History Main / DigYourOwnGrave

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* Parodied in ''Manga/TentaiSenshiSunred'', where Sunred gets roped into helping Florsheim's [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter Animal Soldiers]] dig the grave they plan on burying him in once they've defeated him... In a children's sandbox on a playground. The fiendish plot is foiled [[ImTakingHerHomeWithMe when a group of pre-schoolers abduct the Animal Soldiers]].

* PlayedForLaughs in ''Animation/BoBoiBoy'', in the episode concluding the heroes' plight of having their emotions manipulated. [=BoBoiBoy=] is struck with so much despair that he considers their fight a lost cause and proceeds to dig his own grave. Even after he [[LiteralSplitPersonality splits into three]], his emotional state remains with the three of them, and he gets more helping hands for the grave-digging.

* A lynch mob does this to ''Comicbook/LuckyLuke'' in the album "The Klondike". However, Luke pretends to have found gold in the hole, holding up a nugget, and flee in the resulting confusion. [[spoiler:The digging site was actually the tomb of some long-dead guy who happened to have a gold tooth.]]
* The cover of ''World's Finest Comics'' #195 had Franchise/{{Batman}} and Franchise/{{Superman}} forcing Comicbook/{{Robin}} and [[Characters/SupermanJimmyOlsen Jimmy Olsen]] to dig their own graves. [[SuperDickery In context]], it was Supes playing along with Batman's delusion that [[BecomingTheMask he was the crime lord he'd been posing as]] while getting him to snap out of it.

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]
* A particularly bizarre example happens in ''Fanfic/ThePrayerWarriors'' when Jerry's group raids the temple of Artemis in "[[Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians The Evil Gods Part 1]]." They find a group of "whores" doing "wrong things" to married men and so kill the men and force the women to dig their own graves. Once the women are done, Jerry has them stoned to death, and throws them in their graves, ''but doesn't bury them'', in the hopes that wild animals will eat their bodies.
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* Near the end of ''Film/{{Bataan}}'', the protagonist is all alone after all his men are killed. So he digs his grave (after burying the rest of his comrades), hops in it, and uses it as a foxhole for his LastStand against a large force of Japanese soldiers.

* ''[[Film/EdgeOfDarkness1943 Edge of Darkness]]'': The leaders of LaResistance in a Nazi German-occupied town are forced to do this. Just as they're ordered to stop digging and the German soldiers line up to shoot them, the people of the town arrive and attack the Germans.

* After accidentally killing his parents in his sleep, Sock from ''Webcomic/WelcomeToHell'' digs three graves: two for his parents, and another for him before he immediately stabs himself and falls into his grave.

'''Beatrice:''' Maybe they're gonna bury ''you'' out here!\\

** In ''Jerry's Cousin'', a group of cats see [[PintSizedPowerhouse Muscles Mouse]] approaching and begin running for cover. One of the cats digs a grave in the sidewalk, buries himself, and uses a chunk of pavement as a headstone.

[[folder:Film]]

* In Chapter 2 of ''WesternAnimation/OverTheGardenWall'', Greg and Wirt are sentenced to a few hours of manual labor for minor crimes in a town. After digging for a few hours, Greg finds a skeleton, and Wirt comes to the realization that they're ''digging their own graves.'' [[spoiler: Subverted, however, when it turns out they were actually digging ''up'' the skeleton so it could come to life and join the community, thus revealing that the entire town is actually living skeletons wearing clothes and pumpkins.]]

* In ''Series/{{Life}}'', there was a two-partner called "Dig A Hole" and "Fill It Up." In the first episode, Crews and Reese solve a murder case where the SympatheticMurderer forced his victim to "dig a hole" and then "fill it up." In the second episode, when Crews finds the real killer of the crime he was falsely imprisoned for, he forces him to dig a hole...[[spoiler:but doesn't kill him]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'', "Eclipse Lake" sees Hunter finding that any Titan’s blood in the titular location is gone. Fearing Belos’s retribution if he returns empty-handed having already failed his last mission, Hunter [[SanitySlippage manically]] digs into the ground--not looking for more Titan's blood, but to make a grave for himself. He asks Amity if he should dig her one too, but she snaps him out of it.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''Animation/BoBoiBoy'', in the episode concluding the heroes' plight of having their emotions manipulated. [=BoBoiBoy=] is struck with so much dispair that he considers their fight a lost cause and proceeds to dig his own grave. Even after he [[LiteralSplitPersonality splits into three]], his emotional state remains with the three of them, and he gets more helping hands for the grave-digging.

