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Please Wake Up (trope)
"Dad?... Dad, c'mon... you've gotta get up. Dad... we've gotta go home."

"Don't leave me here alone... Don't go where I can't follow... Wake up... not asleep... dead!"

When someone dies, and there is a young character for whom this is the first experience with death. They usually say something to the effect of "wake up" or "don't do that, when he wakes up…" Usually implies that the character believes or wants to believe the individual, often their parent, is only sleeping, when in fact, viewers are very aware they are dead. It's all the more heartbreaking when it's just after the two have escaped from the danger, just when you think everything's going to be okay...

Even adult characters sometimes exhibit this behavior under stress, or when someone Too Good for This Sinful Earth dies. A variant also exists with pets or other animals, typically dogs, nuzzling at the hand or face of their dead owner trying to get a response without realizing or understanding that they won't get one.

Truth in Television, sadly; most young children have difficulty understanding the finality of death and are terrified and confused when they discover people don't wake up sometimes, which does give a little credence to Media Watchdogs being cautious about death on television. Even adults who understand death can have this reaction from shock. Most people aren't personally familiar with seeing someone die, and even fewer are qualified to definitively determine signs of life.

The most common outcome of And Call Him "George". Sometimes includes How Dare You Die on Me!. Contrast Talking to the Dead. If the person is unconscious or comatose and not dead, it's Converse with the Unconscious. If the person who sees the death snaps completely, it could develop into a case of Mummies at the Dinner Table. In cases of Comedic Sociopathy, someone's attempt to "wake" the dead may involve Poking Dead Things with a Stick. Compare with Not Dead, Just Asleep, when a sleeping or unconscious character is mistaken for dead. Contrast Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated.

As this is a Death Trope, unmarked spoilers abound. Beware.


Example subpages:

Other examples:

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    Comic Books 
  • Batman: In some depictions of Thomas and Martha Wayne's deaths, eight-year-old Bruce is shown in denial of what happened. In Death and the Maidens, a flashback vision/hallucination sends Bruce back to that moment as a boy again. Bruce is gathering his mother's pearls, reassuring her that he'll fix her necklace and that by doing so everything will be all right again. His mother's ghost interrupts him and shakes him out of his childlike denial (changing Bruce back into an adult).
  • Fantastic Four: In one story, The Thing takes a massive shot from Doctor Doom that actually blew a hole in his chest. Reed spentdssomething like an hour performing CPR in a futile attempt to keep him alive before Sue and Johnny convince him to stop. Ultimately subverted, since Reed then builds a machine that lets them go to the afterlife and find Ben, then they meet God (who looks just like Jack Kirby) and he brings The Thing back to life for them.
  • The Immortal Hulk: A flashback to the immediate aftermath of Rebecca Banner's death has Brian telling her to stop playing around and get up, despite the fact he's kneeling in her blood from having smashed her head in.
  • New Mutants: In issue #60, after the battle with Ani-Mator and The Right troopers:
    Rahne to Doug (finding him on the ground and shaking him.)
    "You are teasing us, aren't you?"
    No he isn’t.
  • The Powerpuff Girls: The story "Buttercup's Boyfriend" (issue #2) deals with a boy who receives a belt from Him that causes people to hate after getting zapped from the buckle's ray (this after Buttercup spurns his approach). The ray hits Bubbles, but since she's so full of love the ray short-circuits her and knocks her unconscious. Blossom verbally tells Bubbles she loves her; she entreats Buttercup to tell Bubbles she loves her in order to wake her up.
  • Runaways: Chase Stein has had to go through this twice - first when his girlfriend Gert was killed by Geoffrey Wilder, and later when an accident apparently killed Old Lace. The second time was probably worse because he actually felt Old Lace's heart stop beating.
    "I'msosorrysorrysosorry Gert. I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry. Come back. Please come back..."
  • Spider-Man: Probably one of the best-known examples in a comic is The Night Gwen Stacy Died the story where Gwen Stacy died. Spider-Man catches her with a web after she's knocked off the Brooklyn Bridge, not knowing she's already dead. When he pulls her up and realizes he's lost her, he initially can't believe it.
    Spider-Man: I saved you, honey, don't you see? I saved you...
  • Transformers: Wings of Honor: The comic two examples from the Battle Lines Arc.
    • Outback's reaction to Ricochet's death.
      Flak: He's offline.
      Outback: Just like Rico to take a stasis nap during a fight.
      Flak: No, Outback. He's... gone.
      Outback: Oh! ...oh.
    • Sprocket is a Cloudcuckoolander and constantly talks to famous people, people who are deceased, imaginary people, and inanimate objects. It's all in his head and quite funny. When he and his brother Rumbler are shot, he's fine, but a panel shows the medics staring grimly at Rumbler's body, later pronouncing him dead. Sprocket's final appearance has him talking to an empty chair, still believing Rumbler to be alive.
  • Ultimate Marvel: In Ultimatum, Magneto has a Villainous BSoD when he finds out mutants are nothing but a by-product of a supersoldier experiment. He starts begging Xavier, whom he just recently killed, for advice and asking where he is.
  • X-23: At the end of Innocence Lost, Laura kills her mother in a chemically-induced berserker rage, just as they destroy and escape the Facility that bred her. As Sarah Kinney dies and tells Laura that she loves her, for a moment she stops being a weapon and is just a little girl again, hopelessly begging, "Please, Don't Leave Me," even after it's clear that Sarah has already died from her wounds. In a flashback to this same scene in Target X, Laura goes on to numbly ask what her next mission is.

