Tropescilloscope: Stepford Smiler

Happy on the outside. Unhappy on the inside. (read more at tvtropes.org)

More Tropes Adaptational Attractiveness Tap on the Head Toplessness from the Back Victoria's Secret Compartment Funny Background Event Training Montage Cool Old Guy Worthy Opponent Artistic License – Geography Off-into-the-Distance Ending Diabolus ex Machina Jitter Cam Award-Bait Song Anyone Can Die The Hero Dies Gone Horribly Right Rule of Funny Self-Deprecation Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas Too Dumb to Live Historical In-Joke Intrepid Reporter Super Strength Adaptation Dye-Job Wham Shot Mundane Made Awesome Psychological Thriller Jerk Jock Fun with Acronyms The Film of the Book Amoral Attorney Gold Digger Film Noir Author Avatar Big Brother Instinct Rich Bitch Foregone Conclusion What Happened to the Mouse? Cowboy Cop Card-Carrying Villain Noodle Incident Arc Words Double Entendre Fourth Date Marriage World of Ham The Oner The Un-Favourite aka: The Un Favorite Romantic False Lead The Smurfette Principle Truth in Television Dull Surprise Screw This, I'm Outta Here! Narrator Soft Glass Agony of the Feet Kill It with Fire Distracted by the Sexy Country Matters Nice Guy Bavarian Fire Drill Adaptational Heroism No-Holds-Barred Beatdown Brick Joke Extremely Short Timespan Intergenerational Friendship Becoming the Mask Daddy's Girl Parental Incest Frame-Up Establishing Character Moment Mooks There Is No Kill Like Overkill Age Lift Bloodier and Gorier Rule of Three All Girls Want Bad Boys Wrong Genre Savvy Action Girl Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome Hate Sink Asshole Victim Brainless Beauty Only a Flesh Wound Cassandra Truth Antagonist Title Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! 20 Minutes into the Future Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene Mistaken for Gay Gory Discretion Shot Left the Background Music On Foreshadowing Alliterative Name The Ace Eldritch Abomination Slap-Slap-Kiss This Is Gonna Suck Stealth Hi/Bye Straight Gay Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold Manipulative Bastard Unwitting Instigator of Doom Evil Is Hammy Took a Level in Jerkass Friend to All Children Broken Aesop Not So Stoic Half the Man He Used to Be Black and Gray Morality Unresolved Sexual Tension "Well Done, Son!" Guy Informed Ability Evil Plan The Bully Lampshade Hanging Drugs Are Bad Riddle for the Ages Does This Remind You of Anything? Put on a Bus Final Girl Punny Name As the Good Book Says... The Smart Guy Sanity Slippage Military and Warfare Films Mind Screw Flipping the Bird Shell-Shocked Veteran Together in Death Hoist by His Own Petard Motor Mouth Destination Defenestration Wounded Gazelle Gambit Public Domain Feature Films Almost Kiss Bloody Hilarious Male Frontal Nudity Historical-Domain Character Action Genre Sadistic Choice The Lancer Artistic License – Gun Safety Hypocrite Cat Scare Get Out! Empathic Environment All Men Are Perverts From Bad to Worse Reality Is Unrealistic A Minor Kidroduction Defiant to the End A God Am I Police are Useless Neck Lift Groin Attack Hope Spot Not So Different Dramatic Irony Villain Protagonist Meaningful Background Event Our Zombies Are Different Race Against the Clock Drowning My Sorrows Fat Bastard Big Fancy House The Alleged Car Artistic License – Law Darkest Hour Death Glare Gainax Ending Tempting Fate Important Haircut The '90s Big Bad Kick the Son of a Bitch One-Word Title Stepford Smiler Disappeared Dad Hell Is That Noise Action Survivor I Need a Freaking Drink The Great Depression Italian Films Needs Wiki Magic Love Affectionate Parody Improvised Weapon Pretty Little Headshots Dark Is Not Evil Evil-Detecting Dog Would Hurt a Child Kick the Dog Bring My Brown Pants Everyone Has Standards Death by Sex The Power of Love "Shaggy Dog" Story The Stoic Red Shirt No-Sell Bottomless Magazines Mercy Kill Bald of Evil Attempted Rape Dark and Troubled Past Moment Killer Science Fiction Films Dirty Cop Deus ex Machina Wicked Cultured Silent Movie Girl-on-Girl Is Hot Deal with the Devil The Stoner Stock Footage Unspoken Plan Guarantee Title Drop A.I. Is a Crapshoot Film Noir Index Bunny-Ears Lawyer Woman in White Make It Look Like an Accident All Just a Dream Bowdlerise Those Wacky Nazis Obviously Evil The '60s Adults Are Useless He Who Fights Monsters Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer Wretched Hive Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass The Dog Bites Back Last-Name Basis Logo Joke An Arm and a Leg Meet Cute Badass in a Nice Suit Line-of-Sight Name Politically Incorrect Villain Biopic Conspicuous CG Action Prologue Leaning on the Fourth Wall Sealed Evil in a Can Yandere Badass Boast It Can Think Bad "Bad Acting" Woman Scorned The Big Guy Maybe Ever After Bound and Gagged Dissonant Serenity Genre Throwback Beta Couple Kids Are Cruel Ragtag Bunch of Misfits Spiritual Successor From Nobody to Nightmare Music Stories Central Theme You Have Outlived Your Usefulness Ambiguous Disorder Fanservice The Cavalry Would Hit a Girl Shut Up, Hannibal! Freudian Excuse Famous Last Words Camera Abuse Credits Gag Death by Irony Black Best Friend Scary Black Man Whole Plot Reference Take a Third Option More Dakka Slasher Movie Naïve Newcomer My Greatest Failure Exactly What It Says on the Tin An Aesop Shipper on Deck Paper-Thin Disguise Russian Films Parental Substitute Red Oni, Blue Oni Vomit Discretion Shot Film Series Unreliable Narrator Only Sane Man Badass Grandpa Actually Pretty Funny Faux Affably Evil Eagleland Names to Run Away from Really Fast Recycled IN SPACE! Not So Above It All Chase Scene Well-Intentioned Extremist Christmas Movies Index An Axe to Grind Dark Action Girl Betty and Veronica Dirty Old Man The Dreaded Exact Words Manly Tears Visual Pun Does Not Like Shoes The Cameo Vacation Films Face–Heel Turn Bittersweet Ending Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds Evil Counterpart My God, What Have I Done? Deliberate Values Dissonance Chiaroscuro Heel Realization Eureka Moment Big Bad Duumvirate Ominous Latin Chanting Large Ham Smug Snake Abhorrent Admirer Celebrity Paradox Vitriolic Best Buds Getting Crap Past the Radar Love Triangle Catch-Phrase Manchild Sci-Fi Horror Bi the Way Fiery Redhead Dumb Blonde Hollywood Law Thriller Pre-Mortem One-Liner Spared by the Adaptation Hong Kong Films Dressing as the Enemy The Musical Police Brutality Throwing Your Sword Always Works Dramedy Historical Villain Upgrade Failed a Spot Check Jump Scare Works Set in World War II Darker and Edgier Ugly Guy, Hot Wife Stylistic Suck Missing Mom Artistic License – Military Pay Evil unto Evil Dirty Coward Never Trust a Trailer aka: Trailers Always Lie Pimped-Out Dress Very Loosely Based on a True Story Morality Pet Creative Closing Credits Eiffel Tower Effect Ungrateful Bastard Apocalypse How Honor Before Reason The Reveal Fire-Forged Friends As You Know Cat Fight Bond Villain Stupidity Protagonist Title Slashed Throat The Hero Made of Iron Combat Pragmatist Captain Obvious Captain Ersatz Our Vampires Are Different Hooker with a Heart of Gold Off with His Head! Parental Abandonment Loads and Loads of