Misplaced Sorrow

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

A form of Black Comedy where a character misses another character for shallow, selfish reasons, such as money. Let's say Alice has died, or she has gone away for a long time, perhaps never to return; point is, you're never going to see her again. This trope is when another character, say Bob, expresses sadness over Alice's passing... but not because Bob actually misses Alice. Rather, he's sad that Alice will never be able pay back the $5 she owes him.

Doesn't necessarily have to be about owing a debt. This would be any example where someone misses a dead character for unconventional and/or inappropriate reasons. A common variant is the Alice's family members bawling their hearts out, eliciting sympathy from a passerby... only to be informed that they didn't get anything in the will.

Compare If You Die, I Call Your Stuff.

As a Death Trope, Spoilers ahead may be unmarked. Beware.

Examples of Misplaced Sorrow include:

Anime and Manga

  • In Durarara!!, Kadota's gang are devastated when they find out their friend Kaztano has been kidnapped, but none so much as Togusa, who even claimed he couldn't go on without the man. No one can be there for Togusa like Kaztano. Why? Because Kaztano was his source for sold-out, front row tickets to see Idol Singer Ruri Hijiribe.
  • Done by America in Axis Powers Hetalia. When England 'dies' in the hospital after an accident involving the panjandrum, America gets teary eyed and tells him he can't go because he owes him a 'crap-ton of money'.

Film

  • In Scary Movie, one girl is outraged to find a fellow student has been murdered...because she planned to cheat off said student's test that day.

Literature

"Please, please turn him back! I could never get a real wizard for what I pay him!"

Live-Action TV

  • In the first episode of Red Dwarf, Dave Lister's first reaction when he finally gets that Everybody's Dead, Dave and is told that he's three million years in the future is "Three million years?! I've still got that library book!"

Music

  • Weird Al's song "Why Does This Always Happen to Me" is all about this, complete with $5 reference. A news flash comes on to tell about a devastating earthquake, and he mourns the fact that he was recording The Simpsons and will have to do it again. His friend dies in a traffic accident, and he mourns the $5 the friend owed him, and that he'll be late to work now. He stabs his boss, and mourns the knife, which broke and will never be as sharp again.
  • The song "Superman" by Atmosphere. In the song, the narrator suddenly finds he has superman-like powers. While walking down the street, he runs into two aquaintances. While attempting to give one of them a fist-bump, he accidently kills hims with his superstrength. The other friend, heard in the background, is seemingly heartbroken, and laments "Why you gotta squish my friend, dude?"...until you hear him say, "That dude owed me, like, five dollars. Why you gotta kill him?"

Newspaper Comics

  • One Garfield strip had a spider introducing Garfield to his "big" brother. After Garfield casually smashes him, he says "Hey! He owed me money!"

Video Games

Web Comics

Meegs: (thinking) By the gods!!! Now I have to go through that damned apprentice audition process again!!

Web Original

Western Animation

  • South Park: after Kenny is Killed Off for Real the boys discover that he has the winning ticket to a candy store shopping spree, so they decide to build a ladder to heaven in order for him to give it to them. But when adults ask what they're doing they don't mention the candy part, they just say they want to see Kenny again, which gives everybody an In-Universe Heartwarming Moment.
  • In Kids Next Door, Numbah Three is about to be married to King Sandy, a kid pretending to be a king. Numbah Four claims that the only reason he wanted to rescue her isn't because he's jealous, but because she owed him a quarter.
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