South Park/Tear Jerker

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Cartman just has something in his eye.


South Park may be known for being so offensive it's funny, but they've also managed to get us teary eyed.

  • The early episodes can surprise you, here are two examples from season one: "Elephant Makes Love to a Pig" when Shelly saves Stan from being sent away, and "Starvin Marvin"'s ending when Marvin brings Thanksgiving to Ethiopia. While not sad, they can get some a little teary eyed.
  • The episode "Kenny Dies", in which Stan spends the entire time afraid to face Kenny on his deathbed. He works up the courage to visit him at the end of the episode, and to a triumphant tune, he strides in to the hospital with a present for Kenny and an ear-to-ear grin. The scene that ensues is one of the most powerful uses of Mood Whiplash there is.

Stan: Did he say anything before he went?
Kyle: He just said... "...Where's Stan?"
[fade to black]

    • Don't forget Cartman crying on Kyle's shoulder after talking to Kenny in the hospital. Eric freakin' Cartman crying genuine tears of sorrow.
      • It is worth noting that when Cartman started crying, he was alone, where he had no reason to fake it; Kyle came in during this scene. He only started his Shakey's Pizza plan a while after this scene, so there's not much room for doubt that he was genuinely crying.
    • Not to mention, Kenny didn't immediately come back after he died in this episode. He was permanently dead for the majority of Season 6, and a lot of the themes of that season were about the boys trying to either replace him, or bring him back.
    • The episode has quite the nasty Mood Whiplash at the end, as Cartman reveals that he didn't get the ban on stem cell research lifted to save Kenny, but to clone a Shakey's Pizza, to which Kyle looks back at his out-of-desperation bond with him with a feeling of sickening betrayal and proceeds to go full-on assault crazy on Cartman. For once, Cartman's antics have crossed the line from Refuge in Audacity to Dude, Not Funny, and the viewer's tears of sadness turn to tears of rage as they sympathize with Kyle's explosive angst.
  • In the movie, the soldiers' reaction to Kyle's speech to his mother has the same effect on me.

Kyle: You're always going out fighting all these causes, but I don't want a fighter...I want my mom.

Soldier: (sniff) Poor little fella.

Sheila: (cue Villainous Breakdown).

    • The Mole's reprise of the song "La resistance" as he dies had this effect on me.
      • Me, too... well, at least up until Kyle's response of "SHIT!", resulting in Mood Whiplash.
    • And Kenny being allowed to go to heaven at the end of the movie also.
      • "Goodbye, you guys."
      • That he says it after removing his hood and revealing his face for the first time in the series' history caps this moment quite a bit.
    • Phillip screaming when Sheila shoots Terrance. Followed by Phillip getting the same.
  • "The Return of Chef". The whole damn climax and ending, but particularly "Chef...we love you" and then Kyle's usual Catch Phrase only this time it's so much more. And Cartman's attempt at a Hope Spot makes it even more heartbreaking.
    • Also the episodes opening having Cartman genuinely in tears as Chef leaves.
  • "Chef's Salty Chocolate Balls" has Mr. Hankey's apparent death, and the montage following. The Woobie in Kyle was clearly visible.

Kyle: (weeping) I'll never forget you. You were my best friend after Stan.

  • "Cartmanland" had the Kyle and his hemorrhoid subplot.
  • "Fun with Veal".
  • "The Death Camp of Tolerance", for those who are thinking, Dude, Not Funny.
  • "Toilet Paper", and it's made worse with its Downer Ending.
  • Most of "Red Man's Greed", which has some scenes lightened up by some kid named Alex.
  • "It's Christmas In Canada": The boys trek all the way to Canada to get Ike back, and when the Prime Minister's doorman denies entry, they start crying over not getting Ike back and that their Christmas is ruined. The doorman was moved and let them inside.
    • In the same episode, Kyle's mother, Shelia, sobbing for Ike in Gerald's arms as Ike leaves.
  • Shelly telling the boys to stand up to an old bully in "Preschool".
  • The ending of "Wing".
  • Stan and Kyle's arguments in "Follow That Egg!"
  • The endings of "Free Willzyx", "Smug Alert", "Stanley's Cup" and "Cartoon Wars Part 1"
  • Kyle's near-death at the hands of Manbearpig in "Imaginationland" was strikingly moving, notably Cartman's attempt to revive him. His voice cracks when he's first told, as if he doesn't completely comprehend what just happened.

