History Main / MustMakeHerLaugh

->''Remember how I found you there,\\
Alone in your electric chair?\\
I told you dirty jokes until you smiled\\
You were lonely for a man\\
I said "Take me as I am,\\
'Cause you might enjoy some madness for a while."''
-->-- '''Billy Joel''', - "You May Be Right"

->''"You know I'm hilarious. And I'm not going to give up until I [[WhenSheSmiles get you to smile]]."''

->-- '''Billy Joel''', - "You May Be Right"

->''You know I'm hilarious. And I'm not going to give up until I [[WhenSheSmiles get you to smile]].''
->--'''[[WesternAnimation/TeenTitans Beast Boy]]''', referring to [[SugarAndIcePersonality Raven]]

* Non-romantic example in an ''ComicBook/{{Archie}}'' comic -- Reggie has taken up prop comedy but can't get as much as a smile from Jughead. He determinedly ups the game as his pride is at stake. When he falls hard on his butt Jughead smirks, and Reggie knows what he has to do - he kicks Big Moose in the butt and waits for the fireworks. At the end he's toothless but happy as Jughead rolls in convulsive laughter.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' does this with Beast Boy and Raven. It turns out in the {{prequel}} episode "Go!" that he got her to laugh during their first meeting, and he's been trying to replicate that ever since. He's succeeded three times: said prequel episode, an encounter with her "happy side" during a JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind episode, and when he had a cold and lost control of his powers every time he sneezed. Notably, her happy side told Beast Boy that she always finds his jokes funny; her mildly irritated, DeadpanSnarker reactions to his jokes may be more about maintaining her emotional reserve than being genuinely annoyed.

[[folder: Anime & Manga]]

[[folder: Comic Books]]
* ''ComicBook/TankGirl'' has a LesYay example. Tank Girl and Jet Girl are in prison. Jet Girl has been very serious in Tank Girl's company up to now.
-->'''Jet Girl:''' You don't understand. The better you behave, the more they leave you alone. And the more they leave you alone, the better off you are.
-->'''Tank Girl:''' Well, that's a bore! There's nothin' to be scared of. You just gotta think about it like the first time you got laid. You just gotta go: "Daddy, are you sure this is right?"
-->'''Jet Girl:''' [giggles] You're sick.
* Nonromantic example in an ''{{Archie}}'' comic - Reggie has taken up prop comedy but can't get as much as a smile from Jughead. He determinedly ups the game as his pride is at stake. When he falls hard on his butt Jughead smirks, and Reggie knows what he has to do - he kicks Big Moose in the butt and waits for the fireworks. At the end he's toothless but happy as Jughead rolls in convulsive laughter.

[[folder: Fan Fiction]]
* The ''{{Series/Firefly}}'' FanFic [[http://moodfic.livejournal.com/69709.html Simply Perfectest]] suggests this happened between Wash and Zoe before they were HappilyMarried:
-->''If he can't make her laugh, how will she know he can make her happy?''

[[folder: Film]]
* In the 1939 romantic comedy ''Film/{{Ninotchka}}'', the title character, a humourless Soviet official sent to sell the czar's jewels now in Paris, meets Count Leon, who's been dispatched to retrieve the jewels for their current owner. In one scene, he attempts to win her over in a restaurant by making her laugh, but fails. Then he has an accidental pratfall and she cracks up for the first time in her life.

[[folder: Folklore]]

[[folder: Literature]]

[[folder: Live Action TV]]

[[folder: Newspaper Comics]]
* A ''ThimbleTheater'' comic had a guy falling on a vase and getting his nose stuck in it. A rich man laughs at the sight and takes him home to show his wife, who he could never get to laugh. She doesn't see anything funny and the husband sadly breaks the vase off. She sees his nose and breaks up laughing.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games]]

[[folder: Visual Novels]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]

* Lydia Deetz is asked why she likes Series/{{Beetlejuice}} in the debut episode "Critter Sitters." Her answer: "He makes me laugh."

[[folder: Real Life]]
* Ancient China - One of the last emperors of Zhou had a concubine who didn't like to smile. He discovered, quite by accident, that CryingWolf by sending fake {{Epic Hail}}s so his troops would mobilize, caused her to laugh. So he kept doing it. Of course, by the time ''real'' barbarians decided to sweep in, the disgruntled troops told the emperor to go pound sand. Capital sacked, emperor killed, concubine carried off into captivity.

