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Sand in My Eyes
"I'm fine. I have something in my eye, that's all. [sobs] ...I have something in my other eye. [sobbing] I have something in my heart..."
Since , they can't very well be seen with
or, worse, . So the macho tragic hero will often only shed , to accent his pain while making sure he keeps his awesome machismo. Used particularly in fantasy fiction, during a flashback to the tragic past.
In film and TV, the equivalent is the usually stoic hero's eyes getting watery, upon which the more emotional supporting cast will express their surprise to see a show of general empathy. The reply? ", I've just got a little sand in my eyes."
Attempts to comfort may provoke .
Something of a
- nowadays it's just as likely to be used to evoke pity for the character's inability to express his emotions honestly as it is to portray them as strong and stoic. That's assuming it's not being outright mocked.
Contrast: , , where the hero really can keep it buttoned up ...
of e , . Compare , , which may also be used as an excuse. The literal case of this trope is often preceded by .
Not related at all to a certain Charles Atlas advertisement.
&&&&open/close all folders&
&&&&Advertising&
One Geico commercial has the gecko standing on the beach conversing with a crab, closing with his protest, "I'm not crying. I just have a bit of sand in my eyes, that's all."
&&&&Anime & Manga&
In Episode 25/Chapter 16 of , Roy Mustang stands over Maes Hughes' grave, looks up at a clear blue sky and wonders aloud when the rain will stop.
The Brotherhood version is .
Hawkeye: Are you alright, Colonel? Mustang: Yes, I'm fine (puts on a hat) Except... it's a terrible day for rain. Hawkeye: What do you mean? It's not raining. Mustang: (looks up with the hat obscuring his eyes, tears falls down his cheek) . () Hawkeye: So it is.
This example has a character specific double meaning. Mustang is skilled in
but it requires him and his target to be dry, so his powers don't work in the rain. He's not just trying to come up with an excuse for his tears, he's saying he feels useless.
Kei: Yui... Are you crying-
Yui: I'm not crying!
Mewtwo, during the
scene in Mewtwo Strikes Back by Tracey West, a
(not in the movie itself).
Ash used to use this excuse in early seasons, though he's since learned that men can cry. He typically lowers his head, or tries to, but he's obviously crying.
Asuma dies it's truly pouring cats and dogs. Yet Shikamaru gives himself away by stressing that smoke is stinging his eyes.
Also, when Sasuke has seemingly died at the hands of Deidara, Itachi may or may not be crying for him. We can't be sure, because it's raining pretty hard.
does this in a volume 8 flashback.
Obito Uchiha tries the same line.
Minato: Dust can't get in your eyes when you're , Obito.
In , as Joey is about to be disqualified from the Duelist Kingdom semifinals for not having a Glory of the King's Hand card, he is on the ground crying in despair over not being able to save his sister's eyesight. Mai approaches him, telling him to stop crying, and he claims to have a nosebleed. She then gives him her Glory of the King's Hand card, wrapped in a tissue, which Joey notices is damp—implying she cried after losing to Yugi, despite seeming composed as she walked out.
Variation in , where the
who claims to have no emotions says that the tears in her eyes are not hers, but are coming from the person she absorbed. Nanoha and Fate call bullshit.
After Yue of
admits her feelings for Negi and has a minor , she uses this excuse to keep Negi from paying too much attention. He's only ten, so he falls for it.
Also, after Kotarou speaks about his rather tragic past, Konoka says that there's some dust in her eyes while clearly .
One aversion worthy of mention is Mihoko Fukuji from , who has her , but when she cries, tears come out from both eyes.
In , when Rin hits her caretaker Daikichi with the proclamation "I like you just being my Daikichi.", Daikichi is moved to tears, but insists it's only sweat. Also an , as sweat was Rin's excuse when she wet the bed.
's Franky easily cries the most of the crew, getting emotional at just about any touching story he hears (which is how he ended up helping the strawhats, who used to be enemies in the first place). He NEVER admits it though, saying anything from "THERE'S DUST IN MY EYE!" to "I'M NOT CRYING YOU BASTARDS, I KNEW YOU'D SURVIVE!" there's no single manly tear either, try geysers. Perhaps the most original version was after the crowning moment of funny where Robin attempted to convince him to join the crew with a laser guided groin attack. Franky pretends that she is continuing with her ball-crushing grip long after she's actually let up, so that he can cry without shame about leaving his hometown, brother-figure, and nakama.
