[[folder:Film - Animated]]
* 'Dad, Dad, wake up!'. Pictured Above, Simba says something like this in one of cinema's [[TearJerker most profoundly saddening scenes]], from ''Disney/TheLionKing''. Simba was likely aware of what had happened, considering his BigNo when Mufasa fell, so this scene comes more from denial.
-->''"...Dad, c'mon... you've gotta get up. Dad... we've gotta go home."''
* ''WesternAnimation/OnceUponAForest'' had Cornelius sing a SONG with the title of the trope to his niece when she fell into a life-threatening coma trying to save her parents from the poisonous gas.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'' Little Foot's mother. As [[Webcomic/{{xkcd}} Randall Munroe]] puts it, if you didn't cry during this scene, you are not human.
* [[SubvertedTrope Subversion]] in ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'' from Shifu to Po: I'm not dying, you idiot!
* Creator/RalphBakshi's ''WesternAnimation/{{Wizards}}'' jams this one, TheyKilledKenny, NotQuiteDead, this one again, and TheyKilledKenny ''again'' into one short scene for one of the Evil Wizard's Mooks in the major battle scene when his buddy is shot.
* In Disney's ''Disney/TheJungleBook'', Mowgli says this to Baloo when the bear has apparently died fighting Shere Khan. Bagheera begins to try to gently explain this to the boy but, this being [[DisneyDeath Disney]], Baloo is of course NotQuiteDead. Walt Disney himself insisted the bear should live, after a previous TearJerker movie [[spoiler: '''Old Yeller''']] in which a beloved character died.
* In ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'', Nemo fakes being dead in order to get flushed to the ocean, but Darla finds the bag he's faking dead in and proceeds to invoke this trope, shaking the bag and yelling at him to wake up.
* In Creator/{{Disney}}'s ''Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast'', Belle begs that the Beast doesn't leave her after his DisneyDeath.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film - Live-Action]]

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* ''JusticeLeague'': Lex Luthor's KryptoniteRing finally gives him terminal cancer. He goes looking for Dr. Ivo, the only person who might be able to cure him. He ends up meeting Dr. Ivo's final creation, A.M.A.Z.O., who is patiently waiting for the Doctor to "wake up." Lex sees an opportunity and asks A.M.A.Z.O. to steal medical supplies (oh and kill the League while you're at it) or he'll "go to sleep and not wake up, just like the Doctor."
* Ralph Bakshi's ''Wizards'' jams this one, TheyKilledKenny, NotDeadYet, this one again, and TheyKilledKenny ''again'' into one short scene for one of the Evil Wizard's Mooks in the major battle scene when his buddy is shot.
* In Disney's ''Disney/TheJungleBook'', Mowgli says this to Baloo when the bear has apparently died fighting Shere Khan. Bagheera begins to try to gently explain this to the boy but, this being [[DisneyDeath Disney]], Baloo is of course NotQuiteDead. Walt Disney himself insisted the bear should live, after a previous TearJerker movie [[spoiler: '''Old Yeller''']] in which a beloved character died.

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* Rachel Nickell was murdered in front of her two-year-old son, Alex; a passerby found him clinging to his mother's blood-soaked body, repeating the words "Wake up, Mummy", with [[InnocentInaccurate a piece of paper stuck to her forehead as a bandage]].
* In her autobiography, ''First They Killed My Father'', Cambodian Loung Ung imagines what happened when her mother and younger sister were executed by the Khmer Rouge. In the scenario she creates, her mother is killed first and her sister (who is "too young to understand what has just happened") is killed while vainly trying to make the mother get up. Of course, there is no way of knowing what actually happened in this case.
* Apparently one of the young children in the Donner Party tried to wake up their mother's half eaten corpse.
* Lakotah warrior and holy man Black Elk said he saw a baby trying to nurse from its dead mother at the Wounded Knee massacre.
* Apparently, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaP7STV1aFs this cat]]. For that matter, cats do this every day to their owners. They start off with sniffing them, then poke them in the face.
* [[http://www.chinasmack.com/2010/pictures/shenzhen-son-refuses-to-believe-father-is-dead.html This man from Shenzhen, China, whose father suddenly died.]]
* Female chimpanzees have been observed in the wild, carrying their dead infants as if refusing to accept that they have died. In another instance, an older female died of natural causes, and her young son didn't stop returning to try to wake her up until maggots appeared on her carcass.
* Dolphin mothers often behave similarly if their calf is stillborn or dies soon after birth, pushing it to the surface with their noses so it can breathe and carrying it around until decay sets in.
* Cows do the same thing, if their calf is stillborn or dies soon after birth [[TearJerker they will nudge it and moo gently to it until they finally give up and leave the corpse, never to return to the spot.]]
* Many serial works and social media feeds have suddenly gone silent, leaving their followers to wonder (and sometimes ask) when they are going to release another update, not knowing it's a case of AuthorExistenceFailure.

to:

* Tali, in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', during her loyalty mission, finds [[spoiler:her father dead, due to the experiments he was conducting on geth]] and keeps saying that he would have some way of faking the dead and there is no way he could have died. It takes a second for it to really sink in that he is dead.
** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' some recordings of geth history are shown, including one of a quarian resistor trying to protect geth platforms from quarian fighters. The fighters activated an explosive that killed the resistor and damaged the geth. Cue "Creator Megara, what is your status? ...Creator Megara?" Geth, being primarily software, don't die the way organics do. They just lose data.
* ''{{Ib}}'': In some story paths, Garry performs a HeroicSacrifice to save Ib. Examining his corpse always gives the same message: "Garry is sleeping...". Since the player character is ''nine'', the implication here is that [[InnocentInaccurate she's too young to realise the full truth]].
* In the [[spoiler:[[BittersweetEnding 'Save Your Friends']]]] ending of ''VideoGame/FarCry3'', [[spoiler:Dennis tries to stab Jason with a machete, but Citra [[TakingTheBullet jumps in front of the knife]]. When Dennis realizes what he's done, he breaks down crying and pleading with Citra's body]].

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[[folder:Webcomics]]
* Ian's FreudianExcuse in ''Red All Over''.
* [[http://www.nuklearpower.com/2004/02/12/episode-383-spinal-snap/ This]] episode of ''[[WebComic/EightBitTheater 8-Bit Theater]]'':
-->'''Fighter''': "That's the last mistake you'll ever make, ya stinky pile of bones! Give 'im a dose of ultimate destruction, BM."
-->[[BeatPanel *beat*]]
-->[[BeatPanel *beat*]]
-->'''Fighter:''' "Go on, make with the blasting."
-->[[BeatPanel *beat*]]
-->'''Fighter:''' "Black Mage? Get up and yell at me. Black Mage. '''''Get up'''''. Please..."
* Played with in a very disturbing way by the ''PerryBibleFellowship'' in [[http://cookingschoolnews.com/?cid=PBF152-Scorpy_the_Forest_Friend.gif this strip]].
--> "Only one round, and Rockie's already tired"
* Done in a similar fashion in [[http://www.amazingsuperpowers.com/2008/05/im-flying/ this strip]] of AmazingSuperPowers.
* An interesting variation in ''[[WalkyVerse It's Walky!]]'' is that it's a genuine, if sentimental appeal: the person in question ''could'' wake up, and does.
* [[http://www.wtfcomics.com/archive.html?344_335 A variation]] in ''WTFComics''. The father has just taken a [[spoiler:nearly]] fatal blow protecting his child. This [[http://www.wtfcomics.com/archive.html?344_336 triggers]] the kid's UnstoppableRage. [[spoiler:He gets better]].
* Vul'Re to the Mother in [[http://www.catalyst.spiderforest.com/ Catalyst]]: "Wake up. Please, wake up..."
* In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': [[spoiler: [[HeroicBSOD PLEASE TELL ME THAT'S]] [[AlienBlood JUST HONEY]].]]
