"Oh, Crap!" Smile

Um... it's Not What It Looks Like?

Preserver: How could I ever think trash like you was worth saving?
Lobo: I got a cute smile?

— Superman: The Animated Series

So you're a prankster or villain whose prank or Evil Plan has been exposed. Everyone is giving you a Death Glare, and you know you're in serious trouble. What do you do? You put on a big smile to save a little face. The more disgraceful or outright evil your plan was, the more likely this is to fail, and for Laser-Guided Karma to come a-knockin'.

The Not-So-Innocent Whistle is an alternative to this kind of situation. Broken Smile may overlap if the smile starts as genuine. Related to Cheshire Cat Grin.

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Examples:

Advertising

• A commercial for Orbit gum has a guy serving jury duty giving this expression as his phone goes off in the courtroom.

Anime & Manga

• Aggretsuko: Near the end of Season 3, Komiya can only smile and squirm in fear when Ton catches him watching OTMGirls at work.
• Azumanga Daioh has one instance where an angry Tomo tries to hit Yomi with a tray in the school's cafeteria. When Yomi's cornered against the door, Tomo jumps at her, only for Yomi to crouch down right when Yukari opens the door and gets hit in the face. The camera then focuses on Tomo lowering her tray slowly to reveal a nervous smile, and then focuses on a very angry Yukari with glowing red eyes, before she starts hitting Tomo with two trays as revenge.
• Doraemon: Nobita and the Robot Kingdom has the titular robot cat getting dragged into a series of Gladiator Games and facing Kongfighter - a thirty-foot Killer Gorilla. Cue Doraemon making a smile at his impending doom.
• During the scene in Fist of the North Star in which Rei debuts, he goes up against a guy who uses nunchucks. After he attacks the guy, we get a shot of his face and he gives one of these before it's revealed that Rei has cut his hands off.
• In the first episode of Suite Pretty Cure ♪, Hibiki grimace-smiles when Kanade catches her snatching a piece of cake.

Comic Strips

• This Garfield strip has Garfield put on this kind of smile when facing a literal Mama Bear.
• An amazingly ghastly example from 9 Chickweed Lane when Seth is suddenly caught discussing sex around a group of children. Also qualifies as The Un-Smile.
• The Far Side has a couple of strips featuring a stage performer flashing this at his enraged audience: one is a Knife-Throwing Act where the "assistant" is actually a blow-doll, which has been punctured with one of the knives, and another where a guy attempts to juggle several "armed" nuclear warheads, fails, and doesn't get blown up.

Fan Works

• In Pacific: World War II U.S. Navy Shipgirls, Chester does this after accidentally hitting Arizona with Maury's shield.◊
• In Take A Melody, Ninten does this after his mother finds out he went into the basement of their house, a room that he's never been allowed to enter.
  I could feel a sheepish grin stretch my face uncomfortably. “Mom... I... um....” I stuttered out before taking a moment to calm myself, because, I’ll be honest, I sounded kind of stupid. “I swear there’s a reason I was—“ I started, but I was interrupted before I could finish.

Films — Animation

• The walrus from the "Walrus and the Carpenter" segment of Alice in Wonderland does one before the carpenter chases him for eating all the oysters.
• Flik from A Bug's Life does this after he accidentally destroys the ants' offering to the grasshoppers, getting the colony in serious trouble.
• Cats Don't Dance:
  • After she accidentally reveals her true bratty colors to all of Hollywood, Darla puts on a huge grin and nervously hugs Danny to save face.
    Darla: Nice... kitty?
  • Another near the end on the part of her butler Max, when he realizes his footing on the Darla Dimple balloon may be shakier than he had thought.
    Danny: How does the kitty cat go?
    Max: M-m-m-meow? [grin]
    Danny: Very good. [pops the balloon and sends Max flying across the city]
• Coco:
  • Ernesto when the whole family shows up to kick his ass.
  • It's a standard procedure for Miguel. It's most prominent whenever he's around Elena.
  • Héctor when he sees Imelda while he's in the cenote, before sheepishly telling that she looks great.
• Mickey Mouse in Fantasia does this when he returns the sorcerer's hat to him. It quickly fades in the face of Yensid's Death Glare.
• In the Fantasia 2000 short, "Carnival of the Animals", the Yo-yo playing flamingo lets out a pretty funny one after realizing he just pissed off the other flamingos.
• Flushed Away: Roddy does this after he calls Toad's collection amusing, causing the latter to scowl.
  Roddy: Uh... didn't you say I'd find it amusing?
  Toad: I said you'd find it diverting, NOT "AMUSING!"
• Prince Hans from Frozen has one for a split second when Princess Anna declares that she wants to invite Hans' twelve older brothers to live with them after their Fourth-Date Marriage. This gives credit to Hans's implication that they are Big Brother Bullies.
  • In Olaf's Frozen Adventure, as the sisters go through their old trunks, Anna asks Elsa what's in her trunk. Elsa says mostly gloves, and Anna assumes she's joking, "sure, rows and rows of satin gloves." This is her reaction when the chest is opened and she sees exactly that.
• Implied in Ice Age. The final shot of the film shows Scrat slightly smirking at the camera after accidentally erupting a volcano while stranded on a deserted island.
• In The Little Mermaid, Sebastian does this when he realizes he accidentally revealed Ariel's secret to King Triton and pressed the latter's Berserk Button.
  Sebastian: Humans? Heh-heh. Who said anything about humans?
• In Aladdin, Jafar tries this, along with saying "All this can be explained" after he's discovered to be a traitor.
• Megamind does this when Titan notices him hiding behind the door of his invisible car, off of which Titan had ripped it a second ago.
• In Mulan (pictured), check out the look on Mulan's face when Captain Shang catches her with an arrow with the fruit she's supposed to be targeting already skewered on the end of it (courtesy of her pal Mushu trying to "help" her).
• Doctor Facilier flashes one of these at the end of The Princess and the Frog after his talisman gets broken and his "Friends" come to collect their payment.
• Pooh's Grand Adventure: Piglet has one when the group encounters the roars of the Skullasaurus, and pleasantly asks what that was while clearly shitting himself.
• Puss in Boots (2011): A random woman chuckles nervously at the Great Terror when she sees her holding a golden egg.
• The Super Mario Bros. Movie: During the first act, Mayor Pauline tries to assure on live TV that the sewer problem that's flooding the center of Brooklyn is under control, only for a water geyser to erupt right behind her. She can only smile nervously at the camera before a panicked citizen shows up begging for someone to save Brooklyn.
• The final shot of Toy Story is Woody and Buzz exchanging these directly after they find out that Andy got a puppy for Christmas. (Even better is that Woody had just remarked to Buzz: "What could Andy possibly get that is worse than you?")
• In Turning Red, Mei gives one to Ming when Ming goes for Mei's notebook full of romantic drawings that she doesn't want her mother seeing.
• At the end of Zootopia, when Officers Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde pull over street racer, whom Wilde recognizes as Flash, a sloth friend of his previously encountered at the DMV.
  Nick Wilde: Well, Flash, Flash, Hundred-Yard-Dash!
  Flash: [very slowly smiling] Niiiiick!

Films — Live-Action

• Deconstructed in Along Came Polly:
  Sandy Lyle: Check out her expression — she's terrified.
  Reuben Feffer: She's smiling.
  Sandy Lyle: I'm a student of acting, Ruben — she's fakin' it. The woman got spooked, she needed to explore, which is exactly what you're gonna do — you've been given the gift of freedom, don't turn your back on that.
  Reuben Feffer: I don't want freedom, Sandy, I wanna be married!
• Big Trouble in Little China has Jack give one of these when Thunder no-sells a few punches to the face, just before he gets thrown down the hall.
• Captain Marvel: Carol Danvers pursues a Skrull that had just tried to take a shot at her onto a train. As she searches the train, she stops when she notices that one of the passengers is an old lady that she had bumped into moments earlier on the platform, an old lady who had just gotten off the train. The Skrull looks up, sees Carol glaring at them, and smiles nervously as they realize they've been caught, at which point Carol punches them in the face.
• Home Alone:
  • In the first movie, Marv grins in fear as he pokes his head through the doggy door and stares down the barrel of a BB gun.
  • In the second movie, when Mrs. McCallister realizes they lost Kevin (again), her first reaction is to grin and laugh while looking around at the rest of the family for a moment before screaming Kevin's name and fainting dead away.
• Burn After Reading features a severe Black Comedy example: Chad's immediate response to getting caught while breaking and entering is to give a big, goofy grin just before getting shot in the head.
• Garfield: After Odie impresses a dog show with a dance that Garfield made up himself, Garfield becomes so agitated at Odie being given so much attention instead of him, that he accidentally causes an enormous mess in Jon's house. When Jon comes in and sees Garfield in the middle of the mess, Garfield pulls this trope and then gets thrown outside.
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade:
  • When Indy finally finds his father, a trio of guards burst into the room holding them at gunpoint, and demand Henry Senior's diary that reveals the location of the Holy Grail. He laughs at them for thinking Indy would be dumb enough to bring the diary with him, missing his rather strained smile.
  • Later we see Indy and his father both tied up in a room that is currently on fire. They then, in an effort to hide from the flames, activate a secret passage that spins them around into a radio room filled with Those Wacky Nazis. They can only awkwardly grin when one of the Nazis finally notices them. She actually grins back before screaming for the alarm.
• James Bond
  • In Moonraker, James Bond gives a hilariously wan little grin when he first runs into Jaws.
  • For Your Eyes Only: During the car chase in Spain, Bond smiles at the pursuing mooks when their better powered car catches up with Melina's Citroën 2CV.
  • In Spectre, James Bond gives one to a Spectre henchman after being outed by Franz Oberhauser in the Spectre meeting in Italy. Not long after this, he punches said henchman, then hurls him down a storey onto the table where the aforementioned meeting was being held.
• In Coming to America, Prince Akeem is a genuinely kind and sweet man who approaches everyone he meets with a big friendly smile. Unfortunately, in The Big Rotten Apple, even his charisma usually fails to win over the gruff residents. Whenever his attempt to charm someone is met with hostility, he keeps that big smile plastered-on in a desperate, apologetic way.
• In Thor: Ragnarok, Loki has this expression when Thor exposes his masquerade and makes him turn into himself instead of impersonating Odin. Weirdly, "Odin" had become so complacent since the events of the previous film that no-one is surprised, let alone so much as reacts, when the ruse is exposed.
• In Back to the Future Part II, when Marty McFly first faces Griff Tannen and his gang in 2015:
  Griff: What's wrong, McFly, chicken?
  (Data plays a chicken clucking sound-effect)
  Marty: (turning around) What did you call me, Griff?
  Griff: Chicken, McFly!
  Marty: Nobody calls me...
  (Griff whips out a baseball bat)
  Marty: (chuckles sheepishly) ...chicken.

Literature

• In the novelization of Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), Madison Russell gets caught by one of the eco-terrorists when she tries to steal the ORCA out from under their noses. She can only smile nervously... then knock the terrorist out with a tazer while his guard is down.

Live-Action TV

• El Chavo del ocho: La Chilindrina often gives these when she gets caught red-handed. They're usually accompanied by a nervous giggle that sounds like "Eh-hee, oh-hoo" once she realizes she's in trouble.
• Downton Abbey: In Series 4, Episode 1, Nanny West verbally abuses young Sybbie for her parentage, and has this reaction when Cora makes her presence known. The smile turns to tears when Cora calmly, quietly, and immediately sacks her.
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: In the "Night at the Oprah", after an angered Will, who was forced to sit in the audience of an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show that the family was appearing on, calls out guest Uncle Phil by hypothetically asking about flying his relative out to the show just to embarrass him in front of his girl.^note "Hi, Latisha." When the camera cuts back for Phil's reaction, he has this type of smile on his face.
• M*A*S*H: In "Officer of the Day", Hawkeye says Flagg (an overenthusiastic CIA operative) will take Hawkeye's North Korean patient off to be executed "over my dead body". Flagg responds with a menacing glare.
  Hawkeye:(grinning nervously) Ha. Let me put that another way.
• Top Gear: In Series 9, Episode 4, Richard Hammond's initially authentic smile of excitement morphed into one of these, and then into a Broken Smile, when the Reliant Robin Space Shuttle failed to separate from its external fuel-tank and returned to earth in a massive fireball.
• Lab Rats: In the first episode, Donald Davenport arrives at the school only to find that the kids' bionics have already caused havoc in the gym and destroyed the school's mascot.
  Donald Davenport: So, how was school?
  The kids give a Mass "Oh, Crap!" smile.
  Donald Davenport: GET IN THE HELICOPTER!'

Video Games

• Pizza Tower: Final Boss Pizzahead is a Perpetual Smiler who never stops laughing at Peppino's expense and treats everything, even the final battle, as one big gag. But when Peppino finally loses his cool and explodes into pure pepperoni rage, Pizzahead has a quick moment of genuine fear, still with his dopey grin◊, just before he becomes the subject of a long-overdue beatdown.
• Sonic Origins: In the new intro cutscene for Sonic CD, Amy is playing tarot, is angry because she picked death, and takes the opportunity to change the last card when nobody's around. When doing so, she makes a hilariously suspicious smile◊.

Web Animation

• Rocket & Groot: After forcing Rocket to take a bath in order to get into a restaurant for a bounty, Groot gives him a nervous smile when they find out that the man who wouldn't let them in was talking about Groot's hygiene and not Rocket's.

Western Animation

• Dexter's Laboratory: Near the end of the Justice Friends short "TV Super Pals", Major Glory and Val Halen pull one when they anger Krunk by destroying the TV.
• DuckTales (1987): Scrooge gives one to a reporter in “Send in the Clones” when she sees him being tackled by Dewey and Louie, who have tied Burger Beagle, disguised as Huey to a chair.
• Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends' Blooregard Q. Kazoo is very prone to these.
• In Garfield's Halloween Adventure, as Garfield and Odie try to hide in a cupboard from pirate ghosts, Odie accidentally sneezes so loud that it not only gets the ghosts' attention, but it also blows the doors open. Garfield and Odie both grin sheepishly as they close the doors again, and Garfield says, "Maybe they didn't see us...". Cue the Scare Chord as the pirate ghosts pop their heads in the cupboard through the door!
• In How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Max gives a great one, along with a friendly wave, as he unexpectedly winds up face-to-face with the Grinch after a loop-de-loop during their descent down to Whoville.
• Justice League Action: In the episode "Galaxy Jest", Mongul orders the Joker to make the warriors on Warworld laugh. The Joker eventually succeeds by pulling a joy buzzer prank on Mongul, but then smiles nervously when he sees that he's just pissed Mongul off.
• Kaeloo: Mr. Cat does this very often when trying to convince Bad Kaeloo not to beat him up.
• Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil: Kick does this at the end of "Locked Out" upon meeting his dad's Groundedbot.
• In Legend of Korra, during her first Pro-Bending match, Korra instinctively earthbends when she's supposed to be the team's waterbender. After the referee announces "Foul... I think...", she gives an awkward laugh to the audience as the officials put two and two together and realise she's the Avatar.
• Looney Tunes:
  • Bugs Bunny does this in the cartoon What's Opera, Doc?, when Elmer Fudd catches on to Bugs' tricks — right at the moment all hell is about to break loose.
  • Daffy Duck also does one in My Favorite Duck. After a law against harming ducks allows him to torment Porky Pig mercilessly, they come across a billboard stating the law has been revoked. Cue Daffy nervously grinning as Porky looms towards him with an enormous Slasher Smile.
  • In Big House Bunny, prison guard Yosemite Sam sees through Bugs' warden disguise and chases after him out of the office and then back into it. He spots the real warden seated at his desk and, still thinking it's Bugs, hits him on the head — only afterwards realizing that he had attacked the real warden and smiles nervously as he sees the warden giving him a Death Glare.
• In Looney Tunes Cartoons: In "Bounty Bunny", Yosemite Sam spends most of the story trying to arrest Bugs to collect a five-thousand-dollar bounty only to learn Bugs isn't the bunny the bounty has been placed on. When Bugs points out it means Sam abducted him, Sam gives a smile and tries to walk away but ends up being arrested and sent to the wanted bunny's cell.
• Miraculous Ladybug:
  • In "Rogercop", Cat Noir briefly sports one when the titular villain declares him and Ladybug outlaws and sics the cops on them.
