July 28, 2016

Is there some reason why Hillary keeps doing this gaping-maw face?



Seriously. This is driving me crazy. Makes me want to...



IN THE COMMENTS: Sebastian said:
It's the face of someone still haunted by the thought that no one will ever vote for her.
I think he's invoking Bill Clinton's speech last night, which I thought centered on that idea:
She wanted his charisma in her, merged with her, giving her what without which Nobody would ever vote for me.
And it reminded me of what I was saying as I watched the long encounter between Obama and Hillary on that stage last night. I was wondering why she does that wide-open-mouth/insane-elation thing with her face, and my theory was that she's stuck making the best of doing appearances where she needs to look like the person who is intensely loved but she does not believe she is loved.

Next to Obama, the feeling must be excruciating. Obviously, he is loved. He's been loved for so long. The love he naturally attracts overwhelmed her earnestly entitled effort to become President 8 years ago. And now, here he is on the stage, doing his easygoing routine one more time, as if it's for her, and it's supposed to be a big deal for the candidate to unexpectedly hit the stage a day early, but everyone's loving on him.

 What added impact can she have? It doesn't matter. She must get out there and act the part of the person everyone's been longing to see, even though the person they love to see is already out there, owning the stage. She must pretend she's the one they want. She must!

119 comments:

Bob Ellison said...

Oh, my. I just commented in the earlier thread on this problem. She looks like a baboon. I don't remember her doing that back when Bill was POTUS.

Unknown said...

Is here any reason Trump pulls in air loudly through his teeth? He sounds like a snake. Sometimes he does it with his nose. Makes my skin crawl. Is it an old man thing?

Sebastian said...

It's the face of someone still haunted by the thought that no one will ever vote for her.

Nonapod said...

Perhaps there's been some sort of error in mimicking humanform behavior subroutine. My guess is the parameters were set too high due to a misplaced decimal or a number translocation.

Unknown said...

Maybe it's a spontaneous expression of joy. Have we ever seen Trump laugh? The man makes faces, but I've never seen him laugh out loud.

Wince said...

Mania is a state of abnormally elevated arousal, affect, and energy level, or "a state of heightened overall activation with enhanced affective expression together with lability of affect." Although mania is often conceived as a “mirror image” to depression, the heightened mood can be either euphoric or irritable; indeed, as the mania intensifies, irritability may become more pronounced and eventuate in violence.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

I couldn't find it on the internet.

There's a Kliban cartoon of an inmate sitting at his table, in his cell, in a hospital for the criminally insane. Bars on the window. On the table in front of him is his little string collection. His facial expression indicates that his internal stress level is rising rapidly. The nurse is taking away his food tray and there's a loose thread hanging off of her blouse sleeve.

Came to mind.

Original Mike said...

Watch her work a rope line. Her facial expressions have always been over the top. She thinks this is how to look genuine, which everybody knows she has a problem with.

Achilles said...

I have seen several clips during this election cycle where Hillary is drunk. People call them seizures or can't figure our what she is doing. She is an alcoholic under pressure and staring a historically bad electoral defeat in the face.

She is drunk.

Clayton Hennesey said...

Still trying to learn the blowjob? Teeth, Hillary, teeth.

Dude1394 said...

It is the face of someone who is not honest. She is aping it up to appear that way, all an act. No one laughs like that.

Laslo Spatula said...

Cross posted from an earlier post, but Achilles' comment makes it appropriate here...

"Ms. Meadows, Clinically Depressed Therapist"

My patients, they look to me to tell them that it will be okay when Obama is gone. They say that, just maybe, Hillary might be wonderful, too, but you can tell by their imploring eyes they don't believe it...

As a Therapist, I can confidently say that Hillary suffers from chronic depression, masked by moments of delusional grandeur and excessive alcohol. How can I inspire my patients when I know that Hillary will never live through a full term? How can I help them when there is no Help to be had, anywhere? The alcoholism they suffer, just to make it through another day? Hillary has that, too...

At least when Hillary blacks out drunk and hits her head on the floor there are Secret Service Agents and Doctors right there to help her. The best my patients can expect is to fall down drunk, split their head open on the corner of a table, and slowly, inexorably bleed out, to perhaps be discovered days later by the landlord due to complaints about the smell. And their cat will be taken to a shelter, abandoned and euthanized. That is where we are going, people...

