History Main / SuicidalLemmings

Subtrope to SomewhereAMammalogistIsCrying. Will double as SuicideAsComedy if the trope is played for dark laughs. Not to be confused with GullibleLemmings -- an entirely different trope about naivety -- though it is the TropeNamer for it.

A good deal of ArtisticLicenseBiology is at play here: while it is true that real life lemmings jump off some cliffs, it's done for the purpose of migration. It is not the mass suicide that the media claims it to be; the SquareCubeLaw is on their side and even massive falls usually won't harm them. Falls also happen by accident when a thick crowd runs ''alongside'' a cliff. That doesn't stop writers from milking the legend for all it's worth, if for no other reason than that [[RuleOfFunny it's amusing]]. This originally entered the pop-culture consciousness due to the 1958 {{Creator/Disney}} documentary ''[[Film/TrueLifeAdventures White Wilderness]]'', during the filming of which filmmakers purposely drove lemmings off cliffs to record footage of their demise.

Fictional lemmings tend to be based almost exclusively around urban legends according to which food shortages lead the rodents to engage in millions-strong mass migrations, where the masses of rodents wander purposefully but aimlessly and inevitably perish when they run headlong into great danger -- including, most iconically, seaside cliffs. Some works omit the reasons behind the migration entirely, depicting lemmings as simply possessing innate urges to throw themselves off of high places. These depictions often also incorporate AnAesop about herd mentality, the idea being that the lemmings mindlessly do what the rest of the swarm is doing, even when this will lead them to throw themselves to their deaths.

A good deal of ArtisticLicenseBiology is at play here: while it is true that real life lemmings jump off some cliffs, it's done for the purpose of migration. It is not the mass suicide that the media claims it to be; the SquareCubeLaw is on their side and even massive falls usually won't harm them. Falls also happen by accident when a thick crowd runs ''alongside'' a cliff. That doesn't stop writers from milking the UrbanLegend for all it's worth, if for no other reason than that [[RuleOfFunny it's amusing]]. This originally entered the pop-culture consciousness due to the 1958 {{Creator/Disney}} documentary ''[[Film/TrueLifeAdventures White Wilderness]]'', during the filming of which filmmakers purposely drove lemmings off cliffs to record footage of their demise.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'': In one series of strips, Garfield meets a mouse with a lemming mother. He describes lemmings as "gerbils with sucidal tendencies", and inherited traits such as [[http://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1983/09/16 compuslively jumping off of high places]] and [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1983/09/17 trying to drown himself]].

* ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'': Parodied in a sketch parodying nature documentaries, where lemmings gain the title of "[[TooDumbToLive Nature's Retards]]" for not only the typical behavior, but also running right into the path of moving cars, jumping into a blender, and not using condoms.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheStoryOfSantaClaus'' has the two elf characters trying to decide what should pull the sleigh. Aurora can't remember the problem with lemmings until they start moving, where they promptly hurtle themselves over the cliff.
-->'''Aurora:''' I think I remember the bad thing about lemmingssssss... *the sleigh goes over a cliff* They like to run off cliffs.
* ''WesternAnimation/VivaPinata'': Lemmonings get a thrill over running off cliffs as shown in one episode of the cartoon, though they don't really know why. They don't seem to show this trait in [[VideoGame/VivaPinata the game]]- because instead, the Sour Lemmoning explodes itself!

** In "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonIIStasisLeak Stasis Leak]]", Rimmer recalls having a pet lemming as a boy. He states that he built the lemming a little wall for him to hurl himself off of.

** In "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonIIStasisLeak Stasis Leak]]", Rimmer recalls having a pet lemming as a boy. He states that he built the lemming a little cliff for him to hurl himself off of.
** The idea is used metaphorically in "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonIIITheLastDay The Last Day]]", when the EpicFail of Rimmer's day working for the Samaritans made the papers as "Lemming Sunday".