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Screw This, I'm Out of Here! in Western Animation.
  • Adventure Time,
    • In "It Came From the Nightosphere", Marceline storms away after an argument with her dad, even though he's currently sucking the souls out of everyone in Ooo. She was supposed to be helping Finn stop that, but you know, family drama.
    • In the season 2 finale "Mortal Recoil", The Ice King helps Finn and Jake stop the Lich and save Princess Bubblegum, whom he wants to marry. After finding out that the battle resulted in her turning into a 13-year-old girl, however, he just gives up and flies away.
    • In "Apple Wedding", after being jailed along with the rest of Tree Trunks' wedding party, the King of Ooo bails on them as he breaks himself out of jail, rightly worried that Princess Bubblegum will throw the book at him.
      King of Ooo: That loopy bird is gonna string me up sideways! You can perform your own dang ceremony! King of Ooo dot com!
  • In one of the last episodes of American Dragon: Jake Long, and the climax of the last season's main story arc, Huntsgirl evokes a spell to kill every Huntsclan member on the planet (as the Huntsman was about to use the spell to kill every supernatural creature on the planet). A pair of obnoxious teenage Huntsclan trainees are smart enough to loudly announce that they quit the Huntsclan before running away as fast as possible once they realize what's going on. The Kill-Everything-Spell, being a rather Literal Genie, thus ignores them while proceeding to Kill Off for Real every single Huntsclan member, including Huntsgirl. It helped that the spell apparently identified Huntsclan members by their tattoos, which the trainees didn't have.
    • It was more like anyone who was an active member rather than anyone with a dragon birthmark, as when Jake wished Rose had never been taken from her parents by the Huntsclan to begin with, she survives despite still being born with the mark.
  • Animaniacs:
    • In one Buttons and Mindy sketch set in the future, after enduring his usual punishment, Buttons sees Mindy stumble into a cloning machine and multiply. His reaction is to quit on the spot.
    • Slappy Squirrel was also fond of doing this if a sketch was faltering or she just didn't find it funny, stuffing some dynamite down her costar's pants on the way out.
    • The Warners do this in two episodes. In "Gimme the Works", Dot is just way too tired to do the episode, so Yakko asks if she just wants to skip this cartoon, and abruptly end the short. In "Hercules Unwound", the Warners clearly missed rehearsal and are still seen holding their scripts. When Dot can't stand Hercules' garlic breath, Yakko once again asks if she just wants to leave, so they do, and Pinky and the Brain take over the short.
  • Aqua Teen Hunger Force:
    • One episode's cold open had Steve standing next to a decapitated Dr. Weird, reading a note that says "'Await further instructions from talking hole in neck.'" Then Steve says "Eh, screw that," and walks away.
    • Frylock has been known to do this when the stupidity reaches levels even he can't stand. Some examples being an episode where he gets fed up when Master Shake ruins his room. He moves out and leaves Shake and Meatwad to fend for themselves. Without his guidance, it goes about as well as expected. Another is when Shake continues to cut up Meatwad into smaller and smaller pieces despite being told to just stop. Eventually he packs his bags and leaves, but not before starting off an endless song (3 Million Bottles of Beer on the wall) just to annoy Shake.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender:
    • In "The Chase", Aang is fully prepared to get into a Mêlée à Trois against both Zuko and Azula... until Azula flattens Zuko (who's been shown to be able to match Aang blow-for-blow) with a single hit, at which point Aang realizes that this is a fight he can't win and tries to make a run for it. Azula doesn't let him get far.
    • At the beginning of Season 3, Zuko returns home with honor, and lives in the lap of palace luxury that he was born into, with a loving girlfriend no less. It was exactly what he had wanted for the past two seasons. But his conscience eats away at him since he had to leave his uncle to be arrested because of it, and when he's forced to see firsthand just how cruel his father truly is, he finally, finally decides to leave and join the good guys.
    • Same with Jeong Jeong, after he saw how hateful and rash the Fire Nation had become.
    • Mai and Ty Lee follow suit near the end of "The Boiling Rock." Specifically, when Zuko is about to be dropped into a boiling lake as he escapes the titular landmark with Sokka, Mai fights off the guards to save them, even though it means facing Azula's wrath. Love Redeems indeed.
      Azula: I never expected this from you. (Beat) The thing I don't understand is why. Why would you do it? You know the consequences.
      Mai: I guess you just don't know people as well as you say you do. You miscalculated: I love Zuko more than I fear you.
      Azula: No, you miscalculated! You should have feared me more!
  • In Barbie and the Secret Door, Alexa runs towards the magic tunnel to her world after escaping Malucia, but she soon reconsiders.
  • The short "The Rookie Bear", Barney Bear gets a telegram from the Army, misreading it for a free vacation. After realizing that he's been drafted, he pantomimes "Screw this" and begins to leave the base, only to be forced back to be inducted.
  • Batman: The Animated Series:
    • In "It's Never Too Late" after seeing Thorne's bomb go off, Stromwell's two aides think their boss is dead, reluctantly flee to regroup and are never seen again.
    • In "Fire from Olympus", Maxie Zeus orders his henchman Alex to attack Batman. Alex declares that there's no way he can possibly win and tries to leave. Zeus angrily tries to gun him down for his defiance, but he outruns the gunfire and escapes into the swimming pool. Although he disappears for the rest of the episode, he was presumably arrested after the battle.
    • In "Joker's Millions", a darkly hilarious variant occurs when a newly wealthy Joker sends his accountant to pose as him at the Iceberg Lounge. Bruce is there and notices the bad disguise, eventually ambushing him in the bathroom as Batman and demanding the accountant give up Joker's location. Penguin overhears the commotion through the door and almost enters to break it up... at which point he hears frantic gargling, followed by repeated flushing. Wisely deciding he wants precisely none of this, Penguin gingerly tiptoes away without a word, abandoning the hapless accountant to Batman's less-than-tender mercies.
  • The Chew Toy of Beast Wars: Waspinator. The long rant where he finally had more than he could take and quit was the funniest moment of the entire series, and possibly his Crowning Moment of Awesome. Of course, he did get immediately blasted by his own former teammates... but it wasn't really a subversion, since (as always) he got better.
    Waspinator: I said NO! Dragonbot command YOU, Sub-Commander Kiss-Butt! Dragonbot not command Waspinator...NOT ANYMORE! Waspinator sick of being evil! SICK of being Predacon!! Aaaand...Waspinator especially sick of GETTING BLOWN TO SCRAP ALL THE TIME!!! So, Waspinator QUITS! As of now! Which means Antbot and Two-Heads can just pucker their mandibles, and plant biiiig wet JUICY one right here on Waspinator's BIG...FAT...STRIPY
    *BLAM*
  • The Beatles:
    • In the episode "I Don't Want To Spoil The Party," Paul, George and Ringo run off from John at a museum so they can attend a party in Greenwich Village.
    • Similarly in "Thank You Girl," an unseen Brian Epstein (their manager) locks the boys in their hotel room and takes away their money so they can't gorge on fancy French food while in Paris. The boys manage to escape anyway and head for a cooking school.
    • In "Can't Buy Me Love," John hightails it after he finds out that accepting a Polynesian tribe chief's ring means he has to marry the chief's daughter. (In reality, he was already married to Cynthia Twist, but that's never brought up here.)
  • One episode of Ben 10: Omniverse had Vilgax return to have revenge on Ben while Ben was in the middle of another crisis. But the moment Vilgax realized Ma Vreddle was on the planet, and she told him to "get", Vilgax quietly told Ben he had to go, and left as fast as his ship could move.
  • In the Captain Planet episode "Scorched Earth", after Captain Planet rips the roof from a building.
    Mook: First the weather goes crazy and now this? Let me out of here! [runs]
  • In one episode of CatDog, Winslow walks out of his mouse hole to see Dog eating Cat, then he turns around and walks back in it without missing a beat.
  • Classic Disney Shorts
    • In Symphony Hour, Donald tries to bail out on the eponymous concert after trying to play von Suppe's Light Calvary Overture with damaged instruments. He only stays because Mickey threatens him at gunpoint.
    • In African Diary, Goofy encounters a black rhinoceros during his expedition in Africa. The rhinoceros, with the help of his tick bird companion, spots Goofy and his fellow and promptly charges at them. Goofy’s fellow hunter instantly flees while Goofy stays behind to shoot the rhinoceros. When proven to be no match for the rhinoceros, Goofy runs for his life to point when he flees Africa in his boat.
      “Thus we left this island of romance, and we left it for the other hunters. And believe me, they can have it!”
  • Done with Mr. Butlertron in the series finale of Clone High when the Secret Board of Shadowy Figures comes to collect the clones and terminate Scudworth.
  • Codename: Kids Next Door, Operation: Z.E.R.O.:
    • Father is finally calling out Grandfather, only for Grandfather to blast him. Father becomes so enraged that everyone, including his brother Numbuh 0 and Grandfather, is suitably terrified of him — only for him to lose all motivation. Father, after a terrible childhood and a terrible day in general, decides he wants nothing to do with the conflict and walks off to his mansion to go binge on ice cream. His reaction to Sector V crashing the Moonbase onto Grandfather, destroying his mansion in the process?
      Father: I hate everyone.
    • Chad also does one of these when all the other villains are being zombified.
      Chad: [witnessing all the other villains turning into senior citizombies] They're getting all wrinklified and stuff! I'm out of here!
  • The Cuphead Show!: Upon seeing Baroness Von Bon Bon and proclaiming that he's granted the opportunity to eat all the candy he desires, Cuphead's first instinct is to just turn tail and walk away from her, due to him having read too many stories that would end up with him in an oven if he took up on that offer.
  • Danger Mouse: When the episode "One Of Our Stately Homes Is Missing" turns into a standard DM episode and not the promised Cornwall documentary, the narrator (Isombard Sinclair) leaves the studio in tears. Likewise, he doesn't even bother to start "Bandits, Beans And Ballyhoo!" because it's the same old-same old.
  • In the Danny Phantom episode "Pirate Radio", Ember McLain and Youngblood team up. When the good guys board Youngblood's ship and attack, Ember joins the battle for a while, but after accidentally setting the sail on fire, she jumps overboard and escapes.
