Littlest Cancer Patient: Difference between revisions

[[File:CancerBoy.gif|link=The Day After Tomorrow|frame|Even worldwide climate collapse is powerless to kill [[Trope Namer|him.]]]]

 

 

A particularly risky form of [[The Woobie]], which is much more likely ([[Tropes Are Not Bad|though not inevitably]]) to fail than be successful with the audience. The Littlest Cancer Patient, as you may have guessed from the title, is a small child, rarely over the age of twelve, with some form of terminal disease. This character's sole [[Rule of Empathy|reason]] for existence is to [[Glurge|tug your heartstrings so hard]] they're [[Tastes Like Diabetes|torn from your chest]].

 

 

Occasionally, the Littlest Cancer Patient is used to give a [[Pet the Dog]] moment to [[The Big Guy]], [[The Lancer]], or sometimes even a [[Dirty Coward]]. Another common use is for an athlete to swear to win a game or match for the sake of this poor, sick child, never taking to mind the possible repercussions if they ''failed'' to do this. Nowadays, though, you can expect cruel subversion for that. ([http://pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF150-A_Hit_for_Bobby.gif Hilarious subversions work too.])

Compare [[Morality Pet]] and [[Too Good for This Sinful Earth]]. Often the target of [[Kids Are Cruel]]. If someone works to earn money (legally or not) to pay for the poor child's treatment, this is a [[Healthcare Motivation]].

 

{{examples}}

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* Subverted in an episode of ''[[Monster Rancher (anime)|Monster Rancher]]'', where [[Gentle Giant]] Golem meets a young [[Ill Girl]] with a terminal illness and enters a combat tournament to raise money for her treatment. Turns out she and her father are con artists, and in a further subversion, they even get away with it. (Though she at least mentions to her father that she thinks they should retire as they leave).

* [[Ojamajo Doremi]] Naisho's twelfth episode had a leukemia patient, Nozomi or "Non-chan", who lived out her dream of becoming a witch for a day thanks to the girls, but died before the Witch World could make it a reality in the future a day later. There was a patient younger than her who was allowed to go out of the hospital in the end though.

* This is the primary basis for ''[[Full Moon o Sagashite]]'', in which the main character is a child with throat cancer who dreams of becoming a singer. She repeatedly refuses the operation that would save her life because it would require the removal of her vocal cords.

* The [[Cute Shotaro Boy]] from the seventh and eighth volumes of CLAMP's ''[[Tokyo Babylon]]'' qualifies, although he has a rare kidney disease rather than cancer. Not only does he rack up massive Moe points with the audience, he's also the indirect cause of {{spoiler|Seishirou's eye being destroyed}}, as his mother went {{spoiler|batshit crazy and tried to tear the Subaru's kidney out, and instead ended up gouging his Seishirou's eye out right in front of him}}... resulting in even more [[Break the Cutie|angst and woe]].

* There's one episode of [[Vandread]], where Bart makes freinds with one of these (the entire damn planet's got a terminal disease of some sort). {{spoiler|She dies before Bart could fufill her last wish, or she could complete her doll of him, leaving it without hair. Bart goes bald and skull-waxed from then on.}}

 

== Comic Books ==

* "The Kid Who Collected [[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]]", a classic Spidey story, features one of these.

** The story itself was re-written and adapted for an episode of ''[[Spider-Man: The Animated Series]]''.

* The entire plot of a [[Jack Chick]] tract called ''The Little Princess''. Heidi is dying of an unknown disease, but manages to go out for Halloween one last time, connected to an oxygen tank. After meeting the new neighbors, who give her a tract, she is converted to Christianity along with her family.

* ''[[Transmetropolitan]]'' has like twenty of these, including a kid who's being used as a growth bed for cancer preventing genetic plug-ins (guess how that works), a kid who has to pawn off her doll for appetite reducing medication, a kid with mutated necrotizing fasciitis, a kid being sexually abused by her older brother and several child prostitutes. There's even "victimbots" in the shape of sad children released into crowds to make disasters more tragic and TV friendly.

** By the way, most of these kids are used to illustrate just what a [[Crapsack World]] The City is, and don't really get much better. The child prostitute one is particularly jarring because the issue makes very clear that these kids are already broken, on a fundamental level, and nobody will be able to give them the help they need because it's already too late.

