joy: inside out and other places

joy is a feeling of intense happiness. it is also a popular name for girls.

joy is pretty awesome

both of these definitions apply to the principal character in the hit animated movie inside out, the emotion joy.

amy poehler, who does joy’s voice in the movie describes her as

pretty awesome, cheerful, upbeat and always knows how to turn that frown upside down

pretty used as an adverb can be complicated to understand. it can mean more or less or very. it’s necessary to pay attention to the tone of who is using it, and it may not always be evident what their intention is. amy poehler probably means very awesome.

being upbeat and cheerful is an important part of being a cheerleader

awesome means cool or incredible. cheerful and upbeat are synonyms that mean happy or optimistic.

the joy of being a cartoon: it’s easy to turn a frown upside down (maximumble.com)

turn that frown upside down means smile, or change your sad face (frown) to happy.

inside out jeans & an upside down book (faeriesight.wordpress.com; ijulian89.tumblr.com)

upside down and inside out are frequently used together to identify something that is confusing. diana ross‘s song upside down describes a feeling of attraction that overwhlems (is too strong for) her:

upside down, boy u turn me inside out. and round and round.

poehler also uses two expressions with get: don’t get me wrong (don’t misunderstand me) and get ready (prepare).

both expressions are titles of well known songs. don’t get me wrong by the pretenders

and get ready by the temptations

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOzFoH6mUHQ

to promote his movie jurassic world, chris pratt joked with conan o’brien about the faces he made in the movie to portray specific emotions. the face at 1:35 is pure joy.

it might be exaggerated to brand a liquid soap with the name joy, but the couple in this commercial from the 70s are pretty happy with their clean dishes.