[[TheSandman http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1034605593_turesdeath.jpg]]
[[caption-width:268:Peachy keen!]]

->''Well her clothes are blacker than the blackest cloth\\
And her face is whiter than the snows of Hoth\\
She wears Doctor Martens and a heavy cross\\
But on the inside, she's a happy goth.''\\
-- The Divine Comedy, "The Happy Goth"''

Not perky like [[NippleAndDimed that]], [[YouBastard you]] [[FreudWasRight pervert]]. PerkyGoth comes from the goth subculture, as distinguished from the Mopey Goth.

The stereotypical {{Goth}} character, especially in teen shows, is frequently a [[TheDaria Daria type]] or a DeadpanSnarker. Sam Manson of ''DannyPhantom'', for example, though "[[GranolaGirl more Greenpeace]] than goth", has been known to act like a stereotypical goth on occasion, serving as a DeadpanSnarker (as Danny regularly acts TooDumbToLive) and speaking in a [[TheDaria Daria tone]] whenever the plot or humor would demand it. In fiction as in RealLife, however, they're not all that way, and this is occasionally acknowledged by introducing a PerkyGoth.

Contrariwise, the PerkyGoth, who is almost always female, operates on the principle that [[DarkIsNotEvil dark does not always]] mean [[{{Wangst}} depressing.]] She wears the clothes, but her personality is always cheerful and amiable (occasionally approaching GenkiGirl territory). Real-life perky Goths are often pegged as former Mopey Goths who just "[[EpiphanyTherapy snapped]]" one day and decided it wasn't worthwhile to be depressed and sullen any more. Appropriately, this is a SisterTrope to StrangeGirl and ElegantGothicLolita (the latter referring to an actual subculture mainly popular in UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}.)

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[[foldercontrol]]

