Goodnight, Sweet Prince

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Now cracks a noble heart. Good night sweet prince: And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!
—Horatio, Hamlet

A common Shout-Out To Shakespeare. Just like in the original context, it's used at the death of a young male.

As this phrase borders on Narm at the best of times, twists and parodies vastly outnumber the dramatic use.

Examples of Goodnight, Sweet Prince include:

Anime and Manga

{{quote|Mike: Goodnight, sweet thin guy.

Comics

  • From Hell, after Inspector Abberline dies from drug overdose, Sergeant Godlay says it.

Film

  • In One Hundred and One Dalmatians 2: Patch's London Adventurereferenced this. The dog who's saying this thinks he's playing it straight re:his old boss, who he betrayed... but, really, his boss is playing dead to buy the puppies some time.
  • In Last Action Hero, which starts off with a violent parody of Hamlet. Narrator: "No one is going to tell this sweet prince good night."
  • RoboCop: Joe Cox, finishing Murphy off with a headshot. "Good night, sweet prince. Hahaha...!"
  • It pops up in Mystery Science Theater 3000 The Movie, when the satellite crashes into the Hubble and Mike has to fix it. It crashes.
  • Said by Katherine Hepburn's character about Spencer Tracy's character in The Desk Set, after the computer Tracy designed has fired everyone in the company, including the CEO and Tracy (who doesn't even work for the company except as a contractor).
  • According to the directors of The Lion King Scar was originally going to whisper this line (instead of "long live the king") in Mufasa's ear just before he murders him. They changed it on account of it being "too self-aware." He also says it to Simba in the High Octane Nightmare Fuel alternate ending on YouTube.
  • The Big Lebowski: Walter Sobchak: "And so, Theodore Donald Karabotsos, in accordance with what we think your dying wishes might well have been, we commit your final mortal remains to the bosom of the Pacific Ocean, which you loved so well. Good night, sweet prince." And as he spills the ashes out of the coffee-can, the wind blows them all over The Dude.
  • Claudia in Interview with the Vampire says this after (unsuccessfully) murdering Lestat.
  • Interview with the Vampire: "Good night, sweet Prince, may flights of devils wing you to your rest...." - Claudia DeLioncourt says this to Lestat, thinking she finished him for good... He gets better.
  • Dracula: Dead and Loving It does this only to have the graveyard keeper find Lucy 'awake' having turned into a vampire.
  • Said in Room Service when the play's author "dies".
  • Quoted in Wonder Boys, as Grady, Terry and James place Walter Gaskell's dead dog (shot by James the previous night, and stuck in Grady's trunk for the next 24 hours) into James's bed so that they can sneak James out of his parents' house.

Literature

  • Said by Brand to Benedict as he tries to kill him.
  • If you read a lot of biographies of male royalty you'll know this is often the title of the last chapter. Or the second-to-last chapter if the last chapter is about the funeral/finding the bodies/the widow's rapid descent into insanity.

Live Action Television

  • On Boardwalk Empire, Margaret says this when tucking her son Teddy into bed at night. She just means it in a normal, sweet way, but given his clearly complicated feelings about his 'adoptive' father Nucky, who had his real (and abusive) father Hans killed, this could be some serious Foreshadowing...

Professional Wrestiling

  • Jim Ross said this on commentary when Vince McMahon was forced to leave the WWF "forever" at Fully Loaded '99. He's continued to use this line throughout his career, sometimes sardonically (as when a hated heel is about to be defeated).

Theatre

  • The Trope Namer, as noted above, is William Shakespeare's Hamlet.
  • Deirdre says this to Andrew in I Hate Hamlet. However it just pisses him off because it continues to remind him that he's going to have to tackle the challenging role he's not ready for.

Video Games

  • In Far Cry 2 the trophy gained the first time you choose to euthanise a team-mate is called 'Good-night Sweet Prince'
  • Max of The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police uses a variation while pretending to die in the game episode "The Mole, The Mob and the Meatball". "So goodnight, fresh prince! And may Charlie's Angels sing thee to to thy rest."
  • What Poet says whenever he dies (he's a robot and can be repaired) in the Infocom text adventure game Suspended.
  • The Simpsons Game: Sideshow Bob to Homer and Bart when they meet aboard the alien mothership: "Goodnight, sweet Simpsons, may flights of aliens sing thee to thy rest." And then he immediately steps on a rake. That's just laying around on an alien spaceship. ("I told you to pick up your space rake!") This bit is a reference to the "Cape Feare" episode of The Simpsons television show that includes Bob saying the more-straight version of the line, then walking through a veritable field of rakes and getting hit in the face with each in turn.

Web Original

Goodnight sweet prick, and flights of assholes sing thee to thy rest.

Western Animation

Frida: Good night, sweet prince, and flights of--hey, a quarter!

Real Life

  • It's used straight as an Image Board meme. The anonymice using it tend to be lying, though.
  • It's also become a meme for its use by trolls. It's used to announce the fake death of celebrity and trick you into wasting time looking it up.
  • The full page quote was said by Keith Olbermann when announcing the death of Meet the Press host Tim Russert.
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