That Makes Me Feel Angry

aka: Informed Emotion

"Your lyrics lack subtlety! You can't just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!"

— Robot Devil, Futurama

A classic rule in writing is to Show, Don't Tell. That includes emotions. If a character is happy, that should be obvious from his actions — not from the fact that he says "I'm happy" out loud. Generally, it comes across as awkward and unrealistic. Can you imagine if someone walked up to you and said "I'm feeling really angry today!" in a flat voice?

This trope can be used for comedic effect, such as a character saying "I'm happy" with an utterly deadpan face. It can also be rather scary when the "so happy" line is delivered with barely concealed rage by a skilled actor or if The Stoic angrily says "I'm not happy". Tropes Are Not Bad, after all. And if it's a children's show that is trying to teach children how to deal with their emotions, this is certainly a better idea than hitting someone. In fact, people do often talk like this in situations where they would otherwise have trouble expressing their feelings, and how someone feels is not always as obvious as people think it is. See the Real Life section for more details.

See As You Know for the expository version of this trope. Compare And That's Terrible or Flat Joy.

Appears quite a lot in cases of Filling the Silence. Do not confuse with Is This What Anger Feels Like?, in which the perpetually jubilant character deals with anger for the first time (although that can certainly lead to this), or I'll Kill You!.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• This is how the Misaka Sisters in A Certain Magical Index speak: once you know how a Sister is different from the original Misaka Mikoto, it's both creepy and rather tragic. Specifically, they narrate their own thoughts and actions, which can get rather funny when they're trying to be deceptive:
  Misaka 9982: "What is it?" asks Misaka as she feigns innocence, enjoying the refreshing aftertaste of the chocolate mint ice cream.
• In Black Lagoon, Gretel says or implies she feels a little bad about using two local orphans as decoys, pretty much ensuring their death.
• One of the things that Kyon does as an Unreliable Narrator in Haruhi Suzumiya.
  • For example, he'll say he's terrified about something but only rarely will he show actions that actually show it. Kyon's style is also in contrast to the story's treatment of Haruhi's inner state, which is almost exclusively Show, Don't Tell. Once he is narrating how scared he is about a monster when Itsuki muses that he sure doesn't act scared. We are treated to him devoting a paragraph or two of him listing how he has the traits of being scared... until that trails off and it isn't addressed again.
  • What's more, one of the common devices that the series uses is to have Kyon's actions contradict his words; he tells us things that are different than what's shown. Example from the anime's chronological first episode: Kyon tells us that he's not interested in Haruhi, while the animation shows us that he's very obviously checking her out over the course of a few weeks.
• Sagara Sōsuke from Full Metal Panic!, when he's attempting to convince muggles that he's feeling normal human emotions.
  Sōsuke: You perceive wrongly. I feel unimaginable happiness wasting time talking with women. I'm that type of human.
• In Fullmetal Alchemist, Wrath has a habit of monologuing on how certain things make him angry, generally in the vein of how much he hates puny humans. Brotherhood usually makes him sound anything but furious during these monologues, giving the impression that he's incapable of broadcasting emotion properly. Or that he's just really skilled at hiding his rage. For a few seconds, anyway. His name is "Wrath", not "rage" or "fury". The emotion of wrath is not nearly as overt as the others, and it is not mutually exclusive with tranquility.
• Hetalia: Axis Powers, from Kiku/Japan: "An unpleasant sensation..." Cue the Discretion Shot.
• I'm in despair! The fact that Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei uses this trope constantly has left us in despair!
• Naruto:
  • The Nine-Tails Demon Fox roars "Narutoooo!!!! You have angered me!!!! Narutoooooo!!!!!!" after Naruto rips the chakra from the Fox's body, claiming it for his own, thus allowing Naruto to fully control the Fox's power.
  • Sai, being trained from his early years to be The Stoic, often has to emote this way. He's been getting better, though.
  • In the scene leading up to the hospital fight, Sasuke yells, "You're making me angry, Naruto!", having been offended by Naruto's insistence that they're equals.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion:
  • Touji is prone to this in his first appearance in the anime, talking quite plainly about how angry he is about what happened to his sister.
  • Mari in Rebuild of Evangelion has a habit of narrating everything she does, thinks, and feels out loud.
• Elgala from the original manga of Excel♡Saga does the exact same thing, with an emphasis on the "loud", and minus any conscious knowledge that she's actually speaking (she thinks all her co-workers are mind-reading mutants).
• Done in the Sailor Moon manga to emphasize how utterly screwed Queen Beryl was: when Beryl started strangling Sailor Moon, Sailor Venus, who usually expresses her anger with shouts and physical aggression, went instead suddenly calm, glowered at her and muttered "...Now you've gone and pissed me off" before disemboweling her.
• Goku from Dragon Ball. It happens mostly when he's afraid or tell his friends that he is afraid of something, without him actually showing that he is and he's usually smiling as he says it. If he does show fear, then things are usually very bad. On the other hand, if he tells an opponent that he's mad at them, that usually means that he's close to going into a murderous rage. In Dragon Ball Super, after Goku Black and Future Zamasu revealed that Black murdered Chi-Chi and Goten after stealing his body and killing him, Goku loses it, saying this trope almost word-by-word, before beating the mess out of them:
  Goku: I won't forgive you! You…. took over my body. You even killed Chi-Chi and Goten! I'm mad… I'm seriously mad now! I ain't ever going to forgive you!
• Deko Boko Friends: A character named the Egg Prince would always say "That makes me boil!" whenever he got angry about something. Whenever this happens, the egg half of his head boils to the point that it cracks slightly.
• Diavolo does this during the climactic battle of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind:
  Diavolo (sub): You have... genuinely angered me!
  Diavolo (dub): Accursed worm... Now, I'm angry!

Comedy

• One prominent stand-up comedian parodied this. Something along the lines of "Why do girls say 'I'm gonna cry!', and then cry, but not say 'I'm gonna laugh', and then laugh?"
• Steve Martin during his famous "Excuse Me" rant. "I'm sorry, I'm angry!"

Comic Books

• The Incredible Hulk: The Hulk is practically◊ a poster child of this trope. There's a reason why You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry! exists, after all. Well, at least he looks angry. Always. (Until Corrupt Corporate Executives meddle with the franchise: does this look angry to you?) Hulk can be forgiven for Hulk's constant reminders of Hulk's current mood. Hulk's mood very important to know for people around Hulk. Furthermore, Hulk not very articulate.
• Judge Roy Bean is presented as doing this in The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. Played entirely for comedy because he only has one facial expression that has no emotion visible on it, and his voice is implied to be similarly monotonic. Which is kind of weird because the actual Judge Bean was practically an actor on the bench, with a great love of delivering moving monologues, and if he ever said anything monotone it was purely for effect.
• In Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, Johnny is in a suicidal mood while he's talking to his mental image of the rabbit he nailed to his wall. Through both the dialogue, Johnny's facial expression, and his body language it is immensely clear exactly how he's feeling at the moment. At the end, with a tear sliding down his cheek and an even more pained facial expression than normal (which is quite saying something), he says, "Bunny?… I'm not happy."
• There are a few examples of characters doing this in the earlier Tintin comics.
• John Doe, the Generic Man, a villain from the DC Comics title The Heckler. He talks entirely like this, because actually emoting wouldn't be generic. In fact, it's not just emotions, he also describes himself saying things, rather than just saying them; so instead of "Could you get me a newspaper?" or even "I want you to get me a newspaper", he says "I am instructing you to get me a newspaper".
• Batman's villain Black Mask had to say he was displeased to his goons because his mask doesn't really show emotion.

Comic Strips

• A common problem with political cartoons, as noted in this Cracked article.

Fan Works

• Bad Press: Starscream angrily demands to know who's writing bad fanfiction about him, commenting "I need to express my displeasure with high explosives!"
• The Bugger Anthology: Dalek Thay wonders "Why am I so angry all of a sudden?" at the sight of a man that hasn't yet been identified as the Doctor, also known as the mortal enemy of all Daleks.
• Used unintentionally in Calvin & Hobbes: The Series:
  Socrates: You're making me angry, Calvin. And when I get angry, it makes me what to use my claws, and tear something up!
• A Diplomatic Visit: In chapter 7 of the sequel Diplomat at Large, at one point, the Storm King says "That's it! Now I'm mad!" in response to Pharynx shattering his armor.
• The Code Geass fanfic Euphemia's Surprise has many of its characters speaking this way. This becomes a bit ironic if you consider that Code Geass itself is an over-the-top heart-wrenching Melodrama!
• In Supernatural: The Animation Abridged, Dean yells out "I'M ANGRY ABOUT THIS!" several times throughout the series.
• In the sequel to A Very Potter Musical, A Very Potter Sequel, Harry screams, "I'M IN A RAGE! THIS IS THE MADDEST I'VE EVER BEEN!"
• Critical Miss of The Escapist has this beautiful bit of Mass Effect fanfiction. It is, of course, a little context-sensitive.
• Parodied in Theory of Chaos:
  Takato was exhausted.
  Takato: God, I'm exhausted!
  Yes, Takato, I already said that, thank you! Ahem, anyway, Takato was exhausted...
  Takato: God, I'm—
  SHUT UP TAKATO!!
• In Amber Night and the Curse of the Diabolical Pastry Thief, when Amber Night informs Cloud Control of her sorrows.
  Amber Night: Your action has caused boundless dejection in my cardiovascular organ!
• In Sailor Moon Abridged, after finding out that "those inconsidadate bitches" at the hospital are making her pay for saving Ken's life, Lita punches the wall and shouts, "I'm angry!"
• Ultra Fast Pony:
  • The Season Two trailer video has Twilight Sparkle, in the middle of a freakout, shouting "I'm just so full of all the emotions!"
  • "The Cheesen One" combines it with Dull Surprise as a background character says "Someone help. My baby's about to die. That really cheeses me off."
• In "What Happens During the Night Shift", Pumkin says this:
  Pumkin: I'm very ANGRY.
• Goku's surrender against Cell in Dragon Ball Z Abridged is rather upsetting:
  Cell/Vegeta: Every word you just spoke has made me violently angry! Oh great! now I'm agreeing with Vegeta/Cell! Look what you made me do!
• In Three-Point Shot, Kokichi Oma simply says "I'm sad, too", about Kaito's death. It's quite effective, especially considering that it's the last thing you'd expect him to say in a situation like that, but he's entirely serious about it.

