History TakeAThirdOption / WesternAnimation

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': In the episode "Wish Fixers", [[CorruptCorporateExecutive HP]] coerces Timmy into signing up for a program to get him to stop making bad wishes. A simple program: every time he makes a bad wish, Cosmo and Wanda get zapped by {{Shock Collar}}s that are turned up higher with each use, and the highest setting will destroy them. And Timmy isn't allowed to stop making wishes or wish away the Shock Collars, or else Cosmo and Wanda get replaced by pixies. After Timmy completely fails to curb his streak, HP gives Timmy a list of pre-approved wishes, but the only wish on it is to sign over control of Fairy World to the pixies, which will result in Cosmo and Wanda being replaced with pixies, so Timmy is sunk either way. His solution: wish that Cosmo and Wanda were made of rubber, which is non-conductive, and since it was done for their safety, he technically broke his bad wishing streak, nullifying the contract.

* {{Subverted|Trope}} in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/FishHooks'': Bea is working at a pretzel kiosk and her manager makes her decide between firing Milo or Oscar. In the end, she tries to fire the manager, but of course, she can't and the manager fires all three of them.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheBackyardigans'': In "The Legend of the Volcano Sisters", Luau Brothers Tyrone, Pablo and Austin have to get something for Volcano Sisters Uniqua and Tash, otherwise they will erupt the volcano. Tyrone suggests a big tiki mask, while Pablo suggests a gigantic pearl; both those fail to appease the sisters. Austin, who was trying to speak up throughout the episode, then suggests a pair of leis as an invitation to their luau, which the sisters gladly accept.

* ''WesternAnimation/HarryAndHisBucketFullOfDinosaursl'': The episode "Who to Choose?" focuses on Harry being invited to Charlie's sleepover but can only take one of his six dinosaurs with him. In the end, he decides to have Charlie come over instead, so he can have the sleepover but keep all his dinosaurs.

* In a ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' episode, Starfire's pet worm is [[LetHimChoose torn in a decision]] between his father and Starfire, who raised him with love. Rather than joining either, he takes a third option, and explodes. [[spoiler: Subverted in that this made him shrink down to baby size, where he happily stays with Starfire]].

* In the ''WesternAnimation/XMen'' animated series, Bishop goes back in time to stop Apocalypse from causing a global plague. But in Cable's time (further into the future), Cable realizes that if Bishop saves the present, it would doom his future. The plague would allow humanity to develop antibodies that would help the people in Cable's time survive further plagues. So, if Cable wants to save his people, he has to help Apocalypse win. His third option? Expose ''ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}'' to the virus so his HealingFactor would create antibodies to counter the virus, thus giving it a cure. This allows Cable to save the future ''and'' the present.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': In "The Krabby Kronicle", [=SpongeBob=] is forced to write humiliating lies about his friends in Mr. Krabs' new newspaper enterprise. Faced with the choice of either continuing to write the stories and destroying the lives of his friends, or refusing and getting fired from his beloved fry cook job, he instead chooses to [[HoistByHisOwnPetard hoist Krabs by his own petard]] and publish an article in the paper about how Mr. Krabs is overworking him and forcing him to write the bogus news stories. The paper's readers are so outraged that they storm the Krusty Krab and take all their money back.

* Done for humor in the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "Almost Got 'Im". Harley Quinn captures Catwoman and ties her to a conveyor belt heading for a massive meat grinder. Batman arrives, and catches Harley, who then taunts that he can either bring her in, or rescue Catwoman, but not both. Batman then... nonchalantly reaches over to the circuit breaker and shuts off the power to the grinder, to which Harley responds, "[[OhCrap heh heh]]... Good call--Help!"

** One episode has our title character accidentally hit a member of the AV Club and, when his dad finds out, gives him the sage advice "Show me a man who resorts to violence, and I'll show you a man who has run out of good ideas". Afterwards, Doug finds himself harassed by the AV Club, egging him on for a rematch. When Doug has had enough, he confronts the kid... and finds out that he didn't want the fight - his clubmates pushed him into it! So, either Doug backs out and they both come out as chickens or they go at it and Doug, at most, becomes a bully. The solution: stage a fight in the AV Room, using a television feed and, at the right moment, kill the connection and let Skeeter make the sound effects!

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' episode "Wish Fixers", Timmy signs up for a program by [[CorruptCorporateExecutive HP]] to get him to stop making bad wishes. Not only does he he completely fail to curb his streak, every time he makes a wish that ends in catastrophe Cosmo and Wanda are electrocuted with {{Shock Collar}}s that are turned up higher with each use, and the highest setting will destroy them. HP gives Timmy a list of pre-approved wishes and the only wish on it is to sign over control of Fairy World to the pixies, which will result in Cosmo and Wanda being replaced with pixies, so Timmy is sunk either way. His solution: wish that Cosmo and Wanda were made of rubber, which is non-conductive, and since it was done for their safety he technically broke his bad wishing streak.

* {{Subverted|Trope}} in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/FishHooks'': Bea is working at a pretzel kiosk and her manager makes her decide between firing Milo or Oscar. At the end she tries to fire the manager, but of course she can't and the manager fires all three of them.

** "Not so Awesome Blossom": Blossom has to decide between attacking Mojo and risk having the Professor fall to his death or [[KneelBeforeZod accept him as her ruler]]. She ends up taking a third option in an unexpected way.

** When Aang returns to Omashu while it is being controlled by the Fire Nation, he sought to rescue an imprisoned Bumi. Surprisingly, the old king can still earthbend, but has decided not to yet. Aang knows of the way of positive jing, fighting, and the way of negative jing, or retreating. Bumi reveals that there is a third "neutral" jing, which involves doing nothing and waiting for the right moment. This third jing would be key to Aang's mastering of earthbending.
*** [[spoiler:This same principle pays off for Bumi when the eclipse arrives, rendering firebending useless and allowing him to single-handedly take back the city.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/InfinityTrain'': Defied in [[Recap/InfinityTrainS1E4TheCrystalCar "The Crystal Car"]]. When Tulip's attempts to find an emotional song that will [[SongsInTheKeyOfLock build a staircase to the car door]] fail, she spends some time building a ladder... only to find out that the door is not only out of reach, but also locked.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': In "The Krabby Khronicle", [=SpongeBob=] is forced to write humiliating lies about his friends in Mr. Krabs' new newspaper enterprise. Faced with the choice of either continuing to write the stories and destroying the lives of his friends, or refusing and getting fired from his beloved fry cook job, he instead chooses to [[HoistByHisOwnPetard hoist Krabs by his own petard]] and publish an article in the paper about how Mr. Krabs is overworking him and forcing him to write the bogus news stories. The paper's readers are so outraged that they storm the Krusty Krab and take all their money back.

* In the original ''WesternAnimation/ThunderCats'', there was something like this in the second part of "The Anointment of Lion-O". Outracing Cheetarah the standard way was impossible, and he knew it, but he was allowed to take a shortcut, and seeing as she couldn't run as ''long'' as he could, doing so gave him a better chance. The downside? It was far more dangerous. Still, he took that option and won.

** "[[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E22MadeOfHonor Made of Honor]]": Steven [[spoiler:releases Bismuth from her bubble]], and when she hastily corrects herself upon greeting him, [[spoiler:not knowing about [[TwoAliasesOneCharacter Rose Quartz and Pink Diamond being one and the same]]]], he adds that there's now a third option.

-->'''King Bumi:''' Heh heh, ''wrong'' choice!

* Defied in ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'', where D.A.V.E., a robot programmed as "Gotham's Ultimate Criminal Mastermind", forces Batman to choose between Alfred's life and his secret identity. Batman tries to free Alfred through different means, only for D.A.V.E. to slam him against the wall of the Batcave, shouting that he ''knew'' he would try to take a third, more favorable option.
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', Towelie was faced with either preventing the boys and their new game system from falling into a death trap, or getting high from a joint the evil towel was taunting him with. Towelie's response? "I choose.... BOTH!"
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', Peter and his father-in-law sell Meg some marijuana, creating an implicit choice between the money and the pot, so Mr. Pewterschmidt hits Meg over the head and declares "Now we have the pot ''and'' the money!"
* In the ''WesternAnimation/XMen'' animated series, Bishop goes back in time to stop Apocalypse from causing a global plague. But in Cable's time (further into the future), Cable realizes that if Bishop saves the present, it would doom his future. The plague would allow humanity to develop antibodies that would help the people in Cable's time survive further plagues. So, if Cable wants to save his people, he has to help Apocalypse win. His third option? Expose ''ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}'' to the virus so his HealingFactor would create antibodies to counter the virus, thus giving it a cure. This allows Cable to save the future ''and'' the present.

