Punched Across the Room in 3... 2... 1...
A Stock Pose about a physically-forced smile. This takes on 2 forms:
- A character uses their hands to force another character's mouth into a smile. In this case, it's usually done to a character that does not smile much if at all, by a character that desires to see them smile. Or by the Keet cast member to someone who's down.
- A character uses their own hands to push their mouth into a smile. This can mean that the character is forcing themselves to smile, which may imply that they're emotionally repressed/cannot express emotions normally.
Depending on the outcome, this can lead to either When She Smiles or The Un-Smile.
Compare and contrast Happiness Is Mandatory when smiles are forced in an industrialized way with much darker intentions. Rubber Face is when a character stretches out another's face comically, not necessarily into a smile. Subtrope of Technically a Smile. See also How About a Smile? for when a character can only get what they want by smiling.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You: Nano and Momiji give these to each other in Chapter 102 while undergoing maid training due to being unable to smile on their own.
- Darker than Black:
- When the Emotionless Girl companion of the main character wants to get emotions across she puts her fingers to the corners of her mouth to
◊ "make" herself smile. Because of the specific Emotionless Girl trope appeal, this was considered adorable.
- July makes himself smile this way too. It's not as cute. It is, however, hilarious.
- When the Emotionless Girl companion of the main character wants to get emotions across she puts her fingers to the corners of her mouth to
- In the second season of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, a flashback shows a young girl who's just become a full-body cyborg after a plane crash. A doctor tries to "help" her smile this way (presumably assuming she hasn't worked out how to smile), but she waves him off (which is the first hint she's The Major and an even more subtle clue that the boy she's being introduced to's Kuze).
- Komi Can't Communicate: The titular protagonist does this a couple times to calm down a crying baby. Justified because she doesn't emote her expressions much, and when she tries to smile normally she actually scares the baby.
- My Hero Academia:
- Nana did this to Toshinori as part of her showing him how to become the Symbol of Peace: if he smiles while helping people, he can instill the feeling that everything will be alright.
- Eri can't make herself properly smile, even while tugging her own cheeks, after being rescued from Overhaul, as she's still haunted by his cruelty toward her.
- In Pokémon Journeys: The Series, Marnie does it after her battle with Ash. See also her entry on the Video Games folder below.
- The Quintessential Quintuplets: The cover of Volume 10 shows Yotsuba using her fingers to pull her mouth into a painfully forced smile. This falls into the second type, since she's trying to hide her pain over feeling unworthy of pursuing the guy she loves.
- In the finale of Smile PreCure!, Candy does this to Miyuki and asks her to smile for her one last time.
- In Violet Evergarden, Violet herself does it when the client she's writing love letters for becomes a bit concerned by her lack of emotion. You can see it here.
- In the Recort arc of Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-, Fai does this to Kurogane, explaining that otherwise he doesn't look "trustworthy." After all, they're trying to steal a valuable book from a heavily-guarded library.
Comic Books
- Batman Superman 2013: The "selfie" alternate cover of issue #14. Supes is making the Bat smile.
- Paranoia: Enforced in issue #2, when King is given a "Count-Your-Blessings Intensive Therapy Device". This is a small robot hat with hooks that grab the corners of his mouth; whenever it detects that King is unhappy, it pulls the corners into an ever-widening grin.
Fan Works
- Adventures of a Line Hopper: In Green-Eyed Monster, when denying that she is upset about Jenny innocently revealing that she doesn't know how her own ship actually works, Seo spreads her already-forced smile with her hands.
Films — Animation
- Beauty and the Beast: During the song "Gaston", LeFou tries to make Gaston smile with his fingers and gets Punched Across the Room.
- Happens to the Mayor of Whoville in Horton Hears a Who after his concerns of the microscopic society's safety are dismissed by the councilmen.
- Inside Out 2: Joy does this to Sadness while she was crying on the ground.
Joy: Look at Sadness, she's having a great time!
- Osmosis Jones: Osmosis does it repeatedly to Da Chief after he gives him a second chance to redeem himself.
