Saturday Night Live/Tear Jerker

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While Saturday Night Live is supposed to be a funny show about 70-80% of the time (depending on season), they've surprisingly have had their tearjerking moments

  • In 1989, when former cast member Gilda Radner died, Steve Martin (the host for that night and a good friend of Radner's) gave a touching eulogy to Radner and they replayed an old sketch with Martin and Radner in the 1970's that was them dancing. The pure emotion that Martin had on his face and was trying to go on with the show was heartbreaking.
    • One Gilda Radner bit was the black-and-white sketch where she portayed a Greta Garbo-style old time actress, speaking to the camera. The moment when the camera pans around and you see she was actually talking to a Sad Clown may have seemed like a Non Sequitur Scene to some, but for some reason it always struck me as quite bittersweet, especially with the combination of the music and the release of a single balloon into the sky. After Gilda Radner's death, it seemed even more of Tear Jerker to me. (Maybe it seems like an Empathy Doll Shot?)
    • The short film "Don't Look Back in Anger" stars John Belushi, made up like an old man (and ironically, mentioned in the sketch as the last living member of the Not Ready for Primetime cast), visiting the graves of his costars. Painful and bittersweet when it first came out, but then, after he died (and saying, "They always said I'd be the first to go")...then, later than that - the first grave he visits is Gilda Radner's...-AUGH-
  • This moment is more of of a tearjerker now than it was then, but there was an old Schiller's Reels sketch called "Love is a Dream" which had Jan Hooks and Phil Hartman in it. Hooks played an old woman going into a storage place and taking out an old necklace of hers and suddenly she's flashing back to a young woman as Hartman comes out as Nutcracker-like soldier and they dance and it's just so beautiful. As the flashback ends she puts away the necklace and is walking out and the guard there waves goodbye to her, which is Hartman's character as an old man. This was a touching and mildly tear-jerking video at first, but when Hartman died in 1998, it became a full fledged sobfest.
    • Phil Hartman's goodbye from his last episode of season 19 (1993-1994 season; the host was Heather Locklear; the musical guest was Janet Jackson) was sad enough, but now when you look back... It's Phil, singing, and holding a clearly sobbing Chris Farley... There are no words.
    • You weren't alone. On the 25th Anniversary SNL Special, Jon Lovitz cried when he introduced that sketch.
  • When Mr. Rogers died, during the last sketch of the night, Sanz came out onto a stage with only a spotlight on him. He had on a cardigan sweater and was saying "A very good friend of ours died this week" and then started to sing "You're Special" and then said "Thank you, Mr. Rogers" and then the camera fixed on a little trolley going across the stage and into black.
  • The much-despised (and with good cause) Jean Doumanian era (1980-1981), of all places, has a Tear Jerker moment on what many consider is one of the few consistently funny episodes of that season (the episode hosted by Karen Black with musical guests Cheap Trick and The Stanley Clark Trio). There's a sketch that takes place through the eyes of a man who is laid up in the hospital after having a stroke (his thoughts can still be heard and are voiced by Gilbert Gottfried in one of the rare times that Gottfried actually had an indoor voice). After being visited by his Jerkass daughter and her boyfriend (played by episode host Karen Black and cast member Charles Rocket), who only care about finding his will, his best friend, Rachel, (played by Denny Dillon) is revealed to be the only one who actually cares about him (as she loved him, despite that he married someone else) and the one who is the beneficiary to his will. Rachel's line, "I've always wanted you, Morris. Why didn't you ask me? Why was it Ruth you married?", the way she takes one final look back at him before she leaves (knowing that he's going to die), and the ending of the sketch (in which the man is put under with a sedative and sings a song that he remembers from when he was with Rachel) is heart-wrenching.
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