    Fan Works 
  • In Being Dead Ain't Easy, as Joey dies, Kaiba begs him to stay with him. This turns out to have lasting ramifications.
  • The Child of Love: In chapter 9 Shinji told that line to Asuka when he thought she had passed away.
    Shinji: Wake up! Don't leave me! Don't...
  • A Star Trek: The Next Generation Death Fic titled An Enduring Song kills off Troi and has Riker ask her to come back.
    Riker: Please, come back to me, Deanna. Gods, come back to me
  • Fireside Tale: After the death of her sister, Anna tries to fool herself into thinking that Elsa is just asleep. She soon comes to terms with Elsa's death, but it doesn't mean she ever got over Elsa. Anna died still grieving over Elsa, refusing to leave an uninhabitable Arendelle even after everyone else did:
    Kristoff: Anna.
    Anna: I don't want to wake her up. It's okay, it's not that cold. I can wait until she wakes up by herself. Then we can take her in and get her warm, and...
    Kristoff: Anna. You know better.
  • Fluffy Pony: If somebody dies in front of a fluffy, the fluffy will often shout "Wakies!" in a futile attempt to waken the dead character.
  • In Gensokyo 20XXV, Reimu does this twice. The first time is a subversion; the people in which she is trying to wake up aren't dead. The second time is played straight; the person she is trying to wake up has actually passed away.
  • The Great Dual Substitute Turnabout: In the flashback in Chapter 11, Phoenix is in denial that his parents are dead and begs them to wake up.
  • At the end of the first Halloween Unspectacular, after the Big Bad ReGenesis/Dib Membrane hits the Reset Button on their destruction of Earth at the cost of their own life. Invader Zim tries this on them, begging ReGenesis to wake up...
  • Subverted in Chapter 6 of I've Got Your Back, where Pearl initially goes to bring breakfast in bed to a sleeping Marina, but, finding her out like a light and as cold as a stone after more than twelve hours, is momentarily terrified that she had died in her sleep. As it turns out, she had merely needed all of the rest that she could get after the previous night, where she suffered a massive Disabled in the Adaptation injury.
  • In the The Lord of the Rings fanfic Left, Frodo has a nightmare about finding Sam dead. He shakes him and begs him to wake up.
  • In It's not the Raptor DNA, Elise thought her sister was getting better when she stopped breathing, then she wouldn't eat anymore, and poor Elise tried to warm her cold body by wrapping herself around it. It wasn't until Small One started to smell and decompose that Elise realized she would never wake up anymore.
  • Mare of Steel: Firefly does this to Rainbow Dash after the latter's fight with General Zod leaves her in a coma. Fortunately, it's a Disney Death and Rainbow Dash wakes up soon after.
  • Mastermind: Rise of Anarchy has a rather twisted example when Bakugou, who's become a Vigilante Man as a way of coping with his newfound status as a social pariah, accidentally kills one of his targets. Upon realizing what's just happened, he has a brief moment of My God, What Have I Done? before switching over to angrily demanding that they "wake the fuck up."
  • In Morticia Cara Mia, which is a fanfiction of The Addams Family, Morticia goes into labour then climbs ups the stairs but is reduced to The Klutz due to contractions so she falls down the stairs and ends up unconscious and apparently dead with broken ribs and a cut on her forehead. Gomez thinks it's a trick God is playing to teach him that money can't replace everything and yells at Morticia and God to have Morticia be alive. It turns out she is alive.
  • "My Brother Cain, My Brother Abel": As Caleb lay dying, Flapjack pulls on his hair trying to get him to get up. After he dies in Evelyn's arms she continues to shake his body and pleads with him to open his eyes.
  • In My Little Chrono Triggers Are Magic, Pinkie Pie does this to Big Mac in the Cariij Dome coldroom. That said, it should be noted she doesn't know him, so it's much less Tear Jerker than it could be.
  • Variant in Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide. When Asuka gets killed (she gets better later), Shinji, utterly broken, pleads "Asuka, please talk to me. Asuka..."
  • In Symbiosis, a two-year old Ash begs his father's dying Mareep to wake up after Mareep barely manages to get them to safety in the Viridan Forest to hide from the people who killed Ash's parents.
  • In the Fantasia story in The Disney Chronicles, the t. rex that fought and killed the stegosaurus for food is revealed to be a mother when, immediately after her death, her young son walks into view. And from there, as the visiting Equestrians and Jiminy Cricket watch in stunned shock at this revelation, the baby t. rex chirps at his mother as if desperately begging her to wake up, then letting out an especially mournful sounding cry once he realizes she's not going to wake up.
  • In The Lord of the Rings fanfic This Present Darkness, Gimli says the trope title to Legolas. Subverted, since Legolas isn't dead, but he was raped, which for Elves causes a slow, lingering death.
  • Thousand Shinji: After Asuka has been killed by the MP-Evas Shinji is holding her as desperately pleading "Wake up, Asuka, wake up."
  • In To the New World, Eira frantically shakes Miquella and calls his name when she sees him dying from a dream-injury. He does wake up after she kisses him, but if she hadn't been there he really would have died.
  • The old 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. Then her father wouldn't wake up. Then the final letter stops halfway.
  • In Under the Big Top, after Castiel commits suicide, Dean begs him to wake up, even though he knows he's dead.

    Films — Animation 
  • In Beauty and the Beast (1991), Belle begs the Beast not to leave her after his Disney Death.
  • Finding Nemo: Nemo plays 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 Frozen (2013), Elsa does this for a moment, when Anna magically freezes solid after saving her from Hans.
  • The Iron Giant gives us a double whammy, first when the giant attempts to wake up a recently-shot deer, which inadvertently teaches him the concept of death. This comes back when the giant believes that Hogarth is dead and nudges him the same way he did the deer.
  • In The Jungle Book (1967), Mowgli says, "Get up. Please get up" 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 Disney, Baloo is of course Not Quite Dead.
  • Subversion in Kung Fu Panda 1; an injured Shifu thanks Po for defeating Tai Lung and bringing peace to the valley, and slowly closes his eyes.
    Po: No, no, no! Don't die, Master Shifu! Please!
    Shifu: [abruptly wakes up] I'm not dying, you idiot! I mean... Dragon Warrior... I am simply... at peace. Finally...
  • The Land Before Time: Like Simba, Littlefoot urges his mother to stand before she dies from her injuries, and afterwards pleads "Mother? Mother?" to no avail.
  • The Lion King (1994): Simba tells Mufasa to get up in the aftermath of the stampede. Simba was likely aware of what had happened, considering his Big "NO!" when Mufasa fell, so this scene comes more from denial.
    Simba: Dad?...Dad, c'mon... you've gotta get up. Dad... we've gotta go home.
  • In Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, when Princess Camille, Professor Genius, and Flip regain consciousness after Nemo's Heroic Sacrifice to destroy the Nightmare King, she finds Nemo's body slumped on the floor, rushes to his side, and cradles him, pleading for him to wake up until she bursts into tears. He gets better thanks to King Morpheus and his reclaimed Royal Scepter.
  • In Maya the Bee Movie, Maya says to Willy after an intense scene in which they are attacked by bats and he is then knocked to the ground. He's not dead, though, only passed out, and quickly does wake up. Later, also to the Queen Bee, who also isn't dead, though she is a lot worse off.
  • Once Upon a Forest has Cornelius sing a song with the title of the trope to his niece when she falls into a life-threatening coma trying to save her parents from the poisonous gas.
  • In Ringing Bell, minutes after Chirin's mother sacrifices herself to protect Chirin from getting killed by Woe the wolf. Chirin suddenly emerges from his mother's body thinking she was knocked out. After he attempts to wake her up by shaking her hoof, it suddenly hits him that his mother has been killed and begins wailing. As he's crying, Chirin starts running around her lifeless body while the other sheep can only watch on in silence.
    Chirin: No! You can't die, mom! [starts crying hysterically] Don't die, mom! Don't die! [starts running around her body and shaking her] No! Wake up! Wake up, I say! Don't die on me! Mom... [falls down her body] Don't die!
  • In Summer Wars, the family reacts to Grandma Sakae's death like this. She dies in her sleep, thus when they discover her, everyone crowds around her bed, desperately crying for her to open her eyes.
  • In Tangled, Rapunzel does this to Eugene after Gothel kills him.
    Rapunzel: No no no no no, Eugene... Oh, look at me, look at me! I'm right here, don't go, stay with me, Eugene!
  • The Tigger Movie: Roo to the unconscious Tigger when he lands on the rock he ended up on during the avalanche. Tigger thankfully regains consciousness in time so they can both escape.
    Roo: Tigger!! Wake up, Tigger!!! Waaaake uuuuuuup!!!!
  • Jessie implies this in Toy Story 3. After Spanish Buzz sacrifices himself to save her from a falling television, and he is pulled out from under it, Jessie opens his helmet and shakes him, trying to wake him. Buzz doesn't even move, but after a few seconds of despair, he does wake up... returned to his normal self.
  • In Trolls Band Together: Spruce does this with Floyd. After Floyd risked his life to help his brothers achieve the Perfect Family Harmony and destroyed the diamond prisons his older siblings were being trapped in, including himself, Spruce goes to his side and tries to wake him up, but he alongside their brothers become heartbroken when they didn't get a respond. Fortunately, through his brother's life essences and love, Floyd is revived and wakes up.