  • Disney had an earlier go at this at the end of their anthology episode "On Vacation". When Jiminy Cricket realizes that Mickey, Donald, and Goofy plan to rewrite his script to take place in Hawaii, he decides to go on vacation himself and leave all responsibilities to the trio. Before he leaves, Jiminy reminds them, "Have a good show... and watch the budget."
  • In "Donald and the Wheel", the caveman version of Donald Duck is overwhelmed by the visions the Spirits of Progress show him of the modern world inspired by the invention of the wheel. He declares he wants no part of it as he goes back to dragging his sledge around.
  • In the DuckTales (1987) episode "Where No Duck Has Gone Before", "Major Courage" skedaddles as soon as he realizes that he, the boys, and Launchpad are really in space with real aliens instead of on a set.
  • An episode of Ed, Edd n Eddy does this twice. In it, Sarah catches a cold, and the Eds (well, mainly Ed) and Jimmy compete with each other to see who can take better care of her. At the end of the episode, Sarah starts beating up Ed for being overly assertive. Eddy and Double D, figuring she's recovered, choose to leave them alone. Then Double D catches Sarah's cold and is taken away by Jimmy so he can nurse him back to health. Eddy looks at the two walking off, then looks back at Ed's house (where he's still being pummeled), and just decides to go home and watch TV.
  • Family Guy:
    • Peter Griffin was apparently present at Tiananmen Square until he decided it just wasn't worth it.
      Peter: Aw, screw this! I just came over to buy some fireworks!
    • Meg mentions in another episode that she dated Count von Count once. Things were going fine until he noticed she had a third nipple, at which point he got the hell out of dodge.
  • Follow the Sun: Attempted by a lone potato chip who notices the extreme heat approaching and detaches itself from its companions. Sadly, the now-demonized sun notices the chip trying to scurry off-screen and starts following it. The heat inevitably catches up with the rouge chip and he alone ends up burning. Later the other chips-realizing they've been made an example of-briefly call out for help before having their message forcibly changed to read "FLESH".
  • In the Futurama episode "Roswell That Ends Well", the Planet Express crew end up going back in time to 1947. The nearby Roswell Air Base has the machinery they need to get home, but the Professor is adamant that they mustn't steal it, as they have to preserve history the way it was. However, after Fry accidentally kills his grandfather and sleeps with his grandmother, thus becoming his own grandfather, the Professor decides that the damage has been done and storms the air base.
    Professor: Let's get the hell out of here already! Screw history!
  • In Garfield in the Rough, this is Garfield's reaction to hearing that an escaped panther has been spotted near the area where he, Odie and Jon are camping. Inverted big-time later when said panther actually does attack the camp site. Initially, Garfield is able to escape, but when he sees Jon and Odie in trouble, Garfield attacks the panther.
    Garfield: That's it. Pack it in. We're going home. I don't wanna be a panther snack.
  • Gargoyles: Dingo does it twice. After their first encounter with the Manhattan clan, Fox and Wolf end up in jail, Hyena and Jackal seek revenge on Xanatos, but Dingo opts to flee to Europe. He's convinced to come back and help break his comrades out of jail eventually. The second time, his comrades have all disfigured themselves in the pursuit of power, and in the end, Dingo opts to run away from the fight because he's disgusted with his colleagues' choices as well as their failure to actually win despite their enhancements, though he's arrested before he can get away. His next appearance shows he's severed ties with most of the Pack.
  • In G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, Cobra Commander usually invokes this trope with his Catchphrase "COBRA! RETREEEAAATTT!", yelled whenever the Cobra fighters are outnumbered.
  • The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: The episode "He's Not Dead, He's My Mascot!" had Mandy walk out of the cartoon itself simply because she was tired of episodes based around pets.
  • Hazbin Hotel: While Alastor initially stands alongside the Hotel when the Extermination comes and even faces off against Adam directly in the Season 1 Finale, once Adam proves simply too powerful for Alastor to contest the Radio Demon decides to cut and run rather than risk laying down his life. He doesn't show up again until the battle is long over, and even lampshades his unwillingness to die for a cause he's outright admitted to not believing in.
    "Great Alastor, altruist, died for his friends",
    Sorry to disappoint, that is not where this ends!
  • In Hercules: The Animated Series, when Hercules becomes King of Thessaly, Pain and Panic manipulate a neighboring ruler into believing that Hercules has declared war on his kingdom. He assembles a huge army and advances on Thessaly and meets Hercules. One of the citizens of Thessaly shouts out how Hercules is the son of Zues, and upon hearing this, the ruler and his army promptly get out of there.
  • On Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, when the girls go on a cruise, they help a has-been Elvis Impersonator make a comeback. He then asks them to do the same with his old bandmates, and the girls jump off the ship and swim to shore.
  • The Hollow: After Skeet witnessing the glitches worsening and seeing his team lose, he just runs away rather than keep trying to face the main characters.
  • In the (unfinished) Invader Zim episode "Nubs of Doom," Dib walks away while Zim is trying to activate Minimoose's death cannons, declaring that this plan isn't even worth foiling.
  • Justice League:
    • In the episode "Wild Cards", as King and Ten are trying to stop Superman from disarming a bomb...
