Wipe That Smile Off Your Face: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

Related to [[Eyeless Face]] and [[The Noseless]]. Not quite as catastrophic as [[And I Must Scream]] (no actions or communication.) Compare with [[No Mouth]], an animation style where characters are drawn without mouths.

{{examples}}

* An ad for Hardee's (and Carl's Jr.) depicts a robot unwrapping a sandwich from the sponsor, putting it to his face and recognizing that he has no mouth. Slogan: Machines can't eat them. They shouldn't make them.

** A [[Tear Jerker|sad]] [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop]] if ever there was one.

** In the 2009 [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=496KHT8wqCM Jessica Alba's The Muzzler] [[Jessica Alba]] is shown as a sleazy telemarketer selling ''The Muzzler'', an [[Hannibal Lecter]] like mask able to silence young voters, preventing them from having to express their opinions. [[Hayden Panettiere]] shows up in a cutesy [[Princesses Prefer Pink|Pink dress]], mumbling and moaning that she liked so much the idea of being stripped of the responsibilty to vote that she got her mask ''surgically implanted''.

 

* Happens in book 26 of ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'', when a captive Anya is loudly protesting whatever Fate is doing to Asuna, and Homura makes a swift gesture with a finger, resulting in Anya's mouth closing like a zipper.

 

* The mutant Chamber in [[Marvel Comics]] blew off his entire lower face when his powers manifested. Technically, he can't even speak -- he talks telepathically, with a [[Funetik Aksent]].

* Arseface, from ''[[Preacher (Comic Book)]]'', was a teenage boy who tried to kill himself, in imitation of Kurt Cobain, by shooting himself in the face with a shotgun. It didn't work. He was left with a giant gaping hole instead of a mouth. {{spoiler|He eventually goes on to become a world famous rock star.}} Based on the real-life botched suicide of James Vance, although that was allegedly due to hearing subliminal messages in [[Judas Priest]] songs.

* ''[[New Mutants]]'' #21: Trista, a mutant who can control the behaviour of others just by [[Compelling Voice|speaking to them]], has her mouth magically sealed by an arcane device operated by Doug Ramsey.

* ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|Uncanny X-men]]'' #191: Selene (who is [[Lie to the Beholder|actually Magma]]) has her mouth erased by [[Evil Sorcerer|Kulan Gath]] so as to hinder her ability to cast spells.

 

* ''[[Spirited Away]]'': Yubaba seals Chihiro's mouth shut with a "zipping up" motion of her hand.

 

== Films -- Live-Action ==

* Toward the end of ''[[Beetlejuice]]'', when Barbara tries speaking three time the name of the eponymous ghost to banish him back, Beetlejuice uses his [[Reality Warper]] powers to cover her lips with a zipper. However, she just opens it up and manages another "Beetlejuice". Now truly annoyed, Beetlejuice conjure a metal plate to completely shut her mouth.

* In ''[[X Men Origins: Wolverine|X Men Origins Wolverine]]'', Striker {{spoiler|finally finds a way to shut Wade up}} by first sewing, and in the finished version, plastering his mouth shut. {{spoiler|[[The Stinger]] shows the decapitation/fall of the head somehow opened it again.}}

* ''[[Warlock (film)|Warlock]] the Armageddon'': The Warlock pays an unscheduled visit to an office building to retrieve a magical artifact. When the front desk receptionist challenges his right to enter, he puts an end to the conversation by [[Reality Warper|causing flesh to grow over her mouth]]. Later he mentions the fate of the poor woman to her employer: “[[Bond One-Liner|She’s looking for a new opening.]]”

 

* The last sentence of the [[Paul Jennings]] story ''Santa Claws'' has one of the characters utter "[[Be Careful What You Wish For|I wish you didn't have]] [[Literal Genie|such a big mouth.]]"

* In ''[[Perdido Street Station]]'', there is an ex-con described who because he wouldn't rat on his associates, was "Remade" without a mouth. In order to eat, he cut a hole into his face.

