How Would You Like to Die?: Difference between revisions

''...although if you'' do ''say old age, you [[Be Careful What You Wish For|may find yourself aging rapidly]]...''

 

 

Alternatively, some heroes will realize there are [[Locking MacGyver in the Store Cupboard|several resources they can use to escape]] and will ask the villain to bring the crucial ingredient closer.

{{examples}}

* The protagonists of ''[[Barbarella]]'' and ''[[Futurama]]'' wander into walk-in suicide booths, which offer world-weary beings a choice of ways to terminate their unendurable existence. In the latter, "I'd like to make a collect call" is heard by the booth as "slow and horrible".

* As does the [[Robert Sheckley]] novel ''Time Killer''.

* ''[[Romancing the Stone]]'' uses the trope twice, first in an excerpt from one of Joan Wilder's novels and played for comedy:

'''Grogan''': I'll kill you, goddammit, if it's the Fourth of July! }}

*** For the crime of [[Hypocritical Humour|implanting chauvinistic material into a motion picture]].

* In ''[[Abbott and Costello]] Meet The Killer'', an evil hypnotist attempts to make Lou Costello commit suicide but fails repeatedly. Reasoning that Lou is resisting him, he asks Lou the trope question. Lou's reply: "Old Age."

* One of the generic pirates' taunts in the [[You Fight Like a Cow|insult swordfighting]] minigame in ''[[The Curse of Monkey Island]]'' is "Would you rather be buried or cremated?"

* One of the original subversions of the [[Genie in a Bottle]] story has the genie grow more and more bitter as the eons go by and nobody releases him, so that by the time a hapless fisherman does, he's decided not to grant any wishes but to give him his choice of death.

** In the ''[[Enchanted Forest Chronicles]]'', when presented with this choice, Princess Cimorene immediately chooses "old age". The genie admits that this is a clever response, but refuses to accept it until {{spoiler|Cimorene figures out that he hasn't been trapped long enough to qualify, under the standard fairytale rules that operate in the Enchanted Forest, for the "death instead of wishes" option. Rather than get in trouble for trying to break the rules, the genie agrees to go back into his bottle until he has accumulated enough time -- by which time, in all likelihood, Cimorene ''will'' be dead of old age.}}

* The ''heroine'' uses this line in ''[[Kill Bill]]''.

* In ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' Tyrion replies; "Dead drunk, in bed, with a virgin's mouth around my cock, at the age of eighty".

'''Mrs. Cronkite''': "He'll be lucky to have a eighteen foot yacht and a sixty-year-old mistress." }}

* From a radio spoof about Famous Last Words heard by this troper:

'''[[wikipedia:Trotsky#Assassination|Leon Trotsky]]''': "I do not know. Take your pick." }}

* The Three Stooges used this as a gag in several shorts.

'''Curly''': "Because a hot stake is better than a cold chop! Nyuk nyuk nyuk!" }}

** Earlier, Larry tried to pick old age.

* Slight averted in ''[[One Piece]]''. Although he doesn't kill people with this technique (usually), Kuma always asks, "If you were to go on a trip, where would you want to go?" And then, in three days, you coming crashing to where you wanted. Or sometimes the exact opposite, depending on how he feels about you.

* There's a nice little riddle where you are trapped by the [[Big Bad]] and he offers you three options: to be locked in a room full of blazing fire; to be locked in a room with ten assassins with loaded guns; or to be locked in a room with twelve lions who haven't eaten in three years. {{spoiler|the last one is the option you should take, as lions who haven't eaten in three years would be dead. (Though one has to wonder, if there were twelve of them, what prevented them from resorting to cannibalism?)}}

*** Though the [[Fridge Logic]] reminds you that {{spoiler|by doing so you will condemn yourself to a slow and horrible death by starvation, as well.}}

* ''[[Doug|"How would you like to die, stoolpigeon? Quick or slow?"]]''

* There's an old joke where one man's answer is "To be shot by a jealous husband."

** That's part of an Irish toast, actually. It goes something like, "May you die old and in bed, shot by a jealous husband."

* Describing what he's been doing since the crew last met him, [[Star Trek: The Original Series|Harry Mudd]] mentions a rather harsh encounter with the law:

'''Mudd:''' The key word in your entire peroration, Mister Spock, was, ''death''. Barbarians. Well, of course, [[Take a Third Option|I left]]. }}

* [[Frasier|Roz]] once claimed her ideal way to go is on her hundredth birthday, at her place in Hawaii, and her husband is so distraught he drops out of college.

** Which raises the question of whether the two other forms Gozer was reported to have assumed for previous rampages were originally just as goofy and inoffensive-seeming as a Marshmallow Man...

* At the end of [[Dragon Ball Abridged]] episode 24, Vegeta is furious that he doesn't have immortality.

'''Freeza:''' No, don't mind me. By all means...'''give me some ideas.''' }}

* Although unaware of it at the time, the five vacationers from ''[[The Cabin in the Woods]]'' do this when {{spoiler|Dana is the first to make use of a piece of [[Schmuck Bait]] from the cellar}}.

 

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[[Category:Stock Phrases]]