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"Finnick smiles his angelic smile. Angelic like the spirit of death that descended into Egypt in the old religious tale to strike down the house of the wicked."

A smile is supposed to be a reassuring expression, indicating happiness and complete absence of angst and danger. If someone's smiling, it means all is well with the world...

...unless it's a Cheshire Cat Grin, which always denotes that someone's in for it.

The Cheshire Cat Grin is an expression made by The Trickster who's up to something, and that "something" never bodes well for the person they are smiling at. Usually, it involves their total humiliation — occasionally it involves mortal danger. A typical scenario runs something like this:

Character A: Wait, we need someone to dress in a bikini, swim across a river full of piranhas, placate the pride of man-eating lions with the power of dance and steal the sacred ruby out from under Lord Evil's nose? Who's the poor fool who's gotta do all that?
Character B: (grins at character A)
Gilligan Cut to character A dressed in a bikini swimming across a river full of piranhas to placate the pride of man-eating lions with the power of dance so he can steal the sacred ruby out from under Lord Evil's nose.

Generally, this is drawn as a smile with far too many teeth on display, where the mouth doesn't match up with the eyes, going practically from ear to ear. For example, the mouth may be a broad grin, but the eyes definitely have a wicked gleam in them. It occasionally has sexual connotations, particularly when there's a predatory quality about the grin.

Strangely, it's usually done by heroes who have a Zany Scheme in mind, rather than by villains, who tend to prefer the Psychotic Smirk or the Slasher Smile; a rough villainous equivalent would be to start laughing ominously, which is not a good thing for the hero to hear when cornering them. Heroes and heroines who are slightly eccentric — or slightly deranged — favour the Cheshire Cat Grin. If it's an anime, expect a Playful Cat Smile instead. Common trait for The Gadfly, and serves as a warning that they're going to pull their antics on someone. If this smile is a permanent feature, it's a subtrope of Frozen Face; if it's cut into the character's face, it's a Glasgow Grin. Shares living space with The Un-Smile. If you ever see someone with the Cheshire Cat Grin in real life, vacate the premises before you can discover what they're smiling about. Or, for that matter, how their face manages to do that.

Although Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is considered the Trope Namer, the term "grin like a Cheshire cat" was actually common in Britain during Lewis Carroll's time. The origin is uncertain; the most likely sources are some Cheshire cheeses that were molded into the shape of smiling cats, and a famous inn in Cheshire that had a painted grinning lion on the door.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • Lots of the eponymous Titans of Attack on Titan sport unnerving grins, even when they logically should be in pain. For some these cross the boundary into Glasgow Grin because of the fact they're missing bits of skin.
  • In The Big O, Jason Beck sports one.
  • Black Butler:
    • Undertaker has a very nice one.
    • Not to mention Ciel. When he fakes a smile, it's adorable. When he gives a real smile... It probably means someone is about to get hurt. Badly.
    • And in one of the OVAs? Grelle literally had the Cheshire's smile while playing the Cheshire Cat!
  • Bleach:
  • Milly Ashford of Code Geass pulls these a lot when she's teasing her friends or getting an idea for a School Festival.
  • Ed from Cowboy Bebop sports one perpetually, even her little avatar. Very appropriate, given her cat-like nature.
  • Road Kamelot of D.Gray-Man, several times. Along with some of the AKUMA. Hell, the Earl probably counts as well.
  • Dragon Ball:
    • Goku as a kid in the original Dragon Ball often gave these kinds of smiles when he was up to something especially mischievous.
    • Krilin also gives Cheshire Cat Grins when he's thinking up a dirty plan or find something funny at someone's else expense; mostly Goku and Vegeta in Dragon Ball Z.
  • Deviant genius Hiruma from Eyeshield 21 has this as one of his default expressions, to the point where those new to the series — or complete non-fans — can identify him as "the one with the teeth."
  • Dee Laytner, from the FAKE manga and anime, is a good example of a grin with sexual overtones, while he's plotting how to seduce Ryo. Occasionally, Dee's expression is downright scary, and it leads Ryo to comment, "You're grinning like the Cheshire Cat." Here, have a look.
  • Haruko of FLCL, usually when she's about to be entertained, between the Playful Cat Smile and Slasher Smile stages. It's very, very much a bad thing for Haruko to be entertained.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist:The Gold-Tooth Alchemist often wore a bizarrely-wide grin at times when there was no discernible reason for anyone to be smiling. Add the unfocused eyes and it moves into Slasher Smile territory.
  • Legendary schemer and thief, Lupin III, has a smile, when not showing teeth, that is more of a Playful Cat Smile, but when he shows teeth and does the raised eyebrow, it's pure Cheshire Cat Grin.
  • Hellsing: The Major is noted as having "a detestable grin which would split his cheeks". Combined with his artificial origin, Supernatural Gold Eyes and his desire to spark the world to eternal war it's quite creepy. It will occasionally flicker into Slasher Smile territory, especially towards the end of the series.
  • Higurashi: When They Cry has a few characters sport these. Most of the time it's either Mion, Shion, or Satako, and it usually involves getting Keiichi into a ridiculous outfit, pulling a prank, pushing someone's buttons or out of his clothes entirely.
  • Neferpitou from Hunter Ă— Hunter is almost never seen without his (cat) smile. It doesn't help that he has a deadly and terrifying Battle Aura and permanent creepy eyes.
  • Sumiko from Kekkaishi seems to have one of these as her defining trait; when she was The Faceless it's all we saw of her. May actually be more malevolent, as we don't know much about her. The fact that now that she's not The Faceless we see her smile doesn't reach her eyes isn't good.
  • Moguro Fukuzou, the eponymous Laughing Salesman, has a wide, static, red-lipped smile permanently plastered on his face.
  • Seijirou from March Comes in Like a Lion. A deadbeat father and Consummate Liar, this is practically his default expression to emphasize how unsettling he is, and it's the first clear sign to the audience that he's up to no good when he's first introduced as he's meeting up with his daughters several years after abandoning them for his new wife.
  • Naruto:
    • The titular Naruto Uzumaki smiles like this a few times, usually when thinking of a prank. Some of those times (notably in the 101 episode) his Cheshire Cat Grin overlaps with Slasher Smile.
    • The Kyuubi's face is eternally twisted into a Cheshire Cat Grin.
  • Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
    • Played for comedy; if Haruna starts smiling, something embarrassing and/or unpleasant is about to happen. The other characters are rightfully scared of her.
    • Invoked by Kaede when speaking with "Kunel Sanders", a mysterious, suspicious, and very powerful man who is interested in Negi but refuses to say why. In the end, it turns out that he is trustworthy, but he also admits people tend to not believe his smiles.
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion:
    • Asuka pulled one off in her debut episode when Gaghiel attacked the UN fleet carrying her Eva.
      Shinji: This is really bad! We've got to go back and find Misato!
      Asuka: (looks sideways and grins) Wunderbär!
    • Kaworu often wears one himself, particularly in the manga or any of the other alternate universes where he pops up. It fits in well with his cryptic nature.
  • One Piece:
    • Roronoa Zoro, whenever he's not sleeping or eating. Also, Urouge.
    • This is basically Gold Roger's default expression.
  • Hikaru and Kaoru from Ouran High School Host Club when up to mischief, usually at Haruhi's expense.
  • Captain Gotoh in the Mobile Police Patlabor manga specializes in these wonderfully awful toothy grins.
  • Gengar, from PokĂ©mon: The Series, tends to have either this or a Slasher Smile depending on how it's drawn. Either way, it is constantly worn and only a few times in the anime does Gengar actually frown.
    • See the example under Video Games for a time when he does frown.
  • Drosselmeyer from Princess Tutu is always sporting one.
  • Puella Magi Madoka Magica brings us Charlotte's One Winged Angel form right before ''that'' scene.
  • Bel from Reborn! (2004) tends to have this as his default face, along with making one when he laughs his creepy "Ushishishishi~" laugh.
    • Hmmmm... notice how his default outfit is actually a pink and purple striped shirt? And how in one Omake he's considered a house pet in the Varia family? Looks like the resemblance isn't just the smile...
  • Lain's alter-ego from Serial Experiments Lain does this constantly.
  • Shirobako: Yano uses these to encourage lazy subordinates to get to work.
    Tarou: And Yano's smile multiples fear.
    Yano: [smiling] Does it?
    Tarou: I'm sorry! I'll watch what I say!
  • Washu of Tenchi Muyo!, usually right before she's about to stuff Tenchi into some machine or another.
  • Ham Egg from Osamu Tezuka's works is easily identified for making this grin constantly, which foreshadows his unpleasant and villainous nature.
  • Irabu from Trapeze gets a disconcerting grin on his face whenever he gives some kind of devious advice in order to help his patients somehow.
  • Ichihara Yuko from Ă—Ă—Ă—HOLiC has a grin that can roughly be summed up in words as: "Not only do I know something you don't know, but it's going to bite you in the ass in a very amusing fashion." Despite this, it's when she appears serious that should really scare Watanuki. This is because Yuko's Cheshire cat grin simply means she's going to make him do all the laundry, whereas the latter expression is usually a forecast of man-eating crow demons or similar.
  • Kawarino from Yes! Pretty Cure 5, especially in his human form with Eyes Always Shut. And you don't want to see any other of his facial expressions.

