when she's talking with her daughters. Pierre Bezukhov's wife Helene would be a subversion in that she goes from having no role in society except being beautiful (and smiling a lot) to one of the eminent hostesses on the Moscow and St. Petersburg scene after getting married.
* Part of the reason Will Navidson moved his family into the titular {{color|blue|
* Lilith de Tempscire from ''[[
* Ira Levin's book ''[[The Stepford Wives]]'', the [[Trope Namer]].
* Kaitlyn Werhner from the short story, ''Dark Red Mind''. If you were to see her smile at you with those piercing blue eyes, ''run.'' Not that it would help you any.
* Annie Wilkes in [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[Misery]]''. She is a cunning, brutal and dangerously disturbed woman who hides her psychosis behind a cheery facade and kind smile, making her
* Erzebet Bizecka of Alisa Libby's ''Blood Confession'' is
* Miss America in ''[[Haunted
* It's possible to read Agnes Wickfield in ''[[David Copperfield (novel)|David Copperfield]]'' as this, considering her life with an increasingly alcoholic, depressed father and an increasingly lecherous Uriah Heep, yet she never loses her smiling willingness to help others. As well, Miss Mowcher is a classic
* Glinda from ''[[Wicked (
* Felicity in ''[[The Idea Of Perfection]]'' by Kate Grenville is obsessed with appearance, to the point of avoiding frowning or smiling out of fear of developing wrinkles. More-or-less
* ''[[Paper Towns]]'': Margo, although even this is more complicated than it usually is.
* The original [[Pollyanna]] is a
* Jennifer North in ''[[
* Mrs. Coulter in ''[[The Golden Compass]]''. She puts on a friendly, trustworthy front, when in reality she's one of the leaders of an organization that kidnaps young children and surgically removes their souls.
* ''[[In Death]]'': Allika Straffo from ''Innocent In Death'' is either Depressed Type
* Blanche Dubois of ''[[
* The Irish short story ''An Beann Og'' (The Young Woman) follows a mother of two who politely smiles to anyone she sees and greets them kindly. She seems perfectly happy as she gets herself tidied up for her husband coming home for dinner but the last line of the story says she feels a small tremble of despair at the thought of her husband.
* ''[[Stargirl]]'', of all people has a tendency to become a
* ''[[The Westing Game]]'' has two female examples:
** {{spoiler|Angela Wexler has given up her dreams and ambitions to fulfill her social climbing mother's wishes, making her}} a Depressed Type
** {{spoiler|Flora Baumbach is}} a pure
=== [[Live-Action TV]] ===
* ''[[Eastenders]]'' has had Vanessa Gold, a lovely, only slightly tarty woman with perfect hair, a perfect name, and a perfect complexion, wearing exclusively white. She smiles an awful lot, and allows herself to put up with a cheating husband for many many years. When Max leaves her for Tanya, she goes a wee bit bonkers, including a lot of screaming, derpface and smashing living rooms, but the really powerful stuff was her obsessive cleaning when she suspected the affair.
* ''Most'' characters in ''[[Twin Peaks]]'' live this trope - it is one of the key fascinations of [[David Lynch]] and common in his work. The key theme of ''[[Twin Peaks]]'' is taking a dreamy, perfect small rural town with white picket fences and exposing the hypocrisy, instability and literal evil that underlies it everywhere. Shades of grey abound.
* Many, many characters in ''[[Desperate Housewives]]''
* Julia McNamara from ''[[Nip Tuck]]'' is half
* Blair in ''[[Gossip Girl]]'' is a
** Also, Nate Archibald's mother. To the point of being called the Archibot by fans.
* Lemon Breeland from ''[[
* Betty Draper from ''[[
** It didn't help being married to [[Broken Ace]] Don Draper. The fourth season spent much time surveying the wreckage of that broken union.
* ''[[Keeping Up Appearances]]'' is basically a long look at one woman's failing attempts to maintain the mask. [[Hilarity Ensues]].
Line 222 ⟶ 211:
* Barb Ballantine, the 'perfect' mom from ''[[The Mommies]]'' showed signs of this trait.
* [[Amy Poehler]]'s impression of Hillary Clinton on ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' seems to draw a good deal of inspiration from this trope.
* The ''[[Lexx]]'' universe has a [[School of Seduction]] that ''raises'' women to be
{{quote|
'''Girl:''' "Are you comfortable, darling?"
'''Matron:''' Very good, Zev. Your reading was an 8.3% deviation from standard. }}
* One of Tara's [[Split Personality|split personalities]] in ''[[United States of Tara]]'' is a "perfect 50's housewife who's secretly filled with ''seething rage''", according to the press releases.
Line 231 ⟶ 220:
* Daisy from ''[[Dead Like Me]]''. She starts out as a [[The Ditz|ditzy]] [[Bottle Fairy]] and former actress who [[Really Gets Around]], loves to brag about it, and acts more than happy with herself, but then her last thought is revealed: "Why has no one ever loved me?", revealing that she only ''acts'' happy with her life (and her un-life, given what the show is about).
* ''[[Chuck]]'''s [[Action Girl|Sarah Walker]]. In ''Chuck Vs. Santa Claus'', {{spoiler|she kills an enemy agent, and almost immediately puts on a cheery smile and tells Chuck that he was taken into custody. Of course, [[Downer Ending|Chuck saw the whole thing]].}}
* Quinn of ''[[
{{quote|
** Episode 12 of the first season hints that Rachel might be one of those as well (especially the Lily Allen version of "Smile"), or might become one someday (when she tells herself that "it's lonely at the top" when Finn apparently abandons her when the Glee club is due their photos for the school yearbook).
** Terri ''tried'' to be one of these with her fake pregnancy.
* Played with in ''[[Dark Angel]]''. The one-off character Mia was a Manticore Psi-Ops gal with the ability to [[Mind Screw|influence people's thoughts]], and she had the personality type of being a Smiler. [[Subverted Trope|It was all an act of course]], because what she really wanted was to [[Batman Gambit|trick Max into fighting Alec in a cage match, after she'd set Alec up, but bet everything on Max, while Dougie, her lover and a lieutenant of a crime boss, whom Max and Logan had been trying to take down, had bet everything on Alec, so Dougie would be convinced to rat on the crime boss and get out of the business]], so she and Dougie could run away together. Oddly enough, the reason she was in love with Dougie was because, on account of his narcolepsy, he was immune to her abilities.
* The ''[[Bones]]'' episode "The Death of the Queen Bee", set at Bones' high school reunion, references this trope, specifically
* Amy Pond from ''[[
** And then at the end we find out why it was just her in that big empty house for all those years....
* The [[The Nth Doctor|Seventh Doctor]] episode, ''The Happiness Patrol'' is built around this trope. It focuses on a whole society of Stepford Smilers who are [[Happiness Is Mandatory|forced to be happy]] by the titular organization. The penalty for displaying discontent or sadness is death -- [[It Makes Sense in Context|by strawberry goopy stuff]]
* On the Season 8 episode of ''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit]]'', "Cage," Detective
* ''[[V-2009]]'': Anna is
* In ''[[Skins]]'':
** Effy is a combination of
** Cassie in Generation 1 and Mini in Generation 3 are both
* Shirley in ''[[
* The fourth season premiere of ''[[Sabrina the Teenage Witch (TV series)|Sabrina the Teenage Witch]]'' had Sabrina consider moving in with her father on her 18th birthday. Hilda and Zelda are devastated but cast a spell to give them big toothy smiles so as not to spoil Sabrina's birthday. The effect is slightly creepy.
* ''[[Are You Afraid of the Dark?]]'' features a [[Vain Sorceress]] as one in the "The Tale of the Mystical Mirror" and another one in "The Tale of Many Faces".
* Jill Tracy fron ''[[
==
* Smokey Robinson's "Tears of a Clown" is practically the musical [[Trope Codifier]].
{{quote|
It's only there trying to fool the public
But when it comes down to fooling you
Now honey, that's quite a different subject
But don't let my glad expression
Give you the wrong impression
Really I'm sad, oh I'm sadder than sad
You're gone and I'm hurtin' so bad
Like a clown I pretend to be glad }}
* The song "Happy Go Lucky" by Steps is made of this trope.
* Facade by [[
* In the planned music video for "Rhinestone Eyes" by [[
* The main character of the music video for "Everybody's Fool" by [[
* Morrissey (in his solo career after [[
{{quote|
since the day I was born in 1975." }}
* Everclear's ''Wonderful'' hints at this.
* The song
* The chorus of [[
{{quote|
That you cry, but you don't tell anyone
That you
Might not be the golden one
And you're tied together with a smile
But you're comin' undone" }}
* "Smiling Faces", sung by The Temptations, the Undisputed Truth, David Ruffin solo...
{{quote|
Pretend to be your friend
Smiling faces show no traces
Of the evil that lurks within..." }}
* "The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most" by Dashboard Confessional is about a
{{quote|
such a stellar monument to loneliness.
Laced with brilliant smiles and shining eyes,
perfect makeup, but you're barely scraping by. }}
* [[
** "So Happy I Could Die." "I do my hair / I gloss my eyes / I touch myself all through the night."
* "Lucky" by [[
* The song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl_QbG5RTPg&feature=channel_video_title Eight Hundred] by Pinocchio-P.
* Skin's "Nothing But" rings as either a
* The song "GIFT of Princess Sleep-Bringer" by [[Mothy]]. More specifically, the character who sings it, Margarita [[Spell My Name
=== Professional Wrestling ===
* [[Lay Cool]] are an Insane Type example. The two of them are best friends with genuine affection for each other and are bubbly and friendly whenever they're on commentary. Then in the ring....they are devilish little villains who are out for themselves. Michelle and Layla even give off nice toothy smiles whenever they're insulting the other divas.
* Melina's last heel turn implied she was an Empty Type as a face. The announcers have said "this is the real Melina, not the smiling happy diva we've seen in the past"
=== [[Theater]] ===
* Mrs. Lovett in ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (theatre)|Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]]''. She is cheerful and kindly, but has no problems whatsoever chopping up human bodies nor really with Sweeney's killing, and she is really only interested in improving her social standing. While not necessarily hollow, she certainly doesn't give a lot of moral considerations to her actions.