Films — Animation

• Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget: While vaunting the superiority of the Fun-Land Farms method, Dr. Fry's commercial shows a boy complaining in a thoroughly calm tone that his chicken is tough, dry and flavorless and telling his mother he hates her. When his mother gets him a bucket of the farm's nuggets, he instead says in a scarcely more emotional tone that the chicken is delicious and tells his mother he loves her.
• The Incredibles: Callous insurance executive Mr. Huph begins his reprimand of his employee Bob Parr with "I'm not happy Bob, not happy" while scowling like he's never been happy once in his entire life.
• This is probably Dug's defining trait in Up: "I do not like the cone of shame". Not that you can expect much nuance out of a dog or anything. Also justified as an artifact of the computer translation of what the dog i—SQUIRREL!! ...of what the dog is saying.
• In The Jungle Book 2, Shere Khan invokes this while interrogating Kaa on Mowgli's whereabouts.
  Shere Khan: Oh, please don't insult my intelligence; it makes me irritable.
  • Kaa, on the other hand, truthfully has no idea where Mowgli is, but Shere Khan won't believe him and continues to threaten the snake. So, out of fear, Kaa lies to the tiger that Mowgli's at the swamp, allowing him to flee.
• Fix-It-Felix Jr. in Wreck-It Ralph has a moment of this.
  Felix: I'm just so.... cross with you!!
  • So many self-help/conflict management/counseling experts advise people to share their feelings specifically though, Felix the *very* perfect do-gooder could just be following that advice.

Films — Live-Action

• In Austin Powers:
  Dr. Evil: That makes me angry! And when Dr. Evil gets angry, Mr. Bigglesworth gets upset! And when Mr. Bigglesworth gets upset... people DIE!
• Enchanted has this when Giselle gets angry, but here it's justified because it's the first time she's actually ''felt'' the emotion anger. This also happens to be her Love Epiphany, so it's possibly the first time she felt any strong emotion toward someone.
  Giselle: You make me so...so...ANGRY!...Ha ha! I'm angry!...
  Robert: Are you all right?
  Giselle: I'm angry... I'M ANGRY! [punches Robert in the arm]
  Robert: Are you okay?
  Giselle: I'm...I'm...I'm wonderful.
• Daft Queens has Yihoshi's semi-imaginary friend strangling him while she says, "I am very angry!"
• Ghostbusters:
  • Used for comedic effect in the finale of Ghostbusters, where calm, collected and rational Egon calmly explains to his fellow Ghostbusters that he's "terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought". (Anyone would be, seeing how he's facing the end of the world as administered by a giant version of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man. Blame Ray...)
  • In Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Phoebe explains her own behavior when Podcast asks her how about how little she reacts to the news of her teacher trying to seduce her mom. She says she doesn't express her emotions like other people do, but she's vomiting inside.
• In Cabin Fever, Marcy uses an awkwardly irrelevant metaphor about plane crashes to tell Paul "This makes me feel horny." To the director's credit, her speech as is probably has a more plausible finesse to it than if she'd just grabbed him and said "Well, we're gonna die anyway. Let's screw." This scene leads into a sex scene where Paul tells Marcy he's concerned because they aren't using a condom, which prompts her unbelievably naive reply: "Don't worry! I'm healthy."
• The albino ghost twins in The Matrix Reloaded. Probably to show that they're creepy. "We are getting aggravated." "Yes, we are." All the while utterly deadpan.
• Similarly, in Star Trek: Generations, Data states how he feels about a drink in Ten-Forward, justified because he had just installed his emotion chip:
  Data: [gleefully] Yes! I hate this! It is revolting!
  Guinan: More?
  Data: Please!
• Star Wars:
  • Revenge of the Sith: "Anakin, you're breaking my heart." The irony is, Anakin legitimately had no clue how repulsed she was by what he had become, and he still didn't get it even after she said it to his very face. In the Novelization, he got it after she told him. He just didn't care.
  • Pretty much the prequels in general: "I don't like sand". "I'm overwhelmed", said in the same vacant tone one might use when choosing a plastic bag over a paper one.
• Parodied in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby: After Ricky checks to see that there are tickets saved for the extremely unlikely chance that his father will come to the race, the guy at the ticket counter remarks to a co-worker, "That's the saddest thing I ever seen in my life, y'all! That boy leaves two tickets for his daddy at every race and he never shows up... The human heart is such a mystery." Note that the two workers at the counter decide to hock the tickets immediately afterwards.
• A perfectly sensible example occurs at the end of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. After all, it's the first thing Barbossa has felt in ten years.
  Barbossa: I feel... cold...
• The Rocky Horror Picture Show:
  • The movie has the line "I'm cold, I'm wet and I'm just plain scared!"
  • Also, the entire "Rose Tint My World" song is just a laundry list of how the characters are feeling. "I feel released / Bad times deceased / My confidence has increased" Tell us how you really feel, Janet.
• Sin City: "I can only express puzzlement, that borders on alarm."
• Unfortunately, the only line most people know from Network is the end of Howard Beale's rant: "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" And that wasn't him expressing his own feelings (at least, not directly), but what he was instructing the viewers to do.
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail:
  • A peasant who doesn't want to go on the cart of dead plague victims tries to convince everyone that he's just fine: "I feel happy! I feel happy!"
  • And of course, when the Black Knight offers silence to Arthur's request that he join the Knights in their search for the Grail, Arthur pauses for a moment, then replies "You make me sad."
• From Twins (1988): "For the first time in my life I'm... PISSED OFF!"
• Rare dramatic example: In Manhattan, Mariel Hemingway's line "Now I don't feel so good" is delivered with such innocence that it's just heartbreaking.
• Actually used very well in The Godfather. "Only don't tell me you're innocent. Because it insults my intelligence, and makes me very angry." Michael Corleone shows no anger while delivering this line, instead exhibiting a cold lack of emotion that makes the line very sinister and somewhat chilling.
• In Mickey Blue Eyes, a woman who had been left at the altar isn't dealing with it well. She keeps saying "I'm so happy for you!" while breaking down and crying.
• Miss White in Clue has trouble even describing the emotion, and stumbles through metaphor. Madeline Kahn's delivery is priceless.
• Gladiator has a particularly terrifying example from Emperor Commodus. "It vexes me. I'm terribly vexed." In a tone of almost light frivolity. According to the DVD commentary, this scene originally followed a deleted scene where Commodus hacks at a bust of his father with a sword in a blind rage. But in the final cut this line shows him far more chilling than his histrionic rages, and it showed how Commodus was becoming more and more unhinged.
• Played for Laughs in Signs, when Graham and Merrill run around the house to scare what they think are troublesome neighbor kids:
  Graham: Ahh! I'm insane with anger!
• In one scene of A Cinderella Story, Fiona told her daughters she was upset. When one of the daughters told her she didn't seem to be upset, she said it was because of botox.
• Played with in Scream 3. Disguised as Dewey, the killer has a phone conversation with Jennifer Jolie's bodyguard while he's looking through Dewey's trailer. When he insults "Dewey" over the phone, the killer responds with "That makes me... angry!" (with a definitive emphasis of rage on that last word), while bursting in and stabbing him in the back.
• "Oh, Black Dynamite. I'm so happy."
• From the Alan Alda vehicle The Four Seasons:
  Jack: I'm sorry to have to tell you this.
  Kate: What?
  Jack: You're making me angry.
  Kate: You're angry? Right now?
  Jack: I'm enraged.
  Kate: How was I supposed to know? Maybe you can stamp your foot next time. Or try this: WWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!
• Ron Burgundy in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy did this all the time, leading to some of the funniest lines in the movie.
  Ron: I'M TRAPPED IN A GLASS CASE OF EMOTION!
• From Robin Hood: Men in Tights
  Sheriff of Rottingham: I've been angry at you before, Loxley...but now I'm really PISSED OFF!
  Ahchoo: Pissed off? If I was that close to a horse's wiener, I'd worry about getting pissed on!
• Used effectively for pathos in Zulu, in the scene in which Colour Sergeant Bourne takes the register of the survivors.
  Bourne: "Beckett?"
  1st Soldier: "He's wounded, sir."
  2nd Soldier: "He's dying, sir.
  3rd Soldier: "It's sad."
  Bourne: *With surprising gentleness* "Keep your voices down."
• Steve Martin's character in Baby Mama is so zen he can only express anger in the same tone of voice you'd expect from a yoga instructor.
• John Turturro's character in Anger Management is pretty easy to read but due to the AM treatment, he's still expected to air out his emotions this way:
  I went from happy to angry, skipped sad, now I feel like kicking his ass!
• Moonrise Kingdom has a great deal of this, partially because the main characters are two children. Wes Anderson is fond of this.
  Walt Bishop: I hope the roof flies off and I get sucked up into space.
• The Room (2003) gives us Tommy Wiseau's infamous lines "You are tearing me apart, Lisa!" and "Everybody betrayed me, I'm fed up with this world!"

