History Main / OnionTears

* In ''Anime/{{Vandread}}'', Pai sees Dita and Hibiki in the kitchen, with Dita crying. She assumes that Hibiki upset Dita somehow, and uses this as an argument to get the men kicked off the ship. She feels bad later when she discovers that Dita was just chopping onions... because she and Hibiki were making her a surprise meal to celebrate her anniversary aboard the ship.

* One episode of ''Anime/RanmaOneHalf'' involved a mirror that could allow whoever held it to travel through time if their tears fell on it (which appeared in a previous episode). Genma tries to invoke this by shoving onions in Ranma's face.

* Episode 10 of ''LightNovel/DragonCrisis'' starts with Ai, Rose and Misaki [[EverybodyCries all crying heavily]], then shows that they are chopping onions at a picnic.
* Iori in Episode 3 of the anime adaptation of ''[[Anime/TheIdolmaster THE iDOLM@STER]]''

* In Creator/DanAbnett's TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Literature/GauntsGhosts novel ''Blood Pact'', Criid blames her tearfulness on the onions. Given that she had just commented that grief lasts a long time...

* ''Series/{{House}}''. "It's a very sad thing, an uncalibrated centrifuge."

* In ''[[VisualNovel/TokimekiMemorial Tokimeki Memorial 2]]'', one of the Drama clips of [[{{Tsundere}} Mei Ijuin]] 's ''Blooming Stories'' CD has her cooking a meal for the main protagonist she has begun to fall in love with. As she's cutting an onion ([[PickyEater her]] ''[[PickyEater most hated]]'' [[PickyEater food]], which speaks for how much she cares for him), she reminisce about their childhood and how his selfless attitude towards her hasn't changed since then. Moved to tears by these thoughts, but [[{{Pride}} prideful]] as ever, [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial she claims the onions]] [[SandInMyEyes are making her cry]].
* In ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac'' the Sad Onion is a passive item that increases Isaac's fire rate. It gives him two cartoony OcularGushers on either side of his face as well.

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

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'':
** Parodied in "My Pretty Seahorse". Squidward appears to be crying at Spongebob's story about his sea horse, but he's actually reacting to a bowl of onions that someone has left on the counter. This becomes a RunningGag, and on the [[RuleOfThree third time]], Squidward is loading off the onions to someone else.
** In another episode, "Something Smells", Spongebob has Gary play sad violin music in anticipation of cutting onions.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'' episode "Crying Smurfs", Papa Smurf's fomula accdiently spilled on an onion. When Greedy is 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, which caused the village to be [[CryingARiver flooded with tears]].

* A 90's Papa Johns commercial had two employees talking, and they both start tearing up as they talk about how rough the job can be and how everything has to be "perfect". That's when their manager comes up and gives them more onions to chop up.

* ''Animation/BoBoiBoy''

'''Calvin:''' ''[to audience]'' It must be hard to cook when you anthropomorphize your vegetables.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* 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.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

-->'''Everton''': Is that you or the onions?\\
'''Gareth''': No, it's me.

* ''Series/ILoveLucy'' has Ricky crying while calculating the losses from Lucy's failed salad dressing business. At least it appears that way until he sobs, "Oh, get these onions out of here!" A plate of chopped onions right under his nose is what was making him "cry."
* The 1980's run of ''Series/LetsMakeADeal'' often had the "World's Largest Crying Towel" as one of the {{Zonk}}s, which usually featured the announcer or model sitting at it cutting a bucket of onions.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

-->'''Mikey:''' "It's hard to tell where the onion crying stops and the 'loss of a carefree childhood' crying begins!"

-->-- '''Music/PDQBach''', "The Seasonings"

-->-- ''The Seasonings'' by Music/PDQBach

In RealLife, if the onions are green or very fresh, especially if cut very close to the root end, 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.) However, there are easy ways to avoid this eye irritation if you're cutting or peeling onions; chilling the onions first, using a sharper knife, and wearing eye protection are all effective methods.

