History Main / MustMakeHerLaugh

* Gender-flipped variation, ''ComicBook/{{Jubilee}}'' has a habit of making this her mission in life, first towards the time-traveling X-Man Bishop and later towards X-23.

* ''Pandelirium'' (from the ''Fanfic/{{Petriculture}}'' cycle) uses this as the basis for an AbsurdlyHighStakesGame: Celestia and Luna agree to give Discord (who at the time is unreformed and unrepentant) complete, unrestricted freedom if he can make the dour Penumbra laugh. Secretly, it's supposed to be a crash-course in empathy for Discord. Penumbra has a very ''particular'' sense of humor, so the only way Discord will win the game is if he stops thinking about himself and considers what Penumbra likes.

* Non-romantic example in an ''Franchise/ArchieComics'' 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.
* Gender-flipped variation, ''ComicBook/{{Jubilee}}'' has a habit of making this her mission in life, first towards the time traveling X-Man Bishop and later towards X-23.

* ''Film/GetOutYourHandkerchiefs'': Raoul takes the radical measure of finding his wife Solange another lover in an effort to cure her perpetual depression and listlessness. It doesn't really work, until she begins another extremely inappropriate relationship with a teenaged boy.
* 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.

* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'':Creator/JonLovitz plays Howie Mandell 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.

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'': In the A support between [[BoisterousBruiser Raphael]] and [[ShrinkingViolet Marianne]], Raphael admits that he wishes he could figure out how to get Marianne to speak with him cheerfully and openly, the way she speaks to animals. He then tries making bird chirps to help, and is surprised and delighted when this makes her laugh.

* The premise of ''WebComic/GrrlPower'' is the utterly unsuited Sydney Scolville being admitted to a tight-knit group of superpowered humans despite her being unsuited for this in nearly every way possible - except for the fact she has stumbled upon superpowers practically by accident. The erratic, nerdish and hypermanic Sydney is placed under MildlyMilitary discipline in an attempt to get her to conform to the norms of her new group and to get her to accept a degree of training and supervision. Her relationship with her superior, the austere and serious Colonel Maxima, appears to revolve around this trope. Maxima is outwardly dissaproving but apears to be quite fond of her new recruit to the Archon force.

* In 1907, a New York theater offered a "performance" by Sober Sue, a woman who allegedly never laughed. A cash prize was offered to anyone who could get her to do so; many of the city's best comedians made the attempt, but in vain. It's known that this was set up by her manager as a way to trick comedians into performing for free, and strongly suspected that Sue's facial muscles were paralyzed in a way that ''guaranteed'' she couldn't laugh or smile.
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[[caption-width-right:320:She thinks he's funny! No really, she does!]]

* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIV'': A King will only give a special piece of equipment needed to defeat the BigBad to someone who can make him laugh. ("For the good of the kingdom.") Your party hires a comedian and everything, [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope only for]] the comedian to [[RealityEnsues scold the king because your party is trying to save the world and nobody will ever laugh again if they don't]]. ''And it works!''

'''Jet Girl:''' [[CrossesTheLineTwice (''giggles'') You're sick.]]

* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': In the manga, Shinji tries to see if Rei can laugh by doing something funny - [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments 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.

* In Australian Aboriginal mythology, a giant frog named Tiddalik drank up all the rivers and lakes. The other animals tried to get him to laugh and spill the water, unsuccessfully, until Tiddalik saw the eel desperately searching for water and laughed at him, releasing it.

'''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: [[CrossesThelineTwice "Daddy, are you sure this is right?"]]\\
'''Jet Girl:''' (''giggles'') You're sick.

* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIV'' Subverted where a King will only give a special piece of equipment needed to defeat the BigBad to someone who can make him laugh. ("For the good of the kingdom.") Your party hires a comedian and everything and then...the comedian scolds the king because your party is trying to save the world and nobody will ever laugh again if they don't. ''And it works!''
* ''VideoGame/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.]]
** By the way, that's Leonardo da Vinci and the subject of the Mona Lisa.
* ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles'' Ted Ustinov tried to do this with [[ColdSniper Marina Wulfstan]], but he failed at it even after the war. She's just [[EmotionlessGirl really like that]].

Said girl's friends will wonder why she puts up with it. Don't expect his jokes to actually be funny. The comedy really comes from her reaction, or [[TheComicallySerious lack thereof]].

This is often played as romantic interest. After all, guys like girls that laugh at their jokes. And even if she doesn't laugh, she does at least listen. If it's meant to become a romantic relationship, [[UnresolvedSexualTension don't expect them to resolve it anytime soon]].

* ''Manga/PokemonSpecial'': Pearl may be doing this to Platinum, judging from [[RunningGag his reaction to catching her laugh]], but it could also be forcing her to admit she has her unladylike moments whenever she does something.

* The premis of ''WebComic/GrrlPower'' is the utterly unsuited Sydney Scolville being admitted to a tight-knit group of superpowered humans despite her being unsuited for this in nearly every way possible - except for the fact she has stumbled upon superpowers practically by accident. The erratic, nerdish and hypermanic Sydney is placed under MildlyMilitary discipline in an attempt to get her to conform to the norms of her new group and to get her to accept a degree of training and supervision. Her relationship with her superior, the austere and serious Colonel Maxima, appears to revolve around this trope. Maxima is outwardly dissaproving but apears to be quite fond of her new recruit to the Archon force.

* ''Anime/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.

--> '''Pearl''': "AHA! You just laughed, didn't you?!"
--> '''Platinum''': "No I didn't."
--> '''Pearl''': "You SO did too, I'm sure of it!"
--> '''Platinum''': "No I didn't. Don't be a pest."

---> '''Akane:''' Surely you don't expect me to believe that you came to cheer me up?
---> '''Ranma:''' And why shouldn't you believe it?

'''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?"\\

* ''Series/{{Zoey 101}}'' One episode has Michael determined to get Quinn to laugh at one of his jokes. The only problem is, she doesn't find his jokes funny at all. In the end, she ends up laughing at a pun he makes just to shut him up.

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* In ''TodaysSpecial'', the cast devotes an entire episode to making Sam's friend Sourpuss Sal smile, since she hasn't smiled in 20 years.

* ''FaerieTaleTheatre'' has the episode "The Princess Who Had Never Laughed," based on a variation of the Norwegian folk tale above: Howie Mandell plays the peasant, who gets the princess to laugh by pointing out the sheer ridiculousness of the people she sees every day of her life, with the punchline, "And ''she'' says 'Bring me someone who can make me laugh.'"

*** Though Rei actually smiles a fair amount, so she probably doesn't have any energy left to laugh after all that.
* ''Manga/PokemonSpecial'': Pearl may be doing this to Platinum, judging from [[RunningGag his reaction to catching her laugh]].

** It's more like he's trying to force her to admit she has her unladylike moments whenever she does something.

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

* This is subverted near the beginning of ''Manga/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.

* ''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.

* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'': Speaking of Howie Mandell, Creator/JonLovitz 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.
* In TodaysSpecial, the cast devotes an entire episode to making Sam's friend Sourpuss Sal smile, since she hasn't smiled in 20 years.

* A variant of this occurs between Garrus and fem!Shepard in the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' trilogy, 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 increasingly hopeless genocidal alien invasion.

* In ''VisualNovel/VoicesFromTheSea'', the plot is the game that Maris is determined to make the lonely player character Cantus smile within the next seven days.