* In the musical ''[[How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying]]'', Rosemary is a Stepford Smiler in training.
* All four main characters in the Sondheim musical ''Follies'' are Stepford Smilers of one sort or another. Their masks do fall eventually, and the comparison to their [[Timeshifted Actor|younger counterparts]] in [[Flash Back|Flashbacks]] becomes painful: back then, they had a reason to smile—at least, they ''thought'' they did. (It says something that ''[[Desperate Housewives]]'' gets many of its episode titles from musical numbers in ''Follies''.)
* Amanda from Tennessee Williams's ''[[The Glass Menagerie]]'' possibly qualifies, though she's most interested in [[Evil Matriarch|living her ideal life vicariously through her children]].
* On that note, Stella and especially Blanche from ''[[A Streetcar Named Desire]].''
* In ''[[Mary, Mary]]'', Mary accuses her ex-husband Bob of having forced her into this type when they were married:
{{quote|"I felt like I was on some damn panel show, twenty-four hours a day. Smiling, affable, humming little snatches of song. Laughing when I didn't know the answers. But affable, affable, affable! You don't know how I longed to get up some morning and feel free for once to be depressed, to be constipated, to be boring."}}
* Jennifer in ''[[When Midnight Strikes]]'' is a Depressed Type example, the perfect hostess who is smiling and keeping the party going even though she's falling apart inside. Her song 'Little Miss Perfect' makes this very clear.
* Edith in ''[[The Women]]'' has one pregnancy after another, even though she hates babies and doesn't like being pregnant. She seems to do a lot more complaining than smiling, but nevertheless insists that "I'm the only happy woman you know." Perhaps she does more smiling in mixed company.
=== [[Video Games]] ===
* {{spoiler|Vanille}} from ''[[
* Sagiri from ''[[
* Colette from ''[[
* {{spoiler|Shiki}} from ''[[
* In ''[[Fire Emblem Elibe|Fire Emblem 7]]'', the [[White Mage|Cleric]] Serra is a mix of [[Genki Girl]] and [[Rich Bitch]] who [[Well, Excuse Me, Princess!|acts like a princess]]... {{spoiler|but truly is an orphan dropped at a small, miserable Ostian convent by an Etrurian clan in danger of being wiped away. Her parents never came back for her and she was badly traumatised by their abandonment.}} Get her to support with people like Hector or Lucius to get more details.
* In the second game of ''[[Ar
* Melody from ''[[Rune Factory]]'' is a
* In ''[[System Shock]] 2'' you find the protocol droids, robots made to work like secretaries, greet people, give directions, etc. When they turn against you, they walk around searching for you, saying things like "Where are you, sir?" "I cannot help you if you keep hiding. "Please wait, I can offer you my assistance.". When they get near to you, they FRIGGIN EXPLODE.
* {{spoiler|Haru}} from ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots]]'' has Laughing Octopus. She's got a * really* good reason, though.
* Miranda Lawson from ''[[
* Atoli in ''[[.hack GU Games]]'' is cheerful and bubbly, [[Love Freak|wants everyone to get along, and wants to be loved]]... {{spoiler|and then you find out she's like that only because her total lack of self-esteem in real life, due to lifelong emotional abuse by her parents ("Girls should be quiet and unnoticeable!!"
* GLaDOS from ''[[Portal (
* Litchi Faye-Ling from ''[[BlazBlue]]'' is a Depressed Type. On the outside and towards the people of Orient Town, she is highly sociable, kind, compassionate and caring doctor who is idolized by pretty much everyone, and it might not be a lie at all, she's deep down kind hearted. However, she never told anyone about her own problems, that being a desperate lover with [[Guilt Complex]], especially for letting her lover turn into an [[Eldritch Abomination]], injects herself with the same corruption which granted her power and looking for a cure and in the same time rotting her body away, and she'd rather bear the burden herself than worrying those she cared about with it. {{spoiler|Hazama managed to find out her face behind her smiler face and used that to manipulate her to get her [[Forced Into Evil]] under the guise of eventual survival from the escalating corruption and the chance to cure that lover.}} Which in turn, made her pull a new mask in front of Rachel: She pretends that only her lover needs help and she's the only one who can, while in truth, she also needs help as well when the other source of help (Kokonoe) flat out refused to help. Unfortunately, Rachel bought that mask and dismisses her as an obsessed idiot who chose the wrong side.
* {{spoiler|Carol}} in ''[[Mitsumete Knight]]''. She became this because she was frequently bullied in her childhood and had no friends. She posed as a [[Genki Girl]] in order to remedy this, and sadly this worked ''all too well''.
* Daniella/The Maid from ''[[Haunting Ground]]'' certainly qualifies; for her first few appearances in the game, she is polite and courteous to Fiona, only to reveal her truly [[Ax Crazy]] nature during the game's second act.
==== [[Visual Novels]] ====
* Rika from ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]'' is a Depressed Type, hiding her true personality behind a cute and cheery girl facade. {{spoiler|Mentally, she's an adult because she grew up during the thousands of years in [[Groundhog Day Loop|the time loop]] and, alongside Hanyuu, is the only one aware of them in the first place.}}
* ''[[Tsukihime]]'' has {{spoiler|Kohaku}}. Depression and abuse lead to mask, then leads to thinking of herself as a ''doll'' and being hollow, and finally in order to have a reason to live she turns into an Insane Type by {{spoiler|plotting against the Tohno's while admitting she doesn't really hold a grudge, but that it's what a "real" person would do, right?}} It's worth noting that she gets better in two of the game's endings: {{spoiler|in one she only does so through amnesia after [[Driven to Suicide|failing to kill herself]], but in the her ending [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|she legitimately heals and leads a happy life]].}}
** The game analyzes the concept a bit. Shiki, comparing the above spoilered character constant "cheerful" demeanor with another, more [[The Stoic|stoic]] character that nevertheless still managed to transmit their emotional states despite their stony face, expressed something along the lines of "Isn't having the same expression all the time the same as being completely expressionless?"
* [[Zig-Zagging Trope|Played with in]] ''[[Fate/stay night]]''. Rin Tohsaka pretends to be a wonderful honor student, kind and good at everything. However, underneath that is someone selfish who can't get up in the morning and gets angry easily. But that's a bit of a [[Jerkass Facade]] because under ''that'' is a genuinely kind person who ''thinks'' that they need to be a heartless jerk like magi are supposed to be. {{spoiler|And under that is an immensely guilty layer over her estranged sister Sakura because, while she doesn't know much about the Matou family, she knows they're not nice people. She simply underestimates ''how much''. This final layer is finally uncovered in the ''Heaven's Feel'' path instead of merely being hinted at.}}
** Also Ilya. Oddly enough, she doesn't actually fool Shirou for very long despite doing what seems to be a pretty good acting job.
** Sakura is also like this (as shown in the Heaven's Feel route), {{spoiler|due to years of sexual/physical abuse by her adoptive brother Shinji, coupled with her grandfather's torturous [[Training
* Souji and Mie in ''[[Suika]]''. Souji actually admires this about Mie and is determined to turn her slightly fake smiles into realer ones.
* {{spoiler|Shiori}} from ''[[
=== [[Web Comics]] ===
* Erika in ''[[Megatokyo]]'', while currently a [[Deadpan Snarker]] as well as a [[Badass]] [[Action Girl]], was a voice actress and [[Idol Singer]] in her day, and still can't bear the thought of her fans thinking of her as anything but upbeat and bubbly. Dom calls her out on it by showing that even in the midst of a rampage of rabid fans and excessive taunting by him, she feels a need to keep her smile going.
* Grace from ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' seems to be veering into Depressed Type territory, with occasional powerful beings advising some help before she pops on over to Insane Type.
* Shroomy from ''[[Electric Wonderland]]'' has a cheery and naive demeanor undermined by depression caused from continuously crushed hopes.
* In ''[[The Non-Adventures of Wonderella|The Non Adventures of Wonderella]]'' Rita is tied up by a super-intelligent gorilla who boasts that his empathic helmet will give him the insight into humans he needs to take over. After hearing in a story in which her emotions fluctuate while she remains smiling, he's told that human ladies are supposed to keep smiling all the time, no matter how they feel. He responds by throwing away the helmet, and possibly giving up on wanting anything to do with humans.
===
* Aki of ''[[Sailor Nothing]]'' starts out as one, repressing her real emotions to [[In with the In Crowd|fit in with the]] [[Girl Posse|popular group]] at school. After she's exposed, she drops the act but has a hard time adjusting to being a normal person.
* Rhianna von Adolph from ''[[Open Blue]]''. A [[Knife Nut]] in charge of the special operations department of [[The Empire]]'s intelligence agency.
* [[The Guild|Clara's]] smiling, friendly demeanor hides a criminally neglectful mother and {{spoiler|a treacherous backstabber who creates an alternate character to attack Vork and makes out with a man Codex is interested in.}}
* In ''[[Arcana Magi]]'', Reya Everheart is
* In a [[Played for Laughs]] example, [[
=== [[Western Animation]] ===
* [[Yandere|Berry]] from the ''[[
{{quote|
'''Berry:''' [[My Name Is Not Durwood|MY NAME IS BERRY]]!!! }}
* Lois in the [[Christmas Episode]] of ''[[
** That might be a [[Take That]] or [[Shout
** [[Butt Monkey|Meg]]: She goes to town with this trope.
* The brainwashed Joo Dees (shares initials with Jane Doe) from ''[[
** Also Ty Lee. At least some of her cheerful and perky attitude is a ruse to keep Azula happy, at least before she
** [[Evil Mentor|
* Bloberta Puffington, Orel's mother from ''[[
** Hell, ''everyone'' in [[What the Hell, Townspeople?|Moralville]], who as a whole are more concerned with the ''appearance'' of faith then actually following it. A few get better. Most, probably, do not. The fact that this is based on the creator's [[Freudian Excuse|childhood experiences]] is depressing.
