Funny Photo Phrase

Howie Kemp: Why do you always tell us to say, "Cheese"? I mean, don't you ever get tired of "Cheese"?
Photographer: As a matter of fact I do. Say... "Peas".

— Ramona and Beezus

Usually, when someone is having their picture taken, they are asked to say, "Cheese" (or their national equivalent) to make them smile. Some characters, however, get creative and ask them to say something funnier, or say something funny despite being told to say, "Cheese". That's what a Funny Photo Phrase is.

It'll usually be something related to the situation (such as, being asked to say, "Christmas!" for a Christmas photo), but sometimes it's a Non Sequitur (e.g. being asked to say, "Bubble gum!"). If the person says the Funny Photo Phrase despite not being asked to, it'll often suit their personality (for instance, a verbose character saying, "Fermented dairy product" instead of "Cheese" or a Cloudcuckoolander saying something absurd).

Truth in Television. The point of saying "cheese" is that it supposedly forms your mouth into a smile. Telling the person being photographed to say something silly or unexpected will hopefully make them smile for real.

Compare Family Portrait of Characterization, Last-Second Photo Failure, and Bunny Ears Picture Prank for other gags about photos. Also compare Ladies and Germs and Subverted Punchline for other gags about riffing on common phrases. Might happen during a Group Picture Ending.

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Examples:

Advertising

• The Burger King Kids Club Gang: A commercial shows the Burger King Kids Club Gang in their treehouse, which is in Live-Action. Snaps gets the group photo of the kids and tells them to say, "Cheeseburger".
• McDonaldland did something similar where Ronald McDonald, several McDonaldland characters, and a group of children are on a vacation together. It ends with Ronald setting the timer of a camera on a tripod and telling the gang to smile and say "Cheeseburger" as he runs in to join them.

Animation

• BoBoiBoy: In Animonsta's 2021 Raya Eidulfitri special, the phrase that BoBoiBoy and his friends like to say when taking group photos is "Cekodok cheese!" ^note (Cekodok is typically known as mashed banana fritters.), while doing a little jig before posing.

Fan Works

• Total Drama Do Over: In "Walk Like An Egyptian — Part 1," Dakota makes Mel take a photo of her with the mummified animals. Mel complies, asking Dakota to say, "R Rated Movie." Dakota says it, but trails off as she falls onto the mummified dog.

Films — Animation

• Encanto:
  • After Antonio receives his Gift of understanding animals, the Madrigals (sans Mirabel) take a group photo and shout, "¡La familia Madrigal!"
  • At the end, after Casita has been rebuilt, the Madrigals take another group photo, this time with Mirabel, and call out, "¡La familia Madrigal!"
• A Goofy Movie: While at Lester's Possum Park, Goofy is told to say, "Sassafras" while having his photo taken with two possums.
  "Sassy-fras!"
• Lalaloopsy: In Lalaloopsy Babies: First Steps!, Baby Bea comes by with a camera she found and tells Baby Jewel and Baby Peanut to say "cheese". Peanut yells, "Mozzarella!"
• Leroy & Stitch: At the very end of the movie, Lilo has the aliens, Nani, and Mertle say, "Aloha!" as she takes a group shot of them all.
• The Queen's Corgi has a running gag where President Trump pulls others in for selfies while saying "cheesesteak!", including the Queen.
• In Turning Red, Mei has people say "Bamboo leaves!" when they pose for a picture with her as a giant red panda.

Films — Live-Action

• Avengers: Endgame: When Professor Hulk takes a selfie with some kids, he tells them to say "Green!".
• Blue Sky: Jessica Lange's character presents the oldest daughter with a camera, telling her that she should be the family historian since she's so smart. She immediately moves to take a picture of everyone doing what they're doing at that moment, and directs them all to "Say, 'shit'!" (They do.)
• Dear Brigitte: Brigitte asks Robert to say, "Cheese!" when taking a photo of her and Erasmus. A confused Robert says "Fromage" instead.
• Ramona and Beezus: On School Picture Day, Howie asks the photographer if he ever gets bored of telling the students to say, "Cheese", so he tells Ramona to say, "Peas". Unfortunately, she instead makes a disgusted expression remembering her baby sister spitting peas on her.
• Vegas Vacation: Rusty obtains a fake ID from a Frank Sinatra impersonator who pulls out a giant driver's license-printed board with a cutout and an old camera. He hands the board to Rusty and says, "Just stick your head in the hole and say 'Joey Heatherton.'"

