Perpetual Frowners in Western Animation.
Examples:
- Lemongrab of Adventure Time, except for when he's confused or enjoying a good meal.
- Ms. Simian from The Amazing World of Gumball almost always has an angry look on her face. The same goes for Julius.
- Avatar: The Last Airbender:
- The complex but bitter and sometimes just downright angsty Prince Zuko always has a big angry look on his face and has a strong tendency to stand around with his arms crossed. At the culmination of his character progression within the second season, he recovers from a spiritual illness and spends an episode at peace, smiling, and gaining a more optimistic look on life... Cue the Wham Episode. He sums it up in one line:...are you happy now?
I'm never happy. - Not surprisingly, Zuko's emotionless girlfriend, Mai, also fits. Interestingly enough, the only times they seem genuinely happy are when they're together. This is likely a result of Mai's listlessness and Zuko's angst canceling each other out.
- The complex but bitter and sometimes just downright angsty Prince Zuko always has a big angry look on his face and has a strong tendency to stand around with his arms crossed. At the culmination of his character progression within the second season, he recovers from a spiritual illness and spends an episode at peace, smiling, and gaining a more optimistic look on life... Cue the Wham Episode. He sums it up in one line:
- Beavis And Butthead: The majority of the characters are this, but special mention goes to Principal McVicker, Coach Buzzcut, Todd, and Harry Sachz.
- Bob's Burgers:
- Due to the stress he suffers on a daily basis, Bob usually has a neutral expression or frown on his face and rarely smiles.
- Due to her mental issues and general stoicism, Tina rarely smiles and is almost always depicted with a straight-line mouth that resembles a frown.
- Huey Freeman from The Boondocks. An [adult swim] bump once featured a fan asking the question, "Does Huey ever smile?" The AS team, apparently stumped, claim to have called up Aaron McGruder to ask. The answer? Apparently, the animators are contractually obligated never to depict Huey smiling or laughing, ever.
- Huey actually does smile a few times in the series. Once when he fights Riley in "Let's Nab Oprah" and twice at Riley's basketball game. There are a few other instances of Huey smiling, but they're harder to notice. But he does fit this trope perfectly.
- Brickleberry:
- Connie tends to frown most of the time, mostly due to being the Butt-Monkey to the rest of the cast.
- Malloy usually isn't seen with a smile unless someone is getting maimed or killed in front of him.
- Nonny from Bubble Guppies. Unlike all the other Guppies, who are Perpetual Smilers, his face always has an uneasy, apprehensive look. He's notably the only Guppy not smiling during the intro and ending, though he'll smile at certain circumstances such as the sequence when the Guppies go outside. Lampshaded at one point during the "Big Warm Friendly Smile" song in "A Tooth on the Looth", Molly even reacts in turn.
- Mr. Grumpfish is a more straightforward example, as his name might suggest.
- Edward Platypus from Camp Lazlo.
- Belson from Clarence.
- Eustace from Courage the Cowardly Dog. While he is capable of smiling in more than just a few occasions (particularly when he either tortures Courage or gets money), he's mostly shown with a grumpy scowl on his face.
- Daria: The title character.Daria: I don't like to smile unless I have a reason.
- Droopy and later on his son Dripple.
- Mr. Mufflin from Fanboy and Chum Chum is miserable as he is a complete sadist. He becomes more jovial in the second season.
- Razor V. Doom and the goth fish from Fish Hooks. Oscar had to become this when he temporarily joined them.
- Scruffy never smiles in Futurama. (But then, since his mustache is always covering his face, it's difficult to tell what sort of expressions he has.)
- Agent Six from Generator Rex has never changed his perpetual frown. Even when knocked out in a nanite-induced coma, he has the exact same expression on his face.
- Mandy in The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. In one episode, a shape-shifter turns into Mandy, and Billy remarks "No, wait...Mandy never smiles." She has smiled exactly three times in the entire series. The first time was at the end of the pilot episode. Next, she made an evil smirk after she realized she'd accidentally wished every other human gone from the planet, and had the whole world to herself. Finally, she smiled during a beauty pageant in "My Fair Mandy", it warped reality. On one occasion she's made a look of genuine sadness — even rarer than a smile.
- When Mr. Warburton was writing for The Grim Adventures of the KND, he had to write out things like "Mandy grinned evilly" as this is after it is established that Mandy never smiles.
