History TearJerker / TheSimpsons

* In "Girl's In the Band" Lisa is scouted by the Capitol City Philharmonic and her family crumble under the pressure of long daily drives in heavy traffic to bring her to rehearsals and back (with Bart and Maggie in tow) and Homer being forced to work a night shift to afford the fee. At one point, Bart--who's been spending his time with the other [[SuccessfulSiblingSyndrome overshadowed siblings]] of the children in the youth orchestra--asks Homer point-blank if his feelings matter and Homer, heading off to work another shift, gives him a hasty goodbye without listening to the rest of what he has to say.
-->'''Marge:''' ''(bursting into tears)'' There's nothing worse than being the parent of a child with promise.

* In "Girl's In the Band" Lisa is scouted by the Capitol City Philharmonic and her family crumble under the pressure of long daily drives in heavy traffic to bring her to rehearsals and back (with Bart and Maggie in tow) and Homer being forced to work a night shift to afford the fee. At one point, Bart asks Homer point-blank if he or his feelings matter and Homer, heading off to work another shift, gives him a hasty goodbye without answering the question.

* "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS24E12LoveIsAManySplinteredThing Love is a Many Splintered Thing]]" has Bart once again reuniting with Mary Spunckler (who by the way is his most reacurring love interest not counting Jessica Lovejoy's cameos). They actually hit off a proper relationship, but they break up. Bart is actually told that Mary's the best he could get, and he shouts cynically at Marge, only for her to [[MoralEventHorizon coldly]] [[IHaveNoSon disown him]]. Bart and Homer spend some time at a hotel, where other men are having relationship problems. As a big grand gesture, Bart gets the other men to sing a musical number for their wives and girlfriends. Mary is present but doesn't take Bart back, as she has already moved on to a new boyfriend.

-->'''Homer:''' At least this time I'm awake for your good-bye.

* In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS26E11BartsNewFriend Bart's New Friend]]", while hypnotized into believing he's 10 years old again, Homer tells Bart he doesn't want to have a wife and kids. Bart actually sheds tears upon hearing this from his father.

** In the same episode, Bart asks Homer what he does with photos of Maggie, since there never seem to be any around the house. Homer responds that he keeps them, "where I needs them the most." The scene then cuts to the reactor where Homer works. Above his workspace is a plaque that reads, "Don’t Forget, You’re Here Forever". That itself is tearjerker enough as it [[MadeASlave is for a different reason]], but at present day of the series, Homer has partially covered the letters with pictures of Maggie in such a way that the plaque now reads, "Do It For Her." That's enough to make any dad tear up.

** In the same episode, Bart asks Homer what he does with photos of Maggie, since there never seem to be any around the house. Homer responds that he keeps them, "where I needs them the most." The scene then cuts to the reactor where Homer works. Above his workspace is a plaque that reads, "Don’t Forget, You’re Here Forever". Homer has partially covered the letters with pictures of Maggie in such a way that the plaque now reads, "Do It For Her." That's enough to make any dad tear up.

--> '''Homer''': I've been trying to fill the hole you left ever since! *sobbing, clutching a bucket of KFC* ''But I'm never full...''

*** The sequence also implies that Homer became a BigEater to cope with losing his mom, shows him receiving abysmal grades in school and his alcoholism seemingly worsening over the course of his marriage to Marge with her hauling increasing numbers of beer cans out of the yard.

---->'''Bart''': I know it, you know it, I am ''dumb'', okay?! I'm dumb as a post! You think I'm happy about it?!

** The lead-up to the sequence in which Bart throws himself off the town's water tower. The family wake up to find that the words I HATE BART SIMPSON have been spray-painted all over town.

** The framing of the reveal that Bart himself is the one who spray-painted "I HATE BART SIMPSON" all over town.
-->'''Marge:''' Who would do this to Bart?!
-->'''Lisa:''' ''(solemnly)'' The person who hates Bart more than anyone else.

* "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E8HurricaneNeddy Hurricane Neddy]]" has Burns' lost long son, Larry track him down and the two for a while manage to bond. But then Larry's uncouth tendencies wear on Burns' nerves, leading him to make coldly clear he's done with him:

--->'''Bart:''' Dad, I think you actually enjoy seeing your own son suffer.
--->'''Homer:''' I don't enjoy it. Being a father is just a job. Long hours, no pay, and at the end, all you get is someone yelling, "You screwed me up"!

* In "Milhouse of Sand and Fog," Milhouse's ImagineSpot set to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's "Our House" when his parents tell him they're going through a "trial unseparation" and might get back together shows how hard the divorce affected him, depicting scenes like Luann spending time with other men and a BungledSuicide attempt on Kirk's part. It ends with him landing softly in his parents' arms and Lisa appearing all dressed up for their wedding.

* Milhouse's ImagineSpot set to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's "Our House" when his parents tell him they're going through a "trial unseparation" and might get back together shows how hard the divorce affected him, depicting scenes like Luann spending time with other men and a BungledSuicide attempt on Kirk's part. It ends with him landing softly in his parents' arms and Lisa appearing all dressed up for their wedding.

-->''(Bart considers this sadly, then shrugs and goes back to [[UseYourHead the dangerous head-butting game]] he was playing with all his male relatives.)''

* In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E18AStarIsBurns A Star is Burns]]", there's ([[UnfortunateNames the unfortunately named]]) ''Pukahontas'', the film Barney did about how his alcoholism has ruined his life (even worse when you realize that the season four episode "Mr. Plow" revealed that Barney was a Harvard-bound honors student studying for his UsefulNotes/SATs until Homer pressured him into trying beer, meaning that [[FridgeHorror Homer ruined his best friend's life]]). Despite the funny part where he mistakes Lisa's Girls' Scout meeting with an AA meeting, the rest of the film is very depressing and shows a dark side to Barney's alcoholism. Made worse by the fact that the prize Barney receives is a lifetime supply of Duff Beer.