* While Pinkie's smiles are usually genuinely happy, she temporarily becomes a major
* Marge Simpson of ''[[The Simpsons (
** [[Depending
*** One very early episode shows Marge was taught to be one of these by her mother as she tries to make Lisa the same way in hope that if they pretend to be happy, they'll be happy after a while. However, when Marge sees Lisa actually starting to step into the role and how others start to take advantage of it, she gets angry, whisks her away and takes back her advice. Perhaps it could be said that in the series in general Marge has a tiny bit too much will left to stay in this role consistently.
** It's worth noting that Marge being in this trope is a direct result of the writers amping up Homer's [[Jerkass]] qualities. You could accuse Marge of being a
** Lindsey Naegel (aka the businesswoman) appears to be, on the surface, a powerful and successful woman who's sophisticated demeanor hides a dark side (she's a self-admitted sexual predator) and is a functional alcohallic.
* ''[[Hey Arnold
** Also, surprisingly enough, [[Purity Sue|Lila]]. [[Word of God]] says she has a deeply suppressed dark side. Not too surprising given her and her father's poverty combined with her [[The Pollyanna|disproportionally positive outlook]].
* Later on ''[[
* Heloise of ''[[Jimmy Two
* A Slappy Squirrel short on ''[[
* Eve from ''[[
{{Hardline}}
== Male Examples ==
===
* That creepy Bob fellow in those commercials for Enzyte's "natural male enhancement". If you can't quite seem to figure out just what he's smiling about from the [[Double Entendre]] laden narration, [[Late to the Punchline|give it time]].
** That is not a smile. That is a rictus of agony from unceasing pain. The eyes implore the viewer for the merciful release of sweet death.
** http://www.cracked.com/blog/behind-the-smile-the-horrible-truth-about-bob-from-enzyte/
* [[
* How about the guy in the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgfzdgWgEZ4 Axe commercials]? He turns into chocolate and all the girls in town go crazy and take bites out of him, and all the while he sports that insanely creepy perpetual grin and wide eyes.
** AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!! ;-;
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn5EP9StlVA This] commercial for LendingTree.com.
=== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ===
* Several, but most notably, Tatsunosuke, Suzu, and Tetsunosuke in ''[[Peacemaker Kurogane]]''.
** Okita "I smile constantly, love candy, play with the neighborhood kids, am pretty much a male [[Yamato Nadeshiko]] wife to Hijikata, and am pretty much the most terrifying swordsman in all of Japan" Souji. {{spoiler|Okita "I've been killing since I was eight and don't appear to actually regret it" Souji.}} That man's a TEXTBOOK Stepford Smiler!
*** This may be why his ''[[Gintama]]'' counterpart keeps trying to murder Hijikata.
* The villainous Seta Sojirou, [[The Dragon]] of ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'''s best known story arc, also fits here -- a cheerful young person who's capable of incredible violence because he has no soul or conscience behind the mask. (Or at least that's what ''he'' thinks.) He actually started doing this because it stopped his family from abusing him if he didn't appear bothered by it.
** As for his reasons? Soujiro was constantly beaten as a child by his family due to being an illegitimate child, and learned to smile as a defense mechanism to get them to stop. He did this so much that he subconsciously repressed all his emotions, projecting nothing but a pleasant smile, even as he kills people. As a swordsman, this makes him virtually impossible to read and predict, and in addition to his speed and natural talent with the sword, this makes him a very dangerous opponent. This all changes when Soujiro battles Kenshin for the second time: Kenshin's worldview clashes with Soujiro's, irritating him to the point where his emotions finally return to the surface, causing him to break down in confusion. This state of emotional turmoil is what allows Kenshin to finally defeat him.
** And again, Okita Souji, in the brief times he appears to interact with Kenshin and Saito Hajime. This is the popular portrayal of him in Japanese fiction in general, and it has been stated by one of his descendants that he did indeed smile frequently. (This is probably because Sojirou's character was based on Okita Souji.)
** On that note, Kenshin himself. He hides the guilt and shame over his checkered past (and hides his temper) behind a cheerful and laid-back persona. Common for [[Walking the Earth]] [[Retired Badass]] types.
* Ichimaru Gin of ''[[
** Add to that that apparently he served Aizen for a hundred years
** Hirako Shinji, too - he's hardly ever seen not smiling, and when he isn't it's because he's either really angry or something [[Player Punch|unsettling just happened]]. That man has been through a load of crap, and is probably in need of some counseling. Not as much as some other characters, but still...
* You Takami from ''[[
** Actually, {{spoiler|his little sister, Minatsuki, killed their father. He even asks, upon her about to [[Back Stab]] him with her Branch Of Sin, if 'this is how you killed out father?'}}
** After his confrontation with Minatsuki, he actually starts becoming happier/more content, and babies the hell out of his little sister, which is pretty strange considering that
* It's been implied at this point that Takuto Tsunashi of ''[[
* [[Intrepid Reporter]] Wolfgang Grimmer, from ''[[Monster (
** In fact, [[Complete Monster|Johan's]] own ability to project a happy, kind, innocent and childlike demeanor worthy of a cherub, other than for purposes of manipulation and as a cover for his true sociopathic nature, doubles as a mask for covering up his dark past,
** Also, Johan's muscle and pawn, Roberto, harbors an extremely creepy Stepford Smile, [http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd282/mon15/05/ster749q.jpg as seen here]. Let's just say that it's a common trait amongst Kinderheim alumni...
* [[Spell My Name
** Even before the series hit [[It Got Worse]] territory in the Acid Tokyo arc, in Outo Country Kurogane had blatantly told Fay he knew he was hiding something. During the Celes arc we find out just what he had been hiding. We learn about his past
* Chichiri from ''[[
* Yuki Sohma from ''[[
* Souichirou Arima from ''[[Kare Kano]]'' is, at the beginning, as much of a Stepford Smiler as his girlfriend Yukino is. Except that while Yukino does it out of obsession with her own image and is a bit of a [[Butt Monkey]] for that, Arima does it to prove himself a worthy person
* ''[[
** Wolfwood has the advantage of inside information. The old Professor among the Last Unfallen humans, who's known him for decades, can also read through this kind of thing, although Vash doesn't try it so much with him. Stuff like bickering childishly with Wolfwood apparently reads as 'real' to both these parties.
** Manga!Millie, who's dumbfounded by this, eventually compares Vash's fake smile with the grey colour you obtain when you mix paints of all colours.
*** That's in Maximum #39 'Colorless Emotions,' the first time Vash reflexively uses the angel arm to block a bullet in a relatively casual gunfight. (Read: the people trying to kill him aren't plot-related characters.) Meryl cracks up briefly at seeing it after the trauma she had last time he used it, and the townspeople conclude he's a demon and start [[Bullying the Dragon|''stoning'' him]]. Wolfwood snarls at them. [[Crowning Moment Of Heartbreaking]]:
{{quote|
'''Vash:''' [Beat panel, still smiling.] What other expression should I make? I don't know anymore. }}
** Nicholas D. Wolfwood himself thrives on this trope, although it's clear almost from the beginning he is a dark, conflicted, and potentially angsty character.
** And let's not forget that in the manga, young Knives managed to
* Cho Hakkai from ''[[
** Manages to overlap with [[Slasher Smile]] without changing his expression. Creeeeepy.
* Shuusuke Fuji of ''[[
* In ''[[
* Russia from ''[[
** Prussia in the christmas strips is "So happy being alone". [[Blatant Lies|Really.]]
**
*** Since APH is based on world history, (with one of its initial lead characters being freaking [[Nazi Germany]] with a swastika armband), ''all'' its characters are all prone to act like sociopaths from time to time, because the community of nations has never, ever been civilized or characterized by good faith. Considering the [[Lighter and Softer]] tone of the manga, however, this is ''greatly'' overblown by [[Fanon]], which in its tries to accommodate canon to more [[Real Life]]-like history ends up more often than not making the characters fall victim to lots of OOC behavior rather than finding a medium.
** In the manga sequel, Tohma seems to have shifted from a mostly Empty Type to an Insane Type. He holds an axe over {{spoiler|a comatose Shuichi, threatening to kill him if he doesn't wake up.}} He does this while still maintaining a huge smile. He's completely Insane Type in the 10th volume when he comes face to face with Yoshiki Kitazawa.
** Tohma's younger cousin, Suguru Fujisaki, is also a Stepford Smiler early on. At least until Shuichi's lazy work schedule gets to him and Suguru ends up panicking about how the band will ever finish its next album instead of worrying about maintaining a smiling appearance. He still has moments where he forces a smile, like when {{spoiler|Tohma confronts Suguru in his office about who will be paying for the destruction of NG.}}
* Kaito Kuroba/Kaitou KID from ''[[
* Oz Vessalius from ''[[
**
** Vincent Nightray is
** Jack is
* Oh so many people in ''[[
** And then there's Mao, who has both Depressed Type
** And Rolo Lamperouge. He seems like a perfectly normal and very nice kid
* In ''[[
** He is beginning to show cracks, though; we got a nice "oh fuck" face with
** Rokudo Mukuro can also definitely be considered one. He apparently copes with his [[Ax Crazy|insanity]] and [[Break the Cutie|horrible past]] by being a
** Yamamoto shows signs of being this at times. Fanon usually takes such subtleties and [[Up to Eleven|runs with 'em for all they're worth]].
* Magi's Jamil is a good example. He's all smiles on the outside, but quickly reveals himself to be a sword-happy Insane Type
* ''[[
** From the same series, Sai. As part of his indoctrination into Danzo's forces, all of his emotions were stripped away until he was emotionally empty. When assigned to Naruto's team he tried to teach himself how to smile in order to pass himself off as normal, but Naruto easily saw through it. He still has trouble understanding and feeling emotions, but he's getting better... He will never be normal, but who wants normal?
