Inelegant Blubbering / Live-Action TV

• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.:
  • Jemma tends to cry like this. Notable examples include T.R.A.C.K.S. after Daisy gets shot and A Wanted (Inhu)man when she's overwhelmed during her long-awaited dinner date with Fitz.
  • Fitz does this during his What Have I Done moment in The Return when he remembers how he became the sadistic Doctor during the team's time in the Framework.
  • Daisy also does this a couple of times, in Absolution when Mack forgives her for what she did while under Hive's influence, and in Ascension when Lincoln sacrifices his life to save the world.
• Invoked in the last pre-Netflix episode of Arrested Development, when Michael chokes up in the middle of a speech about keeping his family together.
  Narrator: And that’s when Michael finally cried...it wasn’t exactly a turn-on.
• Ashita, Mama ga Inai: Donki wailing for her mother at the end of the first episode is what a child breaking down in tears would realistically sound like, as opposed to Post's quiet (and faked) crying earlier.
• In Battlestar Galactica (2003), after Starbuck - who he considered a daughter - is seemingly killed, the normally stoic and steely Commander Adama gets completely hammered and dissolves into a snot-and-drool puddle on the floor of his quarters.
• Boardwalk Empire. Normally calm and controlled, Margaret becomes a hysterical wreck by the end of "A Man, a plan". Finding your lover, with whom you intended to elope, murdered and delivered to your house in a box does this to people...
• A Running Gag in early episodes of The Brittas Empire has receptionist Carole constantly in tears over her divorce, sometimes making her hard to understand.
• In one episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, after being asked to be the officiant of someone's wedding, Terry writes a wedding speech that manages to provoke buckets of messy, inelegant tears... from Terry himself.
  Terry: Darlene and Lynn, I want you to remember the words of Luther Vandross: "A thousand kisses from you..." [Begins to break, but forces himself together] "A thousand kisses from you... is never... too... much."
  [Terry dissolves into tears; Gina stares incredulously]
  Holt: Every time he reads it, he breaks down.
  Gina: Terry, I thought you had done this before.
  Terry: Yeah, but that was just workout metaphors! You told me to get gorgeous with it, and it took me to some very real places.
• Willow was a pro at this on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In "Confessions" when she's weeping in the bathroom over Xander and Faith sleeping together, in "Wild at Heart" when Oz leaves her and especially in "The Gift" where Buffy dies. Another one is "Passion" where we get a Big "NO!" and she collapses gasping in Joyce's arms when she hears Jenny has been murdered.
• Billie does this in the series finale of Charmed after she's forced to kill her sister. Most fans noted how she sounded uncannily like a seal — yet the scene is still very sad.
• Debra Morgan in Dexter, when she returns to the spot where Frank Lundy was killed.
• Doctor Who has a few of these, all with fairly good reason.
  • Rose at the end of "Doomsday" — the Doctor is fairly composed; she's bawling her eyes out.
  • "The Family of Blood": John Smith — the Doctor in human form — does this while breaking down over the decision of whether or not to die to bring back the Doctor.
  • "Last of the Time Lords": The Tenth Doctor when the Master dies. Unlike the other examples — instead of sobbing, he just lets out a long, agonized scream.
  • "The Angels Take Manhattan" has Eleven a blubbering mess◊ due to losing Amy and Rory to the Weeping Angels.
• Drake & Josh: Given that Josh is Prone to Tears, it is natural for him to pull these. One time, when he ends up missing an important test because Drake thoughtlessly abandoned him at the house to make out with his girlfriend, he starts to cry rapidly. Turns into Berserker Tears when Drake gives off a smug comment as Josh is pointing at him, prompting Josh to nearly tackle Drake in a fit of rage.
• Farscape: Aeryn is a pro at this when she's hugely grief-stricken - in "Relativity" when Crais kills her mother Xhalax (or so she believes at the time) and at the end of "Infinite Possibilities, part 2: Icarus Abides", complete with a running nose, when Crichton dies of radiation poisoning.
• In the Filipino family drama Flordeliza, Liza undergoes a crying fit, complete with a running nose, when Crisanto smashes her cell phone for lying about her blindness in an attempt to rid Flor and Gener from her life. She undergoes another when Beth throws her to the ground, throws her packed bag to her, abusively declares that she is no longer her daughter anymore, and sends her away to her grandparents.
• Friends
  • This happens with Monica and Rachel when they are saying goodbye because Rachel is moving to Paris. Her blubbering becomes so unintelligible that Monica can't understand what she's saying.
  • Monica is quite prone to this. When Rachel is about to move out, Monica gives a speech to Phoebe about how great a roommate she was. It begins seriously but becomes comedic as Monica blubbers "I have to live with a BOY!!!"
  • Again when she's proposing to Chandler, she can barely get the words out because she's crying so hard. She even lampshades it saying "there's a reason girls don't do this."
