< Tear Jerker

Tear Jerker/Other



Alternate Reality Games

the stars are blowing out like candles, danny jane
make a wish make a wish make a wish make a wish make

Music Videos

  • The Daft Punk Rock Opera Interstella 5555, specifically Shep's death. How what is basically a extended music video with no dialogue can make you care about one of the characters enough to get choked up when they die is a mystery but somehow they manage it.
    • Reinforced by the next segment, where the band drives out into the countryside to bury Shep. The juxtaposition of the beautiful day, cheery families, and the solemnity of the band in their van drives Shep's sacrifice home.
  • The Ghost of You, oh God. The almost-insane terror on Gerard's face as Mikey dies is absolutely heart-wrenching.

Radio

  • This troper was listening to something on the annual bird count when the topic turned to a database of animal sounds, including extinct ones. And they played back a strange bit of birdsong recorded in the 80s, not like any bird this troper had heard before, with all these pauses. After it was over the guest said that this was a male, and that song was the mating call, and it's supposed to be a duet. But this was the very last of that bird, and they recorded hours and hours of him singing it, endlessly calling for an answer that never came. This troper's actually a little disturbed at how much she's cried about that.
  • Several years ago, This troper was hearing her favorite radio talk show in which a DJ had people tell him their love dramas before choosing a song for them. Well, one of the cases had a girl who contracted AIDS from her Jerkass ex-boyfriend who had unprotected sex with her and others deliberately to get them sick as revenge for getting the illness. Cue to the DJ choking and crying as he talked her out of commiting suicide right there in the spot, and to the troper sobbing her heart out.
  • This troper was listening to her local country radio station on a week they were having a radiothon for St. Jude. They overlaid songs like "Sarabeth", "One More Day" and "Go Rest High On That Mountain" with stories from parents with kids battling cancer. The worst of them was a mother talking about her daughter who lost a fight with cancer over the song "Streets of Heaven". Damnit if my boss didn't walk in at that moment to see me sobbing.
    • Oh God...This tropers parents love country music and when they have those radiothons...forget it. Its a wonder they don't caouse crashes with so many people crying. Also, in East Tennessee, theres a local country station here that calls our soldiers in training and on the front lines to speek with them. Its when they let family and friends call in thats the most heartwrenching.
  • Whit's departure in the Adventures in Odyssey episode "Gone..." is often regarded as a tear-jerker on its own, especially for younger audiences. However, when you know the full story behind the episode, and indeed one particular scene, it hits even harder: Since Whit's actor had died, his few lines were all lifted from previous episodes, save for his heartfelt farewell speech which Eugene and Bernard see on tape about a week after the fact. That came from a real-life appearance of Hal Smith himself, thanking everyone for the cards sent to him after his wife died. Whatta guy.
    • Something similar much more recently when voice actor Walker Edmiston died. There was a special tribute track to him on the disk set.
    • Adventures in Odyssey really is good at Tear Jerkers. Another one that comes to mind is Mitch's "death" in "Plan B", as well as the scene where Mitch and Connie decide that they really aren't mature enough to get married and call their wedding off... the night before they were supposed to get married. Another would be Katrina's father's death, and how Katrina and Eugene were married quietly by his bedside, because he was too sick to leave the hospital.
    • The episode when Whit tells Lucy the story of Horatio J. Spafford, who lost his son to an illness, a vast amount of property to the Great Chicago Fire, and then his four daughters to a shipwreck. The catharsis comes as the episode ends with the Real Life scene of Spafford sailing over the coordinates where his daughters died, praying, and saying the words that he would eventually put into the song, which is sung by a choir at the very end, "It is well with my soul."
  • Almost every single goddamn Long Distance Dedication ever on American Top 40. There was a reason I hated that part of the show as a kid.
  • In CBC's Wiretap, one episode in Season 3, entitled "A Secret History of Famous Friends", told a bizarre story of Barney Rubble accidentally running over Fred Flintstone's pet Dino, and how Fred and Barney's friendship begins to fall apart afterward. Eventually, they make up and have a heart-to-heart talk. Afterwards, an actual musical number from The Flintstones plays, in which Fred and Barney sing about how they'll always be friends. If you don't believe me, you can listen to the episode here. (Season 3, "A Secret History of Famous Friends").
  • Terry Wogan's final show, today (Friday, December 18th). After having been on BBC Radio since the 60s, and entertaining generations of people, it is time for him to finally leave Radio. And after two and a half hours of a truly heartbreaking broadcast (Old, slow songs. Presents from Sarah Kennedy, John Marsh and Charlie Nove, even a special message from the Prime Minister). It's clear that by the end, he's fighting back tears. So he finishes on a truly heartwarming message to his viewers. Before leaving Radio forever. Ken Bruce (Who came on afterward) announced that it really was "The End of an Era" for broadcasting. After 40 years of waking up to Terry Wogan's dulcet tones in the morning. He shall never be there again. Never there to share a smile, a laugh, or a tear with his beloved listeners. He shall be missed.
  • Of all things, The Ricky Gervais Show manages one in one 2002 episode. Steve and Ricky inform Karl live on air that he only scored one GCSE (Karl never went to collect his results), which was an E in History. The kicker is that Karl had actually sat at least 4 or 5 other exams, but had forgotten to register for them, thus discounting them. His reaction when told this is actually quite affecting, and even more so, it is one of the only times when Steve and Ricky don't take the piss and offer to help him resit History and remind him that he's done well for himself and he dosen't need the grades.

Sports

Gehrig: ... and some people might say that I've been given a bad break... but today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.

  • Watching Muhammad Ali get pummeled around the ring in 1980, (so far past his prime, already suffering early symptoms of Parkinson's and weakened by the prescriptions given to him by a quack doctor) by his Spiritual Successor and former protege Larry Holmes moved many boxing fans to tears. Even Holmes, (who has a bit of a Jerkass reputation and a huge chip on his shoulder about getting respect), was disturbed and sought Ali out after the fight in tears saying how sorry he was and that he'd never wanted to hurt Muhammad.
    • What about Ali lighting the flame at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta? I am not a boxing fan, but have always admired Ali, the man. Watching him standing there, shaking from the horrible disease that has ravaged him, yet with a bearing of pride and dignity...I bawled like a baby watching that.
      • This Troper's dad has a very low opinion of Muhammad Ali but wept when he saw him light the cauldron in '96. Seeing how badly Parkinson's has hurt him, brought my dad to tears in spite of his low opinion of the man.
  • Similar to the Ali anecdote, any fight in mixed martial arts where it's shown that a legend either just doesn't have it anymore, or has actually been surpassed by the sport.Here's some sad examples, among which Cro Cop's probably takes the cake for the saddest (especially when reading his critical self-examination afterward) while Sakuraba's is the ugliest... because since he went unscathed in early October against a boxer so shot that he was barred from The Contender he's supposed to fight again before the end of October.
    • In the unfortunate case of Chuck "Iceman" Liddell, after the Evans KO he reportedly changed his partygoing ways to train hard for a fight with Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, as he had to not only win but win big in order to continue, and showed up looking fit. Unfortunately, in the first round both of them threw a left hook almost simultaneously, their right hands well below their unprotected right cheek... but Shogun had his chin tucked, was lunging forward (Liddell was standing upright/slightly rearward), and landed first.
    • Speaking of the Shogun, this is definitely a case of Your Mileage May Vary since a fair number of people think Machida won - but Shogun lost to Forrest Griffin when he debuted in the UFC in 2007 in a fight that many people thought was a giveaway victory. Then when he finished his rehabilitation from blowing out his ACL (which could potentially end a career) not once, but twice - only to barely win a fight against Mark Coleman at UFC 93, many people thought that his best days were behind him, and he wasn't even 30 yet. Then he came back and beat Chuck Liddell in April of 2009, winning impressively and showing a glimpse of the Shogun that plowed through PRIDE. With this fight, he earned the title shot against the LHW Champion Lyoto Machida. He spent months training hard for this title fight, not being able to tend to his wife who was pregnant with his unborn daughter. That October, the Shogun that fought Lyoto Machida came out in the best shape of his life and exposed weaknesses in Machida's karate style, but at the end of the fight it was Machida's hand that was raised in victory - in a judge's decision that shocked, upset, and enraged the vast majority of those who watched that fight. Even the UFC President, Dana White - was so shocked at the decision that he offered Shogun an immediate rematch. But it broke this troper's heart to watch one of his idols, one of the most dangerous men in the world, reduced to sobbing into his hands backstage in his locker room - robbed of the victory that many felt he deserved.
      • Cheer up -- Dana White had the UFC cover the taxes on Shogun's purse (leaving his family with more money for their now-newborn daughter), and even Lyoto's own father -- who'd developed the Machida family style -- complimented Shogun on his successes against that style.
        • So much for that, he knocked Machida out cold in their rematch on May 13th, 2010 and is currently, as of this writing, the champion at 205.
    • I think particular attention should be given to Ken Shamrock's fall from grace as the "World's Most Dangerous Man". In particular the Ken Shamrock vs. Tito Ortiz "trilogy", which was essentially three straight fights of Tito Ortiz beating the hell out of Ken Shamrock.
    • Courage - MMA Is Just A Sport. Possibly the greatest and most touching highlight video ever to a fan of PRIDE-era MMA.
    • The scene in HBO's documentary "The Smashing Machine: The Life and Times of Extreme Fighter Mark Kerr", where he's in the hospital after he overdoses on narcotics. His old friends joke with him about the experience for a second... and then tell him how badly they want him to get help for his drug addiction, very emotionally. Seeing this giant of a man, a guy nicknamed "The Smashing Machine", who you grew up watching him EARN this nickname, break down in tears is heartbreaking.
  • This Troper is a huge boxing fan, and he always finds himself profoundly affected anytime a boxer dies due to injuries sustained during a fight. We have a bit of a saying, almost a mantra, amongst us boxing fans to show the deepest respect we have for these guys: "You may play fooball, golf, or hockey, but you don't play boxing." The worst part about it is trying to possibly comprehend how the other fighter copes with it, knowing his opponent died at his hands as both were doing what they loved and were getting paid for. Sadly for me, boxing deaths happen far too often where it's impossible to shed tears at each and everyone. All I can ever really say is a sincere "Rest in Peace, Champ".
  • The entire last minute of game six of the 1994 Stanley Cup Finals. Even moreso with what happened in game seven.
  • The end of Michael Jordan's basketball career. In his final game against the Philidelphia 76ers, Jordan only scored 13 points before getting benched with 4 minutes and 15 seconds left in the third quarter. The crowd at the First Union Center, basically began chanting for Jordan to get back in the game. He did, and he was intentionally fouled by 76ers player Eric Snow, just so he could step to the foul line one last time. After making both shots, and with 1:45 left in the fourth quarter, Jordan stepped off the court for the final time, earning him a three minute standing ovation from everyone in the stadium. signaling the end of an era for basketball fans everywhere.
  • The 2004 World Series. After 86 years of heartbreak and disappointment, the Boston Red Sox finally reclaimed their champion status. Tears were shed throughout New England, and when this troper read news reports of fans going to their loved ones' graves leaving copies of the Boston Globe with the victory headlines, this troper couldn't help it.
  • The finish to the Plano East Panthers/John Tyler Lions Texas high school football game on November 26th, 1994 John Tyler had decimated Plano East throughout the game and with 3:00 left in the fourth quarter, led 41-17. Then Plano East began a miraculous comeback in which they scored four touchdowns, recovered three onside kicks and somehow managed to take the lead, 44-41, with just 24 seconds left in the game. Then on the ensuing kickoff following the go-ahead score, the John Tyler returner ran the ball back for a touchdown, nullifying the incredible comeback and giving John Tyler a 48-44 victory that moved them ahead in the playoffs.
  • Michael Irvin's induction speech at the 2006 Pro Football Hall Of Fame ceremony.
  • On December 17, 2009, Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry was killed in a car accident. His mother made the decision to donate his organs, and his corneas, lungs, heart, kidneys, liver and pancreas were transplanted. Four lives were saved as a result of this donation. Around Thanksgiving 2010, Henry's mother met with the families of those her son's organs saved.
  • Bernard "Boom-Boom" Geoffrion was a Montreal Canadiens (the New York Yankees of hockey for the uninformed) legend from the 1950s dynasty who was known as one of the originators of the use of the slap-shot. The Canadiens announced that his number 5 would be retired on the night of March 11, 2006. Sadly, Geoffrion died that exact same morning. With heavy hearts, the banner-raising ceremony went on as planned, with Geoffrion's surviving family in attendance, including his wife Marlene, the daughter of former Canadiens legend Howie Morenz, who tragically died in 1937 due to injuries sustained during a game (Morenz's number 7 was the first number the Canadiens ever retired). If all that wasn't enough, here is how Geoffrion's banner was raised to the rafters.
  • The 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, just...all of it, Friday Qualifying to the end of the race was a complete tragedy.
    • To elaborate:
      • Friday: Rubens Barrichello's car flew into the air and crashed into the tire barrier, rolling many times before stopping. He suffered a broken nose and arm. He was lucky.
      • Saturday: Roland Ratzenberger, in only his third race, lost control of his car and crashed, dying of a basal skull fracture.
      • Sunday: A crash between two cars at the beginning of the race injured nine spectators with flying debris. After the race restarted, three time world champion Ayrton Senna crashed at Tamburello corner-the site of accidents before. Debate still ensues on what caused his crash and when specifically did he die. The tragically ironic part was that in response to Ratzenberger's death the day before, the drivers reformed the Grand Prix Drivers Association (a safety organization) with him as leader.
  • Dan Wheldon's death was bad enough, but adding to the tearjerking nature of it was how ESPN announcer Marty Reid signed off after everything was over:

Marty Reid: Many people ask me why I sign off 'til we meet again.' It's because goodbye is so final. Goodbye, Dan Wheldon.

Myth and Legend

  • Pretty much any mythology with a built-in Twilight of the Gods event depresses the hell out of this troper. Norse mythology being the king of this, giving us Ragnarok, where a string of tragedies climaxes in the apocalyptic war that slays everything except for a small handful of the gods (two of which have to be resurrected from Hel) and two humans.
    • Pfft, you forgot the aftermath, which is actually quite pleasant.
      • This troper cries when she thinks about that aftermath, although it's more like happy tears in the whole "something will always survive" vein.
    • It's still pretty harsh to read a book of Norse legends, only to have all of your favorite characters die at the end , to be replaced by a boring, idyllic garden.
      • You're exactly where you started twenty hours ago!
    • Of course, given how furiously determined the gods are/were to do the whole "End of the World" thing properly, it's also a Crowning Moment of Awesome. An unusual pairing, but one that makes perfect sense when viewed through the particular lens of Norse culture.
    • This troper still finds Loki a shockingly tragic figure. He goes from the prankster to the one who brings about Ragnarok, probably partially due to being chained down with poison from his own son dripping down on him for who-knows-how long. In the original version, he apparently wasn't even the one who didn't cry for Odin -he was punished for something else. Before that, his lips were sewn shut after wriggling out of a bet with some dwarves. Yes, he wasn't exactly morally upstanding, but did he really deserve all the gods laughing at him, and then being tortured constantly?
      • I'm Glad I'm not the only one who feels somewhat sorry for Loki, bastard though he was. The problem with mythology is that it's so blunt and fragmented and reading the myths you get the feeling that there's a lot of everyone who you aren't seeing, because the gods are symbols and metaphors. I mean they locked up his kids because of who he was (granted one of them at least was destined to end the world, but what had the others actually done at that point?) Reading earlier stories about, say, Loki helping Thor disguise hismelf as Freya in a bridal gown make it feel like they were almost... well, friends. There's just something tragic about how it all ended... and something beautiful about how the world will all begin again, eventually.


