# What Is A "Shit-Eating Grin"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 20, 2011, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-shit-eating-grin/571957 "2011-02-20T00:47:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-shit-eating-grin/571957/1 "2011-02-20T00:47:03Z")
It’s not a smirk, right, because those are done with the mouth closed? Is it a peevish smile? Or is it a wide-open lopsided smile/grimace as if one were being forced to eat a turd and act as if he or she liked it? Don’t tell me this one’s been done already!🙂 Thanks Q ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-shit-eating-grin/571957/2 "2011-02-20T00:57:07Z")
> [@Quasimodem](#): > > Don’t tell me this one’s been done already!🙂 > **[Shit eating grin?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=12119)** > > I have never eaten shit. I suspect, however, that if I did, a grin would rank rather low on the list of reactions I would have. How did the rather common, if somewhat vulgar, expression “shit eating grin” come into usage? Yer pal, Satan > **[Shit eating grin](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=298820)** > > shit-eating grin A broad smile indicating a joyous secret. Does anyone know the origins of this marvelously descriptive phrase? It would seem more natural to say “shit-eating grimace”, but perhaps the real secret is anything disgusting done... Now, I’m not telling you that it’s already been done. I’m just posting a couple of links. [SEG] 😃 [/SEG] ---
**Author:** ![CT\_Damsel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CT\_Damsel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CT_Damsel)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-shit-eating-grin/571957/3 "2011-02-20T00:57:44Z")
[Urban Dictionary shows](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=shit%20eating%20grin). I agree with definition 2. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-shit-eating-grin/571957/4 "2011-02-20T01:01:48Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > [Shit eating grin? - Factual Questions - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=12119) > [Shit eating grin - Factual Questions - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=298820) > > Now, I’m not telling you that it’s already been done. I’m just posting a couple of links. > > [SEG] 😃 [/SEG] I _knew_ it!🙂 Never one to shirk a challenge - my friend **Johnny L A**!😃 Quasi PS to **Damsel** : I thought those examples below def #2 were hilarious, thanks!😃 ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-shit-eating-grin/571957/5 "2011-02-20T01:04:49Z")
> [@Quasimodem](#): > > Never one to shirk a challenge - my friend **Johnny L A**!😃 Just my natural reaction when someone tells me ‘Don’t’. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-shit-eating-grin/571957/6 "2011-02-20T01:08:35Z")
I guess Ms. Manners would call it “a coprophagic smile”? Oh, and **John**? In one of those 2 links you sent me, I noted the date was 2000, same year I joined. Don’t know how that’s significant or relates, just thought I’d mention it. 🙂 Q ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-shit-eating-grin/571957/7 "2011-02-20T01:45:12Z")
I have only ever seen the term used once, and that was attached to a picture in “Hollywood Babylon”. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-shit-eating-grin/571957/8 "2011-02-20T02:32:43Z")
The way it was explained to me: when your boss tells you to do something stupid, you have to be able to control your emotions, do what he/she tells you to do, and do it with a positive attitude. This is called “eating shit with a smile.” This would probably match the urban dictionary’s #2. However, in my experience, it is probably closer to #1: a grin that doesn’t reflect what’s happening around the grinner. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-shit-eating-grin/571957/9 "2011-02-20T04:13:30Z")
I always associate it with inappropriate humor. A lady with lipstick on her teeth or toilet paper stuck to her dress. A person trips and almost falls. Someone steps in dog poop. Anything that catches your eye and makes you smile while your trying not to laugh. You know it’s really not funny, and that makes you smile all the wider. 😃 If you’re caught smiling, then it irritates the other person and they say “wipe that …” off your face. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-shit-eating-grin/571957/10 "2011-02-20T04:51:44Z")
That smile you get when the guy tailgating you passes you on a double yellow line and then turns left… and the person behind him is a cop. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-shit-eating-grin/571957/11 "2011-02-21T17:11:32Z")
> [@CT\_Damsel](#): > > [Urban Dictionary shows](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=shit%20eating%20grin). I agree with definition 2. In my younger days (1970s), it was used according to definition #1… usually in reference to someone who had smoked a large quantity of weed. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-shit-eating-grin/571957/12 "2011-02-21T18:15:36Z")
Watch almost any episode of USA’s “Burn Notice” and, at some point, the Michael Westin character will give what can only be described as a shit-eating grin. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-shit-eating-grin/571957/13 "2011-02-21T18:28:12Z")
😃 ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-shit-eating-grin/571957/14 "2011-02-21T21:12:01Z")
> [@CT\_Damsel](#): > > [Urban Dictionary shows](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=shit%20eating%20grin). I agree with definition 2. As I first encountered the term, it was more like definition 1. It’s sort of like the silent version of a conspiratorial or self-satisfied chuckle. FTR this was in National Lampoon’s magazine version of _Animal House_. As Bluto and D-Day pulled the test answer sheet out of the trash, Chip Diller and Neidermeyer looked on with shit-eating grins, because they’d tricked them by planting the wrong answer sheet. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-shit-eating-grin/571957/15 "2011-02-21T23:57:03Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > As I first encountered the term, it was more like definition 1. It’s sort of like the silent version of a conspiratorial or self-satisfied chuckle. FTR this was in National Lampoon’s magazine version of _Animal House_. As Bluto and D-Day pulled the test answer sheet out of the trash, Chip Diller and Neidermeyer looked on with shit-eating grins, because they’d tricked them by planting the wrong answer sheet. That’s the way I always understood it. Someone does something sneaky and are pleased with themselves for having gotten away with it=shit eatin’ grin. When I was in high school one of my friends mom used it a lot, as in “What’s with the shit eatin’ grins? What are you two up to?” (Smoking pot mostly) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2011, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-shit-eating-grin/571957/16 "2011-02-22T04:10:52Z")
> [@CT\_Damsel](#): > > [Urban Dictionary shows](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=shit%20eating%20grin). I agree with definition 2. I’ve heard it used in both senses. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-shit-eating-grin/571957/17 "2011-02-24T03:41:37Z")
[This](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zgq0a2YqDf4/RjkEdwZ9RcI/AAAAAAAAAUs/UhqIk_uNHno/s400/the_prez.jpg) is how I picture it.