      Superman: Are you as crazy as Joker? We have less than a minute! If you beat me, you'll die in the explosion!
      Ten: So? I'll win.
      King: [checking the timer] I'm out of here! [runs]
    • The DVD Commentary for "This Little Piggy" mentions a deleted scene where The Joker and his minions are plotting something when Batman walks by cradling a pignote  in his arms and talking to it. Seeing this, Joker throws up his arms in defeat and walks off.
    • In "Fury", when Aresia's plane is about to explode.
      Aresia: Wait! You can't leave!
      Tsukuri: I like you, but not that much.
    • In "Destroyer", Darkseid is impressed when Batman manages to dodge his Omega Beam, and asks if Lex Luthor can do the same. In response, Luthor runs out of the room before Darkseid can even fire.
  • Kaeloo:
    • In the episode "Let's Play Doctors and Nurses", Kaeloo suggests playing a game of "doctors and nurses". As soon as she mentions that she will be the one playing the doctor, Quack Quack gets up and runs as far away as possible (but eventually winds up being her "patient").
    • In Episode 99, when the main four are playing a VR game, Stumpy purchases a giant weapon to use against the Final Boss. Mr. Cat and Quack Quack wisely decide to quit playing and run away before he uses it.
    • In Episode 180, during a conversation about couples and romance, Pretty asks Kaeloo to define the exact nature of her relationship with Mr. Cat. Kaeloo panics for a minute and then runs outside, claiming she needs to use the bathroom.
  • Some Kim Possible episodes had Shego getting so fed up with the plans of Dr. Drakken that she just walked away in the middle of the ongoing caper.
  • Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts:
    • After seeing the mega-monkey's cactus fortress, Benson decides that he doesn't have to keep going with Kipo since she's basically a stranger. Kipo's complete acceptance of this seems to change his mind.
    • Like Benson, Dave's all in favor of leaving Kipo and Wolf to deal with the mega-monkey themselves until they decide she matters enough to them to take the risk.
  • The Looney Tunes Show: Bugs, in one of the Merrie Melodies sections, declares his intention to move to Bolivia to escape Lola. It doesn't work; she follows him there.
  • Looney Tunes:
    • In the classic short "Water, Water Every Hare," the Evil Scientist's monster, after getting outsmarted by Bugs several times, decides enough is enough. At the time, he had been reduced to the size of a mouse, so he storms into a mouse hole, throws out the mouse, and slams the door with the words "I QUIT!" Said spectacle is enough for the mouse to go No More for Me.
    • Hair-Raising Hare: Upon learning the snarling beast is the "friend" that the Mad Scientist wants to introduce him to, Bugs shakes his hand and shouts, "Well, goodbye!" He packs some luggage to the sound of an instrumental version of "California, Here I Come" before bolting for the door.
      Bugs: And don't think it hasn't been a little slice of heaven— 'cause it hasn't!
    • And in "Ali Baba Bunny", Bugs high-tails it out of the cave using his burrowing when Daffy makes the genie angry. (The next scene shows he finally made it to Pismo Beach.)
    • Cool Cat pulls this off in the last Looney Tunes short, Injun Trouble. After finding out that his opponent in cards has a gun, he literally cuts himself out of the cartoon.
    • Bugs essentially does this in "Rabbit Rampage" when the unseen artist yanks his chain once too many times with a number of ill-fitting hats.
      Bugs: That does it! Get yourself another boy! I'm through! (to himself) What a Leonardo DaPunchy! What a Too-Lousy LaTrec!
    • In "Freeze Frame," the Coyote is riding a rocking horse and working a lariat. He winds up completely snared in the lariat as the skids of the horse land on a railroad track. As if on cue, a train horn sounds, leading the rocking horse to suddenly become sentient and gallop off — right from underneath the Coyote!
      "Mommy" (train runs coyote over)
    • In "Hare Lift", when the damaged plane's robotic auto-pilot is activated, it takes one look at the situation, straps on a parachute and jumps.
    • "The Big Snooze" starts right off with Elmer quitting and tearing up his contract because he's sick of Bugs getting the best of him. Bugs schemes to get him back eventually.
  • One of the most memorable moments of Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers is Mickey saying that Donald can't give up because they're Musketeers. Donald promptly tears off his Musketeer uniform to reveal his standard sailor suit (in Renaissance France, no less!) and pulling some suitcases from hammerspace to escape with. He returns eventually, however.
  • Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: In "Minnie's Birthday", Minnie is so upset at her friends acting strange around her assuming they forgot her birthday that she decides to leave the clubhouse in a huff. Ironically, that was the moment when Mickey and the gang were ready to surprise her, thus they had to quickly call her back.
  • In the Mickey Mouse (2013) short "Potatoland", Donald tries to do this when Goofy tells him and Mickey about a theme park made out of potatoes, but Mickey stops him and ropes him into making it a reality.
    • Near the end of the same episode, the titular park starts to collapse as the midday sun is thinning the gravy they used to build it. Goofy's reaction says it all:
      Goofy: Guys, I think I just thought of a new lifelong dream.
      Mickey and Donald: What's that, Goofy?
      Goofy: TO GET THE HECK OUTTA HERE!