    Comic Books 

  • 100 Bullets:
    • Agent Graves rarely displays any sort of emotions but when he does smile it usually means someone is going to be in a world of hurt.
    • Topped by Lono, whose presence is often defined by his grin. There are many times throughout the comic where all you can see his smile, shining in the darkness.
  • Lanfeust: Trolls in the Franco-Belgian comic often make those, usually when they are about to brutally slaughter people or cause heavy property damage (which is most of the time).
  • Loki: Loki has this down, especially in his younger and less evil iterations, older ones more prone to Slasher Smile. The Asgardian Agent even pulled one combined with the disappearing trick... and nothing but the smile remained.
  • Sam & Max: Freelance Police: Sam and Max have this trope in spades. Especially Max, whose head may as well be a bear trap.
    Max: Those guys stare at me funny. They probably wonder where I get my dashing good looks!
    Sam: ...From a shark?
  • Star Wars: Vilmarh Grahrk from the Star Wars Legends: Republic comics seems to have one of these on his face all the time. Considering his nature, it may be considered a Slasher Smile.
  • Superman:
  • Teen Titans: Cheshire is famous for her coy and maniac smile, resembling that of a Cheshire Cat. It's how she got her Codename. She also sometimes wears a mask that is permanently set into one.
  • X-Men: Cyclops wears one right before answering the man's question... he lied about his powers being gone!

    Comic Strips 
  • One Beetle Bailey Sunday strip had Beetle torment Sarge by periodically giving him one of these smiles. Sarge tore his living quarters and office apart trying to find whatever Practical Joke Beetle had set up (in fact, there wasn't one).
  • The Boondocks has a strip with a truly evil grin spreading across Riley's face as his inner monologue contemplates an unspecified act of mayhem:
    "Hmm... mischief... danger...trouble... malevolence... discord... pandemonium... TOTAL CHAOS... MASS CONFUSION!"
  • In one Calvin and Hobbes arc, when Calvin notices Susie left her dolls outside while she had lunch, Calvin makes one and says "That gives me a brilliant idea!"
  • Dilbert: Catbert gives two of these in one strip, though his clueless victim doesn't quite get the message.
  • When FoxTrot parodied How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Andy as "Mrs. Grinch" had a very accurate recreation of the Grinch's "wonderful, awful idea" face mentioned below.
  • Garfield:
    • In this comic strip, Garfield tormented Jon by Cheshire cat grinning in the dark.
      Jon: You've been reading "Alice In Wonderland" again, haven't you?
      Garfield: You must be psychic.
    • In another early strip, Jon wakes up to see Garfield grinning widely at him. "Oh, great," he says to himself. "Garfield ate my toothpaste again..."
    • Another strip had him entering a room where Jon was with a huge, toothy smile and shifty eyes for no apparent reason. Jon, annoyed, asked: "All right, Garfield — what have you done?" Garfield of course remained silent, prompting Jon to keep demanding what he had done until he finally snaps and starts screaming: "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" (Garfield hasn't done anything.)
      Garfield: I love mental games.
  • TJ from Luann has this as his default expression. The near-permanent grin indicates his shifty High-School Hustler nature, and it takes a lot to wipe it off his face.
  • Peanuts:
    • Very literal example in one series of strips: Snoopy is listening to Linus read the chapter of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland where Alice meets the Cat, and then Snoopy grins widely. Linus is shocked when Snoopy disappears, leaving only his grin. Then he reappears, and says, "I've been able to do that for years!" He calls it his "Cheshire Beagle" trick.
    • There is a week of strips where he does it again, but got Mode Locked into invisibility, visible only by a toothy Cheshire Cat Frown. Lucy solves the problem — by Percussive Maintenance.