Characters Stealth Pun Same Language Dub No Celebrities Were Harmed Beauty Is Never Tarnished Crapsack World Expy Redshirt Army Knife Nut Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique Sexy Discretion Shot All for Nothing Chekhov's Skill Insane Troll Logic Laughing Mad The Chick Interrupted Suicide Babies Ever After Sinister Minister Body Horror Impaled with Extreme Prejudice Shout-Out Scare Chord Serial Killer Anguished Declaration of Love Insult Backfire Defrosting Ice Queen War Is Hell Downer Ending Red Herring Adaptation Expansion The Sociopath Not Quite Dead Broken Bird Actor Allusion Death Seeker Lighter and Softer French Films Beard of Evil Ambiguous Ending Framing Device And Starring Random Events Plot Mystery and Detective Films Plucky Comic Relief Men Are the Expendable Gender Madness Mantra Soundtrack Dissonance Crucified Hero Shot Adaptation Name Change Enemy Mine timeperiod Cool Guns Only Known by Their Nickname Casting Gag Cool Shades Roaring Rampage of Revenge Star-Crossed Lovers Evil Brit Driven to Suicide Mighty Whitey Dual Wielding Trailers Always Spoil Villain with Good Publicity MacGuffin Bare Your Midriff Rape as Drama Tagline The Mafia Hero of Another Story Pet the Dog Chewing the Scenery One-Man Army Dutch Angle Once More, with Clarity! Sacrificial Lion Screw the Rules, I Have Money! Married to the Job Never Trust a Trailer Insistent Terminology Plot Hole Television Movie Index The '80s Camp Gay Fantasy Films It Will Never Catch On No Name Given Big-Bad Ensemble Reckless Gun Usage Real Life Writes the Plot Faking the Dead '80s Hair Call-Forward Romantic Comedy Index of Film Westerns Eye Scream Book-Ends Shown Their Work Villainous Breakdown Badass Bookworm Mama Bear Armor-Piercing Question Canadian Movies Taking You with Me Zombie Stories Femme Fatale The Ghost Break the Haughty Adorkable Adult Fear The Vamp Arch-Enemy Big Damn Heroes Gilligan Cut Leave the Camera Running Drill Sergeant Nasty Psychopathic Manchild Anti-Hero In the Back Boom, Headshot! Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping Bond One-Liner Irony Why Don't You Just Shoot Him? Crazy Jealous Guy Black Dude Dies First Even Evil Has Loved Ones Bolivian Army Ending British Films Re-Cut Humans Are Bastards Cain and Abel Evil Is Petty Not Using the "Z" Word Heroes Want Redheads Horror Comedy O.O.C. Is Serious Business Anachronic Order Male Gaze May–December Romance I Have Your Wife Race Lift No Antagonist Villain Song Not Even Bothering with the Accent Papa Wolf The Quiet One Guns Akimbo Retirony Alpha Bitch Ms. Fanservice Here We Go Again! Lock and Load Montage Sports Stories Decoy Protagonist Instant Death Bullet Blatant Lies Obfuscating Stupidity Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy Cloudcuckoolander Killed Mid-Sentence For Want of a Nail Daylight Horror Knight Templar Corpsing Cool Old Lady Early-Bird Cameo Grey and Gray Morality Meaningful Echo As Himself Back from the Dead Shower Scene Jerkass Has a Point Jerk with a Heart of Gold A Date with Rosie Palms Five-Man Band German Films Accidental Misnaming Belligerent Sexual Tension Novelization Big "NO!" Even Evil Has Standards Animated Credits Opening Dark Reprise Ambiguously Gay Tranquil Fury Car Fu Disney Death Foil The Bad Guy Wins The Stinger Coming-of-Age Story Nice Job Fixing It, Villain! Curb-Stomp Battle Deadpan Snarker The '50s Gorn Unusually Uninteresting Sight Bar Brawl Hypocritical Humor Translation Convention Blackmail Stalker with a Crush Red Eyes, Take Warning "Awesome McCool" Name Fatal Flaw Pun aka: Incredibly Lame Pun Pyrrhic Victory