** Iruka was a mild example during his childhood (after his parents' deaths).
**
** Itachi's gentle and loving, if somewhat distant, attitude in Sasuke's flashbacks before the massacre count as
* [[Dragonball Z|Future Trunks]] definitely. In his first appearance, he's friendly to the Z Warriors and is polite to a fault with them. However, he comes from a horrible future where every main character is dead. Made worse because his father Vegeta apparently ignored him, though at the end he leaves at peace.
** [[Alternate Character Interpretation|Part]] of the ''[[Dragonball Z]]'' fandom sees Gohan as this, post-Cell Saga. Considering what the poor guy [[The Woobie|went]] [[Break the Cutie|through]], it's not hard to understand why.
* [[One Piece
**
** Also thought to be this are the {{spoiler|Boa sisters}} and some of the other slaves of the [[Complete Monster|Celestial Dragons]].
* ''[[
* {{spoiler|Sasame}} from ''[[
* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'':
* The titular ''[[
* Certain chapters and episodes of ''[[
* ''[[Durarara
* [[Iron Woobie|Tragically enough,]]
* Xellos from ''[[
* Tokidoki Rikugou of ''[[
* Yuki Giou of ''[[
* Okami in ''[[
** The lead... no, ''all'' of the ''Code: Breakers'', seeing as they're super-powered [[Ax Crazy|Ax Crazies]] put to good use by the government (or something).
* Tamaki Suoh from ''[[
* [[Complete Monster|Kumagawa Misogi]] of ''[[
* Gon of ''[[
** He's also a deconstruction of shonen heroes, and possible a rare type of psychopath with fascinatingly [[Player Centered Morality]] (i.e. "This serial killer helped us learn a lot by fighting us, so I'll show him mercy in good, shonen-hero style, even when you point out that he will go kill more young women and eat them if set free. Because he helped us.") It puts the manga-trained reader into the weirdest headspace after a while.
** Well his best friend [[Career Killers|Killua]] has killed possibly hundreds of people in the past. Gon himself, in the life of a Hunter, will probably have to kill someone at some point. Its hard to condemn someone for killing when doing so will make you a hypocrite.
*** During the Ant Arc he kind of snaps. No past-pain comes into it, though. Just his failure that got someone important to him killed and his determination to be revenged.
*** And Hisoka is a rather crazy [[Monster Clown]] and frequently wears a smile on his face.
* Ryou Bakura of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh (
** He ambiguously stops existing at some point in the third season for no particular reason. His friends apparently do not care. Or notice. Or something. He kept turning into the crazy guy so they couldn't trust him, and the pharaoh decided killing him was acceptable given the threat to the world, so maybe he committed soul suicide. Or just retired to his soul room forever.
* Duo Maxwell from ''[[Gundam Wing]]'' is a
** Duo is the most cynical pilot by some way, and also the only one who doesn't seem to have something childlike about him, although he's the one who seems the most ''childish'' on first meeting. He hasn't been sheltered, trained, or broken, just hurt and rolled with the punches; he's almost certainly the most stable of the five of them. Cynics are hard to surprise, after all. So... questionable, despite Duo Torture being a major hobby of the fandom.
*** Despite being weird, the English dub that made him sound forty wasn't the worst casting choice ever.
* Kei Yuzuki from the second ''[[
** Also Lemures from the third OAV, who appears to be a helpful Dandy in his human form, but is soon revealed to be a ''scary''
* [[D
** But when you consider his past, is it any wonder he turned out like that? After all, growing up while recording wars and seeing bloodshed wherever you go isn't exactly the happiest childhood there is. To sum it up: Bookman Junior is Stepford Smiler
{{quote|
** Some interpretations of Allen's character. Allen tends to smile and throw out optimistic and enthusiastic support at the drop of a hat when around his friends, but whenever he's alone he tends to be either beating himself up, wallowing in some deserved self-pity, or worrying about his entire freaking existence.
* Ewon from the manhwa ''Totally Captivated.'' He smiles, he's friendly, and he will be an [[Extreme Doormat]]... until you push him too far. But he's been so [[Break the Cutie|utterly and completely broken]] [[Dark and Troubled Past|as a child]] that if you dig a layer beneath his engaging exterior he's basically an [[Empty Shell]]. As a result, he's [[Really Gets Around|pretty damn promiscuous]], and will shy away from any serious relationship. Fast ([[Your Cheating Heart|this may coincide with the promiscuity bit]]).
* Narusawa of ''[[Jazz (
* In ''[[Devil and Her Love Song
* Amasawa of ''[[
* Miroku from ''[[
* Mikael from ''[[Tenshi
* Tetsudo "Poppo" Hisakawa from ''[[
* ''[[
* Shouma Takakura from ''[[
{{quote|
* ''[[Togainu no Chi]]'': Keisuke has shades of this in Episode 5 where he smiles at Akira despite it being clear he is disturbed by what Akira had done. Naturally, Akira [["The Reason You Suck" Speech|calls him out on it.]]
**
* Andrea Cavalcanti/Benedetto in ''[[
* Serge Battour of ''[[
* ''[[
* Alois Trancy of ''[[
* Shion of ''[[No. 6]]'' is hinted at being this. He smiles constantly and is generally very cheerful and sweet but he's also hinted to have a suppressed [[Yandere]] side to him. [[Beware the Nice Ones]] indeed.
* Loki and Cain of ''[[
* ''[[
* [[Broken Bird|Soubi]] of [[
* Kotetsu from ''[[
* Kaworu Nagisa of ''[[
** Also, Ryouji Kaji, who was smiling calmly in the very moment {{spoiler|he was shot to death}}
** Shinji: For most of the series he walks around quietly with a little smile on his face, even when it becomes clear he's dying inside.
* Akio of ''[[
* [[Dragon
* Koizumi Itsuki from ''[[
** At points in the novel it's made pretty clear that Itsuki's finding it difficult to keep smiling, such as in volume 9 {{spoiler|he's been unable to sleep well for a lengthy period of time due to constant closed space activity, appearing exhausted and using a rather forced version of the usual grin, which falls off if he isn't concentrating.}} What is he really thinking? Who knows, [[Mr. Exposition|it's the one thing he doesn't really talk about. Probably.]]
** To add fire to the fuel, in the eleventh novel, he cheerfully prepares to fight (and probably kill, it wasn't made clear afterwards) the novel's [[Big Bad]]. Note the word ''cheerfully''.
Line 532 ⟶ 506:
** Selim Bradley from the manga and ''Brotherhood'' anime is a sweet little boy. He can't be dangerous or evil, right? {{spoiler|WRONG! He's actually Pride, the eldest of the homunculi.}}
** {{spoiler|The Dwarf in the Flask, later known as [[Big Bad|Father]], needed to be this to fool Van Hohenheim into going along with his plans.}}
* Griffith of ''[[Berserk]]'' is an excellent commander, a masterful swordsman, graceful, elegant, and charismatic. He's also got [[Yandere|serious problems]], mostly involving his greatest warrior Guts. When Guts leaves the Hawks, it starts a downward spiral for Griffith that would
* Oh, {{spoiler|[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle|Fai]] [[Survivor Guilt|D.]] [[Angsty Surviving Twin|Fluorite]].}}. Look at you.
=== [[Comic Books]] ===
* [[Meaningful Name|Ken]] in ''[[
** Boss Smiley from ''World's End'' is, as one can deduce from his name, an exaggerated example.
* In ''[[Transmetropolitan]]'', one of the presidential candidates is known as 'The Smiler', and is shown as willing to kill just about anyone, including his wife, to improve his ratings.
* [[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Garfield]] [[Doom Patrol|Logan]] is a mix of
** He is always cracking jokes and acting as a class clown (particularly in the early ''[[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]]'' comics, but later you find out that he's covering up for his sadness about all the people he's lost in his life and his fear of losing more (among other things).
=== [[Fan Works]] ===
* Zirah, from ''[[The Sacred and the Profane]]''.
{{quote|"He won't stop crying."
"And you're going to stop him by killing him?" Hastur said.
Zirah stared at him in wide-eyed innocence. He looked puzzled.
"Why not?" }}
* In ''[[Code Geass: Mao of the Deliverance
* ''[[
* ''[[
* [[Harry Potter (
* In the ''[[Redwall]]'' fanfic [https://web.archive.org/web/20140216040628/http://www.rovl.org/vi/?p=display&e=8482 It Makes Me Happy That I'm Not Them], Swartt Sixclaw's [[Ironic Hell]] involves him being forced to become one of these. He's stuck with demonic copies of the wife and son he abused, and is forced to perpetually be the perfect husband and father figure to them. It's not really shown what'll happen if he doesn't, but considering [[Gorn|what happens to the point-of-view character later]], we can guess it's not good.
* In the few fics that actually center around and/or care to develop Big Macintosh from ''[[My Little Pony
{{quote|
"Like?" Rarity echoed.
"Like there's a bunch a' gears workin' in his noggin." Applejack frowned. "An' I don't much think I'd like to know what they're puttin' out."
"Why not?" Rarity looked over, concerned.
"'Cause when he gets like that, he looks darn near fifty." The earth pony shook her head. "It ain't right for a colt to look twice his age." }}
=== [[Film]] ===
* ''[[Coraline (animation)|Coraline]]'' has the Other Wybie, who was literally ''made'' to smile despite his actual emotions. {{spoiler|So much so, that when he expresses his disapproval [[The Speechless|through a frown]], the Other Mother ''sews his lips into a perma-grin.'' The stitches are cut, but not before we see what [[The Dark Knight Saga|the Joker]] might have looked like as a child.}}
* [[Tim Burton]]'s ''[[Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (film)|Charlie and The Chocolate Factory]]'' has Willy Wonka recast as a Stepford Smiler.
* Norman Bates from ''[[Psycho]]''. Outwardly smiling and charming, but oh so unwell behind the mask. It's even more unnerving because Norman himself is so unstable that he acknowledges his Stepford mask slipping on and off:
{{quote|'''Marion:''' Sometimes, we deliberately step into those traps.
'''Norman:''' I was born into mine. I don't mind it anymore.
