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Screw This, I'm Outta Here!
(aka: Screw You Guys I Am Going Home)

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Screw This, I'm Outta Here! (trope)

"Screw you guys, I'm going home."
Eric Cartman's catchphrase, South Park

Sometimes, a character is pushed just a bit too far. They might be thrown into a dangerous situation, where they'll most likely get slaughtered by their enemy. They might be stuck with people who infuriate or annoy them, and be expected to stay with them for the whole story. The situation they find themselves in might have devolved into something so utterly Sick and Wrong or just downright weird that walking out immediately is the only way they feel they preserve what little remains of their dignity and/or sanity. They might even just be bored out of their skull. So, when the situation just goes beyond what they're willing to put up with, deciding to leave can be a powerful statement.

This is about the dramatic unplanned moment when a character abandons their friends/allies/coworkers/etc. Something that may leave the other characters (and audience) feeling betrayed. On the other hand, such a moment can also be comedic or light-hearted, where the character just up and leaves on a whim and doesn't hurt anyone else by doing so. What's less varied is the portrayal of the character. In many cases, they're shown to be immature and selfish at best, rudely leaving everyone else behind just because they felt like it — even if their reasons for leaving are proven to be valid or at least understandable. In cases of danger or abuse, this sort of reaction can be the only way to get out safely or even at all.

In more dramatic examples, this moment can precede a betrayal, where the frustrated character decides that working with their enemies is the best course of action. The character may abandon their allies only to quickly return (or not). The allies who have been abandoned might inform their ex-friend that nobody can leave alive. When the character is playing a game, this moment can overlap with a Rage Quit.

In many cases, the character(s) end up getting killed or (in crime and mystery stories) arrested despite their efforts to abandon the whole mess.

If the upper crust of a given society does this in response to a major crisis, see The Elites Jump Ship.

Often overlaps with Dirty Coward, which is when someone abandons their allies when they need them the most, or just aren’t willing to face a tough situation in their lives, so they flee from it. Compare Let's Get Out of Here, where the team completes its objective (or concludes that it is no longer worth pursuing) and retreats to avoid facing additional risks.

In more comedic examples, this moment usually occurs when someone (usually the Only Sane Man) senses that something idiotic and/or ludicrous is about to happen and/or is being invited to partake in the upcoming chaos. Wanting no part in any of this, they opt to get away from the ensuring chaos as soon as possible.

One of the ways in which a character may choose to Opt Out. May happen as a result of a Won't Do Your Dirty Work moment. Contrast with Line in the Sand, when all characters on a team are given the option to leave. When this reaction is portrayed as the right idea, or at least reasonable, then it's a case of Know When to Fold 'Em.

Contrast Villain: Exit, Stage Left, when a villain flees because the battle is clearly lost and to prepare a new plot.


Example Subpages:

Other Examples:

    open/close all folders 
    Advertising 
  • Several of the old seat-belt safety commercials (like this one) with the Crash Test Dummies involved Vince wanting to quit, as he felt he was taking abuse for no reason because nobody was listening; Larry was always able to convince him otherwise.
  • The talking baby in this Etrade commercial paraphrases and does this when he gets fed up with an annoying singing cat that was brought on as his new "sidekick".
  • GEICO:
    • In one ad, McGruff the Crime Dog is driven to this by his colleagues, who only baby-talk him.
    • In one GEICOWeen ad about home insurance, the Gecko leads a man into the attic of his recently-bought house to see what its previous occupants left up there. They turn on the light, revealing that it's filled with decrepit and decaying mannequins, puppets, and dummies as a music box in the room breaks down.
      Gecko: (beat) ...Well, enjoy your house!
      Man: (throwing his hands up and moving for the stairs) Nope. No thank you...
  • One Honey Nut Cheerios commercial has Buzz the honeybee do this when he realizes the woman he's giving his product to is an entomologist. She kills and puts insects on display.
  • A famous UK advert for Weetabix breakfast cereal had the Lone Ranger and Tonto finding themselves surrounded by Indians. The Lone Ranger is unconcerned until they find evidence that the Indians have eaten Weetabix for breakfast, at which point the following exchange occurs:
    Lone Ranger: They just had their Weetabix? Then we are in trouble...
    Tonto: What's this "we" business, paleface? (and gallops away)
    • This is, in turn, based on an old MAD cartoon; American readers know the joke more commonly as "What you mean 'we', kemosabe?"
  • Marjan: At the end of the 2020 ad, we see Purbararang escaping by herself after she was defeated by Purbasari and Lutung Kasarung as well as having all the curses that she had sent to multiple people undone by them.
  • COBRA mooks show a rare case of the Smart Ball in this commercial, deciding to flee from Sergeant Slaughter.
  • One Toyota/NASCAR commercial sees various Toyota drivers at the mercy of kids with remote controls, culminating in Tony Stewartnote  escaping from his car while it's doing burnouts and throwing his helmet at it.
  • Wienerschnitzel: The Delicious One from Wienerschnitzel is known for running away screaming after his encounter with humans who prepare to eat him.
  • The "Not Happy Jan" Yellow Pages commercial. Realizing that she forgot to place the company's ad in the Yellow Pages as her boss is looking through the newest edition, she books it.