** It's really a shock to see him have this reaction, compared to [[JerkAss how he normally acts.]]
** Gets a tragic callback with [[spoiler: [[HeroicBSOD PLEASE TELL ME THAT'S]] [[AlienBlood JUST GRUB SAUCE]].]]
** [[spoiler: JOHN. [[TearJerker RISE UP.]] Sort of a subversion, in that John did come back from the dead, but WV has no way of knowing that.]]
** In the Squiddles soundtrack...this is played for creepiness in ''The Day The Unicorns Couldn't Play Trailer.'' [After the unicorns disappear] "Mommy? W-where are you, Mommy?...Are you with the unicorns?
** There's also the sentence "Make-believe time is over!", which originates in a ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies''/''Film/{{Saw}}'' crossover [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=002465 comic]] attributed to Bro.
* In ''SomethingPositive'': [[spoiler: Faye's death. Justified since she died in her sleep and Fred doesn't realize at first that she is dead. It takes him (and the readers) a few panels to realize the sad truth.]]
* ''{{Strays}}''. [[http://www.straysonline.com/comic/163.htm A grown man's initial reaction after he killed a woman.]] Then, such is his [[ItsAllAboutMe momumental narcissism]] that the death's thwarting him stuns him.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''TheOnion'' article "[[http://www.theonion.com/content/news/daddy_put_in_bye_bye_box Daddy Put In Bye Bye Box]]". Written as a newspaper article from the child's point of view.
-->"According to family sources, Daddy, 36, can't play Chutes and Ladders tonight, but he loved Ryan and his little sister, Rebecca, very, very much, and nothing is ever going to change that."
* The WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation review of VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum portrays Franchise/{{Batman}} accidentally pouncing on a cat, who is then surrounded by kittens.
-->'''Kitten:''' "Please wake up, Mommy!"
* The old ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' website's archives of Torchwood cases included a series of letters written by a young girl to her grandmother, while she and her father are spending time in a caravan. It quickly becomes clear that she and her father have some sort of radiation poisoning and have been quarantined. [[TearJerker Then her father wouldn't wake up]]. [[FromBadToWorse Then the final letter stops halfway]].
* This is Albert Lions' reaction to finding Augustus "Dougal" [=MacDougal's=] corpse in ''SurvivalOfTheFittest''.
-->'''Albert:''' "DUDE! CUT IT OUT NOW! [[PunctuatedForEmphasis WAKE! THE HELL! UP!]]"
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHgIQYvv9kk Parodied in this video.]] It seems to be played straight at first, but then comes TheStinger.
* From the Wiki/SCPFoundation, an interview with [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-1073 SCP-1073]], a sapient colony of microbes (who thus have no experience with individual death):
-->'''SCP-1073-2:''' "Where did Dr. &#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608; go?"
-->'''Dr. &#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608;:''' ''(to himself)'' "Jesus, why did they make me tell it? (to 1073) He, he died. Do you understand what that means?"
-->'''SCP-1073-2:''' "That happens in the stories. It doesn't happen here. He'll be back."
* In [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mUjssn86h4 this video]], a girl is begging her friend to wake up after he is killed in unknown circumstances but it's all in vain.
* Sometimes, if you're the victim of rape or some other form of assault, you'll retreat to a fantasy world where somebody has to remind you to [[http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/Wake_Up WAKE UP]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* 'Dad, Dad, wake up!'. Pictured Above, Simba says something like this in one of cinema's [[TearJerker most profoundly saddening scenes]], from ''Disney/TheLionKing''. Simba was likely aware of what had happened, considering his BigNo when Mufasa fell, so this scene comes more from denial.
-->''"...Dad, c'mon... you've gotta get up. Dad... we've gotta go home."''
* ''OnceUponAForest'' had Cornelius sing a SONG with the title of the trope to his niece when she fell into a life-threatening coma trying to save her parents from the poisonous gas.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'' Little Foot's mother. As [[Webcomic/{{xkcd}} Randall Munroe]] puts it, if you didn't cry during this scene, you are not human.
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':
** The series mocked this trope in "Woodland Critter Christmas" when Stan kills a mountain lion. Turns out MonsterIsAMommy, and the adorable cubs come out and utter the familiar line. Don't worry, she comes BackFromTheDead.
** Also in ''South Park'', Cartman tries to revive Kyle in the Imaginationland episode, desperately shouting out to Kyle to live, and going as far to doing CPR on him... so he can make him suck his balls later.
* In one of the stranger ''PinkyAndTheBrain'' episodes, the mice are forced to watch scenes like this in an experiment, which gives Brain the idea to make a movie so sad that all the world's leaders will be too depressed to stop him from taking over. One of the scenes is ''Disney/TheLionKing'', but with [[MisplacedWildlife tigers]]: "Papa, wake up. You have to wake up Papa!"
* [[SubvertedTrope Subversion]] in ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'' from Shifu to Po: I'm not dying, you idiot!
* Played for laughs in the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' Season 5 finale, "Meet The Quagmires", where Peter flashbacks to when his goldfish died and he fed it as it overfilled the bowl, saying "It's okay, Lieutenant Shinysides, you're just sleeping! You'll eat it later!" and starts crying.
* Played devastatingly straight in the episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' entitled "Mona Leaves-a". Homer's mother returns again, and Homer calls her out on her constant abandonment and goes to bed angry. with some wise words from Marge, he decides to apologize, making his mom a card. He goes downstairs, where she's sitting in a chair:
--> '''Homer:''' ''(sweetly)'' Mom, are you asleep? ''(a little worriedly, then tearfully, looking at her)'' Asleep [[DiesWideShut with your eyes open?]]...[[TearJerker Mom?...MOM?]]
* In the ''{{Futurama}}'' episode "Rebirth", Leela is dead and nothing The Professor tries wakes her. Obviously she got better.
-->'''Fry''': '' No! (Gets a baseball bat)'' I refuse to give up! Wake up, Leela! ''(whack)'' I! ''(whack)'' Love! ''(whack)'' You!
* ''JusticeLeague'': Lex Luthor's KryptoniteRing finally gives him terminal cancer. He goes looking for Dr. Ivo, the only person who might be able to cure him. He ends up meeting Dr. Ivo's final creation, A.M.A.Z.O., who is patiently waiting for the Doctor to "wake up." Lex sees an opportunity and asks A.M.A.Z.O. to steal medical supplies (oh and kill the League while you're at it) or he'll "go to sleep and not wake up, just like the Doctor."
* Ralph Bakshi's ''Wizards'' jams this one, TheyKilledKenny, NotDeadYet, this one again, and TheyKilledKenny ''again'' into one short scene for one of the Evil Wizard's Mooks in the major battle scene when his buddy is shot.
* In Disney's ''Disney/TheJungleBook'', Mowgli says this to Baloo when the bear has apparently died fighting Shere Khan. Bagheera begins to try to gently explain this to the boy but, this being [[DisneyDeath Disney]], Baloo is of course NotQuiteDead. Walt Disney himself insisted the bear should live, after a previous TearJerker movie [[spoiler: '''Old Yeller''']] in which a beloved character died.
* Hilariously subverted in Creator/ChuckJones' ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cugri2hBqxA A Bear For Punishment]]'', when Junyer Bear attempt to give his dear old Dad a shave with a jagged straight razor.
-->'''Junyer:''' Ma? Pa won't talk to me. I nudged him and I nudged him ... he's awfully still.
-->(Dad's hand comes in from off-screen, yanking Junyer into other room. Sounds of Junyer getting the crapola beaten out of him, followed by him poking his head back thru the door.)
-->'''Junyer:''' Pa is all right now!
-->(beating continues)
* Creator/TexAvery's MGM cartoon ''Lonesome Lenny'' has ScrewySquirrel taken in as a pet for a [[Literature/OfMiceAndMen suspiciously familiar]] dog. Both near the start and at the end, he states with a hint of regret, "[[AndCallHimGeorge Ya know, I had a little friend once...but he don't move no more!]]" Each time, he pulled out the body of that "little friend". The first one was a mouse. The second one was Screwy himself. Fittingly enough, this was actually [[KilledOffForReal the final Screwy Squirrel cartoon]].
* In one of the most (if only) depressing ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' episodes, Chuckie is in serious denial over the death of his little bug, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STIgBDYeRO0 Melville]].
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'', [[DeathbyNewberyMedal his sister D.W.'s pet parakeet Spanky dies.]] She walks over to the cage and pokes him. "Spanky are you asleep?" She brings him over to her dad and says "Dad, Spanky fell down and he won't wake up", and her dad says "Umm... I think he's dead, honey", and she replies "Dead? When is he going to stop being dead?"
* In ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'', Nemo fakes being dead in order to get flushed to the ocean, but Darla finds the bag he's faking dead in and proceeds to invoke this trope, shaking the bag and yelling at him to wake up.
* In {{Disney}}'s ''Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast'', Belle begs that the Beast doesn't leave her after his DisneyDeath.
* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' Played for laugh in the episode, "Tearjerker", a ''Film/JamesBond'' spoof. The titular villain (Roger) plans to TakeOverTheWorld by creating the ultimate {{tearjerker}} film about a [[UpToEleven mentally handicapped alcoholic Jewish boy whose puppy dies of cancer during the Holocaust]], aptly titled "[[OscarBait Oscar Gold]]". After he's foiled by Stan, and is escaping he reveals his backup plan for an even sadder film; six hours of a baby chimp trying to revive its dead mother.
* Played for laughs in the Al Brodax-produced {{Popeye}} cartoon "Ballet De Spinach" where Olive coerces Popeye to be her partner in a dance recital practice. Olive tiptoes to a rose lying on the floor and gently entreats "Wake up, little rosebud...wake up." When she tells Popeye to do it, he stomps over and yells "Hey, bud...wakes up!!"
* ''{{Sym-Bionic Titan}}'': In ''The Demon Within'': [[spoiler: After killing the Mutraddi that turned Ilana into the same type of creature he is, Ilana's heart appears to stop beating. Lance reacts to Octus, having thought killing the Mutraddi would change her back. He shuts his eyes and holds her hand . . . her heart resumes beating and she turns back into a human(oid alien)]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Grimly humorous example from ''Thinning the Herd'' (which is basically a Website/DarwinAwards FollowTheLeader): someone died, and was left there for ''months'' because his sons believed he was just resting. (Insert your own Creator/MontyPython reference here).
* Rachel Nickell was murdered in front of her two-year-old son, Alex; a passerby found him clinging to his mother's blood-soaked body, repeating the words "Wake up, Mummy", with [[InnocentInaccurate a piece of paper stuck to her forehead as a bandage]].
* In her autobiography, ''First They Killed My Father'', Cambodian Loung Ung imagines what happened when her mother and younger sister were executed by the Khmer Rouge. In the scenario she creates, her mother is killed first and her sister (who is "too young to understand what has just happened") is killed while vainly trying to make the mother get up. Of course, there is no way of knowing what actually happened in this case.
* Apparently one of the young children in the Donner Party tried to wake up their mother's half eaten corpse.
* Lakotah warrior and holy man Black Elk said he saw a baby trying to nurse from its dead mother at the Wounded Knee massacre.
* Apparently, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaP7STV1aFs this cat]]. For that matter, cats do this every day to their owners. They start off with sniffing them, then poke them in the face.
* [[http://www.chinasmack.com/2010/pictures/shenzhen-son-refuses-to-believe-father-is-dead.html This man from Shenzhen, China, whose father suddenly died.]]
* Female chimpanzees have been observed in the wild, carrying their dead infants as if refusing to accept that they have died. In another instance, an older female died of natural causes, and her young son didn't stop returning to try to wake her up until maggots appeared on her carcass.
* Dolphin mothers often behave similarly if their calf is stillborn or dies soon after birth, pushing it to the surface with their noses so it can breathe and carrying it around until decay sets in.
* Cows do the same thing, if their calf is stillborn or dies soon after birth [[TearJerker they will nudge it and moo gently to it until they finally give up and leave the corpse, never to return to the spot.]]
* Many serial works and social media feeds have suddenly gone silent, leaving their followers to wonder (and sometimes ask) when they are going to release another update, not knowing it's a case of AuthorExistenceFailure.
[[/folder]]

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