I am very drunk, but I will drive to the Liquor Store to get more alcohol. It's OK, I make the drive drunk all the time...

I am Laslo.

gspencer said...

Perhaps she kinda looks like this,

http://www.geekedoutnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/jaws_shot4l.jpg

BTW, that's us in the foreground, doing our best to take her out.

Mary Beth said...

She is using it for her "happy" expression because when she just smiles she looks like a chipmunk.

Gilbert Pinfold said...

Blow up the picture, and look at Hillary's tongue--there is a dark spot on it, almost as if it is a lesion or surgical scar. What's up with that? Let's have a complete release of her health records, including info on the "concussion". Maybe Vlad has those records as well...

Fernandinande said...

That shiny person is doing something to her behind.

harrogate said...

She's laughing. How dare she.

Meanwhile, thank god the rest of us could never be caught by a photographer in mid laugh, and made fun of. The rest of us are always looking very smooth of course

Susan said...

Uncanny valley in the flesh, as it were.

Just because she's a woman doesn't mean she can't be a robot.

Deirdre Mundy said...

Because the alternative is looking like she's never been happy a day in her life?

http://torchbearer.utk.edu/2014/06/jed-dekalb/19-731x1024/

Maybe she should just stop pretending and embrace her Inner Eyeore instead of trying to pretend she's Pooh.

Sebastian said...

@AA: "She must pretend she's the one they want. She must!" Right. Great minds, etc. etc.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Gilbert, yes, WTF is that mark or hole? Removed a tumor maybe? I wish that fellow Mike K, the doctor, would come back and comment.

boycat said...

I chalk it up to being just another example of Hillary's phoniness. But another question practically asks itself: Why exactly is Obama oh so loved? Just based on race?

Original Mike said...

The thing that creeps me out is what she does with her eyes when she's trying to connect to people. She opens them as wide as she can. It's very strange.

readering said...

I've been at one banquet event with Hillary. During her will-i-or-won't-i stage. There was loads of love for the woman in the room. And it was not a Hillary-specific event. I'm sure she gets plenty of affirmation wherever she goes. As she did in '08, where she got more votes but was beaten in caucuses. But undeniable that she lacks star power of Bill and Barack, who both started running for stuff at much earlier ages.

cubanbob said...

harrogate said...
She's laughing. How dare she.

Meanwhile, thank god the rest of us could never be caught by a photographer in mid laugh, and made fun of. The rest of us are always looking very smooth of course

7/28/16, 9:34 AM"

On this you are right. Will you be so considerate regarding Trump being photographed similarly?

Unknown said...

Why wouldn't she be happy? She is the first woman nominee for a major party and has two lovely grandchildren and a wonderful daughter. She's achieved something she worked long and hard for. She defeated her many foes who for years tried to bring her down. I bet when she becomes the first woman president she'll laugh even more joyfully, just to annoy you folks.

Curious George said...

Not sure of the psychology of it or anything. I do no one thing. It's boner death.

Jersey Fled said...

She's fake to her core.

Remember when Bill wrote about he had practiced his handshake? Take the right hand with yours and grasp the "shakee" by the elbow with the left hand.

How about how she walks to the podium and points to random people in the audience with the same stupid open mouth face.

Fake.

MadisonMan said...

@Gilbert, I suspect she was sucking on a lozenge and that's dye. Given her persistent hacking cough that sometimes appears, I think my assumption is a good one.

I notice those spots in singers all the time.

Quaestor said...

I had almost the same reaction. Four years of that quivering uvula? Please, no!

pm317 said...

I agree. That face of hers irritates me too. But I am not going to psycho-analyze it.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

I know. This wide open hysterical looking "gaping maw" (perfect) look is really troubling. It is as if she can't just smile or laugh normally. She must be over the top. Huge!!! Maybe she thinks it reduces the wrinkles of a normal smiling face.

The other thing that she does, which we routinely make fun of, is that when coming on stage or in public in addition to the giant fake open mouth thing, she waves and points at random people in the crowd as if she personally is singling them out for her favor or attention. We say. "Oh look. Hillary is point to her imaginary friends again". Point, wave, gaping maw smile, rinse and repeat. I often wonder if the people she is pointing at turn around and see who is behind them that she is waving at. Wut me?

Then there is the fake and horrible, spine chilling, hair raising cackling laugh she has.

Like a robot or alien who is programmed to imitate humans but really hasn't quite got the programming perfected. The result is off putting, creepy and just not right.

gilbar said...

Botox answers much.
She can't show any expression above the nose (except widening her eyes)
So she over compensates with her mouth)
That, and she's an Android

Earnest Prole said...

Wow, Monica Lewinsky has really let herself go downhill

traditionalguy said...

The mouth attacks ! The ones We should be feeling sorry for are her hundreds of lesbian lovers. Submit to the Mouth now. Caligula redux.

SteveR said...

Its probably not "fair" -- although that never seems to bother liberals when making fun of republicans -- but with her transition into retail politics in 2000 she has never displayed any real skill. Her speaking voice is horrible, and she looks fake. Its as if she knows she's lying or uncomfortable and has to act. And she's a bad actor.

Birches said...

She's trying to be likeable enough.

Yancey Ward said...

That is the laugh of someone who doesn't want to laugh. It is the same thing with forced smiles- they are often exaggerated in form. I am beginning to think literally everything she does is a lie of some kind.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

The facial expression, even IF she was actually laughing instead of faking it, is entirely inappropriate.

NOTHING is that gut busting hysterically funny in the situations that she is in when pulling that face. Unless you are stoned, high on some drug, drunk or maybe all of the above, people don't go hysterical and hee haw in that fashion over things that aren't that funny.

Over the top and inappropriate for the situations. AKA fake.

rehajm said...

Maybe she should just stop pretending and embrace her Inner Eyeore instead of trying to pretend she's Pooh.

Oh, bother...

I suspect there was a facial expression focus group where the advisors got together and decided on the best alternative to her Resting Bitch Face™.

It also means voters see less of her face.

Bill said...

I'm reminded more of Goya than of Munch.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

"why she does that wide-open-mouth/insane-elation thing with her face"

Althouse getting all trumpity on Hillary Clinton's face. We've found Donald Trump's closet speechwriter. It's been Ann Althouse, all along!

David said...

"Next to Obama, the feeling must be excruciating. Obviously, he is loved. He's been loved for so long. The love he naturally attracts overwhelmed her earnestly entitled effort to become President 8 years ago. And now, here he is on the stage, doing his easygoing routine one more time, as if it's for her, and it's supposed to be a big deal for the candidate to unexpectedly hit the stage a day." early, but everyone's loving on him."

You could also start this paragraph "Next to Bill . . ."

Bob Boyd said...

The mouth is the window to the sold.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Hillary is as giddy about our national debt as a corrupt South American socialist dictator.
So close - she can feel the power.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Hillary is doing her Tina Fey impression.

Meade said...

Looks like Drudge swiped your screen shot.

James Pawlak said...

She is trying not to choke on the lies as are vomiting our of her/\.

PJ said...

"It's the face of someone still haunted by the thought that no one will ever vote for her."

It is just possible that "historic first female nominee" is all she has bargained for and is aware that by election day someone else will be carrying her party's torch.

harrogate said...

cubanbob:

I know a lot of people have made fun of still shots of Trump but I'm not one of them. And it does seem to me like Clinton's looks are a sustained theme of critique around here and elsewhere. And I think that kind of sucks.

StephenFearby said...

It's a "big belly" laugh...which is different than a big "belly laugh".

If you notice, three of the four (P & VP) candidates have noticeably big waistlines.

Hilary tries to deflect public notice of this with her strategically draped Mother Hubbard or Muumuu outfits.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Hubbard_dress

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muumuu


The biggest "big belly" mouth wide open laugh is probably Christie's:

http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/blogs/the_slatest/2016/02/26/chris_christie_endorses_donald_trump/508807862-republican-presidential-candidates-new-jersey-governor.jpg.CROP.promo-xlarge2.jpg


Unfortunately, metabolic syndrome has become as American as apple pie.