** Gets even sadder after Phil Hartman's murder, after which the character was retired. There will be no happy ending for Troy Mcclure, it's been over 20 years since his last appearance, but this episode is as fitting an epitaph as any.

** In the same episode, Mrs. Krabappel's farewell speech to her class suddenly got depressing after Marcia Wallace's passing.

** And to top it all off in the episode’s climax, Fat Tony’s gang, the Castellaneta Family, and President of the Italian-American Anti-Defamation League were literally [[EverybodyCries reduced to]] [[ManlyTears tears]] [[TearsOfRemorse upon realizing]] from Moe that they almost got Maggie caught in their attempted shootout. Heck, [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes some of those gangsters have, or possibly have, children of their own]] (E.G.: Fat Tony having an 8 year old son named Michael D'Amico (Even in the comics, Legs and Louie have their respective 8 year old sons named Calves and Louie Jr., and those two boys are, ironically, part of Michael's junior mafia at Springfield Elementary) and even Johnny Tightlips is revealed to have an infant daughter in one episode in later seasons), that if you try to imagine AND understand what they were thinking as they [[TearsOfRemorse cried in remorse]] upon being touched by [[WhenSheSmiles Maggie’s innocence and her smile]], they were probably thinking that if that baby like Maggie was one of their own children or their own child that they accidentally killed in their shootout if they weren’t stopped, then they’d probably be [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone devastated]] [[DespairEventHorizon beyond]] [[VillainousBSoD despair]]. In all honesty, anybody who would also think that would, too, know what it’ll be like to have your child or children accidentally, and unknowingly, killed. Even [[TryingNotToCry Johnny Tightlips, a gangster who is usually]] [[TheStoic stoic]], [[TryingNotToCry laconic, and reticent, refusing to say anything, turned away collapsing on his knees]], [[ManlyTears sobbing uncontrollably in remorse by burying his face in his hands (One of them holding his gun and then dropping it as soon as he's on his knees and continued crying uncontrollably with his face buried in his hands]]) while [[ManHug Fat Tony and Legs, while both crying, tearfully hugged each other]] [[CryIntoChest in comfort]] and [[ManlyTears Louie just stood by them, sobbing and crying in remorse as well while still holding his gun]]. Then Fat Tony and Legs tearfully glanced at Maggie's innocent smile and then both of them collapsed on the floor in tears, with [[ManlyTears Fat Tony sobbing while kneeled on his knees and Legs laying face forward on the floor, sobbing with his face buried in his arms]]. Even [[ManHug two members of the Castellaneta Family tearfully hugged each other]] [[CryIntoChest in comfort while crying]] with [[ManlyTears Don Castellaneta and the third family member just standing there, crying as well]], with the [[TearsOfRemorse latter dropping his gun before burying his face in his hands to cry in]], and [[TryingNotToCry the President had to cover his eyes with his arm (Which still held one of his guns) as he cried as well]]. And if you listen closely while the mafia are heard crying their eyes out, [[Creator/HankAzaria Hank Azaria]], besides voicing Moe, Johnny, and many other characters in this show, [[SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct nailed Johnny’s out-of-control sobbing]], which shows that Johnny, too, has feelings.

** This episode puts a lot of Bart's trouble in school in perspective: it shows that he is entirely capable of getting good grades and doing well in school, and yet he still chooses to slack off.
*** But the last thing he wants is to be held back, a notion which greatly upsets him when the school propose to have Bart ''repeat the 4th grade''.

** Marge tenderly holding Homer in her arms and singing "You Are So Beautiful" to him until he finally smiles can be a happy tear jerker to some.

* Lisa being upset over her appearance in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E4LisaTheBeautyQueen Lisa the Beauty Queen]]" will affect those who have had self-esteem issues over their appearance (ditto for the subplot of "Sleeping with the Enemy" where Lisa purposely starves herself so she can lose weight in her butt, then at the end, tells Homer that her body image issues will never be resolved and that she'll still feel bad about the way she looks).

* The ending of "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E10LisasFirstWord Lisa's First Word]]", in which Maggie says her first word, "Daddy". For context on why it's heartbreaking: all throughout the story, Bart and Lisa (as babies/toddlers) never called Homer "Dad" or "Daddy" and the one time a Simpson kid does call Homer "Daddy," he misses it (even though [[WordOfGod the writers on the DVDCommentary]] said that they had to go through a lot of takes to make Creator/ElizabethTaylor's "Daddy" line sound like something a one-year-old child would say and not a 20-year-old seductress perched on the lap of a squirming, blushing man as she's caressing his face and nuzzling his neck).

** There's also the B-plot, which revolves around Lisa struggling with anorexia. She even explains in the BittersweetEnding that while she's willing to eat again, her body image issues are not gone and likely never will be.

* "Lisa, It's Your Birthday", for being only a minute long within the episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E1StarkRavingDad Stark Raving Dad]]", can cause tears of joy out of practically anyone. It's now more depressing than it should be in light of Music/MichaelJackson's death.
** It gets worse; due to the documentary, ''Leaving Neverland'' bringing back the controversy surrounding Michael Jackson's child molestation allegations, the episode has been pulled from syndication. The only way to legally see the episode now is on the pre-2019 season 3 DVD set.
** Lisa crying and signing "Happy birthday, forgotten middle-child" to herself in the kitchen, accompanied only by Maggie, her birthday completely forgotten amongst all the drama of the episode.