Tear Jerker / Courage the Cowardly Dog

It Makes Sense in Context. Cruel, horrible sense.

Despite its reputation as a comedy/horror show, Courage the Cowardly Dog has several very sad episodes.

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• "The Magic Tree of Nowhere", where the titular tree is killed by a jealous Eustace. As a result of the above, Courage gives the second longest of his signature screams in this episode not out of fear, but of grief, and towards the sky.
  • Eustace actually cutting down the tree in a way. It questions Eustace on if destroying it will really make Eustace happy. He actually pauses for a moment looking uncertain before declaring yes. A truly miraculous thing destroyed by one man's petty jealousy.
• "Remembrance of Courage Past", which shows how Courage met Muriel. Especially with the revelation that his parents were put on a rocket and shot into space by a sadistic vet, with Courage outside the rocket desperately trying to stop it. He escapes the vet by going down a trash chute and you see him land in a dumpster, and he waves to the rocket flying away. Courage has every right to be screwed up and terrified after that.
  • The fact that this is during the final episode doesn't make it better..
  • Especially Courage's mom's line when being hauled off by the evil vet, "Please, don't take me away from my baby!" It's ironic, but it really humanizes his parents.
    • It also shows that the narrator had either been lying all along or didn't have the whole story. Courage's parents didn't abandon him, they were taken away from him.
  • The fact that Courage is so stricken by the memory of this event that he has no reaction to Eustace using his signature Witch Doctor mask on him. No screaming, no funny Wild Take, no nothing. He's become entirely numb.
• "The Curse of Shirley", where a hallucinating Eustace takes pity on a young version of himself.
  • Eustace, by all means the biggest Jerkass ever portrayed on any Cartoon Network show. Consider that Eustace is seeing this through a mirror that was meant to show one's true self. Sure, it was broken beforehand, but it may have been showing that Eustace is, deep down inside, a miserable old man who lashes out at everyone due to a painful childhood.
    Eustace: Who are you, boy?
    Young Eustace: (crying) It's so hot! My head is burning!
    Eustace: Where's your hat?
    Young Eustace: I don't have one!
    Eustace: "No hat? That's not right, little boy without a... a little boy should have a hat."
  • As Eustace is walking down the street with the raincloud, he sees people in need of help but he turns them away, making the rain cloud worse. But one older-looking gentleman, Floyd, who is being attacked by an unseen creature, is desperately pleading Eustace to give a love letter to his fiancee, telling him he won't be able to get to the wedding and that he loves her as he's finally taken and presumably eaten by the creature. What does Eustace do? Toss the letter on the ground, causing it to be swept into the sewer thanks to the rain.
  • This is particularly Harsher in Hindsight when said older-looking gentleman becomes a Villain of the Week in "Curtain of Cruelty".
    • Something that makes it even harder to watch is the fact that the man is voiced by none other than John R. Dilworth himself. Hearing the normally wacky and cheerful Dilly crying in absolute terror and despair is both depressing and scary.
• An episode that is considered the absolute biggest Tear Jerker by most viewers is "Last of the Starmakers", where Courage is caught in a perilous race against time to save the babies of an adorable squid-like creature from the military.
  • This one is a BIG one for people who think cephalopods are some of the cutest animals on Earth.
  • The episode opens with the Starmaker's mate sacrificing himself to save her and their babies. What's more, the last we see of him is him tearfully bidding the love of his life farewell as she flees with their unborn children. After being found by Muriel and Courage, Muriel asks if there are others like the Starmaker. All she can do is look towards the sky with a pained expression, and Muriel and Courage immediately get the message. Even sadder, after Courage manages to save her children, she uses the last of her life to become a garden, joining her mate.
• "There's no such thing as perfect. You're beautiful as you are. With all of your imperfections, you can do anything."— From the episode "Perfect". Especially so considering it's the Series Finale.
• "The Hunchback of Nowhere". A lonely, deformed guy goes from door to door just seeking shelter only to be called ugly or a freak by everyone, including Eustace, and having them slam the door in his face. He and Courage build a friendship that's both heartwarming and tearjerking as Courage shows the poor soul kindness for once in his life. And the climax only adds to this: as Courage and the Hunchback put on a show for Muriel, Eustace tries to ruin it. The Hunchback's response? He puts on a Eustace mask and forces him to see himself for who he is, which is only more heartrending when you realize that it's not just Eustace: it's for all the people who have said he's just a freak.
