A video posted to YouTube a few weeks ago making the rounds across the internet apparently shows Fox News Channel host Glenn Beck having Vicks applied under his eyes in order to cry on cue for a photo shoot.
One blog, Sensico, mocks, "This is only shocking video to those that love Glenn Beck and think he cries non-stop because he 'loves this country.'"
The blog links to a montage of Beck crying jags put to the theme song of "The Crying Game" as sung by Boy George: YouTube link.
In April, Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert mocked one of Beck's tear-ups, by pretending to be choked up about it: "I'm sorry. I just love Glenn Beck's sanity -- and I fear for it."
Of course, using Vicks to cry during a staged photo shot wouldn't be the same as using it to produce tears on television about how the country "is turning Socialist." So, until another tape surfaces showing Beck getting the Vicks treatment before a rant on Fox, it would be premature to speculate that he only emits fugazi tears.
But if Beck is outed as a Vicks-enabled weeper, then there are other tricks of the trade he can employ.
A wikiHOW manual offers many suggestions such as, "Make a crying face, which usually involves closing your eyes and scrunching your face."
"Turn the corners of your lips down a little," the manual advises. "Try to force the inner corners of your eyebrows upwards. Wrinkle up your chin like people do right before they start bawling."
However, the manual notes, "This may look faked." So, another suggestion is to "try pinching hard in some sensitive parts of your body," and "tears will automatically flow down."
The following video was posted to YouTube on September 17: