History Main / DullSurprise

And from a different perspective, the lack of expression is vastly preferable to [[LargeHam hamming up the performance to the point of absurdity]] and MilkingTheGiantCow if the works is intended towards a quiet, passive experience. For actors like Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger or Creator/NicolasCage, the times they actually show emotion tends to make for hilarious Website/YouTube compilations. This also sometimes results from an ActingInTheDark situation, the actor is unaware of how [[MoneyMakingShot spectacular a visual effect]] is going to be because they are starring at [[ChromaKey a green wall]].

* In ''Website/GoAnimate'' videos, thanks to the Text-To-Speech programs used to vocalize characters, most emotions are conveyed in this manner. For instance, someone could have been gotten hurt and all they'd say is a flat "Ow."

* "nnnNo..." sums up Website/YouTube user WebVideo/TedCrusty's videos. Occasionally he does throw in an "OH JESUS" though.
* Website/YouTube [[LetsPlay Let's Players]] often get requests to play various JumpScare games. Those who are not easily spooked respond to the game like this as a result.

* In Professional Wrestling, this was a stereotype directed at {{Canad|aEh}}ians at least until the efforts of Wrestling/OwenHart. Even then, Wrestling/{{Test}} was given the affectionate nickname of "The Charisma Black Hole". It should be noted Canadians also had the stereotype of superior WrestlingPsychology and true amateur mat skills, it was supposedly when they had to do anything else that was the problem. Wrestling/LanceStorm could very well be the poster-boy for this.

* [[Characters/X23LauraKinney X-23]]'s abusive upbringing has left her with a poor understanding of how to deal with her emotions, so she generally only has two reactions to things happening around her: [[TheStoic blank]] and seething rage. Anything more tends to be very subtle variations thereof. When she ''does'' visibly emote you know whatever caused it was a big deal. When she finally [[TheDogBitesBack gets fed up with her abusive pimp]], Zebra Daddy, the typically LargeHam gangster can only manage a subdued, "Aw, man," when she impales him through the back on her claws.

** Also, Characters/{{Emma Frost|WhiteQueen}} does this to just about everything.

* Just about everybody in the 2015 reboot of ''Film/{{Fantastic Four|2015}}'', allegedly because director [[PrimaDonnaDirector Josh Trank]] told them to give the flattest performances possible. Even [[Characters/DoctorDoom Victor Von Doom]] comes across as a ColdHam at best.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrvh_jB6c70 "What? No not the mind probe!"]]

* Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom was ''specifically groomed'' throughout her life to be this way -- she strove never to show emotion in her face, which is to say, in public. See also StiffUpperLip. Also, the [[BritishRoyalGuards Royal Guards]] are supposed to be this way, and are often goaded by tourists hoping to get them to break face. And if you piss them off, indeed they just might "[[MegatonPunch break face]]". These guards aren't just for decoration, either; many of these men are veterans of multiple combat theatres, with some guards freshly-returned from the front lines in the Middle East. They are authorised to shoot anyone deemed a threat to the monarchy, and several videos exist of them repeatedly warning tourists to climb down from the massive fence outside of Buckingham Palace. The tourists almost always ignore them, only to be met with the barrel of a [=SA80=] Assault Rifle in their faces. The tourists then quickly learn to back down.

* During the ''Franchise/SpiderMan'' story arc "The Other," an issue is devoted to Mary Jane's shock and grief at Peter's apparent death. Whom did Marvel hire to draw this emotionally-charged issue? Pat Lee, who is notorious for this sort of thing - in fact, he's the indirect ''{{Trope Namer|s}}'' due to his work at Dreamwave. Cue 20 pages of Mary Jane looking far more stoned than grief-stricken; even if you want to believe that she was in shock the entire time, her expression didn't change at all.

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'': A great example comes from [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker The Joker]], who is ordinarily notorious for [[SlasherSmile a very different kind of facial expression]]. When an explosive he had planted in Las Vegas seemingly fails to go off, The Joker watches a video replay in super slow motion that reveals [[spoiler:that The Flash had carried the device to the outskirts of town ''while it was exploding'']]. The camera cuts to the Joker just in time to catch a subdued "Huh."

* The Stormcast Eternals of ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'' all have individually sculpted masks to go with their AnimatedArmor shtick, with each mask generally bearing a subtly different expression of boredom or indifference.

* The Red Guy of ''WebVideo/DontHugMeImScared'' has almost no inflection in his voice, even when he's supposed to be singing, creating a humorous contrast to the more excitable teachers like the time-obsessed Clock.

* Independent film ''Film/FatefulFindings'' is slowly threatening to make writer/director/star Creator/NeilBreen the next [[Film/TheRoom Tommy Wiseau]]. At one point, finding out his friend has taken his own life, he cradles the body and delivers a truly epic dull surprise moment as his tone of voice sounds more like a tired parent who just found out his kid still hasn't cleaned his room.

* ''Film/TheRoom'', with Creator/TommyWiseau. It is not difficult to imagine every line of his in the script, except questions, ending in a period, given his flat, mostly-unaffected delivery. He sounds bored even when his character is supposed to be outraged.

* Brody from ''Series/PowerRangersNinjaSteel'', while not as robotic as Jayden or Troy, is still very wooden. Especially when he calls something "epic" (and being a CatchPhrase, he says it a lot).

** ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': Played with in Creator/LeonardNimoy's portrayal of Spock. As a character who actively suppresses his emotions, and who generally considers outward displays of emotion distasteful, Spock's reaction to surprising events is normally extremely muted. Even so, it's never actually difficult to tell when Spock is surprised. For Spock, a cocked eyebrow and flat "[[CatchPhrase Fascinating]]" can often carry the same weight as a startled or horrified shout from any other character.

* Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom was ''specifically groomed'' throughout her life to be this way -- she strives never to show emotion in her face, which is to say, in public. See also StiffUpperLip. Also, the [[BritishRoyalGuards Royal Guards]] are supposed to be this way, and are often goaded by tourists hoping to get them to break face. And if you piss them off, indeed they just might "[[MegatonPunch break face]]". These guards aren't just for decoration, either; many of these men are veterans of multiple combat theatres, with some guards freshly-returned from the front lines in the Middle East. They are authorised to shoot anyone deemed a threat to the monarchy, and several videos exist of them repeatedly warning tourists to climb down from the massive fence outside of Buckingham Palace. The tourists almost always ignore them, only to be met with the barrel of a [=SA80=] Assault Rifle in their faces. The tourists then quickly learn to back down.

* ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' fans have [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Dull_surprise used this term]] to describe the emotions portrayed by the characters in [[ComicBook/TransformersGenerationOne any Dreamwave comics]] drawn by Pat Lee or anyone aping his style. And yes, it's just as prevalent with the human characters as it is with the robots (who at least have the excuse of ''being'' robots with non-expressive faces).
** The page image is a particularly infamous example; the expressions on everyone's faces, especially Devastator, are so bland, readers thought that it was some sort of TwistEnding [[note]]There wasn't[[/note]], like Omega Supreme showing up to save the day, or Unicron arriving to wreck stuff up. Why is everyone ''staring openmouthed?!'' "Because Pat Lee can't draw any other expression" proves the answer. ScheduleSlip made it worse; people waited ''months'' to find out what caused the MassOhCrap and there was much discussion over it. And then the next issue comes and the situation hasn't changed at all.
** Especially applicable to the low-quality CG in ''Anime/TransformersEnergon'' [[https://tfwiki.net/wiki/File:GuessIronhidesEmotion.jpg For example, Ironhide demonstrates his wide emotional range, from A to A.]][[note]]Horrified, surprised, determined, and fighting-mad. Can you guess which is which?[[/note]] The few times that a better expression graced the faces of any character, it was done in a heavily shaded, hand-drawn style ''attempting to look like CGI''.
** ''Anime/TransformersCybertron'' had a lot of the same problems, with most characters' emotional range being "open mouth" and "closed mouth". Some characters had appropriate expressions be default (like Starscream's snide, wincing smirk) but still only had a small amount of motion. Then episodes like "Ambush" caught everyone by surprise, where the whole cast had a much wider range of expressions and close-up shots in particular had much better animated speech. Most of the rest of the series was flat sneers and gaping windholes, though.
** The CG in ''WebAnimation/TheTransformersCombinerWars'' tends to fall into this trap in more than a few places. While the characters are capable of showing facial emotion when silent, they are usually restricted to mouth flaps when talking. This results in things like Windblade having a blank expression while talking to Optimus, sneering between sentences, and then going back to blank mouth flaps once she starts talking again while still sounding angry.
** Don Figueroa's "new style" in the Ongoing tops it by giving all his Transformers (or at least the ones with visible mouths) a gnarling sneer perpetually frozen on their faces.
** Thanks to the inconsistent and rushed quality of its animation, there's several instances in ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'' where this pops up. Most notably a shot in "More Than meets the Eye, part 3" after Ravage escapes where the Autobots react to Prime's "Perfect" with bored, open-mouthed looks on their faces. Ironhide also reacts this way in "Starscream's Brigade" to the news of Powerglide having spotted Jazz and Cliffjumper's whereabouts after they get kidnapped.

* ''Anime/OsomatsuSan'': In Episode 5, Osomatsu and Todomatsu respond to Karamatsu's kidnapping with [[DarthWiki/CrowningMomentOfIndifference a very indifferent]] "What should we do?" Choromatsu is not pleased.
* In ''Manga/BattleRoyale'' [[EmptyShell Kiriyama]]'s facial expressions are hard to illustrate other than using question marks for confusion.
* Thanks to the animation, the expressions of the characters on Manga/ExArm are pretty much nonexistent. As a result, the characters don't show any emotions at all and they look like robots.
* Kira in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeedDestiny'' sports this when [[spoiler:Meer Campbell]] dies, and while everyone else is crying he just looks like he smoked a bunch of pot. Considering that Kira's crying is notorious for [[{{Narm}} sounding like a dying horse]], the viewers got off lucky. Also justified; [[BrokenHero he's seen this kind of thing]] ''way'' too many times.
* Takumi Fujiwara in ''Manga/InitialD'' gets to ''Webcomic/CtrlAltDel'' levels when his driving passion is awakened while watching his rival's performance during an illegal race. One theory is that the artist was so good at drawing cars, he decided to use the same methods on human beings.

* From ''Manga/{{Monster}}'': this is the ''most'' emotion you will get out of [[DissonantSerenity dissonantly serene]] Johan Liebert, unless he's having a VillainousBSOD. Urasawa otherwise averts this, so in this case it's clearly an intentional choice and just [[UncannyValleyGirl makes him creepier]].
* ''Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya'':
** [[DeadpanSnarker Kyon]] mentally criticizes Itsuki of this in the SOS Brigade movie. Strange in that since his normal persona is at least something of an act, and a pretty good one at that. Even Kyon has trouble figuring out what he really thinks about anything.
** In ''Manga/NyoronChuruyaSan'', everyone except Churuya, Achakura, and the dust bunnies have one same monotone expression. That is, they all look like this: [[{{Emoticon}} -_-]]. ''All the time''.

* Done intentionally with Ichiro in ''Anime/NerimaDaikonBrothers''--he's so calm and sedate that he reacts to almost everything with a blank, slack-jawed expression. Actually, it seems like most of the guys at the Host Club behave this way for some reason.
* In ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'', certain animators [[OffModel drew like this]], particularly [[http://www.lolhelensucks.com/temp/leer.jpg Yusaku Takeda.]]
* Every character Creator/TsutomuNihei has ever drawn. His most famous stoic is [[TheStoic Killy]] from ''Manga/{{Blame}}'', who is quite well known for having the emotional range of a broken toaster.
* Gaara of ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', after his HeelFaceTurn, tends to embody this trope for the most part. Even when [[spoiler:Kimimaro nearly succeeded in ''shoving a bone-turned-drill through Gaara's face'' in the Sasuke Retrieval arc. It wasn't until Kimimaro's kill-you-with-my-last-breath attack that the Kazekage at last showed shock and fear that was on-par with the other characters of the series]].
* ''Manga/ShamanKing'''s [[BigBad Hao]] [[AffablyEvil Asakura]] usually conveyed minimal shock, fear or surprise at something unexpected happening around or to him. [[spoiler:That is, until things got serious.]]
* Many characters in ''Manga/UbelBlatt'' look like they're in perpetual Dull Surprise, although there are a few times where they do show some emotions but that tends to be most of the older cast or when the younger cast are very angry.
* Chief Kushima shows remarkably little emotion for a man whose arm has just been torn to shreds by a metal cable in the first episode of ''Anime/RealDrive'', despite of not yet having a cybernetic body at this time.
* Kotori Makino from ''Manga/KoeDeOshigoto'' While she can simulate the proper expressions when acting, her own emotions are very rarely visible on her face. She has yet to be seen surprised, shocked or angry, which is quite a feat, considering what usually goes on around her.
* Ulquiorra Cifer from ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' is the '''physical embodiment of this trope'''. Most of the time, the closest he gets to an expression besides line face is during battles where he's shocked, which is expressed by just barely widening his eyes. If it wasn't for dramatic speed lines or speech bubbles with exclamation marks you may not even catch that his expression changed at all. However, his repeated encounters with Ichigo leads to a prolonged VillainousBreakdown, because Ichigo's refusal to give up starts to get to him. When he transforms into his true super form, the fact that Ichigo ''still'' won't stay down ''pisses him off'' to the point that he starts ''shouting'' at him. He later manages to recollect himself, [[spoiler:and when he's about to be nuked by Ichigo's hollow form after being caught off guard, all he does in response is stare blankly at him and say "do it"]]. Of course, since he's the AnthropomorphicPersonification of nihilism, this is to be expected.
* Inverted in-universe with Kasuka Heiwajima of ''Literature/{{Durarara}}'', who is a MasterActor even in the most camp and B-movie of roles... and has the emotional range of Rei Ayanami on valium when ''not'' acting.
* The Medicine Peddler in ''Anime/{{Mononoke}}'', whose reactions to the eponymous demonic apparitions are usually limited to phrases such as, "Oh my." or "My word." Especially amusing when the people around him are cowering and screaming in fear.
* In the ''Anime/SailorMoon'' anime, the Senshi tend to have this reaction to Minako's craziest antics, [[JustifiedTrope as they're used to them]]. [[FridgeLogic Also makes the watchers wonder what Minako usually does when they react the same way to her outrunning a car after having her Pure Heart Crystal extracted]] ([[PluckyGirl everyone else who had the Pure Heart Crystal extracted fainted without energy, and was in danger of losing their life]]).
* ''Manga/MonsterMusume'': In chapter 20, Zombina stumbles onto a fight between [[spoiler:Kii, a dryad mutated by illegal toxic waste, and Suu, a slime grown to giant size by the same waste. The two lose their balance and topple directly toward Zombina, who reacts with a blank expression and a [[ThisIsGonnaSuck deadpan "Uh..."]] before she's smashed flat]]. A ''[[Funny/MonsterMusume glorious]]'' example of this trope used intentionally.

* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamIronBloodedOrphans'': Mikazuki nearly always has a totally blank expression on his face, whether he's sleeping, eating, working out, or slaughtering enemies. This is deliberate on the part of the animators: it shows how broken he is that he simply ''doesn't know how to emote''. While he does change his expression once or twice, it's extremely rare, and [[SlasherSmile the instances that he]] ''[[SlasherSmile does]]'' [[SlasherSmile change an expression are anything but good]].