    Literature 
  • The child Errand, in the final book of The Belgariad, with his hand on Durnik's shoulder, shaking him slightly and looking puzzled when he doesn't respond. Errand hadn't learned many words at that point, so it was a silent attempt.
  • The Bible:
    • There are several points where "sleeping" is used as a metaphor for "dead." When Jesus is on the way to the grave of His (recently deceased) friend Lazarus, He tells His disciples that Lazarus is "sleeping" and He is going to "wake him up." (He then raises him from the dead.) He also uses the same metaphor when he raises a young girl from the dead. Also, Paul refers to dead believers as "sleeping in Christ" in one of his letters. There are also several passages of people going to "sleep" with their fathers. This metaphor reflects the Christian belief that death isn't permanent.
    • In the case of Jesus' revival of recently dead people, even the Early Church considered the possibility that they might have just been in a deep coma (e.g. the Daughter of Jairus and the Son of the Widow of Nain)—but Lazarus was different as he had been in the tomb for some time.
  • The children in The Blue Lagoon (book and film) think their adult friend Paddy is taking a nap at the opposite end of the lagoon and row over to wake him, only to find him with his eyes wide open, bugs already at work, and a tiny crab crawls out of his mouth when they turn him over.
  • Circle of Magic:
    • In Tris's Book Tris freaks out after her cousin Aymery dies, arguing with his body while thinking that she wants him to wake up. He was killed by pirates who he owed vast quantities of money to after outliving his usefulness to them, in the process of letting the pirates into the temple she lives in, but he was the only member of her family who'd ever been nice to her.
    • In Briar's Book, Briar spends the night at the bedside of one of the blue pox patients, his friend Flick, who dies holding his hand. When told to get up, he protests that he can't let go or he'll wake her— despite having seen her stop breathing— because he's so exhausted from tending patients and staying awake all night. His teacher gently replies "You know better."
  • In Cirque du Freak by Darren Shan when Darren fakes his own death, at his wake his sister Annie is heard screaming for him to "stop playing around and wake up." He's not actually dead but still...
  • In the Discworld novel Feet of Clay, a golem attempts to save a dying priest by inserting words in his mouth.
  • Jacqueline Wilson's novel Dustbin Baby has a young April speaking to the police after her adoptive mother, unbeknownst to her, has killed herself in the bath.
    Policewoman: I'm afraid Mummy's gone to sleep.
    April: You have to keep shaking her and then she wakes up.
    Policewoman: I'm afraid Mummy can't wake up now. She's going to stay asleep.
    April: But she's in the bathroom! Has she gone to sleep in the bath?
  • Older Than Dirt: In The Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh mourns over his friend Enkidu's body for seven days, dressing the corpse, imploring him to wake up, and refusing to allow a burial until he sees a maggot drop out of Enkidu's nose.
  • A harsh variant of this occurs in Katherine Paterson's novel Flip-Flop Girl:
    Mason: [to his big sister, Vinnie] I'm glad Daddy's dead. He smelled bad.
    Vinnie: How dare you say that? How dare you say you're glad your own daddy's dead? You're bad, bad, bad. No wonder Daddy died. Who would want to live with a kid like you?
    Mason: [later that evening at the funeral home, looking at his father in the coffin] Get up, Daddy. Get up.
    Vinnie: I thought you were glad, Mason. You said so your very own self. Don't say you didn't.
    Mason: [pretends not to hear her] Get up.
    Vinnie: He's dead, Mason. He's dead, and there's nothing you can say to change that.
  • Go to Sleep (A Jeff the Killer Rewrite): In a flashback to the previous summer, Jeff is distraught to see Ben's soaked body by the lake, knowing that he can't swim and fell in somehow. While an adult tries CPR and chest compressions to get Ben to respond, Jeff grips his hand, begging him to wake up. Ben does give a slight grip... only for it to go limp.
  • John Ajvide Lindqvist's Handling The Undead, where a mother and her father refuse to believe that their zombie son/grandson won't get better if they keep trying, to the point of purchasing books on autistic children, because they think that will help.
  • Harry Potter:
    • Harry did this to Ginny in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Although she turned out to be alive, she was in a kind of magical coma and was thus about as responsive as a corpse anyway.
    • He did a variation on this when Sirius died in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Sirius literally fell through the veil separating life and death, and Harry refused to believe Sirius is dead, instead insisting that he's okay and will step through the veil again.
  • In Lord Of Shadows after Julian's little sister, Livvy, is killed, he goes into denial and begs her to open her eyes.
  • Appropriately for its mythic style, sleeping is often a metaphor for death in The Lord of the Rings. As in, "she laid herself to rest on [some hill], and there is her green grave..." In both novel and film Sam asks Frodo to wake up after Shelob stabs him, but gives up and declares him dead. It's somewhat more justified here than in the Peter Jackson film, because Sam stays beside him for hours in Heroic BSoD mode before finally getting the strength to leave and take the Ring to Mt. Doom on his own. Of course, he's alive.
  • The anti-nuclear poem Mother the wardrobe is full of infantrymen by Roger McGough ends with "mother don't just lie there, say something please" (said twice).
  • My Sweet Audrina's husband visits her daily during her coma to move her arms and legs and ask this of her. Unfortunately, given that he's currently having an affair with her half-sister/cousin, Audrina doubts his sincerity.
  • In Night Watch (Series), a Dark mage is killed by a rogue Light Knight Templar, when he's enjoying dinner with his human family in a restaurant. This serves as a somewhat educative moment, as the sight of the mage's grieving wife and son trying to wake him up (the magic weapon leaves no traces and he indeed looks asleep) convinces the over-zealous rooky Night Watcher Svetlana that killing Dark Others indiscriminately would indeed bring more harm than good to people.
  • Occultic;Nine: In her diary Seria Mina writes about living with her brother for a year. Very early some messages already show hints of decomposing, meaning they were written after he was taken from the morgue and she has been delusional.
  • Used somewhat disturbingly in the Redwall books:
    • The Bellmaker: Three young woodlanders are found shipwrecked on an island by the heroes. The younger two children mention that the adult who was on the ship with them is also on the island. The oldest kid eventually reveals to the heroes that the hedgehog had died from a head injury quite some time ago, but he left the body in the tent and told the other two that they had to stay out of the tent because the hedgehog needed to sleep.
    • This trope also occurs in Mattimeo, the third (in order of publication) novel in the series, which features a scene where a bankvole child vainly tries to rouse his murdered mother.
    • Happens again in The Legend of Luke, with the squirrel Chugger and his granny. This actually reduces an otter to tears. Said otter is one of the most Sociopathic Heroes in the series, which says something.
  • A rare adult example occurs in 'Salem's Lot. Tony Glick loses control at the funeral of his 12-year-old son Danny, and throws himself into the grave, pounding on the coffin and shouting for his son to wake up.
    "Danny, you come outta there! ... Danny, goddammit, you stop this fucking around! ... Danny, you stop it now! You got your Momma scared!"
  • The Shipping News:
    • At the wake for a man who fell off his boat and drowned, one of the main character's two young daughters is standing right next to the drowned man when he wakes up. Turns out the freezing cold water had sent him into a state of shock where his heart rate slowed below detection and when his body finally warmed back up he was pretty much fine (you know, exactly the kind of situation the tradition of a "wake" was originally for).
    • The two little girls are then very excited about the prospect of going to wake up their recently passed mother. Their father had told them at the funeral that she was sleeping and wouldn't wake up, but seeing the old man wake up convinces the two of them that she could be just like him. It has to be explained to them that, no, she is not sleeping but actually dead (unlike the not-so-drowned man at the wake), their father simply couldn't bring himself to say it aloud at the time.
  • In the original Tarzan of the Apes novel, Kala does this with her baby who died in a fall. It's not until she discovers baby John that she puts her dead child in the crib, taking John in his place, and thereby hangs (well, swings) the tale.
  • Tideland is a freakish example. The daughter doesn't realize her dad has died and assumes he is "farting" when he starts to rot.
  • In the second book of The Underland Chronicles, the baby Bane begs his mother, Goldshard, to wake up after his father Snare killed her.
  • Warrior Cats:
    • Bluepaw (young Bluestar) in the book Bluestar's Prophecy does this when her mother Moonflower is killed by Hawkheart in the attack on the WindClan camp. The sequence is made even more heartbreaking when Bluepaw must relay the news to her sister Snowpaw.
    • Done again in The Last Hope, when Ferncloud is killed. One of the kits wonders what happened, and another one tells them not to worry, that Ferncloud is only asleep and that Dustpelt will wake her up. At this point, Dustpelt is begging Ferncloud not to leave him.
  • Sunny begs for Dune to wake up after Scarlet snaps his neck in Wings of Fire. She's an example of the "denial" variant as Sunny is old enough to understand death.

    Live-Action TV 
  • In the Season 1 finale of Alphas, Gary doesn't at first realize that Anna is dead. And then he just keeps saying her name and trying to get her to come with him to safety.
  • To a lesser extent a video clip shown on America's Funniest Home Videos showed a deer (or a moose, or something similar) trying to mate with a lawn ornament of a deer, which broke into three pieces under its weight. After regaining its balance, the deer (moose?) started lightly kicking one of the pieces, as if trying to get the 'other deer' to wake up.
  • On The Andy Griffith Show, Opie goes through this in one episode when he shoots his slingshot at a bird. When he realizes he killed it, he starts crying and begs for it to get up and fly away.
  • Blue Bloods' Danny sits at his comatose partner's bedside (she suffered an accidental drug overdose after handling a suspect's stash) and implores this of her, especially in light of the fact that his wife just died:
    "I really can't afford to lose you too."
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
    • "Mom? Mom...? ...Mommy?," followed, of course, by frantic shaking and "Mom! Mom! Mom! MOM!" Thanks a lot, Whedon...
      Buffy: [in tears, childlike] She's cold. Should... should I-I make her warm?
      911 Operator: ...the body's cold?
      Buffy: No! My mom!
  • Cobra Kai: Tory desperately begs her mother, Grace, to wake up, but Grace is already dead from a pulmonary embolism.
  • Doctor Who:
    • Possibly the only example to replace the sobbing child with a sobbing 900-year-old alien, this was done in "Last of the Time Lords." The Master lies dying in the Doctor's arms. The Doctor begs him to regenerate; the Master chooses to die instead, accomplishing his final victory by abandoning the Doctor as the last Time Lord in the entire universe. "I win."
    • Rory to Amy in the 2010 series finale "The Big Bang":
      Rory: You'd have laughed at that. Please laugh.
    • Amy to the Doctor in "The Impossible Astronaut," after the latter is shot mid-regeneration.
    • Happened to the Doctor again with Jenny, his daughter/Opposite-Sex Clone. She is seemingly shot fatally and he begs her to regenerate while cradling her in his arms, even after it's clear that her hearts have stopped for the time being. The Tag shows her still alive and glowing with regeneration energy, likely because she's still technically in the first 12 hours of a regeneration cycle, hence able to heal a wound she normally wouldn't have.
  • In an episode of ER, Benton's ex-girlfriend Carla died in a car accident. Upon reaching the hospital, he tried to break the news to their 4-year-old son, telling him via sign language (the boy is deaf) that "Mommy went to sleep forever." Not understanding, the boy kept signing back to him, "Then wake her up," until Benton finally signed (and said) "Mommy died."
  • Firefly: In "Jaynestown," Jayne tries to wake up the "mudder" who just took a bullet shot at him by the partner he abandoned in the episode's backstory. Jayne doesn't get why the guy still did it after he admitted he wasn't the big hero they saw him as.
  • An episode of Full House has Michelle confronted with the news that her great-grandfather, whom she had just met the day before and became attached to almost immediately, passed away in his sleep. When the family breaks the news to her, she lashes out angrily in denial of the idea that he could possibly be dead after having known him for only a day. Worst of all, he had promised to visit her school for show-and-tell that day to teach her class a folk dance he had taught her earlier.
    Michelle: No! HE'S NOT DEAD! [smashes the popsicle stick house she made for him]
  • Game of Thrones: In the very last episode, Daenerys Targaryen is stabbed in the gut and bleeds out. It's her dragon, Drogon, who finds the body and keeps nudging it to get her back on her feet, before freaking out.
  • It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: In the Cold Open for "The Gang Finds A Dead Guy," Mac and Dee discover a dead body in the bar that they think is just asleep and repeatedly try nudging awake by poking it with a pool cue before they realize it's dead.
  • Heartbreakingly rendered in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit's "Loss" between Alex Cabot and Olivia Benson. Benson and Stabler are escorting Cabot, who is under a death threat from some particularly nasty Colombian drug dealers, when said dealers' mooks pull a drive-by shooting. Benson is the first to notice Alex laying mortally wounded on the sidewalk, and tries her best to stop the bleeding, all the while talking frantically in a futile effort to convince herself that Alex is going to survive:
    Benson: Alex? ...Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no. Someone call an ambulance! Call 911 now! Alex, it's okay, Alex, look at me, it's okay sweetie, stay with me, stay with me, you're going to be okay, Alex, you're going to be okay, do you hear me? You're going to be fine, you're going to be just fine, stay with me... Alex, it's okay... Alex? Alex...?
    • It's not okay at all, of course, as the next scene shows Benson's desk, atop which is her badge with a mourning band and a newspaper headline announcing what most of us already guessed. Then it turns out it IS, in fact, OK, but she has to remain "dead" in order to go into Witness Protection. The scene got worse during the final scene: it's all about Alex and Olivia, and everyone else fades into the background. They just look at each other for eons, and then Olivia says:
  • Little Women (2017): Upon finding the Hummels' baby dead, Beth begs it to wake up. When it doesn't she makes a break for the doctor's. The baby is proclaimed dead and Beth is diagnosed with scarlet fever as a result of her exposure to the Hummels.
  • Inverted and Played for Laughs in Monty Python's Flying Circus with the Dead Parrot sketch. The inversion is that the disgruntled customer smacks the bird around to disprove the shopkeeper's claim that the bird is asleep, not dead.
    "No no, sir. It's not dead. It's resting! Remarkable bird, the Norwegian Blue. Beautiful plumage."
    "The plumage don't enter into it. It's bleeding demised."
  • Mouse (2021): After Chi-guk's death Ba-reum begs him to wake up.
  • In the Danielle Steel movie A Perfect Stranger, an adulterous wife returns home from a tryst to find that her elderly husband has overdosed on his medication. Racked with guilt, she tries to rouse him, tearfully and repeatedly apologizing as if this will bring him back. (The sad irony is that the man didn't kill himself out of despair over her affair. He was fed up with battling his illness and wanted to leave her free to be the other guy).
  • The Pushing Daisies pilot has a variation: when Ned's mother dies due to an aneurysm, he touches her and brings her back to life, like he did before with Digby. Due to the strange rules of his gift, she dies when giving him a goodnight kiss, and Ned just sits there poking her corpse, hoping she will be alive again...
  • Scholar Who Walks the Night: Yang Seon begs her father's corpse to wake up when she realises he's dead.
  • In the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Conscience of the King," after going mad, Lenore Karidian accidentally kills her father Anton Karidian (a.k.a. Kodos the Executioner) who was shielding Captain Kirk (the one she was trying to murder). She talks to her father's body, saying, "The curtain rises. It rises. 'Tis no time to sleep." It's a surprisingly tearjerking scene.
  • Supernatural:
    • The ending of "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part One" had a variation of this trope (in that of course Dean understands death, he just doesn't want his world to come crashing down around him) when Sam is dying in Dean's arms after being fatally wounded and Dean is in childlike denial:
      Dean: Sam, Sam, Sam. Hey, hey... Come here, come here, let me look at you. Oh, hey look, hey look at me it's not even that bad. It's not even that bad, alright? Sammy, Sam! Hey, listen to me, we are going to patch you up, okay... You'll be as good as new. Huh? I'm going to take care of you. I'm going to take care of you. I gotcha. It's my job, right, watch out for my pain-in-the-ass little brother... Sam... Sam... Sam! Sammy! No... no-n-n-n-n-no. Oh god... Oh god... Sam!
    • Another variation for Sam in "Mystery Spot." He's been stuck in a "Groundhog Day" Loop where he only wakes up after Dean dies every day. When it's a Wednesday and he believes they've defeated the Trickster, Dean is shot by a mugger (of all the things he could die from) and is dead even before Sam gets there. He says, pitifully, "I'm supposed to wake up" and starts crying but, unfortunately, it's for real this time.
  • In the second season of True Blood, Bill flashes back to his first homecoming since being turned—only to find that his toddler son has died of smallpox. The body has been laid out exposed in its coffin, and Bill falls to his knees clutching at the shroud whispering, "Thomas, get up! Your poppa's here. Wake up now..." His blood tears finally reveal his vampirism to his wife—-who screams in horror that he's been possessed by the devil...
  • The Vampire Diaries: Bonnie cries "wake up" towards her presumably-dead grandmother. And later, Anna does the same after her mother Pearl gets staked by Johnathan Gilbert.
  • In Walking with Beasts, a brontothere mother keeps chasing a pair of scavengers away from her dead calf since every time they shift the body she thinks it's alive.
  • At the end of the last episode of Walking with Dinosaurs a pair of Tyrannosaurus rex babies desperately try to wake their dead mother, after she was fatally wounded by the tail-club of an Ankylosaurus the previous day. Then the Asteroid, the same one that will cause the K-Pg extinction, hits Earth, and the babies die.
  • In the Season 1 finale for Yellowjackets, Shauna and Jackie get into an emotional argument after Jackie discovers that Shauna is pregnant because she slept with Jackie's boyfriend Jeff. Shauna becomes defensive and insults Jackie, and when Jackie tells her to Get Out!, Shauna tells her she can get out instead. Once outside, Jackie struggles to keep a fire burning and falls asleep. The next morning, Shauna sees that it snowed during the night and panics when she sees Jackie lying still on the ground. She runs out and brushes the snow off her while begging her to wake up, but to no avail.
  • Xena: Warrior Princess:
    • When Xena and Gabrielle are caught in a war zone towards the end of Season One, Gabrielle's head injuries send her to the makeshift infirmary in a temple, where she languishes for some time unconscious before going into a seizure that ends all signs of life. Xena's reaction fills this trope perfectly, as she goes into literally violent denial that she could lose her best friend.
      Xena: She is not dead. I wouldn't let her. Come on, Gabrielle. Wake up. Come on, wake up. Come on, wake up! You're scaring me, wake up! Wake up! Gabrielle, breathe! Come on, breathe! Breathe! She just needs air. I need to get some air in her lungs!
    • Some time later, after desperately administering ancient Greek CPR while all spectators look on in silent grief, she completely loses it, and, sobbing, pounds on Gabrielle's chest with her fists, screaming, "Don't you leave me! Don't leave me, don't leave me! Wake up! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!" She does. Ensue a shower of grateful tears and kisses.

    Music 
  • In Peter Alsop and Bill Harley in the Hospital, the two leads play teenagers (or younger) who both end up in the hospital, and discuss many topics on hospital stays and illnesses from a kid's point of view (through song, at that). One of the final songs is While I'm Sleeping (I'm Alive), which uses two versions of this trope (Rusty, the dog, was "put to sleep" by the vet, while Grandpa "went away" but never said goodbye) and then includes this bit:
    Oh, why do grown-ups say asleep, instead of saying dead?
    Only makes kids nervous when it's time to go to bed...
  • Babybird's "I didn't want to wake you up"
    The other night, I saw you lying there,
    I didn't want to wake you up
    The next day, I saw you lying there,
    I didn't want to wake you up
    The next evening, I saw you lying there
    You hadn't moved an inch
    The next day, I saw you lying there,
    I wish that I could wake you up
  • Blues Traveler's "Pretty Angry" (written by John Popper about the death of a friend):
    And I want to shout from my guitar,
    Come out, come out, wherever you are.
    The joke is over, open your eyes,
    A heart like yours it never dies.
    And I saw your keys behind the chair,
    I still can see you sitting there.
    It isn't funny, don't fool around,
    You let me go, you let me down.
  • Some recordings of Space Oddity by David Bowie end the song this way (with a fair mix of Uncertain Doom), by way of the radio dying and Ground Control fruitlessly trying to get a response from an astronaut in a malfunctioning ship.
    Tell my wife I love her very much. (She knows)
    Ground Control to Major Tom
    Your circuit's dead, there's something wrong
    Can you hear me, Major Tom?
    Can you hear me, Major Tom?
    Can you hear me, Major Tom?
  • Eminem's song "My Fault," about a guy who convinces a girl to try shrooms, and then watches as she overdoses, ends with this:
    My God, I'm so sorry!
    I'm so sorry!
    Susan please wake up!
    Please!
    Please wake up!!
    What are you doing?!
    You're not dead!!
    You're NOT dead!
    I know you're not dead!
    Wake up...
    Susan wake up...
  • Frank Kelly Freas' cover for News of the World by Queen is a replica of his cover for Tom Godwin's story "The Gulf Between." Even without knowing the context, it's pretty clear that this trope is being invoked.
  • Lady D'banville is about a man's lover who dies in bed with him.
    My lady D'banville
    Why do you sleep so still
    Your heart feels like winter
    Our love shall never die
    Our love shall never die
  • Used briefly in Avril Lavigne's song, Slipped Away (which is dedicated to her grandfather):
    I've had my wake up
    Won't you wake up
    I keep asking why.
    And I can't take it
    It wasn't fake it
    It happened you passed by
  • Sarah McLachlan's "Hold On" has this in the chorus:
    While you're sleeping peacefully, I'll lie awake and pray
    That you'll be strong tomorrow and we'll see another day.
  • The Offspring's "End of the Line"
    Please stay now, you left me here alone (It's the end of the line!)
    Please stay, I can't make it on my own
    Make it on my own
    (It's the end of the line!)
  • Tom Paxton's song "Jimmy Newman," about a dying soldier:
    Get up Jimmy Newman they won't take my word
    I said you sleep hard but they're shaking their heads
    Get up Jimmy Newman and show them you hear
    Jimmy just show them you're sleeping
  • "Passive" by A Perfect Circle is an angrier variant crossed with How Dare You Die on Me!:
    Wake up and face me, don’t play dead cause maybe
    Someday I will walk away and say, "You disappoint me,"
    Maybe you’re better off this way
  • In "Nina," a selection from “24 Italian Songs and Arias” by Baroque composer Vincenzo Legrenzio Ciampi, the singer laments that Nina has been sleeping in bed for three days and begs the musicians to awaken her. Turns out that she has died ever since.
  • "Charlie" by Split Enz is this in spades The tale of a man that finds his girlfriend dead after an argument is heartbreaking, as this verse proves, sung light-heartedly as the first verse, then in horrified realisation for the last verse.
    Wake up, Charlie, rise and shine
    Pour the tea, I'll draw the blinds
    Sunlight halo, you look wonderful
    Darling, Charlie, Pale and deathly still
    For heaven's sake, wake up Charlie

