History Main / Catch22Dilemma

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/catch22.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[-[[https://www.stanleycolors.com/tag/catch-22/ Artwork]] by [[https://twitter.com/pablostanley Pablo Stanley]]. Used with permission.-]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[-[[https://www.stanleycolors.com/tag/catch-22/ Artwork]] by Pablo Stanley. Used with permission.-]]]

%% Image Pickin' thread selected an image pending permission: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16834892440.35951600

* A commercial for Sondermind, online therapy sessions, mention this as why it's hard for people with mental help issues to get help. They need therapy to deal with their issues burnout,depression, anxiety, etc, but these exact problems is what keeps them from reaching out or trying to get help.

%% Image moved here per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1485208821068514100
%% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread.
%% Other thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1590347330024996700

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/MedalOfHonor https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1286384777089_4494.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[FlatWhat ...What.]]]]

* Weight loss surgeries (WLS) such as gastric bypass surgery is affected by this. One of the problems with being morbidly obese is that most surgeries become prohibitively risky, due to a combination of factors including their high weight making it impossible to administer anesthesia safely, and the excess body fat making it more difficult for the surgeons to actually reach the organ they're trying to operate on. However, the people in need of WLS are those who have tried and failed to lose weight via other methods, and are in desperate need of loosing weight due to looming health complications.

** The sergeant claims he's actually not a kid, because the army doesn't recruit {{Child Soldier}}s and they would have kicked him out if they realized. Only adults get drafted, so if Munro is still here, he's an adult.

* ''Fanfic/WithThisRing'': When the Renegade is sent to the far future, something drains all the charge from his power rings. He could recharge them from his personal lanterns, but those are both secured in subspace pockets attached to the rings, requiring at least a small amount of ring power to retrieve them... [[spoiler:Eventually, decades or possibly centuries later, after destroying the source of the draining effect, he's able to consult a specialist in emotion magic and infuse enough of a charge to access the pockets.]]

* ''Fanfic/{{Implacable}}'': After [[TraumaticSuperpowerAwakening Triggering]], [[Literature/{{Worm}} Taylor]] is forced into the Wards, and the best way she can find to get out is to share the circumstances of her forced conscription - but, due to Piggot exploiting the rules to keep that secret, Taylor can't share what happened until she leaves the Wards. [[spoiler:The solution is to bring in a third party that can be told the truth and has the power to close things down, so the moment the option appears she takes it.]]

* ''Fanfic/WithThisRing'': When discussing Earth's rate of development in comparison to other species, Paul notes that there are a lot of worlds that simply don't have enough fossil fuels to support a level of societal development that would allow the discovery and development of better energy sources to make fossil fuels obsolete. They're perpetually pre-industrial as a result. Fortunately, Earth isn't in that category.

The term covers two similar but not identical situations. In one, two things are conditions precedent to each other. In the other, a desired outcome has two conditions precedent, one of which rules out the other.

!!Related to, but similar tropes include:
* ChainOfDeals: where a character trades Item A to get Item B, trade that to get Item C, and so on. A Chain of Deals may become a Catch-22 Dilemma if the last item is needed to get the first item ("There's a hole in my bucket...").

* TheKeyIsBehindTheLock: A subtrope where an item or door is locked, and the key to the lock is in the item or behind the door. You need to unlock the lock to get the key to unlock the lock. They are most often solved by [[TakeAThirdOption finding some way to open the item without the key]].

* In ''VideoGame/Overwatch''’s ''Alive'' short, [[ColdSniper Widowmaker]] sets one up against Tracer by lining her up with the target she wants to protect. Either Tracer blinks out of the way and Mondatta takes the bullet, or her chronal accelerator is destroyed and Mondatta dies anyway without her protection. [[spoiler: Tracer doesn’t realise the set-up and blinks out of the way, and it takes her a moment afterwards to understand what just happened]].

* In the 2015 reboot of ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty'', Opus is conscripted into being a Presidential candidate, which he does not want. In the strip [[http://www.gocomics.com/bloom-county/2015/09/29 seen here]], a government official tells him he can't withdraw his candidacy, except by reason of insanity. When Opus tries that, the guy makes him swear he does ''not'' want to be President — which means he's clearly sane, and thus cannot withdraw. The official's desk actually has "Cancellations -- Catch-22 Division" written on it.

* InspectorJavert encounters one at the end of ''Theatre/LesMiserables'', as his life was saved by the man he must apprehend, [[spoiler: causing him [[DrivenToSuicide to commit suicide]] so that he doesn't betray his ideals]].

* The [[ManipulativeBastard Ploxis]] in ''VideoGame/StarControl3'' are fond of engineering these situations to entrap other races into servitude. For instance, the Doog owed the Ploxis a large debt that had to be worked off, but in order to do the work, they had to buy materials from the Ploxis, which increased the debt. The solution, of course, is for the Captain to buy them out. Another one is the Clairconctlar, who have to serve the Ploxis until their queen says otherwise. Unfortunately, the queen has been kidnapped and currently resides on a space station that the Ploxis have forbidden them to visit. [[spoiler: Solving that one requires the Captain to commit a crime so heinous that the Clairconctlar would chase him anywhere - even to, say, a forbidden space station - to carry out a death sentence.]]