When Nami is captured at Weatheria and put in jail for trying to steal meteorological equipment, she reads about
Ace's death in the newspaper and breaks down crying, causing her captors to freak out and release her. She quickly reveals that it was just an act, and she makes off with the equipment she stole, along with one of the meteorologists, who notes that she still hasn't stopped crying.
: Ranma Saotome once used a variation of this excuse after Akane implied that he was crying over her getting hurt.
Ranma: Uh, th- that's just sweat or somethin'. Hmph.
In , the manga, Kuroi-sensei and Sakuraba-sensei get Something In Their Eyes after that year's students have graduated and had that final time in class afterward. (Kuroi's was likely exacerbated by Miyuki's little speech at the end.) The strip is called "warning of flying dust".
In , after Soujiro kills his abusive relatives, he deliberately tilts his head into the rain so that raindrops hide his tears. Realizing this triggers a .
Akira from
uses the "flower pollen" excuse when his girlfriend catches him crying, after he thinks she's cheating on him with another girl.
In chapter 1 of the
manga, Haruka cried after Manabe mentioned "people who want to leave are going to leave." When Manabe asked, she denied crying and claimed of . Manabe of course lampshaded about how fake it is. The
that follows have Haruka mentioned she actually keeps onions at home to make up excuses like this!
&&&&Comic Books&
pal Paco pulls this in issue #7.
story "W.H.A.D.A.L.O.T.T.A.J.A.R.G.O.N", written by , Donald saves his nephews in a plywood mill, and they later give him an award. He tears up, and claims he still got sawdust in his eyes from the mill. One of his nephews points out that it was months before.
In the last issue of the High Society arc in , Cerebus has lost his position as Prime Minister and all his plans have fallen through. He wells up, but vehemently denies crying until he .
In the final issue of the
miniseries, when the Four reiterate that Spidey is part of their family, he claims to have some web in his eye.
#216, when
leaves the team:
Tigra: Jarv, you sexy, old hound dog, are you crying? Jarvis: A good butler never cries while on duty, madame! -sniff- It must be my allergy to felines making my eyes tear!
In the one-shot comic X-Men Origins: Deadpool, a screenwriter visits the eponymous mercenary's apartment because he thinks his story would make for a great film. When Deadpool finishes telling the screenwriter about his childhood, which involves a
and an alcoholic mother, he takes a moment to lift up his mask and wipe his eyes because ""
&&&&Comic Strips&
Inverted in a
strip, when Garfield and Jon watch the sunset together:
Jon: You have something in your eye? Garfield: Yes, a little speck of sentiment.
&&&&Fan Works&
breaking in tears after Fluttershy's speech on why she helped her even after all the horrible things Rainbow had told her in the morning.
Fluttershy: There, it's okay Rainbow Dash. There's no need to cry. Rainbow: I'm not crying! I-It's just my... *Sob* alergieeees!
On the fan-run
Tumblr blog,
He replies defensively that it was raining — which it was, but his reply was so very defensive that it seemed to be a case of .
Luffy gets emotionally affected pretty easily in , more so than in canon. She also doesn't want to admit it when it happens.
: Monster X sheds tears when Aria Blaze, whom he had fallen in love with, seemingly dies. When she revives, he blames his tears on the pain of his injuries.
&&&&Films — Animation&
2: Tuke manages to win the hearts of two female moose named Anda and Kata, leaving Rutt heartbroken. At the part with Tuke and the female moose watching the auroras, this exchange occurs:
Anda: Are you crying? Rutt: No, I mean, well, yeah, so what, eh? The light's so beautiful, eh?
Played with in . After Peaches is born Diego is pushing away a tear. When called on it, he first invokes the trope. "No, no, that last dino caught my eye with a claw and..." and then subverts it "Alright, so ." Later, Crash and Eddie repeat the trope.
Eddie: I didn't. (turns on the waterworks)
1½, cinema!Timon says a variation of this after watching the scene where movie!Timon and movie!Pumbaa stare at each other in a
(perhaps) scene. It was obvious that cinema!Timon was bursting into tears.
In , after Kida takes Milo to a high place to overlook the whole of Atlantis, Milo sheds a few tears of joy and when Kida asked what's wrong, he just said he had something in his eye.
In , SpongeBob notices Plankton tearing up after having to shut down Karen to build the time machine.
