History Main / MortonsFork

* In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VliOGfNCVc one of the videos]] about life in the military by Creator/YushaThomas, [[DrillSergeantNasty Drill Sergeant]] [[AwesomeMcCoolname Backbone]] finds a contraband stash above the bunk of Privates Goose and Hill, meaning it can only belong to one or both of them. Backbone singles out Goose and demands to know whether the stash is his. If Goose says yes, he'll be punished for having a contraband stash. If he claims it belonged to Hill, he'll be punished for ratting out his "battle buddy", since they're always supposed to be looking out for each other. Goose isn't clever enough to realize this, tries to claim it belonged to Hill, and is promptly punished with hours of verbal and physical abuse. ([[NotHelpingYourCase Things like inadvertently admitting to having other contraband besides what Backbone found certainly doesn't do him any favors]].)

* The first act of ''Theatre/PericlesPrinceOfTyre''. The title character tries to TakeAThirdOption by stalling; this leads the king becoming suspicious of him and deciding to kill him anyway.

* {{MortonsFork/Film}}
* {{MortonsFork/Literature}}

* {{MortonsFork/Webcomics}}

!!!Other examples

** In ''Comicbook/SupergirlWomanOfTomorrow'', Ruthye eventually learns that [[spoiler: her father's killer was outraged that a mere farmer would accuse him of treason. The kicker is that he was an agent provocateur, who was intentionally speaking sedition to kill anyone who ''agreed'' with him.]]

[[folder:Web Video]]

A character is presented with two or more options. Either choice results in the same, or similar, unfortunate consequence. The ManyQuestionsFallacy is often a form of this, where a loaded question ("Yes or no, have you stopped beating your wife lately?") precludes a "safe" answer[[note]]unless you're one of the people who [[TakeAThirdOption use the word "mu"]] to mean "this question can only be answered in a way that conflicts with reality"[[/note]] (since, in this case, by denying to answer the question, you are essentially admitting that suspicions about you beating your wife are legitimate).[[note]] You could be tricky and say ''"No, I can't stop if I never started."'', but if they're willing to attack you with loaded questions, they're more than willing to QuoteMine you and pretend you said ''"No, I can't stop..."''.[[/note]]

This is often confused with [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobson%27s_choice Hobson's choice.]] Thomas Hobson—who lived about half a century after Morton—leased horses, and, having noticed that, given a real choice, his customers tended to pick the same horses over and over again, leaving them seriously over-used while leaving others almost completely unexercised, he had customers automatically assigned the one nearest the door rather than let them pick, so all the horses would be used and exercised equally. The customer's choice was "Take it (the horse assigned) or leave it (don't get any horse)." A Hobson's choice is a false choice because there's only one real option if you're in need of the thing being offered. A Morton's Fork is a false choice because both options have the same or equally undesirable results.

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-->'''Supergirl:''' Just the kind of duplicity I'd expect from Luthor. Both doors spell disaster! And either way, I lose... unless I go back the way I came!

** In ''Comicbook/SupergirlWomanOfTomorrow'', Ruthye eventually learns that [[spoiler: her father's killer was outraged that a mere farmer would accuse him of treason. The kicker is that he was an agent provocateur, who was intentionally speaking sedition to kill anyone who ''agreed'' with him.]]

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' storyline ''ComicBook/TheStrangeRevengeOfLenaLuthor'' has ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} depowered and trapped in a cell by Lex Luthor. The only way out are two doors. One of them leads to a pit whose bottom is a bed of steel spikes. The other door opens onto a blast-furnace.

A character is presented with two options. Either choice results in the same, or similar, unfortunate consequence. The ManyQuestionsFallacy is often a form of this, where a loaded question ("Yes or no, have you stopped beating your wife lately?") precludes a "safe" answer[[note]]unless you're one of the people who [[TakeAThirdOption use the word "mu"]] to mean "this question can only be answered in a way that conflicts with reality"[[/note]] (since, in this case, by denying to answer the question, you are essentially admitting that suspicions about you beating your wife are legitimate).[[note]] You could be tricky and say ''"No, I can't stop if I never started."'', but if they're willing to attack you with loaded questions, they're more than willing to QuoteMine you and pretend you said ''"No, I can't stop..."''.[[/note]]

-->"When a mother asks you a question and you try and answer, she tells you to shut up! 'Day and night, night and day, work my fingers to the bone, and for what?' 'I don't--' '[[BigShutUp Shut! UP!]] When I ask you a question, you keep your trap shut! Think I'm talking just so I can hear myself ''talk?! '''ANSWER ME!!!'''''"

