Eyebrow Waggle

The Eyebrow Waggle is a gesture in which a character quickly raises and lowers their eyebrows a few times, used as a way to self-lampshade what they have just said or done. This generally shows up after a lecherous comment or Double Entendre, after a wisecrack, or when the Fourth Wall is being leaned on or even broken (often accompanied by an Aside Glance and/or half-closed eyes to show slyness). The first use is something of a Dead Horse Trope, as the style of humor in which this shows up isn't seen much anymore, although it hasn't gone away completely—in fact, the "eyebrow waggle combined with humorous statement" maneuver was popularized by Groucho Marx, and many modern examples take after him. In general, the gesture is most commonly associated with early-to-mid twentieth-century media, especially cartoons, and often to close out an episode or segment (combined with Iris Out). Since a couple quick pumps of the brows is a universal way to denote lasciviousness, it's an essential tool in the arsenal of The Charmer, Handsome Lech, and Casanova Wannabe (with varying degrees of success, of course).

A downplayed version can be done by raising and lowering the eyebrows just once quickly. This is usually seen as more lewd than humorous, and thus is seen often in more mature and less comedic media.

Not to be confused with Fascinating Eyebrow, which only uses one eyebrow and has a completely different intent. Compare Eyelash Fluttering, which flutters the lashes instead of the brows and usually indicates romantic intent instead of slyness, though there is overlap. Also see Character Tics.

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Examples:

Comedy

• Jeff Dunham's character Achmed the Dead Terrorist does this sometimes when he's making a wisecrack, especially during the Controlled Chaos special. Walter could do this, since his eyebrows are also articulated, but it would clash with his sarcastic style of humor.

Fan Works

• A Diplomatic Visit: In the sixth chapter of the fourth story, The Diplomat's Life, Pinkie waggles her eyebrows during a discussion of when they can expect Queen Scolopidia to lay her first eggs, saying that she thinks Octavia (one of Scolopidia's wives) is looking forward to being a mommy.

Films — Animation

• Aladdin:
  • Aladdin does one to the audience in Aladdin: The Return of Jafar after presenting the jeweled flower to Jasmine.
    Jasmine: This must've cost a fortune!
    Aladdin: Ah, no, it was a steal!
  • Aladdin does it at Jasmine at the end of Aladdin and the King of Thieves when they fly off on the magic carpet to their honeymoon.
• The Angry Birds Movie: Red catches a Blue repeatedly kicking a soccer ball against the side of his house, and the Blue gives Red a slow eyebrow wiggle to charm him into forgiveness. Red doesn't buy it; he simply returns the gesture and kicks the Blue into the horizon.
• In A Charlie Brown Christmas, Linus gives a rather smug one upon telling Lucy about turning his blanket into a sport coat. It just makes her angrier since she wants him to get rid of it.
• Jetsons: The Movie: George Jetson is about to shut down the inner workings of the plant and comes across a sign reading "WARNING! DO NOT STICK YOUR FINGER IN THIS HOLE!" He smiles mischievously and waggles his eyebrows to the audience before deliberately ignoring the sign.
• My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Legend of Everfree: Sunset Shimmer waggles her eyebrows towards Human Twilight when they meet after Twilight's dance with Timber Spruce.
• Pinocchio: Honest John does this when talking Pinocchio into become an actor, which Pinocchio playfully imitates.
• Tangled: When Flynn and Rapunzel first meet, he tries to ease her by waggling his eyebrows. It doesn't work and only has Rapunzel question his motives more.
• In Winnie the Pooh (2011), Pooh does this when he asks the narrator if there's any honey in this paragraph.

Films — Live-Action

• In Animal House, Bluto climbs up a ladder to spy on sorority girls, then turns to the camera and waggles his eyebrows.
• In Garfield The Movie, Garfield waggles his eyebrows to the camera whenever he's about to pull a prank on Jon or Odie.
• In The Incredible Mr. Limpet, Ladyfish laments how the male fish always leave first. Limpet promises he'll stay with her—and bring a few more males soon, he adds while waggling his eyebrows for effect.
• This was Groucho Marx's signature way to lampshade his Double Entendres.
• Chevy Chase's Emmitt Fitzhume in Spies Like Us does this after telling his colleague that he has an "intimate" lunch meeting with the (female) supervisor.
• The Dark Knight features a malicious instance. Near the end of the interrogation room sequence, the Joker does a brief one after he tells Batman "[...] you'll have to play my little game if you want to save one of them.", as if to highlight how he knows he's got Batman right where he wants him.