SpongeBob: Plankton, are you crying? Plankton: No, no, no, that's the price of having a giant eyeball. Stuff always gets in there.
In , Silver starts to tear up while
hugging Jim goodbye. He claims he has "grease" in his eye.
&&&&Films — Live-Action&
Hal Holbrook's Oscar-nominated supporting role in
culminates in one of these.
A New Zealand short film played with this trope. Three men who lost a common friend use this excuse (as well as similar and increasingly sillier ones) to hide that they are crying. In the end, one of the men finally breaks down and runs off sobbing. An uncomfortable silence occurs before the other two convince themselves that it was just his allergies acting up.
is normally , almost to the point of , but when she cries, it's only from one eye. Justified in that her right eye was damaged when she was a child (possibly damaging the tear duct) and she got a new one.
. John Conner is talking to the Terminator about his mother Sarah Conner and his father Kyle Reese.
John: Mom and him were only together for one night. She still loves him, I guess. I see her crying sometimes. She denies it totally, of course, like she got something stuck in her eye.
was going around, The Guardian ran a humor article with useful phrases for the movie (in Aramaic, of course!). One of them was "I' I've just got a ."
in the 1994 remake of . One of the ball players pokes fun at Coach Knox for shedding a tear during the playing of the "Star Spangled Banner" before a game, but Knox shrugs it off as sunscreen getting in his eye.
In , when the story of Ray and Claude's life and death is finished, one of the young inmates notices the other is crying. He replies that he must be allergic to something.
In the film adaptation of , Kristy protests to her mother that she's not crying - she's got allergies.
A variation in : After the , the antagonist gives a final speech about all the wonders he has seen in the course of his brief life, concluding that all these things will be lost "like tears in the rain." It's left ambiguous as to whether he himself is crying,
In , this is Helen's excuse for crying at Ernest's funeral at the end.
In , when Oz sneaks up to show Finley that he's , Finley blames his tears on the smoke.
The Sicilian (1987). The boss-of-bosses for
in Sicily, Don Croce Malo, is being taken to a meeting with famous bandit Salvatore Guiliano. As they drive to the meeting place, Guiliano's men are lining the road, cheering this "man of honor". Don Malo cites the dusty road as the reason he has to take off his glasses and wipe his eyes.
Antoinette, tears streaming down her face, insisting she's not crying. The smoke-filled bar is irritating her eyes.
In , as the Turtles are falling to their apparent doom, Raphael gives a heartfelt confession only to be stopped by Donny informing him they've landed safely. Then the following takes place:
Michelangelo: "Raph, are you crying?" Raphael: "Nah ding-dong... *sniffles* It's just a little dusty out here."
Following the
Stacks gets teary-eyed but doesn't mention it.
When he shows Annie where he grew up in Queens, he plays it off as pollen or dust.
When he's about to lose Annie to her "real parents", she asks him if it's dusty and he says it's not. He then admits on TV that he's actually crying.
&&&&Literature&
leads a certain character onto a certain
the character in question suddenly complains that something outside the window is dazzling his eyes. His reaction proves to be a clue.
The first sign of Ebenezer Scrooge's impending
on his cheek as he sees a vision of his childhood. When the Ghost of Christmas Past calls him on it, he claims it is a pimple - a moment that manages to be funny and poignant at the same time.
Mrs. Cratchit also has a moment, during the
that The Ghost of Christmas Future shows to Scrooge. In it, Mrs. Cratchit, busy with some sewing, heard her older son reading the line, ?And he took a child, and set him in the midst of them.? It caused her to think of
and she began to cry, in front of her children. She's able to stop herself and tells them that she wasn't crying, "The colour [of the fabric] hurts my eyes."
in : "I felt very happy too, but of course I didn't cry: 'big things' never do, you know, we leave all that to the Fairies. Only I think it must have been raining a little just then, for I found a drop or two on my cheeks."
: The "It's beyond my control" scene when the Viscount dumps his woman, so the Marquise can't get to her.
: Kristy pulls this one in , claiming to her mother that "I've got allergies!"
After Porthos's death in the final chapters of , Aramis spends the night leaning against the bulwarks of the ship he's on. The next morning, his servant comments that it must have been a humid night since the wood he's been leaning his head on is damp. "What epitaph would have been worth that?"
story "In Remembrance", Larkin cries as they go through a war-torn city and believe their co Feygor jeers at him for his weakness, and he says, "It's... it's something in my eye." (That does not put off Feygor, but the other troopers with them support Larkin.)
