History Main / HowWouldYouLikeToDie

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' episode "The Obsolete Man": the titular character is given this option of execution by any method for the crime of being "[[GoodIsOldFashioned Obsolete]]" (read: having a profession or belief that is no longer required or held by the fascist government). He chooses death by televised detonation of a bomb in his apartment. Why? Turns out it was a {{plan}} to get his executioner to accidentally lock himself in the room and ask, on national state run television, "For the love of God, let me out." The convicted does so, for the love of God, with just enough time for only the executioner to get out. Its okay, because the executioner is sentenced to die by a method of his choice... for the crime of being obsolete.

* Inverted in TheLongKissGoodnight. A man being tortured by Timothy (the BigBad) repeatedly begs to be killed with the gun, not the knife. Timothy does not oblige.

* In ''AbbottAndCostello Meet The Killer'', an evil hypnotist attempts to make Lou Costello commit suicide but fails repeatedly. Reasoning that Lou is resisting him, he asks Lou the trope question. Lou's reply: "Old Age."

* Describing what he's been doing since the crew last met him, [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Harry Mudd]] mentions a rather harsh encounter with the law:

* Possibly the original suicide booths come from ''TheKingInYellow'' by Robert W. Chambers, first published in 1895.

-->[[strike:''"How appropriate. YouFightLikeACow."'']] ''"With you around, I'd prefer to be fumigated."''

* Along the same line is the Zeromancer song "Dr Online," where the bridge is a voice mail maze with various options to off one's self.

** Actually, the Chancellor doesn't get to choose... they pretty much kill him right there.

* There's an old joke where one man's answer is "To be shot by a jealous husband."
** That's part of an Irish toast, actually. It goes something like, "May you die old and in bed, shot by a jealous husband."

*** For the crime of [[HypocriticalHumour implanting chauvinistic material into a motion picture]].
*** Considering how desparate he seemed, one can only wonder what would have happened had they caught him.

* At the end of DragonBallAbridged episode 24, Vegeta is furious that he doesn't have immortality.

* In the novel version of the JamesBond story ''You Only Live Twice'', Blofeld runs a garden full of various ways in which visitors can commit suicide. Any visitor who attempts to leave without killing themselves (or staying past closing time) is tied to a geyser right before it goes off.

* Although unaware of it at the time, the five vacationers from ''Film/TheCabinInTheWoods'' are confronted by this choice [[spoiler: when they enter the cabin's cellar: every single piece of junk down here is intended to summon a different monster. Blowing a conch would have released the mermen into the lake; letting the ballerina music box play to the end would have unleashed the [[TheFairFolk Sugarplum Fairy]]; solving the puzzle sphere would have summoned [[{{Hellraiser}} Cenobite expies]], and so on. The item they settle on is Patience Buckner's diary, which they end up reading aloud- resurrecting the Buckner family as zombies]].

* The ''heroine'' uses this line in ''KillBill'' during her confrontation with Vernita Green.

* In ''ASongOfIceAndFire'' Tyrion replies; "Dead drunk, in bed, with a virgin's mouth around my cock, at the age of eighty".

* A variation occurs in ''DeltoraQuest''. Lief answers a bridge guard's question incorrectly, so the guard gives him a choice: tell a true statement and die of strangulation, or tell a false statement and be decapitated. Lief's response? [[TakeAThirdOption Declare that he will die by decapitation]]. The resulting LogicBomb [[spoiler: destroys the curse forcing him to guard the bridge, because he was cursed [[ExactWords to guard it until truth and lies are one]]]].

* ''Film/{{Lolita}}'' (1962). Humbert asks Quilty if he wants to get shot standing up or sitting down. Quilty (who is drunk and mocking the entire business) puts on boxing gloves and says he wants to die like a champion.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones''. Tyrion Lannister and his sellsword Bronn are surrounded by the Stone Crows whose leader Shagga asks Tyrion how he wants to die. His reply is, "At the age of 80, in bed, with a belly full of wine and a girl's mouth around my cock." Shagga find this ActuallyPrettyFunny...then tells the clansman to kill Bronn and take Tyrion prisoner.

* ''Film/{{Lolita}}''. Humbert asks Quilty if he wants to get shot standing up or sitting down. Quilty (who is drunk and mocking the entire business) puts on boxing gloves and says he wants to die like a champion.

** [[spoiler: I'd think it would take more meat than you could get from eleven lions to keep a lion alive for that long.]]
*** Though the FridgeLogic reminds you that [[spoiler:by doing so you will condemn yourself to a slow and horrible death by starvation, as well.]]
**** Not necessarily. There's nothing saying that you can't get out of the room. (Other versions of the joke use wolves and an island, or stipulate that it's inescapable.)

* There's a joke that involves a cannibal tribe invoking this trope on a mixed-ethnicity group of tourists.
** The normal punchline: one of the victims asks the cannibals to kick him in the ass before he dies. He is kicked, then pulls a gun and shoots all of the cannibals. One of the other tourists asks: "Why didn't you do that earlier?" Response: "[[TechnicalPacifist (insert group here)s aren't aggressors."]]

* A variation occurs in ''DeltoraQuest''. Lief answers a bridge guard's question incorrectly, so the guard gives him a choice: tell a true statement and die of strangulation, or tell a false statement and be decapitated. Lief's response? [[TakeAThirdOption Declare that he will die by decapitation]]. The resulting LogicBomb [[spoiler: destroys the curse forcing him to guard the bridge, because he was cursed [[ExactWords to guard it until truth and lies are one]].]].

** The normal punchline: [[spoiler:One of the victims asks the cannibals to kick him in the ass before he dies. He is kicked, then pulls a gun and shoots all of the cannibals. One of the other tourists asks: "Why didn't you do that earlier?" Response: "[[TechnicalPacifist (insert group here)s aren't aggressors."]]]]

* TheThreeStooges used this as a gag in several shorts.