** In Act 3 of the same game, this trope is also revealed to be part of [[BigBad Yuuki Terumi's]] dilemma: [[spoiler: As resident DestroyerDeity [[SatanicArchetype Takehaya Susanoo no Mikoto]], it was his purpose to destroy things, sometimes entire timelines even, for the sake of [[DeusEstMachina Master Unit: Amaterasu]]. But having grown fed up with his role, [[IJustWantToBeFree seeking freedom instead]], he abandoned his old body and his role... only to find that he was now even less free than before, being subject to the laws of physics, spacetime and, even more so than before, the Master Unit's whims. This birthed in him a seething hatred for The Master Unit, and so he began trying to get back at her by destroying her beloved creations... only to realize that doing so was perfectly in line with his divine task, meaning there was no practical difference between him rebelling and him just doing what he was supposed to do anyway. Hence why he seeks the "Azure": So that he can grant himself complete freedom and remake the laws of reality so that he can destroy everything and everyone on loop for all of eternity without having it correspond to his divine purpose.]]

* ''VideoGame/GoldenSunTheLostAge'' presents the fate of the world as such;[[spoiler: don't restore Alchemy and the crumbling world will erode to nothing or unleash Alchemy to stop the erosion and risk destroying the world from Alchemy's sheer power. Isaac, whose initial quest was to prevent the lighthouses from being lit (which is what Alchemy is tied to), lampshades the conundrum, but decides to join Felix in his quest to restore Alchemy. In the end, the world isn't destroyed, but many areas suffer drastic changes as seen in ''VideoGame/GoldenSunDarkDawn''.]]

* ''WebAnimation/IfTheEmperorHadATextToSpeechDevice'': In the third Vox Log video, Leman Russ puts a pair of Dark Eldar into one. Russ is being brought to Commorragh, and the Eldar guarding his cell decide to kill time by playing a version of twenty-questions. It'd be harmless, but Russ knows how to use [[YourMindMakesItReal the Warp]] to make it whatever he's thinking of manifest. After using choke gas and Urist the dwarf to torment the pair, he begins the third round... and its something the Dark Eldar ''can't'' name: [[spoiler: Slaanesh. For a Dark Eldar to say ''its'' name would kill them, and drag them to an eternity of torment. But if they ''don't'' say it, Russ will manifest it in Commorragh, destroying the city ''and'' them]]. This would be absolutely ''horrifying''... if the victims weren't [[AssholeVictim Dark Eldar]].

** Also parodied in [[https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/skimmed "Skimmed"]], where a guy is too addicted to social media to stop using social media even though he doesn't like to be addicted to it.

* Parodically referenced in ''WebComic/SluggyFreelance'' in "The Isle of the Ployees", Riff's allegorical dream about corporate jobs. On the Isle of the Ployees[[note]]from "employees"[[/note]], Riff is charged with taming a pr'jek[[note]]"project"[[/note]] called Catz-Twenty-Two, in the form of a giant cat monster. Naturally, this is impossible, at least with the means available. There isn't a clear Catch-22 Dilemma in the story -- the monster is just too big and fierce -- but given the monster's name, the whole thing must be a reference to a case where a project is undoable because it involves one. Trying to get Mark and Ting[[note]]"marketing"[[/note]] to approve new taming technology does involve something similar to this dilemma, since they demand completely opposite things.

* One that's all too common is "[[https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140811235043-203184238-how-to-overcome-the-permission-paradox-you-can-t-get-the-job-without-the-experience-but-you-can-t-get-the-experience-without-the-job The Permission Paradox]]", where businesses offer starting-level jobs, but require that the person hired already have a certain level of experience. You can't get a job without having experience, but you can't get the experience without having a job. (Though it's not a true paradox as lot of these are 'soft' requirements, and not having the experience isn't a death sentence on your application.) This inspired the following book title: ''Want a Job? Get Some Experience. Want Experience? Get a Job.'' Countless fresh graduates, people who have earned degrees or higher but don't have job experience due to being in school, found themselves on the employment line for months, if not ''years'', because of this. This was usually because those companies wouldn’t hire a fresh out of college newbie, but they would hire those graduates who had worked internships with them during their college years. That way, they gain “experience” before graduating. Universities with cooperative education programs in fact require students to spend a semester every year working as an intern for a company, so that they graduate with work experience. In many instances, the paradox is actually because the company already has a candidate in mind for the position but company policy requires them to seek applicants from outside, so they deliberately set up contradictory qualifications to cut down on the number of people who will try to apply for it.

