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{{trope}}
[[File:Stepford Smiler 9727.jpg|link=The Stepford Wives (2004 film)|frame|
{{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 the Air|They can't help it!]] She's [[Mary Poppins|practically perfect in every way.]] The '''Stepford Smiler''' is much like [[Purity Sue]]: she's bright, chipper, and an all-around pleasant person to be with.
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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]].
* '''
* '''Insane Type''': The smile [[Cute and Psycho|hides a very unstable and crazy person]].▼
▲'''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
Scared yet? It gets worse.
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The Stepford Smiler gets her name (as does the [[Stepford Suburbia]] in which she lives) from the book and later movies ''[[The Stepford Wives]]'', about a village whose men conspire to create the Barbie perfect wife, all with similar eerie smiles.
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 '''Stepford Smiler''', and the [[Stepford Snarker]], whose motives are the same, but whose mask is made of [[Deadpan Snarker|snark]] rather than smiles. The [[Crap Saccharine World]] is basically this trope upscaled to a much bigger setting.
Contrast [[Drama Queen]].
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== Female Examples ==
* 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.
* ''[[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]]''.
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** 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 as We Know It]], her one true love was revealed to be {{spoiler|the [[Big Bad]] of the series and a subordinate of Kunzite}} before dying {{spoiler|''at her own hands''}}, received a prediction she'd never find love due herself chosing duty over it, and renounced her dream of becoming an idol... And yet, as she returns to Tokyo she smiles cheerfully.
* Seras Victoria from ''[[Hellsing]]''. She's unnaturally cheerful and goofy for someone who's had all of her police partners killed, being nearly raped and killed by a vampire and then is actually turned into one. That's just the first volume/episode. Also [[spoiler:her parents were killed in front of her and her mother was raped. [[Necrophilia|In]] that order. The manga was a bit more subtle about her being a Stepford Smiler but the OVA series comes right out and says it.
* {{spoiler|Himawari Kunogi}} from ''[[
* Most of the members of the "Scratch" cult in ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]''. Faye's smile while talking about getting rid of her debts by getting rid of her body is especially unsettling...
* 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.
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* 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 Depressed Type from the first chapter of the Initial Conflict arc of ''[[Kyon: Big Damn Hero]]''.
* From ''[[One Piece: Parallel Works]]'', we have Daisuke Saburo, a Depressed Type. He's an [[Idiot Hero]]/[[Fun Personified]] teenager who seems to be always smiling and having fun. Then came the [[Wham! Episode|Project Mei Arc]] and the revelation of his [[Backstory]] and how he met {{spoiler|Yulia}} when she {{spoiler|killed his grandmother and was involved in a huge ransacking of his home island}}.
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** 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.
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* 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.
* 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.
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* 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|house}} in ''[[House of Leaves]]'' was to get closer to his family, including his Stepford Smiler wife, Karen Green.
* Lilith de Tempscire from ''[[Discworld]]'' is a variant of a Stepford Smiler. In Lilith's mind, life should be just like a storybook. {{spoiler|As the witch in charge, politically, in the city of Genua,}} she likes things to be the way people expect them to
* 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.
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* Also by King, Harold from ''[[The Stand]]'' becomes this.
* Erzebet Bizecka of Alisa Libby's ''Blood Confession'' is an Insane Type. She's a charming and beautiful young lady who's doing an excellent job at leading her country out of difficult times. Not to mention how kind she is to her servants. Of course, that's just a plot to get them into her dungeon where she kills them and [[Blood Bath|bathes in their blood]] to preserve her youth and beauty.
* 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 Depressed Type (though she was originally written as [[The Grotesque]], Dickens switched gears and made her a tragic figure who shields herself behind laughs, even at her own expense.)
* Glinda from ''[[Wicked (novel)|Wicked]]'' is essentially this. As such a high and mighty political figure she must keep a happy facade. Made even worse when her best friend, who happens to be the person she loves, is killed. She must act as if she ''hates'' her and tell pitiful lies about her. It's debatable if the musical or book version has it worse.
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** {{spoiler|Flora Baumbach is}} a pure Depressed Type {{spoiler|who smiles constantly to hide the pain from her husband leaving her and her daughter dying}}.
=== [[Live
* ''[[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.
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* 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]].}}
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* ''[[Game X Rush]]'' has smiling, laughing, charming Yuuki, who's hiding a treasure-trove of Capital-I-Issues in his head. Memori reflects that ''"Even a face laced with a tiny bit of pain... is a thousand times better than seeing that mask."'' It's implied that a large part of Yuuki's impetuous to stay around Memori is that Memori can discern the real smiles from Yuki just being a [[Sad Clown]].
* {{spoiler|Sasame}} from ''[[Prétear]]'' is an example of this in both the manga and anime, but particularly the anime. Outwardly he's jovial and flirty, as well as [[Big Brother Mentor|always willing to be a listening ear to anyone who has problems]]—while keeping his own problems a secret. {{spoiler|Inwardly, he suffers [[Failure Knight|from an extreme amount of guilt and anger]] over Takako becoming a [[Dark Magical Girl]], because he was in love with her but kept silent. The manga only briefly touches on this, but in the anime he becomes so obsessed with Takako that he performs a [[Face Heel Turn]] so he can stay by her side.}} Until [[The Reveal]], ''nobody'' catches on, even when has brief moments of his mask slipping.
* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima
* The titular ''[[Hayate the Combat Butler]]''. Recent chapters/episodes have implied that his kindness and decency are coping mechanisms he developed to cope with the harsh, nay, downright vicious realities of his life rather than his fundamental personality.
* Certain chapters and episodes of ''[[
* ''[[Durarara!!]]'': {{spoiler|Kida}} is not naturally that cheerful — it's a front he puts up for Mikado's sake.
* [[Iron Woobie|Tragically enough,]] {{spoiler|Zero}} of ''[[Kurohime]]'' has been a Depressed Type since the beginning of the manga.
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* Miroku from ''[[Inuyasha]]'' is a Depressed Type as well. He's cursed with a [[Weapons That Suck|miniature black hole]] in his right hand that's constantly expanding and [[Superpower Meltdown|will eventually consume him along with everything around him]] and tends to hide any worries and fears about it behind a mask of [[Handsome Lech|cheerfulness and lecherousness]].
* Mikael from ''[[Tenshi ni Narumon]]'' is a weird mix of Depressed and Insane Type. {{spoiler|He usually tries to act all calm, cool and composed - like in the first 13 episodes of the series - smiling gently when talking to Noelle and being all nice and polite when dealing with her family. But when his teacher, Raphael showed up, it turned out that Mikael, when indoors, is just a very serious, uptight and insecure boy. And then he went all insane and evil when things didn't go as he planned and ended up just pathetically broken. Fortunately, he got better and returned to his uptight and highly anxious self.}}
* Tetsudo "Poppo" Hisakawa from ''[[
* ''[[Yami no Matsuei]]'': Tsuzuki appears cheerful and childish, but in fact is a [[The Woobie|woobie]] with many issues.
* Shouma Takakura from ''[[Mawaru Penguindrum]]'' is a male [[Yamato Nadeshiko]], but [http://ninteenpointzerofour.wordpress.com/2011/07/24/spinning-penguin-drum-novel-chapter-1/ in the novels] he describes himself as a textbook Empty Type.
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** 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
* Zirah, from ''[[The Sacred and the Profane]]''.
{{quote|"He won't stop crying."
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* ''[[Invader Zim]]'' fanfics about [[Cheerful Child|Keef]] are pretty rare, but those that exist often portray him as having neglectful of abusive parents. Given [[Jhonen Vasquez]]' style, this is entirely plausible (compare ''[[Squee]],'' for example.)
* [[Harry Potter (novel)|Draco Malfoy]] often gets this treatment in sympathetic fics that don't actually [[Draco in Leather Pants|put leather pants on him.]] I.e., he's spent his whole life trying to be what his father expects him to be and has no idea what he is. More of a Stepford ''Smirker'', of course, but it's entirely possible he does smile at people who aren't Harry Potter and his friends; we'd never know.
* 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: Friendship Is Magic]]'', he's generally portrayed as being a Depressed Type or B for one reason or another. Hinted at in the example below, from the heretofore-unfinished shipfic "Like I Imagined":
{{quote|Applejack glanced at her friend. "Usually he's just all plain an' sleepy-like, but sometimes he gets this look on his face like..."
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** 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."
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* Bryce from ''[[Flipped]]'' comes off as an Empty Type to [[Love Interest|Juli]]'s family, but is really a Depressed Type who hides how ''repressed'' he is exceedingly well.
=== [[Live
* ''[[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, [[Momma's Boy]] [[Nerd]] who writes crappy poetry, who overcompensates for his nerdiness by acting like a big time vampire. This was most notably shown in his origin episode, which contrasted Spike's boastful tales of past exploits with flashbacks that reveal how lame he used to be, right down to revealing that his nickname "William the Bloody" originally referred to his "bloody awful poetry."