'''
'''
'''Norman:'''
* From the Trope Namer, the 2004 version of ''[[The Stepford Wives]]'' had a gay couple, one of whom, {{spoiler|played by Roger Bart}} was a male example. The {{spoiler|main 'leader', played by Christopher Walken}} was one, too. {{spoiler|Said male leader was a ''robot'', built and programmed as "the perfect stepford husband" by Glenn Close's character to cope with her husband's adultery, and perhaps even her murder of him.}}
* Chancellor Palpatine in the ''[[Star Wars]]'' prequels. On the surface, he was the amiable Chancellor Palpatine, but below...he wasn't.
* John Candy's character Del in ''[[Planes
* In ''[[Toy Story
** The seemingly-kindly {{spoiler|Lotso Huggin' Bear is actually a bitter old man (well, plush bear) who runs Sunnyside Daycare like a cruel prison warden, and has never gotten over being abandoned by his former owner.}}
** Chuckles in Toy Mode, additionally falls under the [[Sad Clown]] trope.
** The [http://cdn1.ioffer.com/img/item/985/572/87/o_2DeyRlFrMivDa12.jpg Chatter Telephone]{{Dead link}}. Don't let his Fisher Price sticker-happy smile fool you, he's quite tortured inside.
* Lenny in ''[[Strange Days]]'' maintains his chipper huckster facade in public, but in private he's deeply depressed.
* Conner Rooney in ''[[Road to Perdition]]'' smiles when he is feeling shamed or humiliated, particularly when his father shows favoritism to Michael. When Peter asks him why he's always smiling, he leans down and deadpans, "Because it's all so fucking hysterical."
=== [[Literature]] ===
* The title character in Edward Arlington Robinson's poem "Richard Cory" is a male Stepford Smiler whose secret unhappiness isn't revealed until the last lines: "And Richard Cory, one calm summer's night,/Went home and put a bullet through his head."
* Many of the characters in Edward Bloor's novel ''Tangerine'' definitely fit this trope. The three most glaring examples are Joey, Erik, and Paul. In fact, Erik may even be the king of this trope.
** The genuine people in this book are found by exiting suburbia (achieved by the middle school getting sucked into <s>hell</s> a sinkhole and the kids being spread out) and rubbing elbows with tangerine farmers and other 'real' people.
** The [[Jerk Jock]] trope gets ''interesting'' play in this story. Which also features good people getting unjustly struck by lightning and interesting information about citrus farming. And a viewpoint character who's caught in a [[Mind Screw]].
* Frank Chalmers in ''[[Red Mars Trilogy]]'' is somewhere between a
* Many of the characters from ''[[Lunar Park]]'', by [[Bret Easton Ellis]].
* ''[[
** But of course then you've taken your eyes off his hands, and at least one of them is holding a knife by now.
** He's the kind of guy who would murder a man for a loaf of bread and then stand over the corpse saying 'Who, me, guvnor?' and almost ''convincing'' you.
* From ''[[The King in Yellow]]'': "I wear no mask."
* Todd Bowden from [[Stephen King]]'s ''Apt Pupil'' maintains the image of a cheery all-American golden boy even while he's blackmailing the neighborhood [[Those Wacky Nazis|Nazi-in-hiding]] into telling gruesome concentration camp stories. It's all downhill from there.
** Harold Lauder from ''[[The Stand]]'' becomes
* Mr. Happy was like that at, at least the start of ''[[Mr. Men]] A Christmas Carol'' to help and keep Mr. Mean, happy. Ironically, this book was made shorty before ''[[The Mr. Men Show]]'' came on air...
* ''[[X Wing Series]]'': Ton Phanan, though we don't really get to see it until late. He's a [[Deadly Doctor]], a [[Deadpan Snarker]], caustic and funny and able to put aside the sarcasm in the right moments. He also feels that the cybernetics he started to get after [[Emergency Transformation|almost being killed]] couldn't replace his future, [[Cybernetics Eat Your Soul|which died.]]
* In ''[[Luke Skywalker and
* In a dystopian novel by Fedor Zamyatin ''We'' the totalitarian government works towards making its subjects as machinelike as possible: perfectly scheduled and mapped lives, synchronised movements of multiple people, lack of names in favor of numbers. This agenda is ultimately crowned by "The Great Operation" in which the human brain is irradiated by rays, that ''[[Mind Rape|completely and irreparably strip a person of his imagination]]''. It's like [[Equilibrium|Prosium]] on an anatomical level. One of the effects (aside from turning a human being into an obedient and ever-happy shell of a man) is a perpetual grin on the subject's face as he now thinks "smiling is a natural expression of human face".
* ''[[
* ''[[Darkest Powers|The Summoning]]'' has Simon Bae, who for his introduction in the first book seems like a totally normal, cheerful kid who just so happens to be locked up with his older brother in a group home for mentally unstable kids. No matter how gloomy and angry his brother Derek is, Simon always remains upbeat and positive, until Derek snaps at him for doing nothing to help find their [[Parental Abandonment|missing father]]. This is the first thing that breaks Simon’s happy mask, and he admits that having to pretend to be content all the time when he really wants nothing more than to run away and find his dad is killing him inside.
** And again in ''The Reckoning'', when
** Could Derek count as well? He wasn’t exactly ''smiling'', per se, but it’s implied that he tried to hide his own feelings about
* ''The Belgariad''/''The Malloreon'': Silk, AKA Prince Kheldar, is asked why he's always laughing at life. His answer: "If I wasn't, I'd probably be screaming at it."
* [[
* Bryce from ''[[
=== [[Live-Action TV]] ===
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'':
** The android Ted
** Spike himself also falls within this stereotype; despite all of his posturing as far as being a murderous bad-ass vampire, with the body-count to back up his swaggering, the dude is still the horribly insecure, [[
*** He's both. The above would have him be something of a... Stepford Snarker, but over the course of his [[Character Development]] and becoming a woobie he's ''also'' still an asshole. With codependency problems. He and Dru were groundbreaking for the series when introduced because they were very clearly ''people'' in addition to being monsters; Spike's whole character arc explores this. And messes with him for fun, apparently.
* A pair of Pagan gods in the [[Christmas Episode]] of ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]''. One was the traditional female
** To call them "smilers" is a gross understatement. They're more like... stepford newlyweds-who-just-found-$500-in-the-house.
** If you know what's going to happen next, Dean comes off as a version of this trope in the supposed lighter moments of Seasons Two (the season where everything leads up to him making the demonic pact) and Three (when he has done so). Whether it's the Daddy Issues or [[Survivor Guilt]] or his impending death/suicide, he loves to pretend that everything is perfect when it's really, ''really'' not.
** Another codependent one.
** [[Playing
{{quote|
** Which leads us to the ending of the episode where Dean, as he's driving, tries to smile and utterly fails.
* ''[[Dexter]]''. On the surface, Dexter Morgan affects a harmless, chipper personality to fit into society and hide the fact that he is a sociopathic serial killer. And empty. Over the course of the series, however, he becomes more in touch with his feelings and enjoys periods of legitimate happiness.
Line 624 ⟶ 595:
* Pretty much every male cast member of ''[[The Shield]]'' fit this description. But most notably, there are Curtis "Lem" Lemansky (popular police officer and all around good guy who has ZERO self-esteem and basically serves as a doormat for his "best friends" on the Strike Team, leading to crippling ulcers, a mini-nervous breakdown, committing criminal acts that ultimately lead to his arrest, death, and ultimately denounced as a monster), Shane Vendrell (who loves his family to the extent that he murdered his best friend/partner rather than risk having him turn states evidence against them, but basically murders his pregnant wife and toddler son rather than risk having Vic Mackey reveal to his children the sins committed by his father), Police Captain turned City Councilman and Mayoral Hopeful David Acaveda (affable but somewhat slimy boss who is into rough sex, arranged the murder of a man who raped him, strained relationship with his wife after being told by her that she would have preferred him being killed to him being raped, willingness to work with the Mexican Mafia and use their blackmail files of prominent people to further his career), Ronnie Gardocki (lovable nerd who's darkness manifests itself in full force in season seven, by way of the lengths he was willing to go to see Shane Vendrell murdered as payback for Shane killing Detective Lemansky), and John Kavanaugh (brilliant and decorated Internal Affairs police officer who's devotion to law and order hides the fact that he cruelly divorced his mentally unstable wife the moment she became an annoyance to him).
** Not to mention Vic Mackey, who's stepford smile hides a monster that all others pale in comparison to. So it says something that in the end, Vic loses EVERYTHING in the finale including his "good" name but ends up in the final scene of the series, putting on a stepford smile and walking into the darkness, as far as not letting his karmic final fate as a glorified temp desk worker with the Feds slow him down.
* Spoofed somewhat in season six of ''[[
* ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'': Wilson is one of these.
* On ''[[CSI: NY]]'' Flack has started to become one in season 6 of the show since {{spoiler|his girlfriend was killed in the season 5 finale}}. Characters are starting to guess something is seriously wrong, however, because he doesn't keep the mask completely on all the time.
* [[Doctor Who
** And culminated in
** [[Matt Smith|Eleven]] is usually energetic, cheerful, and [[Adorkable]] as all hell. He also immediately recognizes that a villain is a part of his own subconscious because "there's only one person who hates me as much as you do", and, when presented with the (false) opportunity to find more Time Lords, was more eager about the chance to beg for their forgiveness than for companionship or a chance at locating friends.
*** Then there's the scene when he's offered options for the TARDIS' voice interface. Himself? "Nonono, give me someone I ''like''." Rose Tyler? "Oh, great. Give me guilt." Martha Jones? "Also guilt!" Donna Noble? "''More'' guilt!" Finally, he says "There must be ''someone'' left in the universe I haven't screwed up yet!". Current companion Amy? Yeah, he thinks he's effing up her life too.
*** Matt Smith actually described Eleven as a person who had to act happy and cheerful and put on a silly hat, otherwise he'd hang himself.