 

 

== Film ==

* Parodied once again by the character of Lisa Davis in ''[[Airplane!]]!''; her IV keeps getting ripped out and she has to reattach it herself before she flatlines.

** This is based on a character played by Linda Blair in ''Airport 1975''.

* Half of the plot of ''[[The Ultimate Gift]]'' revolved around an arguably not littlest cancer patient. However the writers do use her to the fullest heart string yank effect possible.

* The Kevin Costner film ''[[Dragonfly]]'' has several of these. The drawings they churn out illustrating their nearly-identical dreams border on [[Room Full of Crazy]], but Costner tracks down the symbols to realize the kids aren't just hallucinating on meds.

* ''[[Gojira (film)|Gojira]]'': After Godzilla devastates Tokyo, there's a closeup of a little boy with a Geiger counter waved around his face.

* Everywhere in ''[[Patch Adams]]''.

 

== Literature ==

* Bailey Graffman in ''The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants''.

* [[Connie Willis]]'s novel ''Passage'' has Maisie, on the list for a heart transplant. But she's a tough kid; she reads as many books as she can get about ''disasters'', to remind herself that death happens to everyone. Her mother, on the other hand, is in deepest denial. None of this affects her status as [[The Woobie]].

* Subverted in Tom Clancy's ''[[Rainbow Six]]''. Terrorists taking over a Spanish theme park take a group of tourists hostage, including a contingent of terminally ill children, one of whom is the very incarnation of the trope, the little girl cancer patient in a wheelchair who's just so damned 'nice'. Then when their demands are refused, [[Moral Event Horizon|they shoot her in the back and leave her corpse to wheel out the front gate, still in the wheelchair.]] Needless to say, while the other terrorists are taken out quickly and cleanly, the executioner receives a rifle bullet to the spleen (courtesy of the sniper who watched him kill the LCP) [[Asshole Victim|An extremely slow and painful death follows.]] To be fair, the squad's leader (Ding Chavez) [[What the Hell, Hero?|makes his displeasure known to the sniper after the mission]]... [[Pay Evil Unto Evil|but no one]] ''really'' is displeased.

* Although it's consumption she has, little Eva in ''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin]]'' [[Glurge|definitely qualifies]], making it [[Older Than Radio]]. When she dies a peaceful and saintly death, [[Unfortunate Implications|all the slaves present convert]].

* The half-Clan boy Rydag in Jean Auel's ''[[Earth's Children|The Mammoth Hunters]]'' exemplifies this trope. Oh, and [[Kids Are Cruel]], too.

* Orlando Gardiner in [[Tad Williams]]' ''[[Otherland]]'' is dying of [[wikipedia:Progeria|progeria]], yet maintains an active online life in the [[Metaverse]] until his disease takes a turn for the worse, which conveniently coincides with him becoming [[Trapped in Another World|trapped]] in the Grail Network. Subject to a lot of [[Wangst]], naturally, although it's also subverted when {{spoiler|after his body dies, the Other makes a [[Brain Uploading|virtual copy]] of him}}.

* The book ''[[My Sister's Keeper]]'' deals with a Littlest (well, Teenaged) Cancer Patient, Kate, and her relationship with her little sister,Anna, who was born specifically to be her blood donor. Eventually, Kate needs a kidney and Anna wants control over her own body. In the end {{spoiler|Everyone gets what they want: Anna gets medical independence... and is [[Diabolus Ex Machina|promptly]] hit by a car, thus giving Kate her kidney [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog|anyway]]. It should be noted that Kate actually encouraged her sister to get independence in the first place, not wanting the other girl to be just her donor. However, the [[Film of the Book]] has an ''entirely'' different ending - Anna gets her medical independence ''after'' Kate passes away}}.

* Helen Burns from ''[[Jane Eyre]]'' seems to embody this trope along with [[Too Good for This Sinful Earth]].

* Beth March from ''[[Little Women]]''. [[Tear Jerker|Played heartbreakingly well]].

* Dinah the little blind girl in ''[[The Langoliers]]'' isn't terminal per se, although she is on the flight to get an operation to fix her eyes. And then she gets [[Subverted Trope|stabbed in the heart]].

 

* ''[[Seinfeld]]'' plays this one for laughs. In "The Wink", Kramer accidentally sells George Steinbrenner's birthday card to a sports memorabilia shop, who then gives it to a terminally ill kid. Paul O'Neill then has to hit two home runs in order to get it back.

