History Main / StiffUpperLip

* Another outstanding RealLife example: When British Airways Flight 9, a Boeing 747, flew through a cloud of volcanic ash over Indonesia on June 24, 1982, all four engines failed; the pilot's comment has gone down in the history of understatement: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get it under control. I trust you are not in too much distress." Amazingly enough, they later restarted and the aircraft landed safely. That is, after several attempts during a crash dive, they restarted three engines and landed safely despite the cockpit windows having been sandblasted by ash and rendered opaque.[[note]]The captain compared the experience of this near-blind landing to "negotiating one's way up a badger's arse".[[/note]]

* Horrifyingly subverted in Robert Falcon Scott's [[ApocalypticLog diary]] during his ill-fated Antarctic expedition. After recounting the party's lack of food, isolation, and inability to go forward or back, he finishes with a flawlessly British: "It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more." But he then follows it with a final scrawl: "Last entry. For God's sake look after our people."
** One of his colleagues, Captain Lawrence Oates, knowing he was suffering terminal gangrene from frostbite, [[HeroicSacrifice walked out during a blizzard]] telling his colleagues, [[FaceDeathWithDignity "I am just going outside and may be some time."]]

* Last radio message from the British Parachute Battalion at the [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo Battle of Arnhem]] "Out of ammunition. God save the King".

* Creator/PaulCornell's ''ComicBook/CaptainBritainAndMI13''. For instance, his speech when Britain is [[ComicBook/SecretInvasion invaded by Skrulls]]:

* Another story from the Royal Navy, this one from World War I. During both World Wars, Royal Navy deployed armed vessels disguised as merchant ships--known as [[IncrediblyLamePun Q-ships]][[note]] The largest battleships of the Wood and Sail era were known as Ships of the Line; the name comes from their main battle tactic, which was to form a long line of ships stem-to-stern, forcing enemy ships to pass to the left or right and endure heavy cannon broadsides. In common British parlance line = queue, therefore Queue Ships, [[WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck har de har har it is to laugh]][[/note]]--to lure and attack German submarines. One of these, HMS ''Dunraven'', was under attack by a submarine in 1917, and a fire broke out in a magazine just under a hidden gun which was standing by to open fire on the submarine if it got closer. After the gun blew up, the chief of the gun crew reported to the captain: "I am sorry, sir, for leaving my gun without orders. I think I must have been blown up."

** One of his colleagues, Captain Lawrence Oates, knowing he was suffering terminal gangrene from frostbite, [[HeroicSacrifice walked out during a blizzard]] telling his colleagues, [[FacingDeathWithDignity "I am just going outside and may be some time."]]

** One man, who lived through UsefulNotes/TheTroubles, responded by saying, "I've been blown up by a better class of bastard than this."

* In Australia, the stereotype of the English is an inversion of this - the "whinging Pom" who constantly complains about ''everything''. Especially if it involves sport - New Zealand rugby player Grant Fox said of England, "The English know no humility in victory or defeat. [[MortonsFork If you beat them, it's because you cheat, and if they beat you, it's becuse they overcame your cheating]]."

* One of the many such examples in WWII was their response to the V-1 rocket; a flying torpedo, a sightless mechanical monster that had been falling out of the sky by the hundreds, each killing them in considerable numbers, and what do they nickname it? '''"The Doodlebug."'''

* The rabbits of ''Literature/WatershipDown'' are made of this, largely maintainting their composure in a world where practically everyone and everything wants to kill them. Arguably even more pronounced in [[WesternAnimation/WatershipDown the movie]], which of course includes British accents for all the characters.