Literature

• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time: Autistic Christopher states how he feels not with words, but with simple drawings of faces.
  I got a grade A in my maths which was the highest grade, which made me feel (smiling face).
• Constant from Richard Cypher in Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series.
• Malicia uses this trope frequently in the Discworld book The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents. Justified because she believes that her life is a story — and she's not a very good storyteller.
  • Vetinari does it once in Making Money when Moist for a moment considers if Vetinari could have had Topsy Lavish assassinated so Moist could get her position. Vetinari is usually a stoic Nerves of Steel character who uses double-speak and insinuations a lot, and as such an outright statement of how angry he is underlines the situation to Moist.
• Anita Blake: The titular character will think something, then voice her thoughts to everyone in the room.
  • This style carries over to the comics, which can include Anita's description of someone who is clearly visible in the comic, even in that very panel.
• Not anger, but Animorphs has a funny one when our taciturn Proud Warrior Race alien, Ax, first smells a skunk.
  "I believe the smell is causing me to become deranged", Ax said calmly. "I may have to run away in panic".
• There is a Winnie the Pooh in the "Lessons from the Hundred-Acre Wood" series titled Use Your Words. In this book, Kanga encourages Roo to use his words to express how he feels instead of keeping his feelings bottled up inside. Sample dialogue: "If you have something to tell me or want to share how you're feeling, please use your words, Roo." "I'm mad because I had to come back inside!" "All right. But you still need to wear your scarf."
• A species trait of the Martians in S.M. Stirling's In The Courts of the Crimson Kings. A woman asks if her ragtag hired crew fears her, and they reply, "We fear you exceedingly, even unto the relaxation of sphincters." Martians who are pissed off mutter things like, "Extreme annoyance!" It's hilarious and surprisingly effective.
• Justified with Protector of the Small's Keladry of Mindelan, as she hides her emotions so thoroughly that even saying she's angry shocks her friends.
• Goblins in the Castle: Herky has a tendency to announce how he's feeling most of the time, such as "Herky sad", "Herky mad" and "Herky hurtie!"