[[folder:Jokes]]
* A state fair features a showman saying he'll give a thousand dollars to the first person to make his horse laugh. Naturally, numerous comedians and clowns try and fail to entertain the horse. One man shows up and whispers something in the horse's ear, causing the horse to keel over laughing. The man collects his winnings and leaves, and one year later, the challenge is now to make the horse cry ([[ObviousRulePatch without causing it harm]]). Every drama queen, every InspirationallyDisabled person in the county shows up, but to no avail. Enter the previous winner, who drops his pants for a second, causing the horse to cry buckets of tears. As the man collects his winnings, the showman asks him his secret, since he's giving up on the entire thing. "Well, the first time, I told your horse mine was bigger'n his." "And this time?" "[[GagPenis Showed it to 'im.]]"
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* ''Series/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.

This is often played as romantic interest. After all, guys like girls that laugh at their jokes. And, although she doesn't laugh, she does at least listen. If it's meant to become a romantic relationship, [[UnresolvedSexualTension don't expect them to resolve it anytime soon]].

--> '''Pearl''': "A HA! You just laughed, didn't you?!"

** It's more like he's trying to force her to admit she has her unlady-like moments whenever she does something.

* A ''ComicStrip/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.

* A Norweigan folk tale involves a king who offers his daughter's hand to anyone who can make the all-too-serious girl laugh. A peasant boy is nice to one of those ubiquitous old ladies, and is rewarded with a goose that can trap anyone who touches it (or touches anything already trapped) if he says "Hang on if you want to come along!" He uses it to catch the entire palace staff, and the princess falls over laughing when she sees it.

** A sililar tale tells of a girl who would die if she didn't get to smile. The hero unwittingly helps remedy that, and the King tells him that he can marry her.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'' ExpandedUniverse. Jacen Solo constantly tried to get Tenel Ka to laugh.

* ''FaerieTaleTheatre'' has the episode "The Princess Who Had Never Laughed," based on a variation of the Norwegian folk tale above: Howie Mandell plays the peasant, who gets the princess to laugh by pointing out the sheer ridiculousness of the people she sees every day of her life, with the punch-line, "and ''she'' says 'Bring me someone who can make me laugh.'"

* A state fair features a showman saying he'll give a thousand dollars to the first person to make his horse laugh. Naturally, numerous comedians and clowns try and fail to entertain the horse. One man shows up and whispers something in the horse's ear, causing the horse to keel over laughing. The man collects his winnings and leaves, and one year later, the challenge is now to make the horse cry ([[ObviousRulePatch without causing it harm]]). Every drama queen, every InspirationallyDisabled persn in the county shows up, but to no avail. Enter the previous winner, who drops his pants for a second, causing the horse to cry buckets of tears. As the man collects his winnings, the showman asks him his secret, since he's giving up on the entire thing. "Well, the first time, I told your horse mine was bigger'n his." "And this time?" "[[GagPenis Showed it to 'im.]]"

* A state fair features a showman saying he'll give a thousand dollars to the first person to make his horse laugh. Naturally, numerous comedians and clowns try and fail to entertain the horse. One man shows up and whispers something in the horse's ear, causing the horse to keel over laughing. The man collects his winnings and leaves, and one year later, the challenge is now to make the horse cry ([[ObviousRulesPatch without causing it harm]]). Every drama queen, every InspirationallyDisabled persn in the county shows up, but to no avail. Enter the previous winner, who drops his pants for a second, causing the horse to cry buckets of tears. As the man collects his winnings, the showman asks him his secret, since he's giving up on the entire thing. "Well, the first time, I told your horse mine was bigger'n his." "And this time?" "[[GagPenis Showed it to 'im.]]"

* In ''VisualNovel/VoicesOfTheSea'', the plot is the game that Maris is determined to make the lonely player character Cantus smile within the next seven days.

* ''StarWars'' ExpandedUniverse. Jacen Solo constantly tried to get Tenel Ka to laugh.

* ''{{Zoey 101}}'' One episode has Michael determined to get Quinn to laugh at one of his jokes. The only problem is, she doesn't find his jokes funny at all. In the end, she ends up laughing at a pun he makes just to shut him up.