  • In "Gorizilla", Adrien (a famous model) sports an epic one when he runs into one of his most rabid fans — which rapidly escalates into him being chased by a mob of autograph-seeking fans:
    Wayhem: Adrien?! The Adrien Agreste?! This. Is. Awesome!!
    Adrien: (nervous laugh) Okay, bye.
• The Powerpuff Girls (1998):
  • Blossom makes this face in "Sun Scream" right before getting slapped on the arm by one of the villains of the episode.
  • Buttercup in "Moral Decay" during the dentist scene, and when she makes this face, we get a rather gross shot of her jagged teeth. Just before that she does it when she realizes all the villains are going to beat her up as payback for her misbehavior in this episode while her own sisters sit back and enjoy the show.
• The Simpsons:
  • In "Worst Episode Ever", Bart and Milhouse do this when they accidentally cost Comic Book Guy the chance to get rare Star Wars stuff from Martin's mom.
  • In "Secrets of a Successful Marriage", Marge kicks Homer out of the home after he publicly told some embarrassing secrets about her. After she supposedly recalls verbal memories of heartwarming moments of Homer while on a drive, she discovers that he was hiding in the backseat with a cardboard tube, he gives her this smile and she angrily throws him out of the car.
• Superman: The Animated Series: In the episode "The Main Man", Lobo reaches the docking bay of the Preserver's ship and is moments away from freedom, where the Preserver confronts him, transforming into a massive monster. As he has Lobo in his grip, they have the exchange at the top of the page.
• Thomas & Friends: Parodied in the episode "Goodbye, Sir Topham Hatt". Fearing that Sir Topham Hatt is stepping down as Sodor Railways' Fat Controller, the engines do everything in their power to ensure that there's absolutely no confusion and delay, leaving a bewildered Sir Topham Hatt speechless by how smoothly the line is running itself without any accidents. At one point when he's about to call for all the engines' attention, he is shocked to see all the engines in attendance before he can even say anything, leading to this reaction.
• Total Drama: These are quite common and rare depending on how you watch them:
  • "Crouching Courtney, Hidden Owen": When the Sasquatchnakwa shows up behind him, Owen turns around and waves nervously at him with a grin, before the Sasquatchnakwa rips his geisha dress to pieces.
  • "Chinese Fake-Out": Courtney slurps up some saliva back into her mouth once she is caught cheating in the eating challenge, and grins guiltily.
  • "Eat, Puke and Be Wary": Chef makes this face when a mutated raccoon offers him to give it his meatball gun before pushing it inside his head and shooting him with it.
• The Transformers: Prime episode "Patch" sees Starscream crack one of these when he realizes Megatron is inside his head and going through his memories using a cortical psychic patch to find out why he returned.
• WordGirl: In the title sequence, the titular superheroine stops one of Tobey's robots from rampaging throughout the town. When WordGirl flies down to Tobey, he smiles awkwardly as she snatches his remote away. (This also subtly conveys Tobey's awkward Villainous Crush on WordGirl.)

Real Life

• The "Hide The Pain Harold" meme is based on this, based on a picture of a man whose eyes don't match his smile, as if fighting back a mental breakdown.
• People do this in real life all the time as a reflexive reaction to stress, along with Corpsing, hence why many scoldings include the line "wipe that smile off your face." It's thought to be a holdover from our primate ancestors, and chimpanzees and other apes still exhibit a "grin of fear" when stressed.
• In September 2023, 17 year old Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva screwed up a bit at the end of her program and managed to grab an edge of the ice rink (preventing her fall)... right in front of the judges. She gave them the most adorable/joyful smile imaginable, and thunderous applauses ensued, including from the judges.

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