Live-Action TV

• Ross Geller in Friends when on sedatives for anger-management issues. "Oh, this is not good for my rage."
• Keeping Up Appearances: Elizabeth, who is extremely tense when the overbearing Hyacinth is offering her one thing after another.
  Elizabeth: (almost hysterical) Please, Hyacinth, I'm perfectly happy!!
  (The telephone rings: Elizabeth screams and spills her coffee)
• Scrubs:
  • One episode has a subplot revolving around the fact that J.D.'s current girlfriend was essentially flawless - except that, when she was amused by something, she'd say, "That's SO funny!", instead of laughing, which drove him so far up the wall he crossed the ceiling, went down the other wall, and came out in China.
    J.D.: You know what's funny, Turk? She's not saying "That's so sad", she's ACTUALLY crying.
    Turk: You're an IDIOT.
    J.D.: Yes I am.
  • Also when Jordan got botox and tried to smile Dr. Cox had to guess her emotion. Jordan did this after her neighbor's son called her "ma'am."
• Seinfeld:
  • George is getting upset!
  • The bizarro Jerry states "Me so happy. Me want to cry."
• Done humorously in Boy Meets World. Harley Kiner, The Bully, was supposed to be tough and emotionless, so whenever some sort of event would happen, he would state his reactions to them by saying, "I am hysterical" or "I am distraught."
• A somewhat pathetic example in Rizzoli & Isles. When the Rizzoli siblings find out their mom is in trouble, they respond thusly:
  Jane: It just makes me so sad.
  Frank: Me too, Janie.
• Top Ground Gear Force, the gardening special for Sports Relief hosted by the presenters of Top Gear; "I'm so unspeakably angry at you", James May tells Clarkson, sounding a bit put out. Being a British show, this may have been combined with a bit of Understatement and Stiff Upper Lip.
• Played for Laughs as the closing gag in an episode of Will & Grace. Will obtained botox treatments in his face in an attempt to appear younger. Of course, botox works as a paralyzing agent (basically), so when Grace arrived to boast of some accomplishment, Will's expressionless delivery of "I'm so happy for you" was taken for Sarcasm Mode. Grace promptly stormed out, which caused Will to sit back down with the same look.
• Likewise in Sex and the City: Candice Bergen's character announces "I am so angry right now" with a blank facial expression. Not only has it been established that she's had botox, but this line is actually a callback to early in the episode when Samantha goes for a botox treatment and the nurse warns her that, because of her reduced facial expressiveness, she'll have to explicitly announce her emotions.
  Nurse: Some patients have said they found it difficult to register emotion on their faces after the procedure. So you may have to say things like, "I am so angry right now."
• Kai, the Big Bad of Kamen Rider Den-O, often does this followed by "My face shows it, doesn't it?" Of course, since he doesn't seem to have a normal range of emotions (smiling evilly most of the time)...
• Lampshaded in an episode of Flight of the Conchords when the agent says "What's that emotion that makes you go 'RRRRRRRR'?"
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • Anya does this frequently, especially when she's first turned into a human. For example, when she finds out that she's winning the board game Life she says, "Oh, I'm so pleased!" It becomes surprisingly effective in "The Body", when Buffy's mother Joyce dies abruptly. After asking tactless questions and being scolded for it, Anya breaks down and starts ranting about how she's confused and upset by the concept of death, which no-one seems to be able to explain to her.
  • Glory does this as a Running Gag; not because she doesn't get angry, but because she's Nigh Invulnerable and totally self-involved.
• Illyria of Angel often demonstrates this. Being an ancient demon bound into the body of a human, she lacks the understanding of human expressions and even the underlying emotions, making her unable to emote properly. Then completely subverts it when Fred's parents visit, and she fakes the correct emotional responses whenever they can see or hear her. Wesley calls her on this, and she explains that his grief is "like ashes in my mouth" and she doesn't want to deal with the grief of Fred's parents as well. She knows what the responses should be, and can fake them perfectly well, but just doesn't care when it won't make things easier for her. This lasts right up until Wesley dies, which causes her to feel genuine grief. This an emotion she barely seems to understands having, let alone how to express:
  "I'm feeling grief for him, I can't seem to control it. I wish to do more violence!"
• Vorenus on Rome. "It saddens me that you are unhappy because I have a deep affection for you." He says this to his wife while wearing his Glower of Emotional Inadequacy, which is subtly distinct from his Glower of Doing What He's Got to Do, Glower of Moral Disgust, Contemplative Glower, Glower of Pure Rage, and Glower of Realizing Something Is Occurring Which Will Turn the Tide of History.
• Frasier, in damn near every episode. It makes sense though, since two of the main characters are psychiatrists, leading them to constantly discuss their feelings with each other, as well as encouraging everyone else to do the same. Frasier himself, being particularly self-absorbed, brings this trope to staggering heights.
  Frasier: I AM WOUNDED!
• Fawlty Towers: One of the symptoms of Basil Fawlty's Comedic Sociopathy was to announce "I'm so happy!" while grinning like a skull in the mistaken belief that he was fooling anyone.
• Monty Python's Flying Circus:
  • Another example of Cleese doing this can be found in the "Dirty Fork" sketch.
    John Cleese: You bastards! You vicious, heartless bastards! Look what you've done to him! He's worked his fingers to the bone to make this place what it is, and you come in with your petty, feeble quibbling and you grind him into the dirt! This fine, honorable man whose boots you are but worthy to kiss! [Beat] Oh, it makes me mad.
  • One Python sketch has this in the form of precision military drilling.
    "My goodness me! I am in a bad temper today, two three! Damn damn, two three! I am vexed and ratty, two three! And hopping mad!"
• Doctor Who:
  • Played For the Evulz by the Master in the episode "The Sound of Drums". The cherry on top is that to demonstrate how he's feeling, he immediately gasses everyone else in the room to death.
    The Master: You see, I'm not making myself very clear. "Funny" is like this:
    :D
    "Not funny" is like this:
    >:(
    And right now, I'm not like
    :D
    I'm like
    >:(
  • In "The Haunting of Villa Diodati", the Lone Cyberman flatly tells the Doctor, "You irritate me." Justified in that he's a Cyberman; he's not supposed to feel anything.
• This trope made for one of the world's most favorite Narm moments in a Very Special Episode of Saved by the Bell, when Jessie, having become addicted to caffeine pills, starts singing "I'm So Excited" (itself an example of this trope, see below), and it ends up "I'm so excited! I'm so excited! I'm so... so scared!"
• Used rather pointedly by Mal in Firefly when Zoe and Wash's marital dispute starts getting on his nerves.
  Mal: Okay, uh, I'm confused. I'm angry. And I'm armed.
• In the Red Dwarf episode "Quarantine": "Mr. Flibble's very cross." Of course, it could be seen as necessary since Mr. Flibble is a Hand Puppet.
• Done by Ninjor in the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. "Evil makes me so angry. It just burns me up!" Cue a shapeshifting into a badass form.
• Done several times on Whose Line Is It Anyway? to great comedic effect.
  Colin Mochrie: I'm feisty!
• Malcolm in the Middle: One episode had Malcolm's grandmother drugging a wealthy man to get him to marry her. When her family found out, she drugged them so they'd not interfere. While under the effect of the drugs, Malcolm revealed he had pierced his tongue. His mother said she'd punish him as soon as the drugs wear off (until then, she didn't seem upset). Don't worry about the rich man. The drugs on him wore off just when he was about to partake on the vows.
• Supernatural:
  • Castiel, eating hamburgers: "These make me very happy."
  • In "The Monster at the End of the Book", Sam and Dean find out about a book series that someone describes all of their monster hunting cases, and find one about things that have yet to happen. The two decide to prove the book wrong by doing the opposite of whatever it says will happen. One of the future events is them having a fight. When Sam suggests they use their new knowledge to get the drop on Lilith, Dean almost snaps at him, but instead says, through gritted teeth, "It frustrates me when you say such reckless things". Sam responds, with equal irritation, "It frustrates me when you'd rather hide than fight".
  • Demon Dean to Cole in "Reichenbach": "What did you think was gonna happen, huh? You just stroll up here and say 'My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!' And I'd just roll over? Well, that's just — it makes me sad."
• One episode of Two and a Half Men concluded with Alan dressed in a Gay Nineties "barbershop quartet" outfit and handlebar moustache, staying in character (with an Italian accent!) as he reacted to various real-world (within the episode) incidents: "I'm-a so happy!"..."I'm-a so sad!"
• In Game of Thrones season 2, Ros is in uncontrollable tears after watching a baby get murdered in front of her, and it's putting off her customers. Littlefinger, her pimp, tells her a story about how the last whore he had who put customers off with her moping got sold to someone who wanted to "transform" her. After finishing this lovely anecdote, he asks her if she will be bright and happy tomorrow. When she manages a smile and a nod, he says "That makes me happy." This is a rare case of this trope being simultaneously Played for Drama at the same time as being played with, since Littlefinger is quite obviously being facetious about it.
• In one episode of The Thick of It, Ollie has, once again, done exactly what Malcolm Tucker has ordered him to. Malcolm rewards him by saying "You've made me very, very happy", while simultaneously giving him an epic Death Glare. The strange thing is, Malcolm actually is sincerely happy with him, but continues to mess with Ollie anyway, presumably For the Lulz.
• Gary Bell from Alphas, constantly. Justified in that he's autistic ("a 32 on the CARs Scale").
  Gary: Dr. Rosen! I'm slamming my door!
• Invoked regularly in Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, and even discussed in songs such as "What Do You Do With the Mad that You Feel?" Justified, as Mr. Rogers was intentionally teaching his young viewers that it was OK to deal with their emotions.
• Grizz on 30 Rock doesn't display any emotional range but just states how he's feeling.
• An episode of 3rd Rock from the Sun has Dick discover computers. He soon gets in over his head, becoming a shut-in, and using webcams to communicate, teach classes, etc. In the process, he also seems to forget how to emote, and even when Mary tries to pull him away from his desk and accidentally spills coke in his computer set up, shorting it out, he simply states (with a creepy smile) how he feels.
  Dick: Oh, Mary. You've made me so angry.
  Mary: Oh, go to hell! [storms out]
• On Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, an amusing script error lets us know that Hercules is DISAPPOINTED.!
• One episode of Law & Order features Emil Skoda interviewing a little girl who cruelly murdered a little boy. After she cheerfully recounts how she once killed a cat, he deliberately blows up at her, shouting, "That makes me angry!" In this case, he's indicating his feelings in order to gauge whether she's capable of shame or remorse.
• Cosima Niehaus of Orphan Black expresses this trope in the episode Variations under Domestication, when she walks up to Delphine Cormier, saying that she is bored.
• April Ludgate of Parks and Recreation uses this trope often to display her emotions, usually boredom and annoyance.
• Played for laughs with Captain Holt in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, who is so stoic and unreadable he often needs to telegraph how he feels.
  Holt: [after a motorized wheelchair rolls over his foot] He ran over my foot. I am in... incredible pain.
  • One episode introduces Holt's mother Laverne, who shares this trait with her son.
    Laverne: (informed that a member of her wine club may have robbed her house) Oh my. That is shocking. I am shocked right now.
    Holt: And I am enraged. We are shocked, and enraged.
    Jake: Yes, and we're all showing it.
• In the Crazy Ex-Girlfriend episode "Why Is Josh in a Bad Mood?", Josh is in, well, a bad mood. So he goes to his dojo and sings "Angry Mad." All about how he is angry and mad.
• Sesame Street
  • The famous "I'll Miss You, Mr. Hooper" episode when Big Bird finally realizes that his beloved Mr. Hooper has died and is never coming back, he expresses his anger: "I don't like it. It makes me sad." Falls under the variant of teaching children how to handle emotions, and does not at all detract from one of the most powerful moments in TV history.
    • Within the same "I'll Miss You, Mr. Hooper" episode, several segments about emotion are included. An older segment, with Bert and a kid named John-John, presents a scenario if one of them were to lose something (a collection of paper clips). While John-John says he'd feel sad (and demonstrates), Bert fills the trope by saying he'd be very angry if he lost his paper clips.
  • Among other segments during the show's history, one memorable one from 1975, known to fans as "Get Mad Goat", has said title character as the Butt-Monkey for others' pranks: a jig-dancing dog who pulls his beard, a cat setting off a firecracker behind him, a duck making fun of him, and a selfish pig who refuses to share his ice cream cone. The goat, in expressing his anger, tells viewers that in certain situations, anger is justified and can be a healthy, even appropriate emotion ("It ain't bad to get mad").
  • Ruthie once tries to convince Oscar that she is angry by rattling off a list of synonyms for "angry" that she feels. Naturally, Oscar doesn't buy it.
    Oscar: No-one who's angry says "irked".
• 7th Heaven: What passed for dialogue was often alternating Character Filibusters combined with this trope, in which the characters were analyzing their own and others' emotions ad nauseum.
• Star Trek: Picard: Elnor occasionally announces how he's feeling at that precise moment, due to his adherence to the Way of Absolute Candor.
• Charmed (1998): Piper and Leo do this at one point when they're having marital trouble. Darryl and his wife immediately recognize that it's because they're in marriage counselling, where they're encouraged to communicate clearly rather than bottling up their emotions leading to more problems down the line. Darryl assures them that, hokey as it sounds, it is useful to do this.

Music

• Johnny Cash: Many things made him feel angry, among them injustice and racism. Many of his most popular songs have been about the oppressed, shunned, and people on the social fringes through no fault of their own. One of the most memorable examples of this came from his 1964 album Bitter Tears ^note (a concept album containing songs about the issues Native Americans faced) and particularly a song called "The Ballad Of Ira Hayes." Written by Peter LaFarge, the song tells the life story of Hayes, a young Native American of Pima descent who joins the Marines during World War II and after D-Day participated in the flag-raising of Iwo Jima. The trope really kicks in as Cash tells Hayes' post-war life, how he was treated with disrespect, the government building a dam to cut off a supply of clean water and that he fell into poverty and alcoholism; Cash's anger builds toward the end, reaching its apex as he explains that Hayes died drunk, laying face down in a waterlogged ditch as he took his last breath, his corpse left there to rot.
• Ivor Cutler, one of the quirkiest men to have ever lived, sang a song that tells you he is happy in the funniest way possible.
• Lots and lots of songs. Those with negative themes especially.
• "I'm so excited! And I just can't hide it!" Now what do you suppose the artist is trying to convey with these lyrics?
• The Beatles' "I'll Cry Instead":
  "I've got every reason on Earth to be mad
  'Cause I just lost the only girl I had
  If I could get my way
  I'd pick myself back up today
  But I can't so I'll cry instead."
• James Brown's "I Got You (I Feel Good)". As well as every television show, movie, or trailer that has used it in the soundtrack to illustrate that the character being shown on the screen is feeling, you guessed it, good.
• The most well-known song about the RMS Titanic states in its chorus that "It was sad when that great ship went down."
• A Super Ghostbusters track opens with the immortal words of "I got food poisoned! That made me angry!"
• Meat Loaf does it in "The Monster Is Loose".
  "I'm angry
  I'm raging
  I'm breaking through the pain."
• They Might Be Giants: The Electra Records promo video for Flood takes place in a coffee shop, as the Johns talk the audience through their new album.
  Linnell: Some records that come out today only have ten songs, or less.
  Flansburgh: (calmly) This makes us angry.
  Linnell: But instead of cursing the darkness, John and I have decided to do something about it. We've put out a record with nineteen songs on it.