Also from that series, Only In Death: Hark writes that he thought he saw
Rawne tear up when he learned
Gaunt was alive. Hark attributed it to the dust.
Straight Silver: after a conversation with Kolea in which Criid briefly thinks that his comments show that he has some memory after his head injury, and then learns that she had misinterpreted something he said, another Ghost asks if she's all right. She tells him, "Grit in my eyes."
In His Last Command, after a
to blow up , Brostin insists on carrying the "wounded" Feygor back. Gaunt succeeds in persuading him that Feygor is dead.
Brostin gently laid Feygor's body on the wet grass. Rain streamed off his beard like tears.
In , after Dumbledore told Harry about his mother's death:
Dumbledore now became very interested in a bird out on the window-sill, which gave Harry time to dry his eyes on the sheet.
Then, in , when Harry told Dumbledore about Scrimgeour's saying he was "Dumbledore's man through and through" and that he said it was true, Harry looked away until Dumbledore had controlled himself. Though it's Harry and not Dumbledore who's embarrassed by the tears.
Apparently Songbreeze from
has such a touching, pure voice that it makes her battle-ready father cry. And he blames it on a gnat.
: When Talon Kardde learns fellow smuggler captain Shada D'ukal wasn't, in fact, on her ship when it
to disable a hostile capital ship.
In The High King, the last novel of 's , when Fflewdur Flam sacrifices his harp for firewood, he complains of how it smokes, though it burns with very little smoke.
novel Dead Sky Black Sun, stripped of his captaincy and exiled from the Chapter world, Uriel washes himself after a bout, and looks in a mirror.
droplets trickled like tears down his reflection's cheek
Both applying to this and Live Action TV, the titular character of The Story Of Tracy Beaker usually passes off any instance of her crying as "hay fever".
A slight variant appears in one of the
novels, in which the RSM dies of a stomach wound, telling Sharpe (who is holding his hand): "I'll not cry, sir. They'll not say they saw me cry." He's weeping with pain as he speaks.
"Ana," he said, almost choking on the words. "You... you think that I... How could you think that I would...?" He turned his face away. It couldn't have been a tear. Not from Morgan. He wouldn't shed tears if he had to execute his own mother. But for a fraction of a second, something shone on one of his cheeks.
: when Charity insists that he stay with them at the hospital until they have news of Michael, Harry's vision blurs.
In 's Patriots, the Woodsrunners go to punish a magistrate appointed by their enemies. When the Woodsrunners start a fire, meaning to burn the fellow's home and all his possessions, he insists that the tears on his face are from the smoke. After a minute or two, their leader puts out the fire, giving the magistrate a reprieve, and explains later that "There ain't so many brave men that I want to chase one off Greenwood unless I have to."
In the children's book Harry Cat's Pet Puppy, once Harry and Tucker finally find a home for Huppy and he moves out of the drainpipe, Tucker confesses to wiping "a little leftover rain" from his eye. Harry comments that "We've been home an hour."
mentions that Cardinal Wolsey fell from grace since he "although (as is well known) he had not thought to shed a tear about all this, did ultimately shed a memorable one."
the mentally disabled Charlie, who's being used as an experimental subject, writes in one of his progress reports about going out drinking with some "friends" of his from the factory where he works. It's very clear to Miss Kinnian, his teacher, that these "friends" are actually just taking him with them so that they can make fun of him, and when he tells her that they've never been anything but good to him, "she got something in her eye and she had to run out to the ladys room."
In the new Marvel prose , Rocket tears up when their new robot friend (172) is leaving. It's not described outright, but alluded to in the dialogue.
"Are you sad, Rocket Raccoon? "Nah, nah. Just got some dust in my eyes."
&&&&Live-Action TV&
Parodied to hell and back in the
song "I'm Not Crying" - "I'm not upset because you've left me this way, my eyes are just a little sweaty today", "It's just raining / ", "I've just been
/ I'm making a lasagna / "...
, insisting during
that he's fine doing the show by himself and doesn't need his writers anyway:
[tearing up] I'm fine. I have something in my eye, that's all. [sobs] ...I have something in my other eye. [sobbing] I have something in my heart...