* Arj Barker describes his time working at a hospital as one of these. It's impossible to take a sick day because if you call in sick, they'll just tell you to come in anyway because ''they're a hospital''. If you then try to weasel out of it by saying that you aren't sick enough to need to go to the hospital, well then you're obviously not sick enough to need to take the day off work either, are you?

* Jean Valjean's IAmSong "Who Am I" from ''Theatre/LesMiserables''—"If I speak, I am condemned. If I stay silent I am damned."

** Two-Face does this ''a lot,'' usually when both halves of his personality want somebody dead. On one occasion, he had Batman tied to the tails side of a giant penny and intended to flip it. If it landed heads, he'd be crushed, and if it landed tails, the shockwave would shatter his skeleton.

* A commercial for the Twix candy bar plays the trope for laughs; a young couple are at home and the girlfriend is trying on a dress. She asks her boyfriend if the dress makes her look fat. The boyfriend knows he's been asked a loaded question, but rather than trying to answer, [[TakeAThirdOption he stuffs his mouth with the Twix bar so that he can't answer properly.]]

* ''ComicBook/{{Nancy}}'': The use of this trope in videogames is invoked and discussed in [[https://www.gocomics.com/nancy/2021/12/15 this]] comic, which gives you two branches to choose from on the question of whether choice made in videogames matter, but has them lead to the same place.

* ''ComicBook/Nancy'': The use of this trope in videogames is invoked and discussed in [[https://www.gocomics.com/nancy/2021/12/15 this]] comic, which gives you two branches to choose from on the question of whether choice made in videogames matter, but has them lead to the same place.

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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_illusion_of_free_choice.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350: [[TakeAThirdOption Or they could just turn around]].]]

!!Examples:

->''"When the fighting in the North is over, someone wins; [[DidntThinkThisThrough you understand that, don't you]]? If the Dead win, [[ZombieApocalypse they march south and kill us all]]. If the Living win, and we've [[CavalryBetrayal betrayed]] them, [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge they march south and kill us all]]!"''

A character is presented with two options. Either choice results in the same, or similar, unfortunate consequence. The ManyQuestionsFallacy is often a form of this, where a loaded question ("Yes or no, have you stopped beating your wife lately?") precludes a "safe" answer[[note]]unless you're one of the people who [[TakeAThirdOption use the word "mu"]] to mean "this question can only be answered in a way that conflicts with reality"[[/note]] (since, in this case, by denying to answer the question, you are essentially admitting that suspicions about you beating your wife are legitimate).

->''"When the fighting in the North is over, someone wins; [[DidntThinkThisThrough you understand that, don't you]]? If the Dead win, [[ZombieApocalypse they march south and kill us all]]. If the Living win, and we've betrayed them, [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge they march south and kill us all]]!"''

* In episode 2 of ''Animation/HappyHeroes'', Big M. gives the people of Planet Xing two options in regards to the Jixie Stones. If they don't give him the Stones, he'll take over the planet. If they ''do'' give him the Stones, he'll use them to take over the planet. Miss Peach comments on how neither sounds good.

* In ''Comicbook/{{Lucifer}}'', the Japanese pantheon attempts this on Lucifer, since they want to kill him but honor forbids they do so without a technical cause. The plan is to serve sacred meat to him at a banquet. If he eats the meat, this will be a deadly insult. If he does not eat it, this is an affront to their hospitality, another deadly insult. It [[TakeAThirdOption doesn't work]], of course because Lucifer says he cannot possibly insult his hosts by partaking of the meat before ''they'' do. As it turns out, Lucifer violated hospitality anyway by [[spoiler:poisoning one of the gods during cocktail hour]], but he also justifies that by reminding them that betrayal and intrigue are the rules by which his hosts live, and he is only obeying those rules.

* A ''Franchise/{{Superman}} Family'' issue has Comicbook/{{Supergirl}} depowered and trapped by Comicbook/LexLuthor in a cell. The only way out are two doors. One of them leads to a pit whose bottom is a bed of steel spikes. The other door opens onto a blast-furnace.

[[caption-width-right:350:Either way, you're screwed.]]