# Worst Happy Ending **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 3, 2018, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508 "2018-05-03T14:16:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/21 "2018-05-03T17:59:27Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > Similar movie: “The Heartbreak Kid” from 1972. For some reason, Cybill Shepherd marries this nobody, Charles Grodin, who is obsessed with her, for the simple reason he just pursues her single-mindedly and will. not. be. stopped. Her father tries to scare him off, buy him off, and he politely but firmly will not be deterred. She, with every privilege and the world hers for the taking, marries him! And at the end he is sitting there alone at the wedding reception, humming to himself, staring off into space. Wonder how THAT marriage is going to work out. > > This movie is one of my favorites, but it maddens me, to this day. I always wonder what happened with them. You neglected to mention that Grodin \*\*dumps his new bride \*\*(who was actually pretty hot!) **while they’re on their honeymoon** so he can spend the rest of the movie stalking Cybill Shepherd! ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/22 "2018-05-03T18:43:26Z")
Exhibit A: [The Great Drop Game](https://books.google.com/books?id=S3lHAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA139&dq=earl+chapin+%22the+great+drop+game%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwigq6CQleraAhWKl-AKHYJxDL0Q6AEIMTAC#v=onepage&q=earl%20chapin%20%22the%20great%20drop%20game%22&f=false) Exhibit B: [Queenie Peavey](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1990/07/08/the-story-of-a-bad-girl/49fea88b-2660-4db3-acd4-38d858338a92/?utm_term=.e4d0a0dbc61f) Representing an entire _genre_ of tales about tomboys that show them taking on the world and beating the boys on their own terms, only to conclude with the main character deciding at the end to embrace her inner femme and start acting with ladylike decorum and to put aside all those boyish mannerisms and habits. :rolleyes: None of them by themselves would have been so bad, it’s just that this trajectory was common enough that I came to regard it as a cliche. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/23 "2018-05-03T18:56:48Z")
[Snowpiercer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHhQUTd3UHM): the train crashes and the two young children are the only survivors, and they crawl out into a world where everything living thing has died. But wait! There’s a polar bear on a nearby hill, a sign that life can and does survive. The children have hope! Except these kids have no idea how to find food, build shelter, or have any survival skills at all. Which isn’t even important, because they have maybe 15 minutes before that alpha predator eats them. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/24 "2018-05-03T19:03:56Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > Exhibit A: [The Great Drop Game](https://books.google.com/books?id=S3lHAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA139&dq=earl+chapin+%22the+great+drop+game%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwigq6CQleraAhWKl-AKHYJxDL0Q6AEIMTAC#v=onepage&q=earl%20chapin%20%22the%20great%20drop%20game%22&f=false) > > Exhibit B: [Queenie Peavey](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1990/07/08/the-story-of-a-bad-girl/49fea88b-2660-4db3-acd4-38d858338a92/?utm_term=.e4d0a0dbc61f) > > Representing an entire _genre_ of tales about tomboys that show them taking on the world and beating the boys on their own terms, only to conclude with the main character deciding at the end to embrace her inner femme and start acting with ladylike decorum and to put aside all those boyish mannerisms and habits. :rolleyes: > > None of them by themselves would have been so bad, it’s just that this trajectory was common enough that I came to regard it as a cliche. And then Grease turns that on its head by having Sandy act like a 50s era slut to attract John Travolta, so it’s all good. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/25 "2018-05-03T19:27:16Z")
Weird, my worst one was right on the money. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/26 "2018-05-03T19:28:30Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > I hated Scott Pilgrim VS. the World. Part of that is that my memory is that the ending was terrible. > > I think he doesn’t end up with the right girl. He ends up with the cool girl(Winstead) instead of the regular girl(Wong). This was insanely badly plotted. That’s because Knives dodged a bullet. It was the happiest possible ending for HER. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/27 "2018-05-03T19:36:21Z")
Obvious spoiler alerts. [As Good as it Gets](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119822/). OK, it’s the ending and Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt are walking off into the sunset as an official couple. Except you know that five minutes later he’s going to pull another asshole move that forces her to dump him. The real ending should be that he tries to make himself a better man, for her, and he succeeds, but it’s not enough. He’s turned from an intolerable asshole with no redeeming qualities into an intolerable asshole with some redeeming qualities. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/28 "2018-05-03T19:42:12Z")
> [@DooWahDiddy](#): > > Weird, my worst one was right on the money. Thanks for falling on that grenade for me, or I would have not been able to resist the straight line just dangling there for so many posts. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/29 "2018-05-03T20:12:06Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > I hated Scott Pilgrim VS. the World. Part of that is that my memory is that the ending was terrible. > > I think he doesn’t end up with the right girl. He ends up with the cool girl(Winstead) instead of the regular girl(Wong). This was insanely badly plotted. I couldn’t get invested in _Scott Pilgrim_ because everybody I was supposed to like as a character was a rubbish human being, except maybe Knives, and she was underage. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/30 "2018-05-03T20:22:55Z")
