History Main / MirrorCrackingUgly

* Used during the musical selection "A Guy Like You" in Disney's ''WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'' after the gargoyles slap a giant 18th Century powder wig on Quasimodo only to find it makes him so ugly he cracks the mirror.

A common comedy trope, especially in western animation, a character's ugliness is frequently conveyed by them smiling into a mirror, and their reflection causes the mirror to crack as a response to the character's ugliness. A type of InformedFlaw sometimes, specially when it's featured in a visual medium.

** In the episode "Beddy Bye", Cosmo, who had temporarily became [[TheGrotesque hideous]] from sleep deprivation, not only cracks Timmy's mirror, he also cracks the Great Wall of China and causes a herd of antelopes far away to stop grazing near the end of the episode when his ugliness reaches its zenith.

A common comedy trope, especially in western animation, a character's ugliness is frequently conveyed by them smiling into a mirror, and the reflection of the mirror cracking as a response to the character's ugliness. A type of InformedFlaw sometimes, specially when it's featured in a visual medium.

A common comedy trope, especially in western animation, a character's ugliness is frequently conveyed by them smiling into a mirror, and the mirror cracking as a result. A type of InformedFlaw sometimes, specially when it's featured in a visual medium.

A common comedy trope, especially in western animation, a character's ugliness is frequently conveyed by his (or her) smiling into a mirror, and the mirror cracks as a result. A type of InformedFlaw sometimes, specially when it's featured in a visual medium.

* In one scene of ''Manga/ShonanJunaiGumi'', [[FaceOFAThug Saejima]] tries to practice his smiling, but the mirror cracks, making him smash it in anger.

* Hogatha's mirror cracks when she inspects herself and sees that she has dry skin in ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'' episode "The Golden Smurf Award".

* ''WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse'': Ben gets a breakout of giant pimples because Swampfire is going through puberty. Rook, under the impression that Charmcaster has cursed Ben, throws salt on him, leading Ben to criticize Rook's belief in superstitions. He then looks in the nearest mirror, which shatters, and asks for more salt.

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* ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'' has this happen when he smiles after brushing his teeth at the beginning of his first movie. Though considering as he prides himself on being disgusting and ugly, he probably [[InsultBackfire takes this as a compliment]].

* Gnorga, the queen of trolls in ''WesternAnimation/ATrollInCentralPark''. During her VillainSong, she passes a series of mirrors, each one cracking to a more severe degree than the last, until she torches the last one before it can crack.

* Done earlier with Mike Myers in ''Film/AustinPowersTheSpyWhoShaggedMe'' when his [[BritishTeeth smile]] caused his rear view mirror to crack.

* A frequently recurring gag with Herman in ''Series/TheMunsters.''
* Same in the sketch comedy ''Series/YouCantDoThatOnTelevision''.

* In ''Series/TheAddamsFamily'', Uncle Fester has this effect on mirrors.

* The witch in the [[WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle Fractured Fairy Tales]] short "The Witch's Broom".

--> '''Medusa''': This is getting ugly. (She notices the mirror has cracked) Oh, who asked you? (Ad break, by next time it's seen, the mirror has formed a spiderweb-like series of cracks)

* Used in an episode of ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}} Hercules: The Animated Series]]'' where a temporarily human Medusa turns back into her gorgon self while the sun sets.

* [[Series/{{Bewitched}} Uncle Arthur]]. Referenced in the unfortunate film version.

* Something of an InformedAttribute in the ''VideoGame/{{Tropico}}'' series of games. One of the attributes you can get is termed, for obvious reasons, "Ugly" with the description "The Mirrors in your house didn't break. ''[[UpToEleven They committed suicide.]]'' When your wife saw you, she screamed and swam across the Atlantic to flee you." In ''Tropico 4'', another addition is made [[CrossesTheLineTwice "The Middle Eastern leaders like your resemblance to a Camel, and thus enjoy meeting you."]] This gives an increase in relations with the Middle East, depending on how ugly you are.

* Used in ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'' episode "Ren's Toothache". First, Ren's teeth are so bad that his smile causes the mirror to shatter. The next day, his teeth are so bad that smiling at the mirror [[InvertedTrope causes his teeth to shatter]].
* Played with in the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "Something Smells". [=SpongeBob=] gets bad breath and is wondering why everyone is avoiding him. Patrick thinks it's because he's ugly, and suggests "the reflection test". [[TheManInTheMirrorTalksBack His reflection]] ''[[TheManInTheMirrorTalksBack breaks the mirror with a hammer]]'' [[TheManInTheMirrorTalksBack to get away from the smell.]]
* The witch in the [[WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle Fractured Fairy Tales]] short "The Witch's Broom".
* Yukk! from ''The Plastic Man Comedy-Adventure Show'' is a dog so ugly he has to wear a house on his head. Not only does he break mirrors (and destroys them so quickly that he's never seen his own face), but he is so ugly that when he uncovers his face, the earth shakes and anything in direct line of sight of his face is destroyed, and anyone catching a glimpse of it screams, passes out, and/or runs away. [[TheFaceless The audience, of course, never sees his face.]]
* Kaz in ''WesternAnimation/HiHiPuffyAmiYumi'' breaks a mirror by looking in it as a result of the girls trying to get him an unsuccessful makeover in "Stupid Cupids".