'''Kramer:''' ''Yeah, that would be nice. But I really just need the card.'' }}

** Also hilariously subverted with Donald the Bubble Boy. Lacking an immune system and forced to live in a plastic bubble, he's a bitter and rude boy who's still completely beloved by his community.

* Parodied on ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'', where Maeby assumes the identity of a teenage girl with a terminal disease called "B.S." in order to make some quick cash. Nobody realizes that "Surely Fünke" (Surely, as in [[Meaningful Name|the opposite of Maybe...]]) isn't a real person.

** "Believers" [[Dueling Shows|sounds similar]] to a story arc in [[Peter David]]'s ''[[Deep Space Nine]]'' novel, ''The Siege''. One of the beings stranded on Deep Space Nine is a pre-teen alien boy with a terminal disease, but the parents won't let Dr. Bashir (easily) cure him because it's against their religious beliefs. {{spoiler|Bashir traumatizes the mother into giving consent, whereupon the father (who's a supreme religious leader) condemns them for heresy and banishes them from ever returning home.}}

** And in the second season episode "Confessions and Lamentations", where a whole race has a terminal disease and Delenn encourages a small child to believe everything will be all right. Dr. Franklin [[Hope Spot|finds the cure]] and dramatically bursts in on the quarantine zone... to find it full of cute little corpses. The epilogue includes a newscast mentioning that the plague wiped out ''the entire race'', and, indeed, that type of alien is [[Continuity Nod|never seen again in the series.]] There were [http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/countries/us/guide/040.html comments on set] about holding a mass burial for the race's prosthetics.

*** They even later blow up the Jump Gate to that race's star system, since nobody (except pirates and raiders) is using it anyway...

* One ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' episode had a bald little kid genetically engineered by the [[Starfish Aliens|Reetou]] to [[A Form You Are Comfortable With|communicate with Stargate Command without panicking them]]. They were pretty rushed and he ended up in a hospital bed suffering the effects of imminent organ failure in multiple systems, and ended up being taken off by the Tok'ra to become a host; he was a much more understated and reasonably done example than most on this page.

** And, of course, there's [[The Woobie|Wilson]]'s patients. "Bald-headed cancer kids" is probably the kindest thing House has said about them...

*** Played rather amusingly lately when Wilson was caring for a LCP whose mother wasn't allowed into the hospital because of a CDC-related lockdown; despite his sweet, well-meaning attempts, he kind of fails at comforting her, and gets a stuffed lamb in the face for his trouble.

* Molly in ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' has a life threatening anti-supers virus at the end of Season 1. She is cured by Mohinder.

* Subverted in the ''[[Pushing Daisies]]'' episode "Corpsicle": The littlest cancer patient (well, littlest heart condition patient) is a complete [[Jerkass]] who takes out his bitterness about his condition on everyone else. When the Wish-A-Wish Foundation lady comes by, his wish is "for those insurance company jerks who rejected my transplant application to keel over and die."

* In the ''[[Torchwood]]'' episode "Dead Man Walking," Owen has a [[Pet the Dog]] moment with the Littlest Leukemia Patient, who explicitly states that he's gonna die anyway and doesn't want the second shot of chemo the mean old doctors are giving him. Owen then goes on to save the kid, denying him the chance to die with his eyebrows intact by wrestling with Death himself. Way to go, Owen.

* Cruelly twisted in the ''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit]]'' episode "Sick", their [[Ripped from the Headlines]] take on the second round of child molestation allegations against [[Michael Jackson]]. After the detectives begin investigating the Jacko-surrogate (who has bribed a family of a victim, a now-dangerously disturbed boy, to shut up), one of these comes forward saying she was also molested at a charity gathering. It turns out that first, {{spoiler|she was not molested, but forced to say this by her grandmother/guardian so they could get a similar settlement so the girl could live.}} Second is even worse: {{spoiler|she doesn't have cancer; her grandmother is secretly ''poisoning her'' to profit off her ill state}}. What's really sad is that this is [[Truth in Television]], and {{spoiler|known as Munchausen by Proxy -- making someone in one's care intentionally sick to garner respect, sympathy, and money; while this is intended as the grandmother's defense, she is told that no one will be "that stupid" as to believe it -- she's just greedy}}.

* ''[[The Young Riders]]'' had a particularly heinous example of this in the otherwise decent episode "The Littlest Cowboy" (yes, that's the real title). To make it worse, the child actor used was ''extremely'' untalented.

* ''The Commish'' arranged for a young boy dying of cancer, who had wanted to be a police officer, to ride along in a squad car, and he even helps make an arrest (though we see the 'criminal' is actually a police officer in disguise).

* ''[[Knight Rider]]'' pulls this with Becky, a child who even [[Not So Stoic|KITT]] will surrender his dignity for, and who requires a bone marrow transplant. Of course, the only match is a street kid fighting a turf war on the other side of the country...

* How have we not mentioned the completely merciless parody in the ''[[Chappelle's Show]]'' sketch "Make a Wish," where the little kid's dying wish is to meet Dave Chappelle, who arrives and proceeds to beat the pants off the kid at Street Hoops, all while enthusiastically taunting him?

'''Billy''' (just before flatlining): ''[[Half Baked]]'' sucked anyway. }}

* Abused frequently on ''[[Grey's Anatomy]]'', especially since the addition of Arizona's pediatric surgeon character, most egregiously in the episode "Sweet Surrender": the little girl actually has Tay-Sachs, and has made it to six years old (which is rare), and her desperate father spends most of the day running around searching for miracle cures in Mexico, which results in Bailey basically cuddling the girl all day. Finally, {{spoiler|she takes a turn for the worse and Bailey and Arizona gently tell the father to stop and just hold her as she dies, which he does, tearfully promising her that they'll go to Mexico soon and describing its beautiful beaches to her.}} Oh, and she has giant eyes and an adorable beanie.

* Hilariously averted on ''[[The Inbetweeners]]'' as a student now popular for having beaten his illness is an erratic, violent attention-seeker who is hated by the protagonists.

* The Episode "Comeback" in [[Glee]] has Will and Sue sing to an entire ward of these in order to give Sue a [[Pet the Dog]] moment before going back to her usual [[Jerkass]] self.

 

== Music ==

* The [[Music Video]] for [[Katy Perry]]'s song "Firework" features an LCP who can see the fireworks exploding from KP's [[Torpedo Tits|magical breasts]]. Later in the video. Later he sees fireworks coming out of a woman giving birth. Later, when he steps outside the hospital. He is not featured in the jubilant [[Busby Berkeley Number|spiral dance]] at the end.

* The title character of Conor Oberst's song "Danny Callahan" (on his self-titled album) is a Littlest Cancer Patient. Subverted: "Even Western medicine/It couldn't save Danny Callahan/Bad bone marrow, a bald little boy." Ouch.

* "Carry You Home" by James Blunt, although [[Word of God]] states that it's about a war-buddy of Blunt's.

* A popular theme in Christian pop and country music; Sherrie Austin's "Streets of Heaven," for instance, with the [[Glurge]]-tastic lyrics:

So who will hold her hand when she crosses the streets of Heaven? }}

* The Our Lady Peace song "Thief" is about a real-life young girl who died of a brain tumor. The music video states: "Each year, terminal illness steals the lives of thousands of children. Mina Kim was one."

 

== Professional Wrestling ==

** And then Vince McMahon completely wasted him in the WWE, in a bit of [[Wrestlecrap]] that still boggles the minds of many fans. Seriously, ''one-legged moonsaults'' aren't worth pushing?

*** Apparently, Gowan was a real jerkass with an entitlement complex behind the scenes. The nickname the wrestlers had for him was "The Little Prince". This may or may not be true, but considering the tone of his blog, it shouldn't be hard to imagine.

== Theatre ==

* In ''[[Thirteen]]'', this is subverted with Archie, the kid with Muscular Dystrophy who uses it to [[Manipulative Bastard|manipulate everyone around him into getting him what he wants]]

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Breath of Fire]] 3'' has an enemy tournament participant claim falsely that his daughter is ill and needs the prize money for an operation. The heroes try to beat him anyway.

* ''[[Trauma Center]] Second Opinion'' has Tyler's younger sister who is afflicted by a rare disease caused by the GUILT, as parodied by the [[Awesome Series]].