** [[Christopher Eccleston|Nine]]: When his lone season started, he appeared to be manic and upbeat with a bit of rudeness mixed in and a small dark streak. Slowly, as more and more information about the Time War is revealed, it's shown that he is plagued by [[Survivor Guilt]] and searing self-hatred. This culminates in "Dalek", when he comes off as a ''Insane Type
** The Master in his [[John Simm]] incarnation certainly counts as well. He manages to get himself
* ''[[That Mitchell and Webb Look]]'': The host of the Quiz Broadcast sketches ("Hello, good evening, and remain indoors!") a game show taking place [[After the End|after]] "[[Noodle Incident|The]] [[The End of the World
* Niles Crane from ''[[Frasier]]'', he of the wife so bizarre and despicable that [[The Ghost|she became incapable of being revealed onscreen]] is something of a subversion of
* ''[[Desperate Housewives]]'' has Orson Hodge, who has been married with the [[Up to Eleven]]
=== [[Music]] ===
* Mr. Smiley from the Mustard Plug song of the same name is a variation of the classic smiley-face badge thing. A
* Nick Cave's "Good Son".
* "The Tracks of My Tears" by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles:
{{quote|
You'll see my smile looks out of place
If you look closer, it's easy to trace
The tracks of my tears }}
** Smokey Robinson also had "Tears of a Clown", which is similar.
{{quote|
It's only there trying to fool the public }}
* The subject of "Everybody's Fool" by [[
* [[Insane Clown Posse
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z4m4lnjxkY Eduard Khil], to the point of [[Memetic Mutation]].
* [[
* [[The Beatles (
{{quote|
Beneath this mask I am wearing a frown
My tears are falling like rain from the sky
Is it for her or myself that I cry? }}
* [[
{{quote|
My make-up may be flaking
But my smile still stays on. }}
* The [[Simon and Garfunkel]] song "Richard Cory," based on the Edward Arlington Robinson poem. The song's chorus, an [[Every Man]] wishing he could be Richard Cory, becomes ironic when repeated one final time after we learn about Cory's suicidal depression.
* The protagonist in [[
=== Newspaper Comics ===
* ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'': Calvin (sarcastically?) [[Invoked Trope|invokes]] this for a moment when his father tells him he needs to go to bed earlier so that he won't be so grumpy each morning; he starts going around with an enormous fake grin instead.
=== [[Theater]] ===
* Although he tries to seem like the stable emotional pillar of the group, the songs "Halloween" and "Goodbye Love" from ''[[Rent]]'' reveal that Mark is really one of these.
** "What You Own," too.
* C.B. the Red Caboose in ''Starlight Express'': "Under the smiles and under the fun, I'm Public Enemy Number One!"
* [[Cyrano De Bergerac]]: Cyrano is a
{{quote|
'''Cyrano:''' No, never! Think, how vilely suited
Adown this nose a tear its passage tracing!
I never will, while of myself I'm master,
let the divinity of tears—their beauty
Be wedded to such common ugly grossness.
Nothing more solemn than a tear—sublimer;
And I would not by weeping turn to laughter
The grave emotion that a tear engenders! }}
=== [[Video Games]] ===
* Zelos from ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'' is a Stepford Smiler, as he struggles to hide a truly twisted past [[Obfuscating Stupidity|behind a mask of frivolity and promiscuity]]. At certain points of the story he offhandedly hints about his past, before laughing whatever he said off as lies or changing the subject. Whether he's lying or telling the truth is left to the viewer, unless they go out of their way to see a cutscene where he openly reveals his past to the main protagonist.
** His goal is to drive his comrades away from him, because he [[Death Seeker|doesn't want to be missed]]. Realizing the [[Butt Monkey]] of the group is also a [[Sad Clown]] can be quite [[Tear Jerker|jarring]], especially {{spoiler|if you chose the ending where [[Lovable Traitor|you kill him]].}}
* Another example is Jade Curtiss from ''[[Tales of the Abyss]]''. He does it due to being [[The Stoic]], and to mask the fact that he {{spoiler|Accidentally [[Dead Little Sister|killed his teacher]]}}. Plus, it helps a [[Deadpan Snarker]] to keep a straight face.
* {{spoiler|Forde}} from ''[[Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones]]''. He states in one of his supports that he acts cheerful and relaxed mostly to keep his friends and companions happy in the middle of the war.
* Henry from ''[[Fire Emblem: Awakening]]''. It's readily apparent that he's not quite right in the head due to the fact that he's ''always'' smiling, even when talking about morbid subjects like torture. {{spoiler|If he forms a bond with Olivia, he reveals it's because he was abandoned at an orphanage by his parents, where he suffered horrible abuse at hands of the "caretakers" there. Ever since, he's been hiding the lingering pain of those experiences behind a fake smile, but [[Heartwarming Moments|Olivia manages to break through and get him to smile for real, though]].}}
* [[Creepy Child]] Chris from ''[[The King of Fighters]]'' fits this trope very well, as he's almost a modern version of the aforementioned Soujirou. Always with a smile in his face, even when killing random people. The fact that he's the [[Big Bad]]'s host doesn't help, either.
* In ''[[Backyard Sports|Backyard Basketball]]'', Kevin Garnett serves this purpose. He is a Depressed Type
* ''[[Persona 4]]'' has {{spoiler|Adachi who is an Insane Type example.}}
** Also Kou, one of the social link characters, fits the Depressed Type. Meanwhile, {{spoiler|Teddie}} is an Empty Type. He gets better.
*** Yosuke could also be seen as a Depressed Type, according to his Shadow.
* [[The Legend of Zelda|Happy Mask Salesman]]: He seems to be generally happy, but come back to him without the money you owe (or without his stolen mask) and his broad smile turns into a furious grimace as he starts threatening you.
* {{spoiler|Nessiah}} is a combination of the
* Zevran from ''[[
* Hazama/{{spoiler|Terumi Yuuki}} of ''[[
* Several chacacters in ''[[Undertale]]''.
** Burgerpants, the MTT Burger employee. All his expressions have some sort of smile, and none of them looks genuine. He is exercising (and increasingly failing) the professional smile required for service employees.
** Sans the Skeleton, who, in a variation, tries to project the image of being a [[Pungeon Master|pun-loving]], [[Big Fun|goofy]], laid back [[The Slacker|slacker]] with [[troll]]ish tendencies. Digging a bit under the surface, it becomes apparent that his constant smile is a [[Broken Smile|broken one]].
*** How committed is Sans to smiling? You know that you pissed him off (or that he is serious for once) only because his eyes black out and become pupil-less - the smile remains there unalterable. {{Spoiler|The only moment his smile falters is the moment you strikes him in the Genocide route - and that only last a second.}} If you manage to get access to Sans' secret workshop, {{Spoiler|you can find there a album containing a photo of Sans with several unknown people. [[Take Our Word for It|We never see the pic]], but the description given is along the lines of "Sans looks actually happy". This, for a character that has never stopped smiling since the moment we first met him.}}
*** How bad the situation really is? {{Spoiler|In the Final Boss battle for the Pacifist route, we see his Lost Soul state. The Lost Soul is the version of the characters who express their real feelings before the Human triggered their [[Character Development]]. What does sans Says in this state? "[[Despair Event Horizon|just give up. i did.]]", "why even try?", and "you'll never see 'em again." These lines, by the way, are said without Sans' characteristic font (which he is known to drop when being actually serious) and the letters sways in an implication of trembling.}}
** Surprisingly {{Spoiler|[[Keet|Papyrus]]}} becomes one of these in one of the neutral endings, {{Spoiler|the "King Papyrus" one (achieved by killing every other boss in the game save him). In the call you have with him, he nearly breaks down, confessing that he tries to keep his spirits highs to keep the people's high too, but that it's increasingly difficult, and that he misses all his friends (characters that you killed to find this ending) and hopes they are back from their "vacations" really soon.}}
==== [[Visual Novels]] ====
* ''[[Clannad (visual novel)|Clannad]]'': Tomoya Okazaki is a Depressed Type. The casual behavior might fool the watcher/reader for awhile, but it becomes clear over time that he's basically starting the story in despair.
* An oddly non-creepy example that doesn't fit into any of the categories is Ambassador Colias Palaneo in ''[[Ace Attorney]] Investigations'', who mainly keeps a constant smile as part of his [[Nice Guy|ur-politeness]]. The fact that he drops it pretty easily helps out.
** {{spoiler|Kristoph Gavin}} is a villainous Insane Type example: a Machiavellian madman who hides beneath a mask of contentment and composure.
** {{spoiler|Matt Engarde}}, also an Insane Type. {{spoiler|His mask is that of a doofy [[Extreme Doormat]] who's completely clueless about anything. His real [[Complete Monster|personality]] is [[Obfuscating Stupidity|exactly]] the [[Crazy Prepared|opposite]]. He even pulls back his [[Peek-a-Bangs|hair]] to reveal his [[Good Scars, Evil Scars|scars of villainy]]}}.
** Add {{spoiler|Souta Sarushiro}} to the list of Insane Type villains.
*** Though also give him a slight Depressed Type as well. After all, {{spoiler|living most of your life assuming your best friend's deceased father was really your own father and your father was actually your best friend's father and the murderer of the man you though was your father will really mess you up}}.
=== [[
* Skids of ''[[Boy Meets Boy]]'' is mostly genuinely cheerful. But when things start to get him down, he simply pretends to be even more cheerful. This is extraordinarily creepy.
* Torg in ''[[
* Alexander Hamilton of ''[[The Dreamer]]''.
=== Web Original ===
* Flippy of ''[[Happy Tree Friends]]'' is very [[Ax Crazy|Insane Type ]].
* Like the [[The Nostalgia Chick]], [[The Nostalgia Critic]] also delves into this on occasion. Mostly when a movie does something good then completely fucks it up but also when he was talking about his parents.
{{quote|*shows a picture of his kindergarten self being ripped apart by two monsters labeled "Mom" and "Dad"*
'''Critic''': (cheerfully) "I had issues." }}
=== [[Western Animation]] ===
* Genie from Disney's ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'' seems to at least somewhat fit this Trope. He mostly acts very upbeat and cheerful, always cracking jokes, and having lots of fun with magic. But at one point we learn he is actually quite sad and really wishes to be free.
