# What makes you cry? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 17, 2006, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-cry/369147 "2006-08-17T22:09:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![RTA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b4bc9f/32.png) [@RTA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTA)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-cry/369147/41 "2006-08-18T17:22:46Z")
At the end of _The Jerk_, when Navin’s family find him living on the street and they take him home (in the back of the station wagon because he smells so bad), after which he is finally able to dance like a black person. I tear up just thinking about it. ---
**Author:** ![DaddyTimesTwo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@DaddyTimesTwo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaddyTimesTwo)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-cry/369147/42 "2006-08-18T17:36:32Z")
I’ve always been a bit of a weepy romantic, but since having kids, stories, books, movies, commercials, food labels that involve children in trouble, having fun, learning a valuable lesson, being smart, being cute make tear up without fail. As I get older and still have not experienced (thank Og) the death of anyone close to me (and I fear that it is coming), stories involving the death of a close family member really do me in. There’s an ER episode from the early years with an elderly couple who’ve been married for decades. The woman is quite ill and could die (and I’m choking up typing this!) at any time. The husband is very upset, and as his wife is slipping away he says something like “please not now, I’m not ready for you to go.” My wife and I weren’t even married when this episode aired and I cried. There are a couple other episodes thathad similar scenes that got to me. The only other show to get to me, and it got to me worse (or “better”, whatever) is Scrubs. But the good thing about Scrubs is that, yeah, I might cry, but I’ll be howling with laughter before too long. I love that show. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ddgryphon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8c91f0/32.png) [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-cry/369147/43 "2006-08-18T18:08:02Z")
> [@freckafree](#): > > “When She Loved Me” in Toy Story 2. I can’t even THINK about that without crying. > Oh GOD yes. That is the saddest thing I’ve ever seen in a kid’s movie. > [@Chef Troy](#): > > Oh GOD yes. That is the saddest thing I’ve ever seen in a kid’s movie. Add me to that list – I still mist up when I hear the damn song. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-cry/369147/44 "2006-08-18T18:12:52Z")
I cry during ET, but not when he dies. I cry at the scene when he has been revealed to the kids’ mother, and in fear she takes them all out of the room. ET reaches out and makes that little wailing noise. He’s sick, dying, a long way from home, and now he’s being abandoned completely, sniff!!! I bawled at the funeral procession scene, for the little boy, in the movie _Barry Lyndon_. As the kid lay dying, after falling off of a horse, he’s pleading with his parents to stop fighting each other. The next scene is a cut to the procession, in which his coffin is being drawn on his own little cart, pulled by the goats he used to drive. Waaaaaah!!! ---
**Author:** ![gwendee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@gwendee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gwendee)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-cry/369147/45 "2006-08-18T18:43:31Z")
Even after seeing it two dozen times or more\*, every time I see the episode of MASH in which Henry Blake’s death is announced (and apparently when I type about it) my heart breaks and I cry and cry and cry. Radar’s voice catches as he reads the telegram “over the Sea of Japan…There were no survivors” and I lose it. Also, even though I’ve never watched or attended a single NASCAR event, when Dale Earnhardt died I cried almost uncontrollably for 3 days. I still don’t understand why. \*MASH was on 2 or 3 times a night in my home town on one out of the 4 channels available during my formative years. ---
**Author:** ![Bobotheoptimist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/919ad9/32.png) [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-cry/369147/46 "2006-08-18T19:17:45Z")
Doesn’t make me cry, but Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald gives me goosebumps. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-cry/369147/47 "2006-08-18T19:20:18Z")
> [@davmilasav](#): > > For books it’s The Velveteen Rabbit How could I have forgotten about The Velveteen Rabbit!?!?? Bring on the Kleenex. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-cry/369147/48 "2006-08-18T19:47:29Z")
Plenty of movies (when Artax dies in _The Neverending Story_, when ET comes to life in _ET_, when George starts believing they really can buy their farm in Gary Sinise’s _Of Mice and Men_, when farmer Hoggett says those words in _Babe_, and many more) and songs (but not many you would recognize). And just the other week I met the father of a friend of mine who died last year saving his girlfriend’s life, and I just wanted to say how much I had liked his son, but the words just didn’t want to cooperate when I looked at this middle-aged man with tears in his own eyes and realized that whatever grief I felt wasn’t even a shadow of his. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-cry/369147/49 "2006-08-18T20:25:12Z")
> [@McNew](#): > > OK, this’ll sound weird, but sadness and grief don’t make me cry. Don’t make me feel much of anything, in fact. But people overcome with happiness? I’m a puddle. > > In \*Mr. Holland’s Opus \* (I know, most consider this film the 9th level of schlock) when they go into the auditorium at the end, and the Senator is at the podium introducing him, and the curtain opens to reveal the orchestra prepared to perform the first public performance of his life’s work, and he gets a little choked up- I cry like a little girl. Every goddam time. I know it’s coming, I tell myself I’m not going to get emotional this time, not \*this \* time, doggone it- and it’s all over. Gimme a Kleenex. > > Oh- it’s the darndest thing- any time a parent expresses sincere pride for their child, I suddenly get something in my eye. Geesh, you have more self-control than me. I started bawling when Mr. Opus’s son signs, “I’m not stupid! I know who John Lennon is” ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-cry/369147/50 "2006-08-18T20:31:48Z")