    * A somewhat more disturbing version is used in the song "Psycho" by Teddy Thompson (among other artists), where the narrator relates to his mother various incidents where he's had blackouts and people have ended up dead. By the end of the song...
    You think I'm psycho, don't you, Mama?
    Mama? Why don't you get up?

    Puppet Shows 
  • Fraggle Rock: In the episode "Gone But Not Forgotten," Wembley does this as he faces the end of his new friend Mudwell's short lifespan.
    Mudwell: [softly] Goodbye. [Lies down.]
    Wembley: Mudwell, what are you doing? This is no time to take a nap. I want to work things out!
    [No response from Mudwell.]
    Wembley: Come on, Mudwell, wake up! [Beat] Mudwell?
  • Mr. Hooper's death on Sesame Street, when the adults broke the news to Big Bird. The big yellow guy had drawn beautiful pictures of all the humans, and wanted to give Mr. Hooper's drawing to him, and they gently explained that that he had died. It took some doing to make him understand that his friend wasn't coming back.
    Big Bird: I'll just give it to him when he gets back.
    He's not coming back. And neither is the gentleman who played him.

    Radio 
  • An American radio PSA from the 2000s against road rage features a mom getting impatient in traffic, a little kid saying "Mommy, Mommy, the light is red!," a car crash sound effect, and the kid saying "Mommy? ...Wake up, Mommy!" Somewhat Narm-inducing due to its poor production value.