'''Derek:''' Hahaha, yeah! ''(high five)''|[[Awesome Series|Awesome Center: Under the Awesome]]}}

* ''[[Mega Man Battle Network]] 3'' had Mamoru, the Littlest Heart Disease Patient as part of an arc. In a bit of a subversion, {{spoiler|it's implied that he is actually in control of the [[Bonus Boss]], Serenade.EXE - the only other character that can match [[Psycho for Hire|Bass.EXE]], [[The Rival|Protoman.EXE]], and [[The Hero|MegaMan.exe]].}}

* Hikaru in ''[[LifeSigns: Surgical Unit]]'' - at least in the first game. By the second she's perfectly fine thanks to a bone marrow transplant from the main character in the first.

* Polka in ''[[Eternal Sonata]].'' She's a fourteen year-old girl dying of [[Soap Opera Disease|a terminal illness.]] {{spoiler|Only she's not. She's actually fated to sacrifice herself to save the world.}}

* ''[[Panzer Dragoon]] Orta'' viciously deconstructs this with the story of Iva Demilcol, who, despite his illness (and not even being ten years old!), is fully expected to perform as a soldier of the Empire. {{spoiler|He doesn't get better, either.}}

* ''[[Dead Rising 2]]'' has the protagonist's daughter Katie, whose need for a zombie infection suppressant is Chuck's main motivation. She's an example of this done right, sympathetic enough to inspire [[Video Game Caring Potential]], but avoids being over-the-top or a pain to look after.

 

== Web Comics ==

* Perhaps not used for a sympathy ploy, but Chemo Kid of the Emo Kid and Chemo Kid duo is a cancer-patient/superhero in ''Head Trip''. He's bald and wears a hospital gown, but he seems pretty limber when he's fighting crime.

* In ''Faans'', one of them stands up to Keith. Keith lights him on fire with an offhand backhand while yawning. This pretty much says all you need to know about Keith. One of the few cases where the limited [[Contractual Immortality]] does not apply.

 

== Western Animation ==

* ''[[The Simpsons]]'' parodies this with Patches and Poor Violet, two pale, perpetually-dying orphans. They have been swindled of their "vitamin money" by Bart, chased away from Old Jewish Man's storefront with him exhorting them to "Come back when you get some parents!", been kicked them out of the hospital to make room for a plastic surgery wing and been violently knocked away from a leaky gas line by Homer and Ned. Quoth Poor Violet after the last one: "I taste bwood."

** The pair's first appearance illustrates their place in the world when Lisa introduces them to (an already guilt-wracked) Bart:

'''Bart''': Ughh..I don't like where ''this'' is going. }}

** In "Homer Loves Flanders", Mr. Burns is telling the football team that there's a little crippled boy in the hospital who wants them to win; he goes on to say that he knows this because he crippled the kid himself to inspire them. Cue a cutaway to the hospital with a bedridden and cast wearing Milhouse:

* ''[[Family Guy]]'' parodies this and the Make-A-Wish Foundation when they had a kid ask the smiling spokeswoman "Can you cure my cancer?" to which she cheerfully replied "No!"

** In "Tears Of A Clooney", Hayley apparently battles a form of cancer while Stan and Francine are away. She's seen on the line with the Make-A-Wish foundation, talking to George Clooney, who is driving next to Stan. Stan asks who it was, and Clooney replies "some sick chick", lampshading how shallow and pointless many people think the Make-A-Wish Foundation really is. Don't worry, {{spoiler|Hayley gets better.}}

** Though she does return in brief scenes in Season Two {{spoiler|as a ghost}}, often seen with the inmate that took care of her.

* An episode of ''[[Spider-Man: The Animated Series]]'' was based on the comic book story mentioned above.

* In the ''E.T.'' episode of ''[[Code Monkeys]]'', one of the first buyers of the notorious video game is a child cancer patient who, upon experiencing its [[The Trouble With Licensed Games|awfulness]], proclaims "This game is giving me even ''more'' cancer!" and dies.

* [[Archer]] hilariously subverts this with Ruth, who is an old woman with terminal breast cancer who befriends [[Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist|Sterling Archer.]] Archer's heart strings are pulled when the chemo drugs the two were given were fake, and she dies. [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Archer shoots the bad guy who switched the drugs quoting one of her lines.]] Ruth is a bit of an odd subversion, as she's sweet to Archer, but mouthy to nurses and encourages his crude behavior.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Characters As Device]]

[[Category:Youngsters]]