* Used in ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' episode "Three Girls and a Monster", when Blossom and Buttercup are having an argument over how best to beat the MonsterOfTheWeek, with Bubbles stuck in the middle. [[AttackPatternAlpha Well-calculated attacks]] don't seem to touch it, and [[AttackAttackAttack trying to beat the crap out of it]] doesn't work - it doesn't even seem to leave a scratch. So, what does Bubbles finally do to beat it? [[spoiler:Politely ask it to leave. And it WORKS.]]
** Also used in the episode "Simian Says" where Mojo Jojo kidnapped the narrator and narrated the girls doing his bidding. When they found him out and asked where he wanted to be punched, stomach or head, he replied "How about an option of the third type?" He didn't get to take it.
** Also used in "Not so Awesome Blossom," where Blossom has to decide between attacking Mojo and risk having the Professor fall to his death or [[KneelBeforeZod accept him as her ruler]]. She ends up taking a third option in an unexpected way.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SpaceGhost'' episode "Zorak", Zorak kidnaps Space Ghost's teen sidekicks and forces him to fight his giant hornets without his power bands, or his sidekicks will die. After fighting the wasps for a few minutes, Space Ghost puts his power bands back on and defeats the hornets, saving his sidekicks shortly after. The third option, if you missed it, was "remember that all your enemies are idiots," or "both" for short.
* In a ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' episode, Starfire's pet worm is [[LetHimChoose torn in a decision]] between his father and Starfire, who raised him with love. Rather than joining either, he takes a third option, and explodes. [[spoiler: Subverted in that this made him shrink down to baby size, where he happily stays with Starfire]].
** In the first season finale, Robin has to choose between serving as Slade's apprentice or letting a bunch of Slade's micro-probes kill his friends. His choice? [[spoiler:Infect ''himself'' with the probes so that he and his friends share the same fate; Slade's so obsessed with winning that he'd rather let the Titans live than "lose" by allowing his apprentice to die.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** In the "Treehouse of Horror VII" segment "Citizen Kang", when Homer shows Kang and Kodos are impersonating the 1996 presidential candidates, they note the revelation makes no difference.
--->'''Kodos''': It's true, we are aliens. But what are you going to do about it? It's a two-party system; you have to vote for one of us.\\
'''Man 1''': He's right, this is a two-party system.\\
'''Man 2''': Well, I believe I'll vote for a third-party candidate.\\
'''Kang''': Go ahead; ''throw your vote away!''
** The same episode has Kodos and Kang trying to tell the crowd what they want to hear. "Abortions for everyone!" gets booed, "No abortions for anyone" also gets booed. They settle on abortions for some and miniature American flags for others.
** In another episode, Bart and Lisa stand on opposite sides of the living room and ask Maggie to walk to the one she loves best. Maggie's choice? The television.
** In one episode, the King Solomon example from the Religion section is parodied when Homer dreams that he is King Solomon and has to solve the conundrum of two men claiming ownership of the same pie. His solution:
--->'''Homer/Solomon''': The pie shall be split in two, and both men shall receive... death. I'll eat the pie.
* The famous DuckSeasonRabbitSeason argument from the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short "WesternAnimation/RabbitFire" ends with Bugs and Daffy discovering that it is, in fact, ''Elmer'' Season. Cue OhCrap moment from Elmer.
* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'', "Bully for Steve": With his ''own father'' acting as a bully to try and toughen him up, Steve is left with two options. Get tougher, or face more bullying from Stan. Instead, Steve finds Stan's old bully, Stelio Kontos, who promptly gives Stan [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown a complete ass beating]].
** A later episode had Steve faced with a bully his own age. He tries to solve the problem by hiring Stelio again, but the younger bully fanboys out on the legendary Stelio and then they team up to give Steve an even worse beating (after recording a remix of Stelio's theme song).

