Crying Breakfast Friends!

"Crying Breakfast Friends!" is a TV show briefly seen in "Gem Glow", is featured heavily in "Cry for Help" and is first formally introduced in "Space Race".

Plot
The show consists of various breakfast items who are constantly crying. At first, their reason for crying was unknown but in "Cry for Help" it was revealed that the characters cry whenever mishaps occur (such as ice cream falling onto the floor) or when something good happens (such as when Sad Spoon forgave Crying Pear).

Characters

 * Sad Apple
 * Sniffling Croissant (mentioned in "Reformed")
 * Crying Pear
 * Spilled Milk
 * Glum Glass
 * Sad Waffle
 * Crying Egg (mentioned in "Keep Beach City Weird")
 * Weeping Egg Cup
 * Pining Grapefruit (mentioned in "Reformed")
 * Sad Spoon
 * Bawling Bacon

Critical Reception
Greg and Amethyst have been shown to dislike the show. Both of them seem to be confused by Steven's love of the show, Amethyst even stating "Who wants to watch a show about people crying?" Greg, along with Pearl, also doesn't seem to understand it. Steven appears to enjoy it, owning stickers produced by the creators of the show, which he used to mark deactivated warps in "Space Race". In "Cry for Help", Garnet watches an episode with Steven and she disagrees with him when he proclaims that the episode is very good. Despite the Gems' and Greg's confusion, they still watch with Steven, and Steven does try to explain aspects to them.

"Gem Glow"
A brief clip of the show appears on TV in this episode. It depicts a mural display of Crying Breakfast Friends.

"Space Race"
Steven identifies deactivated warp pads with Crystal Gems at the Galaxy Warp by placing Crying Breakfast stickers on them. Later on the show is played on Greg's TV by the car wash in which he says cartoons have changed and he's starting to feel old.

"Warp Tour"
Peridot flees the Galaxy Warp fearing the Sad Waffle sticker is a sign the site was invaded. She proceeds to take the sticker with her using it as evidence and then uses her Plug EMP to disable all her Flask Robonoids.

"Future Vision"
Steven is shown with a Sad Pear toy in the episode.

"Marble Madness"
Peridot furiously shows the Crystal Gems the Sad Waffle sticker and questions if they were the ones who put it on the Homeworld warp, to which she gets no answer. It appears to have been used as evidence against them and she believes that this is their symbol of alliance.

"Reformed"
Steven tries to get the Crystal Gems and Greg to take a personality test relating to the Crying Breakfast Friends. Sniffling Croissant, Weeping Egg Cup, Pining Grapefruit and Spilled Milk are mentioned by name with some details of their characters.

"Cry for Help"
Steven tries to watch the show multiple times with Garnet and Amethyst, but to his dismay Peridot's distress signal keeps interrupting the show. One of the episodes Steven watches is about Crying Pear lying to Sad Spoon, upsetting her; however, Sad Spoon forgives Crying Pear in the end. This is a reference to how Pearl lied to Garnet so that they could fuse, foreshadowing that Garnet becomes upset, but forgives Pearl (Pear) in the end. There is also, perhaps, a coincidental similarity between the names Pearl and Pear. When Pearl and Garnet silently passed each other at the end of the episode, Amethyst contemplates that it would be great if issues in real life were easily solved as how they are in cartoons, referencing Crying Breakfast Friends!.

Trivia

 * Crying Breakfast Friends! is a reference to the show Steven Universe itself. Before the complex plot began to surface, it was commonly criticized because older audiences claimed to not understand the show.
 * Following this, the Crying Breakfast Friends! characters are references to the Crystal Gems and other characters in the show:
 * Steven's personality quiz resulted in "Sniffling Croissant".
 * Steven sees Pearl as "Weeping Egg Cup, who's neurotic and uptight".
 * Greg Universe is "Pining Grapefruit, the sensitive older one who wishes he were a better role model".
 * Garnet is "stern yet practical. Just like Spilled Milk"!
 * The Steven Universe crew released a model sheet which reveals that the Breakfast Friends were once planned to appear in "Gem Glow". These early friends included a spoon and a glass of milk. However, only the apple was actually crying.
 * Steven used the stickers at the Galaxy Warp to mark which warp pads weren't working during "Space Race".
 * Peridot believed the Crystal Gems' symbol is Sad Waffle, in "Marble Madness".
 * On Ronaldo's blog, he rants about a crossover between the Crying Breakfast Friends! and the Inter-Dimensional Family Friend.
 * This is a fictional reference to the real world Steven Universe - Uncle Grandpa crossover, "Say Uncle", Ronaldo's reactions mirror those of many in the Steven Universe fanbase including the initial skepticism at its announcement and the events that occurred within the episode.
 * The character, Inter-Dimensional Family Friend, is a reference to Uncle Grandpa.
 * One of the characters, Crying Pear, was featured in the Steven Bomb 3 promotional image, representing the episode "Cry for Help".
 * The Crying Breakfast Friends! episode in "Cry for Help" is about Crying Pear lying to Sad Spoon, which upsets her. This foreshadows Pearl's lies later in the episode, further showing the symbolic use of the cartoon.
 * In "Cry for Help" Steven points out how Sad Spoon forgives Crying Pear for lying to them. He then asks her if she would forgive Crying Pear after which she shrugs. This is symbolic of how Garnet was initially unwilling to forgive Pearl.
 * It's possible that Crying Breakfast Friends! references the popular series The Annoying Orange.
 * Pear seems to be voiced by Deedee Magno-Hall, who also voices Pearl.
 * Spoon seems to be voiced by Estelle, who also voices Garnet.