This week on Veteran’s Day, I happened upon a showing of the M*A*S*H finale, ‘Goodbye, Farewell and Amen’, and was sorely upset that I didn’t have time to sit and enjoy it. (It was Critical Hit night, though, so I was at least missing it for a good reason.) My wife only saw a few minutes of the show (which, you must remember, was a major pop-culture turning point for folks over a certain age) and found herself a little bit emotional even at that short snippet.. To be honest, I’ve never made it all the way through a viewing of that perfect tearjerker of an episode without getting a little misty, nor have I ever watched Old B.O.B.’s death scene at the end of ‘The Black Hole’, the gathering of 13 Doctors at the end of the 50th anniversary episode of ‘Doctor Who’ or Samantha’s decision to leave Theodore behind in ‘Her’ without a bit of welling up, which leads us to today’s lachrymose query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) also has issues with not sniffling when Angel dies in ‘Rent’, especially Jesse Martin’s funeral song, asking: What pop-culture moment is the most effective tearjerker for you?
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I’m not one to cry at media.
Old Yeller was just a dog with rabies, right?
Big deal.
But somehow I got blasted in the ‘ol emotional waterworks TWICE, this year alone. The Studio Ghibli film ‘When Marnie Was There’ left me a blubbering mess (see it, it’s darn good), and ‘Inside Out’ which I believe was scientifically designed in a lab to destroy me, with a main character resembling my own daughter in far too many ways including her age and appearance.
The last 5 minutes of Toy Story 3 had both my wife and I weeping in the middle of the theater. Like uncontrollably.
I watch a show with my kids on the Cartoon Network called Adventure Time that has a particular episode called “I Remember You” that connects the backstories of two secondary characters in the most touching way with a few tear-inducing songs and a sweet moment at the end that brings it all together, and BAM, I’m holding back the water works every time.
Without fail someone always seems to be chopping up onions right next to me during tearjerker scenes.
In all honesty, a number of movies come to mind as being effective in inciting tears to well up in my eyes. The ones that stick with me are those that occurred in public, like a movie theater. It’s one thing to bawl your eyes out as a 24 year old male to About Time in the comforts of your fiancee’s apartment, its another thing to be a fresh 9 year old in a movie theater for the premier of Armageddon painfully swallowing to fight back a flood of tears.
As a side note, Avengers Disassembled, the main story, was surprisingly effective at inciting an emotional response from me. I fought those tears back and I did not cry! But damnit if I wasn’t just a little emotional.
The coronation scene in “Return of the King” gets me every time. “My friends, you bow to no one.”
The start of the movie “Up” gets me every time. And the final moments of “Ghost”. I can’t help it.
As a kid, I remember being really distraught about a Rugrats episode dealing with Chuckie learning his mom died.
The ending of “The Inner Light” from TNG, never stops being effective.
Not sure where I’d put this in ranking if I were to really think about it, but Inside/Out had a few “Big men also cry Mr. Lebowski” moments.