  • Combined with Fridge Horror: what causes the hunchback to stand up to Eustace in the first place? Seeing Eustace yell at Courage, saying everything is always "[Courage's] fault," and once again scaring the poor dog, which almost makes Courage fall off the barn's roof...right in front of Muriel.
• While "The Queen Of the Black Puddle" is mostly a typical Courage episode (it's about a puddle of black water that is actually a passage to another Dimension/World, where there resides a ghastly aquatic demoness), it also says a lot about Courage's loyalty to Muriel. The woman in question charms Eustace and takes him to her world, and unsurprisingly, Courage doesn't give a damn, and he has all the right not to (ok he is very disturbed but he just doesn't feel the urge to overcome that fear). But he then sees how Muriel is devastated by having her husband taken from her, sobbing her heart out, and Courage realizes he'd rather put up with Eustace's crap for the rest of his life than to see his benevolent owner suffer. The episode makes it very clear that every time Courage's love for Muriel speaks louder than his dislike of Eustace, and every time he saves Eustace — who doesn't deserve it — he is really trying to help Muriel. Undying Loyalty, indeed.
  • Muriel's weeping over her lost husband is itself quite touching — even though on a day-to-day basis neither of the couple show too much interest or caring for each other, they really seem to share a deep bond of commitment.
• Almost all of "The Tower of Dr. Zalost," due in no small part to the haunting soundtrack. Although Dr. Zalost is one of the more cold and ruthless villains on the show, it's hard not to feel bad for a man who is so miserable and lonely that all he can do is lash out at the rest of the world. But if that doesn't evoke any sympathy, the crying baby rat usually does the trick.
  • Not even the rat himself is safe from Zalost lashing out, as shown when he goes to bring Zalost a pizza he believes was ordered (actually a Batman Gambit by Courage and Eustace so Courage could get into the base). And keep in mind, earlier in the episode, Zalost was asking the rat for a hug.
  Dr. Zalost: Pizza? What pizza?! I didn't order any pizza! Get away from me! (Rat grumbles in annoyance)

  • Speaking of rat and what subsequently happens to him, an especially sad moment is during the climax when a now-furious Dr. Zalost is trying to finish off Courage with his last Unhappy Cannonball and the babyfied-Rat runs up to him wailing, obviously wanting some comfort, and Zalost angrily kicks him away. Thankfully, after Zalost's own depression is cured courtesy of Muriel's Happy Plums, when Rat comes back he's much more eager to give him a hug that the little guy so desperately needs.
  • Due to the episode's undertones on dealing with depression, it can also be assumed that the rat represents people who aren't sad, per se. Just unable to feel anything because something caused them to wall themselves off from their emotions. The fact that the rat's first reaction to being hit with an antidepressant cannonball is to cry suggests he may have been bottling something up pretty bad.
    • Before this, being hit with a depression cannonball causes the rat to completely Hulk out and become a raging monster, which isn't much better.
  • There's also a quote from Eustace that basically sums up why he hates Courage so much: "She likes you best, feed her."
• "Courage Vs. Mecha Courage". The moment Courage sees as Muriel sits in her rocking chair while the robot sits on her lap instead of himself, causing Courage to cry is just heartbreaking. And it just gets worse from there, as Courage takes the beating of his life to defeat the mechanical enemy...
• The episode "The Great Fusilli" and its Downer Ending. Sure, the episode's grim ending is played for laughs, as per usual, but when you really think about it, it's actually pretty sad: In it, Courage fails to stop Muriel and Eustace from being turned into puppets. But as the show has a Negative Continuity, everything will return to normal. Of course, that hasn't stopped it from provoking tons of dark fan theories. What makes it worse, was the creator thought the show would be cancelled, which meant this was going to be the series finale. Thankfully, the show got renewed for a second season.
• Observe the relationship between Eustace and his mother, both of them cruel, cold people. Eustace is the way he is due to his mother, and, if one episode in particular is anything to go by, his mother was made this way by a loved one too. Two of the biggest assholes in the show are the result of a cycle of abuse.
  • In "Mac Phearson Phantom" has Ma Bagge describe her mother's mother's Auntie Griselda as "a cruel woman; made us all miserable."
  • "Farmer Hunter, Farmer Hunted" has a brief flashback of Eustace interacting with his late brother, Horst, and it's not a happy interaction. All Eustace wanted was to go hunting with his brother, and how does Horst respond? He proclaims that Eustace isn't enough of a man to hunt, and calls him the insulting name "Useless." Eustace's entire family treated him like crap, and it's affected him well into his adulthood.