    Roleplay 

    Tabletop Games 
  • Particularly dark example in the opening fiction to the Adamantine Arrow Sourcebook for Mage: The Awakening, where an Arrow from the American Civil War describes the time he encountered the corpses of an old man and a young boy. The old man had been shot in the head, while the boy (who the Arrow realised must have been the man's grandchild) had no marks on his body. Upon further inspection, he found that the man's corpse had bread stuffed into its mouth, and the boy's corpse was clutching a bread loaf. The Arrow realised that the boy must have thought that his grandfather was only sleeping, and tried to keep feeding him until he himself died of exposure.
  • In the Vampire: The Masquerade core book, a short piece of fiction is told from the perspective of a young vampire who has recently drained his mortal girlfriend's blood and fed her of his own vampiric blood, hoping to turn her into another vampire so they can stay together forever. After half an hour without her giving any signs of life, he starts becoming increasingly desperate, wondering if something has gone wrong (it is implied that his blood might not be strong enough to successfully create a new vampire) and starts begging her cooling body to wake up.
  • Played for Black Humor in Warhammer 40,000, where Beasts of Nurgle are basically big stupid dogs that love to meet new friends and lick them and hug them. Unfortunately, they ooze disease, their saliva is acid, and they weigh several tons. So when they see their new friends holding very, very still, they get sad... but it only lasts until they see more friends farther away.

    Theatre 
  • Similarly to King Lear, La Bohème concludes with Rodolfo remarking how peacefully his beloved Mimi is sleeping, and wondering why all his friends are staring at him... then it hits him. "MIMIIIIIIIIIIIIII!"
  • One of the most gut-wrenching scenes in English literature comes at the end of William Shakespeare's King Lear when Lear comes onstage with the body of his daughter Cordelia in his arms. Lear's recently recovered from a bout of madness due to Cordelia's care, and when she dies, he wavers between howling in grief and insisting that she's just sleeping:
    A plague upon you, murderers, traitors all!
    I might have saved her; now she's gone for ever!
    Cordelia, Cordelia! stay a little. Ha!
    What is't thou say'st? Her voice was ever soft,
    Gentle, and low, an excellent thing in woman.
He dies moments later.
  • Inverted in Romeo and Juliet in which Juliet actually is just sleeping under the effects of a potion that's supposed to really made her look like she's dead, but Romeo commits suicide out of despair. In some adaptations (such as the Baz Luhrmann film), she wakes up while he's doing this. Whoops. In the ballet version, Romeo shakes Juliet then picks up her "corpse" and dances with her before laying her back down and taking the poison. When Juliet comes to and finds Romeo dead she shakes him but comes to the conclusion that he's dead much more quickly.
  • Timur in Turandot, at Liu's death: "Liu! Liu! Wake up!"

    Web Animation 
  • Dayum: Played with in "Types of People at Funerals Portrayed by Minecraft" – a man tells his dead friend to "wake up," not out of love or desperation but because he wants back money the dead man owed.
  • The Zero Punctuation review of Batman: Arkham Asylum portrays Batman accidentally pouncing on a cat, who is then surrounded by kittens.
    Kitten: Please wake up, Mommy!

    Webcomics 
  • This episode of 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.
    [beat]
    [beat]
    Fighter: Go on, make with the blasting.
    [beat]
    Fighter: Black Mage? Get up and yell at me. Black Mage. Get up. Please...
  • Done in a similar fashion in this strip of Amazing Super Powers.
  • Vul'Re to the Mother in Catalyst: "Wake up. Please, wake up..."
  • In Homestuck: PLEASE TELL ME THAT'S JUST HONEY.
    • It's really a shock to see him have this reaction, compared to how he normally acts.
    • Gets a tragic callback with PLEASE TELL ME THAT'S JUST GRUB SAUCE.
    • JOHN. 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 Muppet Babies/Saw crossover comic attributed to Bro.
  • An interesting variation in It's Walky! is that it's a genuine if sentimental appeal: the person in question could wake up, and does.
  • In The Night Belongs to Us, the cat has such a moment over her unconscious owner. But only because she is hungry.
  • Played with in a very disturbing way by the The Perry Bible Fellowship in this strip.
    "Only one round, and Rokie's already tired!"
  • In Sandra and Woo, a carnivorous squirrel who shot an attacking puma and took some of her meat. As she turns to leave, the puma's cubs find their mother dead.
  • In Something*Positive: 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: A grown man's initial reaction after he killed a woman. Then, such is his monumental narcissism that the death's thwarting him stuns him.
  • Wooden Rose: At the beginning of chapter four, Lillian and Nessa's father passes away overnight. In the morning, Nessa futilely begs him to wake up after Lillian tries to tell her that he has died.
  • A variation in WTF Comics. The father has just taken a nearly fatal blow protecting his child. This triggers the kid's Unstoppable Rage. He gets better.

    Web Original 
  • According to one Creepypasta, 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 WAKE UP.
  • The Onion article "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."
  • From the SCP Foundation, an interview with SCP-1073, a sapient colony of microbes (who thus have no experience with individual death):
    SCP-1073-2: Where did Dr. ██████ go?
    Dr. ███████: [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.

    Web Videos 
  • In this video, a girl is begging her friend to wake up after he is killed in unknown circumstances but it's all in vain.
  • Critical Role: In episode 4 of campaign 4, during the purge of the Davinos and Royce houses at the hands of the Tachonis family, Occtis is brutally murdered by his own brother, who cuts his stomach open and rips his heart out of his chest. When the group arrives at the Lloy estate after fleeing, Thaisha — who loved Occtis like he was her own son — is out of spell slots because she spent the entire walk over casting Cure Wounds (a spell that only works on living creatures) on his body.
  • Parodied in the Leo and Satan episode "Trash Hazard", this seems to be played straight at first with Satan tearfully begging Leo to respond after accidentally cutting his body into ribbons, but then comes The Stinger, where a perfectly unscathed Leo shows up and asks how he got here.
  • Parodied in Italian Spiderman, where Italian Spiderman tries to wake Professor Bernadotti up by punching him.