!!Examples

[[folder: Advertising]]
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5Dny-s27Dk Irn Bru makes gloomy goths perky!]] (Love the surfboard.)
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* Yugi, the titular character of ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh}}!'' dresses either in all black or in absurdly cute outfits, has wild hair (that's ''natural'') and wears chains, LOTS of leather and dog-collars... Yeah, collars. His monster theme is [[DarkIsNotEvil darkness and black magic]] and he is regularly possessed by an admittedly evil spirit. None of this stops him from being a pacifist, unbearably cute, friendship-obsessed and a real sweetheart. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:YugiMutou.PNG And cute.]]
** [[YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries He's so cute, he's often been mistaken for a baby panda.]]
* [[TheGrimReaper Death]] in the anime ''{{Kamichu}}'' has a short scene with the god of poverty. She's a bit beyond perky and well into [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kamichudeath.jpg total bonkers]]. Or maybe she just knows something we don't.
* Misa Amane from ''DeathNote'', who also qualifies as an ElegantGothicLolita (if you ignore the words 'elegant' and 'lolita', that is).
** Maybe a subversion, since being cheerful and enthusiastic just makes her creepier when you consider [[PsychoForHire her]] [[StalkerWithACrush other]] [[AxCrazy traits]].
** She ''does'' temporarily qualify as ElegantGothicLolita, as she's wearing clothes like that when she sings [[spoiler: after Light picks her as Kira]]
* Yamie from ''{{Kure-nai}}'', who is at her perkiest when interacting with Murasaki.
* Another male example: Nekozawa from ''OuranHighSchoolHostClub''. He's the president of the Black Magic Club, is obsessed with curses, and has plenty of fun being generally creepy. Not even the fact that he's ''allergic to light'' seems to bother him all that much.
** The whole club is perky.
* The disturbingly cheerful undertaker in ''{{Kuroshitsuji}}''.
* Riho Yamazaki, Detective Shido's ditzy secretary, becomes this in [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightwalker:_The_Midnight_Detective Nightwalker: The Midnight Detective]]. Being a NightmareFetishist helps too.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comics]]
* [[TheGrimReaper Death]] of the Endless (pictured above), from ''TheSandman'' [[ComicBookTropes comics]] by Neil Gaiman is described by her author as a PerkyGoth. She is not just responsible for Death, though; she also gives the breath of life when someone is born. She's pretty much the person you'd most want to see at a stressful moment like that. Her brother, Dream, fills the MopeyGoth niche.
** Although in stories taking place in earlier eras, Death was a bit of a wet blanket herself before she started spending a few days each century with mortals.
** Creator Neil Gaiman could easily fit here too.
* Nico Minoru, a.k.a. Sister Grimm, in ''{{Runaways}}''. In the beginning, at least.
* Lex from ''GloomCookie'', on occasion.
* The Bride of Nine Spiders from ''ImmortalIronFist'' is sometimes like this.
* Bettie Cooper, of "Archie" actually went goth in one issue (really!), and was still generally rather cheerful. Her two goth friends were even more cheerful than she was.
* Gilly Woods from John Kovalic's gamer comic ''Dork Tower'' is the quintessential Perky Goth; whch greatly annoys her brother Walden, who is a stereotypical Mopey Goth.
* ''Emily the Strange''
* {{Nemi}}
* Death from the old Kelly run of Deadpool was pretty mucha Perky Goth. That or just a plain old death obsessed, somehow corporeal, skeleton of some sort.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:FanFic]]
* In ''FanFic/TheReturn'' conversion into a succubus seems to synonomous with becoming a PerkyGoth. ThoseTwoGuys Sam and Naoko choose to dress as perky goth too.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films]]
* Jack Skellington from ''TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'' -- although he could also get pretty moody.
** "...Why does nothing ever turn out like it should?/Well, what the heck, I went and did my best./And by God, I really tasted something swell..."
* Almost any goth character on ''Gap''.
* Lydia from ''Beetlejuice'', by the end of the film.
* Raven in CecilBDemented combines PerkyGoth, BadassAdorable, and CloudCuckooLander in a most intoxicating way.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* In the Christopher Moore novel ''You Suck,'' Abby Normal is determined not to show her perky side to the vampires she meets or to other Goths, but she does let the reader in on her secret.
* Steven Brust's ''{{Dragaera}}'' series has two examples:
** Telnan, introduced in ''Dzur'', thinks like most Dzur warriors (as Vlad sarcastically notes) that black-on-black is a wonderful color combination, but acts like TheDitz.
** Sethra Lavode might be a better example, dressing all in black and having an unsettling pallor (she is an eons old undead), but is surprisingly friendly. She also has a disturbingly silly sense of humor. In one book, she passes sentence on one of her apprentices for attempting to kill several of her friends, influence the succession of the House of the Dragon, and start a war. The sentence is to strand her in an alternate, desert dimension with shelter, plenty of food and water and a stick, and instruct her to write "I will not interfere with the Dragon Council" in the sand 83,721 times.
*** Wherein hangs the tale: Sethra IS eons old. Having seen so much, there's really only two ways to go, and the other way would either have destroyed her or the world, one way of the other. If there's anyone entitled to live and advocate the sentiment of "Live Here Now", it is certainly Sethra Lavode!
* Molly Carpenter from ''TheDresdenFiles'' has shades of perky goth, 80's Brit-punk, and BDSM fetish going.
