Tropescilloscope: Stepford Smiler

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

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