- Two comic book stories just miss averting this. The unedited proof of one story had Mandy smile after Cerberus won a dog contest; the published version merely has her with a look of resigned bemusement. The script for another had her and Grim laughing at Billy's extreme scouts outfit; here the penciller had Mandy just glare at Billy with a cocked eye.
- Randl from Harvey Beaks.
- Helga Pataki from Hey Arnold!. Her father even lampshades it when looking at family photos of her.
- Gaz from Invader Zim.
- In Justice League, Batman. Martian Manhunter too.
- Kaeloo: Mr. Cat's default facial expression is an angry scowl; on a few rare occasions, he does smile (usually when watching someone else get hurt).
- Shego from Kim Possible, who becomes a Perpetual Smiler in "Stop Team Go".
- Hank from King of the Hill was said by Peggy to sleep with a look of extreme disgruntlement. And his father, Cotton, has a frown as his default expression, though he's smiled at times.
- Bleak from Lite Sprites.Meadow: I've never been so happy to see your frowning face!
- Lucy from The Loud House.
- Vice Coach Horace Ferret from My Gym Partner's a Monkey.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
- The Pie Family are prone to frowning perpetually because of all that rock farm work. Pinkie used to be one, until Rainbow Dash's Sonic Rainboom caused her to smile for the first time and discover her cutie mark talent.
- Professor Flintheart in "A Hearth's Warming Tail" never smiles, true to his name, and is the reason for Snowfall Frost hating Hearth's Warming.
- Chancellor Neighsay in Season 8. He never once cracks a single smile in his debut; but following him reasoning the error of his ways, he begins smiling.
- The Owl House: In her earlier appearances, Amity Blight was always shown with a sour disposition, save for when she was behaving smugly. She has her reasons, namely being manipulated and gaslighted by her Abusive Mom. With the help of Luz, she brightens up considerably.
- Schleprock
from The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show (a Spin-Off of The Flintstones) was always depressed. His catchphrase was the miserable "Wowzee wowzee woo woo". He even had a perpetual storm cloud over his head. - Popeye, at least in the earlier shorts.
- The adorable but angsty Buttercup of The Powerpuff Girls.
- Razzberry Jazzberry Jam: Krupa. Hilariously, his twin brother Buddy (who normally fits the opposite trope) was once able to flawlessly impersonate him by forcing himself to affect the same grumpy expression.
- Samurai Jack does have a wide variety of expressions, but his default is a stern scowl highlighted by his Big Ol' Eyebrows. A villain in Season 5 was able to identify Jack solely by the scowl, even after he had grown a beard and acquired heavy plate armor.
- Mr. Noodman from Sanjay and Craig, except for when he's eating blueberries.
- Nester and Momma from Scaredy Squirrel. Momma heavily lampshades the trope.
- The Simpsons:
- Craig Tucker from South Park. If he's not stoical, he's this.
- Shelley frowns in most of her appearances.
- SpongeBob SquarePants: Squidward Tentacles is a well-known frowner. While he is capable of smiling, it's only at his own jokes/art or as an indicator that he has just tempted fate (usually at the expense of SpongeBob and Patrick).
- Steven Universe
- Lapis Lazuli, when not around her Morality Pet Steven, is stuck with a bitter deadpan face.
- Mister Frownie, when Steven meets him in "Future Boy Zoltron", is always sad. Every possible future shows that whatever Steven says, he will take it the wrong way and continue being sad. He was in a comedy duo with Mister Smiley.
- Blue Diamond and Yellow Diamond.
- Lance for the first few episodes of Sym-Bionic Titan. He grows out of it if fairly quickly.
- Raven in Teen Titans (2003).
- Gordon from Thomas & Friends can fall into this in most of the episodes due to being too focused on his own importance in The Fat Controller's railway as well as arrogantly looking down on the other engines. The engines' tendency in teasing doesn't help at all.
- Eva the "Female Bully" from Total Drama rarely smiles.
- Transformers: Cyberverse has Shockwave, who manages to spend his entire screentime scowling in spite of the fact that he has no face.
- Skyquake in Transformers: Prime. The one time we see him smile was...unsettling.
- Mr. Gus in the early episodes of Uncle Grandpa.
- Ice Bear from We Bare Bears.