* Raven Madison from ''VampireKisses'', she is a mixure of highly sterotyped goth who listens to Him, Marilyn Manson, and strangly enough The Cruxshadows (Strange not because she's goth, but because most music refences were ones that are what people think goths listen to), wears mostly black, is obsessive over vampires, and is disliked by most people, besides that she acts like any other teenager.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* Abby Sciuto, the [[TheLabRat Lab Rat]] on ''{{NCIS}}''. As one of the other characters put it, she's "the perkiest goth you'll ever meet" (not sure if that's the exact quote).
* Coreen Fennel on ''BloodTies''. Vicky Nelson, the acerbic heroine, comments, "No one likes a perky goth."
* One of the teams on ''TheAmazingRace'''s 12th season was a pair of dating, incredibly [[PerkyGoth Perky Goths]]. [[spoiler:They got 5th place.]]
* The Count from ''SesameStreet''. ("Ahh ah ah ah ah ah!")
* Morticia and Wednesday Addams in both the [[TheAddamsFamily classic live-action TV show]] and the Saturday morning cartoon, but not in the movies or Charles Addams' original comic strip.
** Arguably the entire Addams Family has Perky Goth tendancies -- but the perkiest character by far (in the film and television versions at least) is Gomez Addams, possibly the first male Perky Goth in popular culture -- if you equate "manic" with "perky".
* Merton Dingle from ''{{Big Wolf on Campus}}'', a chess club nerd turned PerkyGoth.
* {{God}} would sometimes appear in the form of a male PerkyGoth in the TV series ''{{Joan of Arcadia}}''.
* Richmond from ''TheITCrowd'', who listens to Cradle of Filth and is mistaken for a vampire on his first appearance, but who is generally cheery despite being severely demoted and spending most of his time supervising equipment he can't even identify.
* ''{{Wizards of Waverly Place}}'' has Miranda, who is never seen not smiling, yet is constantly referred to as "scary" and says such gems as "I hate corporate America!" (really, Disney? REALLY!?). The perky part is probably to keep her safe and acceptable (also a result of bad writing).
** In recent episodes, Alex actually qualifies except for having a fashion plate taste in wardrobe.
-->'''Harper:''' ''(after having had her mind fused with Alex's)'' You've got some scary thoughts in there.\\
'''Alex:''' Thank you. ''(giggles)''
* Tina on ''{{Glee}}''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* TheBirthdayMassacre. They even have a song, "Horror Show", that pokes fun at the other kind of goth.
-->''They're getting ugly;\\
They're a horror show.\\
And now we're laughing\\
Because they'll never know\\
That they have everything.\\
We give them all of our own\\
And they tell us they're sick and they're all alone.''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Pro Wrestling]]
* Former {{WCW}} and now {{TNA}} wrestler Sting is essentially this, as he kept the costume inspired by ''TheCrow'' he adopted during the nWo angle, but has gone back to his former upbeat showman persona.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* It's implied a ''lot'' of [[GeistTheSinEaters Sin-Eaters]] are like this. They were given the chance to come back from the dead and gladly accepted, so why ''shouldn't'' they be happy? Previews indicate their culture is one of celebrations and gatherings in the vein of the Day of the Dead and New Orleans funerals.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Lash from ''AdvanceWars'' is a PerkyGoth villain. In the "defeat" conversation at one point in the third game, she even growls, "No more miss nice perkygoth!"
* Jennifer "Jen" Tate, [[http://www.womengamers.com/articles/digital-women/jen-primal/ main character]] of {{Primal}}.
* [[TheDragon Misery]] from ''CaveStory'' -- most of the time.
* Luste Teuber from {{Rosenkreuzstilette}}; she also gets {{Stripperific}} and TokenLoli bonus points.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* The main character of ''ButtercupFestival'' is a perky goth, and embodies perhaps the more whimsical side of the trope.
* Gilly The Perky Goth (obviously) from ''DorkTower''.
* Miho from ''{{Megatokyo}}'' has been defined by Fred Gallagher as a "perky goth", though she's more of a LittleMissBadass.
* Crystal from ''ZebraGirl''. She starts out completely bubbly from the get-go, and one day decides to go goth on a lark, without actually changing her personality in any way.
* Blossom from ''[[http://rhapsodies.wpmorse.com/ Rhapsodies]]'' (though she's more Industrial Punk than most examples).
* Dora from ''QuestionableContent''. Her transition from "mopey" to "perky" allegedly came before her first appearance, and she's called out on it in an early strip by a member of her former "coven". This same member (Raven) shows up a few weeks later with a job application as a non-gothic GenkiGirl.
* [[spoiler:Death]] in the webcomic [[{{Finders Keepers}} Finder's Keepers]] seems to be this.
* Subversion: On the outside, Alisin in ''{{Fans}}!'' is cheerful, fun-loving, and free-spirited, and it's only when you look closely that it's revealed that [[StepfordSmiler underneath the perky exterior]] she's a neurotic, self-loathing and nihilistic mess.
* Happy Goth from ''The Devil's Panties''.
* Vanity Thorn from the webcomic ''SequentialArt.''
* Esther from ''ScaryGoRound.'' Her friend Sarah has also become much perkier throughout the comic.
** ''SGR'' actually plays with Goth stereotypes quite a bit overall -- Sarah goes a bit {{Tsundere}} for and winds up dating the much older Ryan, while Esther and Sarah's friend Big Lindsay is less goth and more of a Class 3 TheBigGuy (who is eventually PutOnABus by getting pregnant). And then there's the odd case of Roxy Postlethwaite, who is supernaturally Changed into a "White Goth" -- part banshee, CloudCuckooLander, all NightmareFuel.
* Marius, Mordred, and Sarah from ''{{My Life in Blue}}''.
* ''{{The Order of the Stick}}'''s Tsukiko. Evil necrophiliac mystic theurge, but she loves what she does.
**[[IncrediblyLamePun Literally!]]
* Cassie from ''TheWotch'' is a goth and proud of it. Oh, and she always wanted to see a unicorn.
* Katie and Abby from ''{{Weregeek}}'', especially [[GenkiGirl Abby]].