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • In "Three's a Crowd", a sick Discord shows up on the train platform, requesting that they help nurse him back to health. This trope is Rainbow Dash's reaction, and she flies away, not showing up again until the end of the episode.
    • Rainbow Dash has a history of this, actually: In the middle of the "Find a Pet" song, she quotes this trope nearly verbatim because Fluttershy just doesn't listen to her requests.
    • Done in "Dragon Quest" when Spike, Twilight, Rainbow Dash and Rarity decide enough is enough with the teen dragons.
  • Phineas and Ferb
    • In the episode "Day of the Living Gelatin", Baljeet's reaction to the gelatin monster is to walk off with the casual remark "O-kay, I'm going home."
    • "Make Play" has Buford doing this the moment he meets the princess who has swapped places with Candace for the day.
    • Ferb attempts this in "The Curse of Candace", when Candace runs up claiming that she's a vampire; Phineas pulls him back into view so they can help solve her problem, as is their way.
    • In "Perry Lays an Egg", when Perry sees that Dr. Doofenshmirtz's scheme involves heckling whales, he decides it's not even worth thwarting and tries to leave.
    • Doofensmirtz attempts to invoke this in "Does This Duckbill Make Me Look Fat?" when it turns out that Perry (who has been body-swapped into Candace's body...and vice versa) is just as formidable in a teenage girl's body as he is in a platypus', Doofenshmirtz glances at the camera and says, "Well, I'm outta here." followed by a zinging sound and Doofenshmirtz dissappearing, leaving behind a dust cloud shaped like himself... at least until the dust clears, showing that Doof was still standing there, at which point he looks around in confusion and says, "What just happened?"
  • The Powerpuff Girls:
    • In "Down N' Dirty" a sea monster that a filthy Buttercup fights decides to lay off after getting her stuck in his nostril and smelling her accumulated stink from days of not bathing.
    • In “Town and Out,” after being fed up with Citiesville, the girls and Professor both agree it is a terrible place to live and moved back to Townsville.
  • In an episode of The Real Ghostbusters, the team flees from Lupisburg (a town belonging to a clan of werewolves that was stolen by a clan of vampires) after the two clans start fighting, leading to the following exchange:
    Venkman: Don't you want to stick around and see who wins?
    Everyone else: NO!
  • Mouse pulls a form of this in Season 1 of ReBoot, after being hired by Megabyte to hack into Bob's brain and find the password to the Supercomputer. When she finds out she got stuck in Enzo's brain by accident, she sternly informs Megabyte that she won't mess with children, and declares her intention to quit then and there. Being the Magnificent Bastard that he is, Megabyte tries to sabotage her ("Nobody double-crosses the Mouse!" "I double-cross whomever I please!") but is naturally thwarted when Bob shows up to help Mouse out.
  • In the "banned" Ren & Stimpy Show episode "Man's Best Friend", George Liquor brings Ren and Stimpy home as pets, although George soon realizes he does not have enough room for two pets. So he takes his current pet fish out of his fishbowl, and flings him out the window. The fish lands in the car, puts a fedora on, turns on the usual BGM, says "I'm outta here, man", and drives away.
  • Many installments of Scooby-Doo have guest characters fleeing the area in terror of the latest "Scooby-Doo" Hoax within the first few minutes (and Shaggy and Scooby often have to be talked out of doing the same). One notable double-subversion occurs in Scooby-Doo, Where's the Crew? from The Scooby-Doo Show. The first mate and two dockhands aboard the treasure hunting ship become frightened of the monsters and decide to take the launch back to the mainland. A little while later the launch floats back to the ship with signs that they were kidnapped by the monsters before they got very far. Then it turns out that the three sailors are in fact the monsters and faked running away and then being captured to scare everyone else.
  • She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: During the Season 4 finale, Lonnie, Kyle and Rogelio decide that they are not interested in dealing with Catra's nonsense and Hordak's ambitions any more and just straight-up quit the Horde. When they run into Glimmer and post-Heel–Face Turn Scorpia on the way out, they not only offer no resistance, Lonnie makes sure to tell Scorpia that the latter has Lonnie's respect, unlike most of the other officers.
  • "Where Did I Come From?" from Sid the Science Kid is a web-video that was produced as a making-of gag in which Sid travels to the real-world and learns just how his character is created digitally by motion-capture and computer. He is so badly disturbed by it that he declares "Okay. Um, well, good luck with all that stuff you just said and, um, gotta be going now. Bye!" then darts away back home. He returns to his parents, panting in shock, and admits he never wants to think about what he just saw/heard again. They oblige by neuralyzing him.
  • The Simpsons:
    • "Treehouse of Horror XVII" has a variation of Orson Welles' reading of The War of the Worlds. As Welles' character reads, you see a sound effect guy working with him. Welles' descriptions get increasingly detailed, until the sound guy holds up a sign saying "Screw You" and leaves.
    • Homer's brain has also been known to do this when Homer ignores its sensible suggestions (as seen in Season 4's "Brother From the Same Planet", when Homer foolishly answers "Revenge" as the reason why he's joining the Bigger Brothers Club after his brain advised him not to) or out of boredom (in the Season 8 episode "Burns Baby Burns", Homer unexpectedly meets up with Ned Flanders and his family at an apple orchard and Flanders begins blabbing about the differences between apple juice and apple cider. While Flanders is talking, Homer's brain says, "You can stay, but I'm leaving!" and departs Homer's body as a spirit. Just as Flanders finishes talking, Homer collapses).