  Flansburgh: And that's why our record is better.

Pro Wrestling

• On an episode of WWE SmackDown! leading into WrestleMania 25, The Undertaker comments on the fact that the other wrestlers have gone from quaking in fear of him to seeking him out to prove themselves: "This... displeases me."

Puppet Shows

• An episode of Fraggle Rock has Gobo and company react to a crisis by singing a song called "I Feel So Bad". However, the song is so upbeat and fun that they almost forget why they started singing it. The trope is played straight at the end of the episode when the conflict is resolved and the song is reprised as "I Feel So Glad".
• A frequent plot on The Pajanimals. The characters often have to work out their feelings about each other and will express them out loud. The full series has a song called "I'm Mad" that features Apollo in one installment, Squacky and Cowbella in another, and Sweetpea Sue the final time that it's used.
• Since the main learning goal of Slumberkins is to help kids express their feelings, the characters will commonly express how they feel blatantly.

Tabletop Games

• The Aspis in Dungeons & Dragons are insect-people who can learn human language, but communicate amongst themselves with pheromones. Because pheromone-language always reveals their intent in "saying" something, they try to make spoken language work the same way, so precede all their sentences with phrases like "Statement of explanation", "Helpful input" or "Statement of partial understanding".

Theater

• William Shakespeare in Henry V has King Henry say "I was not angry since I came to France/Until this instant" when he sees a bunch of slaughtered boys.
• Happens in too many operas to count. Of course, rather than saying "I'm happy", characters will be singing "Sono felice", but it's the same idea.
• Act II of Into the Woods opens with the main characters singing about how perfectly happy they are—mostly to set up the huge subversion of Happily Ever After that immediately follows. They are arguably not perfectly happy even in that song; it's strongly implied that they are trying to convince themselves they are by repeating it over and over again.
• In The Musical High Spirits (an adaptation of Blithe Spirit), Charles pulls out a record his recently-returned-as-a-ghost wife played on their wedding night and finds she doesn't remember it. She claims "it's all coming back" to her, but Charles tells her, "It isn't, and I'm upset."
• In Romeo and Juliet, this is the nurse's reaction to being teased by Mercutio: "Now, afore me, I am so vexed that every part about me quivers, scurvy knave."
• Hermia in Act Three, Scene Two of "A Midsummer Night's Dream": "I am amazed and know not what to say."
• Wicked has "What is This Feeling?" in which Galinda and Elphaba first identify and then sing about the fact they loathe each other. Then, later comes the song "Thank Goodness" in which Galinda, now Glinda, sings about how happy she is, though as the song progresses, her words sound more and more hollow.
  Glinda: So I couldn't be happier / Because happy is what happens / When all your dreams come true / Well, isn't it?

Video Games

• From Cave Story, Misery's "Heavens, that felt good!" after dumping Balrog into the Labyrinth.
• The third verse of the bizarre boss fight/opera hybrid in Conker's Bad Fur Day begins with the line "now I'm really getting rather mad" (subsequent lines unprintable).
• Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords has the HK-50s' prefixes, such as "Mocking Query:" or "Condescending Statement:". HK-47 does this as well, but to a lesser extent, as he doesn't use adjectives. Usually because HK-47 is the Straight Man to the HK-50's Plucky Comic Relief. HK-47 can go on and on about philosophy with only a "Statement:" or two thrown in, but the HK-50s get more and more ridiculous as the game goes on, from "Condescending Explanation" up to "Unnecessary Statement" and "Ineffectual Command" (the last two from cut content, sadly). It gets to the point where the HK-50s actually start undermining themselves, such as by preceding an explanation of events with "Fabrication:".
• "I have fury!", Fawful's famous Intentional Engrish for Funny catchphrase in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga.
• Mass Effect:
  • Invoked by the elcor species. They speak in monotone, and preface every sentence with a statement of emotion. For example, "Anxiously: I will remain here for news." This is because their natural communication uses subtle pheremones and body language that other species can't interpret. Therefore, their Translator Microbes were designed to add these descriptions. When you hear elcor talking to each other, they don't use prefaces. And the one time an elcor speaks to you without one, he's clearly so depressed that it would be unnecessary.
    Asari Customer: Wait, did you hack your translator so you could control your kinetic language processing?
    Elcor Shopkeeper: With a sincerity such that skepticism would be deeply insulting: No.
  • This was also noted as one of many, many problems with Mass Effect: Deception.
• When you defeat Anubis in Metal Combat: Falcon's Revenge, he shouts "You have succeeded in making me angry!" as his body is exploding. A few seconds later, he gets a brand new one, and you have to fight him all over again.
• Losing in the Meltokio Coliseum with Raine in Tales of Symphonia will have her reply "This does not make me happy." Likewise, when Colette goes into overlimit, her response will be "I'm mad now."
• Warcraft III
  • In a cinematic, Malfurion Stormrage says "That angers me greatly" when he sees Scourge forces tearing down the forest around his home. He can be forgiven, though, seeing as he just woke up from a 10,000-year nap.
  • Given the game itself, the only way to express anger is vocally, and Furion is supposed to be The Stoic, so it wouldn't fit easily without looking odd. He really does get angry in the expansion, and this time it's more natural. though he's still not exempt from this. An example is "The pain is... excruciating!" said in an unnaturally bored tone of voice.
• Metal Gear
  • Raging Raven in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. See, they already had Screaming Mantis, so instead of just shrieking incoherently, Raven has to fly around telling everyone how angry she is. "Rage! RAAAAGE!"
  • There's also The Cobras from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. The Pain says "Pain" anytime you shoot him, The Fear announces his fear after you beat him, The End says "The end" anytime he sneaks up on you (which doesn't count unless Oh, Crap! counts as an emotion), The Sorrow tells us how sad he is. The only two exempt from this is The Fury, who just curses and screams as you hit him, and The Joy aka The Boss, who is too focused on the fight to announce her emotion.
  • The infamous Engrish translation of the original Metal Gear game features guards which, to let you know they were about to fall asleep at their posts, would shout "I FEEL ASLEEP!!" to announce that they were, in fact, falling asleep and safe to sneak past.
  • Whether you find it a Tear Jerker or Narmtastic, Psycho Mantis' final words are to declare how helping someone for the first time feels nice.
• Agent Superball from Telltale's Sam & Max: Freelance Police series of games. In this case, played for laughs because he's a Secret Service agent. He actually does break his emotionless demeanor once, when the duo are trying to fix Bosco using time travel; even forty-ish years ago, Stinky's is well known for its food, and Superball is frankly shocked that the president would go someplace as lowbrow as that.
  "I'm sorry. I'm gushing."
  "I'm crying from the inside."
• In Star Control 2, the Utwig's culture is built around this concept. They have a tendency to state their emotions ("You find us in a state of moderate depression instead of our normal cycle of self-destructive tendencies.") And instead of expressing their emotions, they wear masks to represent them, such as the Expression of Ultimate Gratitude, the Mask of Rampant Jubilation and Jumping With Ecstatic Glee, and, of course, the Mask of Ultimate Embarrassment and Shame. They believe that physical expression of emotions holds them back from achieving a higher level of civilization, and therefore attempt to repress it.
• Invoked in StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void by Artanis in regards to his feeling of seeing Purifier!Fenix to Vorazun. Being disconnected from the Khala makes it difficult for a Protoss to convey their emotions to one another, especially due to their lack of facial features.
• Kingdom Hearts II
  • After all of the crap Roxas had to endure, he finally confronts DiZ. By this time, Roxas is pissed-off and exhausted, but what line does he deliver? "I hate you so much!" Justified, as this is coming from a 15-year-old who had his best friend betray him and seemingly die by his hand, a girl who spoke with him just to be kind get taken away to God-Knows-Where by his tormentors, his happy life in Twilight Town revealed to be an illusion and on top of it all, has now just found out the hated foe that appears to stand before him is nothing more than a hologram and in the end, there is no escaping his fate. Really, at this point. what else is there to say?
  • A worse example is later on when Sora meets Riku, who has the form of Xehanort's Heartless. "Thinking about all the things you did makes me really mad", albeit before saying that even if he can't forgive the person in question, he's grateful that "Xehanort" helped save Kairi.
  • Hayner's line towards the start of the game, in response to Seifer spreading rumours that Hayner and his gang were stealing from people or so he thinks. "Have you ever been this ticked off before in your life? 'Cause I haven't!" It doesn't help that he sounds mildly annoyed at most.
  • Sora, on the train when leaving Twilight Town for the first time, remarks "You know... I'm sad." It's also justified, as he doesn't really know why he's sad. (It's because he has Roxas's memories, and he just said goodbye to Roxas's closest friends, whom Sora himself had only just met.)
• Interesting version shows up in EXA_PICO. Not so much as the game itself as the series' Fictionary; the language of Hymmnos places heavy emphasis on emotions or emotional state. Considering the discrepancies between what Reyvateils say outside and in their Cosmosphere, and what you have to do for them to be able to craft new songs, this is less this trope and more of them needing to be able to express their feelings better.
• The Legend of Zelda
  • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. For a particularly noticeable example, try wearing different masks as Child Link and talking to Saria. Granted, she is a child herself, so it's more understandable than most examples.
  • Also, in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, this forms one of Ghirahim's more memorable lines (with excitable bouts of spontaneous teleportation):
  Ghirahim: [Zelda] was nearly ours when that loathsome servant of the goddess snatched her away. Do you have any idea how that made me feel inside? Furious! Outraged! (teleports) Sick with anger!
• Final Fantasy:
  • In Final Fantasy VII, Cloud speaks of the physical sensations that he's feeling due to Aerith's death, saying that "My fingers are tingling. My mouth is dry. My eyes are burning!". He is immediately dismissed by Jenova, in the form, of Sephiroth, who tells him that he's not capable of experiencing the feelings that he's describing.
    Jenova: Because, you are...... a puppet.
    Cloud: I'm....... a puppet?
  • Final Fantasy VIII:
    • Fujin, though it's all part of her shouty monosyllabic schtick.
    • Part of Squall's problem relating to others in Final Fantasy VIII is that he won't engage in this. In Cid's office in Balamb Garden, when Squall asks him to handle what he's planning to rescue Balamb Garden from being hit by missiles, Cid asks him why he wants to do it. Squall's Inner Monologue runs through at least five specific reasons why he wants to take on the mission before he finally lands on "I don't know why...Who cares?" and tells Cid "My feelings have nothing to do with it, sir." Cid comments that "Quistis was right" about him and if Quistis is in the party, she can barely hide a grin. Later on in the game, as Squall is trying to carry Rinoa on his own across an intercontinental bridge to Esthar, he monologues to her unconscious body about how messed up he is and about how he's fallen for her.
  • Final Fantasy X:
    • Tidus. "You'll cry. You're gonna cry. You always cry. See? You're cryin'." "I hate you, Dad." "Save it for later." "Right...we've got a job to do, don't we?" The truly sad part about the scene is that as bitter as Tidus is toward Jecht, after learning about Jecht's life in Spira, and the fate he suffered after sacrificing himself to become Braska's Final Aeon, Tidus can't say "I hate you", with nearly as much hatred as he'd initially planned on doing.
    • If you have Kimahri talk to Seymour during the fight with Seymour Flux, which takes place after Kimahri learned that Seymour killed every Ronso that tried to stop him, he will say "You have angered Kimahri! The spirits of the Ronso will guide Kimahri's spear!" Kimahri then gets a small buff.
• The Elder Scrolls
  • One of the responses to a successful taunt in Morrowind is "That makes me... angry".
  • A line characters may speak in Oblivion: "Your presence annoys me."
  • In the dragons' language in Skyrim, "ruth" is used as a curse equivalent to "damn it". Its literal translation? "Rage".
• Touhou Project
  • In Touhou Chireiden ~ Subterranean Animism, Parsee introduces herself to Reimu (and Yukari) by cheerfully chatting about how dreadfully jealous she is of everything and everybody. This, like everything else in Touhou fandom, gets exaggerated by the fandom, often to the point where she rarely speaks about anything else.
  • Komeiji Satori from the same game turns this around by telling other people what they're thinking or feeling, whether they mind it said or not. This bothers Marisa more than it does Reimu, the latter even goading Satori to read the bullet patterns she's going to use against her.
• Taizo during the opening cutscene of Dig Dug: Digging Strike.
  NPC: I need to talk to Susumu.
  Taizo: Listen here, I'm Taizo Hori, I handled the Dig Du...
  NPC: There's no time! I must talk to Susumu!
  Taizo: Are you trying to make a fool of me? You've never heard of Taizo Hori?
  NPC: No I haven't, please! you must get me to Susumu!
  Taizo: Hmph! Now I'm angry!
• In Super Mario 64, the Whomp King says "It makes me so mad!" as he rants about being walked all over like a stepping stone. He repeats this line in the remake of Whomp's Fortress in Super Mario Galaxy 2.
  • The Wiggler in Tiny-Huge Island uses this trope three times. Before his boss battle, he complains about his house being flooded and yells "It makes me so... MAD!!!". When Mario jumps on his head, he screams "Now I'm really, really, REALLY mad!". After the battle, the Wiggler talks about how the stars at night "make me feel... peaceful."
• In Team Fortress 2, when the Heavy dominates another player, he will sometimes say "I am very happy!". With Pyrovision enabled, he may also say this when on fire.
• Occasionally, cops in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City will say "You're really making me mad!"
• "...And it makes me violently angry..." as spoken by John Marston from Red Dead Redemption, to Irish when discussing how whiskey affects the brain.
  • It works as intimidation, though, because Irish was attempting to weasel his way out of completing a job for Marston again, saying that whiskey "gives [him] the memory of a newborn babe". To which Marston replies with the above, followed by downing a shot.
• Used hilariously in Psychonauts with the G-Men in the Milkman Conspiracy. They speak in the same utter deadpan no matter what happens or what emotion they are failing to convey... "I am a grieving widow. Boo. Hoo. Hoo." "Oh no. They got Bill. He was such an excellent assassin." "I am on fire. I am uncomfortable."
• Metroid: Other M has several moments with Samus' narration.
  The word he so obviously chose, "outsider", pierced my heart.
• In Earthbound Beginnings, if Ninten does not fall for The Hippie's Bullhorn attack, the battle's running commentary will actually say, "This made Ninten angry."
• Similar to the elcor are the Glitch race from Starbound. Everything they say is prefaced by a single word stating their intended emotion.