Also used (in a more
fashion) during the infamous Filliam H. Muffman clip, when Colbert couldn't stop laughing.
And Stephen was not crying during the 2009 inauguration special. It was just allergies. Really.
episode "The Other Side", Hercules goes to the Elysian Fields and reunites with his lost family. His daughter asks him if he's crying. He tells her that Daddy isn't crying, the wind just blew something in his eye and then hugs her like he'll never let her go.
A rare female example, from : when it is pointed out that Seven is crying after most of the Borg children leave, she claims that her ocular implant is malfunctioning. Subverted when the Doctor finds that it really was a malfunction. Inverted at the end when Icheb informs her that her implant is malfunctioning again, and the Doctor point out that it's working perfectly.
episode "Jackie Moves On", Kelso denies that he cried after Jackie broke up with him:
Kelso: I did not cry! I had something in my eye. Hyde: For a week? Kelso: I have allergies, allright? (beat) Is it so wrong to feel?!
In one episode of , ?School Demo?, the gang demolishes their old school. Initially they are thrilled, but when Harold causes them to reminisce about their past, the men become emotional and many spend the rest of the episode crying uncontrollably. At the end of the episode, Red tries to explain away their crying by saying the dust from the demolition made them all teary-eyed. The rest of the men immediately agree.
After a poignant scene in
between him and his daughter, who he just dropped off for the first day of college:
Martha: Darling, are you crying?
Castle: No, it's allergies... I've... pollen count is high.
Martha: Pollen count's gotten me too.
They hug each other, and are both obviously crying.
Darryl: Stop crying.
Andy: I'm not crying. I'm sweating.
S2, at the
deathbed wedding of servants William and Daisy, the aristocratic
Dowager Countess can't help sniffling.
Violet: I have a cold.
At the ending of an episode of "", Adams, upon seeing his friend Mad Jack tearing up after they'd said an emotional goodbye to someone they helped throughout the episode, has the following exchange:
Adams: Got something in your eyes?
Mad Jack: Oh, it's nothing. Just some smoke from the campfire.
Adams: Ah.
Adams: Must've been a pretty strong campfire.
Mad Jack: Why do you say that?
Adams: It's been out for a day.
In , Justin's "allergies" start acting up when he gets sad.
Invoked in the
episode of . In the alternate reality where they have never met, Mindy's marriage to someone else has just blown up. She and her father are about to take a walk together when her father looks up at the sky and says, "Oh, what a shame. It's starting to rain." Mindy replies that she would rather walk in the rain anyway, because "then nobody knows you're crying."
Toward the end of the classic
arc, "The Dalek Invasion of Earth", as she says goodbye to David, with whom she had fallen in love, Susan explains the tears in her eyes by saying, "I lost my shoe," before falling into his arms and confessing her love for him. The Doctor, seeing this, chooses to leave Susan behind to be with David. In the Series 9 Christmas episode, the Husbands of River Song, River notices the Doctor crying because he knows that this is the last time he will see her. He tells her that it's 'just the wind.'
&&&&Music&
"Crying In the Rain," originally done by , has the subject stating that he intends to hide his tears by only crying when it is raining.
In "Raindrops" by
Clark, the male subject is claiming it must be raindrops falling from his eyes. "No, it can't be teardrops, for a "
"I Wish It Would Rain" by The Temptations has the singer wanting to cry, and frustrated by the beautiful blue sky that won't give him the desired cover up.
ends his "Redneck Twelve Days of Christmas" with this spoken exchange:
Are you crying?
Naw, it's just my allergies.
&&&&Pro Wrestling&
On the first
"One Night Stand", Paul Heyman standing in the ring as the fans chant "Thank You Paul". He insisted that his eyes were red and watery because he'd been sharing a blunt with Rob Van Dam, not because he was crying. Yes, wrestling is scripted, but not everything is. This was not.
&&&&Radio&
In , Eugene's later conversion was foreshadowed when he begins to cry at a Nativity scene shown to him in the Imagination Station. However, when Connie asks him if he's crying, he responds that he has hay fever and the stable "aggravated [his] sinuses".
episode "A Four Letter Word", Satan arranges for a
remake to be screened for the demons, with the intent that their reaction will humiliate the screenwriter. To his horror, they start to find it moving.