Literature

• Angela Nicely: In “Supermodel!”, when Angela, Tiffany, and two other girls are posing for a photo, the photographer makes them shout, “ICE CREAM!”.
• Goosebumps: In Say Cheese and Die!, the very first time the evil camera is used, Greg calls to his friend Michael to "Say cheese". Michael, being something of a jokester (whose jokes always fall flat), responds by grinning and saying, "Cheddar".
• Junie B. Jones: In "Junie B. Jones Has a Monster Under Her Bed", a photographer instructs Lucille to say "cheese" during class picture day, so she sings, "Cheese, cheese, cheesy cheese, cheese!" until he tells her to quiet down.
• Ramona Quimby: When Ramona's fourth-grade class is getting their pictures taken, Howie asks the photographer if he's bored of making everyone say "cheese." He agrees, so when it's Ramona's turn, he tells her to say "peas." Unfortunately, this backfires because it makes Ramona think of the time she was feeding her baby sister Roberta and got strained peas spewed all over her, and she makes a disgusted face before the camera goes off.
• In Stephen King's novella The Sun Dog, the protagonist gets a Polaroid camera for his 15th birthday. When he first tries to take a picture of his family he tells them: "Smile and say Intercourse!"

Live-Action TV

• The Big Bang Theory: In one episode, the gang have a "prom do-over." Stuart brings Howard's cousin with whom he lost his virginity as his date ("She was my SECOND cousin!"), to Howard's horror and Raj's delight. During the photos, Raj ruins Howard and Bernadette's by bringing it up again.
  Raj: [taking the photo] Say,... "COUSIN"!
  [the camera goes off as Howard angrily lunges]
• Cheers had a variation in that the people having their picture taken weren't asked to say it by the photographer, but said it of their own volition. Woody and Sam attend a family function for the Gaines family where Kelly's mother flirts with Woody all night. They're asked to join in a group photo. Just as the picture is about to be taken, Kelly's mother pinches Woody's butt cheek which makes him yelp, "Whoop!" He then explains that where he's from, everybody says, "Whoop" just before their picture is taken. The photographer then has everyone take the photo again. This time, everybody says, "Whoop" as the picture is taken.
• House of Anubis: During the Touchstone of Ra, one of Willow's extra credit jobs is to take the senior class photo. She makes everyone say, "Squee" for it, which they do... until the camera falls mid-picture, anyway.
• Lazytown: When Robbie Rotten is having his picture taken, Sportacus tells him to say, "cheese," but he says, "Cheddar!"
• The Thundermans:
  • In "Thunder in Paradise", after the evil-turned Phoebe traps her family in the volcano lair and prepares for the eruption, she tells everyone to say, "Evil!" as she takes a selfie with them.
  • In "A Hero is Born", Max and Colosso say "Supervillains!" when taking a selfie after Max turned Colosso back to human form with the Animalizer.
• Veronica Mars: One episode has the eponymous detective discovering a secret society at the school. She observes one of their meetings and goes to take a picture. Just before taking the picture, she says, "Say, 'repressed homosexuality'."

Theatre

• Legally Blonde: During "Legally Blonde (Reprise)," Elle's parents drop by and grab a photo with Elle before she goes back to Brooke's case. Her dad says, "Everyone say 'cheese!'" but her (eternally tipsy) mother says, "No, say 'Legally blonde'!" The chorus indeed says "Legally blonde!" as they take the picture.

Theme Parks

• Disneyland: At Cars Land, one of the phrases Lightning McQueen might say when docked at the Cozy Cone Motel is, "Smile and say, 'McQueen'!".

Video Games

• Discworld II: Before taking photos of the Elf Queen, Rincewind (disguised as an unicorn) says: "Smile! Say 'children's blood!'"
• EarthBound: The Photo Man asks members of the Chosen Four to say, "Fuzzy pickles!" whenever he takes a photo of them. In the Japanese version, he instead instructs them to say, "Cheese sandwich."
• Final Fantasy XV: When taking a picture of Noctis in the "Strike a Pose" tour, in the English-language dialogue, Prompto will say "Say, 'fuzzy pickles!'", directly referencing EarthBound.
• In Mario Party 7, whenever Bowser decides to take a commemorative photo with the players, he instructs them to say "chumps".

Web Comics

• Scandinavia and the World goes into the difference between saying "cheese" and some other languages' equivalents in the context of social media challenges.

Western Animation

• Amphibia: In "The Sleepover to End All Sleepovers", Anne, Marcy, Sprig and Polly dare each other to take a selfie in the castle crypt, in front of several coffins.. Before taking the picture, Anne says "Say 'desecration...'"
• In one episode of Angelina Ballerina: The Next Steps, Gracie is doing a dance demonstration in front of a camera and says "Say cheese! Or should I say, fromage!".
• Big City Greens: In "Sleepover Sisters", Tilly tells Andromeda to say "squeeze" as they take a selfie together before their sleepover at Andromeda's house.
• Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot: At the end of "Lazy Susan", Susan is about to take a photo of the bears. Share says, "Say 'tea'!", much to Harmony's confusion.
  Harmony: ...Tea?
• Cyberchase: In the end of "Sensible Flats", Delete gets to take a picture of him telling Hacker to say, "Chaos". He does, but only for the flash of Delete's camera angers a nearby herd of buffalo and charges against the villains.
• Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood: In "Duckling Goes Home", Teacher Harriet and her class are sending Ducky the duck to the farm where her egg came from. Harriet makes the students pose for a photo and say, "Ducky!"
• Go Jetters sometimes uses this trope for souvenir selfies.
• In the Gravity Falls episode "Scary-Oke", when Dipper, Mabel, and Grunkle Stan are getting their picture taken for the local paper's story on the grand reopening of the Mystery Shack, Mabel goes "Everyone say something stupid!", and all three proceed to say, "Something stupid!"
• The Great North: At the end of "My Fart Will Go On Adventure", right before the Tobins and the Shaws are about to take a photo, Judy says, "Okay, on three! Everyone say, 'Today turned out perfectly and we didn't even have to do the shadow wedding, which is a good move cuz mom didn't even end up throwing up'!" The camera goes off before anyone else can say that, though.
• Green Eggs and Ham: In "Here," a grumpy Guy walks past a cheerful family who ask him to take their photo. He angrily tells them to say, "I'm ruining your life!", which they all say back with big smiles.
• Little Bear: In one episode, Little Bear tries to take a photo of Duck, Owl, and Hen. He asks them to say, "Cheese", but Owl asks what sort of cheese. Little Bear says, "You can say anything," so the photo ends up with Hen yelling, "Cheese!", Owl yelling, "Mozzarella!", and Duck yelling, "Anything!".
• Little Princess: In "I Want My Tooth", everyone is having a group photo and they say, "Cheese!", except for the French-accented Chef, who says, "Fromage!".
• The Magic School Bus: At the end of "Goes to Seed", the class all shout "Seeds!" for their cover photo of the Plant It! magazine.
• Mickey Mouse: In "Carried Away", Goofy tries to take a photo of some tourists at Niagara Falls when, thanks to Mickey's shenanigans, a piranha bites him on the nose.
  Goofy: Okay, everyone! Say, "Chee—" [SNAP!] YEOOOWWWW!
  People: Chee-yow!
• Molly of Denali: In "Tooey's Hole-i-Day Sweater," Tooey and Grandma Elizabeth say "Musk ox!" when they take a picture together at the end.
• The Octonauts: Whenever Dashi takes a picture of someone, she tells them to "Say, 'seaweed'!" They always do so.
• The Patrick Star Show: In "Gas Station Vacation", the Star family mistake a gas station for a tropical vacation resort. One thing Squidina wants the family to do is take a picture with the "mascot", who's actually just the manager. She holds out a camera and has them say "Cheese poofs!" for the photo.
• Phineas and Ferb:
  • Near the end of the episode "For Your Ice Only", Linda Flynn-Fletcher tells everyone to say, "Canadian bacon" as the prepares to take the picture. Everyone's reply is "ham", as part of a Brick Joke from Baljeet claiming near the episode's beginning that the two meats were the same.
  • At the end of the episode "Split Personality", Jeremy shows up to inform Candace about the picture frame that her "romantic" personality bought for him. He believes that they should take a picture together to put in the frame, so Candace's brothers Phineas and Ferb decide to take one for them. Ferb prompts them to say, "fromage", and they do, which results in the picture looking rather goofy.
• The Real Ghostbusters: In "Three Men and an Egon", the Ghostbusters have a group photo and Winston asks them to say, "Ghostbusters!". However, no one does — Peter and Ray remain silent, and Egon, who had turned into a baby, just blows a raspberry.
• The Secret World of Benjamin Bear: In one episode, Eliza sows a sunflower seed and can't wait to see the flower grow. At the end of the episode, Eliza's father takes a picture of her with the now grown-up plant, telling his daughter to say "sunflower".
• SpongeBob SquarePants: In "Christmas Who?", Squidward tells (a very upset) SpongeBob to say, "Santa Claus" as his picture is taken, as a way of rubbing it in SpongeBob's face that Santa never showed up.
• True and the Rainbow Kingdom: At the end of "The Big Green Bounce", Grizelda says, "Everything-back-to-normal face!" when she and the others take a group photo after Rainbow City's water has become purified.

Real Life

• This story about Japanese kindergarteners apparently yelling "killing me!" when taking a group photo. It turns out they were saying kiringumi (Giraffe Class), the name of their class.

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