Tear Jerker / Saturday Night Live

"You're a legend like you wanted but I wish you were still here with me, And we were getting on a plane to go shoot Grown Ups 3..."

While the series is supposed to be a funny show about 70-80% of the time (depending on season), they've surprisingly have had their tearjerking moments.

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

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In General

• Several episodes that have aired after a tragic news event have had a much more serious and somber cold open. Examples include:
  • September 29, 2001, after 9/11. Paul Simon performs "The Boxer", followed by then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani appearing, backed by a group of police and firefighters. After he gave a sober "we'll move on" speech, he was joined by Lorne Michaels.
    Michaels: Can we be funny?
    Giuliani: Why start now?
  • December 15, 2012, after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. In lieu of a comedic opening, they had the New York City Children's Chorus singing "Silent Night".
  • November 14, 2015, after the Paris attacks. Cecily Strong gave a monologue showing solidarity with the grieving French capital.
  • November 12, 2016, after Donald Trump won the presidential election. Kate McKinnon (as Hillary Clinton) performs "Hallelujah". Both a tribute to Leonard Cohen who had died that same week and a lament of Clinton's defeat.
  • October 7, 2017, after the Las Vegas Strip shooting. Jason Aldean, who survived the shooting, performed Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down", doubling as a tribute to the rock star who died the day afterwards.
  • February 26, 2022, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The cold open featured the Ukrainian Chorus Dumka of New York singing "Prayer for Ukraine," the national anthem of Ukraine. In front of them were candles spelling out KYIV and bouquets of sunflowers.
• The fact that season 40's newest cast member, Pete Davidson, is the son of Scott Davidson, a firefighter who died in the line of duty during the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001 (since Pete was born in November 1993, that means his dad died before he turned eight years old). On the Chris Rock episode of season forty during a Weekend Update commentary about how he thought a rash on his penis was a venereal disease (when really it was an allergic reaction to latex condoms), his response to the doctor was "Are you a doctor or my best friend ever? What else, is my dad coming back?" It was meant to be funny (and Pete did get into stand-up comedy to deal with his father's death), but there were audience members groaning in sympathy, as if they knew that Pete is not over his father's death (and probably never will be).
• While most of the cast and audience see it as a Moment of Awesome, one of the writers on the show at the time Bob Odenkirk, regarded the famous Chippendale sketch with Chris Farley and Patrick Swayze as this because he felt like the sketch's ending where Farley's character is rejected for being fat negated everything and was just an excuse for them to make fun of his friend. He's said since then that he cannot watch it.

Season 1 (1975-76)

Season 2 (1976-77)

Season 3 (1977-78)

• March 11, 1978: The short film "Don't Look Back in Anger" stars John Belushi, made up like an old man (and ironically, mentioned in the sketch as the last living member of the Not Ready for Primetime cast), visiting the graves of his costars. Painful and bittersweet when it first came out, but then, after he died (and saying, "They always said I'd be the first to go")...then, later than that - the first grave he visits is Gilda Radner's...

Season 4 (1978-79)

Season 5 (1979-80)

Season 6 (1980-81)

• The much-despised (and with good cause) Jean Doumanian era (1980-81), of all places, has a Tear Jerker moment on what many consider is one of the few consistently funny episodes of that season (the January 17, episode hosted by Karen Black with musical guests Cheap Trick and The Stanley Clark Trio). There's a sketch that takes place through the eyes of a man who is laid up in the hospital after having a stroke (his thoughts can still be heard and are voiced by Gilbert Gottfried in one of the rare times that Gottfried actually had an indoor voice). After being visited by his Jerkass daughter and her boyfriend (played by Black and Charles Rocket), who only care about finding his will, his best friend, Rachel, (played by Denny Dillon) is revealed to be the only one who actually cares about him (as she loved him, despite that he married someone else) and the one who is the beneficiary to his will. Rachel's line, "I've always wanted you, Morris. Why didn't you ask me? Why was it Ruth you married?", the way she takes one final look back at him before she leaves (knowing that he's going to die), and the ending of the sketch (in which the man is put under with a sedative and sings a song that he remembers from when he was with Rachel) is heart-wrenching.

Season 7 (1981-82)

Season 8 (1982-83)

Season 9 (1983-84)

Season 10 (1984-85)

Season 11 (1985-86)

Season 12 (1986-87)

Season 13 (1987-88)

Season 14 (1988-89)

• December 17, 1988: This moment is more of of a Tear Jerker now than it was then, but there was an old Schiller's Reels sketch called "Love is a Dream" which had Jan Hooks and Phil Hartman in it. Hooks played an old woman going into a storage place and taking out an old necklace of hers and suddenly she's flashing back to a young woman as Hartman comes out as Nutcracker-like soldier and they dance and it's just so beautiful. As the flashback ends she puts away the necklace and is walking out and the guard there waves goodbye to her, which is Hartman's character as an old man. This was a touching and mildly tear-jerking video at first, but when Hartman died in 1998, it became a full fledged sobfest and became unwatchably depressing following Jan Hooks' death from cancer in 2014. In her honor, the season 40 episode hosted by Bill Hader re-aired the "Love Is A Dream" sketch — immediately following a hilarious sketch parodying those "Send 39 cents to save the starving African villagers" commercials with a foreword by Bill Hader and special guest Kristen Wiig saying a few words about how Hooks will be missed.
• May 20, 1989: When former cast member Gilda Radner died the same day as the season 14 finale, Steve Martin (the host for that night and a good friend of Radner's) gave a touching eulogy to Radner and they replayed the 1978 sketch with Martin and Radner dancing. The pure emotion that Martin had on his face and was trying to go on with the show was heartbreaking.

Season 15 (1989-90)

• February 17, 1990: The cold open, made around the time Donald Trump's divorce from his first wife Ivana was very much public, had Ivana (Jan Hooks) negotiating the terms of the divorce with Donald (Phil Hartman). While much of the sketch's humor is derived from Donald turning out to have had a Crazy-Prepared pre-nup agreement (which actually occupies an entire ring binder), one can't help but have pity of Ivana, who gets increasingly more and more humilliated through it, and who ends the sketch an absolute wreck, slumped over Donald's desk.

Season 16 (1990-91)

Season 17 (1991-92)

Season 18 (1992-93)

Season 19 (1993-94)

• May 14, 1994: Phil Hartman's goodbye from his last episode of season 19 (1993-1994 season; the host was Heather Locklear; the musical guest was Janet Jackson) was sad enough, but now when you look back...It's Phil, singing "So Long, Farewell", and holding a clearly sobbing Chris Farley.
  • On the 25th Anniversary SNL Special, Jon Lovitz cried when he introduced that sketch.

Season 20 (1994-95)

Season 21 (1995-96)

Season 22 (1996-97)

• May 10, 1997: During a Celebrity Jeopardy! sketch, Marlon Brando (played by John Goodman) brings up Wally Cox and says "God, I miss that good man." It's especially poignant with the friendship Brando and Cox had in real life. It came out many years later that Brando was actually in possession of Cox's ashes. Cox's widow had entrusted Brando to spread them, instead Brando kept them until the day he died and they ended up being spread together in Tahiti.

Season 23 (1997-98)

• October 25, 1997: Chris Farley's last appearance on SNL, which aired just two months before his death, is disheartening to watch. Despite his attempts at humor and both Chris Rock and Tim Meadows's support, his poor health and exhaustion are evident.

Season 24 (1998-99)

• May 8, 1999: Towards the end of "The Ladies Man" sketch (in an episode where Monica Lewinsky cameos as herself), Leon and Monica are having a good time dispensing advice when her ex-friend Linda Tripp (John Goodman reprising his impersonation of her) calls in on Monica asking her if she can forgive her with Monica breaking her nervous and cheerful manner by sharply telling her that she'd never forgive her what she had done to her (secretly taping their conversations about her relationship with then-President Bill Clinton and turning her into Kenneth Starr's team, which resulted in a lengthy legal battle to get the government to believe Monica and ensure her freedom from jail). After a scandal where Monica was traumatized by Starr trying to prosecute her and the media was riffing on her weight, desirability, and sexuality, it is jarring to see just how hurt Monica was by the betrayal of herself by someone she counted on as a confidant.

Season 25 (1999-2000)

Season 26 (2000-01)

Season 27 (2001-02)

Season 28 (2002-03)

• March 8, 2003: When Fred Rogers died several days earlier, during the last sketch of the night, Horatio Sanz came out onto a stage with only a spotlight on him. He had on a cardigan sweater and was saying "A very good friend of ours died this week" and then started to sing "You Are Special" and then said "Thank you, Mr. Rogers" and then the camera fixed on a little trolley going across the stage and into black.

Season 29 (2003-04)

Season 30 (2004-05)

Season 31 (2005-06)

Season 32 (2006-07)

Season 33 (2007-08)

Season 34 (2008-09)

Season 35 (2009-10)

Season 36 (2010-11)

Season 37 (2011-12)

• May 19, 2012: Kristen Wiig's goodbye sketch, which plays out over the credits and officially closes Season 37. Love her or hate her, it's hard not to get a little teary-eyed during this.

