Tropescilloscope: Stepford Smiler

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

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