  Glitch village shop owner: "Cozening. You know you want something."

• Played for Laughs in Fire Emblem Fates with Azura and Keaton's support conversations. Azura is notoriously stoic most of the time, so Keaton attempts to Troll her into showing emotions. Upon having her singing insulted, Azura's response is "I'm very angry with you right now"... while still being completely straight-faced.
• Played for Drama in Fire Emblem Engage. One of Sombron's children in the past talks this way, and in Creepy Monotone, emphasizing how Sombron's horribly abusive parenting stunted their emotional development, and their need to shut off their emotions as a coping mechanism and to avoid being labelled as a "defect". This child is the past version of The Hero Alear, and they even admit they're jelous of their present self's ability to openly show emotion.
  I follow orders. I do not think. I am like the Corrupted. They are awful.
• In Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon, when talking with the Exclamation Sign Unown, it makes an exclamation... while having a bored expression in its portrait.
• In Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus, Magos Faustinius stopped short of having his emotions removed entirely as many tech-priests do, but did modify himself to make them explicit and optional. As a result, he tends to state aloud what emotions he registers at a given situation, and whether he chooses to experience them or to quarantine them in his neuro-vaults. Likewise, Tech-Acquisitor Scaevola often gives her comments emotional tags such as [Delight] or [Fascination intensifies].

Visual Novels

• In Katawa Shoujo, Shizune gets one up over Hisao by abandoning him in town, leaving him with a note informing him that, if he manages to find his way back to school, she'll have a lot of work for him to do as part of the Student Council.
  Hisao: I crush the note in my fist dramatically, but no one is there to see it, and that makes me sad.
• Hatoful Boyfriend's characters don't have visually represented emotions, because they each have one basic portrait and each portrait is a stock photo of a bird. They seem to have expressions in-universe which the protagonist helpfully notes in the narration, but one character, Fujishiro Nageki, is so opaque and withdrawn-seeming that he does actually have to tell her what he's feeling when what he's feeling isn't basically snark or disdain. Sakazaki Yuuya, too, says a few times that the protagonist has made him very happy - he's just about always smiling, especially when he's unhappy.
• Seriously spoileriffic example from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies: When you finally corner the phantom, while he's also making a seriously weird, loose-masked terrified face, he's also screaming out about himself being afraid, and feeling fear. What justifies this, however, and moves it into effective territory, is that the phantom is a complete and utter sociopath who doesn't feel emotions at all, or didn't until now. It's almost certain the fact he realizes he's finally feeling something, and that the feeling's fear, is only freaking him out even more.

Web Animation

• At one point in Dusk's Dawn, the villain outright states that he is evil, in case that wasn't clear enough already.
• Red vs. Blue:
  • Caboose does this a few times.
    Caboose: Now I am thinking about Kittens... Kittens covered in spikes... That makes me angry...
    [primal scream as he jumps into a fight and slaughters everyone]
    Caboose: My name, is Michael J. Caboose! And. I. HATE. BABIES!
  • Felix does this at one point after discovering that the only way the key can work is if he kills Doyle, whom he took the key from.
    Felix: I! AM EXTREMELY! FRUSTRATED!
• If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device: Rogal Dorn expresses everything in calm, flat and sometimes obvious or irrelevant statements, including his emotions. It's a pretty good achievement that he manages to be less emotionally expressive than his usual conversation partner, the Emperor, who can only converse through a text-to-speech device.
• In one episode of "Battlefor Dream Island:The Power Of Two", during his elimination Lightning exclaims that he is so angry he could just explode.