* Subverted in ''Literature/AFeastForCrows''. [[ActionGirl Brienne of Tarth]] captures insane outlaw Shagwell and forces him to dig a grave with his bare hands; not for himself but for her companion Dick Crabb, whom Shagwell just killed.

* The cover of ''World's Finest Comics'' #195 had Franchise/{{Batman}} and Franchise/{{Superman}} forcing Comicbook/{{Robin}} and Comicbook/JimmyOlsen to dig their own graves. [[SuperDickery In context]], it was Supes playing along with Batman's delusion that [[BecomingTheMask he was the crime lord he'd been posing as]] while getting him to snap out of it.

* Subverted in [[Literature/ArtemisFowl The Eternity Code]]; Mulch is forced to 'dig his own grave' with the eventual fate of being BuriedAlive but he's a dwarf, with natural tunnelling abilities, so the only problem he has with the situation is that maintaining [[TheMasquerade his disguise]] as a short human requires him to use a spade.

* ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV''. When negotiating with a demon, they may ask to dig, with all three of your options being to do so, and when you finish digging, the demon states that the hole is indeed your grave.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'', "Eclipse Lake" sees Hunter finding that any Titan’s blood in the titular location is gone. Fearing Belos’s retribution if he returns empty-handed having already failed his last mission, Hunter [[SanitySlippage manically]] digs into the ground--not looking for more Titan's blood, but to make a grave for himself. He asks Amity if he should dig her one too, but she snaps him out of it.

* Near the end of crazy DerangedAnimation short ''Animation/TupTup'', the protagonist attempts to do this. He digs his own grave, puts a gun to his temple, squeezes the trigger--and, a frog comes out. (Seriously, DerangedAnimation).
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'', "Eclipse Lake" sees [[spoiler:Hunter]] attempting to do this, experiencing a bit of [[SanitySlippage Sanity Slippage]] after finding that [[spoiler:any Titan’s blood in the titular location is gone, fearing Belos’s retribution if he returns empty-handed having already failed his last mission.]] Amity snaps him out of it.

[[folder:Web Comic]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'', ''Eclipse Lake'' sees [[spoiler:Hunter]] attempting to do this, experiencing a bit of [[SanitySlippage Sanity Slippage]] after finding that [[spoiler:any Titan’s blood in the titular location is gone, fearing Belos’s retribution if he returns empty-handed having already failed his last mission.]] Amity snaps him out of it.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'', ''Eclipse Lake'' sees [[spoiler:Hunter]] doing this after finding that [[spoiler:any Titan’s blood in the titular location is gone, fearing Belos’s retribution if he returns empty-handed having already failed his last mission.]]

* In ''Film/{{Goldstone}}'', the bikers make Josh do this after his attempt to infiltrate the conspiracy fails. However, the time it takes him to dig allows Jay to stage a BigDamnHeroes moment.

* Sherlock is ordered to do this in one episode of ''Series/{{Elementary}}''.

* The Nazi prisoner who uses the opportunity to try to endear himself to his captives in ''Film/SavingPrivateRyan''.

''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV''. When negotiating with a demon, they may ask to dig, with all three of your options being to do so, and when you finish digging, the demon states that the hole is indeed your grave.

* Notorious serial killer John Wayne Gacy, who had a construction business, at one time charged some of his employees with digging trenches in the crawlspace under his house. Gacy later killed one of those employees, Gregory Godzik, and threw him in the trench that Godzik had helped dig.

** In ''Jerry's Cousin'', a group of cats see [[PintSizedPowerhouse Muscles Mouse]] approaching and begin running for clover. One of the cats digs a grave in the sidewalk, buries himself, and uses a chunk of pavement as a headstone.