This trope is when a character (usually female) develops a tendency to giggle or even laugh when around their love interest, particularly when the love interest in question is joking around, or when they do something particularly romantic, such as Holding Hands. This may be accompanied by a Crush Blush. The Smitten Teenage Girl is particularly prone to this, hence the term "giggling like a schoolgirl," as are the Sickeningly Sweethearts.
Giggling is also a sign of the character imagining themself doing things with their lover. For... less than stable characters, it shows their obsession with their love, and can overlap with Giggling Villain in extreme cases.
This trope tends to be common in romantic comedies.
This is Truth in Television (obviously). There's a reason Aphrodite had been called "the laughing goddess."
Example subpages:
Other examples:
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Anime & Manga
- The Dangers in My Heart: As a sign of her growing affection towards him, Yamada tends to either giggle or outright laugh at Ichikawa’s awkward lines. The first time was when he says he “hit the gas instead of the brakes” (Tossed his bike in a river to make a senpai forcibly hitting on her back off).
- She later laughs when he should have made a “declaration” about going to the bathroom to their work-trip group after they unknowingly left behind the two behind near a bathroom (Imagining him straight-up, loudly announcing it). And this was right after Yamada had a probable Love Epiphany towards him.
- In Naruto, there are at least two instances where Hinata Hyuga giggled after her crush and, eventually, her lover Naruto said something foolish. The first time was at the end of the first part of the Chuunin Exams. The second time was in The Last: Naruto the Movie, while the two of them were investigating an abandoned shinobi village.
- Pokémon the Series: XY:
- In "Under the Pledging Tree", when Ash asks Serena what gifts she's planning to get while she's thinking that the two of them are on a date, she quickly replies "I'm not sure yet!", while chuckling nervously.
- In "Party Dancecapades", Serena mentally chuckles nervously while thinking of dancing with Ash.
- In Princess Mononoke, a lot of the women of Iron Town giggle and blush when they're around Ashitaka.
Fan Works
- Hetalia: Axis Powers fanfic Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità
: Both Italy and Japan laughed around each other. They also happen to share feelings for each other.
- In Child of the Storm, though she'd probably dismember anyone who said it, Carol tends to laugh, even sometimes giggle, a great deal more when she's around Harry. Of course, this is often at him, but it's still affectionate.
Literature
- The Camp Half-Blood Series:
- In the final Percy Jackson and the Olympians novel, The Last Olympian, Annabeth laughs right before she has her first kiss with Percy.
- In the first novel of the sequel series The Heroes of Olympus, "The Lost Hero", there is some giggling from the Aphrodite cabin when their counselor, Drew (who is a girl), makes a remark about Jason being "handsome and smart" after he recites the last two lines of the Great Prophecy in Latin.
- Harry Potter:
- In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, as the Yule Ball draws nearer, a lot of girls in Hogwarts are prone to giggling when they're around Harry.
- In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Lavender is particularly prone to giggling when she's around Ron, until they break up.
- Touched on by Norm Macdonald in his book Based on a True Story, as part of debunking the common belief that women are particularly attracted to guys with a good sense of humor, when it's usually the other way around and they appreciate the sense of humor of guys they're already attracted to:
"Women are attracted to funny men, it is often said. This is not true. It only appears this way because women laugh at everything a very handsome man says. So this gives the very handsome men the idea that they are funny."
Live-Action TV
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
- In "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", when Xander is walking down the school hallway after his love spell has inadvertently affected practically every female character in Sunnydale, the girls there are staring, sighing and giggling at him, while the guys are watching him enviously.
- In "Him", Dawn and RJ are laughing while dirty-dancing together at a party. Buffy also giggles when she first falls under the love spell.
- In Castle, Beckett tends to smile and laugh a lot when around her current boyfriend-of-the-week, and eventually with Castle himself.
- Daredevil (2015): Matt and Karen. It becomes especially prevalent during the first part of season 2, where they usually are giggling and flirting whenever Foggy is not in the room, allowing them to have a moment. Their first kiss in the rain is preceded by them giggling before Matt leads into the kiss, and Karen lets out an amused giggle before Matt begins making out with her during their first date.