    Western Animation 
  • American Dad!: Played for Laughs in the episode "Tearjerker," a James Bond spoof. The titular villain (Roger) plans to Take Over the World by creating the ultimate Tear Jerker film about a mentally handicapped alcoholic Jewish boy whose puppy dies of cancer during the Holocaust, aptly titled "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.
  • Amphibia: In the penultimate episode "All In," Anne and Sasha beg Marcy to wake up after she has been disconnected from The Core's control, telling her that they forgive her for her actions and crying over her. Fortunately, she does after some Swiss-Army Tears and the three have a long overdue Group Hug.
  • In an episode of Arthur, 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?"
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender has a variation that is amazingly carried out in silence, just executed with wordless actions. Aang dies in Katara's arms at the end of "The Crossroads of Destiny," and just after she pours spirit water onto him to try and resurrect him, she closes her eyes and holds his dead body close to her in a hug. Tear Jerker indeed.
  • BoJack Horseman: Throughout the season three episode "That's Too Much, Man!," Bojack requests his friend and previous surrogate daughter, Sarah Lynn, break her nine-month sobriety streak (something she'd been waiting to break) so they could go on an 'epic bender.' She'd suggested at the beginning that they should go to a planetarium, the best place to trip. Bojack had other plans. It's Played for Laughs at first when she falls asleep and he nervously calls for her to wake up, causing a large "WHAT?" reaction. Soon after, she experiences a pseudo-breakdown over realizing she doesn't like anything about herself and, after around a month, he finally takes her to the planetarium. There, she confesses that she, someone who'd fantasized about being an architect since she was a young girl, actually just liked the planetarium due to the work that was put into building a dome. The old Bait-and-Switch is pulled as she falls asleep on his shoulder in the middle of him delivering an inspirational monologue. This time, she doesn't wake up.
    Bojack: See, Sarah Lynn? We're not doomed. In the great, grand scheme of things, we're just tiny specks that will one day be forgotten. So it doesn't matter what we did in the past, or how we'll be remembered. The only thing that matters is right now, this moment, this one spectacular moment we are sharing together. Right, Sarah Lynn? Sarah Lynn? ... Sarah Lynn?
  • Captain Planet and the Planeteers: In "Mind Pollution," Verminous Skumm comes up with a new drug called Bliss and gets Linka's cousin Boris and Linka herself hooked. Boris eventually overdoses on Bliss and collapses, leading Gi to declare him dead after failing to find a pulse. Linka initially denies it, claiming Gi is lying, and desperately shakes her cousin in an attempt to wake him up. When Wheeler gently reiterates the truth, it breaks her denial and she crumples to his chest, finally admitting how horrible the drug is.
  • Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood: In "Daniel's Fish Dies," Daniel sees his pet fish Blue Fish dead, and initially wonders if he's just sick or sleeping.
  • Played for laughs in the Family Guy Season 5 finale, "Meet the Quagmires," when 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.
  • Futurama:
    • In the episode "The Sting," when Leela is in a deep coma, Fry repeatedly begs her to wake up in a series of dreams. She eventually wakes up in the hospital.
    • In the episode "Rebirth," Leela is in another deep coma and nothing The Professor tries wakes her. Obviously, she gets better.
      Fry: No! [gets a baseball bat] I refuse to give up! Wake up, Leela! [whack] I! [whack] Love! [whack] You!
  • Justice League: In "Tabula Rasa," Lex Luthor goes looking for Dr. Ivo, the only person who might be able to repair his Powered Armor. 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 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."
  • Kaeloo: In Episode 125, Quack Quack is shot with a bazooka and killed. Kaeloo desperately begs him to wake up and thinks the whole thing is a joke, but soon realizes that he is indeed dead. Later in the episode, we find out that he was faking it as part of a Batman Gambit.
  • Hilariously subverted in Chuck Jones' Looney Tunes short 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]
  • Milo: In "Milo and Prickly the Porcupine," when Milo and his schoolmates find the eponymous porcupine, whose real name is Picpic, dead, they are confused and wondering why he's "sleeping" when it isn't night time.
  • In one of the stranger Pinky and the Brain 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 The Lion King (1994), but with tigers: "Papa, wake up. You have to wake up Papa!"
  • 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!!"
  • Recess: It's an early Gut Punch in season one. The kids love their class hamster Speedy, and wish him a good weekend when the episode starts. On Monday, Mikey goes to wish Speedy a good morning in his tank, only to realize he's asleep. Mikey taps the glass and shakes it, but Speedy does not budge one bit, as the class gathers around in concern, including Hustler Kid and other background characters. T.J. tries to say he's tired from eating his croutons, but Gus points out the bowl of croutons is full. Ms. Grotke goes Oh, Crap! because she knows what's happened, and tries to lie that Speedy is either meditating or hibernating. Gretchen, the genius of the class, knows that hamsters don't hibernate, and she picks up Speedy to check his heartbeat. Upon hearing nothing, she goes Oh, Crap! and tries to stammer out "He's, he's..." and Mikey finishes her sentence by saying, "SPEEDY'S DEAD!"
  • In one of the most (if only) depressing Rugrats episodes, Chuckie is in serious denial over the death of his little bug, Melville.
  • The Tex Avery MGM cartoon Lonesome Lenny has Screwy Squirrel taken in as a pet for a suspiciously familiar dog. Both near the start and at the end, he states with a hint of regret, "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 the final Screwy Squirrel cartoon.
  • Played devastatingly straight in the episode of The Simpsons 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, looking at her] Asleep with your eyes open? ...Mom? [tearfully] ...MOM?
  • The Smurfs (1981): In "Squeaky," Smurfette finds her pet mouse Squeaky dead, but she doesn't realise he's dead and tells Papa Smurf, "He's sick. He won't wake up."
  • Sofia the First: A non-fatal example done in the Pilot Movie Once Upon a Princess; Sofia says this word-per-word to Miranda who has fallen under a sleeping spell along with everyone else at the ball.
    Sofia: Mom! I must've said it wrong! Please wake up!
  • South Park:
    • Non-fatal example from "Helen Keller! The Musical": After Timmy gets shot trying to save his pet turkey Gobbles, Gobbles repeatedly nudges the boy until he gets up.
    • Parodied in "Woodland Critter Christmas" when Stan kills a mountain lion. Turns out Monster Is a Mommy, and the adorable cubs come out and utter the familiar line. Don't worry, she comes Back from the Dead.
    • Cartman tries to revive Kyle in "Imaginationland," 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.
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars: In "Orders," Rex does a variant of this after Fives is shot and killed by Clone Commander Fox, trying to shake him while pleading for him not to go.
  • Steven Universe:
    • While the words are never uttered, in "Off Colors," Steven kneels down next to Lars, who isn't moving or breathing, grabs him by the collar and shakes him in a way that is very reminiscent of someone trying to wake up an unconscious person.
      Steven: [teary-eyed] Lars...?
    • In "Reunited," after Steven gets knocked unconscious, Connie frantically tells him to wake up, her tone implying she's afraid he died. However, Steven really is just unconscious, and uses his Astral Projection to tell her.
    • In "Change Your Mind," Connie does it again after White Diamond removes Steven's gem. He does wake up, but is very weak and most likely would have died if he didn't get it back.
  • Sym-Bionic Titan: In "The Demon Within," 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 that killing the Mutraddi would change her back. He shuts his eyes and holds her hand. Her heart resumes beating and she turns back into herself.

Alternative Title(s): Wake Up Mommy, Wake Up Mummy

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...Mother?

Littlefoot's mother passes after sustaining injuries against Sharptooth. Distraught, Littlefoot tries to call her to no avail.

How well does it match the trope?

4.62 (16 votes)

Example of:

Main / PleaseWakeUp

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