This Site

  • Try listening to Auschwitz Birkenau from the Schindler's List movie while reading the Tear Jerker page. I dare ya.
  • Specifically, these Tear Jerker pages. A good 90% of the ones this troper recognizes never actually got him when he first read or watched them in their context, but the long scroll of them one after another after another, being hit by so much in so short a time, plus all the comments that make you empathize with other tropers sharing their grief... There can be a certain cathartic relief from it all after one gets done, but in the meantime it's borderline masochism for the emotionally vulnerable.
    • This troper agrees...and it's only worse when one is an anal-retentive grammar and code Nazi, as the big long subjective tropes like the Tear Jerker pages so rarely get edited so one can actually, y'know, read them. So between bouts of sobbing at remembered emotional pain This Troper is weeping for the future of the wiki, because if these sorts of pages are anything to judge by about half the people on this site have no idea how to so much as add a single entry. I just...* sobs* ...I just hate all of you so much right now...
      • It's not as bad as it looks. Some people are making these entries through their tears, remember - it's in the nature of the page. Kinda hard to see where to put the commas when you can barely see the screen.
    • Can I add something else? This troper considers himself "a glacier" and "a monster" because for the last 3 years he has been really cold and emotionless when dealing with sad things. A particular "event" (his father ripped this troper's family apart) in his life made him colder and tougher than steel, yet when browsing this page (particularly reading about Finding Nemo and The Lion King's Tear Jerkers, but the former was the one that shot him down) he finally broke down; when Calling To The Night was playing. I don't think I'm the only one who suffered a determined situation that makes some Tear Jerkers even more powerful; those who have suffered abusive parents, the death of someone loved, etc. will probably agree.
      • I would just like to hug the above troper.
  • This troper counts the picture for And Call Him George to be one. Poor Tyranid just wanted some love!
  • Determinator and its example sections, (especially the real-life section for obvious reasons) qualify as prone to tear-jerkers in both good and bad perseverence, (even the latter just seems so inspiringly courageous) and for both when it pays off and when it doesn't for different reasons.
  • What about the Loners Are Freaks trope? Calling someone a freak and outcasting them just because they prefer to keep to themselves? Tear Jerker to me, or at least just plain sad.

Toys

  • Bionicle has plenty:
    • The Disney Death of Jaller in Bionicle: Mask of Light.
    • The death of Lhikan in Bionicle: Legends of Metru Nui.
    • The death of Krika in Bionicle Legends: The Final Battle.
    • Matoro's Heroic Sacrifice at the end of Downfall
    • The ending of The Final Battle
    • The online serials. The body count just keeps getting higher. Off the top of my head, there's Botar, Ancient, possibly Lewa, and several matoran.
      • Lewa got better. What really gets me is the death of a troop of Ta-Matoran who attempted to find refuge on the island of Mata Nui... not realizing that the "island" is actually the massive robot's face, and that face is, along with the rest of the robot, currently flying through the vacuum of space. Guess what happened next.
    • This utterly heartbreaking tribute to Bionicle and all those who grew up with it.
  • While it's not as much of a tear jerker, the normally happy-themed Lalaloopsy put out a couple of dolls called "Sir Battlescarred" and "Lady Stillwaiting." Since the dolls gained the personality from the fabric that created them, there's probably a very sad story surrounding them (since their names even suggests this).

Dance

  • This dance is performed by a woman with only one arm and a man with only one leg. It is beautiful.
    • A match made in Heaven if you ask this troper.
  • This. Oh God, this.

Roleplay

  • This troper literally made everyone cry when the Big Bad of the arc murdered a dragoness right in front of her three-year-old adopted wyrmling, even when she Disney Deathed back and became angelic because she threw herself right in front of the wyrmling and her other adopted son.
  • This troper plays one half of one of the main couples in an RP that was recently revived, and a future arc that was never played out in the past (it makes more sense in my head) was summarized, with two scenes played. Context and the scene in question under footnotes (multiple footnotes because this troper can't even figure out if multiple paragraphs in footnotes is even possible), and beware of potholes: [1] Here's the scene after the set-up (with mark-up and a few minor grammar edits, and again, in multiple notes): [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15]
    • This isn't even the end of the drama -- have some more footnotes. [16]
  • A major one occurred within a Warhammer 40K RP, on a fortress world of Taris Prime the Imperial forces were losing badly for the vast majority of the campaign and any victories which they had almost always resulted in the mutual destruction of their armies by the invading Chaos Space marines. In the campaign finale the Chaos had bypassed the Imperial lines cutting off hundreds of thousands of Imperial Guard and civilians from evacuation within a spaceport, being cut down in their thousands every minute. One of the players (Princeps Galen) interrupted the GM and declared that he was going to take his heavily damaged Warlord Titan straight at the right flank of the Imperials where most of the Chaos AA weapons were emplaced, in order to try and buy the escaping troops more time. Being forced to march up the entire Chaos battle line, the Titan came under major enemy fire, Galen doing everything he could to keep the war machine moving and heading into the Chaos lines, rerouting everything from weapons to life support to his void shields and motive systems. The second he arrived the Titan's void shields failed and it was struck repeatedly by Imperial orbital bombardments from the newly arrived fleet and artillery ripping through the Titan's think armour and rupturing its leaking reactor cores, annihilating it and the Chaos troops around it. In the aftermath Galen was regarded in his death to be a traitor and coward for abandoning his post and destroying his valuable war machine in a suicidal charge.
    • Three years (in a later campaign) later the same characters uncovered a message from Galen aboard one of the warships from that fleet. Burning to death from a bridge fire, most of his crew dead and it quickly being overrun by Iron Warriors, Galen died screaming out orders to target his Titan with everything the Imperials had. He stated that the leaking plasma now trailed across the entire Chaos line would be ignited by the Titan's destruction, quickly kill the forces then burn itself out, allowing the trapped Imperial forces to pass and escape. After fighting none stop in a war the Imperium was losing he had sacrificed himself, his crew and his reputation in order to allow a comparatively small number of people to escape a major onslaught. Simply because he was the only one who would act in order to save them.
  • We Are Our Avatars: The Rota's Past Arc, featuring the sordid past of a Cute Ghost Girl. It even made the roleplayers themselves cry!

Advertising

  • This Australian anti-drug ad.
  • This Australian anti-smoking ad. Paternal Tears
  • This Foundation for a Better Life commercial.
  • This troper hates the Zoloft commercials with those damned sad blobs. First off, she's overly sensitive and can't stand to see anything really hurting -- she'll feel bad for even a Big Bad that takes a grievous hit. But more than that, she has depression, and probably had it for years before finally being diagnosed, and she knows that pain well and has to watch the poor little blob go through it and there's nothing she can do to fix it and ARGH gonna go cry now.
    • Understandable!
    • This troper knows what you mean (especially since she used to take Zoloft and it didn't work). She even gets more upset by those commercials for some other medicine, the ones with real people with a voiceover that says "Where does depression hurt? Everywhere.". She wants to scream "DAMMIT! I KNOW!".
    • Oh man, I don't have depression and those ads make me upset, I thought I was the only one! That blob/egg thing is so damn pitiful I want to hug it.
    • I call those the "Sad Bean" commercials. Does this help at all?
  • Oh man, any animal shelter ad, especially those evil, evil ones by the ASPCA with the sad music and pictures of abused animals and the worst part is that they seem to go on forever. I'll change it to another channel, tentatively flip back to find a sad looking doggy with the caption "What did I do to deserve this?" Good lord. There is a local shelter ad that has more uplifting, eyes-get-misty-in-a-good-way ads showing before and after pictures of animals after being nursed back to health and looking all happy.
    • Ditto for this troper. The lethal combination of Sarah McLachlan ballads and helpless, abused animals breaks her heart--not to mention makes her feel terribly guilty for not having any money to donate. (Really says something about the effectiveness of the campaign, though.)
    • I used to get misty at those Humane Society P.S.A.'s with Margaret Hamilton and her cat.
    • The Pedigree adoption drive ads. Every. Damn. Time.
      • One of them, however, has a heartwarming follow-up. This troper was about to cry at the beginning of it, but smiled instead.
    • This. Damn. Commercial. Natalie Merchant's My Skin is, in this troper's opinion, far more lethal to hearts than Sarah McLachlan. The captions don't help any. "What did I do wrong?... Why did they hurt me?... Why did they abandon me?... Will I die today?"
    • Also, this anti-dogfighting ad. "You're my best friend." * sniff*
  • The American Museum of Natural History has a video that plays on a loop in the Hall of Ocean Life that starts off showing the wonders of the ocean with very nice background music. Then the music changes, the video shows pollution and other environmental problems affecting the ocean, concluding with a sea turtle trapped in a net, struggling, then giving up and looking helplessly at the camera. At this point, if you've been watching the whole thing, you're ready to scream. THEN, some scuba divers come by and free the turtle, and it cuts to oceanography and preservation, for a serious Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
  • This one anti-drinking commercial with the little girl who says that in 7 years, she'll be an alcoholic. Well, it's at least DEPRESSING. They used a LITTLE GIRL for corn's sake!
  • This commercial for Knorr Sidekicks gets this troper every time. It's supposed to be funny, but it's hard to see the humour in something so cute being so unwanted, especially when you know the feeling.
  • Segata Sanshiro's final commercial for the Saturn will have you weeping Manly Tears before the end of it. Trust me on that one.
  • You probably have to be a Florida alum for this effect to kick in, but the university's series of "Go Gators!" commercials bring a tear to my eye every time. Especially those last two.
    • This troper will see your "Go Gators" and raise you "The Michigan Difference" (seen here and here. Seeing the Survival Flight chopper take off is particularly wrenching, knowing that they're still flying despite losing an entire crew (pilots, surgeons and perfusionists) on takeoff from Milwaukee two years ago.
  • The Thai insurance ads.
  • Speaking of Thai ads, this Pantene commercial is just... wow. Why can't more US commercials have this level of thought to them?
    • Have you NOT read any of the other examples!? Anyway, YMMV, it was a nice commercial, but I don't think people need to be crying over an ad for SHAMPOO.
    • This troper was crying by the end. It definitely doubles as a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming, too.
  • Another Thai ad, this time for ceiling panels. Poor little geckos...
  • This troper once saw a commercial where rain was falling in sheets on grimy city streets while anonymous feet stomped and hurried to and fro. From a crack in a sidewalk, a single flower was growing, the only bit of color in the whole city, but battered by the rain and always in danger of being crushed. The flower was a child with cancer...
  • This troper recalls an advertisement for chicken pox vaccinations or something of the like. The ad began by revealing that many children die each year from complications brought on by chicken pox...and it features several toys, a jack-in-the-box, a teddy bear, a ragdoll, a rubber ducky...all quietly weeping over their lost "children."
  • Those commercials for the children in foreign countries that have lost their families and need water or vaccinations. Those sad faces. Dear God, all those sad faces staring at me! *Sob*
  • The Subaru ads where a guy is looking at his smashed-up Subaru in a junk yard and says that it saved his life, so he takes the top of the stick shift off and drives away with sad music in the background. It was especially poignant for this troper since she's had two cars save her life in an accident, and both went to the junkyard. Neither was a Subaru, but it still hurt to see that commercial.
  • The Missing Dog commercial.
  • These cot death awareness posters have been turning up around Scotland recently. Walks a thin line between Narm and tragedy.
  • Those new AT&T commercials with the child-like drawings. That song, the images of them falling.
  • The 2010 John Lewis advert in the UK made this troper cry like a baby, thanks to the incredibly emotional series of events and the gentle vocals of Fyfe Dangerfield. ;_;
  • I love the whole world, it's such a brilliant place...
  • There is an ad on MTV where a donkey travels across the screen in a gritty urban-landscape and after it a text appears. "It takes 20 second for the donkey to reach the other side of the screen. By then, two children die because of starvation. Help now." It really hit the point home with the facts in a really, really sad way.
  • The most recent Meth project ads where the rehabed users are shown everything they gave up for meth. Having a child, makes the one of the young father touching the face of the mannequin very painful.
  • Continuing from the Michael Jordan example above, this Troper remembers a commercial that Nike aired in the final month of Jordan's career. Remember good 'ol Mars Blackmon from the Air Jordan commercials? Cut back to almost 20 years later, Mars is on the phone with Jordan, still in shock over Jordan's retirement. it caused many tears to flow for this Troper, it was basically Michael Jordan's last Air Jordan commercial, and quite possibly the last time we'd see Mars Blackmon. It manages to be heartbreaking and hilarious at the same time:

Mars: You're gonna hang em up? You'll be playing golf? No baseball though? Arrivederci? Sayonara? Adios? Auf Wiedersehen? So long? Farewell? Goodbye? For good? Again?

Jordan: Goodbye, Mars. (hangs up)

  • When this troper was in Germany over the summer, she saw these anti-speeding billboards along the Autobahn that showed sad-looking people holding pictures of loved ones who had died in car accidents. The one with the little girl and her mother with the picture of the dead father had me just bawling.
  • Many 'Don't Drink and Drive' ads are heart-wrenching, notably this Austrian ad, this music video by MADD.
  • There was a somewhat recent Skittles commercial that was supposed to be funny, but was just downright depressing. It involved a man who could turn anything into Skittles by touching it. But as he describes, he can't touch anyone or anything without them turning into Skittles. He couldn't touch his newborn son, he accidentally killed a guy by shaking his hand, and other depressing things.
  • Hell. Go to Australia. Watch the local channels, and just wait for an anti-smoking, anti-drug or road-safe ad to come on. They are the most effective and heart-wrenching ads this troper has ever seen. You WILL cry.
    • The road-safe ads especially. The Australia Road-Safe advertisers don't just show you a car crash or a gravestone, they will show you graphic reconstructions of devastating accidents and the effect they have on both the family and the person at fault. Not to mention, they have ads which are just footage of family and friends of actual casualties speaking about how the incident has affected them. This troper cannot watch the footage of a father sobbing over his son's roadside memorial without becoming hysterical.
    • The ones that get this troper the most are the work-safe ones which feature a family waiting for their father at home or at some event he was supposed to meet them at. The music as he finally walks through the door...
  • A McDonald's commercial in the early 1980s about a little boy whose parents just brought home a new baby. A voice sings about the new baby, then there's a shot of family members oohing and ahhing over the baby and its big blue eyes, while ignoring the little boy. The voice then sings "Doesn't anybody remember..." and the little boy, completely dejected, looks at himself in the mirror and sadly tells his reflection "I had blue eyes first." It sounds Narmy but this troper cries every time she thinks of it.
  • This commercial for the Make A Wish Foundation. It never fails to make this troper sob, no matter how many times she sees it.
  • As odd as it sounds, the recent ads for Google Chrome. If you can watch this, this and this without blubbing you are made of stronger stuff than most. And this is in ads for a web browser of all things.
    • The advert with the father emailing his daughter just made this troper burst into tears, as her father's in hospital at the moment.
    • The Lady Gaga one always gives This Tropette chills.
  • this advert for Aviva starts out like any normal insurance commercial. Then there's a tearjerking twist near the end.
  • A recent Hardee's commercial features a robot buying one of their hand-breaded chicken fillet sandwiches, only to realize he doesn't have a mouth, becoming depressed. The fact that the narrator expresses No Sympathy towards the robot's misery doesn't help, either. Granted, it was meant to be funny, but it just ends up becoming a Glurge-ridden piece of Cringe Comedy that becomes more depressing in hindsight. See it for yourself here, but be warned.
    • The extended version only makes it worse. In it, the robot gets mad and destroys the room before getting depressed.
  • These two old anti-AIDS Public Service Announcements. To say that these stories are depressing is an underStatement.
  • ...and in the year 1955, he was 24 years old. :sniff:
  • This troper often choked up at this McDonald's commercial about a family slowly growing apart over the years. At first, everyone was at the table, chattering happily, with their new baby sister. Then it showed the family growing fewer, one by one, 'til only the mom and dad are left in their old age. Made even sadder by the song playing. It turned heartwarming at the end though, when the whole family is shown (with some new additions) at McDonald's for a reunion.
  • "We have lost Dan Wheldon"
  • The UK "Embrace Life" advert promoting seatbelt-use, showing that a PSA can be just as effective without going into Scare'Em Straight territory.
  • Concerned Children's Advertisers sponsored a PSA back in the mid-90's or thereabouts. It featured a young man visiting his estranged friend in drug rehab, intercut with flashbacks to their carefree childhoods, all while "He Ain't Heavy, He's my Brother" played in the background.
  • The 2012 Compare the Meerkat advertisement. It's a series that's been going on for years and the duo... Watch his lip.
  • The Trifexis commercial just seems silly at first glance. But being trapped in that ridiculous oversized rodent tube thing, the dog has barely any room for maneuverability, can't interact with the world around it, and worse, can't be close with its family. Makes the ending where it's let out something of a Heartwarming Moment by comparison.

Eastern European Animation


Podcast Fiction

  • Two Words: Mitchell Fayed.
  • Two More Words: Father Thomas. In This Troper's opinion, the biggest Tear Jerker moment in the entire 7th Son Trilogy.

Other

  • TheChildren of Dune miniseries: The end of part 1, and the section in part 3 where Leto meets his father.
  • Neil Gaiman's current (January 2010) journal entries about the last days of his cancer-stricken blind cat Zoe are enough to melt a heart of stone.
  • A logo gag of MTM was played during the finale of a show in 1988 (if I remember the name, I'll put it up), of the mascot kitten, Mimsie, being hooked up to life support (kind of makes sense, the show was hospital-related). At the end of the credits, we hear the long, high beep of the machine, meaning that Mimsie didn't make it. Even sadder when you find out that 1988 was the year the REAL Mimsie died (age 18).
    • This troper remembers reading about this a while back, it was St. Elsewhere.
    • Here you are.
  • Part 6 of Seven Ages Of Rock, which focuses on American alternative rock such as REM and Nirvana. It mentions Kurt Cobain's life, and in a couple of his interviews, he sounded kind of sad. You can't blame him; he's been through a spiraling depression that not even good friend Michael Stipe can get him out of.
  • 'From the bottom of Heart', a visual novel, is one in and for itself. 'Let's go to an amusement park together!'
  • This picture on Deviant ART, especially if you remember classic Disney, remember going to Disneyland as a kid and meeting those mascots, and...*sniff* Excuse me...
  • This troper went to Video Games Live recently. One piece they did was from Kingdom Hearts, a series that his troper is not fond of. However, the piece they played was accompanied by video of epic moments from animated Disney films. There was nary a dry eye in this house: even this troper had to hold back a little as he recalled just how amazing his childhood was. This video is a very close approximation of what I saw. The ending was just...perfect. :')
  • As funny as Christopher Titus's stand-up routines are, there are some bits that hit this troper hard. For instance, when he talks about his dad.

Titus: What did he tell me my entire life? "You’re gonna need grandpa around to raise that kid. Grandpa’s gonna turn that kid into an adult." What else did you stuff up my ass all my life? “Step up, or step aside." Isn't that right? "Step up, or step aside.” AND WHAT HAPPENED?! THE WORLD IS FALLING APART, I’VE GOT TWO LITTLE KIDS and you’re not here.

  • This troper saw a...very well acted Documentary that terrified the class and at the same time was a tear jerker. It was about the French Revolution, and they showed the part about Madame Du Barry. Supposedly, it was Enforced Method Acting, and the actress playing Madame Du Barry must have really been a good actress...because the people playing the extras looked shocked as the actress struggled and screamed as she was lead to the scaffold, managing to break away several times only to be caught and dragged back before collapsing and shouting, "You're going to hurt me! Why?!" and then they showed the scene of forcing her into the (obviously fake) guillotine, with the really nervous looking extras. It also didn't help that the narrator said it took several people to bring her there, and that her screams could be heard from across Seine.
  • PBS once showed a documentary on parrots, and near the end it showed a segment on what would happen if they're not given proper stimuli. It shows the poor birds in what is basically a parrot equivalent of a mental hospital, with the parrots painfully squawking and plucking their own feathers out because they didn't have anything or anyone to interact with in their previous homes.
    • I know that film, and I want to show it to everyone who gets any type of bird, but especially the psittacines. People get these highly intelligent and very social creatures as a cute accessory, and then just leave them alone in a cage for hours. I want to say -- How would you feel?
  • Amiga Power's review of Kick-Off '96, in it's final issue, was terribly depressing.
  • This comic from dA . This kills you especially if you're someone who's interested in different languages. It makes me dislike the thought of Spanish class even more.
    • Or if you got strong-arms into taking Spanish because there WERE no other language options [17]
  • While most of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Christmas concerts tend toward warm and fuzzy, they do sneak a tear jerker in every now and then.
    • One notable occasion was their 2002 concert, where they portrayed the story of the World War I Christmas truce, narrated by Walter Cronkite.
    • Another came from the 2004 concert, called A Christmas Bell for Anya. It tells the story of a Russian village renowned for their bell makers, and their traditional bell ringing by 12 young girls around the village's scene of the Christ child, and Anya is having her own bell crafted for her by her father. The bell is completed three days before Christmas and Anya eagerly awaits the day. The day before, a band of marauders roaming the country in the chaos of the Russian Revoltion come to the town. When the dust settles, Anya's father is found cradling her body. As Christmas approaches he suddenly has the sense that she is near and asking that he ring her bell on Christmas.
  • When this troper was learning to drive, she was forced to watch many, many educational videos teaching her about the horrors of drunk driving and the consequences that came from it. And, while many of the videos were extremely cheesy and completely missed the point of what they were trying to teach, one video in particular stood out. It was showcasing several instances of the consequences of drunk driving, and although the video had a very somber tone overall, one woman in particular stood out. She was very young, and pretty, and had been hit by a drunk driver. It didn't kill her, but she was completely immobilized and mentally handicapped. She spent the rest of her life rotting away in a bed. Her parents came to visit her, and you could tell she recognized them, but all she could do was stare at them, and her dad held her hand while he was there, and it sounds so stupid, but her hand was what really got this troper. Her hand was so tiny, and weak looking, and limp,and just kind of lay there, and she just looked so helpless. All I could think was this woman is never going to live her life again and when her dad holds her hand and tries to pretend that nothing is wrong, she can't even hold it back.
  • From the visual novel Danganronpa: The resolution for the second trial in its entirety. There's the whole thing with the complexes of Chihiro and Mondo, and how the latter kills the former to stop The Reveal that he got his older brother killed. It's made even worse by the fact that Chihiro, seeing himself as weak idolized Mondo, who he saw as someone strong. And seeing Ishimaru break down crying doesn't help anything.
  1. ↑ A bit of context: Sedriss has a mix of magnetism and gravity powers and has moral issues, and Tsunami likes to burn things and can be annoying. Together, they made Zoe, who is awesome. Two and a half years before this point, Tsu' had disappeared for several months, and this pushed Sedriss to his breaking point. He turned to drug abuse to cope, and the consequences involved a steady loss of control over his powers, right up to now -- the building they're in is being torn apart involuntarily by him, and chances are that it's going to get worse.
  2. ↑ Tsunami had practically been in denial about this decline in control for years, but now it was smacking her right in the face. She gave the Chosen behind her a 'stay put' gesture, because she would not hesitate to set anyone on fire if they got in the way. She walked forward, working hard not to panic -- if she freaked out now, it could make things worse in the long run. Tsu' knelt down in front of Sedriss, pulling him up into a tight hug. In a desperate attempt to break the silence that had followed, she began to start talking. "A-are you..." She stopped herself, because asking if he was okay seemed to be a very, very stupid move right about now. Instead, she ended with a sharp inhale, forcing herself to stay as calm as she could be.
  3. ↑ "Tsu'...I think you should leave as soon as possible." As if to reinforce his point, the metallic mist behind Sedriss burst into an array of spikes, crawling up the air before bursting into particles.
  4. ↑ Even though this was probably the only logical choice, Tsunami was adamant in staying, although she winced at the burst. "I'm not leaving you like this." She tried not to think about how there wasn't anything she could do, as far as she knew.
  5. ↑ A low rumble shook the room as the complex spun around it. "...I don't know what's happening, I stopped the drugs, I swear to god I stopped! But...it's gotten worse, Tsu'. Something isn't right, it's like my brain just can't hold onto my spells."
  6. ↑ "Shit." Tsu' looked back for a second. "You guys, go back, now! I'll catch up later!" More concerned with the safety of others instead of her own, she stayed right where she was, although she didn't bother to scold any of the Chosen that lingered nearby after her orders. Tsunami turned her attention back to Sedriss. "Well, we'll just have to find a way to fix that! I don't know how, but I'm sticking around until I figure it out, okay!?" She struggled to search for a solution, or at least something better to say than half-filled reassurances.
  7. ↑ Sedriss smiled. "That's the Tsu' I know and love." The complex shook again, and the sound of metal slamming into metal could be heard coming from outside the room, followed by a huge crash. "But I don't know how much longer I can hold on; my magic's slipping out of my head, through my fingers. And when it all comes out, something bad is going to happen, Tsu', I can feel it."
  8. ↑ The knot in Tsu's stomach tightened. "You gotta hold on long enough, Sed'. You can't just let this happen." The very thought that something very, very bad would happen to him was almost incomprehensible for her.
  9. ↑ "It's taking all my control to keep you and your friends alive, Tsu'." The sweat on Sedriss' brow turned into molten lead as it traveled up his face to float towards the roof. "I think you should leave. It isn't just about us, someone needs to be there for Zoe."
  10. ↑ "Thanks for playing the guilt trip card." Tsunami half-joked, mind elsewhere at the moment. The reality of the situation then broke through her denial. Sedriss was going to die. "...Th-this isn't fair. It just isn't. Everyone else gets their damn happy ending, so why not us!?" To hell with being calm.
  11. ↑ "I'm still happy, Tsu'. Just being around you, just knowing you love me and care about me makes me happy, thinking about Zoe makes me happy." Sedriss embraced Tsunami and kissed her on the cheek. "Thank you, for everything, Tsu'."
  12. ↑ That did it. Tsunami started crying. "Dammit, it hurts to love you sometimes!" Still, she hugged Sedriss tight, hoping that maybe some freak accident would occur and time would freeze, just so that this moment would never end. By now, the Chosen had decided to leave, and it would probably be a good idea for her to follow suit, but she was going to stay until the last second if she could.
  13. ↑ Cracks formed in the walls of the room as the walls began peeling away, the nonstop sound of grinding metal flowed through them. Soon, Sedriss and Tsunami were floating in the air, the remains of the complex orbiting them, their faces lit by bubbling magma. Sedriss held the embrace for as long as he could before gently pushing away from Tsunami. "I'm going to get you out of here." A path appeared through the spinning debris, and Tsunami would feel gentle pushing.
  14. ↑ She mustered up a tiny "Bye," backing away slowly, towards the path. Tsunami briefly considering forcing her way back, but decided against it. It was better this way...wasn't it? "I love you."
  15. ↑ "I love you too, Tsu', more than you'll ever know." The materials around Sedriss began swirling faster and faster, pushing Tsunami down the path until she was out. The debris began expanding out, breaking up into smaller and smaller components, before crashing back together with a horrible screech. It began shrinking, becoming more and more compressed until it formed a perfectly smooth metal sphere the size of a quarter. It gently floated to the ground, which buckled under its immense weight.
  16. ↑ This is followed up not long afterwards by the revelation that Jason, Sedriss' cousin and a brother figure to poor Tsu', had been the one to order the recent rash of assassination on (admittedly highly immoral) key government figures and had even been the one to suggest to Sedriss in the first place that he start using drugs. However, it's the above scene that really gets the tears flowing. Although a good runner-up that won't be played out for some time is the fact that Zoe, their daughter, ends up becoming friends with Jason when she's older without realizing they're related or that he's the reason her father's dead and her mother's completely messed up. I can't say anything definite because I'm not Jason's player, but he must have one hell of a guilt complex when all is said and done. And this is without the scenes that take place long before then, when Tsu' returns from her four-month disappearance mentioned earlier -- this is to be played out soon, and I imagine it'll be horrible. None of these characters are meant to be happy.
  17. ↑ barring French, but when there's one French teacher to FOUR Spanish teachers, you were SOL
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