* Politicians who are not "front runners" in elections can't get votes even from people who support them above all other candidates because voters don't want to "throw their vote away" on a candidate who "can't win," but losing votes in this way is exactly what makes them unable to win. One solution that's gained ground outside North America is to switch from a first-past-the-post system (highest vote-getter wins, whether or not it's 50%+1) to a runoff system (50%+1 votes wins; if no one gets it, a second round is held between the top two candidates), or in the Anglosphere and nowhere else to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/Instant-runoff_voting Instant-runoff voting (AKA "alternative vote" in the UK and "ranked-choice voting" in the US)]], in which the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated if no candidate gets a majority, and the second choice votes on those ballots are added to the other candidates. Repeat until somebody gets at least 50%+1 votes.
** Elections for a multi-member body (such as a legislature) allow for a third option in the form of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/Proportional_representation Proportional representation]], in which there are multiple winners assigned to each party proportionally to its vote share; naturally, this system requires large, multi-member districts, or even electing the whole legislature on a nationwide basis outright, to work effectively, and if there are any single-member districts at all [[note]][[https://en.wikipedia.org/Party-list_proportional_representation Party-list proportional representation]] doesn't bother with single-member districts at all; German-style [[https://en.wikipedia.org/Mixed-member_proportional_representation Mixed-member proportional representation]] uses the PR tier as a correction mechanism for single-member districts; and a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/Parallel_ voting Parallel voting]] system like Japan's has the single-member and PR tiers elected separately.[[/note]] they only form one tier of the legislature's membership.

** In object-oriented programming, a class whose constructor takes an instance of the same class as an argument would not be able to be instantiated (unless it's nullable[[labelnote:What?]]meaning a reference to a class instance can be set to null (i.e. nothing) instead of an actual instance[[/labelnote]], in which case one could just [[TakeAThirdOption pass null as the argument]]).

* Often the case with many high schoolers looking for a job to earn enough money to purchase an automobile. Many of these low-level jobs ask if you have a reliable way to get to and from your job. In other words, you need a car to get a job in which you're saving up to get a car. Some countries/cities try to go around this by offering cheap ways for students to use public transport... [[ShaggyDogStory only for businesses to counter by outright requiring a driver's license]] ''and'' a good driving record[[note]] while it's ''possible'' to get a driver's license without owning a car, getting a good driving record (typically 2+ years of driving experience) is pretty much impossible to pull off during high school[[/note]].

* ''Literature/TheWitchOfKnightcharm'': Brynne breaks her glasses during her first (failed) attempt to complete the orientation course at an evil WizardSchool. The only place she can get new glasses is the school store, but only students who beat the course are allowed into the store, and Brynne can't beat the course because [[BlindWithoutEm she can no longer see unless she gets new glasses.]]

* ''WebAnimation/IfTheEmperorHadATextToSpeechDevice'': In the third Vox Log video, Leman Russ puts a pair of Dark Eldar into one. Russ is being brought to Commorragh, and the Eldar guarding his cell decide to kill time by playing a version of twenty-questions. It'd be harmless, but Russ knows how to use [[YourMindMakesItReal the Warp]] to make it whatever he's thinking of manifest. After using choke gas and Urist the dwarf to torment the pair, he begins the third round... and its something the Dark Eldar ''can't'' name: [[spoiler: Slaanesh. For a Dark Eldar to say ''its'' name would kill them, and drag them to an eternity of torment. But if they ''don't'' say it, Russ will manifest it in Commorragh, destroying the city ''and'' them]]. This would be absolutely ''horrifying''... if the victims weren't [[KickTheSonOfABitch Dark Eldar]].

* Applying for healthcare, insurance, and other similar necessities will have you pay your premiums based on your income, and the type of services you get will also depend on your income. It's quite common seeing people who make too much money to qualify for getting health insurance for free and not make enough money to actually afford the medication and doctor visits.

* ''LightNovel/TorturePrincessFremdTorturchen'': In volume 2, the Grand King sets a trap for Elisabeth that [[PowerLimiter caps her ability to use magic]]. She could break it if she destroyed the Grand King, but the curse prevents her from generating enough mana to do so. [[spoiler:Kaito breaks it after forming a contract with the Kaiser, the only demon more powerful than the Grand King and thus able to break it directly.]]

* ''Series/ThePractice'': Ellenor laments this trope when trying to save a man on death row in Pennsylvania. To get him off, she needs new evidence showing his innocence, which is DNA. She can't get it tested, however, which is what she needs to do for that. [[spoiler: They find a way around it and get the new evidence later.]]

* In two episodes of ''WesternAnimation/TheProudFamily'', [[OverprotectiveDad Oscar]] tells Penny that he wants her to start dating ''after'' she's married.

* One ''WesternAnimation/DaveTheBarbarian'' episode has the characters learn that they're stuck in a debt loop: all of them owe the same amount of money to the next person in the cycle, and none of them have enough money to pay off that person unless they can get the money from the previous person in the cycle, who doesn't have it because ''they'' need to get it off the person before ''them'', and so on, back to the person you started with. [[TakeAThirdOption Candy resolves it by skipping the cash-in-hand question entirely and having them pass around a cheque instead.]] This confuses Dave, but luckily Oswidge is on hand to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sydKXNq6mWk sing a baffling, yet catchy, song about an egg]], which apparently explains everything.