I Want My Mommy

It's quite common in fiction works for a character, even/especially an adult, to call out for dear old Mom in times of great fear. Even though unless she's a serious Mama Bear she probably wouldn't be much help in the situation. This could probably be explained by the fact that for most people, the mother was always there to comfort them and keep them safe in the early years of their lives. Sometimes the father is called too, but usually it's the mother who's called for.

I Want My Mommy is commonly used for comedic effect (often turned to Accidental Innuendo if another character responds with "Yeah, I want your mommy" or something to the effect of "Me too"), but can also be played seriously.

Used for tearjerking effect in war movies when dying soldiers call out for mother. Very much Truth in Television.

Examples of I Want My Mommy include:

Comedic Examples

Anime and Manga

In the manga Bio-Meat: Nectar, a lot of victims tend to scream for their mamas when they get eaten. Either that or apologize to their mamas.
In the Pokémon episode "Charmander - the Stray Pokemon", Jerkass trainer Damien gets roasted by the Charmander he abandoned (and zapped by Pikachu), then runs off, crying for his mommy.
Used in Episode 5 of the Little Lulu anime:

Westside Leader: You guys are trying to sound pretty brave.
Tubby: I'm all through being brave. I WANT MY MOMMY!!!!!

During a Zako Zako Hour, one of the hosts is fitted with a giant jet pack and sent flying off the stage by his co-hosts.

Host 1: I WANT MY MOMMY!
Host 2: I think he likes it, Zako.

Comic Books

Discussed in Alan Moore's Promethea. When villain The Painted Doll kills rival mastermind Jellyface (who calls feebly for his mother), he turns toward the reader and says, "Now why do they always say that at the end, eh? Why, 'Oh, mother?'"
In Asterix and the Big Fight, Legionary Infirmofpurpus blows his cover (disguised as a tree) and runs of yelling "MUMMY!"

Film

Skull screams this when he and Bulk skydive out of a plane in the beginning of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers the Movie.
These are the Captain's last words in Hook.
From Rocky Horror Picture Show (Rose Tint My World):

Brad: "It's beyond me / Help me mommy!"

I'm Gonna Git You Sucka: After Jack Spade tells his mother he doesn't want her fighting his battles for him any more, she taunts him by reminding him how he called out for her when he was beaten up as a child.

Mother: I remember when you was always calling for your momma. [snip] All I could hear was "Momma! Momma!" [snip] I could hear your punk ass calling me half a mile away, "Momma help me! Momma help me!"

Literature

In the Discworld novel Thud!!, we're told that this was the reaction of a group of bandits who were given a stern talking-to by Lady Sybil's great-aunt.
In the Robert Westall short story Blackham's Wimpy a German airman, his plane on fire, calls out "Mutti! Mutti!" in between bouts of rage and recitations of his name, rank and serial number.

Live-Action TV

Bulk and Skull (again) in an episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers:

Bulk: I want my mommy!
Skull: Yeah! I want your mommy!

Saturday Night Live: On the season 34 episode hosted by Jon Hamm, there was a sketch in which James Mason (played by Jon Hamm) insults a little boy's sailor Halloween costume. The little boy whines, "You're mean! I want my mommy!" Mason replies with a suggestive, "That makes two of us!"
In Blackadder Goes Forth, when Captain Blackadder and Baldrick are in the hands of the Germans:

Baldrick: I want my mum.
Blackadder: Yes, a maternally outraged gorilla would be a useful ally.

Newspaper Comics

Calvin and Hobbes:

Calvin: "We're brave hikers! 'Lost' isn't in our vocabuary!"
Hobbes: "How about the word 'mommy'?"
Both: "MOMMMMYY!"

Video Games

In River City Ransom, enemies sometimes cry out "Mamaaaaaa!" when they're beaten.
In the flashback of Tomb Raider: Legend, one man shouts in fear when attacked by an unknown entity. It's subtitled as "Ah, no!", but sounds like "Mommeeeee!"
Ratchet and Clank Going Commando: A character, Captain Qwark, gives a plaintive "Mommy" just before being swallowed by a monster.
Wolfenstein 3D. When you kill the boss Hans Grosse he calls out "Mutti!", German for "Mommy!".
And in Donkey Kong 64, the DK Rap (quite the Ear Worm) has a verse for Chunky Kong, who apparantly "Can make a Kremling cry out for Mummy!"
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. A couple of mercenaries are checking out a missile.

Mercenary 1: "I want my mommy!"

Web Original

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog has Captain Hammer do this: "Mommy! Someone maternal!" (runs offstage)
After Bakura loses a brutal duel in Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series, he was asked for his last words. He weakly responded with, "I want my mummy."
In Suburban Knights:

Conan Benzaie: I want my big muscular mommy!

Western Animation

In SpongeBob SquarePants, Mr. Krabs says this to Squidward when the Krusty Krab is overrun by a wave of hungry anchovies.
- In another episode, Kevin the Sea Cucumber sits in a fetal position and cries for his mommy and blankie when attacked by a King Jellyfish. The other Jellyspotters join in shortly until Spongebob saves them all.
- Again with Mister Krabs: He cries and screams for mommy when the Flying Dutchman threatens to send him to Davy Jones' Locker. This display of cowardice is so pitiful that the Flying Dutchman decides to give Mister Krabs a second chance out of annoyance.
In The Powerpuff Girls, the girls defeat an extremely manly robot from space using their "Furious Flaming Feline" attack, causing him to fly off into space crying for mommy. Right after being extremely sexist toward the girls.
Prince John does this in Disney's animated Robin Hood.
When he faces impending pain, Daffy Duck often lets out a feeble "mother"
Fairly Oddparents: Timmy wished himself into an adult and got into a bucketload of trouble as a result of not understanding that some things are Most Definitely Not Okay for grownups to do. Stuck in jail, and likely to lose his fairy godparents forever, Timmy gets upset and starts crying for his parents. This apparently is child-like (or perhaps childish) enough for the fairy godparents to hit the Reset Button. (The rest of the people in jail, upon seeing this, start crying for their parents, too.)
When The Beatles all turn into children in Yellow Submarine, Ringo starts crying, and whimpers, "I want me mam!"
A Pup Named Scooby-Doo

Shaggy: "Oh-oh I want my mommy!"

Garfield's Halloween Adventure. While in a rowboat drifting downriver:

Garfield: "Trim the mains, slip the sheets, libber the giblets, I WANT MY MOMMY!"

In the Family Guy episode "Stewie Kills Lois", right after Stewie kills Lois, he trips and bangs his knee. He immediately begins crying for his mommy, whom he had just killed.
Referenced in Arthur by the joke that Binky stole. "What did King Tut say when the Sphinx scared him? I want my mummy!"
Bebop in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will cry out "Mamaaaaa!" often during a bad situation.
In An American Tail: Feviel Goes West just before Tiger falls off a building because of a dog.

Tiger: I want my mommy." (puts thumb in mouth)

Uttered by Morgana at the end of The Little Mermaid II after King Triton freezes her inside a solid block of ice and is tossed back into the ocean.
In the Daria episode "Jake of Hearts", Jake suffers a heart attack. While he recovers, he requests his mommy as he is as scared as he was as a child. Helen and the girls opt to allow their parental grandmother, Ruth, to support her son and the family. Of course, this makes the stress level worse, forcing Daria to take on the Mama Bear role and set things straight.

Dramatic Examples

Anime and Manga

In Doraemon, Suneo will cry "Mama!" in tears whenever he's a worst case scenario like being held prisoner especially in the movies.
In Deadman Wonderland, as one of the members of Scar Chain is sprayed with acid while being pursued by a robot, he barely manages to utter "Mother" before getting crushed to death.

Film

Poltergeist. While she's on the Other Side and talking through a TV set, at one point Carol-Anne calls out, "Mommy!"
In the film In Love and War, Sandra Bullock's character, a Red Cross nurse in WWI Italy, says that Italian men "respect their wives. They spoil their mistresses. But the only women they love are their mothers." We immediately cut to an Italian soldier screaming for his mother as he dies horribly on the battlefield.
In The Others, Anne says this except for her dad.
Saving Private Ryan, near dead soldiers ask for their moms at their last breathes. Consider the setting, it's not surprising.
Used tragically in 1776 in the song, "Mamma, Look Sharp," about a boy soldier dying on the battlefield, calling for his mother.

Literature

In the book Chamber of Culdi, when the hero's keep is attacked by the king's men, there is a moment when the daughter hears grown men crying out for mercy and calling for their mothers. She thinks on the fact that many of those same men where early being brave and swearing to fight to the end.
In Stephen King's novel The Tommyknockers, reporter John Leandro's last thought before he's killed is "Mama!"
- Keeping with Stephen King, in The Stand, one of the survivors trapped in the prison calls out for "Mother!" all the time, much to the aggravation of Lloyd Henreid.
- In Under the Dome, thug Frankie DeLesseps cries for his mother right before he's shot do death.
There is a truly heartbreaking scene in Sharpe's Battle when young Rifleman Perkins is stabbed in the stomach and alternately begs for his mother and the company sergeant.
The Legendeer trilogy has one moment when the Gorgons mention that all the brave Greek heroes who try to kill them end up wanting their mothers in their last moments.

Live-Action TV

In the finale of Ashes to Ashes, Shaz watching a video showing how she died in the "real world": "I'm only twenty-six years old. I want my mum, Chris! I need to see my mum!"
In the penultimate episode of Andor Season 1, B2EMO's reaction to the death of Maarva, his owner is an unconventional example of this trope. He comes off as less of a worker droid and more like a confused child who doesn't understand why his mom isn't coming back.

"I d-d-don't want to be alone. I want M-M-Marva."

Theatre

In 1776, Washington's young courier sings the song "Mama Look Sharp" about two of his friends who died at Lexington. It will break your heart.

Video Games

Silent Hill 4: Regardless of which ending you get, when Henry defeats Serial Killer Walter Sullivan, he utters an anguished "Mom".

Web Original

Near the end of Ruby Quest, the now monstrously gigantic, fleshy abomination known as "Subject Six" is seen cowering the corner of the room, crying for his "mommy" because "Ace is going to lock him up". The protagonist tried to call to him, but it was no use...
In V4 of Survival of the Fittest, Amber Whimsy cries for her mummy whilst bleeding to death after being shot in the stomach by Kris Hartmann

Western Animation

Disney's Peter Pan. After Wendy sings the song "Your Mother and Mine" to the Lost Boys, Michael says, "I wanna see my mother!"
This happens in Disney's Pinocchio. Watch it here.

Coachman: And what might your name be?
Donkey: Alexander.
Coachman: So you can talk.
Donkey: Yes, sir. I want to go home to my momma!
Coachman: [Grabs him by the tail and ears] Take him back! He can still talk! [Throws him into a pen with other donkeys]

- The last thing Lampwick says before he turns into a donkey. "Mama! MAAAAAMAAAAA-HEE-HAW! HEE-HAW!"

Real Life

Regardless of nationality, wounded and dying soldiers have been observed crying out for their mothers.