• In Glue, resident sensitive guy James sheds Manly Tears about once per episode - but he erupts into helpless sobs when he's arrested on suspicion of murder after hallucinating his dead ex-boyfriend during an acid trip, and later when he's kidnapped by the real murderer, beaten and almost killed.
• In The Goldbergs, there was one episode where Erica was brokenhearted by her first love, that not even her parents could comprehend what she's saying while she's crying. Only Barry does, as he, himself, has experienced what she's going through.
  Murray: How the hell did you understand her?
  Barry: As most of you know, I've uh, spent the majority of my life hysterical and emotionally out of control, I speak the language.
  Erica: (tearfully squeaking)
  Barry: She'd like some hot tea with a little bit of honey.
• A pivotal scene in Season 2 of The Good Place involves this trope, as a way to show that Michael really does care about Team Cockroach.
• Lilly in Hannah Montana is all about this trope when she cries.
• Highlander. When Duncan accidentally kills Richie at the end of Season 5, Joe Dawson literally breaks down crying on Methos' shoulder. Duncan is slightly more subdued (probably due to shock) but is still whimpering pretty hard as he walks off. A case of Tropes Are Not Bad, as it's really emotionally painful to watch and hammers in the impact of the scene.
• Horatio Hornblower, "The Frogs and the Lobsters":
  • In the Duchess and the Devil Horatio is confined in an oubliette as punishment. There’s no food, water, or space to turn around, but what brings Horatio to (ugly) tears is a rat crawling on him.
  • The usually stoic Horatio sheds somewhat inelegant Manly Tears, with mucus and everything, when he contemplates the results of British participation on side of the Royalists in the French Revolution. He's also a bit shattered as his French lady friend died a vain death.
• Marshall from How I Met Your Mother does this hilariously in "The Chain of Screaming" after being yelled at by his boss. The others have a very hard time not making fun of him for it.
  • Also, Ted is notorious for doing this during toasts at all his friends' weddings, which earns him a lot of flack and a YouTube video. However, when he's being mocked for it at Punchy's wedding in the 7th season premiere, Marshall stands up and furiously admonishes everyone at the reception, pointing out that Ted's only crying because he's overcome with joy after Lily announced she was pregnant.
• One of Lucy's trademarks in I Love Lucy is to let out an infantile like "WAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" whenever she cries.
• Three words to describe Rocky Lockridge's loud bawling in Intervention: Best. Cry. Ever.
• Kamen Rider:
  • In Kamen Rider Fourze, Gentaro cries inelegantly after Jerk Jock Shun Daimonji breaks down in tears and tells him about how much pressure and stress his father puts on him to be the "King" of the school. It is hilarious.
    • Gentaro also cries again in the Hyper Battle Video DVD when he thinks Kamen Rider Amazon stood him up.
    • Used much less humorously in the penultimate episode. After Kengo breaks down crying over having to leave Earth and his friends behind, Gentaro and Yuki try to cheer him up but similarly burst into tears themselves, to the point where they can barely even speak.
  • Kamen Rider Ex-Aid:
    • Emu gets himself some alone time to ugly cry after failing to save the then-current Big Bad in #23, who only died because Emu's effort to stop him in a nonlethal way gave his co-villain all the means needed to stab him in the back.
    • The co-villain in question devolves into a sobbing mess pleading for forgiveness after being finally pushed into a Heel Realization #40.
  • Episode 13 of Kamen Rider Saber, period. Kento is dying, in pain, and attempting to tell the others to go on without him and save the world. Everyone is crying, even Ren and emotion-repressing Tetsuo Daishinji, Rintaro is trying not to but obviously is, Touma is sobbing, Ryo Ogami is angry-crying, and hell, even Kento himself is crying because he doesn't want to leave Touma.
• A recurring sketch in Man Stroke Woman is a man whose girlfriend has just dumped him, causing him to blubber incoherently while his friends hazard increasingly bizarre guesses as to what he's trying to say.
• Al Bundy on Married... with Children is a master of this. As he pours his heart out to Peg of another day at the shoe store:
  Al: This humongous woman in a short dress sits down in front of me. I saw underwear. It said "Saturday" on it.
  Peg: So?
  Al: Today's Wednesday!! (loses it)
• M*A*S*H: Happens with some frequency — lots of really red eyes and folks breaking down completely.
• Merlin:
  • A fleeting example in 3x05 — after Arthur is shot and Merlin thinks he won't be able to save him, he's briefly shown in tears, complete with running nose, as he washes the blood off his hands.
  • Guinevere in 4x09. When Arthur confronts her about kissing Lancelot on the eve of her wedding to Arthur, Gwen is on the verge of hysteria considering she was under a spell at the time, didn't understand what she was doing, and can't provide Arthur with a coherent explanation.
  • Merlin in "A Lesson in Vengeance", once again because it appears that his spell has failed to heal Arthur. Partially done to contrast with Gwen, who was brainwashed the episode before and has spent the entire episode crying Crocodile Tears to get everyone to follow her.