* ''Manga/ExArm'''s anime adaptation engages in this a ''lot'', due to the TwoDVisualsThreeDEffects being inconsistently applied to the character designs (some being CGI creations and others made using 2D drawings). Some of the main characters get away with it due to being androids, and (logically) having no face musculature with which to emote. Most of the human characters... Have less justification.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'': When Fiona transforms into an ogress in front of him during the climax, Shrek, who had previously thought she had insulted him the night before, quips with a look of mild surprise on his face, "Well... that explains a lot."

* ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'':

* Inverted in-universe with Kasuka Heiwajima of ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'', who is a MasterActor even in the most camp and B-movie of roles... and has the emotional range of Rei Ayanami on valium when ''not'' acting.

* Two variations in the adaptations of ''LightNovel/Overlord2012'', where the main character is a lich and thus has a SkullForAHead: not only is he incapable of showing emotions apart from his glowing eyes flaring up, his undead body actually suppresses his stronger emotions (which is invaluable when he wants to keep up his inscrutable chessmaster facade in front of his minions). In the manga, his reaction to uncomfortable situations are shown by his entire body going into a SuperDeformed artstyle and the emotion suppression thing isn't really shown, while the anime shows a shimmering light when his emotions are dampened and instead has him think in his higher-pitched human voice instead of the EvilSoundsDeep audible voice.

** In ''Film/AScannerDarkly'', his narcotized acting style works well when he's playing a drug-addicted double agent [[SanitySlippage slowly losing his mind.]]

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': A portion of the fanbase is very critical of Creator/EmiliaClarke for this reason (at least when she isn't [[LargeHam hamming it up]]), feeling that her attempts to convey Daenerys's TranquilFury and [[TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask Queenly Mask]] just come off as wooden and monotone, though many contend that the often uninspired writing for the character doesn't help, nor does the fact that her storylines often have her surrounded by charismatic, scene-stealing actors that make her stick out even more. Season seven had a stand-out scene, in which Daenerys watches [[spoiler:one of her beloved dragons get shot, crash onto ice, die, and sink down into a frozen lake]]. Throughout the whole thing she looks more bored than anything else. It's obvious that the intention was shock, but the mark was missed by quite a bit.

* Not usually one for this, being an either good or hammy actor usually, but Creator/DougWalker as the PlotHole in "The Review Must Go On" just sounds really condescending and bored instead of the wise he was probably aiming for. It's a TalkingToHimself scene, so he must have spent all his energy on getting Donnie's rage at the situation across. This may be intentional; the entire episode is meant as a RealitySubtext of throwing something together at the last minute to wrap up the series and bring back the Critic, and the presentation can be read as part of the reason Donnie is so mad.

* Gaara of ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', after his HeelFaceTurn, tends to embody this trope for the most part. Even when [[spoiler: Kimimaro nearly succeeded in ''shoving a bone-turned-drill through Gaara's face'' in the Sasuke Retrieval arc. It wasn't until Kimimaro's kill-you-with-my-last-breath attack that the Kazekage at last showed shock and fear that was on-par with the other characters of the series]].
* ''Manga/ShamanKing'''s [[BigBad Hao]] [[AffablyEvil Asakura]] usually conveyed minimal shock, fear or surprise at something unexpected happening around or to him. [[spoiler: That is, until things got serious.]]

* Ulquiorra Cifer from ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' is the '''physical embodiment of this trope'''. Most of the time, the closest he gets to an expression besides line face is during battles where he's shocked, which is expressed by just barely widening his eyes. If it wasn't for dramatic speed lines or speech bubbles with exclamation marks you may not even catch that his expression changed at all. However, his repeated encounters with Ichigo leads to a prolonged VillainousBreakdown, because Ichigo's refusal to give up starts to get to him. When he transforms into his true super form, the fact that Ichigo ''still'' won't stay down ''pisses him off'' to the point that he starts ''shouting'' at him. He later manages to recollect himself, [[spoiler: and when he's about to be nuked by Ichigo's hollow form after being caught off guard, all he does in response is stare blankly at him and say "do it"]]. Of course, since he's the AnthropomorphicPersonification of nihilism, this is to be expected.

* ''Manga/MonsterMusume'': In chapter 20, Zombina stumbles onto a fight between [[spoiler: Kii, a dryad mutated by illegal toxic waste, and Suu, a slime grown to giant size by the same waste. The two lose their balance and topple directly toward Zombina, who reacts with a blank expression and a [[ThisIsGonnaSuck deadpan "Uh..."]] before she's smashed flat]]. A ''[[Funny/MonsterMusume glorious]]'' example of this trope used intentionally.

* Done [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools masterfully]] in ''Film/SpiderMan1'': the Green Goblin's reaction to his [[spoiler: impending impalement [[HoistByHisOwnPetard via his own glider]]]] are slightly raised eyebrows, a blank expression on his face and a matter-of-fact "[[OhCrap Oh.]]"

** One critic attacked Creator/DanielCraig's performance in ''Film/QuantumOfSolace'' as an emotionless Robo-Bond, especially after his lauded performance in [[Film/CasinoRoyale2006 the previous film]]. However this was likely intentional, seeing as ''everyone'' in the film (M, Mathis, Camille) calls Bond out on his cold demeanor in the wake of [[spoiler: Vesper's death]].

* At the end of ''Film/TheLovedOnes'', Brent's mom [[spoiler: sees him with several signs of torture in his body, including a hole in the skull and the only thing she does is hug Brent with a dull expression. She doesn't seem to look shocked, scared or even worried]].

* In ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'', Grant Ward's ability to emote in early episodes was rather limited. [[spoiler: This stopped when he revealed himself as TheMole in the season finale, showing that it was an act on his part.]]

* ''Series/BreakingBad'': A trademark of Mike Ehrmantraut, Gus Fring's and [[spoiler:later Walt's]] right-hand man. No matter whether he's chewing out one of his idiot underlings or facing down ''sniper fire'', he's perpetually stone-faced, since Mike has SeenItAll and very little surprises him in [[ProfessionalKiller his line]] [[TheConsigliere of work]] anymore. When he actually shows any kind of surprise in his face, it means something seriously unexpected has happened, like when [[spoiler: Walt managed to trick him into allowing Jesse to kill Gale Boettecher]]. This is also [[spoiler: the last expression on Mike's face after Walt shoots him, since he's DefiantToTheEnd]].

* ''Series/DeadLikeMe'': Ellen Muth (George Lass), is like this in many scenes, being a depressed DeadpanSnarker. Britt [=McKillip=] (George's sister, Reggie) is even more like this. She spends pretty much the whole series carrying a dull expression even when [[spoiler: Reggie's sister dies, her parents get divorced, and her dog gets hit by a car]].

* ''Series/GarthMarenghisDarkplace'': Often turns up as part of the StylisticSuck that forms this show. Liz in particular seems susceptible to it:

* Shaw of Series/PersonOfInterest states that she has an axis-one personality disorder; her reactions are often notably this, whether she's being shot at, actually shot, or [[spoiler: witnessing the death of her father]]. Since Creator/SarahShahi is actually quite bubbly, this is clearly the role, not the acting.

* Troy from ''Series/PowerRangersMegaForce'' seems incapable of emoting in general. After Robo Knight joined the team, fans were quick to point out that an ''actual robot'' showed more emotion.

* ''VideoGame/BlazBlueChronoPhantasma'' brings us Bullet, a character completely incapable of expressing either of her two emotions without first prefacing it with "dull". Calling her "butt floss" will elicit dull anger; just about anything else will evoke dull surprise instead.

-->'''Love Interest:''' *heartfelt words of how they have a connection, and how they might be falling in love with The Warden*
-->'''Warden:''' *understanding nod*

* ''Franchise/SilentHill'' characters have this tendency given the limitations in the graphics; many fans consider the fourth game's protagonist Henry Townshend to be the worst offender. Travis Grady of ''VideoGame/SilentHillOrigins'' has also notably been criticized for this, but there's a compelling theory that his lack of reaction to the horrors of the town is due to [[spoiler: him being a serial killer, which is implied throughout the game and explicit in the bad ending]].

