Slasher Smile / Western Animation

A slasher using a gun? Blasphemy!

Examples of Slasher Smile in western animation.

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• Many cartoon sharks grin at their victims as they sneak up from behind. For instance, the Finding Nemo promotional posters featured a blood-crazed Bruce looming over Dory and Marlin.
  • Possibly an example of Truth in Television, or, more accurately, Urban Legend In Television. In the past, some people believed that sharks grinned and winked as they moved in for the kill. In actual fact, sharks' jaws swing down and forward to allow them to bite, and a membrane moves to cover their eyes so that they don't get damaged in the assault. The look certainly gives the appearance of a scary grin, which may go some way to explain why sharks are such demonised predators. It seems unlikely that anyone being attacked by a shark would care whether it looked like it was grinning or not.
  • In a similar vein: "I grin at thee, thou grinning whale."
• Amphibia:
  • Maddie has several moments where she sports an unsettling ear-to-ear grin which could haunt your nightmares, although she's actually a really chill person. One of the most notable instances is the grin she gives Barry while cackling, which is not a case of her looking more creepy that she means to be, in "Sasha's Angels".
  • General Yunan may be funny and silly, but when she intends to kill and her blood starts rushing, she looks like this.
  • Andrias smiles quite unsettlingly during and after the build-up to his reveal that he was Evil All Along, in "True Colors".
  • Though it's not quite a Glasgow Grin, the Cloak-bot grins a lot, most notably when it's getting close to killing Anne and it lets out an unsettling laugh to go with it.
  • Darcy has quite a few intimidating grins while they possess a human body, including a truly psychotic ear-to-ear grin after they cut off Grime's arm.
• In Avatar: The Last Airbender, Azula's iconic Psychotic Smirk gradually morphs into one of these over the course of the last few episodes of the series.
  • Her father, Fire Lord Ozai, also sports one in the finale when he's attempting to burn down the entire Earth Kingdom.
  • Toph's first sign of emotion in the series after winning the Earth Rumble tournament is to grin◊ like the boss she is.
  • Sokka has a truly epic one◊, when he trying to sneak up on Aang during training which has long since become meme-bait.
• The Grim Reaper in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes flashes one of these whenever he's about to fight someone. (Or whenever he's beaten them.)
• Can you believe the titular duo from Beavis And Butthead can pull of one? Well, they both can and it's downright terrifying when they do. Just check out one here◊.
• Kevin 11 did this very often in the original Ben 10. He stopped doing this after reforming in Alien Force... Then starts doing it again in Season 1 of Ultimate Alien after being turned insane again.
• The twin kittens in Best Ed give these all the time, the only time they DROP their smile is at Buddy the Squirrel, who gives an Oh, Crap! moment whenever they do.
• William Dunbar, of all people in Code Lyoko displays this while in Lyoko while possessed by XANA after the ending of the third season. This is helped by the fact that he is given a BFS to use as a weapon while backed up by Monsters.
• Codename: Kids Next Door: The Delightful Children alternate between giving slasher smiles, psychotic smirks, or just smiling calmly. And yes, it's creepy.
• Fred in the Courage the Cowardly Dog episode "Freaky Fred" wears one of these almost constantly. And speaks in prose in a delicious voice. Ironically, despite being one of the most genuinely and memorably disturbing characters in the series he's actually not such a bad fellow... provided you don't get locked in a room with him and his shaver, of course.
• Wayne Cramp of The Cramp Twins has this as a default expression.
• Danny Phantom villain Dark Danny does this quite frequently — it's part of his charm. Vlad Plasmius also gives us one from time to time when he's feeling especially deranged, but he mostly sticks to his Psychotic Smirk.
• Daria's non-canon pilot has Daria's famous smirk◊ as she performs a Batman Gambit to get petty revenge on Kevin. Averted in the show proper, where Daria (now much calmer and deadpan) is instead prone to the occasional Mona Lisa Smile.
• Ed, Edd n Eddy: Eddy's Older Brother gives a particularly creepy one of these◊ in The Movie.
  • In a more comedic example, The Kanker Sisters were prone to these too.
  • So was Sarah.
  • And Eddy whenever he's cooking up a scam.
  • Kevin too, right before he'd beat up one of the Eds.
• Mr. Crocker from The Fairly OddParents! is an expert in these kinds of smiles. That grin is made even funnier when it shatters. Complete with a sound of breaking glass.