  • Merlin revealing his magic to Arthur in the series finale almost doesn't come to pass since Merlin is crying so much.
• Whenever Bull from Night Court cries, he makes a sound like a Godzilla with his tail caught in a bear trap.
• The Office (US): In the third season episode "The Coup," when Dwight tries to go behind Michael's back to Jan, Michael berates him until Dwight breaks down. He goes on his knees, wailing, and when he comes up he has snot running down his face. In the second-to-last episode "A.A.R.M.", Andy crashes the auditions for an American Idol knockoff called America's Next A Capella Sensation wearing a ridiculous old man outfit. He gets rejected after performing the Cornell University alma mater song, and, having quit his job to compete on the show, burning all his bridges in the process, bawls uncontrollably. This footage ends up getting used on the actual show and becomes a viral sensation, complete with a popular Voice Clip Song video.
• Belle in Once Upon a Time collapses into a heap of hysterics during the Season 3 Winter finale when Rumpelstiltskin sacrifices himself.
• Peacemaker (2022) in episode 2 after getting back to his trailer home - Peacemaker has a breakdown on his bed - sobbing hysterically, yelling how everyone hates him and they're right because he's a terrible person and also several times he punches himself in his maimed clavicle.
• Gus in Psych has a tendency towards being an inelegant, undignified weeper when sufficiently frightened or upset.
• In the mini-series Rhodes, Cecil Rhodes collapses on the ground in tears at the funeral of a friend, implied to be a homosexual lover of Rhodes.
• SCTV — resident primadonna celebrity Johnny La Rue (John Candy) goes into pathetic blubbering, pleading fits when station higher-ups deny him his perceived perks.
• Shining Time Station: Mr. Conductor does this in the episode "Does It Bite?" when he is about to tell Tanya and Matt "The Sad Story of Henry". He ends up sobbing hysterically as he warns the children that it's a very sad story. He does this again before he tells the second half.
  Mr. Conductor: I have some time. I'll tell you a story about Henry, the big green engine. But I must warn you... (voice breaks) It's a very sad story! (he begins sobbing hysterically)
• Jax Teller does this a couple of times on Sons of Anarchy, once in "Laying Pipe" when he watches his best friend beaten to death and once in "A Mother's Work" when he finds his wife dead on their kitchen floor. His face turns bright red, tears smeared everywhere, full body shaking, the whole deal.
• Star Trek:
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: In the episode Duet, Aamin Marritza finally breaks down like this when telling the truth about his experiences as a Cardassian file-clerk working in a death camp on occupied Bajor.
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation: Jean-Luc Picard is twice reduced to this: once while expressing Sarek's repressed anguish and a long Vulcan lifetime of regrets, and once when he finally breaks down over what the Borg did to him, and how he wasn't strong or good enough to stop them. (For good measure, in the second case he's also covered in mud.)
• Sam from Supernatural is an ugly crier and gets much fewer crying scenes compared to his brother (Jensen Ackles, who plays his brother Dean, is a master of "the single perfect tear"). When he does, he dissolves into this. See the beginning of Season 2 when his dad dies or the end of season 3 when Dean dies.
• That '70s Show: Played for laughs in "Eric's Depression". After breaking up with Donna, Eric is depressed, leaving his parents wondering what to do. Kitty asks Red how he handled his first breakup, he insists "I took it like a man.". We go to a flashback which shows young Red not "taking it like a man", weeping inelegantly. In spite of that, present-day Red still says "Yep, took it like a man".
• Happens on Titus when the titular character finally breaks down over his mother's death... in an airplane bathroom.
  • And, according to Christopher Titus's stand-up, based on real events, as smelling turkey on a flight sparked memories of his mother's Thanksgiving dinners.
    Titus: Now I'm lying on the floor in a fetal position and I'm crying. And I don't mean "crying", I mean "snot-coming-out-of-my-nose, booger-bubbles bursting all over the place..."
• Ianto from Torchwood is a rather ugly crier.
  • Gwen also cries like this when Rhys dies in the Season 1 finale.
• The Walking Dead has perhaps one of the most brutal examples ever in its Season 7 premiere. After smashing in the skulls of Abraham and Glenn with a barbed-wire baseball bat, Negan literally has the entire group shaking and sobbing on the ground. And then, just to further show everyone how helpless they are, Negan tells Rick that he'll have to cut off Carl's arm if he doesn't want the remaining group members to die equally horrible deaths. It's this threat that finally breaks Rick down to the point where he's nothing more than a blubbering, runny-nosed mess at Negan's feet.
• Grace from Will & Grace is a champ at this, complete with incoherent high-pitched talking.
• In Winter Sonata, a drunk Oh Chelin loses it after she proposes that "the jilted ones" (she and Sang-hyuk) start dating. She's the sole blubbering mess while everyone else in the series cries so carefully.
• One clip on World's Dumbest... features a guy who's blubbering because his football team lost an important game. When he's brought into the studio several months later, he's still sobbing.

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