"Now Gary, we can do this the hard way or the easy way. Or the medium way. Or the semi-medium-easy-hard way. Or the sort of hard with a touch of awkward-easy-difficult-challenging way."
A Stock Phrase. The easy way is usually giving in, and the hard way usually involves some kind of violence or torment.
A popular variation for badasses is "We can do this the easy way or the really easy way." Offering two variations of "hard way" and no "easy way" or even "the fun way" is also common, as is stopping mid-sentence to "remember" that there isn't actually a choice being offered.
Sometimes, one of the tormentors will even say, "Please, choose the hard way!" to show just how much he likes it.
See also The Window or the Stairs for a subversion where the "easy way" is worse than the "hard way". If the "easy way" turns out to be the same as the "hard way", that's Morton's Fork.
Examples:
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Advertising
- This "Got Milk?" commercial.
- Used in one of those dialogue redub commercials for The Powerpuff Girls on Kids' WB!.
Blossom: [preparing to battle a monster] We can do this the easy way or the hard way.
[gets knocked into a building by said monster]
Blossom: Why do they always pick the hard way?
Anime & Manga
- Dragon Ball Z Kai episode #26. Vegeta confronts Krillin and Bulma, who have one of the Dragon Balls he wants. He threatens them by saying they they can do this the easy way or the hard way, meaning that they can either give him the Dragon Ball or be killed.
Comic Books
- In the X-Men storyline "Curse of the Mutants", a vampirized Wolverine is leading Dracula's son's army against the X-Men, and announces that all the mutants have the option of following Cyclops over a cliff or joining the vampires.
Wolverine: But not you, Slim. Everybody else gets to choose the hard way or the easy way. But I've taken the liberty of making that choice for you. [pops claws] Guess which choice I picked.
Cyclops: Well that's a shame, Logan, because I think I'd prefer... the easy way. [calmly presses a button that reactivates Wolvie's Healing Factor, unvamping him] - The Transformers Megaseries: Ultra Magnus used to say a variant of this whenever he was about to arrest someone. His way, or the hard way. Either way, things would usually end with whoever he said it to being subdued. It was mocked by the Combaticons at one point, as they escaped from him.
Onslaught: Tell me, does that ever work?
- In Mastermen # 1, the Human Bomb heals rapidly from a beating by Leatherwing. Overman offers him a chance to make it easy on himself and speak instead of getting a second beating.
Fan Works
- In Fractured (SovereignGFC), a Mass Effect/Star Wars/Borderlands crossover there's a variation. The Trans-Galactic Republic offers its advanced technology to the Citadel races in limited form to help fend off the Reapers. However, such aid is distributed either the way the giver wants or not at all—the "hard way" being "Have fun while the Reapers destroy you because you wouldn't take help on our terms." It's not the Trans-Galactic Republic threatening the hard way consequences directly, but they might as well have. In the sequel Origins it's played straight. Garrus Vakarian engages in some Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique after noting that as a Spectre-in-all-but-name, he is not bound to the usual set of rules and thus either the suspect can talk or deal with less-pleasant consequences.
- In the Battletech AU fic Along Came a Spider, two Jade Falcon commanders are discussing their options; one has to launch a last desperate futile attack, while the other ... negotiates with the Federated Commonwealth. Pryde calls it the easy way or the hard way, and offers Malthus the choice of which he wants to do. When Malthus chooses negotiation, and worries that he's a coward for picking the easy way, Pryde clarifies; going against the Clans' Proud Warrior Race nature is the hard way, and he's glad he doesn't have to do it.
- In Chasing Rainbows, Rainbow Blitz says this after Applejack's homophobic coworkers beat him up, leading to a big fight which broke his spirit.
- In Cat-Tales, from a flashback to Batman's first encounter with Catwoman:
Batman: Alright, Catwoman... we can do this the easy way... or the hard way.
Catwoman: Why Batman, how hard do you want it to get?
Films — Animation
- Parodied in Osmosis Jones: Some cops go a sleazy bar, and the lead one announces, "We can make this easy... or hard." One cop behind him will apparently settle for otherwise, saying "Or, somewhere in between. Like, semi-easy, or medium hard," causing the lead cop to admonish him. "You don't get to say that!"
- Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron
The Colonel: You can break easy or you can break hard, mustang.
- Flushed Away:
Spike: Are we going to do this the easy way, or the hard way?
Whitey: Oh, I think they'd do it the easy way, don't you Spike? - In The LEGO Movie, Bad Cop doesn't even get to finish his sentence.
Bad Cop: Look, everybody, we can do this the easy way, or we can do it —
Wyldstyle: GO, RUN!
Bad Cop: They took the hard way! Fire! Fire! - The Lion King (1994):
Simba: The choice is yours, Scar. Either step down, or fight!
- In Toy Story 2, when fighting with Woody on the conveyor belt, the second Woody is knocked onto his back, Stinky Pete promptly reopens the tear on Woody's arm, and delivers the following ultimatum:
Stinky Pete: Your choice, Woody. You can go to Japan together, or in pieces. If [Al] fixed you once, he can fix you again! NOW GET IN THE BOX!Woody: NEVER!
- In Zootopia, as Judy is investigating the disappearance of Mr. Otterton, she initially approaches Nick politely asking for help since he was the last to see Otterton before he went missing. When Nick outright refuses to cooperate, Judy says "Fine. Then we'll have to do this the hard way," puts a boot on his baby stroller, tells him that if he doesn't cooperate, she'll arrest him on tax evasion and plays back a recording of his boast of making "200 bucks a day, fluff, 365 days a year since I was 12".
Films — Live-Action
- Raising Arizona when Gale takes the baby from H.I.: "Let's go hard or easy, H.I." It goes hard, but their fight is comically absurd.
- Inverted in Back to the Future Part II. Biff's Mooks say this to Marty — "the easy way" is being knocked on the head. They didn't mean the easy way for Marty, after all.
- Chain Lightning: Brennan, when he is essentially demanding that Willis let him test the experimental plane that Brennan is flying.
Lt. Col. Brennan: How do you want it, Willis, the easy way or the hard way?
- Excess Baggage
Vincent: We can do this the easy way or the hard way.
Emily: What's the hard way?
Vincent: It's harder... it's harder than the easy way. That's what I know. - Gone in 60 Seconds (2000)
Det. Roland Castlebeck: The easy way or the hard way, Raines. Easy way or the hard way.
- Hidden Agenda
Sam Turgenson: We can do this the easy way or the hard way.
Jason Price: Is that pillow talk, Sam?! - One of many running gags in I'm Gonna Git You Sucka is the two henchmen told that there's "two ways to leave. The stairs or the window." When they choose the stairs, they are always thrown down them, til the end, when one exasperated henchman jumps out the window to his death. Turns out the other option in that instance was the freight elevator.
- Not exactly the same, but close, is RoboCop and the recurring phrase "Dead or alive, you are coming with me."
- Tooth And Nail
Jackal: We can do this the easy way, or we can do it the hard way. I don't really care which way, but by sunrise I'm gonna be gnawing on your bones!
- A variant appears in The Rundown. The Rock's character, a "retrieval expert" by the name of Beck, gives the people he deals with two options. Option A is shutting up and doing what Beck says. If Option B is chosen, Beck makes them do whatever was outlined in Option A, usually by kicking their ass. And no, you don't get an Option C.
- In the 45-minute video Busted: The Citizen's Guide to Surviving Police Encounters, a young man is threatened by a Maryland State Trooper to either "make it easy on himself" by consenting to a search of his car, or he can "make it hard on himself" (by refusing). They show two versions of the event: the guy stands on his rights, refuses the search, and gets only a traffic ticket; the guy lets the cop search, with him and all of the passengers in the car end up going to jail for possession of drugs. (Doesn't mention if he still gets the traffic ticket for which he was pulled over.)
- Variant in The Colour of Magic T.V. adaption; it features a part in which Rincewind and Twoflower are hiding under a sacrificial pyre from wizards from the Unseen University attempting to drag Rincewind back. They tell him that he can go the easy way or the very easy way. The easy way being that he comes out and goes along with them, the very easy way being that they light the pyre with him still under it.
- A fancy-sounding version in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring from Saruman.
Saruman: I gave you the chance of aiding me willingly, but you have elected the way of pain!
- Reign of Fire. An American team of dragonslayers turns up at the protagonist's base with an armored convoy, asking for shelter and refueling time. He refuses. As the convoy's firepower vastly outweighs his, the American just says quietly, "Don't be a foooool. We can do this easy, or we can do this real easy."
- The Avengers. Black Widow is trying to recruit Bruce Banner for S.H.I.E.L.D. At one point Banner appears to lose his temper, causing her to draw a pistol in his face.
Banner: Sorry, I just wanted to see how you'd react. Why don't we do this the easy way, where you don't use that and the other guy doesn't make a mess.
- Priest: The title character is giving a Familiar this speech when the latter interrupts by spitting in his face.
Priest: Oh, I so prefer the hard way. *stabs the Familiar in the leg*
- Adam & Paul: In a seedy apartment building, Adam and Paul see a group of thugs trying to break into the drug dealer Martin's apartment. One of them calls, "We can do this the easy way or the hard way, but either way you're gonna get your fuck kicked in!" When Adam and Paul leave, the thugs are about to use a battering ram.
- Implied in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe when the Queen's wolves track down Susan & Lucy.
Maugrim: Please don't try to run. We're tired and we'd prefer to kill you quickly.
Literature
- Played with a few times in Discworld books.
- In The Fifth Elephant, somebody trying to sneak into a town will corner a guard and mention that this can be done the easy way or the hard way. The easy way is for the guard to ignore them, the hard way... is for the person to leave and try to find another way in.
- In the same book, another easy way turns out to involve using wolves to pull a sled.
- A more serious instance, from Small Gods:
Brutha: I want it stopped. And I want it stopped the hard way.
Simony: You want me to kill all the inquisitors? Right!
Brutha: No. That's the easy way. I want as few deaths as possible. - Another serious example, from Carpe Jugulum, about the nature of good and evil:
Granny Weatherwax: And the hard way's hard, but it's not half so hard as the easy way.
- Invoked in all but name, also from Carpe Jugulum:
Granny Weatherwax: So all I'm really here for, d'you see, is to see whether you get justice or mercy... So here's my offer, you see. You hand back Magrat and the baby and we'll chop your heads off.
The Count: And that's what you call justice, is it?
Granny Weatherwax: No, that's what I call mercy. - And another in Making Money when Cosmo offers Moist a bribe to give up. After Moist refuses, he explains that giving him the opportunity to surrender was, for Cosmo, doing it the hard way.
- The Sign of Fear by Robert Ryan. Just before surgically blinding a hostage, the Big Bad says, "Now, we can either do this the hard way or make it as easy, if not as painless, as possible."
- Tortall Universe: In Beka Cooper, the phrase is jokingly used by a friend of hers (both of them are Provost's Guards, or protopolice) to get her to come to breakfast. Quickly followed by I Always Wanted to Say That.
- Vasquez Private Eye: The killer offers Johnson this during the climactic confrontation, with the latter immediately surmising that the choice entails how much of a fight he will put up.
- Wicked Good: When Archer and Wayne are fighting over Rory's custody, Wayne says, "Are you going to make this easy and agree to give me custody or do we have to do this the hard way? Easy or hard? Which do you prefer?"
Live-Action TV
- 30 Rock, episode "Tracy Does Conan".
Jack: Conan, this is important to me. So, we can either do this the easy way or the hard way.
- Agent Carter. After a crooked Roxxon employee is nabbed, Agent Dooley lays a carrot and a stick on the table and offers him a deal where he gets a lighter sentence in exchange for naming his superior. When he refuses, Dooley says, "Remember, I offered you the easy way." He takes the carrot and leaves him with Agent Thompson, who starts using the stick to good effect.
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.:
- Arrow. In "Midnight City", a rapist tells his intended victim they can do things the hard way or the harder way. The Black Canary then intervenes to show him the harder way.
- The A-Team, episode "Steel". Hannibal tells the villain that they can do this "the easy way or the hard way"... then makes it clear with his explanation that no way is going to be very easy for the villain.
Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith: There are two ways we can do this: the easy way and the hard way. In a few minutes my friends and I are going to come down on you like your worst nightmare. You're gonna wish the Earth had opened up and swallowed you whole.
Crazy Tommy T: What's the easy way?
Hannibal: That was the easy way. - Bad Girls, episode "Battle Lines".
Yvonne Atkins: Nah, I just feel its about time you picked on someone your own size. So what's it going to be, Al? The easy way, or the hard way?
- Blake's 7. Avon puts it succinctly in "Star One". "You can talk, or scream".
- Frequently played around with, as in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: "We can do this the hard way, or... actually, there's just the hard way."
- From "Seeing Red":
Buffy: There's two ways this can end. And right now, I think they're both going to hurt.
- In "Enemies", after the requisite tongue-fest and attempted murder Faith finally gets Angelus pinned beneath her.
Faith: You wanna listen or you wanna die?
Angelus: Long as you're there, I mostly want you to wriggle. - In "All the Way", Giles says this to a vampire who's holding Dawn hostage. Suddenly lights come on to reveal they're surrounded by vampires.
Vampire: What were my choices again?
- Riley threatening Spike in "As You Were".
Riley: We can do this the hard way, or the fatal way.
- In "Bad Girls", Balthazar has captured Wesley and Giles. Wesley suggests a Hostage for MacGuffin deal. Giles suggests Take Me Instead. Balthazar is not impressed.
Balthazar: THERE IS ONE DEAL! YOU WILL DIE QUICKLY, OR YOU WILL DIE SLOWLY!
- Xander delivers the line straight in "Never Leave Me", then worries after that it was too cliché, as he's playing Good Cop/Bad Cop at the time.
- Or Fred in spinoff Angel
Fred: There's two ways we can do this: the easy way, or I cut you.
- From "Seeing Red":
- Chuck, episode "Chuck Versus the Marlin".
John Casey: [to Lester and Jeff] We could do this the easy way or the hard way. The easy way is I shove his [Chuck's] foot up your ass.
Jeff: What's the hard way?
John Casey: I use my foot! - Cowboy Bebop (2021). In "Dog Star Swing", Spike Spiegel draws his gun on a bounty and says, "We can do this the easy way...or the fun way." The bounty chooses the fun way.
- Doctor Who:
- "The Sun Makers": The Doctor is threatened by a revolutionary who suspects him of being a spy.
Mandrel: Now listen, Doctor. We can either do this the easy way–
Doctor: "Or we can do it the hard way", I've heard that one too. [gets punched] - "The Sontaran Stratagem": Two soon-to-be-brainwashed UNIT soldiers use the phrase when informing two already-brainwashed factory workers of their options.
- "The Sun Makers": The Doctor is threatened by a revolutionary who suspects him of being a spy.
- Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, episode "My Best Girl's Wedding".
Hercules: [facing group of thugs] Okay, guys, look, we can do this the hard way or we can do this the easy way. [thugs prepare to attack him] Nobody ever wants to do it the easy way.
- How I Met Your Mother, episode "Matchmaker".
Ellen: You wanna do this the easy way or the hard way?
Barney: What's the hard way? Security roughs me up and tosses me out?
Ellen: No. That's the easy way. The hard way is that I slap the crap out of you myself. - Person of Interest:
- In "Booked Solid", Reese has been captured by a government hitman who wants to know who he's working for.
Hersh: This can go one of two ways.
Reese: Don't suppose one of those ways involves me walking out of here? [Hersh shoves him] Didn't think so. - In "Aletheia", Root has been captured by Control, who offers her 'protection' from Team Machine if she cooperates. Root laughs in her face.
Control: Well, that's a shame. I was really hoping to do this the easy way. However...there are other options.
- In "Last Call", the unseen Villain of the Week is coercing the Victim of the Week into carrying out his Evil Plan.
"Because I asked nicely. I can be more emphatic, but people tend to get hurt when that happens."
- In the same episode, Reese has entered a Bad Guy Bar for his usual Perp Sweating.
Reese: Just want a quick conversation with him. The rest of you can... leave. Nobody gets hurt.
Gangster: Nobody gets hurt? How about you, pendejo?
Reese: I was kinda hoping you'd pick the hard way.
- In "Booked Solid", Reese has been captured by a government hitman who wants to know who he's working for.
- Planet of the Apes: In "The Interrogation", Wanda tells Burke that his interrogation can be either pleasant or unpleasant, depending on his cooperation.
- Rome. A teenage Octavian asks How Would You Like to Die? to a man suspected of adultery, then makes it clear he's offering a choice of confessing and dying quickly, or dying after hours of agonizing torture.
- Parodied on Sports Night. Casey has just had sex for the first time since his divorce, and Dan is trying to get him to say who the woman is.
Dan: We can do this the hard way or we can do this the easy way.
Casey: What's the hard way?
Dan: ...I don't know, but the easy way is you telling me her name. - Supernatural:
- Meg offers our heroes the choice between letting her take them to Lucifer, or getting dragged to Lucifer by hellhounds. They chose neither.
Meg: Your choice. You can make this easy or you can make it really, really hard.
[Beat]
Dean: When have you ever known us to do anything easy? - Sam and Dean are trying to get information from Snooki the Crossroads Demon.
Sam: We can do this the easy way…you talk, or the easier way... [takes out knife] you still talk.
Dean: I vote for Number 2. - Dean says the line straight when capturing a werewolf, but the context is somewhat different.
Dean: OK, time to go. Now we can do this the easy way [holds up a pair of jeans] or the hard way. [holds up a dog chain]
- Meg offers our heroes the choice between letting her take them to Lucifer, or getting dragged to Lucifer by hellhounds. They chose neither.
- The Mandalorian. Given that the title character is a Bounty Hunter hunting people who are Wanted: Dead or Alive, his catchphrase is "I can bring you in warm...or I can bring you in cold." In a subversion, it's implied that "cold" actually refers to carbon-freezing while "warm" is being shot with a blaster.
- In the Here Come the Brides episode "The Crimpers," Jason interrogates the titular kidnappers about his brothers' whereabouts by saying, "Either you tell me with your teeth, or without."
Music Videos
- At the start of "Honey," Mariah Carey, playing a captured spy, gets this choice.
Radio
- In The BBC's 1980's sci-fi drama Earthsearch, the Killer Robot Fagor is rampaging through the spaceship, searching for those who killed his master.
Fagor: Come out slowly, and Fagor will kill you quickly. Come out quickly, and Fagor will kill you slowly.
Tabletop Games
- Referenced via Bond One-Liner on [1] in Magic: The Gathering.
Chandra Nalaar: I asked if they wanted to do things the easy way. I meant easy for me.
Theatre
- In Arsenic and Old Lace, after psychopathic Jonathan has his brother Mortimer tied up and gagged, he begins to speculate on what sort of way he will murder him. His stressed-out crony Dr. Einstein begs him to do it "the quick way", but Jonathan decides he'd get more satisfaction from doing it "the slow way."note
Video Games
- Played with in Bastion:"There's only one way into Cinderbrick Fort." The Kid comes crashing down into the level. "The Hard Way."
- In Batman: Arkham Origins, at the end of a side quest Batman confronts Roman Sionis in a church.
Batman: One way or another, I'm taking you in. Now we can do this the easy way, or the—
Black Mask: Yeah, yeah, or the hard way. But I think you know my choice. - Vi in League of Legends has this as one of her jokes.
Vi: We can either do this the hard way, or... Oh wait, no. There's just the hard way.
- Played with in Serious Sam, when adressing a group of baddies in a cutscene.
Sam: We can do this the hard way, or my way. They're basically the same thing.
Visual Novels
- Cecilia from Daughter for Dessert will stop at nothing to convince Amanda to come with her. When she initially refuses, Cecilia says that she will "destroy" the protagonist (and that Amanda will come with her afterwards) if Amanda is firm in her decision.
- In Double Homework, when Dennis tells the protagonist to do things for him (and answers his dismissals with lines like “Tools don’t talk back”), he moves on to say that he can make the protagonist do what he wants. He warns the protagonist not to make him prove it, but he still refuses to do what Dennis wants. Then, Dennis reveals that he knows the extent of the protagonist’s and Tamara’s culpability in the Barbarossa incident.
Web Animation
- In episode 4 of the semi-interactive Flash cartoon 3|Way, to deal with some mooks you are given the choice between "the easy way... or the sleazy way." The easy way is violence; since this is a pornographic series, you can guess what's the sleazy way.
Web Comics
- Erfworld:
- Combined with fetish in this strip.
- Again in this strip.
- Wanda's philosophy is that there are three ways to proceed: the easy way, the hard way, and the very hard way. The easy way is when you know what your Fate is and follow it, because this means that things will push you in the way you were already going. The hard way is when you don't know what your Fate is, as you then have no choice but to try things at random until Fate stops punishing you for going in the wrong directions. The really hard way is when you know your Fate and try to fight it, this results in continuous torment as the universe tries to Railroad you back onto your Fated path.
- Jillian once swore to always take the hard way. And she does. Boy, does she!
- Combined with fetish in this strip
- The Order of the Stick:
- Strip #358:
Roy Greenhilt: Hey gnome! There are two ways this can go down: the easy way or the hard way.
Leeky Windstaff: Druids always pick the hard way; it encourages natural selection. - Also, strip #442 is titled "We Can Do This the Easy Way..."
- Strip #358:
- Mocked in Smash Comics, one of the filler comics for Knights of the Old Coding. Ganondorf asks Marth and Jigglypuff if they want to do this the easy way or the hard way. He then Shadowkicks them before they can answer, stating "the hard way it is." When Marth points out that he hadn't said anything yet, Ganondorf admits that he's impatient.
- In this strip of Weregeek. Not that it worked too well.
- Marsh Rocket: Although not explicitly stated, it's implied here.
- The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!: When the Butanian dragons refuse to side with Riboflavin against Voluptua, his response is, "A pity. I guess I'll have to do this the messy way after all. And I must admit... that will be more fun!!!" He then starts blasting everything in sight with a BFG.
- Schlock Mercenary had a discussion on which way things will go. Kevyn thinks the easy way is usually mined, Petey thinks it's an optimistic view.
- In Too Much Information (2005), when Ace is talking to Death, she says "We can do this the easy way or the hard way. And lucky for you, the easy way would ruin my manicure."
Western Animation
- Batman Beyond: In "Armory", Batman tells Armory, "You're going to jail. Easy or hard, it's up to you. Here's a tip... hard isn't fun."
- Batman: The Brave and the Bold: As Zatanna (with her unique way of casting spells) says to supervillain Abra Kadabra:
Zatanna: Surrender, Abra. Don't make me say it backwards.
- The Booty Warrior from The Boondocks, who is inspired by an actual prisoner who used this very phrase.
Booty Warrior: If I see a man I like, I tell him like this: "I like you, and I want you. Now we can do this the easy way, or we can do it the hard way. The choice is yours."
- Lampooned on Celebrity Deathmatch during the fight between Mankind and Ernest Hemingway:
Hemingway: Okay, son, there are only two ways this can end. The easy way, or the Hemingway.
- In the Johnny Bravo episode where he confronts the guy who stole his blanket he says something along the lines of "We can do this the hard way or the... other way that's even harder, just step back 'cuz I'm gonna hurt you man."
- In King of the Hill, Hank, Bill, and Boomhauer grabbed Dale if they want to handle this the easy way or the hard way. "Do it the hard way."
- Looney Tunes:
- Played with in the short "Operation: Rabbit". After Bugs Bunny refuses Wile E. Coyote's invitation to give up willingly, Wile E. muses, "Why do they always want to do it the hard way?"
- Bugs himself would often try placating a foe as his first strategy in many cartoons. Only after they kept biting would he revert to a merciless Humiliation Conga.
- Done in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic when Rainbow Dash is unable to coax Pinkie Pie into going to Sweet Apple Acres with her. She ends up dragging Pinkie across town by the tail.
Rainbow Dash: Oh you wanna do this the hard way?! We'll do this the hard way!
- Spoofed in Paradise PD.
Agent Clappers: We can do this the easy way or—
- The Penguins of Madagascar:
- "Popcorn Panic": "We can do this the easy way, or we can do this Rico's way."
- When the penguins faced an outlaw raccoon named The Archer, Skipper doesn't even get to finish the phrase.
Skipper: We can do this the easy way, or we can... [Archer escapes] Oh, have the decency to let me finish!
- In ReBoot: In "The Episode With No Name", Matrix follows a thief into a Bad Guy Bar. When the thief's friends show up, Matrix says, "We can do this the hard way..." He then has his gun target every lowlife in the bar and finishes, "...or we can do it my way." The thief wisely returns the stolen item.
- Secret Squirrel says this to rogue panda One Ton, who's just eaten a clove of garlic. "One Ton choose... HAAAAAAARD!"
- On Sheriff Callie's Wild West, Sheriff Callie offers the bandits in "Train Bandits" the choice of the easy way or the hard way; they can either just give back what they stole or she can take it back. Peck Lamp Shades the fact that they of course choose the hard way.
- SpongeBob SquarePants:
SpongeBob: Now Gary, we can do this the hard way or the easy way. Or the medium way. Or the semi-medium-easy-hard way. Or the sort of hard with a touch of awkward-easy-difficult-challenging way.
- In the Star vs. the Forces of Evil episode "On the Job", Buff Frog threatens to torture a rat-creature.
Buff Frog: We will do this the easy way and the hard way. Easy for me and hard for you.
- In 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
Raphael: We can do this the easy way, or how I like it: the hard way.
- In Transformers: Animated, Optimus gives the speech to a speeding motorist... who turns out to be another Transformer, specifically Lockdown.
- Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015) gives us this line from Bulkhead:
- Bulkhead: Howdy Con. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. PLEASE choose the hard way.
- In Wakfu season 2 episode 2, Loveable Rogue Remington Smisse introduces himself to Evangelyne this way, with rhyming to boot.
Remington: And there are only two ways out:
the good one, smooth and easy,
or mine, much more painful and deadly. - Yin Yang Yo!: Yin and Yang do this one time
Yang: Surrender now or we'll kick your butts!Yin: Or surrender now and we'll kick your butts anyway!
Real Life
- Access to Tiberius's hilltop villa on Capri was via a winding path that ran along a steep cliff. Visitors knew that there were two ways off the island: being escorted back down the path to the dock (if you pleased the emperor), or suffering an "accident" as you walked along the clifftop (if you did not).
- In 1963, Lou Thesz came out of semi-retirement to challenge Buddy Rogers for the World Heavyweight Championship. Supposedly Rogers was having second thoughts about dropping the belt to Thesz, so Thesz (backstage) told him "We could do this the easy way or the hard way." Knowing that Thesz was such a bona-fide badass that "the hard way" would involve getting himself tied into a pretzel in the ring for real, Rogers unsurprisingly opted for the easy way and dropped the title.
