Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Tearjerkers for guys

Women often report enjoying going to the movies to have a good cry, so maybe men (and I'm talking about conventionally straight men) could benefit from similar stories with them in mind. Unfortunately, it is surprisingly difficult to come up with much in the way of ideas of film stories which have a high likelihood of making your average guy really weepy, rather than enraged or just quietly humiliated. But maybe if the special effects are really good, a big Hollywood studio could clear that obstacle.

Droplets
Droplets,
originally uploaded by whyizit.

Off the top of my head:
  • Man sacrifices for years to buy a sports car, the only one he knows he'll ever own. A day after he picks it up, he finds that someone's scratched it all the way down to the primer.

  • One of the new guys in the office tries to fit in by trying for the slow-pitch softball team, is picked last.

  • The guy is in a store selling fancy electronics at a discount and sees a beautiful, ring-less girl looking at him from a couple of aisles over. Turns out, she thought he worked there.

  • The first date is going great, she's laughing at his jokes, and it's time to leave. But his credit card is declined, and he has to borrow some cash to cover the bill.

  • Pulling out of his driveway, he sees something and stops just in time to miss a kid riding past on a bicycle. He's congratulating himself, but then realizes that something doesn't seem right in his shirt pocket area. His iPod is missing, and it turns out that he had just run over it.


Now that I look at these, I see that all I've done is to summarize a set of YouTube shorts which people will tag as "funny" and call the guy a "loser" in the comments.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ha! I've got another (hypothetical) plotline: Man leaves on overnight business trip, and his wife throws-out one of his beloved shirts that was getting kind of ratty and she never really cared for, anyway...

RichM said...

Well, that's pretty far-fetched.

So why did your blog go all wonky today? It thinks a bunch of us commenters are all named "Anonymous" and won't let me comment to complain. It's...it's making me cry...

Kelley said...

Oh, $hit. I'm going through "The Change." You know, from Blogger to Beta (not my idea!).

I knew this wasn't a good idea...

RichM said...

Okay, that makes sense. When I switched over I had maybe two dozen posts total so it didn't take hours and hours. I presume everything will be All Better when the conversion is complete. Until then I guess you'll just have to be a hobo on other peoples' blogs, posting and running.

Anonymous said...

Have you seen the Dairy Queen commericals where the guy is carrying his kid in a Snugli while he's eating the newest blizzard and the kid kicks him between the legs? That one makes my husband cry everytime.

RichM said...

Sadly, no, I missed that one. Must have been a female ad director on that on that campaign, or else a masochist. I see that it's got some people riled up, too.

[Word verification: 'gripoma' - wow!]