*** 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.
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** 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.
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* Outside of the ones that act fairly emotionless, many Contractors are like this in ''[[Darker than Black]]''. November 11 and Amber are a good illustration, as their cheerfulness seems to be inversely proportional to their sincerity.
===
* 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).
=== Film ===
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* Vincent and Carrie Raymond (in Geoph Essex's ''Lovely Assistant'') are astonishingly warm and cheerful [[The Beautiful Elite|Beautiful People]], {{spoiler|though their plans to summon a galaxy-sized monster and destroy the world places them squarely as Insane Type Stepford Smilers}}. Jenny even thinks about the Stepford effect by name.
* ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]''
** [[Harry Potter/Characters/Muggles|Petunia Dursley]] is a fine example of the sort who initially seems to ''be'' her mask. ''[[
** [[Complete Monster|Dolores]] [[Harry Potter/Characters/Ministry of Magic|Umbridge]]. Part of the reason this character is so effective is that she wraps her sadism and violence in an unnerving Stepford mask.
** [[Harry Potter/Characters/Hogwarts Students|Luna Lovegood]] is a Depressed Type played straight. She's an [[Iron Woobie]] who is bullied viciously for her eccentric personality, and she didn't have any friends until she was a teenager. But despite this pain she is still happy and cheerful...''[[Beneath the Mask|on the outside]]''.
*** Luna could also be a subversion, if her serene personality is completely genuine.
** Xenophilius Lovegood puts on a Depressed Type act in ''[[
* Almost the entire main cast of Jodi Picoult's ''Nineteen minutes'' (Barring Peter, Jordan and possibly Patrick)
** [[The Woobie|Josie]] is a Depressed Type, pretending to be the perfect Golden girl whilst simultaneously having to put up with an abusive boyfriend, neglectful mother and niggling suspicion that if she stops smiling for even a second, everyone will realize she's nothing special.
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=== 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).
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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 [[Queen]]), females (i.e.: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXtDm08xFag Dolly Parton]) and both [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP8xff2X46A The Platters], who had four male singers and a female)
* The song "Shallow" by [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dYk_9R8yPs Poets of the Fall] could be the Empty Type Smiler's Anthem.
* The [[Rise Against]] song "The Approaching Curve" is about a relationship built around this trope by both sides; the relationship is falling apart, but according to the lyrics "They'll remember, only our smiles 'cause that's all they've seen. Long since dried, when we are found, are the tears in which we had drowned..." Overall, it makes the song about a tough breakup even sadder than it was before.
* "Go Away" by Delain is a [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]] to a Depressed Type, a person who puts all their effort into putting on an act instead of solving their problems.
* 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 ===
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==== [[Visual Novels]] ====
* In ''[[A Profile]]'', Masayuki is implied to be one for a time, but it turns out to be untrue and that he really has simply changed, mostly for the better. {{spoiler|Miou, on the other hand, is pretty emotionally damaged inside.}}
* It's strongly implied that [[Clannad (visual novel)||Nagisa Furukawa's parents]], Akio and Sanae, at least partially fake their [[Adult Child]]ren behaviors. They ''are'' genuinely loving and sweet persons, but they hide their own worries and sad thoughts to keep their very frail [[Ill Girl]] daughter happy, in an attempt to make up for having neglected her a lot as a little girl. {{spoiler|It's confirmed in ''After Story'', where Sanae tries to cheer up Tomoya by acting like a [[Manic Pixie Dream Girl]], but can't keep up and finally cries and lets herself grieve for the deceased Nagisa.}}
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* [[Playing with a Trope|Played straight]] and [[Zig-Zagging Trope|zig-zagged]] with ''Kaeloo'', who is somewhere between types. [[Once an Episode|Time to time]], her bottled up emotions actually change her physically into a [[Hulking Out|hulking monster]], the actions of whom seem [[And I Must Scream|beyond her conscious control]]. The falsity of her "cheerful" nature is often highlighted when she pushes back signs of anger with a huge, obviously forced, painful-looking smile. This counts as a mixed-gender example due to the canonical confirmation of the character being a [[Hermaphrodite|Sequential Hermaphrodite]].
=== 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 Empty Type.
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* 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 of the Insane Type
** 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 [[wikipedia:The Secret (book)|The Secret]] (and other similar Positive Thinking ideologies) can end up being
** 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 Empty Type
* A "stiff upper lip" is in a way the English equivalent of this.
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