Live-Action TV

• Brooklyn Nine-Nine: In "Serve and Protect," instead of blackmailing the deputy commissioner about his affair, Charles tells Holt to make him think that they will, and suggests that Holt waggle his eyebrows in an insinuating manner. Unfortunately, Holt never quite grasps the concept, and the commissioner just thinks he's got a facial tic.
• Interview with the Vampire (2022):
  • "In Throes of Increasing Wonder...": Lestat de Lioncourt wiggles his eyebrows after he psychically asks Louis de Pointe du Lac, "And do you think two pair will win the hour?" It's his playful way of letting his Love Interest know that he'll help Louis win money from the racist jerks at the poker table by Fixing the Game with his Time Stands Still powers.
  • In Santiago's character teaser, he raises his eyebrows while looking at the audience, which hints that he's a mischievous Performance Artist while onstage at the Théâtre des Vampires.
• Loki (2021): In "Lamentis," Sylvie waggles her eyebrows when she asks Loki about his love life.
• The White Queen: When George of Clarence inquires as to what his younger brother's intentions are for Anne Neville, Richard of Gloucester answers, "Well, what do you think they are?" and performs this gesture as a silent "I dare you to figure me out, because I know you've never really tried to understand me."
• World's Dumbest...: Dustin Diamond does this for the camera during the Hilarious Outtakes of an early episode.

Video Games

• The photographer from Boo Party does this every time he's about to take the pics of one of the girls - but, since he has Hidden Eyes, he waggles his hair instead.
• Jean in Breath of Fire II does this, directly at the player, accompanied by a smug smile, whenever he attacks.
• Crash Bandicoot does this before jumping on the warthog... or the polar bear. N. Sane Trilogy makes this waggle one of his Idle Animations. Many have noted how it makes him look like he's about to do... something else.
• In Cuphead, mad scientist Dr. Kahl's boss-fight beginning animation is him wiggling his eyebrows repeatedly at Cuphead before entering his robot's head. It's a reference to Dr. Wily's signature gesture.
• Dr. Wily does this in all of the classic Mega Man games before you go to his castle stage.
• Piston Honda in the NES version of Punch-Out!! does this often - it's one of his punching tells. The Wii game changes it to him waggling one eyebrow at a time.
• Ganryu in Tekken has a victory pose where he does this at the camera. He's noted by Lili for his Big Ol' Eyebrows.
• In The Town with No Name, the Man with No Name finds the Hooker in a room on the Saloon's second floor and in a Sexy Discretion Shot, we only see a silhouette of them kissing and the curtains closing from the outside before cutting to the Bartender waggling his eyebrows suggestively at the viewer while hearing the loud commotion coming from the room.

Web Animation

• Battle for BFDI: In "Four Goes Too Far," A Better Name Than That successfully gets rid of Four by multiplying him by zero (Donut). Tennis Ball and Golf Ball wiggle their eyebrows at the word "factor" as an Imagined Innuendo, much to Donut's annoyance.
  Tennis Ball: Well, Four became a... factor of zero... if you know what I mean.
  [Tennis Ball and Golf Ball wiggle their eyebrows intensively]
  Donut: Stop that! There's not even a second meaning there!

Webcomics

• In Homestuck, Karkat has a "mental breakdown" after "Troll/Human sloppy makeouts" are mentioned one time too many. In this state, he sees Rose and Kanaya waggling eyebrows at each other...
• In Devil's Candy, Ace does this at Rowan to make a suggestive joke when Rowan says that their relationship is platonic.
• Sleepless Domain: When Undine learns that Lime was "too hardcore" for HP, she imagines her offering HP drugs while waggling her eyebrows.

Web Original

• Done in a couple of Vines:
  • Vincent Marcus does this in his Vine "If Frank Sinatra had Tinder" as he sings "Start sending me nudes..."
  • In one of Thomas Sanders' Vines:
    When you and your crush like a bunch of each other's photos on Instagram... [waggle]
    [cut to scene from Napoleon Dynamite of Pedro saying "I think things are getting pretty serious."]
• Bennett the Sage, in his Suave character, does this during the review of Eiken on Anime Abandon after making a rather suggestive comment about one particular scene.

Western Animation

• Adventure Time: In "Bad Little Boy", both the Ice King and Marcelline do this at various points. The Ice King's is meant to have a lecherous tone, but considering who it is and how it's done it's more funny than anything. Marcelline's is purely for humor as she's poking fun at the Ice King.
• Animaniacs: Waggling his eyebrows is one of Yakko Warner's stock moves, usually accompanying an Aside Glance and/or a subtle joke. Serves as a Shout-Out to Groucho Marx.
• The Beatles (1965): In "Anytime At All", the boys are at a French museum exhibit of the Three Musketeers. As the curator tells the crowd about the Musketeers' derring-do and rescuing maidens in distress, John turns to the camera and does an eyebrow waggle.
• CatDog: In "The Old CatDog and the Sea," Dog jokes to the camera that Cat "tends to exaggerate" when telling stories (something Cat accused Dog of doing earlier) and waggles his brows.
• Dr. Seuss Enterprises' Vanity Plate has the Cat in the Hat waggling his eyebrows toward the viewer. This version of the logo can be seen before How the Grinch Stole Christmas! and Horton Hears a Who! (1970).
• Family Guy: In "Brian the Bachelor", after Chris takes his shirt off and begins dancing around, John Herbert appears in the window standing on a ladder (in an homage to Bluto's scene from Animal House listed above, even complete with very similar music). The view cuts to over his shoulder, and he turns to the viewer and does a slow waggle before turning back to ogle Chris.
• Futurama: In "The Lesser of Two Evils", Zapp is one of the judges of the Miss Universe pageant. After one pageant girl performs, he holds up a scorecard with his room number written on it and comically wiggles his eyebrows while jingling his room keys.
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas!: The Grinch gives one to the viewer as he steals the roast beast from the icebox.
• Looney Tunes: One of Bugs Bunny's signature gestures.
  • Duck Amuck: At the very end, Bugs gives one to the camera after saying his only line: "Ain't I a stinker?"
  • Rabbit Fire: During the Duck Season, Rabbit Season bit, Bugs gives a very subtle one to the audience hinting that he's about to switch it.
  • The diminutive moose from 1952's "The Oily American" does this along with a Cheshire Cat grin and Aside Glance.
  • 14 Carrot Rabbit: Bugs waggles his eyebrows to the camera as he pretends to befriend Sam, letting the viewers know he's not to be trusted.
• The Perils of Penelope Pitstop: The opening animation shows the Hooded Claw doing this when the announcer mentions him. It's likely done as a Fourth Wall vanity pose, but also qualifies as lecherous, since Penelope has yet to suspect his true identity as Sylvester Sneekly, despite Sneekly being the one character who'd profit most from her demise.
• The Pink Panther does this at the end of "Dial P for Pink" after tricking a bank robber into taking a safe loaded with explosives.
• Popeye does this with his open eye in the close of the Al Brodax cartoons made at Paramount Cartoon Studios.
• She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: In "Stranded," when Entrapta says she wants some quality time with Mara's ship, she waggles her eyebrows suggestively before pulling out a bunch of power tools.
• The Simpsons:
  • Milhouse manages to pull this off so well that Principal Skinner considers it a violation of school etiquette.
    Milhouse: Oh, Lisa! I've got an extra seat, and you've got an extra lunch. [chuckles] Catch my drift? [chuckles, waggles eyebrows]
    Principal Skinner: Milhouse! Lower those eyebrows! [Milhouse lowers one eyebrow] And the other one! [Milhouse does so]
  • In a later episode, when some fishermen explain that they use the (horrible-looking) fish they're captured to make an oil used for the wellkeeping of strippers' dancing poles, the fish smiles and waggles the eyebrows at Homer.
• Steven Universe: In the episode "Future Vision", Steven does this to coerce Garnet into going with him to Big Donut. He actually waggles his eyebrows three times, each in a different way.
• Total Drama:
  • Justin intercepts Izzy, Eva, and Noah when they have the briefcase with the prize money in "Total Drama Drama Drama Drama Island" to take it from them. He waggles his eyebrows when Noah enters the confrontation with "Justin! The anti-me! So, we meet again."
  • Courtney gets her tricycle's front wheel stuck in a crack in "Chinese Fake-Out" and can't get it out herself. Alejandro comes to her rescue and pulls it out, all the while flirting with her ending on an eyebrow waggle.
  • Ezekiel becomes smitten with Anne Maria the moment he lays eyes on her in "A Mine Is a Terrible Thing to Waste". No longer part of polite society, he abducts her to his lair, where instead of introducing himself, he sniffs her up and waggles his eyebrows at her. Anne Maria is far from impressed.
• Muttley does this to close out many episodes of Wacky Races and Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines.
• Wander over Yonder: In "The Birthday Boy'', Hater's birthday wish is to once again kill Wander and Sylvia, and his first attempt is with a giant laser disguised as a spin-the-bottle game. After taking one look, Wander romantically says, "Hater, you sassy man! You DO want to get this party started!" and gives him an eyebrow waggle. This just makes Hater even more annoyed.

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