• Near the end of an episode of Family Guy, New Brian actually does give this when he tells Stewie of him using Rupert the Teddy Bear for his pleasure, giving out the evilest slasher smile he ever gave.
  • Stewie gives one in "A Very Special Family Guy Freakin' Christmas" when he gets his picture taken with Santa.
  • In "Road to the Multiverse", Bunny!Tom Tucker has one of these before he and the rest of the Disneyfied characters beat up Mort.
• Final Space: Grinning from ear-to-ear with a malevolent look in one's eyes and brows is a telltale sign of Demonic Possession by Invictus. Invictus' little Antichrist the Lord Commander himself sports a grin that would almost make Invictus proud when he's doing something really nasty or devious.
• Minor Freakazoid! character Emmitt Nervend is most notable for his large, mirthless rictus grin.
• In Gravity Falls, "Bipper" (Bill Cipher while possessing Dipper's body seems to be wearing one of these at almost all times. Considering he's a psychopathic dream demon bent on bringing about the end of the world who delights in causing Dipper's body insufferable torture while inside it, this seems rather appropriate, despite even how unnerving it is to see a character we know well look suddenly so malevolent. The artists even went as far as to slightly change the way his teeth and gums look in order to make it especially creepy.
• Hazbin Hotel
  • Alastor has one of these all the time because he sees smiling as a show of power and dominance, meaning anyone who frowns in his field of vision he will consider weak regardless of their objective strength. His Nightmare Face makes it even more hellaciously creepy than it usually is.
  • The inhabitants of Cannibal Town can actually be quite friendly and smile a lot... but it's still sharp-toothed cannibals smiling at you with all the teeth. Much as with Alastor, it would be hard to draw a line for when it's not a Slasher Smile.
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas!: The Grinch smiles in a sinister fashion when he gets his "wonderful, awful idea" to impersonate Santa Claus and steal Christmas.
• Invader Zim typically dons one of these before unleashing doom on the Puny Earthlings, more-likely-than-not followed by an Evil Laugh.
• Invincible (2021): When the Sequids gain a focal host for their Hive Mind in the form of one of the astronauts sent to Mars, said host has a Slasher Smile whilst directing the Sequids to overwhelm the Martian race.
• Jimmy Two-Shoes: Heloise, being Heloise, is prone to these. It's strangely adorable on her.
• Mr. Cat from Kaeloo does this quite often, usually before using a chainsaw on Quack Quack.
• Kim Possible herself flashes one◊ to Drakken in Kim Possible Movie: So the Drama before punching him in the face so hard he flies across the room, which is also the first time she directly hits him in the series. She also has a tendency to flash Psychotic Smirks. Considering the fact that she's the good guy, it's rather unsettling.
• The Legend of Vox Machina: Percy's get more and more frightening as his Roaring Rampage of Revenge goes on, beginning to resemble a Jagged Mouth much like that of Orthax, the demon possessing him.
• Legion of Super Heroes (2006): in the episode "Cry Wolf" Timber Wolf did this showing us that he was under the nanite's influence
  • In his debut episode, his father also demonstrated this as he was going through his Villainous Breakdown while he released his mutated animals to go after the Legion.
• Combined with The Looney Tunes Show song "We Are in Love", it might be hard◊ to look at Lola the same way anymore◊.
• The Loud House: Lola makes several smiles when she plans revenge on her sisters for slighting her in their fake stories about making her mad.
• On Madeline, Pepito gets a few in the "Bad Bat Hat" song. Pepito being the wearer of said hat and the song being about him being a naughty boy.
• Vendetta from Making Fiends has shown one out of aggression and frustration in the episode Super Evil.
• Psycho, aka "Smiley," The Dragon from Max Steel.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic examples:
  • Pinkie Pie gives us an absolutely terrifying example in "Party of One".
  • Later on in Season 2's "Lesson Zero", Twilight Sparkle's Sanity Slippage results in a rapidly-worsening succession of disturbing Unsmiles. Taken out of context, these can result in some severe horror. This is probably the most famous "smile" she gives.
  • Discord from Season 2 also gives a nice one when he pretty much Force Chokes the mane cast.
  • Then there's Princess Cadence Actually an impostor in "A Canterlot Wedding, Part 1" when she imprisons Twilight Sparkle.
  • Trixie gives a nice one in the beginning of "Magic Duel".
