History Main / SuicideIsPainless

* In ''Dream Science'', a novel about people who have somehow become detached from normal reality into a fractured group of partial alternate reality scenes (some apparently-normal alternate worlds, but also things like an office in a square hallway that has no exit, or an endless department store), death only sends these people into a new reality. After a while, people who are bored with their current world or can't find another way out tend to just kill themselves.

* Subverted in Dostoyevsky's ''The Possessed''; sympathetic (if batshit insane) nihilist Kirillov, WellIntentionedExtremist and AntiVillain, wants to kill himself for his own philosophical reasons, and wants his suicide to be a serene, noble apotheosis. Everything is prepared, and he has been anxiously waiting for the right moment for ''years''. However, when the time comes he hesitates. Petr Stepanovic, who needs his death for his own diabolical schemes, tries to kill him, and fails; Kirillov, humiliated and disgusted for his own cowardice, finally shoots himself. His death lets Petr Stepanovic pull a KarmaHoudini.

* Eric lets Funboy, [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge one of the thugs he returned from the dead to kill]], die from a massive, self-inflicted drug overdose as a reward for being cooperative in ''Comicbook/TheCrow.'' (Not so much in the movie.)
* In ''ComicBook/GreatLakesAvengers,'' Mr. Immortal has the power that grants him his name, and at least one plot was resolved by him blowing his brains out, knowing he'd shortly resurrect.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Lucifer}}'', the title character, having rescued Elaine and Mona from a painful afterlife, gives them three hours on Earth to decide whether they wish to resume their lives where they'd left off or be reincarnated. While the now wiser Elaine uses her time to tie up matters with family and friends, the still immature Mona attempts to shoplift some [=CDs=]. A store security guard catches her, whereupon, as she has no desire to see her parents, she decides to play a waiting game with him in his office. Then, when Mona sees her time's almost up, she darts toward the window and, grinning mischieviously at the horrified guard, jumps out. She becomes a ghost (which she'd already been once) and brushes it off when she meets up with Elaine ("Didn't even hurt this time").
* An early story in ''Comicbook/TheSandman'' features an old DCU superhero, Element Girl (a supporting character for ComicBook/{{Metamorpho}} with the same appearance and powers as him), who has grown to loathe her life, but can't die because of the immortality her powers give her, and begs Death to kill her. Death simply points out that her powers were a gift from Sun God Ra, and if she wishes for them to go away, she needs to ask him for it. She does, and turns to dust as the sun rises.

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures novel ''Interference'', Fitz gets a severe case of the CloningBlues: separated from the Doctor, he's had to take up with a group of people who, after their members die, will just [[ReplacementGoldfish make a new one]]. Later copies become more and more simplified, but he theorizes that they all have a significant part of the person's personality at the time they were first copied in them, and he doesn't [[WhoWantsToLiveForever live indefinitely]] with a personality he's developed after decades on a planet he doesn't much like. So he decides to jump off a building... but he decides to take advantage of the fact [[WaxingLyrical you can take it or leave it if you please]] and doesn't go through with it.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MoralOrel'', after a near death experience causes him to think God's trying to talk to him, Orel tries to kill himself to have another near death experience. He and Doughy look so ''cheerful'' when Orel electrocutes himself.
-->'''Doughy:''' [as Orel lies unconscious] That was easy!

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': In "Coon Vs Coon and Friends", Kenny kills himself several times. Once, in a desperate attempt to get his friends to remember his [[BornAgainImmortality many]] [[TheyKilledKennyAgain deaths]], another time, to escape from an alternate dimension, and yet another because he was just ''tired''. And as he reminds us in case we forgot after 100+ deaths throughout the show's history:
--> '''Kenny:''' "[Immortality] is not cool, Kyle. It ''fucking'' '''hurts'''!"

* This is [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld Maiza's]] reasoning for approaching Firo and [[ICannotSelfTerminate asking the kid to kill him]] (more specifically, he's both SeenItAll and finally received closure over his Dead Little Brother) at the end of the first arc of ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}''. Firo's response is to nod, smile...and then give a number of entirely bullshit reasons for why he [[Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey can't do that, Dave]], before admitting that he really just doesn't want to lose his mentor.

* The first movie of ''LightNovel/TheGardenOfSinners'' has to do with this, as half a dozen schoolgirls throw themselves off of an abandoned building seemingly without reason. In the end, the one who's been astrally projecting herself from her hospital bed and is responsible does the same thing.

* ''Series/TheLastOfUs2023'': Frank, who's dying of an illness, decides to end his life before it gets even worse with great calm. Bill, his husbands, chooses the same not wishing to live without him. He insures that they're in the bed they shared together as a couple when it happens. They die happily as they're together.

See also NothingLeftToDoButDie.

'''Unmarked Spoilers''' ahead, since this is one of the DeathTropes. Ironically, the trope namer, the 1970 film ''Film/{{MASH}}'', actually averts the trope by being featured in a scene in which the intent is to ''prevent'' a suicide.

* Taken UpToEleven in Creator/BarringtonJBayley's ''Literature/TheFallOfChronopolis''. A hard-boiled timeship captain, facing the total collapse of the space-time continuum around him, jumps into "the strat" (which inescapably Drives Men Mad) after remarking that he has always wondered what it is like.

* ''Film/TheOddJob'', featuring a post-Creator/MontyPython Graham Chapman, has a similar plot (though in this case he considers suicide due to a breakup with his wife-- and then reconciles but can't find the man he hired to kill him). Interestingly, [[DuelingMovies both were released the same year]] (1978).

* TUYU's "Goodbye on That Bus" features this as a running theme, with the singer expressing how much she thinks dying would be better for her and in the PV is depicted as cheerfully running off to the bus headed for the other side. However, it's subverted at the very end, where she ''does'' finally "get on that bus", but she quickly mentions that she "[[MidSuicideRegret regretted it, cried, and screamed]]" on the way there.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'': Dualla, after the disappointing discovery of a ruined Earth, finds comfort with her ex-husband Lee, celebrates his big speech, goes back to her bunk, smiling and humming a little tune, admonishes Gaeta for trying to bring her down, then takes off her ring, hangs it up, and still humming and grinning, shoots herself in the head.

* An episode of ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' introduced a tribe of young hedonists who celebrate their 22nd birthdays by hurling themselves off a cliff- AKA "Taking The Stone". It's eventually revealed that the alternative is to spend the rest of their lives outcast and dying from cumulative radiation poisoning, so most of the tribes people hit the ground with a smile on their faces. Their friends still mourn for the dead, but it's such an ingrained part of their culture that they choose to keep "taking the stone" even when presented with an alternative.

* AxCrazy [[spoiler:Moriarty]] [[AteHisGun eats his gun]] with a laugh in [[Recap/SherlockS02E03TheReichenbachFall "The Reichenbach Fall"]] episode of ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' as part of his ThanatosGambit to bring down Sherlock.
* [[TheChewToy Ted]] from ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' tries ([[BungledSuicide and fails]]) several times to commit suicide by jumping off of the roof of the hospital. When he falls off accidentally, he laughs and smiles (which rarely happens), shouting "here comes sweet relief" as he's falling. He doesn't die though-instead he lands on a lower roof that is filled with garbage. The janitor tells him if he had fallen off the other side of the roof, he would have hit the ground and died.

* In [[Music/EvilliousChronicles Evil Food Eater Conchita]] by Music/{{mothy}}, it's not clear whether Conchita was truly on the brink of starvation or if her appetite was just too hard to ignore, but she ends up eating herself because she's the last "edible" meal left in her castle. She actually seems rather pleased that she got to taste everything in the world.
* "What The Water Gave Me" by Music/FlorenceAndTheMachine is a happy song about suicide by drowning.
* A few examples by Music/{{Cormorant}}, namely "The Emigrant's Wake", "Hanging Gardens" and "A Sovereign Act" (although the last falls closer with FaceDeathWithDignity).

* Due, again, to ResurrectiveImmortality, pilots in ''VideoGame/EveOnline'' may fast-travel by setting their clone to a location near their desired destination, then self-destructing their escape capsule to bask briefly in hard vacuum.

* This is why Dracula tries to kill Ben Franklin II, and later [[WebComic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja Dr McNinja]], in order to send them ahead in to the afterlife as scouts before trying it out himself.
* In the Brie Meighsaton House arc of ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'', the house is haunted by several ghosts, including a former owner who was tormented by the other ghosts until driven to suicide. He didn't commit suicide to escape the ghosts - he did it so he could become a ghost himself, able to physically punish them for what they've done.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'':
** Bender, while trying to kill himself in a suicide booth in the first episode, seems very blasé about it. He's also the RobotBuddy, and considering what else he's survived (an ax to the back, being flattened like a pancake, and being buried for over 1,000 years, among other things) it might not have actually worked anyway...
** Just the existence of suicide booths proves that a lot of people are into this in the future. Interestingly, suicide booths have a "[[DisintegratorRay Quick and Painless]]" setting, the other option being "[[NoKillLikeOverkill Slow and Horrible]]."
* ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'' uses this multiple times for comedy, including one scene where the Link pastiche Xandir stabs himself multiple times to reduce his life count to zero, eventually getting the point where he sounds tired of being tired of life.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MoralOrel'', after a near death experience causes him to think God's trying to talk to him, Orel tries to kill himself to have another near death experience. He and Doughy look so ''cheerful'' when Orel electrocutes himself.
-->'''Doughy:''' [as Orel lies unconscious] That was easy!

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* In the first few minutes of the first episode of ''Anime/SerialExperimentsLain'', Chisa Yomoda jumps to her death after dramatically taking off her glasses and hanging off the railing for a moment. It also succeeds in setting the tone for the rest of the series. When she shows up later in the series, she complains that dying ''really hurts.'' Yeah, it's that kind of show.
* Shiba from ''Manga/ZombieLoan'' did the same thing just because he was bored with life, and wound up being the undead BigBad of a StoryArc. Near the end of the manga it's revealed that [[spoiler: he was the result of a fertility drug experiment that resulted in kids so apathetic about life that most of them committed suicide at an early age. Shuuji is another one of the kids (shown when he's attacked by a zombie and rescued by his future A-Loan comrades, and doesn't really seem to care,) as well as protagonist Michiru, as evident in one scene early in the manga when she talks about not caring whether she lives or dies.]]

* An example where the person doesn't quite go through with it is in the movie version of ''Anime/TheVisionOfEscaflowne'' where Hitomi contemplates killing herself at the beginning for no other apparent reason than being bored.

* The first movie of ''LightNovel/TheGardenOfSinners'' has to do with this, as half a dozen schoolgirls throw themselves off of an abandoned building seemingly without reason. In the end, the one who's been astrally projecting herself from her hospital bed and is responsible does the same thing.
* In ''Manga/AliveTheFinalEvolution'' those infected by the suicide virus behave this way. This is complicated by the fact that two entities are dying every time this happens: the suicidal EnergyBeing that actually wants to die but can't because it previously chose to AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence, and the hapless human MeatPuppet who's been infected by this desire. So the people committing suicide have ''literally no reason'' for it. In fact, the people with the best internal motivations are the ones most likely to survive, because of the 'holes in their hearts.'
* This is [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld Maiza's]] reasoning for approaching Firo and [[ICannotSelfTerminate asking the kid to kill him]] (more specifically, he's both SeenItAll and finally received closure over his Dead Little Brother) at the end of the first arc of ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}''. Firo's response is to nod, smile...and then give a number of entirely bullshit reasons for why he [[Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey can't do that, Dave]], before admitting that he really just doesn't want to lose his mentor.

* An early story in ''Comicbook/TheSandman'' features an old DCU superhero, Element Girl (a supporting character for ComicBook/{{Metamorpho}} with the same appearance and powers as him), who has grown to loathe her life, but can't die because of the immortality her powers give her, and begs Death to kill her. Death simply points out that her powers were a gift from Sun God Ra, and if she wishes for them to go away, she needs to ask him for it. She does, and turns to dust as the sun rises.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* As noted above the trope-namer is the theme song to the original ''Film/{{MASH}}'' film. However the context in which the song is featured averts the trope as it's performed during a scene in which "Painless" - the nickname for the 4077th dentist - contemplates suicide due to his fears of having become a homosexual, but his colleagues successfully prevent this by staging a mock suicide ritual/funeral (during which the song is sung; Altman ensured that the lyrics would have an appropriately mawkish tone by assigning the task to his fifteen-year old son) which leads to Painless spending a night with a nurse, restoring his faith in his "manhood."
* The quintessential example is probably the Japanese movie ''Film/SuicideClub'' which features, among other things, the image of fifty-four schoolgirls from eighteen schools linking hands and smiling before jumping onto train tracks to their deaths. ''In the first minutes of the movie.'' Its [[Manga/SuicideClub manga adaptation]] also starts with this same mass suicide, although its story then goes in its own direction.
* The movie ''Film/{{Flatliners}}'' is entirely based around this concept and the people who intentionally enter a death-like state.
* The film ''Film/TheEnd'' is a [[BlackComedy dark dark dark comic take]] on this subject. Burt Reynolds plays a man who finds out he only has six months to live and wants to off himself before any serious pain sets in. Creator/DomDeLuise is the delusional mental patient who gleefully volunteers to help him. In the end Burt decides not to go through with his suicide, but Dom's character doesn't believe him and won't give up trying to kill him (even during the ending credits.)
* ''Film/TheOddJob'', featuring a post-Creator/MontyPython Graham Chapman, has a similar plot (though in this case he considers suicide due to a breakup with his wife-- and then reconciles but can't find the man he hired to kill him). Interestingly, [[DuelingMovies both were released the same year]] (1978).
* A black-comedy variant, 1990's ''Film/ShortTime'', stars Dabney Coleman as a police officer who learns he has a terminal disease and attempts to get himself killed in the line of duty so his family can collect the life insurance. [[spoiler:None of his attempts are successful, which turns out to be a good thing since the diagnosis [[MistakenForDying turns out to have been erroneous]].]]
* The finale of ''Film/CrouchingTigerHiddenDragon'' appears to involve this in mimicry of a legend earlier told, except that it's been established that the character in question can fly, and she's seen again in a sequel.

* In ''Film/KenPark'', the movie opens with the titular character making his way to a skate park, setting up a camera and filming his own, smiling, suicide.
* In ''Film/{{Inception}}'', Mal invokes this trope after she loses her mind in Limbo, and attempts to get Cobb to either do the same or be framed for her death.

* In ''Film/CasAndDylan,'' Dr. Cas Pepper is facing certain death from an inoperable brain tumor, and sets out on a cross-country trip to check himself out on his own terms. Despite the presence of ManicPixieDreamGirl Dylan Morgan as a traveling companion, Cas still goes through with his suicide (also a literal example of this trope: he rigs a Jack Kevorkian-style IV drip to slowly, gently ease him into death).

* Creator/HBeamPiper wrote a story titled "Last Enemy," about a culture that had accepted reincarnation as a scientifically proven fact. As a result, they'd developed a rather ''different'' attitude toward death -- it was, at worst, a (temporary) inconvenience; often enough, it was a social event. "Evidently when the Akor-Neb people get tired of their current reincarnation they invite in their friends, throw a big party, and then do themselves in in an atmosphere of general conviviality."
* Subverted in Dostoyevsky's ''The Possessed''; sympathetic (if batshit insane) nihilist Kirillov, WellIntentionedExtremist and AntiVillain, wants to kill himself for his own philosophical reasons, and wants his suicide to be a serene, noble apotheosis. Everything is prepared, and he has been anxiously waiting for the right moment for ''years''. However, when the time comes he hesitates. Petr Stepanovic, who needs his death for his own diabolical schemes, tries to kill him, and fails; Kirillov, humiliated and disgusted for his own cowardice, finally shoots himself. His death lets Petr Stepanovic pull a KarmaHoudini.
* In Richard Hooker's ''Literature/{{MASH}}'', "Painless Pole" Waldowski decides to commit suicide during one of his frequent attacks of depression, and the rest of the camp pitches in to "assist" him. Subverted, in that he doesn't actually die.

* In ''Dream Science'', a novel about people who have somehow become detached from normal reality into a fractured group of partial alternate reality scenes (some apparently-normal alternate worlds, but also things like an office in a square hallway that has no exit, or an endless department store), death only sends these people into a new reality. After a while, people who are bored with their current world or can't find another way out tend to just kill themselves.

* Since everyone has ResurrectiveImmortality, "suiciding" is a frequently-used way to get a new body in ''Literature/BitingTheSun''.
* Similarly, in ''Literature/{{Riverworld}}'', riding "the Suicide Express" is a good way to travel rapidly (if randomly) along the River.