* Silverblue from {{Jack}} is very much this by the time [[spoiler: she realizes that everything that happens to her in hell is her own self punishment, and no, she does NOT have to [[GroundhogDayLoop watch the same round of musical holes every day]] if she really doesn't want to.]]
* The Dark Lordess [[MyNaymeIs Tyfnee]] from ''Dumnestor's Heroes'', as exemplified by [[http://www.moderntales.com//comics/dumnestor.php?view=archive&chapter=14714#strip5 this strip]].
* Abel of ''{{DMFA}}'' became this after he got over his [[spoiler:[[IHateYouVampireDad understandable]]]] {{wangst}} phase. Also, his goth wardrobe [[AwesomeButImpractical got too impractical]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* At least one of the hosts from the podcast ''Lime and Violet'' alludes to having been one of these in the past, after a teenage stint as a more typical Mopey Goth.
* The website [[http://suicidegirls.com/ SuicideGirls]] exists to document these women in their natural habitat. And naked.
* Moria from ''GaiaOnline'' kind of drifts between this and Regular Punk depending on her characterization. (Though she was a vampire for about a week once, which ranks pretty high on the goth scale.)
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Lydia, from the AnimatedAdaptation of ''{{Beetlejuice}}''. (''Not'' the near-suicidal {{emo}} kid from the movie.)
** She ''did'' lighten up at the end of the movie, and new wardrobes are expensive, SoYeah...
* Jinx from ''TeenTitans''.
** Perfectly opposite to the darker Raven. [[spoiler: And given Jinx's HeelFaceTurn at the end of the series, one wonders if they manage to get along now.]]
* Gwen from ''TotalDramaIsland'' dresses in Goth style and makes the occasonal snide comment, but is otherwise a normal, friendly teenage girl.
** Somewhat LampShaded in "Total Drama Drama Drama Drama Island" in which she shows pictures of her Goth friends back home, who ''really'' make her look tame by comparasion.
* Ditto Triana Orpheus in ''TheVentureBros'', in sharp contrast to the unrelenting weirdness surrounding her home life.
** If you were a goth, wouldn't having a necromancer for a father make you perky too?
* The title character from ''Growing Up Creepie''.
** She lives with what are basically bug versions of the Addams Family; how could she ''not'' be a PerkyGoth?
* Debbie of ''AmericanDad'' seems to have an obsession with death and the dark side, but for the most part seems very friendly and well-adjusted.
* Shareena from the shortlived animated series ''Detention''.
* [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lgST4021.jpg Ruby Gloom]], her ilk, and the people who wear her merchandise.
** Only the ones who get that it's ironic. Those who don't get it, however, are a lot like those people who wear Happy Bunny merchandise because OMG it's a cute sassy bunny wabbit and ooh so cute and ooh it comes in pink.
* As mentioned above, [[DannyPhantom Sam Manson]] is very clearly one of these. By outward appearance, she's your stereotypical Goth girl. But she's actually quite happy with the way life is! It generally appears as though Sam considers herself a Goth because she likes the style...or because she wanted to rebel against her parents.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Cassandra "Elvira" Peterson built an entire career out of being cheerful, sexy and dark.
* [[{{maxmordon}} This Troper]] has spent many times on gothic forums and have found it that at least half of the real goths are of this kind (while angsty ones are mostly just angsty teens to overcome it).
** [[{{Skazka}} This troper]] supports this theory, with an addendum. Those who tend to congregate online will be 50% perky goths (looking to socialize, discuss and vent some... rather non-perky ideas from time to time) 25% mopey goths (with tendencies towards self-pity, though not always in a derogatory way) and 25% romantic goths (who may be, variously, perky or mopey -- but are a breed apart for other reasons). On a bad day, most romantics will act like angsty suburban teenagers. Feet will be stomped. Bitch fits will be thrown. Perky goths just... snap. Loudly.
** Real life being what it is, this troper has found that the three personality types are more tendencies than absolutes and one will sometimes blend into the other and then back to whatever the default preference is.
** The various Xgoth lables are very broad, and application varies not only with the person, but the age and mood as well. The excessively angsty teens are typically written off as "spookykids" by the more self-effacingly humourous mopeygoths.
* As one website owner maintained, Salvador Dalĺ. Think about that. It makes sense.
* Photophobia didn't bother Real Life example and late Church of Satan founder Anton Le Vey, either. After he got rolling, the witty religious rebel played off and played jokes on, off, and with his own image and reputation to a level you'd expect out of (irony noted) the Devil. This was even noted in a interview with him prior to his death undertaken by the pornographic publication High Society magazine.
** However, most of his fangirls [[{{CompletelyMissingThePoint}} insist]] he's a {{Woobie}}/EmoTeen.
* Real Life Example: ''{{Voltaire}}''. Nono, not the eighteenth century french author; Voltaire ''Hernández'', the twenty-first century songwriter, author of humorous perspectives on being a Goth, and occasional stand-up comedian. That Voltaire.
* TimBurton.
* The Lady of the Manners, webmistress (and now author! ~shameless plug~) of the [[http://www.gothic-charm-school.com/ Gothic Charm School]].
** Who, although she'll probably never admit to it, has shown some distinctly mopeygoth leanings in the past.
* [[http://www.zazzle.com/goth_girly_skull_tshirt-235082362946970820 This t-shirt]].
* [[Music:Voltaire Voltaire]] is a really cool goth. His music is usually cheery and pokes fun at the whole goth scene. He also does music for the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, so that makes him double cool.
[[/folder]]

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