** Isn't that also true of the man who does the voice?
*
* Mr. Happy from ''[[The Mr. Men Show]]'' is the example of the sympathetic kind. While in the books, he was nearly always happy, in this show's version, there's been times, when he tends to hide other emotions behind a smile to keep other people's spirits up. There's been episodes to show that like "Lake", "Canned Goods", "Collecting", "Music", "Ships" and others.
* The Bloopers Guy from ''[[Robot Chicken]]'' puts on an enthusiastic and chipper act, but considering he tries to commit suicide after every show, there is ''something'' wrong with him.
** Tries? I thought it was just discontinuity.
* The ''[[
** [[The Scapegoat|Butters]] is a much better example of this, though his mask isn't always on tight at times. He tries to be cheerful, but [[Abusive Parents|his father has been known to threaten and beat him]], his mother once snapped and tried to kill him,
** And let's not forget why Butters needed two years of therapy after his last tap dancing competition....
** {{spoiler|Kenny, known for laughing at innuendo,}} is most likely this as of {{spoiler|"Mysterion Rises"}} because of the fact that {{spoiler|no one remembers any of [[They Killed Kenny|his deaths]]}}.
*
** There are no indications that Spongebob is sane. The flavor of his apparent insanity varies.
* Ned Flanders of ''[[The Simpsons (
{{quote|
*** In fact, in one Halloween special, Ned Flanders becomes an Orwellian figure and makes sure ''everyone'' smiles - or go through "Re-Neducation", aka lobotomy.
* An episode of ''[[The Fairly
** There is a hint of this lampshaded by Timmy's mom after being swapped into dad's body in one episode, where she mentioned that she had a sudden feeling of giving up on her dreams. This could mean Timmy's dad gave up on his old dreams sometime ago.
** Also, in the FLARG episode when Timmy is trying to stop Mark from exploding:
{{quote|
* The titular ''[[
* The title character of ''[[Hey Arnold
* Does Freaky Fred from ''[[Courage the Cowardly Dog]]'' count as
* On ''[[
* The Ice King from ''[[
=== [[Real Life]] ===
* Not only did famed author and children's entertainer Robert Munsch suffer from Manic-Depression and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, [http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/810508 he also is a recovering alcoholic and cocaine addict.]
=== Anime and Manga ===
* Outside of the ones that act fairly emotionless, many Contractors are like this in ''[[Darker
=== Fan Works ===
* The author of [[Travels Through Azeroth and Outland]] writes [[World of Warcraft|draenei]] rather like [[Green Sky|Kindar]]. You do, however, get a few eccentrics ([[Perky Goth|Vasalyan]]), basket cases ([[Broken Bird|Balaa]]), and characters who mean well but really don't ''get'' other races (Kastoor).
===
* Paul and Mary Bland of ''Eating Raoul'' are probably the world's most upbeat and together conservative couple ever, even as they descend into {{spoiler|theft, murder and cannibalism}}.
* "Bonjour! Bonjour!" The villagers in Disney's ''[[Beauty and
* In ''[[
* There's a rare humorous example of
{{quote|
'''Female street stranger:''' Yeah.
'''Alvy Singer:''' Yeah? So, so, how do you account for it?
'''Female street stranger:''' Uh, I'm very shallow and empty and I have no ideas and nothing interesting to say.
'''Male street stranger:''' And I'm exactly the same way.
'''Alvy Singer:''' I see. Wow. That's very interesting. So you've managed to work out something? }}
* Chris and Belle in ''[[
=== Literature ===
* In ''[[Soon I Will Be Invincible]]'', the Champions are a cracking facade of glossy superheroism
* Arguably the entire tree-dwelling Kindar culture in Zilpha Keatley Snyder's ''[[Green-Sky Trilogy]]''. The descendants of a group who decided that humanity's past misdeeds were best forgotten, they consider negative emotions (lumped under the heading of "[[Newspeak|unjoyfulness]]") inappropriate and best kept suppressed.
* Vincent and Carrie Raymond (in Geoph Essex's ''Lovely Assistant'') are astonishingly warm and cheerful [[The Beautiful Elite|Beautiful People]],
* ''[[Harry Potter (
** [[Harry Potter
** [[Complete Monster|Dolores]] [[Harry Potter
** [[Harry Potter
*** Luna could also be a subversion, if her serene personality is completely genuine.
** Xenophilius Lovegood puts on a
* Almost the entire main cast of Jodi Picoult's ''Nineteen minutes'' (Barring Peter, Jordan and possibly Patrick)
** [[The Woobie|Josie]] is a
** [[Complete Monster|Matt]] is
** Alex has to act perfect 24/7 for the sake of her job whilst the strain tears her apart.
** Lacy has to deal with the fact that one of her children turned out to be a druggie whilst the other (Peter) went on a killing spree.
** Lewis (Lacy's husband) has to deal with the above whilst being a happiness economist (Meaning it's his job to work out the mathematical value of happiness)
** Selena gets off relatively easy, only having to deal with racist idiots.
* [[
** Meanwhile, [[Badass Bookworm|Inquisitor]] [[Action Girl|Amberley Vail]] typically wears the smile of a whimsical young woman, but being an [[I Did What I Had to Do|Inquisitor]] means that she's hiding a [[The Chains of Commanding|motherload of burdens]] [[Dirty Business|that comes with the job]]. She's good enough at being a
=== Live
* Gem and Gemma of ''[[Power Rangers RPM]]''. The disturbingly cheerful smile never leaves their faces, whether they're talking about explosives, military strategy, their time imprisoned by the enemy and forced to do hard labor in an enemy factory producing [[Mooks]]...
** They also love drawings of unicorns, butterflies, and rainbows, and work them into anything they write or draw (including a very, very confusing map to said factory, composed ''entirely'' of unicorns and rainbows).
* Anyone not named [[Enfant Terrible|Anthony]] in ''[[
** Another TZ example would be "Number Twelve Looks Just Like You", where Stepfordization is a standard part of becoming one of [[The Beautiful Elite|the beautiful people.]]
* Similar to the "It's a Good Life" example, the [[Monty Python]] "Fairy Tale" sketch had the citizens of Happy Valley who were always happy and cheerful, because to be otherwise was a crime punishable by death.
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=== Music ===
* [[Siouxsie and the Banshees]]' ''Happy House''.
* The song "The Great Pretender" describes this kind of person, who puts on a happy facade to hide their sadness about losing a lover. Goes into "mixed gender examples" because it has been performed by males (i.e: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml1gW_f-U6E Roy Orbison]), [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRJ0H9cqffk Freddie Mercury] from [[
* The song "Shallow" by [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dYk_9R8yPs Poets of the Fall] could be the
* The [[
* "Go Away" by Delain is a [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]] to a
* According to the members, [[BTS (band)|BTS]]'s album trilogy ''Love Yourself'' is about a person (gender purposefully obfuscated) on the Depressed Type that puts on the mask to pursue a romantic relationship, the failure of the relationship when the person discovers that not only the mask became too heavy to wear, they spent too much effort on the mask to actually get to know their love interest, the epiphany that they were pursuing the relationship to cover their poor self-esteem, and finally the determination to stop using the mask and work on loving and bettering themselves.
=== Music Videos ===
*
=== Radio ===
* The Happy Smilers, a group in an episode of ''[[
=== Tabletop Games ===
* Every vampire from ''[[
{{quote|
* ''[[Paranoia (
* ''[[Warhammer
** The most terrifying part of this is that Grandpa Nurgle ''IS'' that nice and loving [[Friend to All Living Things]], it's just that in a truly Lovecraftian manner he loves ''all'' living things, including the disease microbes and such, and simply [[Blue and Orange Morality|cannot express his love and acceptance in any other way]]. It's notable that the followers of Nurgle are, despite their festering and rotting appearance, the happiest and best psychically adjusted among the Chaos worshipers.
=== Video Games ===
* The humanoid [[The Soulless|Nobodies]] from ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' are the [[Empty Shell]] variation of Empty Type
* The backstory for the Pleasant family in ''[[
* Given that it's set in [[The Fifties]], many civilians in ''[[Destroy All Humans!]]'' fall under this heading, particularly the residents of [[Stepford Suburbia|Santa Modesta]]. Quite naturally, these suburbanites like to present themselves as flawless and content, but a quick [[Telepathy|peek at their thoughts]] reveals that the men only manage to suppress their psychotic rage with their collective obsession with lawnmowers and automobiles, and the valium-addicted women are engaged in fierce and unending competition over the best home and garden, broken only by tupperware parties and neglected children. Exactly one citizen manages to realize how miserable she really is, and in the end, she decides to drown her sorrows in cheap meaningless sex. And of course, being an alien invader, you have the opportunity to put every last depressive one of them out of their misery in the most painful way possible.
* ''[[
** There's a whole town of Stepford Smilers, well-groomed but down-to-earth, assured Andale is the best little town, that their blessed country will protect them from the commies, and that all is right with the world. This being Fallout, of course, [[It Gets Worse
** There's a woman in the small town of Arefu who seems to have gone completely delusional and pretends that she is living in a beautiful pre-war suburb. She hands the player rusty tin cans, proclaiming they're her prized batches of chocolate chip cookies. Ironically, she's never even experienced life before the war.
* ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'' plays this trope straight with just about ''everyone'' in the setting, Yuna and Tidus just being the most prominent. On her case, is basically the pressure of knowing that she is being directed into an [[Heroic Sacrifice]] but still feeling that she has to act peppy and optimistic in public. For him, his [[Idiot Hero]] persona is revealed to be mostly just an act to deal with his angst over his [[Disappeared Dad]]. And he has a more traditional Stepford Smiler moment later on, after discovering that {{spoiler|defeating Yu Yevon will end his own existence.}}
* ''[[Psychonauts]]'' features both a female and male example. Crystal and Clem are two seemingly cheerful and enthusiastic campers who like to root their fellow campers on (especially Raz)... and also harbor suicidal tendencies. Most of this is [[Played for Laughs]]: "I feel so stupid for throwing myself off the roof!" "Why did you throw yourself off the roof?" "Because the poison didn't work, duh!"