    • In yet another example of Homer being Homer in "Flaming Moe's", he does this after seeing his youngest daughter Maggie excessively dolled up by Lisa and her friends. He simply looks at her, then says "That's it, I'm outta here" and goes to Moe's.
    • In "Treehouse of Horror XIV", Homer becomes The Grim Reaper. When he has to kill Marge, he kills Patti instead. God, in a rage, starts chasing him, but at the end, He says: "Ah forget it. I'm too old, and too rich for this".
    • In "Bart After Dark", Bart gets a job in a burlesque house. Cue the memetastic scene where Grampa Simpson comes in, hangs up his hat, sees Bart at the podium, and without missing a beat grabs his hat and turns to leave.note 
    • In "Strong Arms of the Ma", the bulked up Marge goes on a roid rage and takes it out on everyone in Moe's. Homer comes out of the bathroom whistling and then comes back in until there were no more patrons left for Marge to beat up.
    • In "The Ziff Who Came to Dinner", Bart and Lisa film themselves investigating mysterious noises in the attic after a scary movie makes them paranoid. Bart heads downstairs when he hears loud creaking, and Lisa follows him not too long after when she sees bones. Lisa then comes back to rattle off her movie's copyright and advertising information before leaving for good.
  • Greedy was like this in one episode of The Smurfs (1981) when he decided to go on strike from being the village cook and leave the village to offer his service for someone who really cares about his craft. Poet and Painter were also like this in another episode, and so was Smurfette and the Smurflings when hardly any of the Smurfs were paying attention to them.
  • South Park
    • Cartman does this so much that one of his Catch Phrases is "Screw you guys, I'm going home." He actually does this in the middle of the rainforest (after beating the shit out of two separate endangered species), but he walks all of twenty feet and ends up immediately running into a logging crew... And he even gets chicken wings!
    • Mercilessly parodied in the "Pandemic" two-parter. Craig hates the plot. All he wants to do is pull this trope and go home...and every time he walks away, he walks straight into more plot. This includes finding out that he's The Chosen One and accidentally saving the day by stepping on a magic stone while trying to leave the battle.
    • When Randy Marsh is trying to figure out why Kenny spontaneously combusted, he simulated what happened by having four adult men dressed as Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny. The guy "playing" Cartman gets frustrated, says this, and leaves.
    • Chef, along with all the black soldiers, pull this off in The Movie when they are put on a suicide mission by their blatantly racist commander.
      Chef: "Operation: Human Shield" my ass!
    • In "The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers", the boys accidentally get hold of a hardcore porn movie while role-playing The Lord of the Rings. They send Token off to watch it and report back on what it is. Some time later, he returns, having changed out of his costume.
      Clyde: What vice did you see on the videotape, Talangar? Is it the work of Sauron's magic?
      Token: ...I'm not playing anymore. [walks off]
      Stan: Uh, well... wait, what'd you see?
      Token: I don't know, I don't wanna know. I'm out.
    • "A Nightmare on Face Time" in which the boys, who are dressed up as the Avengers, attempt to stop a burglary in progress, but quickly flee when they discover that the thieves are dangerous killers:
      Cartman/Hulk: RAWWR— Oh crap, there's a bunch of them. Never mind. [sees dead clerk] Holy shit! They shot this guy!
      Kyle/Thor: Oh my god!
      Kenny/Ironman: Dude! Fuck this! Let's bail!
  • SpongeBob SquarePants:
    • Squidward will always try to opt out of whatever caper SpongeBob sets out on. If he goes anyway, it's only because circumstances against his control (usually Mr. Krabs threatening to fire him if he doesn't) force him to.
      Mermaid Man: Who wants to save the world?
      SpongeBob: I do!
      Sandy: I do!
      Patrick: I do!
      Squidward: I don't!
      Mr. Krabs: [sprints in and confronts Squidward] Oh, yes, you do! No world means no money! Now go save the world OR YOU'RE FIRED! [runs back to the Krusty Krab; Squidward grumbles]
      Mermaid Man: That settles it!
    • In the episode "Opposite Day", Squidward makes up the eponymous holiday in hopes that Spongebob will act normal long enough to sell his house and move away. Somehow, Spongebob interprets this as having to act like Squidward, and ropes Patrick into the act too. Then the house dealer shows up at Squidward's door, where Spongebob is standing. Hilarity Ensues, and the real Squidward eventually shows up. The house dealer, confused by all the "Squidward"s, eventually gives up and leaves.
    • Speaking of moving, the episode "Squidville" has this trope set off the plot. When Spongebob and Patrick destroy Squidward's house by playing with reef blowers, Squidward decides he's fed up and opts to move to an area of people just like him after seeing it in a commercial. And then his life becomes so routine that he gets bored out of his mind, so he leaves that neighborhood by riding on a reef blower.
    • In "I Had an Accident", the gorilla (played by a live-action actor in a cheap gorilla costume) stammers as he tries to explain what he's doing underwater in the first place, only to give up and tell George (a pantomime horse) that "they're onto us!". The gorilla and George then flee into the sunset rather than explain, much to the confusion of both the main characters and the live-action family watching the show.
    • At the end of "The Algae's Always Greener", Plankton decides he's had enough of the alternate reality where he runs the Krusty Krab. The breaking point is after an evil alternate version of Krabs tries to steal a Krabby Patty while naked, and Spongebob celebrates thwarting him with a "victory screech".
      Plankton: It's not worth it! It's just not worth it! (deadpan) Goodbye, everyone, I'll remember you all in therapy. (hits the Reset Button, sending himself back to his own reality)
    • In "Krusty Love", after being run ragged by Mr. Krabs and delivering one hell of a verbal beatdown to his boss for trying to blame him for wasting all his money, SpongeBob storms off in a huff, cursing Mr. Krabs under his breath.
    • In "Can You Spare A Dime", the narrator does this, resulting in one of the most hilarious lines in the show's history:
      New Narrator: So much later that the old narrator got tired of waiting, and they had to hire a new one.
    • In "Your Shoe's Untied", SpongeBob repeatedly trips on his own shoelaces, inadvertently throwing Krabby Patties into Squidward's mouth and thus preventing customers from getting their food. When they announce that they're going to the Chum Bucket, Mr. Krabs races out of the bathroom... while his pants are still down.
      Harold: Oh yeah. We are definitely outta here.
    • In "The Play's the Thing", the Krusty Krab holds auditions for its performance of "Singy Eaty Time", with a mob of anchovies looking forward to try out. But when Mr. Krabs reveals he won't pay them, all of the anchovies immediately flee the restaurant, leaving only SpongeBob behind so he gets all the parts.
    • In "Knock, Knock, Who's There?" Mr. Krabs arrives at the Fast Food Founding Fathers convention he will be attenting for the weekend while SpongeBob watches his house; upon arrival, he discovers the attendees have to pay a ten-cent entrance fee. Due to his cheapness and his hatred at spending money, he calls that a rip-off and decides to go home early.
      Mr. Krabs: Ten cents?!?! That's a rip-off! I'm goin' home!
  • Star Trek: Lower Decks:
    • Played for Laughs in the opening credits. In the title sequence, the U.S.S. Cerritos watches a Space Battle between a dozen Romulan D'Deridex warbirds and six Borg Cubes (and later, Pakled ships too. And later, a Crystalline Entity too.) A Borg Cube fires once on the Cerritos and the Federation ship nopes right the fuck out. The fandom has christened it the "NOPE!" shot.
    • No Small Parts":
      • Peanut Hamper beams herself into space rather than risk her life trying to upload a virus into the Pakled ship. She regrets it when no one bothers picking her up after the fact, leaving her floating in space.
      • When the Titan warps in and starts kicking ass, the Pakleds go into a swift Hyperspeed Escape.
      "Make us go! Go, guys, go!"
  • Star Wars Rebels, "Steps into Shadow": Hondo ditches Ezra offscreen when the station falls. Also, the Imperial officers immediately run for it when Ezra reaches the command center.
  • Steven Universe
    • "Ocean Gem": Greg puts on some music as he drives the Crystal Gems over the dry ocean floor towards Lapis Lazuli's giant water tower. The music he puts on features a lot of electric guitar and doesn't really sound like much. When Greg asks Garnet for her opinion, she just frowns. Then, she opens the door and throws herself out of the still-moving van. The scene then cuts to Garnet laying on the roof as the van is being driven by Pearl instead.
    • "Alone Together": Stevonnie is harassed by an older teen named Kevin. They don't very much appreciate the attention, and make it their goal to dance with him as wildly as they possibly can. When they accidentally unfuse back into Steven and Connie (two little kids), Kevin immediately bails.
      Kevin: That's two kids! I'm out! [walks off]
    • As the hand-ship from "Jailbreak" begins to crash, Peridot awkwardly crawls towards the center of the room (as she's still tied up), smacks her face into the floor which causes an escape pod to form around her, then launches herself towards Earth.
    • In the episode "Onion Friend", Onion is being... more creepy than usual. When he invites Steven into a hidden vent in his room, Steven finally decides he should get out of there, saying the below line. The only reason he doesn't commit is because one of the Gems is busy talking to Onion's mother and finally opening up after depressed episode, and he doesn't want to stop that process.
      Steven: Okay, I'm out, can't do this anymore, need to go home!
  • In an early Fleischer Superman cartoon, "Jungle Drums", a primitive African tribe has been fooled into worshiping Nazis. Everything is going smoothly to the rhythm of a faux-tribal drum beat, when Superman suddenly shows up to foil their plans and save Lois. Exit entire tribe, stage right!
  • In the SWAT Kats episode "Dark Side of the SWAT Kats", when the evil Mirror Universe version of Callie Briggs sees that her partner Dark Kat's plan to blow up Enforcer Headquarters has failed, she declares "All my plans are ruined! I'm out of here!" She is immediately intercepted by Felina Feral and the Enforcers, however.
  • In Sweet Sea, when Sheeba obtains the Royal Necklace, the inhabitants don't want to live under her rule and leave the kingdom, including Sweet Sea's friends.