** In the episode "Portrait of a Happy", Bessie chops onions crying during the problem french photographer Fritz gave her about not accepting Happy's accidents or taking his pictures and after he unknowingly did it.

* In ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac'' the "sad onion" is an item that increases your tears (fire rate).

In RealLife, if the onions are green or very fresh, especially if cut very close to the root end, 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.)

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Caillou}}'':
* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'': Happens to Caillou's Daddy in the episode "Caillou's Thanksgiving" when Caillou's Mommy made him cut the onions while preparing for a Thanksgiving feast.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'':

* A recurring joke on ''Series/{{Chef}}''. In one episode, Gareth has just learned that Deborah is having trouble in her private life, and walks in on her crying in the kitchen. He tries to comfort her, but she matter-of-factly informs him that it's just the onions. Another episode has Gareth and Everton tearfully discussing their problematic love lives.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheMightyB'' episode "Portrait of a Happy", Bessie chops onions crying during the problem french photographer Fritz gave her about not accepting Happy's accidents or taking his pictures and after he unknowingly did it.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheMightyB'' episode "Portrait of a Happy" Bessie chops onions crying during the problem french photographer Fritz gave her about not accepting Happy's accidents or taking his pictures and after he unknowingly did it.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'' episode "Crying Smurfs", Papa Smurf's fomula accdiently spilled on an onion. When Greedy is 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 [[CryingARiver flooded with tears]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'' episode "Crying Smurfs", Papa Smurf's fomula accdiently spilled on an onion. When Greedy is 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 Series/{{Solitary}}, Val once assigned the guests in Season 2.0 to do this as a challenge. However, since merely peeling onions wouldn't have had the desired effect, Val took it UpToEleven by having them ''grate'' several onions into pulp, releasing all the fumes. The effect was so severe that the guests experienced watering eyes, dripping noses, burning throats, and even ''stomach pains''. There was a good deal of curses of anger and expressions of pain, but no weeping. Several of them compared the experience to standing in tear gas, or having someone put a handful of chili powder in their eyes.

* Alluded to in the ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'' pilot, where one of the gorilla's insults directed at Big Fat Roy is that is face is ugly enough to make an onion cry.

** "Weirdos on a Train" makes use of the gag by establishing that Crocker wrote a cook book covering onion recipes called ''I'll Give You Something To Cry About'' and a bit where Cosmo, Wanda and Poof turn out to be teary-eyed because of onion tea being spilled into their fishbowl.

* The episode, "Fairy Friends & Neighbors!" of ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents'' had Timmy's parents making friends with a (disguised) Cosmo and Wanda and running off on adventures every day, leaving him with his evil babysitter. Eventually, they decide that they can't keep neglecting Timmy, as proven by Timmy's tears... [[RevealShot which are from Vicky forcing him to peel onions.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Cuphead}}'' features a boss fight against a trio of giant vegetables known as the Root Pack, one of them being an onion named Weepy who attacks the player [[OcularGushers with his tears]].

** In episode 11,after Adu Du gets Probe to stop watching a sad soap opera, the former takes a look at the soap opera himself and starts crying. When Probe reappears and asks why Adu Du's eyes are red, he lies that he was just chopping onions while exercising, even demonstrating the combo to seem convincing.
** In season 3, Adu Du exploits this by making an onion monster to get [=BoBoiBoy's=] tears as part of the DNA samples he needs to make [[RobotMe BoBoiBot]].

* In episode 11 of ''Animation/BoBoiBoy'', after Adu Du gets Probe to stop watching a sad soap opera, the former takes a look at the soap opera himself and starts crying. When Probe reappears and asks why Adu Du's eyes are red, he lies that he was just chopping onions while exercising, even demonstrating the combo to seem convincing.

* In episode 11 of ''Animation/BoBoiBoy'', after Adu Du gets Probe to stop watching a sad soap opera, the former takes a look at the soap opera himself and starts crying. When Probe reappears and asks why Adu Du is crying, he lies that he was just chopping onions while exercising, even demonstrating the combo to seem convincing.