Smash Taunt

A Smash Taunt (スマッシュアピール, Smash Appeal)^[1] is an easter egg that allows certain characters to perform a special taunt on certain stages, specifically the Star Fox characters on the Star Fox stages (see: Star Fox Smash Taunt), Snake on Shadow Moses Island (see: Codec Conversations), and Pit on Palutena's Temple (see: Palutena's Guidance).

When a character initiates their respective Smash Taunt, they will do a pose lasting several seconds, during which the character will remain stationary; should the character get hit while they are posing, the Smash Taunt will be canceled. However, if the pose is completed without flinching, conversations will begin. If the character who performed the Smash Taunt is KO'd during the conversation (or in Melee, if they flinch at all), the conversation will abruptly halt, and, in Snake's case, will include a humorous conclusion based on the Game Over sequence from the Metal Gear series.

Smash Taunts are used by tapping the down taunt button for 2 frames or less. In Melee, players press down on the control pad despite the lack of a down taunt.
Should two or more of the same character do the Smash Taunt simultaneously, only one of them will do the Smash Taunt, while the rest will do a regular taunt.
Smash Taunts can only be attempted (and used) once per match for all characters, regardless of who initiates it. If the initial pose is broken, all players must wait until the match is over to make another attempt. In Ultimate, selecting the reset button in training mode allows the player to set up another Smash Taunt.
Smash Taunts cannot be activated if any character has a Smash Ball. If a character enters Final Smash standby during a Smash Taunt, the taunt will end immediately. This is presumably to avoid overlap with cinematic-type (e.g. Blue Falcon), as well as certain other Final Smashes that add effects to the entire screen (e.g. Peach Blossom, Triple Finish, Infernal Climax, Covering Fire).
- For similar reasons, this also applies to the Dragoon and Daybreak when assembled.
Smash Taunts cannot be activated on Ω form or Battlefield form stages.
The Wii U's home button is disabled during a Smash Taunt.
Replays of battles in which Smash Taunts are performed can be saved, but prior to Ultimate, attempting to view the replay will cause the player to be booted back to the menu as soon as the Smash Taunt is completed. Because of this, replays with Smash Taunts could not be converted into videos.
If Stage Morph is turned on, any transformations will be delayed until the Smash Taunt is finished.
While Snake's codecs return in Ultimate, no new codecs were recorded for characters not in Brawl so he cannot perform them unless a Brawl character is present.