Ever Since Marshall Mathers, AKA Eminem (amongst other names) exploded on the scene in the late 90s, he has become a firmly established part of our pop culture. From his controversial, and often humorous beginnings under the persona Slim Shady, he evolved over time into a more serious, introspective figure that made us think more deeply about social and psychological issues such as poverty, inequality and addiction.

Mathers’ difficult upbringing is well-documented. This, combined with his angrier, more thoughtful demeanor, makes it understandable that he’s often seen in public with a neutral expression. I mean, it would be just odd if this furiously intense man was frequently pictured with a luxurious, beaming smile. Wouldn’t it?

Photoshop funster Mike Brown, whose Facebook intro is “make someone smile every day,” decided to test this theory and shared a cleverly curated collection of Eminem in various ‘before and after’ pics. The original photos portray the man as we know him best: smoldering, serious, straight-faced. The doctored pics give a startlingly different vibe, however,  with the addition of an outrageously cheesy grin creating an amusing but at times creepy look, reminiscent of the ‘Hide The Pain Harold‘ meme.

“I have always manipulated faces, it’s just funny to me,” Mike told Bored Panda. “I always look for new manipulations, and ways to go about it. I came across a plugin that allows photoshop to scour the web for close matches.”

“Although I had some success, the results took too long to ‘get right,’ so I kept trying and trying different ways. I ended up buying an app on Google Play that did just the trick, in such a faster time frame. So I do a first edit in Photoshop, then I run it through the facetime app, apply a few filters to make the image seem real, and it’s done!’

“I chose Eminem because that guy never smiles! And me and my wife were laughing at the one I did initially. So I posted it by itself at first, and my sister wanted a few more because it looked so good. The rest I can’t explain lol, I woke up and there were like 32000 shares.”

Perhaps now we can see why Eminem chooses not to smile very often? We have become so accustomed to his ‘tough guy’ image, that when he does crack a grin, it just looks wrong. But of course, he’s just like anyone else. We all have our ups and downs (although Marshall has had his fair share of family issues), and we are sure that away from the camera he smiles just as often as you and I!

One person who misses Eminem’s less serious days is an admin of the Facebook group Eminem Fan Club. “I prefer his older music much to be honest, especially the Slim Shady days,” he told Bored Panda. “The original music is dead, the beats are dead, there is no real voice only autotune, everywhere you hear same beats, the same flow and voice. Just different clowns.”

Do you think the Eminem looks better with a smile? Have you noticed that he rarely smiles in photos? What do you think about the direction that his career has taken? Let us know what you think in the comments!