Films — Live-Action
- In Broken Blossoms, poor sad little Lucy has to do this to appease her brutal, vicious, physically abusive father. As the narration notes, she never had a reason to smile genuinely.
- In the Buster Keaton film Go West, this is how "The Great Stone Face" smiles when he's forced to at gunpoint.
- In Hook, the Lost Boys are poring over the adult Peter and trying to ascertain if he's really the Pan they once knew. Finally, one of them pushes his mouth into a smile.
"There you are, Peter Pan."
- Joker (2019): In the first scene, Arthur Fleck is shown forcing himself to smile in this manner. Later, he tries the same thing on a young Bruce Wayne. The ending has him finally succeeding in making a smile that sticks, but now it's a full-on Broken Smile.
- Smile 2: While looking at herself in the mirror, Skye sees "Lewis's" mutilated corpse holding her mouth into a smile with "his" fingers.
- Tarzan, the Ape Man (1981): Jane asks Tarzan, who doesn't understand English, to smile and very tentatively reaches for his face. He grabs her hands at first but gradually lets her touch him and gently force the corners of his mouth up in a smile. He tolerates this.
- In UHF, George tries to cheer Bob up by making him smile this way, after inadvertently causing them both to lose their jobs at Burger World.
Literature
- A variant in one Shel Silverstein poem, "The Smile Makers" — a giant "[grows] tired of his frowny pout" and hires the narrator and a friend to hold up the corners of his mouth.
That was last year—and we've been here
Sweatin', strainin' all the while.
Sometimes it sure can be hard work
To make somebody smile.
Live-Action TV
- In one Broad City episode, Abbi and Ilana both do this after a stranger on the street tells them to smile. With their middle fingers.
- The Monkees: In "The Christmas Show," Melvin does this when Mike encourages him to smile, as he is seemingly incapable of genuinely smiling.
- In the opening sequence of Punky Brewster, Punky makes Henry smile like this.
- An episode of Star Trek: Voyager had Neelix try to make Tuvok smile in this way. Tuvok's response was to strangle him to death. "Fortunately," it was all a holodeck simulation.
- In an episode of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, London accidentally loses Maddie's broach and then buys her a new one. When Maddie reacts with a Disapproving Look, London simply says "Let's turn that frown upside down" and then moves Maddie's mouth with her hands to make it look like a smile. However, Maddie simply grabs her own mouth and positions it back to its frowny place.
Music
- In Meghan Trainor's All About That Bass, at one point she does this to her Barbie boyfriend.
Newspaper Comics
- Dieting Garfield does this to make himself smile after Jon tells him to cheer up in the September 25, 1989 strip.
- OK, Scientific American is no newspaper, but it fits here best and its Dec 2016 cartoon proves the trope even applies to vaguely anthropomorphic fishes.
- Zits: In one comic, Jeremy responds to Connie suggesting he smile instead of scowl by propping the corners of his mouth up with his fingers.
Professional Wrestling
- While not always used in this manner, the illegal holds known as "fish hooks" can be used this way, and they can cause permanent damage, meaning that smile might last the rest of your life if unlucky (not to be confused with a fisherman's hook, which is a completely different, legal maneuver).
- Gabby Gilbert used said fishhook, as well as involuntary dancing, in an effort to get Mika Iida to smile in REINA.
- In her on going effort to prove she's still a fearsome wrestler, space cadet Mickie Knuckles forces a smile on the largest opponent she could find at a PGWA event, Miss Rachel.
Theme Parks
- At Universal Studios:
- Happens at the end of the first pre-show for Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem, when all three of the girls pull on Gru's mouth to make him smile for the audience.
- An extremely dark variation of this occurs in the 2003 commercial for Universal's Halloween Horror Nights. In the commercial, the icon of that year, The Director, forces a terrified jester to smile by impaling two hooks into each of his cheeks and then pulling said hooks upwards. The jester's real emotions are made very clear when a close-up shot shows a single tear coming out of his eye. Here's the link to the commercial for anyone that's feeling up to watching it.
