History Main / GoodbyeCruelWorld

At the end of ''VideoGame/StarcraftI: Brood War'', [[spoiler:Admiral [=DuGalle=]]] writes a farewell letter to [[spoiler:his wife]] detailing what lead to [[spoiler:the UED]]'s defeat and what really happened to [[spoiler:Stukov]], and ends the letter by asking her to tell their children that he loves them and that he died in defense of their future before wishing "Au Revoir". He then loads a gun and points it to his head with the screen fading to black as he finally pulls the trigger.

* Played with in the Series/{{Sherlock}} Series 2 finale. [[spoiler:Sherlock's]] phone call to John is the equivalent of a suicide note. [[spoiler:Of course, he's actually planning on FakingTheDead.]]

* ''ComicBook/BatmanBlackAndWhite'': In "Fortunes", Batman and a private detective investigate a death scene in which a murder has been made to look like a suicide, complete with a video-taped suicide note in which the victim (a professional fortune teller) claims she has foreseen that she will be murdered "at the hands of a non-believer" and has chosen to kill herself first. The detective, who has already noted that the death wound can't have been self-inflicted, points out the oddity that the video apparently shows the victim shooting herself and yet somebody has taken the video out of the video camera, put it in the victim's VCR, and helpfully rewound it to the beginning of the message.

* In a third season episode of Series/VeronicaMars'', Veronica is given a Criminology assignment of planning 'the perfect murder'. She suggests faking a suicide note from the victim, using a generic phrase such as "Goodbye cruel world", typed on a computer so the note can't be analysed. [[spoiler:Shortly afterwards, the dean of the college is murdered in exactly this way.]]

* The new Netflix series 'What/If' has [[spoiler: Anne Montgomery do this via voice memo in the season one finale.]] In her typical fashion, she doesn't explain why (although the viewers see), rather just prophesizes about life and death in their entirety. [[spoiler: Of course, the end shows it was actually a FakingTheDead moment]]

** It's also brought up a couple of times that [[spoiler: Miles Edgeworth left behind a note saying "Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth chooses death" before he disappeared. The final case reveals he's still alive.]]
* In ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc '', [[spoiler: Sakura Oogami]]'s murder is revealed to in fact be a suicide, after which her friend pulls out the note she found, explaining how [[spoiler: Sakura]] had been driven to despair by the way her only friends were fighting amongst themselves and hating her for [[spoiler: her position as Monokuma's ex-[[TheMole mole]], even though she'd rebelled against him]]. [[spoiler: Turns out that note was a forgery, and her ''real'' note was a much more tender affair explaining how she hoped her death would fulfill her obligations and strike the first blow against the mastermind.]]

** '''The Beast With a Billion Backs''' has him writing a suicide note with a quill pen (“In lieu of flowers, please beat yourselves in the face with rusty chains”) and pinning it [[ButtMonkey directly to Zoidberg]].

** Bender has a checklist form at the end of his "Cries For Attention" notes:
---> [_]I'm Getting a Tattoo
---> [_]I'm Running Away
---> [x]I'm Going To Kill Myself
---> [x]And This Time I'm Serious

* Quite possibly the TropeNamer (although not the first instance by at least 28 years): the last song on the second side of the first tape of Music/PinkFloyd's ''Music/TheWall'' is "Goodbye Cruel World", which - while not a suicide note - is a final message from the main character to the world before cutting all his emotional ties and going behind his self-created Wall.

'''If you are considering writing a suicide note of your own,''' ''please'' reconsider. '''It's not your time to say goodbye.''' YouAreNotAlone - [[UsefulNotes/SuicidePrevention please reach out and seek help.]]

* The stock phrase appears as one of the messages in ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' when a player causes their own death with no prompting by jumping into a pit, switching classes while outside spawn, or using the "kill" console command.

* [[ThePhilosopher Gothos]] in ''Literature/TheKharkanasTrilogy'' claims that the project he's currently writing is a suicide note. He's been at it for [[WeAreAsMayflies several centuries now]] and does not expect to be done any time soon. Other characters are quick to question the point behind writing a suicide not that will never actually ''end''; Gothos cares not.

** The Itchy and Scratchy cartoon in [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E13RadioBart Radio Bart]] has Scratchy find a suicide note of his roommate, Itchy, with the exact phrase goodbye cruel world. When Scratchy tries to prevent Itchy's suicide by jumping in a well, Itchy kills him for no reason.