• The whole entirety of "The Mask", which tackles the very mature subject of Domestic Abuse. A rabbit named Bunny ended up with an abusive, controlling dog named Mad Dog and is not allowed to be with her best friend Kitty anymore. (It's also heavily implied that she and Kitty are romantically involved.) This leads Kitty to believe that all dogs are evil. Now take that last sentence and replace "dogs" with "men". The ending is a Heartwarming Moment when Mad Dog gets his just desserts and Bunny and Kitty are reunited.
  • Also from the episode: Kitty, despite realizing not all dogs are bad, doesn't really get the chance to apologize to Courage for brutally beating him up (aside from a short thank you).
• From "Ball of Revenge": "Courage, Courage, Courage! That stupid dog gets all the good stuff around here! I hate that dumb dog!" Those words hit Courage pretty hard, and Eustace doesn't get any better from there. The Mysterious Mr. Enter sums it up best in his review of the episode:
  "Eustace has never particularly liked Courage, but that was a little too blunt. To outright say that he hates Courage? Jesus.."
  • Back to "Ball of Revenge"...what makes it even sadder is the fact that after all the times Courage has actually saved Eustace despite how badly the old man treated the poor dog, how does Eustace repay him? By hiring Courage's past foes (all of whom Courage had saved Eustace from) to finally kill him and not only does Eustace enjoys Courage's pain without the slightest bit of sympathy, he's also very eager of the foes about to kill the poor dog. The entire episode just becomes a tidal wave of a tearjerker as it moves along. Seeing poor Courage, defenseless and whimpering while getting brutally wounded by his enemies is just heartbreaking to watch; the similarly depressing and brutal "Courage Vs. Mecha-Courage" suddenly almost looks tame by comparison. But it's even worse when you realize Courage has managed to get out of horrible situations before. But here, he doesn't shapeshift or do anything to defend himself, and the tense/dramatic music really makes it seem like it is truly the end of Courage.
    Eustace: Stupid dog, this is it!
• Robot Randy has the titular villain conquering the farm to prove he's not a failure to his fellow robots. At night in the barn he's seen whittling wooden reindeer and actually sounding happy, only to curl up on the ground when thinking what the other robots would think of him and throwing the reindeer he just made with such care out the window. Someone being forced to throw away something that gives them such joy because of the cruel mockery of the world around them. There's also the scene in the episode where Randy grabs Eustace and Muriel and tries to crush them with his own metallic hand, and Courage begs him not to harm them, and begins to cry while doing so.
• The Stitch Sisters (and their enchanted quilt) slowly breaking Muriel in "The Quilt Club." All she's trying to do is impress them so she can join the club, but in reality, the Sisters are making her another energy source for the quilt's Fountain of Youth properties. Even worse, as the ending shows, they've done this to other people through millenia.
  First Sister: How badly do you want to belong?
  Muriel: (frazzled and desperate) Uh huh, uh huh, uh huh!
  Second Sister: More than you belong with Eustace?
  Muriel: Who?
• "Angry Nasty People" is an especially cringe-worthy episode, especially if you've been the victim of verbal abuse. By the time Courage comes up with an idea involving a quicksand pit, Muriel is so broken that when it looks like Courage is going to throw her in, she offers absolutely no resistance.
  Muriel: Go on, Courage. This is just what I deserve.
• "Son of the Chicken From Outer Space" stars a three-headed alien chicken who tries to kill Courage in order to avenge their father and restore their family's honor. The kicker is that their mother (who assigns them the mission) gives them a choice between succeeding and not coming home. Of course, since Courage isn't allowed to be permanently killed off, they ultimately fail... which causes them to break down crying, knowing that this means never coming back home to their family. It gets even more sad when the chicken shows in tears what their mother told them to Courage, prompting him to cry as well.
• The death of Thea White, Muriel's voice actress, on July 30, 2021.
• "Muted Muriel" has Muriel deciding that since Eustance never listens to her, she decides to stop talking altogether. No matter how much Courage begs her to speak, she refuses so Courage goes to Shirley who summons a giant starfish monster to get Muriel to speak. While it works, this is only because Courage decides to throw himself at the monster to Muriel’s horror. And all of this occurred because Eustance decided to be a bigger jerk than usual.