I couldn’t get invested in _Scott Pilgrim_ because I just couldn’t suspend my disbelief for the more outlandish elements of the story. I mean, two gorgeous young women fighting over Michael Cera? Please. There’s only so much I’m willing to accept in a work of fantasy. ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/31 "2018-05-03T20:29:01Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > Thanks for falling on that grenade for me, or I would have not been able to resist the straight line just dangling there for so many posts. I seriously couldn’t believe it took that long (which is also what she said). ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/32 "2018-05-03T20:44:26Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I couldn’t get invested in _Scott Pilgrim_ because I just couldn’t suspend my disbelief for the more outlandish elements of the story. I mean, two gorgeous young women fighting over Michael Cera? Please. There’s only so much I’m willing to accept in a work of fantasy. I mean you really must have not known what to do with _Juno_ and _Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist_ where Cera is geekily attractive to Ellen Page and Kat Dennings respectively. For whatever reason Cera in the late 00s was considered the archetype of male adorkableness. Anyway I loved the movie as well as the graphic novels… ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/33 "2018-05-03T21:24:59Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > _Pretty in Pink_ is a crowd favorite wrong ending. Andie is clearly supposed to end up with Duckie. They filmed that ending. Test audiences didn’t like it. (Test audiences are idiots.) Reshot it so she ended up with the horrible, dumped-her-once-already, preppie snob. Thus negating most of the movie’s plot. > > _This_ is a happy ending??? Yeah, test audiences are stupid. Ducky and Andie belonged together, and I will brook no argument against that pairing. ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/34 "2018-05-03T21:32:56Z")
I won’t spoil the ending of _Oldboy_, but it’s happy in a distinctly unhappy way. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/35 "2018-05-03T22:15:52Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > _Pretty in Pink_ is a crowd favorite wrong ending. Not exsactly a “happy” ending but _Fatal Attraction_ was supposed to end with Alex framing Dan to make her suicide look like murder. Audiences hated that ending, so it was changed to The Wronged Wife cleaning up the mess her husband created. > [@RickJay](#): > > I am still irritated by the ending of “Friends.” The failure of Ross to grow, and Rachel’s acquiesence to his immaturity, just never fails to exasperate me. What were they thinking? That’s nothing compared to the ending of _How I Met Your Mother_, which managed to piss off every faction of fandom for different reasons: 1. They introduced a character in the last season who quickly (and probably accidentally) became beloved, then killed her off at the end 2. Half the audience was rooting for Barney and Robin 3. The other half was angry Barney and Robin had gotten married in the first place 4. Ted’s continued pining over Robin was even worse than Ross’ mooning over Rachel, AND spit on the memory of the (probably accidentally) beloved mother, AND reset the entire show back to Episode 1. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/36 "2018-05-03T23:11:39Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > “The Graduate” - on the bus Ben and Elaine come to the realization of how much they’ve just messed up their lives and what an uncertain future awaits them. A perfect ending to a great movie. Wasn’t supposed to be happy. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/37 "2018-05-03T23:14:03Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > You neglected to mention that Grodin \*\*dumps his new bride \*\*(who was actually pretty hot!) **while they’re on their honeymoon** so he can spend the rest of the movie stalking Cybill Shepherd! Oh, forgot, I thought it was well known enough… (I don’t know what the ‘new version’ is like, it sounded horrible.) I thought Cybill Shepherd’s character ‘did whatever her daddy told her’, and it seems she married the creep just to piss her father off? I sincerely hope that marriage failed hugely. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/38 "2018-05-03T23:32:08Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > _Pretty in Pink_ is a crowd favorite wrong ending. Andie is clearly supposed to end up with Duckie. > [@Lightnin](#): > > Yeah, test audiences are stupid. Ducky and Andie belonged together, and I will brook no argument against that pairing. It should be said that the character of Duckie was apparently heavily based on Molly Ringwald’s life-long best friend( who was on set during shooting ),who is gay :). Ringwald’s opinion( for whatever it is worth ), is that the character of Duckie is gay as well. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/39 "2018-05-03T23:38:33Z")
**Silver Linings Playbook**. Spoilers below. We are supposed to be glad that the cute-but-both-crazy couple ends up together in the end. But considering that their problems will probably reinforce one another, I couldn’t help but think they will both be institutionalized or more likely dead within six months. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2018, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/40 "2018-05-04T00:40:21Z")
More on **Silver Linings Playbook** All of Pat Sr.'s money troubles are over when he wins his bet on the dance contest. Except they’re not. He’s a gambling addict, and will turn right around and gamble it all away again. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508.md?page=3)