    Eastern Animation 
  • Long John Silver from Treasure Island (1988) will occasionally sport a goofy grin of this type as he's chuckling to himself, usually while threatening another person with violence. The expression contrasts greatly with his low, gravelly voice and otherwise intimidating demeanor.

    Fan Works 
  • Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): In this MonsterVerse fanfiction, Monster X in their final form give Rodan a couple such grins when they're feeling aggressive or just pissed towards him.
  • Child of the Storm has Doctor Strange wear a habitual slight smile since everything is pretty much All According to Plan (excepting the Forever Red arc of the sequel, when it is very much not). It's one of the things people find both annoying and unsettling about him. However, when he's tap-dancing on the edge of sanity and/or about to pull something spectacular (and usually, terrifying), it widens into something downright manic, with far too many teeth for anyone's comfort.
  • A Crown of Stars: Jinnai grinned in a very disturbing, creepy way, and his eyes glittered feverishly as he told Shinji and Asuka he personally executed a traitor.
  • Calvin wears one for a while before the introduction of the Time Pauser in Calvin & Hobbes: The Series.
  • In Batman fanfiction Dance with the Demons:
    • In chapter 16, the Outsiders barge into a Kobra's base full of enemies. Batman just grins.
      Batman looked at him, briefly, and went to the door of the unit. He sprayed some acid from a vial in his utility belt on the lock. After enough of the metal had sizzled away, he kicked it open.
      Metamorpho filled the gap in the doorway as a calcium shield, receiving blasts of cold and fire on his surface. He thrust forward like a battering ram, bowling over Heatstroke, Coldsnap, and several others of their foes.
      The others came behind him, and looked upon a sea of enemies.
      "Looks like we've been expected," said Batman, with a grim smile.
      The battle was joined.
    • In chapter 21, fifteen armed Kobra cultists rush towards Batman and Nightwing. They can't figure out why Batman is smiling.
      With that, two doors at opposite ends of the hall flew open. No less than fifteen men, with arms, emerged from them. All wore the suit of the Kobra Cult. They were armed.
      There was no time to tell Nightwing to engage. Both of them were already rushing at their foemen. The ones Batman was facing were puzzled.
      They couldn't figure out why he was smiling.
  • Evangelion 303: Before the Unit-04 flight test Asuka and Jessika wore huge predatory grins. They were quite scary.
  • In crossover fanfiction Hawkmoth Defeated, Robin gives one to Adrien and Marinette while daring them to take their Miraculous back.
  • HERZ: Misato wears one in chapter 4 when she hints at her plan to prevent Unit 01's deployment in the Congo.
  • Last Child of Krypton: In chapter 11, Misato grinned widely and wickedly after catching Asuka flat-footed.
    "You really did silence me before the blackout, right?"
    "Yes," said Misato. "No one heard you swear your undying love, I promise."
    "Good, I- hey, wait!"
    Misato grinned a Cheshire cat grin. "I'm not stupid. I just want to know how the hell Rei figured out how to use the Evas to make a phone call. Don't worry, no one eavesdropped on you."
  • In Mega Man: Defender of the Human Race, Dr. Wily's evil grins are often described in this manner.
  • In The Second Try, when Gendo demands knowledge of the future, Shinji grins coldly and maniacally before replying that he’ll die.
  • In Thousand Shinji, Rei grins wickedly as she explains how she killed Armisael.
    Rei says before letting a feral grin escape from her suppressed face.
  • In X-Men: The Early Years Jean Grey smiles very beautifully and scarily before telling her teammates that spying on her again will not be tolerated.
    "Pizza would be great," Jean said, while the other three boys tried to look innocent. "I just came to see what you four were up to since you seem to hang out here on Friday nights, and none of you has ever thought to invite me." Jean grinned slyly as she grabbed a piece of pizza out of the box. "So you guys are up here talking guy talk about stalkers and other strange thing that I, as a woman, should not be party to?" The guys just nodded. Her grin grew. "Well, that's nice to know. And if I ever catch the four of you spying on me again, you'll wish tossing your cookies is the only thing I'll do to you, do you understand?" The four of them just nodded again.
  • In With this Ring... (Green Lantern): As fighting Hal Jordan, Hector Hammond gets an "Uh-Oh" reaction when Hal smiles at him. Seconds later, Hal knocks him out.
    He looked at the Lantern, huddled there in his green cube with the walls pressing in on him. A bit more, and you'd probably be able to see the juice spurting.
    But the Lantern was looking at him, and smiling.
    Hammond hadn't fought the man more than a dozen times without learning something about him. A smiling Lantern was a dangerous Lantern.
  • In the Fairy Tail fanfic Wonderland where Natsu and Lucy get teleported to an Alternate Universe called Wonderland where there are counterparts of the canon characters, who better to have the Cheshire Cat Grin then the Wonderland Happy.
  • Downplayed in a Miraculous Ladybug fic. It's a sign of how well Adrien knows his girlfriend that he can distinguish her usual "I have a plan" smile from her "I have a plan that will scandalize you specifically" smile. The first is hot, the second...not so much.

    Films — Animation 
  • My Neighbor Totoro:
    • The cat bus is a spitting image of the Cheshire Cat.
    • Totoro himself smiles like this when he is happy or delighted by something.
  • Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas has this mixed with Slasher Smile as his default smile. Sally gets a good one when she tricks the doctor into eating the poisoned soup.
  • In Suzume, the cat god Daijin gives a wide smile to Souta just before he transforms him into a chair.
  • In Turning Red, Mei has this kind of grin when she's dirty dancing for her mother's benefit. Her thought is perfectly obvious: "Right, any other time I'd catch hell for this, but this time it's okay, and I'm gonna enjoy it!"

    Films — Live-Action 
  • In the second Ace Ventura film, Ace eventually corners the villain while driving what is essentially a monster truck. And then this happens.
  • The Tim Burton version of Alice in Wonderland (2010) does not disappoint.
  • Alice in Wonderland (1999) has Whoopi Goldberg as the Cheshire Cat, with a suitably wide and manic smile.
  • In The Avengers:
    Cap: [having just told everyone else what to do, in detail, looks to Hulk] Hulk?
    Hulk: [looks down at him]
    Cap: [points up at the Chitauri invaders] Smash.
    Hulk: >:D
    • When he first shows up at the SHIELD facility at the beginning, Loki wears a truly magnificent grin — one that declares in no uncertain terms that: A) He is not at all sane; and B) Everyone in the vicinity is in terrible trouble.
  • Equilibrium: Cleric Brandt has a smile which first inspires Fridge Logic when you realise that he's not supposed to have any emotion, then Fridge Brilliance when you realize that he doesn't have any emotion; his huge smile has nothing to do with real happiness or real satisfaction. Knowing this makes it pretty creepy.
  • The allegedly-catatonic Cameron, just pulled up from the bottom of a pool after keeling over into it face first, broke into one of these in Ferris Bueller's Day Off when Ferris and Sloane realize he saw Sloane stark naked while she was changing into her swimsuit, and enjoyed every minute of it. Cameron's ensuing hysterical laughter led to further dunkings by Ferris.
  • A Fistful of Dynamite's John Mallory is fond of this, especially when he's toying with Juan Miranda.
  • James Bond in Goldfinger, as he prepares to trick a guard into thinking that he's escaped from his prison cell.
  • The movie version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! also has the scene where the Grinch grins at his "wonderful, awful idea", except also the Slasher Smile one is done in an extremely nasty way during the "You're A Mean One Mr Grinch" musical number, the "You have termites in your smile" line and we are treated to a closeup of his mouth and we see his teeth which have bugs crawling around in them.
  • Little Shop of Horrors: The small Audrey II. In the Focus Group Ending theatrical cut, it's just a Punch Line "The End... Or Is It?". In the Director's Cut, it's a nasty I Shall Taunt You.
  • The Machinist: Ivan does a particularly disturbing rendition of this trope.
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: Right before taking vicious or manipulative action, Captain Jack Sparrow often sports an evil, toothy smile. In the screenplay for Dead Man's Chest, a "Cheshire grin" is mentioned in Jack's direction during a particularly loathsome act of betrayal.
  • RRRrrr!!!: At 9:11.. Unless we count this as Slasher Smile.
  • Tim Curry: Dr. Frank-N-Furter walks on stage with this expression in the The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and it's his default expression when he's not angry, jealous, megalomaniacal, or begging for sympathy. Similarly in his role in Home Alone 2: Lost In New York. They even segue quite unnervingly from a still from the animated version of the Grinch to his grin — the resemblance is uncanny. Rather fittingly, Curry is from Cheshire, and has gotten nicknamed "the Cheshire Cat" in real life.
  • Smile (2022): People affected by the phenomena usually see the people around them with unnervingly wide grins. Not to mention the death threats and occasional neck breaking. The Smile Entity's form features a sort of layered Cheshire Cat Grin, like a fractal made of toothy mouths.

    Literature 
  • The Trope Namer is the Cheshire Cat, from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. He's a mischievous creature, but not malicious to Alice or anyone who doesn't seem to deserve it. He even manages to mock the Queen of Hearts and then fade away before she can retaliate. The character is a play on the phrase "grinning like a Cheshire cat," which simply means smiling broadly. No one is exactly sure where the phrase came from.
  • Artemis Fowl has Artemis' signature vampire smile. It's just as creepy as it sounds.
  • In the Brotherband book The Hunters, the author describes Thorn's smile as unpleasant when the Heron puts ashore early and he prepares to whip the crew into shape. Unpleasant as in teeth barred and eyes gleaming as per usual for Skandians happy to unleash something terrible.
  • Discworld
    • Angua in Feet of Clay gives a rioter "a friendly smile. That was to say, her mouth was turned up at the corners and all her teeth were visible."
    • From Wyrd Sisters: "Greebo's grin gradually faded, until there was nothing left but the cat. This was nearly as spooky as the other way round." Keeping in mind that this is a housecat who rapes wolves and terrifies bears.
    • "It was a smile like the one you find on black and orange striped creatures prowling through the jungle looking for someone to smile at."
    • Similarly, Vimes is once noted to have a grin like the one that's pointed at swimmers and has a fin on top.
  • The Weasley twins in Harry Potter are noted to do this when they see a new target for mischief, even worse since they do it at the same time.
  • Ford Prefect from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is said to smile in this way, "a little too broadly, giving people the unnerving impression he was about to go for their neck."
  • Treecats in Honor Harrington can apparently pull this off masterfully. Given their propensity for mischief, it's highly appropriate.
    Capt. Jacquelyn Harmon: I've always figured Carroll must have met a treecat in an opium dream or something when he invented the Cheshire Cat.
  • In How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, the Grinch gets one when he thinks up his "wonderful, awful idea" to steal Christmas from the Whos.
  • Hurog: In Dragon Blood, there is Oreg, who likes to show his teeth when there is danger someone might underestimate him. He looks relatively harmless if he wants to, but he's a dragon-shapeshifter and mage and sometimes he'd like people to know what will happen to them if they threaten his loved ones.
  • In Kipling's Just So Stories a Parsee sees the Rhino's discarded skin and he smiles "one smile that ran all around his face two times" when he thinks of how he can get revenge on it for eating his food.
  • Grey from Knights of the Borrowed Dark has one as his default, which frequently appears at completely inappropriate times. The results range from quirky and memorable to extremely unsettling.
    You couldn't be in the army with a smile like that. The man smiled like a cat burglar.
  • Some girls have wonderful smiles. Then there's Kouma of The Longing of Shiina Ryo.
  • From the nonfiction desktop book Murphy's Law for Lawyers: "A man who can smile in a crisis is a man who has thought of someone to blame it on."
  • Aech in Ready Player One is described as having a "Cheshire cat grin", the phrase occurring multiple times (to the point that it becomes an authorial tic).
  • Marunde in Someone Else's War wears one of these, though the narrator calls it a "crocodile grin."
  • Holo from Spice and Wolf does this whenever she's sweet-talking someone (usually Lawrence) into doing what she wants. She's usually teasing with it, instead of plotting things with bad consequences.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Babylon 5: Mr. Morden will give you a big jovial-looking smile, just as he's about to screw you and your entire species over.
  • Michael Westen from Burn Notice does this a lot. His smile will eat your soul.
  • Sister Julienne of Call the Midwife, nun-in-charge of Nonnatus House, has one, which she usually deploys right after she has "asked" someone to do something. The "or else" is implied.
  • Doctor Who:
    • Mentioned in "The Mind of Evil" when the Brigadier snaps at Yates for grinning like a Cheshire cat. Later, the Doctor reminds Yates, when the Brigadier is being especially annoying and it looks like it's going to be 'one of those days', "Cheshire cat, Yates, Cheshire cat".
    • This is one of the Fourth Doctor's most famous gimmicks. Having wide bulging eyes, a very large and toothy mouth, and an egotistical, cheery, terrifyingly sly personality, it is virtually his default expression and forms a big part of his frightening yet oddly charming appearance.
    • And the Tenth.
    • And Nine, who does this whenever faced with imminent danger, usually while uttering "Fantastic!"
    • And John Simm as The Master. "What this country needs... is a Doctor."
    • Speaking of the Fourth Doctor, Romana II is known for her charming, brilliant grin, too. Especially when doing and/or saying something clever. Which she does a lot.
    • River Song is fond of it, too.
      Television Without Pity recap: I think part of the actual — not the endlessly explicit and told-not-shown, but the actual, the perceivable — charm of River is her lovely smile when she's doing something really awful.
    • The Sixth Doctor does one in his opening credits.
    • The Eleventh Doctor tends to wear one when he's being extremely clever.
    • Strangely enough, the gentle, unassuming, dorky Fifth Doctor often wore one of these, especially when talking to people taking him prisoner. He smiled most of the time, in fact, but it very rarely reached his eyes.
    • In the Eighth Doctor Adventures novels, Fitz has been known to smile "with a wicked twist to his mouth that showed far too many teeth", although he's really a very Nice Guy under the somewhat sleazy exterior and it doesn't tend to mean he's really up to anything all that bad.
    • Lampshaded by Jon Culshaw in Doctor Who Confidential where he flipped between his Fourth and Tenth Doctor impersonations for the amusement of David Tennant, explaining how the facial expression differs:
      Jon: [in Fourth Doctor voice, pulling goggle-eyed, grinning face] Now, with Tom Bakerrr you get one kind of eyes and teeth... and [in Tenth Doctor voice, pulling a massively different goggle-eyed, grinning face] with you, ya get anather kind af eyes and teeth.
    • The Twelfth Doctor has a really scary kind that has very little resemblance to an actual smile, overlapping heavily with The Unsmile. This is thrown into sharp relief during his final episode when he smiles quite genuinely as he thanks his companions for all they meant to him — and his face looks COMPLETELY different.
    • Surprisingly, considering her generally affable and sweet demeanor, the Thirteenth Doctor has a huge penchant for these kinds of wide, vaguely menacing smiles when confronting and taunting her enemies, especially when she's alone with them.
  • Justified has Detroit mob lieutenant Robert Quarles, who has a big, unsettling smile.
  • Kamen Rider Fourze has stoic "I don't wanna be involved with this Kamen Rider Club" foolishness Kengo Utahoshi have one of these as he drags the poor Butt-Monkey JK into piloting a mecha known as the Power Dizer.
  • Kamen Rider Ex-Aid: As Perpetual Smiler, Parado's default expression is a little mischievous grin. He always looks like he is up to something, so it's not neccessarily a bad sign unlike when he is wearing a Slasher Smile or The Unsmile. Then he is going for the kill.
  • Kamen Rider Zi-O: The smile of Time Jacker Heure would justifiedly lead to the belief that he is about to bite. He is not, but someone's day (and perhaps the rest of time) is about to be ruined in some spectacularly horrendous fashion.
  • Theo Kojak pulls out one of these at least every couple of episodes.
  • Law & Order: UK. When arresting his friend/colleague Alesha's rapist, DS Matt Devlin displays a particularly scary version of one of these — especially considering that he's usually such a Nice Guy — when the guy whines, "You're hurting me!" as Matt handcuffs him and Matt responds, "Yeah, I know. Didn't that feel good?"
  • Talk show host/Comedian Jay Leno always seems to have one of these on his face.
  • Red Dwarf:
    Lister: All we need's a battering ram. Something, say, 6 foot tall, fairly sturdy, with a flat top.
    (everyone grins at Kryten)
  • Nikola Tesla (as played by Jonathon Young) on Sanctuary.
  • Smallville: Tess Mercer's smile is always a sign she's plotting something. Somewhat subverted, in that she does have a genuine smile she can use when happy, and her intentions are always for the greater good, but when plotting, her smile can be downright scary.
  • Star Trek:
  • Vala in Stargate SG-1 has a grin that shows a lot of teeth and can be deeply disconcerting.
  • Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: Because of her basic nature, anytime Cameron smiles, you should be on your guard. No matter what, that smile is intended to manipulate you.
  • Judge Frasier did this all the time on This is Wonderland.

    Multiple Media 

    Tabletop Games 
  • An old joke among tabletop gamers are variants on "When the DM is smiling, you should start worrying."

    Professional Wrestling 
  • Brian Blaze is prone to these and the merchandise of Big F'N Deal, his Tag Team with Geter, tends to feature it prominently.
  • Diamond Dallas Page was known for this trope, to the point that other wrestlers would make fun of him for it, and that's a GOOD thing!

    Theater 
  • Zero Mostel as Pseudolus delivers one of these to Jack Gilford's Hysterium in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. They've determined that the only way to get a visiting Captain to leave is to convince him that his intended bride is deceased. Hysterium intones, "But where are we going to get a body?" whereupon Pseudolus does a slow take at him with a grin that almost breaks his own face.
  • Done superbly in the David Tennant version of Hamlet. "O villain! Smiling, damned villain...", saying this all while sporting a spine-chilling smile. We know his sanity is long, long gone.

    Video Games 
  • The Grimmification of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, American McGee's Alice, naturally stars the Cheshire Cat, albeit a much more insane and macabre version of him. His Cheshire Cat Grin also has bit of Slasher Smile.
  • Bendy and the Ink Machine: Cartoon Bendy wears one all the time, and it pushes his cheeks up into his eyes. In his cartoons, he's the Karmic Trickster. This trait carries over into the game's main universe with the dolls, posters, cut-outs, etc. — the cut-outs being the most noteworthy because they actually move. Bendy's 3D counterpart's smile? Not nearly as nice.
    • Bendy in Nightmare Run: This spin-off takes place in the cartoons' universe, so Bendy keeps his original grin through it — no matter what boss he's running away from or what costume he's wearing. His character profile describes him as having a huge appetite for trouble, and the promotional art reveals that he's the one who messed with the bosses in the first place, so....
  • BlazBlue:
    • Taokaka typically makes this face whenever she wants to "play" or she's about to attack some poor fool. This being a game that centers on, y'know, fighting, she keeps the expression some 90% of the time.
    • Hazama/Terumi Yuuki sports several smiles that almost never leave his face, but simply tag each other. His default smile is a Cheshire smile showing no eyes, no teeth, and no compassion. When his smile does show his Supernatural Gold Eyes and Hellish Pupils, you better start running, 'cuz it might very well be your last chance at getting away with your life. If his smile shows teeth, You Are Already Dead.
  • Conker's Bad Fur Day: Of all the characters in the game, Conker himself is by far the most expressive, especially when it comes to the classic toothy grin. A smile that makes him stand out in Rare games. He does this several times as follows: Whenever he is exposed to cash. He also does a quick cheeky grin thinking "See ya!" with a wave as the Gargoyle is about to fall off the bridge. Sometimes when he's idle, he will get out three balls to juggle with, complete with a toothy grin. Another idle animation shows him with a dirty magazine where he's shown grinning away and of course, there's the moment where he chugs down so much beer in one go under a keg, he sports what is the best grin of his in the entire game sprawled across his face as he is totally tanked.
  • Donkey Kong gives one in the opening sequence of Donkey Kong Country Returns after Kalimba fails to brainwash him. A No-Holds-Barred Beatdown quickly follows.
  • Final Fantasy XIV has the Warrior of Light wears a shite-eating grin of satisfaction in the Rogue quests after successfully pilfering several crates of muskets that had been stolen from the Maelstrom and watching the black market merchant panic.
  • Gravity Circuit: Hash, the trickery-loving Cipher Circuit, has a jaw piece that resembles a big sinister grin.
  • League of Legends has Ziggs, the Hexplosives Expert, who even under human-shaped glamour is always accompanied by his terrifyingly wide grin that only accentuates his twitchy, impulsive personality.
    Customer: You claimed your pyro-gel would clear out my chimneys. The bloody stuff blew up my entire east wing! And you're smiling!
    Ziggs: (grinning ear to ear) This is how I express remorse.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
    • Link's nightmarish Elegy of Emptiness statue in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. Also the default expression of the Happy Mask Salesman.
    • The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess:
      • Midna makes quite a few of these (in her imp form). Especially whenever she hits a turning point in her quest to overthrow Zant.
      • The Skull Kid has one plastered on his face almost throughout his entire encounter with Link.
  • Billy from Lost Smile and Strange Circus has a gigantic grin on his cat head.
  • In the Super Famicom title Monopoly 2, there are four tournament players in each match including the player. Two of these opponents (which include fortune tellers, ventriloquists, and salarymen) are dupes, and one is a smug snake par excellance. Want to know which? Just keep your eye out for this facial expression.
  • The wolverine mascot of Alcatraz Elementary from Nightmare Ned has this.
  • Travis Touchdown of No More Heroes, particularly whenever he enters a fight while in a good mood. The loading screen for the second game even shows a small picture of him sporting one.
  • The Judge in OFF sports a permanent one, with some pretty long fangs to boot. Ironically, he's probably the nicest character in the entire game. Even better, he's actually a cat.
  • Persona 5: Invoked by your Fighting Spirit, the demonic Arsene, who has a constant grin made of hellish flames plastered across his face. In fact, the highest level of darkness magic he uses to kill foes has the same blood-red smile of flames inscribed into it.
    • His master, Joker, has one to match in his All-Out Attack win-pose: tugging on his blood-red gloves while his crimson eyes and Cheshire Cat grin tell the tale of his enemies' defeat.
  • PokĂ©mon:
    • Electrode along with Gengar and its relatives, Haunter and Gastly, too.
    • Gengar's smile isn't quite so permanent in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games. A formerly human Gengar shows not only a Cheshire Cat Grin and Slasher Smile; he frowns quite a bit as well, and even tears up by the time Gardevoir's body is restored.
    • Aipom has one that manages to be kind of cute.
    • Sableye from Gen III, but it's generally hard to smile pleasantly when you have a mouthful of sharp teeth.
    • In PokĂ©mon Colosseum, Wes sports one of these when he's blowing up Team Snagem's base at the start of the game and whenever he's riding his Cool Bike.
  • Daimon Kiyota of The Secret World is almost always seen wearing one of these, an impish, all-knowing grin that just screams Magnificent Bastard; even the lore entries refer to him as "a Cheshire cat in sharp lapels."
  • Father Vincent of Silent Hill 3 smiles one of these quite a lot.
  • Street Fighter:
  • Super Mario Bros.:
    • Mario & Luigi: Fawful's face seems to be permanently frozen into this expression. Whether he's dropping a giant rock on our heroes, fighting them off in a mech, selling them badges, or mutated by the power of a Sealed Evil in a Can into a freaky bug thing, he always has a giant toothy grin on his face.
    • Super Paper Mario: Good ol' Dimentio's mask/face is always curled up into an unnerving smirk. Although, to be fair, he was never even trying to be on the heroes' side to begin with, so no mystery there. Beyond that, it was more so when he ended up possessing the final boss, though that arguably made his joyful look even more unsettling.
  • This is pretty much Jade Curtiss's default expression throughout Tales of the Abyss. He's more often seen as a Stepford Smiler since he's a borderline sociopath with Dark and Troubled Past, but he's also the game's king Troll, and when he's trolling "Cheshire Cat Grin" seems a more appropriate term.
  • Most Touhou Project characters have warm and friendly and cheerful smiles. Though, Mamizou Futatsuiwa carries her mischievousness on her sleeve and lips.
  • Sans from Undertale literally never stops smiling (he is a skeleton, after all), but it's usually a smile you can trust... usually.
  • In A Witch's Tale, the Cheshire Cat almost always has one of these. Cause he's the Cheshire Cat.

    Visual Novels 
  • The dark/left half of Monokuma's face in Danganronpa is seemingly frozen in this state permanently, combined with Fangs Are Evil. The light/right half is significantly more restrained, but it can be unsettling when the two sides smile together (which is pretty often).
  • Tohsaka in Fate/stay night is described as being scariest when she's smiling, because then you know she is going to get you. Nobody else is ever happy when she smiles. Then there's Sakura's, which can silence a room and extinguish candles. It makes sense, being sisters.

    Web Animation 
  • The Amazing Digital Circus: Jax (pictured above) is the local troublemaker of the titular circus, and he almost always has a big satisfied grin on his face.
  • The titular Burakku (or Black) from the Japanese YouTube Animation Burakku Channel has his mouth constantly affixed in one of these, regardless of how he actually feels.
  • Max from Camp Camp is either a Perpetual Frowner or will flash a mischievous smirk, but in "Space Camp Was a Hoax" he makes this sort of smile when David asks him to make sure Space Kid is well-rested for the "launch" he's taking part in- followed by a montage of Max giving Space Kid Training from Hell.
  • Kitty Cheshire from Mattel's web series Ever After High is the daughter of the Cheshire Cat, and inherited the trait of leaving behind her signature grin.
  • hololive: Baelz's model allows her to do a mischievous sharp-toothed grin, befitting her nature as the embodiment of chaos.
  • Whenever The Cheat from Homestar Runner smiles, it's this kind of smile. Things often backfire on him, though.
  • Though Lackadaisy is set in a universe of Funny Animal anthropomorphic cats, as The Trickster of the cast, an uncannily overbroad grin is lead booze runner Rocky's signature expression, such that it features on the Youtube thumbnail and as a cheerier, sketchy disembodied expression preceding The Stinger.
  • Pinkie Pie in the Pony Video "We're Going for a Ride" gives off one of these, and turns the entire screen dark so all you can see are her eyes and mouth!
    Pinkie Pie: Lock the doors and close the blinds, we're going for a ride!

    Webcomics 
  • The mysterious being following Stephen, Nesariel in Autumn Bay sports this nearly all the time.
  • The Mad Scientist in Books Don't Work Here tends to smile like this when he is up to something, and whether it will work or not he always tries to be up to something.
  • Champions of Far'aus: Hypnolytic spirits have a default expression that looks like this, and it doesn't get any better when they actually do smile.
  • Niko from Coga Nito is prone to wearing one of these while in her fighting form, Smooth Criminal. It's further enhanced by Smooth Criminal's unnaturally wide mouth and Niko's eccentricity.
  • Shadowchild from Digger has smiled like this twice. Both times it went badly for the other guy.
  • The cover page for the first segment of DNA shows the grinning face of Sirius, with a bloody nose and mouth, a missing tooth, and a huge facial bruise. The original version of the cover had an even more pronounced grin, which the artist changed because it made him look too crazy.
  • The typical expression on the face of Dolan.
  • Tedd from El Goonish Shive has been seen with one of these from time to time, generally when there's a noteworthy bit of Author Appeal.
  • Elwood (2015): In the "Slumber Party Manic — Part 4" strip, D.W. makes a very disturbing one that brings to mind The Grinch.
  • Gabriel Caine from EVIL has this as his default expression.
  • The Fox Sister: Often seen on the Kumiho in human form.
  • Subverted/defied with Florence Ambrose in Freefall — her natural smile is a face full of teeth since she's an anthropomorphic "Bowman's Wolf." She has to remember to smile with her lips closed to avoid this trope — though she's not above invoking it...
    • Occasionally, Sam gets one of these. That's rather a lot of teeth for a squid in a suit...
  • In Girl Genius, "wild" Jagers tend to wear this most of the time: there's so many funny things to happen — like plowing through a crowd of monsters — and they have pointed teeth. Gil grins like that when he is stuffed to the gills with combat stimulants and about to blow up something.
    • Sparks tend to wear a huge grin when they've got an idea. Considering the stuff they usually invent, this is seldom good news for anyone in town.
    • Airman Higgs briefly shows a Jager smile when Travek (correctly, it would seem) calls him "General".
  • Both Zimmy and Coyote in Gunnerkrigg Court. Oddly, the effect of each character's grin is heightened by the fact that they have the wrong sort of teeth for their species: Zimmy has shark-like teeth and Coyote has uniform flat teeth.
    • Of course, both of them pale before the awesomeness of Jack's smile.
    • Jack outdoes himself in this strip.
  • Terezi from Homestuck has this as her default sprite expression.
    • Later also pulled by Jasprosesprite^2, as part of her general Cheshire Cat motif. She even does the "everything fades out but the alarming smile" bit.
  • George from Johnny Wander is always depicted with one of these. Except one time when he grimaced and it was basically the same thing but upside down. Even his tombstone has that grin.
  • Rocky, from Lackadaisy seems to have this as his default expression. His cousin wears a combination of this and Slasher Smile. Like so.
    • Following a rather severe conk on the noggin courtesy of a runaway hearse, Rocky's grin has pretty much become an equal rival with his cousin's in terms of Slasher Smile-ness.
  • In Namesake Alice Purcell can do this, literally - including vanishing and reappearing somewhere else. It turns out her first trip to Wonderland almost ended at the beginning, and a family of Chashire Cats each gave her one of their lives to save her. They also adopted her.
  • Paranatural's Ed does this frequently. Sometimes edging into Slasher Smile territory, particularly when accompanied by phrases such as "You're all gonna die!" Isabel gets in on the act occasionally as well.
  • Karin-dou 4koma: Mifi splits her face with a Cheshire Cat Grin when she catches Elza masturbating, and again when Seren asks her how she knew.
  • Dagre from The Meek sports one...kind of. It's more of his jowls drooping, giving an absolutely terrifying grin appearance.
  • Joey Von Krause from Mortifer is almost always smiling like this, even when you've succeeded in pushing his Berserk Button (Looking under his eyepatch, in case you were wondering). It's later stated that he smiles whenever he's in control of the situation, which is all the damn time.
  • In Off-White, the wolf Sköll does this when asked to bring his dead father figure back to life, showing he's gone insane.
  • In Pacificators, Cinna Grossul get to bust out a couple awesome ones.
  • Claud Southend of Quantum Vibe pulls an epic one (complete with fade-out) in full trickster spirit in his farewell towards the end of the Luna arc.
  • Questionable Content: Penelope vomiting a rainbow mixed with Losing Your Head.
  • Vayandil and Gheralf's doppelgängers in Realm of Owls grin all the time, except without teeth, because they are owls.
  • Several tricksters and fair folk do this in Roommates but the grand master is the Scribble Person/Living Words ( aka the vaguely anthropomorphic personification of the Story) whose hard-to-trust grins can literally spell things like "Sacrifice" or "Tragedy" especially when (s)he is offering deals.
  • Canta from Sire sports a terrifying one while creeping on Leif.
  • Headon from Tower of God has a permanent "smiling" groove across his oddly shaped face. This groove usually looks empty, but it can display either his eyes or a set of sharp teeth. Considering the merciless manipulation he gets up to in the first season, showing his teeth there counts for this trope.
  • Smiling Man from User Friendly smiles all the time, but sometimes it gets even worse.
  • Visseria: Done by a couple of characters, but Jack in particular pulls off a nice one when convincing a guard to follow him along.
  • The Whiteboard: Bandit gets one of these when Doc upgrades Bandit's firepower in one game.
  • Zebra Girl: The rabbit lady from the Subfusc, Black Betty, has a very unsettling one.

    Web Original 

    Western Animation 
  • Muttley will usually do this to the camera on the two shows in which he stars after he snickers, followed by a Groucho-style Eyebrow Waggle.
  • Amphibia has Sasha give one of these after she agrees to become Grime's second-in-command, as this gives her the resources to find Anne and Marcie in addition to creating untold amounts of chaos.
  • Aang from Avatar: The Last Airbender pulls off a relatively innocent one while planning to wake Sokka up.
  • The animated Beetlejuice often grins broadly when scheming. Bonus points for the unsettling effect of his gross green teeth, complete with half-chewed bug bits.
  • Snoopy in The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show does this once, complete with the ability to vanish.
  • In the Code Lyoko episode "Killer Music", Odd has one of these planted on his face for all but a few minutes of the episode... while comatose and dying. He does it a few other times too, especially when he's being sneaky.
  • Courage the Cowardly Dog: "My name is Fred and I've been very...naughty".
  • Played for Laughs on the Dexter's Laboratory sub-series Justice Friends. Major Glory and Valhallen accidentally break the TV while Krunk is watching TV Puppet Pals. They try to unpress his Berserk Button by offering to make up for it. Cue grin.
  • In the Exo Squad episode "A Traitor Among Us", J.T. gets one of these when he explains his plan for getting The Squad to Venus. "We need to become official undesirables. That's one assignment you troopers might enjoy."
  • The Fairly OddParents!:
    • Dr. Bender, the Depraved Dentist, and his son Wendell are constantly giving these grins.
    • Timmy gets one of these himself, in the episode F.L.A.R.G. Mark sums it up pretty well.
      Mark: What's with the face? It is happy, yet at the same time, disturbing!
  • Gravity Falls: Bill Cipher's possession of Dipper (a.k.a. Bipper) has this is his default expression.
  • In The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, shapeshifter Nergal Junor replaces the teacher in order to get revenge on the class bully Sperg. "Ms. Butterbean" approaches the bully with a smile that starts as a Psychotic Smirk and quickly grows in width, as well as tooth size and sharpness, until it's grinning fanged maw as wide her head.
  • Alastor from Hazbin Hotel basically has this as his default expression when he's not flashing a Slasher Smile.
  • The Grinch in Chuck Jones' screen adaptation of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! when he gets the wonderful, awful idea to... well, steal Christmas.
  • A favorite expression of Heloise on Jimmy Two-Shoes, whenever she's not using a full-on Slasher Smile.
  • Henry and June (the latter more often) do this in KaBlam!
  • More often than not, Mr. Bogus will very often grin like this whether the situation calls for it or not.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • Twilight Sparkle pulls one off in "Lesson Zero" when she prepares to create an argument amongst the Cutie Mark Crusaders in a bid to solve the said problem and have a friendship report to write to Princess Celestia.
    • In the two-part episode "The Cutie Map", the Mane Six characters meet a town of monumentally creepy ponies who all have the same Cutie Mark: an equal sign. These ponies sport a manic grin all the time. During a song, two ponies even disappear, leaving the grins to "dance" around the screen for a moment.
  • Heffer from Rocko's Modern Life does a ridiculously exaggerated grin when he is about to film Rocko naked without permission. "He's COMPLETELY...NAAAKEEED!"
  • Star Trek: Lower Decks reveals that the entire Star Trek universe rests on the back of a giant koala that's constantly smiling like this.
    Red Shirt about to Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: What is he smiling about?! WHAT DOES HE KNOW?!!
  • T-Bone from SWAT Kats donned this grin occasionally, almost uniquely amongst the characters of that series.
  • In the penultimate episode of Teen Titans (2003), a character named Cheshire appears, wearing a large mask with a permanent Cheshire Cat Grin on it. One of her powers was to turn invisible except for the eyes and the grin, much like the cat in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
    • She's in the comics, too, minus that power. For the record, her name is Jade Nguyen, and she has done things justifying that grin (like nuking Qurac).
    • The Amazing Mumbo gives off a rather literal example in "Bunny Raven…note .
      Mumbo: Tonight, I will make the Titans disappear... (Dramatic Pause) ...forever.
  • This could be arguably Chuck Jones' Signature Style, when he directed Tom and Jerry, both characters would smile in the exact same manner when they hit upon a new scheme. As well as the poor schmuck in One Froggy Evening.
    • In the earliest Hanna Barbera shorts, Tom in fact near perpetually had a big wide cat grin to match his more realistic design and mischievous personality. Later on he would get more defined cheeks which downplayed this aspect of his design.
  • In Young Justice (2010), Jade has the mask (which isn't in the comics. The previous animated Cheshire made just that much of an impression in her less than a minute of screentime.) but not the invisibility. She's an assassin for the League of Shadows initially but is far from Ax-Crazy enough to nuke a small country out of existence For the Evulz. She also has more than one mask (since one of them currently resides in Kid Flash's trophy case.)

    Real Life 
  • Despite the name, this expression more common in canines than felines. When looking at a fox, wolf, dog, etc, any "smile", no matter how toothy, is a sign they do not intend to seriously hurt you. It may even mean they are happy to see you. That does not mean they are planning something you're about to enjoy, however.
    • There is a Cantonese phrase that roughly translates to "cooked dog head"; when cooked, the flesh shrinks, causing a wide, toothy grin. It is usually used to describe people with Cheshire Cat Grins and up to no good.
  • Former Australian Treasurer Peter Costello was famous for his Parliamentary savaging of his opponents in debate, of which his Cheshire Cat grin would be a prime indicator to get out of the way of his victims.
  • Tony Blair was known as the Cheshire cat (then the less favourable "Cheshire twat") since he became leader of the opposition and then prime minister due to his smile.
  • The logo of Troublemaker Studios.
  • The 2012 vice presidential debate became known for Joe Biden giving these repeatedly when Paul Ryan was talking. There was even a mash-up done of them.
  • When The Doors arrived in England for their 1968 European tour, a reporter asks Jim Morrison his occupation in the group; Jim just turns to the camera and gives a mischievous smile.
  • This pic of Love frontman Arthur Lee, who seems to be preparing to flip the cameraman off.
  • In the bloopers reel of The Cat in the Hat, there is an outtake at 4:37 in which Sean Hayes gives an endorsement for purple cupcakes. Sadly, his grin gives the appearance of an evil Pee-Wee Herman.
  • One of the things that added to the charisma and popularity of NBA legend Magic Johnson is his huge ear to ear grin.
  • British celebrity chef and living Fountain of Memes Ainsley Harriott is well known for his big, toothy grin, although some liken it more to a Slasher Smile.


 
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The Cheshire Cat

The ever-smiling Cheshire Cat is quite the odd character, able to disappear and reappear at will and even bend his body as he pleases.

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