Hannah Berner has made a career out of laughing on her podcast “Giggly Squad” and making others laugh with her stand-up comedy.
But this summer, she had to answer the question: What happens when your job is to smile but you literally can’t?
On her podcast, which she hosts with her bestie and fellow former Bravo celebrity Paige DeSorbo, Berner called an “emergency news conference” this summer to discuss what she called “smilegate” and, later, the “masseter massacre.” She told the listeners, whom she and DeSorbo call “the gigglers,” that she got an injectable treatment in her jaw that had gone severely awry.
She had received the injections before to alleviate symptoms of TMJ — a condition that can cause jaw tightness, pain and headaches — which she has dealt with since childhood. This time, she went to a new office to receive Dysport, an injectable similar to Botox that smooths wrinkles but is sometimes used off label to treat TMJ symptoms. She quickly felt a stiffness she had not experienced before: “Smiling felt like weight lifting,” she recalled. Four days later, she was unable to smile or speak clearly.
“Right before everything went down, I was bragging on my podcast about how your 30s are so great, because every possible bad thing that can happen to you happens in your 20s,” Berner, 35, said in an interview with The New York Times. “And by your 30s, you’re like, I can handle anything — and then this happened.”
Berner didn’t initially want to share the mishap with the public, because she was worried it would affect upcoming career opportunities.
“My worst nightmare is hurting my own podcast because I’m an idiot who got something done on her face that was not necessary,” she said. She was preparing to film reshoots for a movie project and also to host a show. But when she noticed her face wasn’t getting better, she decided it was time to open up.
About two weeks after the injections, at the end of June, Berner shared her newly stiff smile on her podcast. At that point it looked like the grimace emoji. People in the comments quickly likened her smile to that of Donkey in “Shrek” and the Chloe in the car seat meme. Most viewers said they were laughing hysterically, and a few said they had experienced similar situations and offered tips.
Berner told audiences that she should have done more research before trying out a new place. “I didn’t even know this could happen,” she said into the microphone. “Oh my god, is it possible that the poison that was injected in my face is now going to ruin my face?” As Berner was describing her predicament, DeSorbo giggled uncontrollably.
And then, after seeing how “the gigglers” were laughing right alongside her, Berner decided to make the most of it. “I didn’t think people would think it was as funny as they do — people are like, This is the funniest thing she’s ever done. I’m like: Guys, I have two specials. I put a lot of work into them.”
She even heard from the skin care brand CeraVe, which she said sent her a lip balm with the message “Just because you don’t have a smile doesn’t mean you can’t have beautiful hydrated lips.”
“I’m so happy that it was making people laugh because I was disturbed,” Berner reflected. “Like, I was upset. I had jobs on the line.”
On a more serious note, the situation led Berner to reflect on how women are expected to present themselves in the world. She said she realized she was often smiling more than necessary in meetings.
“I do smile a lot — and not that it’s bad — but I think there’s situations where I learned you actually don’t have to smile and you could just sit in a moment,” she said.
Additionally, Berner’s inability to make some of her natural facial expressions has made her want to caution people, especially younger women, to think twice before trying procedures on their faces.
“I am one of those people who’s excited to age looking like myself, so this was a good learning lesson to treat your face with love,” she said.
And how is Berner’s smile doing now? Despite trying treatments she hoped might loosen the muscles again — including saunas, microcurrent therapy, lymphatic drainage massages, red-light therapy, acupuncture and exercise — she has learned that there is no quick fix, and that the effects can take up to six months to wear off.
“It is getting better, but at the end of the day Botox zaps your nerve endings and saunas can only help so much,” she said. “My husband told me to stop counting, but I’m hitting Day, like, 55, I believe.”
Now that Berner has been able to laugh off the whole situation — well, in a way — with her fans, she joked that she was a bit sad her smile was starting to return.
“The fact that the whole community came together to be like ‘This is the funniest thing’ made me remember why I do comedy, which is to be vulnerable about what you’re going through and make other people feel less bad about the stuff they’re going through,” she said.
She added, “People are commenting, ‘Oh no, it’s getting better — she needs a top off.’”