> [@ouryL](#): > > Geesh, you have more self-control than me. I started bawling when Mr. Opus’s son signs, “I’m not stupid! I know who John Lennon is” and the ending song kept me crying, when I realized is was being sung by _Julian Lennon_: “I feel that the love around me has come from another world!” ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-cry/369147/51 "2006-08-18T20:41:31Z")
Forrest Gump, where Forrest is standing at Jenny’s grave talking to her. And the ending to Big Fish. ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-cry/369147/52 "2006-08-18T20:46:45Z")
> [@ouryL](#): > > Geesh, you have more self-control than me. I started bawling when Mr. Opus’s son signs, “I’m not stupid! I know who John Lennon is” Mr. Opus! Love it. 😃 Actually, the waterworks first appear when Mr. Holland is singing and signing the words to \*Beautiful Boy \* to Cole’s whole class, and at the end: “beautiful, beautiful, beautiful… beautiful Cole…” ---
**Author:** ![Dob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Dob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dob)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-cry/369147/53 "2006-08-18T20:56:11Z")
For me it is almost any scene where someone sacrifices him/herself to save others. Hell I got all teary in “Armageddon” when Affleck’s character was screaming at Wills’s he loved him, and he said “Take care of my little girl”, and I didn’t even like that damn movie! Give me a heroic self-sacrificing love… thing, and im done. ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-cry/369147/54 "2006-08-18T21:03:42Z")
Lots of stuff in comic books. In _Marvels_, when the reporter finds the deformed little mutant girl hiding in his basement. In _we3_, when the bunny approaches the men to ask for help and gets shot, and then the dog sits on the side saying, “Bad dog. Bad dog.” In _X-Men_, when Iceman is surprised to be asked to do a speech at Northstar’s funeral. He says that they weren’t very close, and Polaris says, “Really? He used to talk about you all the time.” In _Runaways_, when Nico is grieving over Karolina being gone, and hugs the clothes Karolina left behind. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-cry/369147/55 "2006-08-18T21:23:37Z")
I’m a sucker for most any beloved pet related sadness, like _Jurassic Bark_, or _My Dog Skip_, or even when Farley died in the _For Better or Worse_ comic strip. Reality shows can get me regularly too: the “Loved Ones Visit” episode in each edition of _Survivor_ and the final run to the mat at the end of each _Amazing Race_ usually get me misty. Most recently, I started crying when I saw Tiger Woods bawling after winning the British Open… ---
**Author:** ![malita](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@malita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/malita)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-cry/369147/56 "2006-08-18T21:38:49Z")
For me it is Micheal Buble’s song _Home_. The first time I heard it was in the Debra Messing/Hugh Jackman movie (??) where Debra’s character finds out she has been betrayed by everyone around her…sad moment in the movie, but the song in the background just slayed me. It was one of those nights where I was keeping myself up at night wallowing in my misery after moving across the country by myself, without my husband, 2 dogs, or kitty. At that time, all I wanted was my “old” life back, and that concept of home that I had left behind. The words of that song said everything I was feeling, and I just lost it. Saw that portion of the movie just the other day, piled in bed with hubby and the dogs and it still got me. ---
**Author:** ![eenerms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@eenerms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eenerms)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-cry/369147/57 "2006-08-18T22:54:49Z")
_My Dog Skip_ when the boy, Skip and the Dad are out walking in the woods. The deer…oh no I’m tearing up… ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-cry/369147/58 "2006-08-18T23:11:12Z")
In _Peggy Sue Got Married,_ when Kathleen Turner returns home with her grown-up mind in her teen body and sees her grandma and mother alive again. “Danny Boy” and “Scotland the Brave” on bagpipes (Brother’s funeral). Lately, the theme music to “Deadwood.” Perhaps 'cuz I know the series is ending. Oh, and all those damn dead dog movies they insisted on showing to us sensitive elementary school kids: _Old Yeller, Where the Red Fern Grows_ . . . ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-cry/369147/59 "2006-08-18T23:13:10Z")
(This thread is one of the most constantly recurring… anyhow…) (1) The end of **The Iron Giant** : “Superman” (2) The death of Fantine, and the reappearance of her ghost, in **Les Miz** (3) The “Nearer my God to Thee” scene from **Titanic** , particularly the old couple lying in bed together as the water washes over them, and the steerage mom (played by the same actress who was John Connor’s foster mom in T2 and the tough marine chick in Aliens) telling her kids a story (4) Several moments from **My So Called Life** … in particular, the montage at the church in the Christmas episode (one of the more powerful portrayals of the power of religion that this agnostic has ever witnessed), Patty crying in the car after saving Rayanne from ODing, and Brian watching, lonely, as Delia and Ricky dance ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-cry/369147/60 "2006-08-18T23:14:31Z")
I thought of another thing that made me cry, and still makes me tear up when I think of it: In the summer Olympics in Athens, at the opening cerermonies, they had a runner, dressed simply in white, running around the track and breaking through white finish line tape, each tape having the year of an Olympics game, and (I think) the city. It was a really simply way to symbolize the Olympics progressing through time. So the guy is running, and he gets to 1916 – and he falls down. He gets up and runs again, and then he gets to 1940 and falls again, tries to get up and falls yet again (1944). The 1916 Olympics were cancelled because of WWI, and the 1940 and '44 Olympics were cancelled because of WWII. I think because it was the first post 9/11 Olympics and the whole war situation, I just found it really affecting. I still get misty thinking about it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-cry/369147.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-cry/369147.md?page=4)