* Literature/TheDiviners1974 : [[spoiler: Jules Tonnere]] overdoses on his pain pills, to avoid dying of cancer. It's especially tragic considering Creator/MargaretLaurence likely died the same way 13 years later.
* The reason why dragons jump ''Between'' without a destination in Literature/DragonridersOfPern if their rider dies. Dragon-rider bonds are so strong that, once the rider has died (or even if the dragon thinks the rider is dead) then the dragon considers jumping into nothingness preferable to still living.
* Subverted in ''[[Literature/CircleOfMagic Street Magic]]'', when [[spoiler:the villain]] poisons herself she takes great care to make it look like this, but Briar notes the foam around her mouth and realizes [[KarmicDeath she did not die as painlessly or quickly as she'd have wanted]].

* In [[Franchise/EvilliousChronicles Evil Food Eater Conchita]] by Music/{{mothy}}, it's not clear whether Conchita was truly on the brink of starvation or if her appetite was just too hard to ignore, but she ends up eating herself because she's the last "edible" meal left in her castle. She actually seems rather pleased that she got to taste everything in the world.

-->''"No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun - [[GrumpyOldMan for anybody]]. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. [[FamousLastWords Relax - This won't hurt...]]" ''

* The quintessential example is probably the Japanese movie ''Film/SuicideClub'' which features, among other things, the image of fifty-four schoolgirls from eighteen schools linking hands and smiling before jumping onto train tracks to their deaths. ''In the first minutes of the movie.''

* In ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', when The Joker is thrown off of a building, he starts laughing. Then when he is saved by Batman, he's actually incredibly disappointed. In a variation, his pleasure was due more to his desire to corrupt Batman by tempting him to break his no-kill rule, rather than wanting to die. Although it's pretty obvious that The Joker has no concern whatsoever about his own wellbeing, and genuinely doesn't care if he lives or dies.

* [[NamedAfterSomeoneFamous Dazai Osamu]] from ''Manga/BungouStrayDogs'' was introduced as a suicide enthusiast, with no explained reason behind it, and this trait of him can be trace back to as young as [[TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior 14 years old]]. This is a ShoutOut to the author he is named after, who attempted suicide numerous times in his life before he finally succeeded.

* The first movie of ''LightNovel/KaraNoKyoukai'' has to do with this, as half a dozen schoolgirls throw themselves off of an abandoned building seemingly without reason. In the end, the one who's been astrally projecting herself from her hospital bed and is responsible does the same thing.

* This is [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld Maiza's]] reasoning for approaching Firo and [[ICannotSelfTerminate asking the kid to kill him]] (more specifically, he's both SeenItAll and finally received closure over his Dead Little Brother) at the end of the first arc of ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}!''. Firo's response is to nod, smile...and then give a number of entirely bullshit reasons for why he [[Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey can't do that, Dave]], before admitting that he really just doesn't want to lose his mentor.

* TUYU's "Goodbye on That Bus" features this as a running theme, with the singer expressing how much she thinks dying would be better for her and depicted as cheerfully running off to the bus headed for the other side. However, it's subverted at the very end, where she ''does'' finally "get on that bus", but she quickly mentions that she "regretted it, cried, and screamed" on the way there.

* Played for BlackComedy in the ''[[Magazine/{{Mad}} MAD]]'' paperback ''Don Martin Drops 13 Stories!''. A businessman, depressed over his company's sinking profits, goes for a walk and spots a guy on the street bearing a sign reading "Brighten your day -- Buy a necktie!" He immediately perks up and enthusiastically buys a tie from him, skips back up the stairs to his office... and uses the tie to hang himself, still wearing a huge grin.

* TU-YU's "Goodbye on That Bus" features this as a running theme, with the singer expressing how much she thinks dying would be better for her and depicted as cheerfully running off to the bus headed for the other side. However, it's subverted at the very end, where she ''does'' finally "get on that bus", but she quickly mentions that she "regretted it, cried, and screamed" on the way there.

* TU-YU's "Goodbye in That Bus" features this as a running theme, with the singer expressing how much she thinks dying would be better for her and depicted as cheerfully running off to the bus headed for the other side. However, it's subverted at the very end, where she ''does'' finally "get on that bus", but she quickly mentions that she "regretted it, cried, and screamed" on the way there.