%%* Lucius in ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes''.
* Wade Duck in "The Ugly Duckling" ComicStrip/USAcres short on ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends''. Orson is telling Booker and Sheldon, two baby chicks, his version of "The Ugly Duckling." When confronting the Wicked Witch of the Wool and she asks "How Ugly Are You?" he answers, "I'm so ugly I need to sneak up on my mirror to shave!" (To prevent the mirror breaking as he could also stop ''a sundial'' with his face.)
* Hogatha's mirror cracks when she inspects herself and sees that she has dry skin in ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'' episode "The Golden Smurf Award".

* Used in an episode of ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}} Hercules: The Animated Series]]'' where a temporarily human Medusa turns back into her Gorgon self while the sun sets.
--> '''Medusa''': This is getting ugly. (She notices the mirror has cracked) Oh, who asked you? (Ad break, by next time it's seen, the mirror has formed a spiderweb-like series of cracks)
* ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'': In "The Hunchback of Nowhere", Eustace says to the titular hunchback, "You've got a face that could crack a ''sink!''"
* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Madballs}}'' episode "Gross Jokes", the scene at the beginning where the Madballs are introduced shows Freakella looking at herself in the mirror and being shocked when it suddenly breaks.
* This trope turns up in the ''WesternAnimation/BumpInTheNight'' episode "Beauty and the Bump" when Mr. Bumpy and friends are discussing ways they can free the antique princess doll from her glass case. Squishington mentions that he once saw Mr. Bumpy's face crack a mirror and proposes that his face can also affect glass. Bumpy figures that using his ugliness to break the glass case is worth a try and proves Squishington's claim of his ugliness breaking mirrors, but after that, his ugliness ends up breaking or melting everything around him except the princess's glass case.
* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'': In ''Senorella and the Glass Hurache'', a Mexican take on the Cinderella story, one of Senorella's mean stepsisters shatters a mirror by grinning into it.

* Every time the Old Witch makes an appearance in ''WesternAnimation/TalesFromTheCryptKeeper'', a mirror breaks. She even broke the TV screen.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Breadwinners}}'' episode "Bad to the Duck Bone", [=SwaySway=] makes himself evil by eating a loaf of Dark Rye. When he looks in a hand mirror, it not only cracks but also [[StuffBlowingUp explodes]].
* The ''WesternAnimation/FilmationsGhostbusters'' episode "The Princess and the Troll" had a handsome prince turned into a troll by the episode's villain to prevent him from marrying his true love Princess Gwendolyn. At one point, the transformed prince looks into a hand mirror and causes it to shatter because of his ugliness.
* A CutawayGag in the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "Save the Clam" depicts a very masculine-looking Creator/KathleenTurner as being this and apologizing to the destroyed mirror frame.
-->'''Turner:''' Sorry. Turns out you were right about me.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheDeputyDawgShow'' used this gag in the episode "Duped Deputy", where Muskie Muskrat, Ty Coon, and Vincent Van Gopher [[TotemPoleTrench stand on top of each other]] to disguise themselves as a criminal named Sid E. Slicker as part of a prank on Deputy Dawg. To test the effectiveness of the disguise, Muskie looks in a mirror and concludes that the disguise will work after the mirror cracks.
* The ''WesternAnimation/CowAndChicken'' episode "The Ugliest Weenie" had Cow write a play about an ugly weenie that ends up becoming a production for the school's drama class, with her brother Chicken in the title role. The play's first musical number makes use of the gag of an ugly person causing a mirror to break by looking at it.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheAddamsFamily1992'':
** There was a gag in the episode "Itt's Over" where Uncle Fester caused a mirror to crack after looking in it while his brother Gomez was trying to cut his newly growing hair.
** In "Little Big Thing", Granny Frump is stubborn about getting glasses and claims that she doesn't need them because she looks better without them, a point she finds proven when a mirror she's looking in shatters after she's removed one of the pairs she's trying on.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS8E18YakitySax Yakity Sax]]", Rarity tries reversing a depressed Pinkie Pie's ColorFailure with her makeup. Pinkie sneezes the makeup off, and looks even worse than before, shattering Rarity's mirror.

* Used in the ''[[Film/TheThreeStooges Three Stooges]]'' short "Gypped in the Penthouse" -- Larry, wondering if he really is ''that'' ugly (after stopping a clock by looking at it), asks "Mirror Mirror on the Wall, Who's the FairestOfThemAll?" and it promptly shatters -- "I break more mirrors that way!"

[[caption-width-right:350:From [[Film/TheThreeStooges He breaks more mirrors that way.]]]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAddamsFamily1992'' had a gag in the episode "Itt's Over" where Uncle Fester caused a mirror to crack after looking in it while his brother Gomez was trying to cut his newly growing hair.

* A CutawayGag in the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "Save the Clam" depicts Creator/KathleenTurner as being this.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'' provides the page image at the beginning of his first movie. Though considering as he prides himself on being disgusting and ugly, he probably [[InsultBackfire takes this as a compliment]].

* Used during the musical selection "A Guy Like You" in Disney's ''Disney/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'' after the gargoyles slap a giant 18th Century powder wig on Quasimodo only to find it makes him so ugly he cracks the mirror.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Breadwinners}}'' episode "Bad to the Duck Bone", [=SwaySway=] makes himself evil by eating a loaf of Dark Rye. When he looks in a hand mirror it not only cracks but also [[StuffBlowingUp explodes]].

* Used in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow''. First, Ren's teeth are so bad that his smile causes the mirror to shatter. The next day, his teeth are so bad that smiling at the mirror [[InvertedTrope causes his teeth to shatter]].