Webcomics

• Penny Arcade
  • The Prince from Prince of Persia: Warrior Within "smolders with generic rage".
  • Also, Gabe wishes he could hate you to death.
• 8-Bit Theater has "Your continued attacks fill me with equal parts rage and anger."
• Exterminatus Now has an instance similar to the Ghostbusters (1984) example in this strip.
• This Achewood comic.
• The excruciatingly insecure Tavros Nitram from Homestuck eventually tries to get some self-confidence. Unfortunately, he thinks this means constantly stating how confident he is and that what he is saying and doing is exactly what a confident person would say and do.
• Sandra and Woo has an eagle who is "sad and a little bit angry" that Woo began eating her eggs after she caught him for food. It's such a Mood Killer that she kicks him out of her nest without eating him.
  Eagle: You see, the plan was that I would eat you.
  Woo: You don't happen to have any salt, do you?
• In The Story of Anima, Jade's seemingly stoic bodyguard Pocket is merely incapable of expressing his emotions, so he's decided to try vocalizing them. His timing couldn't be worse.
• In Tripping Over You, when Eli finds out in quick succession that his son is dating a man and intends to drop out of school, and his nephew was sent to the hospital under mysterious circumstances, he quite calmly says that "This could not be any more overwhelming" while sorting things out.
• In Questionable Content, after seeing her apartment and the bar in which she works burn down, Brun states that she is "becoming upset" with no change in demeanor other than a slight trembling. Justified as she apparently has trouble expressing emotion.
• El Goonish Shive:
  • In this strip, the Omega Goo has this to say after Ellen flees: "Target has fled. Proceeding with a prepared set of curse words in order to imitate anger. Damn. Crap. F--"
  • In the EGS:NP storyline "Jestful Statement", Grace is frustrated that nobody can seem to pick up on when she's kidding, and Diane tells her about the Elcor:
    Diane: For example, concerned clarification: That was not a suggestion. Do not do that.
    Grace: Insincere assurance: I wouldn't dream of it!
• Tails Gets Trolled has this particularly hilarious line, said by Sonic after a run-in with the trolls.
  Sonic: I'm so mad, I'm gonna have sex with my girlfriend so I won't be so mad.
• A "talking about your feelings" example comes in one arc of General Protection Fault, in which Ki catches Sharon and a few others looking through the draft of her unfinished fantasy novel, which Sharon stumbled upon in the company's server. After Sharon apologizes, Ki explains to Sharon that she's angry about her betraying her trust and violating her privacy, more as a friend than a system user.

Web Original

• I haz a mad. You iz it.
• Sung merrily by Randy of Manwhores: "Broken heart. Sad feelings. Suicidal tendencies, are on my mind. I'm gonna kill myself. Doo, doo, dee, doo, I'm gonna kill myself." during his emotional downward spiral, before engaging in an incredibly transparent I Have This Friend dialogue with a sympathetic bartender.
• Captain Hammer, in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog: "Oh, I'm in pain! I think this is what pain feels like!" Justified in that as a Nigh-Invulnerable superhero (and kind of a Jerkass), he's not as familiar with pain as his archnemesis.
• The "angry gorilla" in Auto-Tune the News on YouTube, while not acting very angry, continuously expresses verbally how angry he is.
• The Irate Gamer does this constantly.
• ProJared stated he felt anger after playing Sonic Free Riders in his Kinect review video because the very poor motion control hurt his back.
• Usually capable of literally explosive... well, anything, if The Nostalgia Critic isn't feeling angry or upset but tries to come off as feeling the emotion then he'll prove himself to be a horrible actor.
• Towards the end of Suburban Knights, (the third anniversary special for the Channel Awesome website) there's a huge battle with many participants, one of whom is a witch launching lightning bolts all over the place. Suede calmly walks over to her and quietly says "I find that very vexing" before knocking her out with a single punch.
• Almost every line of A Trailer for Every Academy Award Winning Movie Ever is deliberately like this, as part of the lampshade-heavy writing style.
• Both of my feet hurt and it makes me mad.
• In episode 49 of Welcome to Night Vale, Carlos explains "some, but not all" of the emotions he felt while figuring out how the Old Oak Doors work.
• In the Ultra Fast Pony episode "The Cheesen One", a mother is concerned about her baby's imminent violent death, saying, "That really cheeses me off."
• The Weather: Robby Rackleff's characters have the tendency to state their feelings, such as this line:
  I was having a terrible day, I can not even begin to tell you about it! But here is the thing, as soon as I came across you, I knew that the day was a lot better! (...) I'm having a great day now!

Western Animation

• In the Felix the Cat TV Cartoon "Atomic Drive Explosion of Master Cylinder", Felix insults Master Cylinder, which briefly shorts him out, and afterwards, he tells Felix that he's made him angry.
• Care Bears:
  • Used constantly in Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-Lot. Granted, the show is partially to help children learn to deal with their emotions, but that doesn't make it any less annoying.
  • It's still used in the follow-up series Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot, although to a lesser extent.
• Ni Hao, Kai-Lan uses it in the exact same way, for the exact same reason.
• Played with in Chowder. Truffles once has to resort to telling everyone that she's angry because she had her voice changed by a radio dial thing and her new voice never sounds anything but calm.
• Cartoon character Droopy does this all the time. ("You know what? I'm happy.") Justified in that it's the only way to tell when he is happy. And because... well, because it's funny. Parodied in a few cartoons, where Droopy would deliver this line after showing a traditional exaggerated response, like jumping around shouting "Yahoo!" after receiving a massive reward for catching an escaped convict. And if you ever hear him say "You know what? That makes me mad," head for the hills because his Berserk Button has been hit, and you'd better hope he's feeling charitable enough to actually let you run away. Usually this line is followed after his enemy does something stupid when Droopy's pouting. Only the fox was Genre Savvy enough to know that it's a cue that Droopy's about to be pushed too far (and plus, the offer of delicious steak was just too good to pass up). The bull and the dragon, however, didn't see what was coming until their asses were kicked into next week. And in "Homesteader Droopy", it's his infant son that does this.
• The Daffy cartoon "Birth of a Notion" has an animated Peter Lorre quietly threatening his dog Leopold, "Because I will do terrible, horrible, things if I get angry", in a very soft voice, as all the while he keeps breaking a baseball bat into kindling over his knees.
  • Parodied in "The Scarlet Pumpernickel." In Daffy's story, Porky and Melissa's emotions are described as "simply furious" and "simply delighted." With the two respective characters flatly declaring that they feel them. Subverted immediately afterwards when Porky shows genuine frustration over Melissa's attraction to The Scarlet Pumpernickel.
• Futurama
  • The Trope Namer is ex-finale episode "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings", in which Fry's complete incompetence at writing dialog causes him to fill an opera with the trope. The Robot Devil calls him out on it, only to fall victim to the trope himself.
  • It was used straight in an earlier Valentine's Day episode where alien conqueror Lrrr sampled a bag of candy hearts and received one with the word "wuv" written on it: "This concept of 'wuv' confuses and infuriates us!"
  • Futurama seems to like this trope (usually making fun of it). In "Bendless Love", Bender bends Professor Farnsworth's back multiple ways, with position he's in for most of the episode leaving him unusually happy, presumably due to blood flow pooling in the back of his brain. At the end when he's asked to bend him back to normal, he actually ends up bending him even more, resulting in Professor Farnsworth stating, "I'm sad now."
  • "Morbo is pleased, but sticky."
  • "Would a big, hallucinatin' baby do THIS?" -cries and whimpers- "I'm scared!"
  • Calculon at the end of "Bend Her": "your death fills me with sorrow, ANGER, fear, every emotion an actor can display." (he over-acts each emotion as he says it).
    • Calculon also at one point completely deadpans the line "I'm filled with a large number of powerful emotions", though this was for a scene on All My Circuits.
  • "Being a robot's great, but we don't have emotions, and sometimes that makes me very sad [cries]."
  • Bender says "I find that offensive!" several times.
  • Done throughout the entire episode of "I Second That Emotion".
  • "I am literally angry with rage!"
  • "I'm as angry as I've ever been!"
  • Farnsworth does this twice in "The Sting." First, after Leela blames herself for Fry's death, he pats her on the back, tells her it's not her fault, then turns to the others and announces "I'm lying to make her feel better!" Then when Leela starts to think Fry's alive and insists he's "still out there", Farnsworth tries to wisecrack, "Of course he is... As a frozen corpse in outer space! Ohohoho! Oho, oh... now I made myself sad".
  • "Fry stood me up and died? I'm so angry! I mean, I'm so sad. But I'm still angry! But also sad. Can I be both?...Then that's what I am!"
  • In the episode "Rebirth", a robot version of Fry indistinguishable from the original Fry is created by feeding surveillance footage of the office's urinal into the AI. This is possible because Fry talks about himself while he's using it.
    Fry: (using the urinal) I sure love Leela.
• American Dad! did this once. Francine walks in and is alerted to a zany scheme that Stan has been up to, but gives no reaction whatsoever. Klaus is amazed that she is taking the news remarkably well to which she responds:
  Francine: Oh, I'm filled with rage. It's just that the Botox has left my face paralyzed. Am I scowling now? I want to be scowling.
• Looney Tunes: Marvin the Martian often says "You have made me very angry! *huff, puff* Very angry indeed!". He can emote with the shape of his eyes and body language at times, but given the nature of the cartoons, Marvin would often end up unable to show this, such as being disintegrated but for his eyes. Also, his voice doesn't emote... even after having been disintegrated. Once he said, "I'm not angry. Just very, very, hurt." This was immediately after a rocket ship from Earth had literally crashed into the telescope he was looking through, and he pulled himself out of the debris.
• The Land Before Time TV series saw fit to write a song called: "I feel so happy." Unfortunately, someone at the studio thought it would be a good idea to make it a recurring song.
• Mission Hill has an internal example, when the gay neighbors Wally and Gus reveal they fell in love during the filming of a movie. Wally, the director, cast Gus as an alien robot. But since Gus only has one facial expression, he had to make it obvious when he was angry by... installing two lights on his costume that went from "Calm" to "Angry!" Needless to say, the movie would have made Ed Wood proud, even curing a depressed man's sadness!
• In the Peanuts TV special He's a Bully, Charlie Brown, Peppermint Patty says "My jealousy has overcome my reason!". Made especially Narmtastic by the delivery of the child actor. Which is what makes it even funnier, because you know that the child has no idea what they're actually talking about, they're just repeating the lines they were told to say.
• The Simpsons
  • Parodied in the episode "Mobile Homer". The made-for-TV movie that Marge watches is practically nothing but That Makes Me Feel Angry moments. And since it was a parody of Lifetime movies of the week, that just makes it funnier.
  • The episode "Skinner's Sense of Snow" features a low-budget Christmas movie entitled The Christmas that Almost Wasn't But then Was in which a smiling elf walks onscreen only to declare "I'm happy" before walking off-screen again.
  • In "Hurricane Neddy", as Ned Flanders is chewing out his neighbors, he turns to Bart:
    Bart: Hey, back off, man!
    Ned: Okay, duuuuuuuude! I wouldn't want you to have a cow, maaaaaaaaaan. Here's a catchphrase you better learn for your adult years: "Hey, buddy, GOT A QUARTER?"!
    (everyone gasps)
    Bart: I am shocked and appalled.
  • Employed masterfully by mobster Fat Tony, who is so obsessed with coming off as Wicked Cultured that he articulates his every thought in absurdly precise language — and boy, is it ever chilling. ("I am not so much disappointed, as I am blinded by rage.")
  • Deep Space Homer gave us this gem: "You know Homer when I first heard about this I went through a wide range of emotions. First I was nervous. Then anxious. Then apprehensive. Then kinda sleepy. Then worried. And then concerned.
  • Homer and Marge after seeing a self-help seminar.
    Homer: Marge, I'm feeling a lot of shame right now.
    Marge: I'm hearing that you feel a lot of shame.
    Homer: And I feel that you hear my shame.
    Marge: I'm feeling annoyance and frustration, but also tolerance.
    Homer: I feel validated by that.
    Marge: Good! I'm glad we had this talk.
    Homer: Me too. (Walks away happily whistling)
  • In Treehouse of Horror IX segment "Starship Poopers" while on Jerry Springer, this conversation occurred:
    Jerry: Homer, how did it feel to find out that your baby was fathered by a drooling space octopus?
    Homer: I felt angry, Jerry. Angry and tired.
  • Defied in "Miracle of Evergreen Terrace" while Marge talks to Kent Brockman after the family was allegedly robbed:
    Kent: How do you feel about being robbed?
    Marge: How do you think I feel?
    Kent: Absolutely devastated. "Absolutely devastated." The honest words of a heartbroken mother.
• Pretty much the entire point of The Transporters, a series of animations designed to help autistic children read facial expressions and understand the causes of emotions.
• Seems clearly inspired by Thomas & Friends, which is also popular with autistic children for similar reasons. The engines' emotions are always easy to read. The shows play it straight twice in the course of a minute in "Misty Island Rescue". Thomas tells the engines how losing an important bit of cargo "makes me feel badly", and Sir Topham Hatt says, when he enters, "that makes me cross".
• The Fantastic Four (1978): When X-Men: The Animated Series foe Magneto gets angry, things begin to happen!
• Project Gee Ke R had a Stoic Big Bad that spoke in an even monotone most of the time, with no difference between normal speaking, "I'm filled with utter joy", and "I am furious, gentlemen. Positively livid."
• The Real Ghostbusters: Egon, at Winston's birthday party, deadpans to him "I just want to let you know... I'm having a wonderful time."
• Don Carnage of TaleSpin has "Ooooh, [you/they/it] make(s) me so angry!" as one of his catchphrases.
• Word for word by Superboy in Young Justice (2010). As a six-month-old clone he's not very good at expressing his emotions.
• Mad Stan in Batman Beyond at one point offers "Now I'm REALLY mad!" during a fight with Batman. In case you somehow couldn't tell by the 5+ minute fight scene he'd already been through and his constant rantings against the evils of information.
• Played straight, then inverted with a case of Tranquil Fury in The Ren & Stimpy Show for the episode "Sven Höek", where Ren announces "I'm so angry" and describes various horrible things he's going to do to Stimpy and Sven, all in a semi-insane happy tone of voice.