  • In "Just for Sidekicks", Spike warns the Cutie Mark Crusaders not to leave the train in the Crystal Empire. In response, they each get one before subjecting him to Tickle Torture.
  • Rarity gives a pretty good one in Inspiration Manifestation when she shows off her new dress line she made while under the influence of the eponymous spell.
  • The Evil Doppelgänger lookalike of Twilight Sparkle in "The Mean 6" gives a very creepy one when she is overpowering Chrysalis. The Fluttershy clone also has a good one when insulting the forest animals, as does Rarity's clone when hoarding from the real Applejack and Rainbow Dash.
  • From the Season 8 finale after her true nature is revealed, Cozy Glow sports these a lot, especially when she is imprisoned in Tartarus. The last of these mentioned even provides the image for the episode's recap page.
• The Penguins of Madagascar: Maurice flashes one after knocking out King Julien with a rolling pin in the episode "Kingdom Come."
• Phineas and Ferb: Candace flashes these a lot, mostly when she's in busting mode and gets Mom to come out just before the big idea's disappearance. Doofenshmirtz also flashes these as well.
• The Powerpuff Girls
  • Buttercup gets◊ a◊ few◊ in "Moral Decay". Also Blossom gives a rather sinister grin during the ending towards Buttercup.
  • Him is a master at doing this.
• ReBoot's Hexadecimal had many masks with different emotions, with which she expressed herself, but her Slasher Smile mask is arguably the most (in)famous of all. Scarcely an episode went by without her using it at least once, and she always insisted on sticking her face right up against the camera when she used it.
  • In the Season 2 finale Megabyte gives one to Bob before launching him into a web portal.
• During his mental breakdowns Ren of The Ren & Stimpy Show would often sport one of these.
• Angelica of Rugrats would sometimes indulge in one of these.
• In The Spectacular Spider-Man, Green Goblin possesses one that is quite creepy combined with his Evil Laugh and Sadistic One-Liners.
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  • In "Waiting", SpongeBob mails in for a free prize for a box of Kelpo cereal. He waits for it at the mailbox for an impossibly long time because he wants to see the mailman deliver it. He finally gets it, and it turns out to be a toy. Patrick, his idiot starfish friend, "breaks" it (Squidward arrives later on and says it's supposed to do that). SpongeBob just has a frozen smile on his face as he looks down at it. The smile stays on the entire following conversation:
    SpongeBob & Patrick: It's beautiful. (Patrick touches it and its springs pop out)
    Patrick: SpongeBob?
    SpongeBob: I waited so long...
    Patrick: SpongeBob?
    SpongeBob: And you broke it...
    Patrick: You okay, buddy?
    SpongeBob: Yes, yes I'm okay.
    Patrick: (sighs) For a sec, I...
    SpongeBob: (face shifts to fury) YOU! YOU RUINED MY FREE TOY!!!
  • Also, "I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU, PATRICK!!"
  • In "I Heart Dancing", Squidward has one when SpongeBob is about to pass out.
  • In his own episode, Bubble Bass shows off a particularly nasty one◊ when he got the idea to have Spongebob and Patrick do all of his moving for him.
• Jasper of Steven Universe gives of an especially menacing◊ smile when fusing with Lapis.
• Storm Hawks: Most if not all of the villains are fond of making wide, malevolent grins.
• In Tangled: The Series, The "Enchanted Girl"/ Zhan Tiri wears these smiles quite often.
• In Teen Titans (2003), episode "Nevermore", Raven's inner demon surfaces against Doctor Light, and she shows a toothy and lopsided smile along with glowing eyes which promise nothing but pain and fear.
• Duncan from Total Drama shows these from time to time. More so in the second season.
  • Mike's Split Personality Mal is also fond of giving them in the fifth season.
  • The Ice Dancers both give one in the last episode.
• Try to name someone in The Venture Brothers who hasn't done one yet.
• Wakfu: Qilby is prone to grinning like a total psycho a lot after he merges with the Eliacube.
• Xiaolin Showdown: Omi sports a lot of malicious grins when he's converted to the Heylin side and becomes a Blood Knight Creepy Child.
• Played for Laughs on Young Justice (2010) when Green Beetle allows Megan to read his mind and puts on an epically intimidating grin while explaining it's important they all trust each other. He's new to human customs and thought all smiles were friendly.
  Green Beetle: [Beat] Does my smile displease? Is this not how humans convey friendship and put each other at ease?