* In the original ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' series, Aquaman must deal with being in a DeathTrap alongside his baby son. The first two options are saving himself at the cost of letting his child die and freeing said child only, but dying in the process. What's his choice? [[spoiler: Cutting off his own hand... which lets him get free ''and'' save both himself and his son. And become a HandicappedBadass.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'':
** The episode "Another Way" is all about this trope, with every conversation ending with Finn shouting "My way!" When a tree stump (don't ask) tells him that he can only take the "smell bad forever" path or the "hair falls out forever" path, he kicks the signpost down and charges through the thorny bushes between the paths.
** Zigzagged in "Jake vs. Me-mow". Me-mow, who [[OrificeInvasion hides inside]] and entraps Jake in a PoisonAndCureGambit, gives Jake an ultimatum: kill the Wildberry Princess, or die from poisoning. Jake attempts a third option, twice: [[FakingTheDead throwing a puppet out the window]], and having Finn sing a lullaby to secretly put the assassin to sleep, both failing when [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom one of the guards reveal the princess is alive, and Finn barging in and waking Me-mow back up]], respectively. When it appears that Jake is about to succumb to the poison, Me-mow, having disposed of the antidote, [[ExplainingYourPowerToTheEnemy reveals said poison is enough to kill 50 dogs]]. Cue Jake [[{{Sizeshifter}} supersizing his liver]] by ''51'' to digest the poison.
** In "The Maze", Finn, Jake, and four Hot Dog knights enter the maze to find a wish-granter at the end of it. Along the way, two of the four hot dog knights die, and Jake pushes his stretching ability to the absolute limits with fatal results. At the end, Finn and two of the knights make it to the end. The first knight wishes for a box, the second wishes to "blow up" (he meant grow bigger, but the guardian was very much a LiteralGenie) and Finn's stuck between getting what they entered wanting to wish for (a two-headed psychic war elephant) or wishing the hot dog knights and Jake back to life. After some thinking, Finn wishes for the elephant and makes ''it'' wish for Jake and the knights to come back to life. Then they mount up on the elephant and fly out of the maze while the guardian screams at them for "cheating".

* In ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'', some Buddhist monks are looking for the {{reincarnation}} of their lama. The test to determine the new lama involves candidates picking out one item owned by the previous lama from a collection of other random things. Bobby passes by accident, and he needs to take another test to confirm whether it was a coincidence or not. Upon learning that lamas are celibate, he doesn't want to proceed, but his Buddhist girlfriend, Connie, says that he has to or she can never be sure if their relationship is against her religion or not. When presented with another collection items and told to pick whatever he wants, he notices a mirror with Connie's reflection in it [[ExactWords and picks her]], which the head monk says is a valid option. [[spoiler:The episode ends with the monks privately noting that the mirror was, in fact, the correct item]].
** In another episode, Peggy is arrested for kidnapping a Mexican girl after a misunderstanding stemming from [[MyHovercraftIsFullOfEels her poor Spanish skills]]. Of course Hank doesn't want his wife going to jail, but he's worried that if he just straight-up testifies that her Spanish is bad it'll hurt her ego. His solution? Convince Peggy to speak in her own defense; the judge witnesses her poor Spanish first-hand, realizes it was a misunderstanding, and declares her not guilty, while Peggy remains convinced that impassioned plea managed to sway him.
* This is actually ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'''s biggest skill: being able to find some sort of compromise to a situation.
** One episode has our title character accidentally hit a member of the AV Club and, when his dad finds out, gives him the sage advice "Show me a man who resorts to violence, and I'll show you a man who has run out of good ideas". Afterwards, Doug finds himself harassed by the AV Club, egging him on for a rematch. When Doug has had enough, he confronts the kid... and finds out that he didn't want the fight - his clubmates pushed him into it! So, either Doug backs out and they both come out as chickens or they go at it and Doug, at most, becomes a bully. The solution: stage a fight in the AV Room, using a television feed and, at the right moment, kill the connection and let Skeeter make the sound effects!
** Another episode had the student body attempt to invite their favorite band, The Beets, to their school to have a concert, but Mr. Bone refuses, hating their music and proclaiming that his yodeling is much more sophisticated. It takes an ImagineSpot starring his superhero self Quail Man for him to come up with a Third Option - let Bone's yodeling group be the opening attraction before The Beets. Mr. Bone still doesn't like the band, but he's able to have some sort of spotlight.
* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'', "[[Recap/DuckTalesS1E17LaunchpadsFirstCrash Launchpad's First Crash]]": While the men and women are willing to cooperate with one another to rescue Grunta, they spend some time arguing over whether the head woman or the head man should lead the expedition. Launchpad proposes a third option which everyone agrees with — he'll lead the rescue mission.
* {{Subverted|Trope}} in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/FishHooks'': Bea is working at a pretzel kiosk and her manager makes her decide between firing Milo or Oscar. At the end she tries to fire the manager, but of course she can't and the manager fires all three of them.
* {{Deconstruct|ion}}ed in ''WesternAnimation/TronUprising.'' A terrorist ties Tron to one bomb, sets the other up at Able's garage, and tells Beck there's only time to pick one. [[spoiler: Beck's attempt at a third option is to send [[SecretKeeper Able]] to defuse the one at the garage. Not only does this get Able killed, but now Beck's friends have turned against the uprising and sided with Beck's enemies because they blame him for Able's death.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/ThunderCats2011'' there comes an episode where [[TheHero Lion-O]] has to get a copy of [[TheBigGuy Panthro]] out of a wrestling ring. After many failed attempts at doing so, [[RememberedICouldFly he remembers he is the king]] and Panthro is his [[FourStarBadass General.]] He then orders him to leave the ring.
* In the original ''WesternAnimation/ThunderCats'', there was something like this in the second part of "The Anointment of Lion-O". Outracing Cheetarah the standard way was impossible, and he knew it, but he was allowed to take a shortcut, and seeing as she couldn't run as ''long'' as he could, doing so gave him a better chance. The downside? It was far more dangerous. Still, he took that option and won.
** It's subverted in another part of that storyline where Lion-O faces off against Wily-Katt and Wily-Kitt in a challenge of wits. At one point, Lion-O finds three tunnel entrances before him. Katt playfully urges him to take the Left tunnel while Kitt equally urges him to take the Right one. Lion-O defiantly takes the center tunnel instead, which is ''precisely'' the one they wanted him to take for their own purposes.
* Parodied in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'': while running a poll for Assistant Litter Commissioner that the options are Johnny and Carl, a guy answers "I like pie!" The papers publish: Carl 99%, Pie 1%, Johnny 0%. And the pie is later brought to a debate!
* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': In "The Krabby Khronicle", [=SpongeBob=] is forced to write humiliating lies about his friends in Mr. Krabs' new newspaper enterprise. Faced with the choice of either continuing to write the stories and destroying the lives of his friends, or refusing and getting fired from his beloved fry cook job, he instead chooses to [[HoistByHisOwnPetard hoist Krabs by his own petard]] and publish an article in the paper about how Mr. Krabs is overworking him and forcing him to write the bogus news stories. The paper's readers are so outraged that they storm the Krusty Krab and take all their money back.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/SonicUnderground'' episode "Sonia's Choice", Sonic and Manic are captured by Robotnik, who gives Sonia the SadisticChoice of saving one or the other. Though initially driven to tears by the dilemma, Sonia quickly resolves to save both, and organises an operation with the local resistance to rescue them both at the same time. Nearly subverted, as the plan would have failed were it nor for [[spoiler:the [[DeusExMachina timely intervention]] of Queen Aleena]].

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'':
** In the episode "Keystone Motel", [[RedOniBlueOni Ruby and Sapphire]] argue over how to deal with Pearl: they can't just ''forgive'' Pearl's actions, because they hurt [[spoiler:Garnet]] so deeply. But equally, they can't ignore the problem (because doing so hurts ''[[TrueCompanions everyone else]]''). Eventually they reach a compromise (signified by [[spoiler:the two fusing back into Garnet]]): they'll stop giving Pearl the silent treatment, but they won't accept her apology yet.
** In "Message Received", Peridot is trying to help the Crystal Gems destroy the Cluster that threatens to destroy the Earth, but she is torn between her friendship with Steven and her loyalty to Yellow Diamond, who created the Cluster. So she [[spoiler: contacts Yellow Diamond directly and tries to give her logical reasons why the Earth should not be destroyed. It fails, and [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu she insults Yellow Diamond]] in the process, so she ends up having no choice but to help the gems.]]
** In "[[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E22MadeOfHonor Made of Honor]]", when Steven [[spoiler: pops Bismuth's bubble and before he reveals to her that [[TwoAliasesOneCharacter Rose Quartz was actually Pink Diamond]]]]:
-->[[spoiler: '''Bismuth''']]: [[spoiler: Rose--I mean... Steven.]]\\
'''Steven''': Oh, there's a third option now...
* ''WesternAnimation/OverTheGardenWall'': [[spoiler:The Beast tells Wirt that he can choose between watching Greg turn into an edelwood tree and effectively die, or spend the rest of his life tromping around dark wood turning other edelwood trees into oil for the lantern, which will supposedly contain Greg's soul. Wirt instead opts to just grab an axe, cut Greg loose, pick him up and ''run like hell''.]]
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/EllaTheElephant'', the island is hosting a soap box derby, and Frankie and Ella decide to work together on their kart. However, Frankie doesn't listen to any of Ella's design ideas, only using his own, causing her to quit the team. Frankie later reconciles with Ella by opting for a third option - a kart that is half Ella's and half Frankie's design.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'' episode "Journey to the Center of Nowhere", the two leaders of the sentient eggplants are divided on whether they should fry Muriel or grill her, until another eggplant walks up and suggests they bake her.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' episode "In-Tents Debate", Lincoln is put in charge of deciding where the family will go on vacation. Half of his sisters want to go to an amusement park while the other half want to go to a beachfront resort, and each side tries to win over his favor and sabotage the other. In the end, Lincoln decides on them going to the campground that they were originally going to go to, with the added condition that he caters to them to make up for manipulating them into catering to him earlier.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' episode "Wish Fixers", Timmy signs up for a program by [[CorruptCorporateExecutive HP]] to get him to stop making bad wishes. Not only does he he completely fail to curb his streak, every time he makes a wish that ends in catastrophe Cosmo and Wanda are electrocuted with {{Shock Collar}}s that are turned up higher with each use, and the highest setting will destroy them. HP gives Timmy a list of pre-approved wishes and the only wish on it is to sign over control of Fairy World to the pixies, which will result in Cosmo and Wanda being replaced with pixies, so Timmy is sunk either way. His solution: wish that Cosmo and Wanda were made of rubber, which is non-conductive, and since it was done for their safety he technically broke his bad wishing streak.

* Attempted on ''WesternAnimation/KiddVideo''. Whiz wins an audience with the Pink Sphinx who can grant any wish, but only one per person. He's already decided that his wish will be to go back to their home dimension. Just before he's to make the wish, the Copy Cats capture his friends and put them in a death trap which they fail to escape. Glitter informs him of this and he has to decide between saving his friends or taking them home. He wishes that he and his friends were safe at home. However, the Sphinx sees right through the attempt and only saves his friends, leaving them trapped in the Flip Side.

* In the short, "Buttering Up the Buttfields" from the ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' epsiode, "[[Recap/TinyToonAdventuresS1E55ViewerMailDay Viewer Mail Day]]", Plucky has a job at a fancy restaurant where he tries to please the titular Buttfields, a persnickety and heavyset rich couple with big butts. At first, the Buttfields want to have Canard A [=La'Orange=] for their dinner, which Plucky finds out is roast duck in orange sauce. He later convinces them to have roast rabbit instead when he sees Buster making a carrot delivery. When Buster finds out about the Buttfields, he and Plucky join forces and serve them the finest French delicacy; [[SmellySkunk Skunkette A La Fifi]], which is how they drive the Buttfields away.

* Over the course of ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'''s run, the viewer is left wondering whether Mordecai will get together with Margaret or CJ. [[spoiler: In the show's final episode, he's shown married to an unnamed bat.]]

-->'''Kodos''': It's true, we are aliens. But what are you going to do about it? It's a two-party system; you have to vote for one of us.\\

* When Homer shows Kang and Kodos are impersonating the 1996 presidential candidates on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', they note the revelation makes no difference.

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'', "Bully for Steve": With his ''own father'' acting as a bully to try and toughen him up, Steve is left with two options. Get tougher, or face more bullying from Stan. Instead Steve finds Stan's old bully, Stelio Kontos, who promptly gives Stan [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown a complete ass beating]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' episode "In-Tents Debate", Lincoln is put in charge of deciding where the family will go on vacation. Half of his sisters want to go to an amusement park while the other half want to go to a beachfront resort, and each side tries to win over his favor and sabotage the other. In the end, Lincoln decides on them going to the campground that they were originally going to go to.

* Utilized (rather unfairly from some viewers' POV) in the short-lived ''WesternAnimation/DragonsLair'' cartoon. The show would often go into commercial breaks with Dirk facing an A or B choice. In the original video game, one would mean safe passage the other, instant, hideous death. In the cartoon, ''both'' meant death. But, as the narration would smugly inform us, "Dirk saw there was a better way".