[7] According to NPR, "Fake Happy" is "a song that directly asserts a collective hopelessness with "We're all so fake happy / And I know fake happy," later complicating the emotion with the embarrassment not often explored in depression dialogue, the shame of feeling bad and the shame of feeling bad for feeling bad: "Don't ask me how I've been / Don't make me play pretend.
"[9][10] Brice Ezell of Consequence of Sound noted that while the song contains "bouncy synths" and a "sugary" hook, it "still echoes the angsty band that made Riot!.
"[9] Similarly, Spin's Brad Nelson said the song's chorus "opens up a wormhole in the record, through which the band step and emerge sounding uncannily like the one that made 2009's Brand New Eyes.
[12][failed verification] The song was performed live for the first time on June 15, 2017, at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin, Ireland, as part of the band's After Laughter tour.
[13] The band also performed the song at Good Morning America on August 25, 2017, along with four other tracks from After Laughter, where it was announced as the latest single from the album.