Satan: Right, that's it. I can hear a demon blubbing. Is it you? Demon: No, no, I've just got dust in me eyes.
episode "Boston", the
Mr. Leeman makes Martin cry when he calls him a "flying cabbie" (as opposed to someone with a real job at a real airline). Martin insists the smoke from Leeman's cigarettes got in his eyes. Douglas, not fooled, sings 'Smoke Gets In Your Eyes' at him.
&&&&Video Games&
The "Literal Lyrics" version of the infamous trailer for
invokes the Trope.
I'm not cry-ing, there's some-thing in both my ... eyes.
3, Dante sheds a tear for his lost brother Vergil and unconvincingly dismisses it as "only just the rain". When this is pointed out, he quips the series'
"Devils Never Cry", to which Lady makes an understanding .
In the second part of , Levin literally says there's just sand in his eyes when he cries onces. Specifically, if he's paired with
in the first part and their daughter
tells him .
Inverted in the good ending of , where Laharl sheds a tear for Angel-turned-flower , and says out loud: "What is this...? A tear...? ... Hmph. I never knew I could shed tears."
Played straight by Seraphina and Red Magnus in , who both lie about their crying (Seraphina attempting to Red Magnus ) when Killia deciphers the ingredients to the Toto Bunny Special Sweet Curry, as derived by Usalia's parents before their untimely deaths. Zeroken breaks down and admits to crying after hearing their "excuses".
At the ending of , Nathan Drake claims that the tears he shed
when he thought Elena was dead were just the rain.
Nathan: It was raining and you were unconscious. Elena: It was sunny, and you were bawling. Whatever, I kept your tears in a jar. I have proof.
Sheila () in
when Cecil tells her that Yang is alive in the care of the Sylphs. She then give you
with which to .
Played for laughs in , in the scene where Guybrush discusses with the Voodoo priestess the way to lift the curse put on Elaine. The priestess mentions he has to replace the ring with a pure one found on an island, for which she recites the values of that ring:
Voodoo Lady: The value of the ring on Blood Island comes from its emotional significance. It represents a pure, true love, a power greater than any other. Guybrush: Oh, that's sweet. I... I think I have something in my eye. Voodoo Lady: (points at him in a strict manner) Do not mock the voodoo priestess.
makes this claim once, only for him it's a little more egregious than usual- he's a
and doesn't have eyes to begin with- since nobody but the protagonist can see his ghostly human form, presumably it's not tangible...
Subverted in comic fashion in 's True Pacifist ending:
Papyrus: I didn't cry!!! I don't cry!! I just... caught something in my eye. Sans: What did you catch? Papyrus: TEARS!!
&&&&Web Comics&
The line itself is subverted in the next frame, as
gets the "something" out of the hobgoblin's eye. With a dagger.
's Reginald is ... to being sad.
: When Davan plays a
, after Jason made fun of a workmate who played sad songs and cried over them, Davan himself ends up with "some backfired plan in my eye".
Similarly,
stuck in his eyes during a Q&A session.
In , Monique asks Slick to take off his
as a sign that he's serious about his love for her. He can't bring himself to do it...until long after she's already walked off, .
In , , after his father dropped him off with an apology for not being supportive and telling him to go on his own, to make his colleagues respect him as a man.
Angus from
are due to allergies.
cries much more easily that he likes to admit. If someone notices his red eyes or sniffling, he tends to claim that he's allergic to the first thing that pops into his mind. He has been so far seen claiming an allergy to travel and an allergy to Sweden (he's Finnish).
&&&&Web Original&
: In "Ayla and the Birthday Brawl", when Ayla's efforts fail to get his body fixed back to normal, he doesn't cry. No, it's something in the air conditioning ducts.
' "Literal Dead Island Trailer" has him tearfully singing I'm not crying, there's something in both my eyes...
&&&&Western Animation&
Mocked when Moe is touched by Marge's gift of a homemade sweater.
Moe: I've got something in my eye. (digs something from his eye) Oh, it's just a piece of glass.
He says the same thing in Like Father, Like Clown (although it really is tears this time).
after the two aliens Kang and Kodos watched Maggie's
scenes. It turns out they really are vomiting.
''These aren't tears! We're "
Mr.Burns says this to Smithers while they're at the theatre.
: "I'm not crying! My eyes are sweating!"
Nicely subverted in the
animated series. After thinking
had been killed, the members of the League are understandably pleased to see him alive and well.