Video Games
- In Disco Elysium: The Final Cut, adopting the facial expression of a true Kingsman leaves your player character stuck making a Perpetual Frowner glare that - due to the nervous system damage it took to make it - your character can only move with his fingers. You can have him do this to Kim, who comments that you have turned yourself into a 'living mask'.
- Ensemble Stars!: In 1001 Arabian Nights, Kaoru encourages Adonis to smile more often, causing him to self-consciously try to push his lips into a smile. Kaoru notes that, as usual for Clueless Chick-Magnet Adonis, his awkward efforts somehow only make him even more appealing.
- In Guilty Gear -STRIVE-, Bridget does this to hide the pain she gets from being on the receiving end of Faust's Bone-crushing Excitement Overdrive. Judging by her eyes and what she says, it probably wasn't very effective.
Bridget: That hurt, you SON OF A-!
- An optional cutscene in Pokémon Sword and Shield shows Aloof Dark-Haired Girl Marnie practicing a "proper" smile this way in order to show her appreciation to her fans. It's not that smile is insincere, but her usual smile is very small and cute, which isn't easy for the Rotom to catch on camera.
- Wuthering Waves: Sanhua, right-hand bodyguard of Jinzhou's Magistrate Jinhsi, can be seen doing this to herself in her Resonator screen.
Sanhua: I should smile more, you say? Like this?
Visual Novels
- The Fruit of Grisaia: Though we doesn't get to see it, protagonist Yuuji does this to himself in Michiru's route when Yumiko questions him about the frightening expression on his face. Since he was just lost in tought he tries to reassure her this way.
Web Animation
- Alastor does this to another character, Husk, in Hazbin Hotel. This fits in with his characterization of expecting perpetual happiness from those around him, which could also fall under the Happiness Is Mandatory trope.
Webcomics
- Inverted in one Sandra on the Rocks strip, where Sandra, after smiling all day on a modelling gig, goes on a "smile-free dinner" with Pierre.
- In Skin Deep, a lady down the bar buys Ike Sanford a beer, but he's not allowed to drink it unless he smiles first. When Ike looks puzzled, she demonstrates 'smiling' this way.
- Stand Still, Stay Silent: After a certain event that has a good reason to make both of them sad, Tuuri decides to take things in stride, while Lalli settles for the "being constantly sullen" option. While Lalli gets away with it with the other members of the crew, Tuuri won't let it happen on her watch, resulting in forcing him to smile with her fingers.
- In Whomp!, Ronnie once did this by using his feet..
Web Video
- In The Mandela Catalogue Vol. 333, the Alternate that appears near the end to drive Thatcher to suicide has to forcibly morph its face like clay to form a smile, just before it lets out a bout of deranged laughter.
Western Animation
- A variation occurs in an episode of Ed, Edd n Eddy, when Ed puts a wire coat-hanger in his mouth in order to force his mouth into a giant smile.
- Another variation occurs in Billy and Mandy Save Christmas at the end of Mandy's Christmas song and dance distraction towards Vampire Santa. Where at the big finish, both Baron Von Ghoulish, and Grim uses Candy Canes to assist Mandy in smiling at the end, considering that she never smiles.
- In one Looney Tunes cartoon, Sylvester comes face to face with an angry bulldog. Sylvester pushes up the corners of his mouth and his eyebrows to make him look happy and friendly, but the dog just pushes them back down.
- Pinkie Pie sometimes does this to others in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (like to Cranky in "A Friend in Deed"), but in her case it's a hoof forced smile.
- The Owl House: In the episode, "Agony Of A Witch", when Luz gets upset about Eda's curse, Eda uses her fingers to reshape Luz's face into a smile, which just droops back down into an even more depressed-looking face.
- In an episode of Timon & Pumbaa titled "New Guinea Pig", Pumbaa is unhappy with his tusks, and, seeing his best friend unhappy, Timon uses his fingers to prop up Pumbaa's cheeks in an effort to get him to cheer up.