  • Teen Titans (2003):
    • Terra tries pulling this on Slade after he demonstrates that, when you work for him, failing at a task earns you a savage beating. Unfortunately, Slade anticipated this and turns her into a People Puppet instead.
    • Another example: In the finale of the Brotherhood of Evil arc in the fifth season, the Brain and Monsieur Mallah tried to make a run for it and abandon the rest of the villains when the battle was turning against them. They didn't get far.
  • In The Tick episode "The Tick Vs. Chairface Chippendale," the blue defender of good has cornered the villain before he can complete his plan to write his name on the moon (He gets as far as "CHA" and it remains there when the moon is seen in later episodes.).
    The Tick: Give up!
    Chairface: OK.
  • In the Van Beuren Studios Tom & Jerry short "Jungle Jam", the Navy pulls this on Tom and Jerry, just when it seemed like they were going to rescue them.
  • Noggin the Nog has the following memorable exchange between series villain Nogbad and a Sultan of his acquaintance:
    Sultan: There comes a time when presence of mind is shown by absence of body.
    Nogbad: What?
    Sultan: Let's get out of here!
  • Total Drama:
    • In the first episode of Total Drama World Tour, Duncan is tied to Courtney and Gwen. After putting up with three hours of them fighting, the hot Egyptian sun, and having to sing, he quits, telling Chris off. Afterwards he ended up going AWOL; that's right, he wasn't offically eliminated.
    • Also subverted between Island and Action. The campers' first reaction when Chris tells them about Season 2 is "No way!" However, Chris then brings up that it's in their contracts, and they really should Read the Fine Print next time.
  • Transformers: Animated had a great example in the pilot episode. After Starscream disables Megatron and takes command of the Decepticons' ship, he manages to trigger this reaction in every other Decepticon by piloting the ship into Earth's moon. Blitzwing and Lugnut eventually rejoin Megatron; Blackarachnia deserts for the duration of the series.
    • A somewhat greyish example occurs later on: Jazz eventually defects from the somewhat-corrupt Elite Guard and goes off and joins Optimus' crew, having become fed up with the way the way Sentinel is running things as temporary-Magnus.
  • In The Transformers, the third season introduces a whole planet of neutral Transformers, Paradron, who all either ran away from Cybertron and the Forever War or are descended from those who did. By the episode's end, Rodimus Prime has blown the planet up to prevent the Decepticons from harvesting its energon reserves, and they instead sign back up with the Autobots.
    • Ironically, years later, Transformers: Energon would have Rodimus Prime as the leader of a group of ex-Autobots who also decided the Forever War was pointless and vanished into deep space to get away from it.
  • Ultimate Spider-Man: When Spidey gets hounded by everyone in New York when Jameson offered 10 million to anyone who can unmask him, Spidey then learns that Boston offered to make him the city's premier hero; he quickly took the next bus to Boston.
  • VeggieTales: At the end of "Daniel and the Lion's Den", the Wise Men, upon realizing King Darius has it in for them for what they had tried to do to Daniel, attempt to flee to Egypt, only for Darius, accompanied by Daniel, to give chase.
    First Wise Man: [whispering to the other Wise Men] I hear they're looking for wise men down in Egypt. [to King Darius and Daniel] Been fun, got to go now!
    Second Wise Man: Yeah, see ya!
    [the Wise Men start running off]
    King Darius: Where do you think you're going? Come back here, you scoundrels!
    Daniel: Hey, guys! Come back!
    King Darius: You scallywags!
    First Wise Man: Ta-ta!
    King Darius: Not so fast! Stop! I'm the king! You must stop now! Come back here!
  • The Venture Bros.:
    • The titular brothers often encounter and flee from some kind of threat trying to attack, kill, or kidnap them, complete with one or both frequently shouting "SUPER RUNAWAY!" as they do so.
    • Mandalay — the colossal, mute bodyguard of Mr. Brisby — is a threatening presence throughout the episode in which he appears. However, when faced with a duel to the death with Brock Samson towards the end of the episode, he breaks his silence to state that he doesn't really need this job and walks away.
    • This happens again in "Love Bheits" when Brock finds a lump on the testicle of a henchman he is fighting. That henchman loses his urge to fight, and Brock lets him go.
    • Brock himself does this in the Season 3 finale... before he was nearly killed by a car explosion.
    • Henchman 21/Gary announces he's quitting right to the Monarch's face in "Operation: P.R.O.M", even giving The Monarch and Dr. Mrs. both middle fingers as he's walking out.
  • Work It Out Wombats!: In "Crab Quakes," the crab family hears a strange noise that scares them. Their solution is to run away and retreat to the wombat house.
  • In one episode of Young Justice (2010), Nightwing explains how he's sending an all-female squad to battle Queen Bee because of her ability to control the minds of men. Batgirl jokingly calls him out on not feeling the need to justify sending an all male team for a given situation, and Nightwing realizes there's no good way to answer and just bails.
    Nightwing: There's... uh... (coughs) no right answer to that one, is there? So... Nightwing out!
    Batgirl: Queen Bee's isn't the only woman who can mess with a man's mind!


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