Superman: I'm fine. Very glad to be home. ...Flash? Flash: [sniff] Something in my eyes. Green Lantern: Yeah, tears. It's OK, man. We all feel the same way.
actually cries pretty hard when he tries to give up comedy, but that doesn't stop him from saying, "Sorry, joke — er, smoke got in my eye."
Played with at the end of one
animated series episode, as K's implied love interest takes off in her ship, leaving Earth for an unknown length of time. K (who'd mentioned the fuel fumes from the spaceships earlier) makes a point of putting on his shades.
J: (solemnly regards K for a moment) Fuel fumes really sting the eyes, huh? K: Yeah. (J puts a hand on his shoulder)
Interestingly inverted in one episode. Buford has lost his pet goldfish, the one he won as a young boy, and is understandably devastated. But, being the neighborhood bully, he has a reputation to uphold. When one of the characters asks "Are you crying?" Buford replies, "No, I'm just sweating through my eyes!". Later, Isabella asks "Buford... are you sweating through your eyes?", he replies "No, I'm crying!" but that just may be because he's being contrary.
Played straight with a
in , when Major Monogram tears up at an emotional scene and uses the same excuse to Carl.
"Chasing Bobby" has Hank crying in an emotional scene in a movie which alarms Peggy because he knows his long time truck is dying. Hank denies it by saying he has something in his eye. Peggy wants him to admit it and even takes him to an eye doctor.
Another time Peggy declared "I have something in my eye, but I am also crying."
In the half-episode "Roachie", Kim tears up after Ron has to let go of Roachie (). When Rufus notices it, she complains that the wind's coming off miles of garbage, where Roachie was let go.
In "A Sitch in Time", when it seems that Team Possible is , Ron says he has something in his eyes and signs off.
to the Rescue Movie, even Grumpy, who spent the whole episode complaining, is moved by Cheer and her new pet's goodbye. When the others notice this, he just says, "What? I have allergies."
In , when a bird is reunited with his mother, Jimmy and Beezy cry... and so does . When they comment on this, she claims she has a feather in her eye.
once used this trope in the episode "Gummi Dearest".
Cubbi also used this trope in the episode "Up, Up, and Away".
In , Fu-Fu goes through this twice in the episodes "Sagwa's Lucky Bat" and "Panda-monium".
Shining Armor sheds "liquid pride" at his sister's coronation in the
Rick and Morty have a falling out before they're captured by Evil Rick. Evil Rick looks through Rick's memories, and Rick starts to cry when he sees a series of images about Morty. Evil Rick mocks him for crying, and Rick snarks "No, I'm just allergic to dipshits".
episode "Doomie's Romance," B.J. gets emotional after the attempt to bring Mayor Maynot's pink convertible to life proves successful.
Lydia: (wiping tears from her eyes) Why, Beetlejuice... I do believe you're crying! Beetlejuice: Nah... I just got a little sand in my eyes.
had Po claim to have "sweaty eyes".
Happened in
when the gang adopts an abandoned baby, only to have to give him back when the mother reclaims him.
Top Cat: What's the matter? Ain't you never seen a guy with somethin' in his eye before? Choo Choo: Sure we did, T.C., but not you.
Similar to the above example, with the same species of animal no less, is the end of the
cartoon "Smitten with Kittens." Rita and Runt "adopt" a litter of stray kittens, but eventually give them up to a human owner. Runt
as he says goodbye ? Rita, despite having
drops a tear into the puddle too, then remarks "It's, uh, starting to rain..." which conveniently, it is.
Parodied in the
episode "My Fair Hatey". Wander has "something in my eye" after learning Lord Dominator seems to be inviting Lord Hater on a date, then immediately admits it's "these ."
In 's "Snow Job", Nikki tries a variant of this excuse when Jonesy first asks her why she's crying all alone in the ice rink.
&&&&Real Life&
During his presidential campaign in 1972, Democratic candidate Ed Muskie made an emotional speech, defending his wife from some unpleasant journalist smear. The press reported that he
he insisted that what had appeared as tears were actually melted snowflakes.
shows him trying to remain composed as he knows he is about to say goodbye to the show's cast and crew, though his voice keeps cracking and he can't stand still. It's rather .
The Japanese have a verb for pretending you're not crying: shinobinaku. Which literally means "ninja crying." Sounds a little more badass now, doesn't it?
Comments left for sad videos online tend to have a running theme of "Ninjas
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SandInMyEyes