 

* ''[[CSI New York]]'': One of the more disturbing [[Victim of the Week|victims]] was a man who had his jaw blasted off by an exploding cigar.

* ''[[The X-Files]]'', episode "Je Souhaite", where a [[Literal Genie]] is passed around. One man wishes another man would "shut up". You know what happens...

{{quote|'''Ethan:''' Beldorf, give him his mouth back.

'''Conner:''' Can he wait til after midterms? }}

* "[[The Fades]]": Paul causes his sister Anna's lips to fuse together when she rudely interrupts a kiss between Paul and Jay.

 

* ''[[Unknown Armies]]'': A signature Epideromancer attack. One spell allows the caster to manipulate an area of flesh roughly the size of one's palm. Its most common use in canon is to seal a victim's mouth and nose shut. Have we mentioned it's a horror game? Have we mentioned that Epideromancy is freely available (beyond the craziness and sadism required to get magic power from self-mutilation) to player characters?

 

* ''[[Clive Barker's Undying]]'': Tiring of her brother's smart-aleck comments, Bethany {{spoiler|chained up Aaron in a dungeon and ripped off his jaw before leaving him to be ''flensed alive by rats'', then hid it in her cottage! The [[Player Character|PC]], while being repeatedly attacked by hoards of things sicced on him by the tormented Aaron, must find the jaw, [[Violation of Common Sense|break into the dungeon Aaron is chained up in, and place it back on Aaron's corpse]]}}.

* In ''[[Legacy of Kain]]: [[Soul Reaver]]'', Raziel's lower jaw is one of the many casualties of his time spent dissolving in the Abyss. [[Fridge Logic|Oddly enough, this in no way hinders his ability to speak]]. Given his status as a spectral ghoul capable of shifting between the worlds of the living and the dead, the superfluous nature of all his internal organs given his missing abdomen and the many reality-defying powers he has, his jaw-deficit Shakespearian elocution is a fairly minor facet of his abilities.

** In Crazy 8/No-Face's backstory, in addition to his tongue and eyes being excised, his mouth was also sewn shut.

 

* In ''[[Kagerou]]'', this happens to Tcaolin and Tonbo (her current host) when they are captured, and even once they split Tonbo stays like this a while until Tcaolin shows up later and returns Tonbo's speech, which leads to a [[Moment of Awesome]]:

{{quote|'''Tonbo:''' [http://www.electric-manga.com/26/16.html G-Go f-fuck yourself... M-My lady.]}}

 

* The "motorcycle" [[Shock Site]] image, in which a man apparently blew off most of his face with a shotgun in a [[Bungled Suicide]].

* In ''Violent Sky'', a [[Knife Nut]] agent "silences" [[The Genius]] of the protagonist's side by stabbing her in the back of the head and cutting a nerve for expressing thoughts. but not brain dead The victim is later implanted with an AI who's meant to impose her until her body dies of old age. Her nerve self healed by luck later.

 

* In ''[[Duck Dodgers]] and the Return of the 24½th Century'', Dodgers demands that Eager Young Space Cadet Porky perform the [[Trope Namer]]. He does so [[The Faceless|rather literally.]]

* ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]''

* ''[[I Am Weasel]]'': Baboon's hand becomes magical and he makes wishes with his hand. Near the end, Weasel gets fed up with the wishes he makes, he wishes Baboon to shut up and, before Baboon can make another wish, his mouth disappears.

* ''[[House of Mouse]]'': "Congratulations, you would like to: Pay your bill."

* ''[[The Superhero Squad Show]]'': In the episode “the Fate of Destiny!” Nebula has her mouth sealed by the [[A God Am I|Infinity Gauntlet-wielding Thanos]]. Thanos grants Nebula’s [[Be Careful What You Wish For|wish]] to have a gag removed from her mouth by magically removing the mouth from her face. She escapes his clutches and, still sans mouth, returns in a later episode, “When Strikes the Surfer!" where she has her face restored to normality by Molecule Man.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Otherness Tropes]]

[[Category:Smile Tropes]]