A taunt, previously referred to as a finishing pose and as Appeal internally (AppealL and AppealR in Super Smash Bros. Melee's Debug menu), is a move designed to provoke, annoy, or mock opponents, or to just celebrate a successfully executed move or combo. Up until Super Smash Bros. Brawl, each character had only one taunt (with the exception of Pichu and Captain Falcon in Melee); in Brawl onwards, however, each character has three different taunts: up, down, and side taunt. To use a taunt, the player must press the L button in Super Smash Bros., and up on the Directional Pad in Super Smash Bros. Melee. In Brawl, Smash 4, and Ultimate , the direction the player presses on the D-Pad (or the buttons on the Wii remote for Brawl) determines which taunt is used.
In Super Smash Bros., there was only one taunt animation, so characters that taunted would either face the screen or face away from the screen depending on whether they were facing left or right. This was changed in Melee so characters that turn towards the screen have slightly different animations, making sure they never face away (unless they are caped). Using this functionality, Pichu and Captain Falcon had taunts in Melee that had two distinctly different animations depending on what direction they were facing. Also, Wario has an extra taunt when he is riding his bike (used by pressing any of the taunt buttons).
Each taunt is different between every character - even characters who are direct clones of another. However, taunts will always have the character doing a motion (such as dancing), and the character may also speak or yell out a battle cry. Some people take advantage of taunts where characters talk within taunt matches. Taunts can all be done on the ground only, and they also cancel if the character goes airborne or slides close to an edge, which is known as taunt canceling.
Cloud is the only character in non-Japanese versions of the series who still speaks Japanese in any of his taunts as of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. However, some "speaking" taunts change between languages. A notable example is Jigglypuff, whose dialogue changes to reflect its name in other languages, such as its Japanese name, "Purin", or Fox in Melee, when he says "kakatte koi" ("come on").
One of the most common uses of taunting is after KOing an opponent, which is implied by computer players using taunts as such in Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. In both games they push their taunting habits to such a degree that in Melee, they taunt regardless of what is around them, which leaves them vulnerable to other nearby players or traps such as active items, and in Brawl, they taunt even if their foe self-destructs. This has sparkled dislike among some players, who perceive this behavior of the AI as "disrespectful". In the original Super Smash Bros., CPUs also taunt, but they do simply when launching a foe a high distance instead of when KOing them, which also often leaves them exposed like in Melee. In Super Smash Bros. 4, this was changed so that CPUs will not always taunt (though when they do taunt, it is in the same instances as in Brawl), with their likelihood of taunting decreasing as their level increases: level 9 CPUs will never taunt on the whole. In Brawl and Smash 4, CPUs in Team Battles also taunt when a teammate KOs an opponent. While CPUs never use taunts for other purposes (such as removing Copy Abilities with Kirby), CPU Luigi in Smash 4 will, interestingly, attempt to use his down taunt against foes hanging on ledges. In Ultimate, Figure Players can use their taunts during battle, with the frequency of the taunt and which taunt they perform being able to be determined by the player as they learn.
Other common use of taunting is also after breaking an opponent's shield, as this is a rare achievement and the attacking player often finds this an opportunity to mock the foe before KOing them, without being left open to attacks due to the foe being unable to move.
In Ultimate, taunts are disabled during online quickplay matches (excluding Kirby discarding a copy ability). However, they can still be performed in Battle Arenas.
In gameplay
While predominantly only for show, seven characters' taunts in the series can affect gameplay outside moving the character's hurtboxes:
- All three of Snake's taunts equip him with a weak projectile.
- Luigi's down taunt in all games (or his only taunt prior to Brawl) deals weak damage and meteor smashes opponents. In Brawl and Smash 4, it has a significantly high base knockback, sometimes being a one-hit KO if used against foes hanging on ledges that don't meteor cancel properly, though this is very difficult to pull off due to the taunt's long startup and the hitbox of the attack being miniscule.
- All three of Kirby's taunts make him lose his Copy Ability.
- In Brawl, using Samus's up taunt and then very quickly pressing down and up on the D-Pad causes her to change into Zero Suit Samus.
- Greninja's down taunt damages targets for 2% while inflicting some knockback. If Greninja initiates a jab lock using the second hit of its back aerial, it can perform a true combo from down taunt into up aerial to end a stock around 160%. The taunt itself can KO above 500%. It is also the only attack Greninja can use while charging Shadow Sneak.
- King K. Rool’s side taunt briefly gives him Belly Super Armor. However, being attacked while taunting will also damage his armor’s hitpoints.
In Ultimate, while most taunts are interruptible, most of gameplay-affecting ones are not. The only exceptions are Kirby’s taunts (which will remove the copy ability before the taunt animation begins) and Samus’s (as she and Zero Suit Samus are completely separate).
Some characters also have a special Smash Taunt that only can be done on specific stages.
- Snake and Pit have personalized smash taunts on Shadow Moses Island and Palutena's Temple respectively where they converse with characters from their series about a random opponent. There is unique dialogue for every character (or in Snake’s case, only those who were present in Brawl).
- Fox, Falco, and Wolf have smash taunts on Lylat Cruise.
- The former two also have smash taunts on Corneria and Venom.
- There is a special smash taunt on Orbital Gate Assault that activates if neither Fox nor Falco are present in the match, and can only be activated with a special input prior to selecting the stage.
Lists of taunts
Taunt messages
One feature of Super Smash Bros. Brawl's With Friends mode when playing on Wi-Fi Connection is that it allows a player to assign four different taunt messages to all four taunt button combinations. If the player were to perform an up taunt on the With Friends mode, their character will display a personalised taunt message written by the player that they have assigned to the up taunt. This feature is disabled in the With Anyone for security and censorship reasons. Each message is limited to 20 characters in length.
