History Main / OnionTears

* One of [[WesternAnimation/{{Bunnicula}} Bunnicula's]] many [[LovecraftianSuperpower powers]] from sucking the juice out of [[VegetarianVampire vegetables]] includes draining an onion that causes his eyes to [[OcularGushers spray tears]] with the force of a fire-hose.

* OlderThanRadio: In Mme [=LePrince=] de Beaumont's "Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast", Beauty's sisters use OnionTears to emotionally blackmail her into staying home.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheCasagrandes'': The episode "Snack Pact" has the Casagrande family (except Rosa) learn about a food truck whose tamales are the best they've ever tasted. Knowing that Rosa [[GreenEyedMonster is bitterly jealous over anyone whose food supposedly tastes better than hers]], they decide to distract her while they get the tamales. Bobby's method of distracting Rosa is by chopping the onions for her. This results in him crying so hard his OnionTears overlap with InelegantBlubbering (OcularGushers, loud sobbing, red eyes, runny nose, the works!). His face is still stained with tears when he dials in his cousin Carlota.
* The ''WesternAnimation/TUFFPuppy'' episode "Snap Dad" has a bit where Dudley's mother is crying over the phone and turns out to be doing so because she's cutting onions.

** In ''''VideoGame/PuyoPuyoChronicle'', as the party makes their way through the Color Tower, they all get assaulted by an oniony stench making their eyes tear up. Surely enough, Onion Pixie is also nearby.

* This happens twice in the ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyo'' series, usually caused by the onion-headed Onion Pixie:

** In ''Chronicle'', as the party makes their way through the Color Tower, they all get assaulted by an oniony stench making their eyes tear up. Surely enough, Onion Pixie is also nearby.

** In Sig's [=WakuWaku=] course in '' Puyo Puyo Fever 2'', Sig will remark that "That onion made me cry" after defeating him.

** In a ParodyEpisode of StarWars, the characters try to find Plucky by inserting one of his feathers into their rocket's computer. However, it starts tickling the computer making their rocket go out of control, so the gang have to peel onions in order to make it cry and go back to normal.

* In ''Julie & Julia'', Julia Child is practicing cutting onions. Her husband Paul walks into their kitchen and immediately tears up, starts wiping his eyes, and hurries out of the room.

* Onion Oni from ''{{Franchise/Anpanman}}'' has managed to weaponize this. He tosses onions and uses his kanabo to peel and slice them by whacking at them. The onion slices then land on the eyes of his victim (normally Baikinman in this case). Also, Onion Oni himself (his head's an actual onion, with two sprouts acting as his horns) is a bit of a crybaby (he's still a little boy, but he doesn't like being seen as just a kid).

* ''Manga/{{Beastars}}: Jack uses onions to force himself to cry because he think it is wrong that the disturbing information he learns about the world's history doesn't make him cry due to his species being engineered to not feel strong emotions.

* In ''[[Literature/Lyra Caught in Crystal]]'', RetiredBadass innkeeper Kayl grabs a knife and some onions to mask her tears over painful memories. Later, her young son is telling the inn patrons not to get the stew, because [[BrickJoke he saw how many onions his mother was cutting for it]].

* The ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'' episode "Hear Some Evil See Some Evil" has the monks with tears in their eyes the night after they eavesdrop on each others thoughts with the newest Shen Gong Wu, only for it to be [[BaitAndSwitch because they are chopping onions]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'' episode "Crying Smurfs", Papa Smurf's fomula accdiently spilled on an onion. When Greedy about to cut an onion to slices for his salad, a strong smell comes up to his eyes - causing him to start crying. Later, Smurfette and other smurfs (except Hefty and Papa) started crying after having the salad, caused the village [[OcularGushers flooded with tears]].

* In his [=WakuWaku=] course in ''[[VideoGame/PuyoPuyo Puyo Puyo Fever 2]]'', Sig faces off against the onion-headed Onion Pixie as his first opponent. Upon defeating him, Sig says "That onion made me cry."

[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/squidward_onions.jpg]]]]

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[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/ShrekFourD'' (the UsefulNotes/ThreeDMovie that plays at Ride/UniversalStudios), newlywed Fiona is crying because her carriage is an onion. It's also referenced in the original ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'' movie during the "ogres are like onions" scene -- Donkey suggests, "They make you cry!" as one of the possible connections.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}'', Stromboli takes a bite of an onion and talks close to Pinocchio giving him tears.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'':
-->'''Calvin''': Why are you crying, Mom?\\
'''Mom''': I'm cutting up an onion.\\
'''Calvin''': ''[to audience]'' It must be hard to cook when you anthropomorphize your vegetables.
* In a ''ComicStrip/{{Mafalda}}'' comic strip, Mafalda's mother is tearing up while peeling onions, and her precocious child (who is always worried about the situation of the world) brings her a terrestrial globe "so that she can cry for something more altruistic than an onion".
* In a ''ComicStrip/{{Kudzu}}'' sequence parodying Jimmy Swaggart's prostitution scandal, Reverend Will B. Dunn started crying on his show. The last frame revealed that he was using this method.

[[folder:Oral Tradition]]
* A [[BlackComedy dead baby joke]] runs thus: What's the difference between a baby and an onion? [[spoiler:You don't cry when you cut up a baby.]] Also applies to bagpipes, accordions, and violas.
* An unrelated joke actually inverts this trope: ''You are so ugly you made an onion cry.''

[[folder:Podcasts]]
* In ''Podcast/TheHiddenAlmanac'', one of the history moments concerns an art work titled "Eleven Hundred Small Bits of Onion". Reverend Mord recalls that it was "reported to be a success, as no one could view it without bursting into tears, although some art critics suggested that this method was probably cheating."

[[folder:Radio]]
* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': In the episode "Tears for Mr. Boynton," Mrs. Davis advises Miss Brooks that she has to appear more vulnerable to attract Mr. Boynton. Davis hides onions in Miss Brooks' purse. In fact, the sobbing Miss Brooks is very successful in getting sympathy from Mr. Conklin and Walter Denton. She even gets Mr. Boynton [[SeriesGoal to propose]] . . . [[FailureistheOnlyOption almost.]]
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[[folder:Toys]]
* ''Toys/TheTrashPack'', ''Toys/{{Shopkins}}'', and ''Toys/TheGrosseryGang'', three toylines from Moose Toys that share connected universes, all have a crying onion character (Smelly Onion, Boo-Hoo Onion, and Onion Scum and Smelly Onion, respectively).
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[[folder:Web Original]]

* ''WebAnimation/ChallengeToWin'' had a character in its second season named Onion, who is ProneToTears and cries about ''anything''.

* ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures''

In RealLife, if the onions are green or very fresh, they can produce the copious tears, often accompanied by sniffing (because your tear ducts and nasal tubes are connected), but not the sobbing (although sometimes, the tears and sniffling can make you congested, forcing you to breathe through your mouth and send you even one step closer to the appearance of sobbing.)