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Heartwarming / Kenan & Kel

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  • At the end of the first episode of the two-parter where the Rockmores move away, when Kel arrives at the house after they've already gone, and it is revealed that his present for Kenan was a picture of the two of them together. This could also be considered a Tear Jerker.
    • Which makes their eventual reunion in the next episode all the more sweeter.
    • The fact that Kenan wants to continue being friends with Kleeb after all of that, knowing that, although he's an oddball, he's inherently a nice person.
  • Kel telling Ron Harper he still likes him even if he blames them for getting injured.
    • And Ron actually holds a press conference and says he's at fault for the accident making the public no longer hate Kenan & Kel
  • In "Merry Christmas, Kenan," Kenan reveals that he's been saving money all year to buy himself a new mountain bike as a Christmas present. He gets the opportunity to be a Mall Santa to make up the last bit of cash he needs. Eventually, one little boy tells him that he doesn't want any presents for himself; instead, he wants Santa to bring his little sister a new bicycle because hers was stolen. Kenan quietly asks the children's mother about it, and she reluctantly explains that they're having a really hard time with finances—to the point where she doesn't know if she can get them any presents. Though she tells Kenan not to worry about it, he later admits that he can't stop thinking about the family's struggles. When the time comes to actually purchase the bike, he can't go through with it and instead spends all of the money he's saved on presents for the kids, including new bikes for the both of them. He even goes to their house in the Santa get-up to make it a truly special moment (the little girl's enormous smile as Kenan produces her bike is enough to melt even the coldest heart). Kenan's parents tell him that they're extremely proud, and Kenan, in a surprisingly mature manner, says that he can always start saving up again. Then, in a bit of Sweet and Sour Grapes, the real Santa Claus appears after everyone has gone to bed...with the mountain bike in tow.
    • There's a small moment when the kids' mother, clearly near tears at Kenan's good deed, can only say "Thank you...Santa" as her children happily open their gifts.
    • Even though Kenan just took over as the Mall Santa to get the money needed for the bike, he does a great job playing the role and all the kids love him. He even begins to enjoy it himself.
    • Also worth mentioning is the fact Kel spent two years saving up enough money to give Kenan a very expensive pair of sneakers for Christmas.
    • Kel, as ever, wants something extremely strange for Christmas—the Tubaphone (it's a tuba with a built-in telephone). Despite initially teasing him, on Christmas Eve, Kenan gives Kel a present to unwrap...and the Tubaphone is inside. Kel may be a Cloud Cuckoolander, but he's also Kenan's best friend.
    • During the sequence that ends the episode, Kel asks Kenan if, since it's the Christmas special, they can do something different for the holiday. Kenan agrees and invites the entire main cast to join them on stage for a curtain call. Then, just to make it even better, Kenan calls everyone who appeared in the episode to come out and get a round of applause from the audience, and they all get to join in the "Awwwww, here it goes!" that closes the show.
  • Kel saying he'll give Kenan half of his 64,000,000 Lottery winnings because he doesn't want to be a millionaire without him. Kenan hugs him, not because of the money, but because he's so touched by the reason.
  • In one episode, Kyra has a birthday party and worries about the presence of the most popular and meanest girl in class. She bends over backwards to please the Alpha Bitch, but ultimately realizes she's nasty and pours an entire punch bowl over her head. That's an Awesome Moment...but what makes it heartwarming is when Kel, who normally treats Kyra's Precocious Crush on him with annoyance, puts an arm around her shoulder and declares that she's his girlfriend! The brat can only stomp away as Kyra looks at Kel with utter joy in her eyes.
    • In that same episode, Kel thinks it's Kenan's birthday and gets the whole audience to surprise him. Despite getting the wrong day (and the wrong cake), it reminds us that despite what they put each other through, Kel always cares about Kenan
  • In an episode where Kenan suspects he might have been switched at birth, he manages to track down the other Rockmore family he thinks he's actually related to, but when he gets to their front door, he realizes that he loves the family he's been with and would rather live with them than a family of complete strangers. It also helps that the other Rockmore family turn out to be Asian-American.
  • In one episode, Kenan tries to convince famous singer Tamia to go with him in his school dance, who initially declines due to not knowing Kenan, but she eventually agrees touched when he tells her he wants to show Sharla he can be her special guy. And although she couldn't show up, she goes to Rigby's to apologize to Kenan, where she meets Sharla and tells her that Kenan wanted to impress her.
    • And Sharla at the dance tells Kenan he's the "special guy" with whom she wanted to go to the dance and they dance together along with the other couples.
  • In the episode where Kenan and Kel accidentally led Roger and Sheryl to give the former's autographed baseball of Babe Ruth to Kenan's estranged uncle Louie instead of a Cow Snowglobe, and when Uncle Louie opens it, he happily went to the Rockmore house to thank a surprised Roger and Sheryl for the gift, saying it was the best gift anyone could have given him and that he intended to show it where everyone could see it. Yeah, it wasn't the gift originally meant for him, but it's still sweet seeing him so happy and grateful to his family.

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