The function returns for Super Smash Bros. 4's With Friends mode played over the Nintendo Network. The user is prohibited from including certain of inappropriate words, and each message is limited to 16 characters at most.
The custom message feature was taken out in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in favor for pre-made messages, most likely so people won't use profanity in their taunt messages. As most taunts are disabled in Quickplay, (with Kirby as the exception), taunt messages only shown at the start of the match and at the results screen. The player can personalize eight taunt messages, four at the start of the match and four at the results screen.
Custom taunts
A custom taunt is an action that is intended to taunt opponents without using one of the taunts already available in the game. Custom taunts often involve actions that look similar to an ordinary taunt; a well-known example is King Dedede's crouch, though others include Ness's up and down smashes, where he performs yo-yo tricks, Bowser Jr.'s down tilt, where the Koopa Clown Car licks the foe with its tongue, Olimar's down tilt, where he appears to be doing "the worm", Charizard's slow walking animation, dubbed the "Zard Walk" by fans, Shulk using Monado Arts while walking, dubbed the "Monado Walk" (which applies to Kirby as well when he copies Shulk's neutral special), many characters' crawling animations (with those of Wario and Zero Suit Samus being the most common), and Mr. Game & Watch's up tilt where he waves a "#1" flag.
Within taunt matches, actions that produce loud, irritating, or otherwise repetitive sounds can become custom taunts; examples include crouching as Jigglypuff and Kirby, Daisy's forward smash, Ganondorf's up smash prior to Ultimate, and his forward smash in Ultimate, Captain Falcon's Falcon Punch, the majority of Wario's moves (especially Wario Waft), Shulk's Back Slash, Little Mac's neutral attack, and Olimar's Pikmin Order.
Repeatedly crouching and standing back up (i.e. teabagging) is a common form of pseudo-taunting. King K. Rool's teabag makes it look like he is "dabbing". This also applies to Falco's spotdodge prior to Ultimate. In Ultimate, teabagging is notoriously common on Quickplay due to taunts being disallowed, and is a widespread criticism of the mode that is considered a form of griefing. As such, players are often advised to mentally and emotionally prepare themselves for opponents who will attempt to aggravate them.
Other examples of custom taunting involve showing off advanced techniques, such as DACUSing or dash dancing.
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U digital manual description
"Press 
to make your character taunt. You can trigger different taunts depending on the direction you press."
- "Taunting leaves you exposed to enemy attacks, so taunt wisely."
Trivia
- Mario and Charizard are currently the only characters to have more than one taunt replaced in a later installment.
- One of the effects of Luigi's Negative Zone is suddenly doing a random taunt.
- Snake, Luigi, and Greninja are the only characters to have a taunt that can damage other characters.
- Oddly, while the taunts are impervious to staling, they will always have the freshness bonus when used.
- Luigi's down taunt is technically a looping hitbox, however since it is only active for one frame, it can never hit more than once.
- Prior to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Bowser, Rosalina, Wario, R.O.B and Luigi (in Brawl only), Ice Climbers, Little Mac, Bayonetta, Bowser Jr. and Lucario (in Smash 4) were all able to taunt during their Final Smashes.
- Bayonetta, Ice Climbers, Rosalina and Bowser Jr. are the only characters of this group who can taunt during their Final Smash in Ultimate, however Inkling and Snake can now do so as well.
- Some taunts have become internet memes, for both the character's motion or phrase spoken, and the mocking purpose they are used for. Some infamous examples are Captain Falcon's "Show me your moves!", Falco's "Hands off my prey!", or Sonic's "You're too slow!". Taunt matches often involve irritating serious players with these type of taunts, and other annoying or provocative taunts have also been used frequently, such as Kirby's "Hi!" taunt or Ness's "Okay.".
- Some lines were already memetic within their respective communities before their addition in Smash Bros; for example, Inkling Girl's side taunt (where she utters "Woomy!") or Shulk's "I'm really feeling it!".
- Falco’s “Hands off my prey!” taunt is additionally notorious in Ultimate due to it appearing as though Falco says "hands off my cock" when interrupting the taunt into a down smash right before Falco says “prey”.
- In SSB, it can be seen that members of the Kirby Team won't lose their copied abilities even if they taunt. In Melee, the Kirbys with copied abilities in Adventure Mode do lose their abilities, but the Kirbys taunting is extremely rare, even though other CPU Kirbys do so as frequently as normal CPUs.
- In SSB, it can also be seen that non-playable characters (excepting Master Hand) have taunts identical to their original character. For example, Metal Mario grows and shrinks just as Mario does.
- The phrase "Come on" is the most common phrase in taunts, being used by seven characters: Pit (from SSB4), Sonic (from SSB4), Captain Falcon, Fox (prior to Ultimate), Falco (in Ultimate), Chrom, and Ryu. Variations of "Come on" are also used by other characters: "Come at me!" is used by three characters (Lucina, Chrom, and Fox in Ultimate), "Come" is used by two (Meta Knight and Simon), and Sonic has a unique variant in Brawl ("Come on, step it up!").
- In Melee, after a CPU KOs an opponent, if it gets KO'd, and the opponent is away just as the CPU comes out of the revival platform, it will walk a distance and apparently taunt for no reason. This can be exploited with characters that have long taunts, notably Young Link.
- Starting in Brawl, Captain Falcon’s down taunt (“show me your moves!”) animation is slightly faster if he is facing left/away from the screen.