Original Mike said...

"And it does seem to me like Clinton's looks are a sustained theme of critique around here and elsewhere. And I think that kind of sucks."

Facial expressions are not "looks". They tell you something about the person.

Static Ping said...

What's that on her tongue?

*shudder*

Roughcoat said...

Oprah does this on every cover of O Magazine. EVERY. COVER.

I think it's meant to show exuberance, or joie de vivre. It strikes me as phony.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Enjoyment and Laughter Pose #126 - bzzzt, selected, bzzzt.

More fake than Johnathan Edwards!
Less Human Than Human - she's a Nexus negative 1 prototype.

And she's very likely the next President, folks. Get used to it.

bridgecross said...

You have complete control over your appearance while laughing? How special.

Original Mike said...

"You have complete control over your appearance while laughing? How special." (emphasis added)

How disingenuous.

Rob said...

Hillary had that expression after Obama slipped her the baton, if you know what I mean, and I think that you do.

tim in vermont said...

Poor unfortunate souls!

tim in vermont said...

You have complete control over your appearance while laughing? How special.

If people liked her, it might be different, but she has earned her dislike. 6 in 10 people don't like her, so she is going to get mocked. But hey! This is who the billionaires chose to lead your party!

Hagar said...

I have never seen people laugh like that in real life. The pose is usual for a Hollywood publicity shot.

And the wide open eyes I think is Psychology 101 for "I am about to tell a real whopper!"

pm317 said...

@meade, I knew Drudge would pick that frame as it was happening last night.

chuck said...

Obama would look better in that photo if he sharpened his teeth.

Beach Brutus said...

I think the comments above are on the right track with the focus group / look of exuberance idea. When I drive to New Orleans on I-10, there is a section in Mississippi where all the casinos have these fields of billboards. In almost all of them the models have open mouthed laughs to show they are having such a wonderful time. There is some psychology there, I think Hilary overdoes it.

jaydub said...

Jersey Fled said...

"She's fake to her core."

That's the issue with her. Not just the gaping maw, but the head-thrown-back-cortle when some interviewer nails her on a point of impropriety, or the crowd pointing. She lacks natural social skills or human empathy, so she fakes everything, all the time. Plus, she's seen Bubba get away with the fakery for the past 25 years so she thinks she should too. Kind of pathetic.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Don't know if she's drunk but it's been obvious since at least the mid-90's that she's a regular user of benzos. The pensive vagueness combined with the overreaction in moments of laughter and anger are a dead giveaway.

Paul said...

From the 1995 film Nixon: Nixon, to a portrait of Kennedy: "When they look at you, they see what they want to be. When they look at me, they see what they are."

tomaig said...

Did you see this....seizure? Spasm?
http://downtrend.com/markeece/video-hillary-clinton-spazzes-out-when-asked-a-question-by-a-reporter

madAsHell said...

She looks like the antagonist in every Disney cartoon.

madAsHell said...

I really though she would dust-off the clap-clap-wink-wink-point-point that she used back in 2008. It looked a little phony, but it was appropriate. I don't know who would advise her to use the gaping maw of hell.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Perhaps Monty Python can explain (skip to 4:36 or so):


https://youtu.be/RMR-yPA4lsY

Etienne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Levi Starks said...

Clearly it's the demons trying to escape her body. If only they could find a herd of swine.

JAORE said...

"What's that on her tongue?

*shudder*"

I'm going with the mark left be a throat lozenge theory. Other shots with head thrown back, mouth agape and tongue exposed (oh how loverly) don't show the spot.

Couple that with the nagging cough she's displayed regularly....

Unknown said...

http://www.suffolk.edu/news/66944.php#.V5pK4lc8KrU

"Just hours before Democrat Hillary Clinton is set to make history in Philadelphia as the first woman to accept her party’s U.S. presidential nomination, a new Suffolk University poll of likely general-election voters in Pennsylvania shows Clinton with a commanding lead over Republican Donald Trump. In a two-way matchup, she led Trump 50 percent to 41 percent, with 8 percent undecided."

mockturtle said...

@Levi Starks Clearly it's the demons trying to escape her body. If only they could find a herd of swine.

I saw a big herd of them out there on the floor.