Cartman: God dammit, Kyle! You've never walked away from anything in your life, now FIGHT!!
Cartman begins to perform CPR
Cartman: FIGHT! FIGHT! RIGHT now!
beginning to cry, voice breaking
Cartman: Fight! Fight! Fiight! FIIIIIIGHT!

  • "Guitar Queer-O". Stan on his Heroin Hero trips are pretty moving, as is his post-meltdown sequence while playing a driving game. And when he makes up with Kyle, that's moving too.
    • There is just so much Ho Yay in that episode. It bleeds Ho Yay out the ass.
  • "The List". There's funny stuff in that episode. And then there's Kyle ranting to himself obsessively while getting ready to burn the school down.
  • Cartman's subplot in "Major Boobage" as he hides all the cats he found, like a rip from an Anne Frank movie.
  • "The China Probrem", for all the wrong reasons.
  • The end of The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs: All of Butters' former readers now want him dead as his second book became instrumental in the murders of the entire Kardashian family. The boys try to rub it in his face that his fame has plummeted, but Butters couldn't care less as he's horrified that his own book got Kim Kardashian, whom he had a crush on, and her entire family killed.
  • Kyle deleting Kip Drordy as a friend on Facebook in You Have 0 Friends. Trust me, it's much sadder than it sounds.
    • Don't forget earlier when he lost all of his Facebook friends for befriending Kip in the first place. Makes you think which one is the bigger Woobie, huh?
    • They both are. Kip because everyone avoids him for next to no reason and Kyle, just for being nice to him, loses everyone just for being nice to Kip, just for showing a kid kindness. It makes what happens below all the more satisfying.
      • It Got Better at the end when all of the "friends" collected by Stan's vanquished self-aware profile were transferred to Kip. I don't know any individual profile with 200,000+ Facebook friends!
  • Towelie trying to overcome his drug addiction in "Crippled Summer".
  • "Butters Very Own Episode." It just made me cry like that seeing that kid being treated like crap, and specfically Butters saying "No, I'm lying" after seeing the truth of the matter.
    • I didn't find it sad, but I do like Butters.
  • Butters saving a friend he made at a homosexuality "cure" camp from suicide and proceeding to tell the crowd that they're out of their minds for deciding people are confused and sick when they really aren't. The fact that he doesn't understand what the camp is for, only that what they're doing is messed up, somehow makes it even better.
  • Another Butters moment - in "Marjorine", Linda Stotch is completely hysterical at his apparent death. She's screaming and sobbing over the adorable blue coffin and Stephen has to hold her back. We know he's alive, but she doesn't.
    • From that same episode, something that makes more sense in Hindsight, Butters (dressed as Marjorine) sobs out in the bathroom to the girls "You have no idea how hard it is to be me!" Note that Butters says "me", not "The new girl". He's not acting...
  • I just saw this yesterday, but in Heller Keller! The Musical, there is this heart-breaking bit where Timmy has to give up his pet turkey Gobbles. And then it has people all down the street, with dead relatives and run over dogs, and you're just waiting for the joke, but then some lady comes on the screen, and she says something like, "What have you done today?" and then it pans to the sky. Very sad.
    • This troper thought that the, "What Have You Done Today?" WAS the joke. Kind of like a parody of PSA's.
    • Even I saw the intended joke once the PSA lady came up... still the entire scene is tragic and maybe even the joke added to the tears.
  • Part of the ending of "Eat, Pray, Queef" when Sharon Marsh finds out that Colorado banned queefing and gives this beautiful speech to her family that shows that it wasn't just about queefing and more about equality amongst the sexes, and then the song after that with various male characters of the show made this female troper cry in the first few viewings of the episode.
  • In the Coon saga of episodes, Mysterion's superpower. Holy hell, this Troper was not prepared for how emotional Kenny got. About the time he yelled "JUST TRY TO FUCKING REMEMBER!" I began to get misty eyed.
    • How about this, then? Apparently, Kenny's been going through this whole circle of death and rebirth for possibly years, and we, the audience, only just find about it that episode. And did I mention he's basically only nine years old? Kinda adds a bit of a darker side to the "Oh my God, they killed Kenny" running gag, doesn't it?
  • A big, BIG YMMV, but the deaths of Mingee and Gary in "A Million Little Fibers."
    • Who'd have thought television viewers could get so attached to a talking vagina and bunghole?
  • The ending of "Chef Goes Nanners" when Wendy declares she never had feelings for Cartman, and she runs off after Stan while Cartman sighs and shuffles offscreen, dejected
  • The "Third Grade" song from "Fourth Grade". Clyde actually cries in-universe after hearing it.
  • The cast singing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" in "Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics" for two reasons. One, them showing Mary Kay Bergman's characters (she committed suicide shortly before) and the boys saying that they'll be together throughout the years if the fates allow, not aware they'll be together for at least the next eleven seasons.
    • I thought if the fate allow part was a set up for a joke. Seeing how the very second they finish singing that line. Kenny gets crushed and dies.
  • In the episode where Butters pretends to be a new girl at school named Marjorine, and goes to the girls slumber party and tried to make friends but never could fit in with the girls and then later ended up in tears because of the girls insults and catty comments.
  • The mountain lion's death in Woodland Critter Christmas. Even though you don't know the Woodland Critters worship Satan yet, it's still depressing when the mountain lion's children cry over her death.
  • Kyle's song in "Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo".
  • Vunter Slaush building the orphanage
  • While most of it was Played for Laughs, some of the things Cartman blurted out in "Le Petite Tourette" actually made you feel bad for him, and... no, I'm serious, you felt bad for Cartman.

Cartman: I cry at night because I don't have a dad!

  • "Best Friends Forever", big time. While not to the same extent as Kenny Dies, it plays very similar.
  • "You're Getting Old" is easily one of the most depressing episodes so far. It starts off initially well, with Stan having his 10th birthday party surrounded by friends and family. He receives a CD from Kyle featuring music that his mother, Sharon, disapproves of (because "it sounds like crap"), and it's taken away. However, Stan has already downloaded the music to his iPod, and begins listening to it, only to realize that he literally only hears shit. He speaks to Kyle about this, who can apparently hear the music perfectly, and Kyle suggests that he sees a doctor. The doctor administers some tests which consist of playing two music tracks (both of which sound like more crap to Stan), and then comparing a poster of crap to a poster of an upcoming movie to Stan, to which he responds that they look the same. The doctor eventually tells him that he's developing cynicism, which comes with age, and it will entail viewing and hearing things that once seemed great as a child, as crap. Stan continues to go about his life as more and more things appear as crap to him while Randy gets into more youth-related mishaps with the new musical movement (naturally, this is all Played for Laughs, with even a bit of Lampshade Hanging thrown in by Sharon, up until the last five minutes of the episode). Things eventually turn darker as Stan's friends completely alienate him due to his new attitude, and to make things worse, Randy and Sharon begin to argue and acknowledge that neither of them are happy with their lives anymore. The episode ends with Stan seeing pretty much everything as crap now, even his former best friend Kyle, while Randy and Sharon begin to sell their house and divide their belongings as they prepare for their upcoming divorce.
    • This episode tore me up. I never thought it would happen like this, but here it is. What really got me was when the real version of "Landslide" started playing. Not some usual South Park parody, but the real freaking song as sung by Stevie Nicks. And seeing Sharon packing up the china. It really didn't hit me that there would be no crap-people, no Satan dressed as Brittany Spears, no Tom Cruise or government conspiracy to save the day. And that hurt. We have grown up on this show, and to see it come to it's end is painful. That's the Tear Jerker here. That a show we have grown-up with and and loved will end soon.
      • Not to mention the whole conversation between Randy and Sharon sounds horribly like Matt and Trey expressing the unsaid tensions of the show's difficult period, making this a meta-Tearjerker.
      • You have realized that seven more episodes have been announced? Right?
        • But even if it doesn't all end after this episode, I think it might be done after this season. I'm glad that it's going before it got unbelievably stale, but it doesn't make my heart hurt any less.
        • That doesn't make this episode any less sad.
          • It got even sadder for this troper for three reasons the more he thought about it: 1. Two men stealing underwear from Randy in order to protect them from his shitting on stage, no matter how surprisingly entertaining it is especially in this episode, doesn't make it any less depressing. and 2. Seeing Randy, who's random interests has been one of the funniest parts of the show, suddenly reveal that he was actually hiding his boredom with life. Yes, that's right, all of those great episodes are truly about a man trying to avoid the truth about his life, take them from crowning moments of funny to Funny Aneurysm Moments. shivers and finally 3. Stan and Kyle's friendship ending, especially Stan seeing his friend as a literal pile of shit after all of those other times they've separated, after all the other things that nearly tore them apart, it just hurts. The fact Cartman and Kyle, who normally can barely stand each other are seen happily playing together while Stan is who knows where, seeing the world as shit and having had his Parents split up and being unable to enjoy anything. Wow. Just wow.
            • This troper found out something that somehow makes things worse: Matt and Trey said on The Daily Show they have no idea what they're doing for the next episode. That means there's no way of knowing if there will be a snapback or not.
          • This troper was so depressed by the episode, especially the meta goodbye letter from Matt & Trey through Sharon & Randy. Of all the season/mid-season finales recently watched, Supernatural, Glee, House, Bones, Castle, Doctor Who, etc, South Park was the one that reduced this troper to a blubbering mess.
    • Stone and Parker have recently confirmed that the show will continue, which makes you wonder what the hell this episode was all about.
      • This troper was rather depressed by the end of the episode- probably because she knows where Stan is coming from with his cynicism as he grows up... but thankfully, not to his extent. And the way it ended... to do a snap back now would just be... I dunno, like a slap in the face. Honestly, I'm torn between wanting to see new episodes (or at least see what happens next)... and wanting the show to end before it gets too stale. After all, nothing can last forever...
    • "Ass Burgers" snapped everything back to status quo with the exception that Stan has turned to alcohol to escape the monotony. The poignancy of it all makes it perhaps a greater tearjerker than the episode that preceded it.
      • Really? This troper thought that "Ass Burgers" was one of the worst episodes they've ever done. It took all that genuinely dramatic, actually depressing material from the previous episode, and had to go and ruin it with a plotline that marks only the second time I've ever actually been offended by the show.
  • In "Pinewood Derby", there's a man who, when he loses the derby, kills himself in front of his son. Suicide humor isn't unheard of from South Park and usually, it's pretty damn funny. What separates this joke, however, is that the son, with a horrified expression, starts yelling to himself "It's okay" over and over. Pulled at this troper's heartstrings.
  • 1%. Cartman does deserve punishment for a lot of things but how can you not feel bad for him as one by one, all his favorite toys are destroyed. The kicker is that his Polly Prissy Pants doll turns out to be the one who killed off his other toys and asks Cartman to kill her. He, with tears in his eyes, complies.
    • This isn't the doll gaining sentience like usual SP tradition. This is Cartman, destroying all his favorite childhood toys, in his version of "Growing Up". That's both terrifiyng and sad at the same time.
  • The Broadway episode ends with Shelley's Adorkable new best friend drowning to death the first time he took off the life preserver his parents always made him wear.
  • Stan's monologue from "Raisins".

Stan: You guys have no idea how this feels. It's like... you always hear songs about a broken heart and you think it's just a figure of speech. But it's true. My chest hurts. I have this... like... sinking feeling where my heart is. It's broken.

    • Butters' "A beautiful sadness" speech in "Raisins". Link
  • Stan watching in horror as the Japanese kill the whales and dolphins in "Whale Whores".
  • "Britney's New Look".
  • Stan telling Wendy "I wish you were dead" in "Pinkeye".
    • And later when Stan sees she's become a zombie and must choose whether to kill her or not.
  • A small one in "It's A Jersey Thing", when Kyle discovers his Jersey side Teen Wolf-style.

Kyle: What am I, Mom?

  • Any time when Kyle is so depressed, he actually agrees with Cartman's bigoted opinions (ex. "Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina" and "The Passion Of The Jew").
  • The death of Clyde's mother in "Reverse Cowgirl".
  • In "Cash For Gold" there's a heartbreaking scene where Grandpa Marsh tells Stan about his dog.

Grandpa: I thought I'd never forget her happy slobbering face...I can't even remember what she looks like.

    • Specifically its revealed that Grandpa Marsh has Alzheimer's disease.

Grandpa: She's just a baby after all.
Stan: She's not a baby, grandpa. She's 13.
Grandpa: Shelley's 13? ...Right.

  • Cartman being chained and prepared for sacrifice in "Jewpacrabra".
    • And then fucking converting to Judaism of all things in the end. Anyone even remotely familiar with Cartman's, um, contentious opinions on the matter can imagine just how indescribably fucked up this is. And yet, the episode manages to pull it off with earnest heart.
  • Butters being bullied by his grandma.
    • This was played disturbingly straight, especially things like her stabbing him with a fork under the table. One of the most realistic portrayals of a child being abused mentally, physically and emotionally... on South Park.
    • Though not as upsetting as Butters' much more severe abuse, seeing Mr Mackey and Stan crying after being bullied can ellict real-life "aww"s.
  • The boys' Despair Event Horizon in "I Should Have Never Gone Ziplining."
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/South_Park/Tear_Jerker?oldid=1093067"