Despair Event Horizon Contrived Coincidence The X of Y Better to Die than Be Killed Rated M for Manly Shoot the Shaggy Dog Peek-a-Boo Corpse Nothing Is Scarier Creator Cameo Genre Shift Humiliation Conga Badass Normal Word of God Toilet Humour aka: Toilet Humor Neck Snap Silence Is Golden Be Careful What You Wish For Composite Character Blood Knight Skewed Priorities Properly Paranoid Big Applesauce Epic Movie Reality Has No Subtitles Double-Meaning Title Homage Vampire Fiction Brutal Honesty N-Word Privileges Bury Your Gays Chekhov's Gunman Running Gag How We Got Here Not What It Looks Like Beware the Nice Ones Brother–Sister Incest Rewatch Bonus Recap / RiffTrax aka: Riff Trax Movies Handicapped Badass Never My Fault The Mole You Have Got to Be Kidding Me! Death by Adaptation Room Full of Crazy Serious Business Break the Cutie Real Life The End... Or Is It? Sequel Escalation Villain Opening Scene In Name Only Obstructive Bureaucrat Arranged Marriage Refuge in Audacity Chuck Cunningham Syndrome Fate Worse than Death What the Hell, Hero? Token Minority Fantastic Racism Expository Hairstyle Change Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! Affably Evil It's All About Me Red Right Hand Rule of Symbolism I Did What I Had to Do Butt-Monkey Reasonable Authority Figure Twist Ending He Knows Too Much Gender Flip Fan Disservice Spiteful Spit Didn't Think This Through Artistic License – Biology Pre-Asskicking One-Liner NO INDOOR VOICE Sir Swears-a-Lot Black Comedy Comically Missing the Point Sassy Black Woman Adaptational Villainy The Faceless The Alcoholic Green-Eyed Monster Cold-Blooded Torture Precision F-Strike Ripped from the Headlines folderlabel Ascended Extra Hair-Trigger Temper Up to Eleven Dies Wide Open The Atoner Artistic License – History Eyepatch of Power For the Evulz Villain Ball Posthumous Character Evil vs. Evil Curse Cut Short Bait-and-Switch Those Two Bad Guys Time Skip Undying Loyalty Children Are Innocent Death of a Child Heroic BSoD Storming the Castle Gratuitous English All There in the Manual Evil Sounds Deep Bilingual Bonus Extreme Doormat Did Not Get the Girl The Ditz Monumental Damage Show Within a Show Spell My Name with an "S" All There in the Script Fatal Family Photo Cruel and Unusual Death Alas, Poor Villain Anachronism Stew The Brute Implacable Man Your Cheating Heart Disney Villain Death Non-Indicative Name Hero Antagonist Freeze-Frame Bonus Poor Communication Kills Overly Long Gag Dwindling Party Imagine Spot Aside Glance Totally Radical Never Found the Body Genre Savvy Rasputinian Death Let's Get Dangerous! Suddenly SHOUTING! Small Name, Big Ego Setting Update BFG Fish out of Water You Have Failed Me Mood Whiplash Colour-Coded for Your Convenience aka: Color Coded For Your Convenience Dramatic Gun Cock Video Credits Disguised in Drag Man on Fire Blood from the Mouth "The Reason You Suck" Speech You Killed My Father Awesome, but Impractical Annoying Younger Sibling Adaptational Badass Suspiciously Specific Denial Match Cut Costume Porn Artistic License – Physics Ghost Fiction Only One Name Heroic Sacrifice Improbable Infant Survival aka: Infant Immortality Rule of Cool Based on a True Story Call-Back Vomit Indiscretion Shot Deconstruction Unusual Euphemism And the Adventure Continues Funny Foreigner Dropped a Bridge on Him Chekhov's Gun Major Injury Underreaction Retcon Author Appeal Canon Foreigner As Long as It Sounds Foreign No Good Deed Goes Unpunished Documentary Covers Always Lie Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep" Demoted to Extra Character Development