Unknown said...

Drudge headline with this pic is "pass the baton." He.

Tom said...

Showing teeth is a dominance move in all primates, including humans. In her case, she's displaying an extreme dominance. It's different than a laugh or a smile. And it maybe a sign of deep insecurity.

Leaders often succeed when they are:

Open-minded
Conscientious
Extroverted (enough)
Assertive
Emotional Stable (not neurotic).

Self Awareness, Agile Thinking, and a willingness to Fail Fast and Learn Fast also helps.

Gusty Winds said...

Who's picking up the quarter million dollar tab tonight for her speech?

sane_voter said...

I am reminded of Two-face and the Joker.

Michael said...

DBQ highlights one of the great phony politician stunts, the point and acknowledge someone (no particular one) in the crowd. Its that in-girl nod to the person you saw at the party last night, the special party no one else was invited to.

The Clinton's invented that trick I believe. It is so hideous, so cringe making, so horrible.

Carter Wood said...

It's a little known fact that Hillary Clinton is a fan of Star Trek TOS, even going back to the first episode, "The Man Trap." She feels a great kinship to the Salt Monster, i.e., the M-113 creature.

The last of her kind.

Unknown said...

Hilary is at best "STAFF OFFICER" material. She is not a leader. Few if any would follow her in to combat to reach an objective by passing through the combat zone. The voters sense this and they recoil from her tawdry attempts to identify with them as a result. She will go down into defeat because she has not earned the trust of the voters.

JackOfClubs said...

I've always assumed she was overcompensating for a perceived lack of friendliness. The take on Hillary has always been that she is out of touch and unapproachable. Since she doesn't really know what real humor look like, she mimics the most obvious features.

CF Fozzy Bear:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9zhsWvoCSY

Or Sheldon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqhnCrQhjPA

dwick said...

Unknown said...
http://www.suffolk.edu/news/66944.php#.V5pK4lc8KrU

"Just hours before Democrat Hillary Clinton is set to make history in Philadelphia as the first woman to accept her party’s U.S. presidential nomination, a new Suffolk University poll of likely general-election voters in Pennsylvania shows Clinton with a commanding lead over Republican Donald Trump. In a two-way matchup, she led Trump 50 percent to 41 percent, with 8 percent undecided."

7/28/16, 1:14 PM


Oh... so we're going to start playing the 'citing polls that favor our candidate' game 3+ months prior to the election - okay...

Trump leading Hillary by largest margin yet in latest poll
http://nypost.com/2016/07/27/trump-leading-hillary-by-largest-margin-yet-in-latest-poll/

Huge LA Times Poll: Trump Takes 7-Point Lead
http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/trump-clinton-poll-los-angeles-times/2016/07/27/id/740785/

traditionalguy said...

Theme song for Day 4: I'm The Great Pretender.

traditionalguy said...

Speaking of fees. Hillary may refuse to come on stage until the split of the Donor Cash Money is negotiated between Bill and Obama's Consiglieri, Valeri Jarrett, and those Persians are tough negotiators.

Anonymous said...

Maybe Barry just opened the Ark of the Covenant when he shouldn't have and her face is about to melt, just like the Nazis in the "Raiders of the Lost Ark" movie. Look away, Hillary!! Look away!!

Will Cate said...

It's like she's doing an impression of SNL's Kate McKinnon doing an impression of her.

David said...

Obama is thinking: "Look what I can make her do!" Such a strange picture when you concentrate attention on the look on Obama's face.

Anonymous said...

David said: Obama is thinking: "Look what I can make her do!"

Come to think of it, what's Obama doing with his left hand?

Anonymous said...

BTW, look closely at Hillary in that picture. What's that prominent, dark, round spot on her tongue? Is it merely a defect in the photo or could it be a scar that's leftover after surgery to remove a growth (possibly pre-cancerous) from her tongue?

glenn said...

She only looks like that when she says "Caw,Caw".

Scientific Socialist said...

Hillary looks like the fat woman whose head explodes in "Total Recall"

Danno said...

Like Dust Bunny Queen said, it is her cackling that drives me nuts.

GlobalTrvlr said...

Is there some reason she continues to where a $12,500 outfit inspired by an Kirby vacuum cleaner bag?

mockturtle said...

Is there some reason she continues to where a $12,500 outfit inspired by an Kirby vacuum cleaner bag?

I suspect it's because she's shaped like a sack of flour.

Dan Hossley said...

It is the only facial expression she can make with the Botox treatments.

Unknown said...

The reptilian is trying to get out.

The Grey Man said...

A classic response of an actor trying too hard to convey a fake emotion. AKA A Shatnerism.

ThomasD said...

" Teeth, Hillary, teeth."

Look closely at that photo (sorry.)

Those aren't teeth, far too regular to be the natural teeth of a near seventy year old. That's a plate (ie. dentures.)

tbrosz said...

She's just stretching her mouth for practice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JIbnuPj84I

Mutaman said...

Is there some reason why Anne is such a moron?

clarice said...

Maybe she's so botoxed she can't affect a normal smile and is compensating..

Bad Lieutenant said...

Blogger mockturtle said...
Is there some reason she continues to where a $12,500 outfit inspired by an Kirby vacuum cleaner bag?

I suspect it's because she's shaped like a sack of dirt.
7/28/16, 9:18 PM

FIFY

Unknown said...

I think things like this are persuasion coaching, but Hillary is just bad at performance. Like how she'll point at the negative space between several people and shake her head in a "nice to see you again" recognition. Everyone surrounding the negative space she's pointing at wonders if she's recognizing them, but its a bad persuasion act intended to create faux emotional bonds - she isn't pointing at anyone. The same with these exaggerated facial emotions. In the hands of a master on stage exaggerated facial emotions are charisma dynamite to manipulate a crowd, but in the hands of someone with some persuasion coaching but who didn't pick up the coaching well, the exaggerated emotions are just... awkward.

Anonymous said...

"The Cry" rings true, but I see it as Hillary Agonistes, the primate's agonistic warning signal: "They open their mouths widely in a manner like human yawning…last warning before attacking" https://twitter.com/SissyWillis/status/759340979983749120

Anonymous said...

Whoops. "The Scream," I mean ...

Enjolras said...

I've noticed this tendency to manic expression in other women activists on the left, increasingly a common signal of solidarity of a dedicated sisterhood. Jeanne Kirkpatrick never displayed this kind of expression, nor did Thatcher and certainly not Merkel, who always looks downright glum. FDR, Truman, Hubert Humphrey, Reagan ... all were happy warriors and genuine in their emotions, not so these girls, and what does that say?

Anonymous said...

The reason for this gaping mouth pose is .... Hillary is desperately trying to cough up a huge hair-ball named Monica.

Unknown said...

Between the Mars Attacks alien voice "ak ak AK ak AKAK!" and the total failure to display normal human expressions pretty sure we can put the mark in the "psychopath" column.

Whether it's alcoholic psychosis or a rich stew of several cataclysmic stressors is less important than the frightening fact that far too many voters are letting the lie factory of the lapdog media hypnotize them into putting this awful, awful woman anywhere close to the reins of power. This she-caligula, this personification of the uncanny valley, is a monster. Nightmare fuel.

jrandom said...

I think she is taunting Bill

Bilwick said...

The one good argument for voting for Trump (besides preserving the Second Amendment): If Trump gets elected president, Queen Cacklepants--with her hyena laugh, her crazy-eye-killa facial expressions, and the Gaping May of Doom-- goes away. The Clinton Gang may be back, especially when the Hive's media arm decides to anoint Chelsea, but we'll be rid of the Dowager Empress.

Boo said...

Might be part Chow...

Stomper said...

Taylor swift ought to sue for her stealing her trademarked "I'm just so shocked that you came to my concert" look

Stomper said...

It's Taylor swifts "golly I cAnt believe you came to see me, I must be like able" look

Robohobo said...

Want to know which it is?

1. Tell here Deckard is on the way.
2. Shock it and see how it morphs.

Segesta said...

I simply assumed her exoskeleton needed a Happiness Emulation upgrade.

Neil said...

I truly believe she learned that wide open mouth thing from Bill, if you watch him closely, he does the same thing, he’s always got his mouth open, pretending it’s a smile. 😲