Season 38 (2012-13)

• May 18, 2013: The Weekend Update on the Ben Affleck/Kanye West episode where Bill Hader's Stefon character breaks up with Seth Meyers after growing tired of him always wanting him to recommend normal tourist attractions and Seth realizes that he does love him and stops Stefon's wedding to Anderson Cooper (guest starring as himself), The Graduate style, all ending with Stefon and Seth returning to Studio 8H with the audience and some recurring Weekend Update characters welcoming them back. Along with being awesome, it will bring tears to your eyes, as it's Bill Hader's final episode as a regular cast member and a perfect send-off for one of his best characters on the show.

Season 39 (2013-14)

Season 40 (2014-15)

Season 41 (2015-16)

Season 42 (2016-17)

Season 43 (2017-18)

• January 20, 2018: Jessica Chastain plays the host of a game show called "What Even Matters Anymore?" which becomes largely an excuse for her to vent about the nonsense of people's continued support of Donald Trump, until the other actors break character to ask if she's all right and it turns out Chastain herself forced the sketch on the show, all while her dramatic acting chops make her breakdown entirely believable.]]

Season 44 (2018-19)

• May 4, 2019: Adam Sandler's tribute song to his good friend Chris Farley, in which he's clearly struggling to hold back tears by halfway through.
  The last big hang we had was at Timmy Meadows' wedding party
  We laughed all night long all because of Farley
  But a few months later the party came to an end
  We flew out to Madison to bury our friend
  Nothing was harder than saying goodbye
  Except watching Chris' father have his turn to cry
  • The song was slotted into the "ten-to-one" spot, right before the goodnights. Several cast members can be seen holding back tears then too.

Season 45 (2019-20)

• May 9, 2020: The final sketch of Season 45 has the quarantined cast dreaming about hanging out in various places around New York City. It's a relatable feeling for anybody stuck in lockdown, but especially for fellow New Yorkers who crave even the simplest experiences of the city. One of the last shots also depicts several cast members fading away from the city backdrop, possibly implying their time on the show is coming to a close.
  • In the same episode, Che talks about Ahmaud Arbery, who was murdered for looking "suspicious" while jogging. Che confesses that he has to constantly not look suspicious to his predominantly white neighborhood just to survive and is exasperated that even jogging while black could end your life.

Season 46 (2020-21)

• October 3, 2020: The Season 46 premiere, shortly after the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, gave tribute by having Kate McKinnon appear in the audience dressed as Ginsberg and soberly looking upward.

Season 47 (2021-22)

• The November 6, 2021 episode had a Weekend Update where Cecily Strong plays Goober, The Clown Who Had An Abortion When She Was 23. At first the audience thinks it's all a joke but its slowly revealed that no, this is Cecily admitting she had an abortion. The laughs stop for the most part as she talks about it, with Colin Jost even quietly breaking character to tell her "You don't have to do this, Cecily" only for her to state firmly that yes she has to because people won't shut up about it.
• May 21, 2022: The Season 47 finale cold open ends with Kate McKinnon's recurring character Mrs. Rafferty leaving with aliens on a spaceship, a reference to the fact that this was Kate's last episode. As she walks to the spaceship, she is noticeably holding back tears.
  Rafferty: Well, Earth, I love ya. Thanks for lettin' me stay awhile.

Season 48 (2022-23)

• December 17, 2022: Cecily Strong's final sketch begins as a Reality Subtext-laden sketch about an employee leaving RadioShack, which then transitions into host Austin Butler singing "Blue Christmas" to her in the style of Elvis Presley as the entire cast shows up to bid her farewell.
• February 4, 2023: Coldplay dedicated their performance of "Fix You" to host Pedro Pascal and his mother, Veronica Pascal; she died while he was still in his 20s (exactly 23 years before this episode's airing), which resulted in her missing his streak of starring in critically-acclaimed TV shows.

Season 49 (2023-24)

• October 14, 2023: The beginning of the "I'm Just Pete" sketch shows Pete Davidson cheerfully bringing a cake to the SNL offices to start what he believes will be a fun week with his old cast mates. Then he overhears several of them questioning the decision to have him host, mocking both his talent and his recent projects. This leaves him crushed as he begins the song.

Unsorted:

• One Gilda Radner bit was the black-and-white sketch where she portrayed a Greta Garbo-style old time actress, speaking to the camera. The moment when the camera pans around and you see she was actually talking to a Sad Clown may have seemed like a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment to some, but to some it is quite bittersweet, especially with the combination of the music and the release of a single balloon into the sky. After Gilda Radner's death, it seems even more of Tear Jerker. (Maybe it seems like an Empathy Doll Shot?)
• According to the Live from New York book, the last time Radner saw her old castmates was in March 1987 for Laraine Newman's 35th birthday party. According to Bill Murray, when he heard she was leaving the party, he and Dan Aykroyd carried her around the Los Angeles house where the party was held, repeatedly saying goodbye to everyone.

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