Sadness Is A Blessing

Many of us have had the great misfortune of seeing The Champ at one time or another, enduring Ricky Schroeder only to find, at the end, a tragic death scene that makes the demise of Bambi's mom seem downright cheery by way of comparison—simply the prelude to a delicious venison dinner.

But it turns out the Champ has had a long, unexpected second life.

Says the Smithsonian:

"The final scene of The Champ has become a must-see in psychology laboratories around the world when scientists want to make people sad.

"The Champ has been used in experiments to see if depressed people are more likely to cry than non-depressed people (they aren't). It has helped determine whether people are more likely to spend money when they are sad (they are) and whether older people are more sensitive to grief than younger people (older people did report more sadness when they watched the scene). Dutch scientists used the scene when they studied the effect of sadness on people with binge eating disorders (sadness didn't increase eating)."

You can see the rest of the Smithsonian article here.

In the meantime, compare and contrast.

Bambi's Mom Takes A Bullet

The Champ Wins The (Sadness) Title