- Forever: At the end of "Punk Is Dead" we see Jo at the karaoke bar with the gang and her boyfriend Isaac, laughing at something he said and looking more carefree and happy than we've seen her all series.
- Legion: In "Chapter 22", Gabrielle giggles a few times when she and Charles Xavier spend time together during their Falling-in-Love Montage.
- Used to indicate the state of John and Jane's relationship to the audience in Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2024). When their relationship is doing well, they tend to laugh and make jokes with each other. When their relationship is more rocky, Jane doesn't react to his jokes or even gets upset that he found something she did funny. In the final episode, they reconcile while under the effects of truth serum and the laughter makes a return.
- Our Miss Brooks: "Poetry Mixup" and "Bones, Son of Cyrano" (the TV remake), Mr. Boynton writes down a poem from Cyrano de Bergerac. Boynton lends it to Walter Denton so the teen could use it to woo "the fair Harriet" by anonymously hiding the poem in Harriet's lunch. Unfortunately, Harriet recognizes Mr. Boynton's handwriting and immediately becomes a Smitten Teenage Girl. Harriet returns Mr. Boynton's poem as a gesture of her love, madly giggling.
Music
- Ariana Grande is frequently giggling and laughing around her love interest in the video for "Into You".
- This happens in some Becky G songs:
- In "Break a Sweat", a giggle is audible at the point indicated in the link. For context, this is a song about sex.
- The video for "Lovin' So Hard" features Becky spending time with her then-boyfriend Austin Mahone, and both are frequently laughing together.
- In "Break a Sweat
- Captain & Tennille recorded their cover of "Muskrat Love", which concerns a romance between two muskrats, which elicits giggling from the female. "Now he's tickling her fancy, rubbing her toes / Muzzle to muzzle, now anything goes / As they wriggle / Sue starts to giggle."
- An inversion occurs in JoJo's "Too Little, Too Late", where she's laughing and cheering in the rain following a bad break-up.
- Katy Perry is also frequently laughing around her love interest in the video for "Teenage Dream".
- In the video for Kelly Clarkson's "Heartbeat Song", the featured couples tend to laugh as they find love with each other again.
- In the video for the appropriately-titled Lana Del Rey song "Love", the featured couples tend to laugh when they're together.
- In the Mariah Carey and Miguel duet "#Beautiful", the chorus is peppered with the occasional lovestruck giggle from Mariah.
- Taylor Swift laughs happily at the beginning of "London Boy."
Video Games
- Dragon Age:
- In Dragon Age: Origins, Leliana and Morrigan (unusually for the latter) will giggle on occasion if romanced by the Warden, and with a high approval rating.
- In Dragon Age II, Merrill will sometimes giggle if romanced by a male Hawke.
- This is used as a gameplay mechanic in Yandere Simulator: If you do this, you start losing reputation because people see it as weird. Do it too much, and you lose.
- Near the middle of Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, Ninian laughs at the way Eliwood grumbles about Lyn's and Hector's bickering, and Eliwood tells her he likes it when she laughs. A chapter or two later, Nils points out that Ninian is clearly in love with Eliwood.
- In Pokémon Black and White 2, Yancy/Curtis will often let out a happy "Ahaha!" when they talk to the player via Xtransceiver. Given the Blush Stickers they show in later calls, it's pretty easy to tell they've developed a crush on Nate/Rosa.
Web Comics
- Scarlet Lady: In "Despair Bear", when Adrien tells Marinette he's broken up his friendship with Chloé and that he's not planning to rekindle it any time soon, Marinette leans into his chest while laughing, as little hearts float around her.
Web Original
- Cartoon Hooligans:
- In "What if Hulk Ripped His Pants #3", Black Widow giggles as she hangs out with Thor, complete with Wingding Eyes at one point.
- In "What if Hulk Ripped His Pants #4", a little boy's mum giggles upon seeing Hulk naked.
- These tend to be common in the videos that Chris Stuckmann makes which have his wife Sam as a guest. Case in point: their 2013 Valentine's Day special (quite appropriately).