Punctuated! For! Emphasis! Superhero Mythology Gag Early Installment Weirdness Dogged Nice Guy Rousing Speech Anti-Villain Those Two Guys Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? Naked People Are Funny Greater-Scope Villain Love at First Sight Hidden Depths La Résistance Spanner in the Works My Beloved Smother Improbable Weapon User Bullying a Dragon Your Head A-Splode Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue Overprotective Dad Mr. Exposition Redemption Equals Death Air-Vent Passageway No Ending Easily Forgiven Kubrick Stare Abusive Parents Breaking the Fourth Wall Bloodless Carnage Sequel Hook Pragmatic Adaptation One Steve Limit Guile Hero It's Personal Karma Houdini Malevolent Masked Men The Voiceless I'm a Humanitarian Corrupt Corporate Executive Really Gets Around Mexican Standoff I Want My Beloved to Be Happy Laser-Guided Karma Hollywood Darkness Parental Neglect Market-Based Title Every Car Is a Pinto In Medias Res Henpecked Husband Fanservice Extra Catapult Nightmare The Starscream Advertised Extra The Chessmaster Australian Movies Loophole Abuse Face Death with Dignity Four-Temperament Ensemble Danny Peary Cult Movies List What You Are in the Dark Earn Your Happy Ending The Casanova Older Than They Look Roger Ebert: Great Movies List Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism Have a Gay Old Time Badass Longcoat Cluster F-Bomb Animal Motifs Wham Line Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking Broken Pedestal Deliberately Monochrome Ship Tease Closed Circle Grievous Bottley Harm She's Got Legs Facial Horror Bitch in Sheep's Clothing Adaptation Distillation Ass Shove Accidental Murder Japanese Films Oh, Crap! Suspiciously Similar Substitute The Un-Reveal The Place A Father to His Men Evil Cannot Comprehend Good Determinator And I Must Scream Ax-Crazy Product Placement Animal Title Index Leitmotif Blonde, Brunette, Redhead Made of Explodium Domestic Abuse Continuity Nod Disproportionate Retribution Martial Arts Movie Karmic Death The Remake Amusing Injuries Manic Pixie Dream Girl Nice Hat Depraved Bisexual Berserk Button Jerkass Heterosexual Life-Partners Psycho for Hire Retired Badass Punch-Clock Villain The Lost Lenore Damsel in Distress The Load Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other True Companions Adapted Out Horror Films Developing Doomed Characters Flashback Kill 'em All I Just Shot Marvin in the Face Batman Gambit Epic Fail Only in It for the Money Fingore Fake Shemp Heel–Face Turn Fainting Offscreen Teleportation Due to the Dead No OSHA Compliance Bad Boss Scenery Porn The Dragon Take That! Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday Demonic Possession Stuff Blowing Up Sole Survivor Bland-Name Product Meaningful Name Smoking Is Cool Aluminum Christmas Trees Drives Like Crazy Immune to Bullets Idiot Ball Light Is Not Good Big Eater Outrun the Fireball B-Movie Authority Equals Asskicking Happily Married Mr. Fanservice Historical Hero Upgrade She Cleans Up Nicely Screw the Money, I Have Rules! Pragmatic Villainy Calling the Old Man Out Pretty in Mink Playing Gertrude Determinator aka: The Determinator Creepy Child Mad Scientist Shirtless Scene Cool Car Say My Name Offscreen Moment of Awesome Good Is Not Nice Dying Moment of Awesome Mugging the Monster Taking the Bullet Slasher Smile Crazy-Prepared Reality Ensues Took a Level in Badass Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil The '70s Department of Redundancy Department Improbable Aiming Skills Auto Erotica Ironic Echo Scenery Gorn Black Comedy Rape Revenge After the End Evil Laugh