cutesy

But an acquaintance of Mr. Platner told the Jewish Insider news site that the candidate explained the tattoo’s Nazi connection to him “in a cutesy little way” at a Capitol Hill bar in 2012.

The cutesy performance shtick around a shoestring variety show — imagine Pee-wee’s Playhouse without the bewitching oddity — grows wearying.

It’s a challenge to write from the perspective of a child without being arch or cutesy — stories about kids learning about the real world can degrade to plainspoken YA or cheap melodrama.

Even a tiny robot — DG-33, sort of cutesy spin on a trash compactor — has developed some quirks, namely a sassy Southern accent.

Not that “The Annihilation of Fish” has any patience for the cutesy tendencies that sometimes attend love stories about people with mental health problems.