--->'''Jock:''' [[LargeHam Oh my God, JC! A bomb!]]
--->'''Denton:''' '''A bomb.'''

--->'''Sandra:''' "Oh my god, ''daddy!''"
--->'''Denton:''' "What a shame..."

* ''Tales'' series:

** Riku, after [[spoiler: he's just been possessed by Ansem]] in the first game. Half the time he's not even listening to Sora, and the other half he just sounds rather bored.
** Speaking of [[spoiler: Ansem]], this is his default expression up to the point when you finally confront him [[spoiler: in his own form (rather than borrowing Riku's)]]. After that, he goes to the [[LargeHam complete]] [[ChewingTheScenery opposite]] [[MilkingTheGiantCow end of]] [[EvilIsHammy the spectrum]].
* When the BigBad of ''VideoGame/XenoSaga'', [[spoiler: Wilhelm,]] gets a wrench thrown in his plans by the main characters, he reacts with a simple, bored-sounding gasp. For that matter, his only reaction to [[spoiler: being stabbed in the back by his [[TheDragon dragon]]]] was to comment on it in the same voice he's been using to comment on everything else. Possibly [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in that he tends to be TheStoic in general, hardly ever showing emotion beyond commenting on how he feels about certain things (in the same bored voice as always), [[spoiler: possibly due to the fact that his plan involved him [[EternalRecurrence reliving the entire lifespan of the Universe, potentially hundreds of times]]- you'd be bored, too]]. In addition, an AlternativeCharacterInterpretation for him, even receiving a bit of support from WordOfGod, is that [[spoiler: his plans getting foiled is ''exactly what he wanted''- it meant humanity was ready to find their own way to move past the end of the world without him having to reset time anymore]]. No wonder he didn't particularly care.

* ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsV'' is yet another example of this caused by BlindIdiotTranslation. When [[spoiler: [[Anime/TheBraveExpressMightGaine Black Noir]], a higher dimensional being]], reveals that it was responsible for all the past tragedies in the various heroes' lives, they all react with shocked silence... At least, they did in the original Japanese version. But in the English translation...
-->'''[[Anime/{{Daitarn3}} Banjo]]:''' Oh?
-->'''[[Anime/{{Zambot3}} Kappei]]:''' Oh.
-->'''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny Shinn]]:''' Huh.
-->'''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny Kira]]:''' Hm.
-->'''[[Anime/Gundam00AWakeningOfTheTrailblazer Setsuna]]:''' You don't say.

%%* Anything produced by {{Creator/Filmation}}.

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'': A great example comes from [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker The Joker]], who is ordinarily notorious for [[SlasherSmile a very different kind of facial expression]]. When an explosive he had planted in Las Vegas seemingly fails to go off, The Joker watches a video replay in super slow motion that reveals [[spoiler: that The Flash had carried the device to the outskirts of town ''while it was exploding'']]. The camera cuts to the Joker just in time to catch a subdued "Huh."
* A justified example in the ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "[[Recap/SupermanTheAnimatedSeriesS3E2KnightTime Knight Time]]", when [[Characters/SupermanBrainiacCharacter Brainiac]] the emotionless android/supercomputer learns [[spoiler: who is really wearing that Batman costume.]]:
-->'''Brainiac:''' [[spoiler: Kal-El.]] This development was highly improbable.

* ''[[Series/RuPaulsDragRaceUK RuPaul's Drag Race UK]]'': Discussed in a stand-up comedy challenge when a queen said, "You say my acting is flat? This morning I had to pretend I knew who [guest judge] was!" This confirmed what many fans had suspected throughout the entire franchise: when Ru announces the guest judge of the episode, sometimes the queens have never heard of that person and are merely feigning excitement for the camera, leading to a tepid reaction compared to when it's a megastar like Creator/WhoopiGoldberg and they all lose their shit.

* ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'': The page picture for MagicIsAMonsterMagic shows someone amazingly calm about how they're responsible for a demon attack, especially given the emotions their thought bubble is trying to express.