* In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' invoked twice; once when Bilbo, to hide his emotion that Frodo is going off on a dangerous quest, bracingly slaps Frodo on the back; another when Sam almost drowns following Frodo, and Frodo, on rescuing him, covers up his feelings by remarking "Sam! You are a confounded nuisance." Both scenes in the movie , by contrast, result in hugs and tears. [[/folder]]

** In [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII WWII]] he was arrested for attempting to steal a plane (in order to meet the leader of the French Air Force to arrange their defection to Britain in the event of a surrender, and having been refused the official loan of one despite threatening the Squadron Commander--and ''himself'' with his service revolver). The poor NCO assigned to escort him to prison (in the Tower of London no less) somehow managed to lose the arrest warrant. Ordering the NCO to wait for him at the station, Wintle returned to HQ to acquire a new warrant. Finding no more senior officer than himself there, ''he signed his own arrest warrant''.

** What a guy.

* This was literally military doctrine for British officers: The earliest written reference of it is in the 1727 book "A Treatise of Military Discipline: In Which is laid down and Explained the Duties of Officer and Soldier", which states officers should carry themselves in a serene and affable manner to help embolden their troops. Many real examples displayed this by [[NervesOfSteel walking calmly and never ducking]] in the face of bullets, and [[DangerDeadpan being unerringly polite whenever they spoke]] ([[CasualDangerDialog possibly of chatting about the weather]]). While this concept was generally used among other Western armies of the time, true to the trope, none carried it out to the extent of the British. There was some advancement to this along with the rest of warfare's increasing lethality (for example, the officers of skirmishers in the 18th century were allowed to kneel while their troops lied prone, and in World War I, could take cover from artillery bombardment while in a trench), but the core concept remained - act like an an OfficerAndAGentleman at all times.

* But taken to the point of DeconstructiveParody with the Knight in Cornell's ''Comicbook/KnightAndSquire''. In #4, his costume becomes sentient and starts acting out his subconscious feelings. American superheroes with this problem typically solve it by acknowledging these feelings and getting them into the open where they can be dealt with. The Knight solves it by ''repressing them even further''.

* ''Film/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'': You can see Creator/DouglasAdams' mother sitting outside a cafe reading a paper even as the world ends. [[ThrowItIn This was not in the script]]; she simply had not been told what to do, and chose that. Arthur Dent is also an example. "I'm British; I know how to queue."

* [[UnfazedEveryman Arthur Dent]] from ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' is an interesting case. Not sure if it's Subversion or Inversion. For mildly "out there" situations he's as freaked out as an American would be, but there are times when it's so bizarre he can actually act somewhat normally.

* When ''Series/TopGear'' went to South America, James May managed to be cool and collected despite being terrified of heights and driving on the deadliest mountain road in the world. So much so that the other presenters didn't realize just how tired he was of them bumping into his car until he expressed himself rather less delicately with the help of a machete.
* Lampshaded by Creator/DaraOBriain on {{Series/Mock The Week}} during the 2008 banking crisis and Northern Rock closing, noting that in other countries the customers would be smashing up the bank to get their money back, whereas the British just queued up outside for hours.

* In the musical CrazyForYou, the British tourists, Eugene and Patricia Fodor, sing a song titled ''Stiff Upper Lip'' to the depressed residents of Deadrock, imploring them to continue their efforts to save the theater. [[spoiler:The Fodors fail, but everyone eventually comes around after the real Bela Zangler takes over the show.]]

%%* '''Officer Monk''' in ''Webcomic/{{Space Kid}}''

* The character modeled after Major Allison Digby Tatham-Warter in ''Film/ABridgeTooFar'' always carries an umbrella because, as Tatham-Warter said after the war, he "could never remember the bally password and had to think of ''some'' way to let everyone know I was English!" While the real man refused to show fear in front of his men, including never running between cover, the actor Anthony Hopkins couldn't force himself to walk while fake explosions were all around him and couldn't fathom how the real man could do so in the face of real bombs.

* The British characters in ''Film/TheGreatMuppetCaper'', who acknowledge the movie's weirdness but refuse to make a big deal out of it, such as Robert Morley being unflappable as a frog falls from the sky and asks for directions, or Creator/JohnCleese being only mildly perplexed by finding a pig in his closet who wants the name of a restaurant. Lady Holiday herself only slips slightly when she learns her brother is the villain.