  Ren: "YOOOOOOOUUUUUUU! BOTH OF YOU! Oh what I'm gonna do to you... I'm so angry!"

• A staple of the Mister Rogers' Neighborhood spin-off Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. They sing about it, too.
• Done in the second episode of Sonic Boom when Amy organizes a councilor session between a sleep-deprived Sonic and an Eggman who's crashing in his house. Amy suggests having Sonic express his annoyance with the Doctor in this manner.
  Amy: Let's frame our statements with "When you do this, it makes me feel this."
  Sonic: Okay, let's see, umm... When you live here, it makes me feel angry. ...Because you're a horrible roommate and nobody in this house likes you.
• On Regular Show, besides little kids, Quips' wife Monica is the only person who finds him funny, but she's incapable of laughter and can only express it in words.
  Monica: He is so funny.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In "One Bad Apple", Sweetie Belle responds to Babs Seed's bullying of the Cutie Mark Crusaders by asking herself "Why do I feel like crying?". She does when Babs commandeers their treehouse.
• The Transformers has Bruticus, a Combining Mecha formed from the Combaticons. Unfortunately, even though four of his five components are of significantly above-average intelligence, the resulting gestalt mind is dumb as a stump (which is probably Brawl's fault). This leads to a supposedly threatening line in "Starscream's Brigade" being delivered in entirely deadpan Hulk Speak.
  Bruticus: Bruticus angry. Bruticus... devastate... Devastator.
• Played for Laughs in Total Drama Presents the Ridonculous Race with Crimson and Ennui. They almost always look completely impassive and speak in a dull monotone, but will describe their own, or the other's, feelings for the audience.
  Crimson: What's wrong?
  Ennui: ...Nothing.
  Crimson: But you're so emotional.
• This is often used on Blue's Clues and is often combined with the show's particular brand of Fake Interactivity. There were also at least a couple of episodes specifically about feelings and, of course, this trope was right at the fore. A typical example of how this might go...
  Joe: So, tell me, do you think Felt Friend Sam is feeling happy, or sad? ... ...
  Kid's Voice: Sad!
  Joe: That's right! Sam is sad because Anna wouldn't share with him.
• Aqua Teen Hunger Force: "The Shaving" opens with Meatwad wearing a Hulk face mask for Halloween:
  Meatwad: Just so you'll know...you won't like me when I'm angry.
  Master Shake: (brandishing a sword) I don't like you anyway. Now hold still. You're about to become Hall and Oates.
• In He-Man and She-Ra: A Christmas Special, after Skeletor betrays Horde Prime to save the Earth children, he wonders if Horde Prime will be angry with him. Horde Prime immediately responds "You have made me angry, Skeletor! Very angry, indeed!" before preparing to blast Skeletor. He-Man and She-Ra promptly toss him into deep space.
• In the Super Duper Sumos episode "Honor Thy Phather", Mamoo gets covered in squid ink and says, out of the blue, "In truth, that makes me mad!"
• In the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Nature Pants", at one point Patrick says "Patrick sad!" and later, "Patrick itchy!".
• During a flashback in the 101 Dalmatian Street episode "It's My Party", Dawkins responds to being forced to pose in a dress with "Feeling anger." He has also said "Feeling sadness." in the episode "All Fired Up".
• The Patrick Star Show: In "FitzPatrick", when Fitz insults the audience, Lady Upturn stands up and declares, "I am offended!"
• Work It Out Wombats!: In "The Treeborhood Harvest Day," fog ruins the harvest. This causes JunJun to sing "This fog is so bad / It is making me sad."

Real Life

• This is the reason for the interest around Lydia Callis. She was the sign language interpreter when Mayor Bloomberg of New York City gave several televised addresses before Hurricane Sandy hit and received a lot of attention for what was seen as an over-the-top and entertaining interpretation. This interview sums up her job, and the necessity of exaggerated body language, quite well.
  • Much of American Sign Language is the use of Non-Manual Markers (facial expressions). If you need to convey happiness, look ecstatic. If you need to convey sadness, look miserable. It can also help those who don't even speak the language to get some idea of what you're saying.
• When Sartin and MacLennon reviewed FATAL, one of the first things they mentioned was the clinical, unemotional, wannabe-professional attitude the creator adopted on message boards when discussing the game, and how unsettling they found it (which is both describing an example of this trope and an example in and of itself).
• People sometimes really do say things like this if their emotional display leaves their feelings ambiguous. An example: some people (mainly women) will shed Tears of Joy after orgasm, but will usually tell their lover they aren't sad or upset if they seem concerned.

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