History Main / ImpossibleTask

* From ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'': King Arthur and his knights are confronted by the Knights who say Ni! To pass through their domain, they first demand a ... shrubbery! When this is completed, the Knights who say Ni! demand the following:
-->"Then, when you have found the shrubbery, you must cut down the mightiest tree in the forest... [[WithThisHerring wiiiiiiith... a herring!]]" (''ScareChord'')

* ''Series/TheBookOfBobaFett:'' The Children of the Watch hold that the only way a member of their order can redeem themselves for breaking the way is to bathe in the living waters in the mines beneath Mandalore. Which were destroyed when the Empire bombed the planet into oblivion, something both the Armorer and the Mandalorian are aware of. So, in other words, barring some miracle, Din can't ''ever'' return to them.

* The fairy tale type ATU 480, "The Kind and Unkind Girls" often features this.

* This is the premise of tale type ATU 425B, "Son of the Witch" (previously, "The Witch's Tasks"), a subtype of the more general type ATU 425, "The Search for the Lost Husband", of the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index: the heroine loses her husband and goes after him, only to find him again at the house of his mother (or another female relative, or a generic witch). Once there, the heroine is forced to fulfill impossible tasks on the penalty of death if she fails. Examples include separate heaps of grains, collect/separate feathers from all birds, wash/iron/fold piles of clothes in an extremely short timespan, wash something black white and vice-versa (a piece of wool in Scandinavia, a cloth or felt in Turkey and Iran), etc. The witch may also order the heroine to fulfill paradoxical tasks, e.g., to sweep and not sweep the house, to cook and not cook the food, etc.

Sometimes, the one making the task [[BeCarefulWhatYouSay will be bound]] by their {{promise}} should the hero succeed, or face dire consequences if they refuse. On the other hand, it may be a form of TheCakeIsALie when [[RoyalBrat the king]] really doesn't want to hand out the StandardHeroReward, and they [[MovingTheGoalposts may go on and on]] with the Impossible Tasks until finally one blows up in his face, or he decides YouCantFightFate.

* This is the premise of tale type ATU 425B, "Son of the Witch" (previousky, "The Witch's Tasks"), a subtype of the more general type ATU 425, "The Search for the Lost Husband", of the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index: the heroine loses her husband and goes after him, only to find him again at the house of his mother (or another female relative, or a generic witch). Once there, the heroine is forced to fulfill impossible tasks on the penalty of death if she fails. Examples include separate heaps of grains, collect/separate feathers from all birds, wash/iron/fold piles of clothes in an extremely short timespan, wash something black white and vice-versa (a piece of wool in Scandinavia, a cloth or felt in Turkey and Iran), etc. The witch may also order the heroine to fulfill paradoxical tasks, e.g., to sweep and not sweep the house, to cook and not cook the food, etc.

* This is the premise of tale type ATU 425B, "Son of the Witch" (previousky, "The Witch's Tasks"), a subtype of the more general type ATU 425, "The Search for the Lost Husband", of the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index: the heroine loses her husband and goes after him, only to find him again at the house of his mother (or another female relative, or a generic witch). Once there, the heroine is forced to fulfill impossible tasks on the penalty of death if she fails. Examples include separate heaps of grains, collect/separate feathers from all birds, wash/iron/fold piles of clothes in an extremely short timespan, etc.

* Sorting a huge pile of grains and lentils in a single night (if you [[AndroclesLion helped a wounded bird or ant]] earlier, it will call its friends to help you)

* This is the premise of tale type ATU 425B, "Son of the Witch" (previousky, "The Witch's Tasks"), a subtype of the more general type ATU 425, "The Search for the Lost Husband", of the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index: the heroine loses her husband and goes after him, only to find him again at the house of his mother (or another female relative, or a generic witch). Once there, the heroine is forced to fulfill impossible tasks on the penalty of death if she fails.

* The third classic example is Aarne-Thompson type 875, in which the full list of conditions is something like that the heroine cannot visit the king by foot, by horse, in a wagon, nor in a boat. She could not visit him either dressed or undressed. It could not be day or night, a month or a year, and the moon couldn't be waxing or waning. As described above, she wore a fishing-net, balanced one foot on a sledge and the other on a goat, and went at dusk. She also went on the third day of Yule, which was considered to lie outside the normal count of the year.

* The fairy tale type "Kind and Unkind Girls" often features this.

!!! General
* Many, many folktales of both European and Chinese origin feature a number of brothers with improbable talents given impossible tasks for fame, fortune, the Emperor's service or the [[StandardHeroReward hand of a princess]]. Sometimes they resemble each other closely enough to pass for the same person capable of a wide range of miracles. One specific example called "The Five Chinese Brothers": the first (who can hold the sea in his mouth, which he uses to fish) accidentally drowns a man upon releasing the water and is condemned. Each time, the brother begs to go home so as to say goodbye to his mother, and switches with one of his other (identical) quintuplets. Thus one man supposedly survives beheading (#2 has an indestructible neck), drowning (#3 can stretch his legs long enough to always stand above the waves), burning (#4 is fireproof), and being buried alive (#5 doesn't need to breathe). They finally take this as a sign of his innocence and let him go.
* The third classic example is from a Swedish saga, in which the full list of conditions is that the heroine cannot visit the king by foot, by horse, in a wagon, nor in a boat. She could not visit him either dressed or undressed. It could not be day or night, a month or a year, and the moon couldn't be waxing or waning. As described above, she wore a fishing-net, balanced one foot on a sledge and the other on a goat, and went at dusk. She also went on the third day of Yule, which was considered to lie outside the normal count of the year.

!!! Specific

* In the ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'' episode “Parth Ferengi’s Heart Home”, Captain Freeman and Admiral Vassery are attempting to recruit Ferenginar into the Federation, but Grand Nagus Rom and his wife Leeta are giving them the runaround, driving Vassery nuts as he agrees to more and more requests from them. Freeman decides to step in and not only agree to their requests along with a one billion gold-pressed latinum sign on bonus should they also recruit another world to join in as well. Rom signs it and mocks them for doing that until Freeman tells them to ReadTheSmallPrint: [[spoiler:they must recruit Q’onos, the Klingon homeworld, which Leeta points out is impossible. However, it turns out the entire thing was a SecretTestOfCharacter: Rom was always wanting to let Ferenginar join the Federation, but he really wanted to make sure they understood their culture. Being swindled in such a way was proof they did]].

** ''Film/JohnWickChapter2'' goes a step further, as while we still don't know the details of the Impossible Task, we know that to carry it out, John had to pull a Marker with Santino D'Antonio to get his assistance. With Wick now seen as back in the game in light of the first movie's events, the plot kicks off because Santino has decided it's time to cash in on the Marker.

* From ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'': "Then, when you have found the shrubbery, you must cut down the mightiest tree in the forest... [[WithThisHerring wiiiiiiith... a herring!]]" (''ScareChord'')

* The backstory for the ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' game ''Imperishable Night'' is heavily based on the aforementioned legend of Princess Kaguya. The final stage is even called "Five Impossible Requests," and Kaguya's spellcards are named after the five requests from the legend, implying that she had the treasures all along. The game's {{Superboss}}, Fujiwara no Mokou, is the daughter of one of the men humiliated by Kaguya's impossible tasks, kicking off a CycleOfRevenge that's lasted over a thousand years thanks to the [[ImmortalityInducer Hourai Elixir]].

* ''WesternAnimation/LaBalladeDesDalton'': The Daltons have to fulfill [[TheQuest a quest]] where they must murder eight people living in far away locations in the Wild West in order to obtain their uncle's fortune.