Dull surprise



Dull surprise has become a popular term in the Transformers fandom to sum up the expression range of a character when drawn by Pat Lee (or people who ape his style, like Rob Ruffolo).

The expression in question is a vapid, kind of empty look where you can just hear the character in question just going "Guuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" while waiting for the next neuron to fire.

The term originated in a Mystery Science Theater 3000 skit, 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... and the answer was invariably "Dull surprise!!".

While the MST3K episode that had the skit in question originally aired in November of 1993, and there's certainly a sizable Transformers/MST3K audience/fan crossover (speaking of dull surprise!!), the term didn't really become a catchphrase in Transformers fandom until the era of Dreamwave comics began in 2002.