** A more depressing version is {{spoiler|Milla, a perpetually cheerful party girl who hides the fact that she worked at an orphanage that burned down, killing all inside. As if that wasn't enough, she also wound up psychically hearing their screams for help as they died.}} [[Alternate Character Interpretation|Interpretations]] vary with the player with some seeing her as someone who's ''coped'' with the trauma in her past. [[Word of God]] says it's the latter, and that "locking up" nightmares is a perfectly healthy way of dealing with that level of trauma.
** By comparison, twice in Boyd Cooper's mind, you get assaulted by nightmares and have to fight them as minibosses. So it would seem that in the metaphorical context of things, nightmares being "locked up" is more a sign that you've dealt with them and have them under control, rather than that you're suppressing them.
* Louis from ''[[
* Any game from Zynga. In ''Cityville'', it's just getting scary with how everyone always smiles and looks so cutesy. A few of my contacts have named their cities Stepford for this very reason.
==== [[Visual Novels]] ====
* In ''[[
* It's strongly implied that [[Clannad (
* The characters do this in ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro
** Rena is also a perfect example of a
** {{spoiler|Rika}} too. To all the world she's just a [[Cheerful Child]], because {{spoiler|she's convinced that if she lets anyone know something's wrong they'll just get hurt, and she's given up anyways}}. The reality of her situation is pretty bad, and in private she resorts to [[Drowning My Sorrows|drinking away her problems]].
** For that sake, almost every main character in the series. They are first shown a a group of cheerful persons, and indeed the first episode looks like it's gonna be Lucky Star 2. Then we find out that {{spoiler|Rika has revived at least a hundred times after being brutally killed, and remembers every single deaths she has been through}}; {{spoiler|Keiichi is a delusional psychopath that once went on a rampage with a BB gun, shooting little girls}}; {{spoiler|Satoko killed her parents almost by accident and her brother Satoshi is hospitalized with little chance of recovery, and since then, her uncle has been abusing of her so much the only action of patting her head can potentially lead her to violent convulsions}}; {{spoiler|Shion was meant to be killed just for being Mion's twin, and possibly even worse then that, she lost her beloved Satoshi by Oyashiro-sama's curse, and later is forced to rip off her own fingernails}}; {{spoiler|Rena had to suffer from her parents' divorce, and on top of that, seeing her mother with another man lead her to viciously wound some of her classmates during a rampage (not to forget the [[Attempted Rape]] on her, and how she has to fight off Rina and Teppei's machinations)}}; {{spoiler|Takano is another delusional psychopath, so twisted by her horrifying past in an [[Orphanage of Fear]] that she doesn't even care about how many thousands of people die due to her activities}}. But outside of that, they're pretty happy and smiling...
==
* ''[[
=== Web Original ===
* Quite a few of these have shown up in ''[[
** Former gamer Warren Pace gives himself a [[Jerk Jock|complete image makeover]] to fit in with the football team due to his perceived images of jocks.
** [[Cloudcuckoolander|Maria Graham]] has a bad habit of burying any pain and angst underneath an overly cheerful, energetic persona. It's already been shown before that when she finally crashes, [[Heroic BSOD|she crashes HARD.]]
*** She ended up crashing pretty early once the game started, though she often tries to put it back up again. Eventually she succeeds when
** [[Brainless Beauty|Hermione Miller]] also has been shown to have tendencies of this. She spends most of her run in ''serious'' denial, believing that she is at the campsite while acting eerily cheerful and rejecting all signs that she's stuck on a [[Deserted Island]]. Eventually she has a revelation about her situation and that no one will take her seriously due to her being [[The Ditz]], and right after {{spoiler|is [[Driven to Suicide]]}}. She also receives a fair amount of [[Lampshade Hanging]] comparing her to the [[Trope Namer]].
** In mini site [[Spin
=== Western Animation ===
* Peppy Happy Gary and Peppy Happy Betty from ''[[The Fairly
* ''[[Codename
** {{spoiler|Numbah 3}} is a Depressed Type, as revealed in the final episodes, using {{spoiler|her [[Genki Girl]] [[Cloudcuckoolander]]}} persona to cover {{spoiler|her}} utter depression. Given [[Dysfunctional Family|what]] [[Parental Issues|kind of]] [[Big Screwed-Up Family|family]] {{spoiler|she}} has, it doesn't come as a surprise.
* The central theme of ''[[
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrnTZdQVk1M Frothy Dawg]
* [[Playing
=== Other Media ===
* [[Eversion (Sugar Wiki)|This page]] is about a bright, cheerful, and wonderful game! You'll have lots of fun reading all its super fun happy tropes and be so happy playing this fun game itself! Fun! Fun! Fun! {{spoiler|NO IT'S NOT. NOT. AT. ALL.}}
* The hosts of ''[[The Onion]]'' show "Today Now!", a parody of morning news shows like ''[[Good Morning America]]'', are
=== Real Life ===
* Some people with clinical depression
* News anchormen/women/folk. To watch them [[Mood Whiplash|report happy, light-hearted stories immediately preceding reports of tragedy and/or horror,]] or to hear them banter and joke with each other, you're left with the distinct impression that they are doing so not because they genuinely feel this way, but rather because it is the "appropriate" behavior to express. Maybe it's just me, but the whole thing comes across as [[Uncanny Valley|unnatural.]]
** It's called [
** Despite the popular perception of them being these, sometimes the mark of an all time ''great'' news-caster is the times they ''do'' let down their facade of journalistic impartiality, such as during John Glenn's Mercury Capsule launch when [[Walter Cronkite]], getting a bit too caught up in the excitement to maintain the stoic facade, said of the rocket, "Go, baby!" For a more recent example when Brian Williams was invited to play "Not My Job" on ''[[Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me
*** Some news-casters, particularly those who also commentators, are more able to avert this trope, such as [[Countdown
*** There are dangers in breaking the facade.
* One of the reasons for the "grim Russian" stereotype is that in Russian culture ''anyone'' who smiles when talking to complete strangers is assumed to be either a Stepford Smiler or just an insincere person. There is an old Russian joke about this: "Americans look at you with phony politeness. [[At Least I Admit It|We look at you with sincere hatred]]".
* [[
* [[Friendly Playful Dolphin|Dolphins]]. They have that "smile" on their faces regardless of their mood. Unfortunately, many people think that because of their "smiles", dolphins are nice gentle creatures. They are not.
* Persons of ''both'' genders who are or have been physically/sexually/emotionally abused in one way or another, often become this to hide their suffering from others.
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* At most job interviews, the interviewee is expected to smile and look and act pleasant regardless of the dread and nervousness they're experiencing.
* A good customer service representative or anyone else in the service industry who deals primarily with customers will, as part of their training, put on a Stepford Smile. Even if they're answering phones in a cubicle farm, they will be told to fake a smile so their voice sounds pleasant and friendly. Most superiors will demand that of these employees even if they're dealing with a terrible customer, with few exceptions (e.g. if there's a company mandate against dealing with people who are cursing at the employees).
** Are you a teenager/in your twenties and work in Fast food or Chain stores? Chances are, unless you're a [[The Pollyanna|Pollyanna]], you're the Depressed (or Insane) Type when at work.
** Eventually, the constant smiling can turn the employee in either a Depressed or an Empty type, as the perpetual smile makes them to lose contact with their actual emotions. There is even a name for this condition: [[wikipedia:Smile mask syndrome|Smile mask syndrome]].
* A "Stepford Laugh" is a common effect of marijuana. An uncontrollable laughter without any really pleasant distractions accompanying it.
** When the marijuana laugh is real (everything is funny), it's sometimes called "Cosmic Joke".
* Psychopaths are often
** Many have emotions all right, just not that of empathy. Others, on the other hand, end up committing horrible crimes with the simple goal to receive some kind of emotional stimulus, which quickly becomes addictive. The term is Shallow Affect, and 'describes the psychopath's tendency for genuine emotion to be short-lived and egocentric, with an overall cold demeanor'.
* Lot of people who try to live according to [[
** Barbara Ehrenreich talks in depth about this aspect of the positive-thinking movement in her book ''Bright Sided.''
* [[Disney Theme Parks]] Cast members typically will put on a Stepford Smile, no matter what kind of [[Jerkass|rude guest]] they may face. It's actually part of their job description to be smiling and welcoming towards any guest.
* A great number of political spouses seem like this from public appearances. And politicians themselves. See 2008's [http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3156/2925368783_69eabca828_o.jpg Cindy McCain], 2004 and 2008's [http://media.kimatv.com/images/120224_John_Edwards_2.jpg John Edwards]{{Dead link}}, and coming in 2012... [http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7H2Td73K-20/TcmxL4bCzmI/AAAAAAAAD-0/CTjtrhvEc74/s1600/newt-gingrich-and-Callista-Gingrich.jpg Callista Gingrich].
* There's [http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1180396935#!/SonrioAunqueMeMueraPorDentro a Facebook page in Spanish] dedicated to this.
* The Westboro Baptist Church has a bunch of these people, most tragically in the children that have the misfortune to be part of it. During interviews they'll cheerfully talk about how you'll go to hell and reveal that they have no friends because everyone in school hates them due to their association with their church. The only time on TV that one person has slipped even a little, she was told by a reporter that if he thought that she was going to hell, he'd be sad. She cracked just a tad, then said she needed to go.
* Traditional people on the island of Bali are ''required'' to be this. To show anything other than your "bright face" invites evil spirits and curses, and might make other people sick. Devastating tragedy strikes? Laugh as if it's the funniest thing in the world. Your friends know you are really suffering, but will respect you for staying "bright". If your facade breaks, they'll surround you and laugh at your "insanity". It's closest to
* A "stiff upper lip" is in a way the English equivalent of this.
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