Not as much TruthInTelevision as some might assume. This trope has led many people to believe that every suicide victim leaves a note, and conversely that if there isn't a note it [[NeverSuicide can't have been suicide]]. An approximate guess is that fewer than one-third of suicide victims in the United States leave notes, and the older the victim is the less likely he or she will leave a note. Whether this is because older people have outlived their families or because younger people have learned from this trope that they 'should' leave a note is unknown, since it's tough to ask a victim of suicide. Younger victims seem more likely to leave a note if a celebrity has done so in the very recent past. In Japan this may take the form of a ''zetsumei-shi'', or death poem. It is traditional to compose one right before committing seppuku (so expect to see a lot of these in historical fiction).

'''If you are considering writing a suicide note of your own,''' ''please'' reconsider. It's not your time to say goodbye. YouAreNotAlone - [[UsefulNotes/SuicidePrevention please reach out and seek help.]]

* From ''Manga/{{Skyhigh}}'' - Kino-shita sends a note to each one of the AlphaBitch snobs who bully her telling them that one of them is next, because she will come back to kill.

* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10266162/1/Erasing-The-Past Erasing The Past]]'' is about Anna finding a suicide letter that Elsa wrote prior to their parents deaths.

* At the end of ''Berlin Memorandum'', Literature/{{Quiller}} has tracked down the Nazi he wanted revenge on since seeing him execute concentration camp inmates during World War II. We don't see what happens, but afterwards he reports to MissionControl, who asks if he wants smoke out (SpySpeak for a cover up). Quiller replies that it isn't necessary, as "he left a suicide note."
* [[ThePhilosopher Gothos]] in ''Literature/TheKharkanasTrilogy'' claims that the project he's currently writing is a suicide note. He's been at it for [[WeAreAsMayflies several centuries now]], and does not expect to be done any time soon. Other characters are quick to question the point behind writing a suicide not that will never actually ''end''; Gothos cares not.

-->'''Devil:''' I've got his suicide note upstairs. Quick question: Quoting Hamlet--too cliche?\\

* Subverted by Music/ElvisCostello's album ''Goodbye Cruel World'' While the album definitely feature depression and loneliness as recurring themes, none of the songs actually explicitly deal with suicide. And there isn't a title track either. The cover does depict Elvis on a cliff and possibly about to jump off.

* "A Quitter" by {{Music/Rasputina}}. The title has a double meaning in french, which phonetically translates to "has left."

* ''All My Sons'' ends with Chris reading to his father a letter written by his MIA brother Larry, which confirms that he was in fact DrivenToSuicide by his father's denial of guilt.
* A play (whose name unfortunately escapes me) had an old lady murdering her long-time colleague. First they played a game where they guessed and wrote down the next line of a poem the other quoted, inadvertently writing a rather lyrical 'suicide note'.

** It's also brought up a couple times that [[spoiler: Miles Edgeworth left behind a note saying "Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth chooses death" before he disappeared. The final case reveals he's still alive.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'' episode "Gay Bash": After Xandir had to face the truth that he is homosexual (with the result that his girlfriend, the princess who he is perpetually forced to rescue from the clutches of his various arch-enemies, tells him to get lost) he tries to commit suicide, by dramatically yelling "Goodbye, cruel world!" and stabbing himself with his sword. Unfortunately, as a video game character he is entitled to a lot of extra lives, which he has to "wear down" first before he can die. So he spends the entire night killing himself (and resurrecting mere seconds later, with the appropriate sound effect, minus one life), and growing progressively more bored and less enthusiastic about the whole thing, while the rest of the characters are vainly trying to catch some sleep. Who knew suicide could be such a chore?

* In ''VisualNovel/{{Danganronpa}}'', [[spoiler: Sakura Oogami]]'s murder is revealed to in fact be a suicide, after which her friend pulls out the note she found, explaining how [[spoiler: Sakura]] had been driven to despair by the way her only friends were fighting amongst themselves and hating her for [[spoiler: her position as Monokuma's ex-[[TheMole mole]], even though she'd rebelled against him]]. [[spoiler: Turns out that note was a forgery, and her ''real'' note was a much more tender affair explaining how she hoped her death would fulfill her obligations and strike the first blow against the mastermind.]]

* A particularly strange one left by [[spoiler:Lane Pryce]] in ''Series/MadMen''. After cutting him down, Roger, Pete, and Don look at his desk and find an envelope addressed to the partners: