History Main / BrokenSmile

* In the 1999 film adaption of ''Literature/{{TheCiderHouseRules}}'': This is Arthur's reaction when Homer asks him if he's been sleeping with his own daughter.

* In the 1999 film adaption of ''Literature/{{Cider House Rules}}'': This is Arthur's reaction when Homer asks him if he's been sleeping with his own daughter.

* ''Film/{{Cider House Rules}}'': This is Arthur's reaction when Homer asks him if he's been sleeping with his own daughter.

* ''Film/{{CiderHouseRules}}'': This is Arthur's reaction when Homer asks him if he's been sleeping with his own daughter.

* ''Anime/KareKano'':One day, Yukino’s two younger sisters are walking home from school. One suggests to the other that they may be being followed. They both turn around at the same time to barely catch a silhouette stop and retreat behind a wall. Cut to the two of them nervously smiling at what they just saw.

Something snaps inside her head; she gets HiddenEyes, and her smile suddenly becomes frozen and forced, with teeth grinding in a rictus of a CheshireCatGrin... [[SlasherSmile or worse]]. The smile is only still there because the sheer shock has prevented any new expression from reaching her face. A deer in the headlights of a sixteen wheel semi has a similar expression. She may develop a {{twitchy eye}}.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' did this, too, with Tahno. Normally a textbook SmugSnake, [[BigBad Amon]] [[{{Depower}} takes away his bending]], putting him into a massive [[VillainousBSOD [=BSOD=]]]. When he meets up with Korra again, he puts on a BrokenSmile and, rather meekly, says "[[CallBack See you around, Avatar]]."

* ''WesternAnimation/The7D'' has Happy give one of these. The incident occurs when [[JerkVictim Little]] [[TheThingThatWouldNotLeave Red]] [[BlatantLies Riding]] [[ImplausibleDeniability Hood]] seeks help from the Seven D after allegedly being chased through the woods by three bears "for no reason at all." They allow her to stay and she quickly makes herself at home. She ravenously eats everything at the dinner table, acts reckless and deliberately breaks the things they own. Each time one of the men insists that she leave, its Happy who defends her and pleads with them to give her another chance. This continues until she breaks Happy's guitar. Cue this trope. Happy's smile remains intact [[StepfordSmiler as always]] but his body visibly shakes for a few seconds before deciding that she has to leave. For anyone familiar with the character, it can come off as pretty creepy.

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** In one court section of ''VisualNovel/ProfessorLaytonVSAceAttorney'', [[spoiler: Kira]] laughs and smiles maniacal when she starts losing it [[spoiler: knowing that Phoenix keeps getting closer and closer to exposing her murder tricks, aibiet without a concrete evidence.]] [[SuddenlyVoiced Her voice acting]] pins it home how broken she's become.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''Webcomics/NerfNow''; this is the expression the Trainer controlled by [[LetsPlay/TwitchPlaysPokemon the masses of the internet]] wears in ''[[http://www.nerfnow.com/comic/1230 Twitch Plays Pokemon.]]''

* In ''PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', Sayaka has one right before [[spoiler:she becomes a witch.]]

-->'''Sayaka:''' [[spoiler:I'm really stupid.]]

* Erwin Smith from ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' sports one of these, when it's revealed that [[spoiler: the Titans once were humans]]. He also has a huge reason for that: [[spoiler: his father had already guessed it and [[HeKnowstooMuch was executed for such reasons]]; basically, the recent discovery ''proved Erwin's dad right all along''.]]

** It also occurs in ''End of Evangelion'' with [[spoiler:[[https://qph.is.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-38d3bbf357303fcaa3cc6dd60d6ff8cd?convert_to_webp=true Shinji]] after Asuka is "killed"]].
%%** [[http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/3226/shinjiheadshot.jpg Shinji's pretty good at them, too.]]

** Kaneki also sports one while crying when he's telling his hallucination of his best friend Hide and his maternal figure Akira that he's lonely.

[[quoteright:350:[[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/brokensmile350_4457.png]]]]

* ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' 's normally perky (in [[GagBoobs more ways]] [[{{Gainaxing}} than one]]) April May gets this along with a TwitchyEye periodically during the first game's second trial, usually when confronted with a contradiction in her testimony. [[spoiler: Her full breakdown causes her to lose the smile entirely.]]

Any StepfordSmiler worth her immaculately groomed PowerHair has a smile capable of withstanding a nuclear blast worth of shocking [[TheReveal revelations]] with amazing DissonantSerenity. Anything and everything could happen, the president is assassinated, the detective finds the basement graveyard, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the in-laws visit unexpectedly]], and still the smile stands. Then there are times when that perpetual and creepy smile... breaks. Maybe the cookies got burnt, a lock of her hair has fallen out of place, or her perfectly manicured family just did something dreadfully embarrassing in public. The point is, it's [[RantInducingSlight the last straw]] and her smile, like her composure, has been [[BreakTheCutie shattered]] into so many pieces archaeologists will be puzzling it out for millennia.

* Shown above is Asuka in ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' after [[spoiler: she walks in on what should be the happiest day of her life so far, with what she believes to be [[WellDoneSonGuy proof she is a worthy daughter.]] Only to find that her mother has committed "murder"-suicide, hanging herself with a doll of Asuka.]]

* Gamzee in ''{{Brainbent}}'' has a particularly [[{{Tearjerker}} heartbreaking]] one when he thinks he's made Sollux hate him. He's a bit of a type-a StepfordSmiler overall, depressingly enough.

Something snaps inside her head; she gets HiddenEyes, and her smile suddenly becomes frozen and forced, with teeth grinding in a rictus of a CheshireCatGrin... [[SlasherSmile or worse]]. The smile is only still there because the sheer shock has prevented any new expression from reaching her face. A deer in the headlights of a sixteen wheel semi has a similar expression. She may develop a [[TwitchyEye twitching eyelid]].

* [[Webcomic/BittersweetCandyBowl Lucy]], along with DissonantLaughter, [[spoiler:when she thinks [[LoveInterest Mike]] died.]]