Dull surprise
From Transformers Wiki
"Dull surprise" has become a popular term in the Transformers fandom to sum up the (lack of) range of a character's facial expressions when drawn by Pat Lee and people who were made to draw in his style, like Rob Ruffolo or (formerly) Alex Milne.
The expression in question is a vapid, empty look where you can just hear the character in question going "Guuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" while waiting for the next neuron to fire in their puny brain.
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Origin
The term originated in a skit from Mystery Science Theater 3000's showing of the movie Alien from L.A., where Mike Nelson was playing the "Kathy Ireland Fabulous Range Of Emotions Acting Guessing Game by Hasbro-bro-bro!", in which he had to guess the emotion the supermodel and attempted-actress was portraying in a scene. The correct answer was invariably "Dull surprise!!".
The MST3K episode that had the skit in question originally aired on November 20th of 1993, and there's certainly a sizable Transformers/MST3K audience/fan crossover (speaking of dull surprise!!). So when the era of Dreamwave Productions comics began in 2002, the fandom realized they had the perfect term for describing Pat Lee's take on expressiveness in the new Transformers comics.
In the wild
A particularly notorious example may be found at the end of "Prime Directive" #4. Superion has been defeated and Devastator looms above all the other combatants, holding one of Superion's components in his fist. Several of the Autobots and Decepticons gaze up at him.
The Autobots are supposed to be shocked and horrified, Megatron should presumably be elated, and Devastator himself is apparently intended to be roaring in furious triumph. Yet all of the characters, including Devastator, have exactly the same expression—staring slack-jawed off into the distance.
The page left quite a few fans wondering if this was some kind of twist ending. Was everybody looking at something? Had Omega Supreme or some other towering threat arrived off-panel? To compound the problem, "Prime Directive issue 5" was weeks late, so fans spent nearly two months arguing over what the nature of the cliffhanger was.
Universe
2008's Universe toy line brought a resurgence in the popularity of the term in the fandom due to the style of the packaging artwork used. At the request of Hasbro, artists such as Marcelo Matere aimed for a stoic, static, neutral facial expression. Unfortunately in the final product, the characters are standing with arms to the side, looking into the distance with their mouths slightly agape. Rows and rows of robots all gaping in vague zombie horror at nothing.
The "guuuuuuh" expressions are made even more noticeable by the artwork's live-action-movie-inspired touches, mainly making their lower jaws a whole separate piece from the rest of the face. This is in stark contrast to the concurrent Transformers Animated packaging's lively, action-oriented artwork... which was probably the point but it's still dull surprise.
Although later in the line the poses remained largely static, the characters' expressions got more and more... well, expressive. This was mainly in the realm of "snarling", but it was a marked improvement over "Guuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhh...".
See also
External links
- Dull Surprise on TV Tropes
- Confusion over the end of "Prime Directive" Part 4 ending at alt.toys.transformers