* ''SaturdayNightLive'': Speaking of Howie Mandell, Jon Lovitz plays him in a game show sketch, "Make Music/JoanBaez Laugh." The setup is that Baez, as Nora Dunn portrays her, is so despondent over the world's injustices that the show has run for nine seasons without anyone succeeding at making her so much as smile. Until, that is, Mandell sticks a rubber glove over his face and inflates it with his nose. Baez does a SpitTake and finally laughs.

* ''[[PokemonSpecial Pokémon Special]]'': Pearl may be doing this to Platinum, judging from [[RunningGag his reaction to catching her laugh]].

* ''RurouniKenshin'': A [[GenderInvertedTrope gender inverted]] version occurs, where Misao swears that she'll make her crush [[TheStoic Aoshi]] smile no matter what.
* ''{{Kyou no Go no Ni}} / Today In Class 5-2'' had this too.

* This is subverted near the beginning of ''RanmaOneHalf'', when Akane is feeling down because of her unrequited feelings for [[FirstLove Dr. Tofu]]. Because she's sad, she doesn't react violently to anything. You'd think Ranma would try to make her laugh, but he doesn't. Instead, he tries to make her angry again, since he's so used to her [[TsunDere Tsundere]] side.

* ''{{Kanon}}'' [[DeadpanSnarker Yuichi]] often does this to [[ActionGirl Mai]], claiming that [[EmotionlessGirl getting any kind of reaction from her at all is like winning a medal]].

* ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaJudgment'' Grant occasionally makes it his goal to get an emotional reaction out of Alucard. This example [[JustFriends isn't romantic]]. No, it isn't.

** She's not exactly the EmotionlessGirl (at least, certainly not when compared to Diaz), but it's frequently made pretty clear that most of Peralta's immaturity around the very strait-laced Santiago is intended to provoke this kind of reaction from her.

* ''FateStayNight'' [[GenderInvertedTrope gender inverted]]. Tohsaka realizes that she ''never'' sees Shirou laugh and that he rarely smiles. It makes her mad because while he likes making others happy he never actually enjoys himself. Ayako also notes this early on. Tohsaka decides they'll take a day off to make him enjoy himself. [[spoiler:With good reason, because as a person who never lives for himself, after he turns into Archer he becomes bitterly resentful of his life. She likes Archer, but doesn't want Shirou to become like him.]]

* The ''{{Firefly}}'' FanFic [[http://moodfic.livejournal.com/69709.html Simply Perfectest]] suggests this happened between Wash and Zoe before they were HappilyMarried:

** It's frequently made pretty clear that most of Peralta's immaturity around Santiago is intended to provoke this kind of reaction from her.

* ''StellviaOfTheUniverse'': Joey wins Akira's heart via this method.

->--'''[[WesternAnimation/TeenTitans Beast Boy]]''', referring to [[{{Kuudere}} Raven]]

* ''CastlevaniaJudgment'' Grant occasionally makes it his goal to get an emotional reaction out of Alucard. This example [[JustFriends isn't romantic]]. No, it isn't.

* ''EliteBeatAgents'' Leo's episode is about his efforts to get the EmotionlessGirl Lisa to smile, and thus inspire artwork. In the good ending, [[spoiler:the [[FauxtasticVoyage "special tunnel"]] finally does the trick.]]

* A variant of this occurs between Garrus and fem!Shepard in the {{VideoGame/Mass Effect}} trilogy, [[spoiler:and is amplified if you pursue his romance path]]. While some of his remarks stem from being genuinely socially awkward, a good deal of his {{Adorkable}} actions and dialogue with fem!Shepard are made of this trope. There is also a more meaningful component to this: regardless of your relationship with him, he will do anything in his power to keep either Shepard happy, encouraged, and emotionally stable during the [[spoiler:increasingly hopeless]] genocidal alien invasion.

* ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'': In the manga, Shinji tries to see if Rei can laugh by doing something funny - [[CrowningMomentOfFunny in this case, shoving two fingers up Touji's nose, causing him to freak out]]. This makes all the other girls laugh, but not Rei, who merely turns away with the same blank expression after seeing what all the noise was about.

* ''TankGirl'' has a LesYay example. Tank Girl and Jet Girl are in prison. Jet Girl has been very serious in Tank Girl's company up to now.

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' has an interesting take on this: (male) Neelix tries to make the (male) [[TheStoic Vulcan]], Tuvok, laugh. Becomes a ReverseFunnyAneurysm when a transporter accident makes the two of them [[HoYay into one]] in a later episode. I think I need BrainBleach for even thinking that.