    Arts 
  • Marriage A-la-Mode: The Methodist servant in The Tête à Tête walks out of the room when it's clear that the married couple is currently in no state to talk about the finances.

    Asian Animation 
  • In Episode 16 of Happy Friends, the robots in Doctor H.'s internet router copy the abilities and appearances of the heroes' Car Knights and put up a fight. Smart S.'s one course of action when they do this is to say "According to me, there's only one way to fix this. And that's... getting out of here!" before flying away.
  • Mechamato: Rocketfish is about to punch Amato and MechaBot, but suddenly quivers in fear upon seeing Sumorai right above him on the bridge. Then he begs for Amato to capture him just so he can escape.
  • In Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Joys of Seasons Episode 21, Fragrant Wolf tells her husband she wants the moon, so he brings out a bucket of water with the moon's reflection in it. When Wolnie declares she wants Wolffy to go get her the moon, the moon freaks out and dons a hat and suitcase, setting up a decoy pancake moon in its place before it runs away.

    Comic Strips 
  • Calvin and Hobbes:
    • It's a Running Gag that, right before they hurtle down a giant hill on a sled or wagon at high speeds, Hobbes will jump off at the last second to avoid the inevitable catastrophic crash ending that always results.
    • One story arc had Calvin asking Hobbes to dig for worms and slugs with him. Hobbes asks him why they would do that, and quickly skedaddles when Calvin says he wants to dare each other to eat them. Calvin is then stuck having to uphold his end of the dare when he tries it on Susie and she doesn't run away screaming at the idea like he'd hoped.
    • One Rosalyn babysitting story had Calvin bust out his Stupendous Man alias to attack her. The moment Calvin pulls the costume out, Hobbes decides to just head straight to bed immediately rather than wait for Rosalyn to inevitably send them to bed early as punishment once Calvin's caught.
      Hobbes: I'm going to get in bed now and avoid the rush.
    • In one strip, Calvin decides he's had enough of school for the day and decides to pack up and head back home in the middle of class. One Death Glare from his teacher is enough to send Calvin back to his desk (although reluctantly).
  • One For Better or for Worse comic had Michael stand up to a bully by saying "At least I've got friends who'll stand up for me!" Both his friends walk off with a "See ya, Mike."
  • Garfield:
    • The December 12, 1993 strip ends with Garfield and Odie both escaping out of Jon's car and trying to hitchhike their way back home because they can't handle Jon's terrible singing while they're in his car.
    • The July 7, 2000 strip sees Garfield react this way when he sees something sawing a bigger mouse hole into the wall.
      Jon: Where are you going?
      Garfield: Switzerland.
    • The September 23, 2022 strip has Liz running away as the result of Jon considering walking around topless due to the day being warm.
      Jon: Where did Liz go?
      Garfield: She leapt out the window, dashed through the backyard, scaled the fence, and raced down the alley.
    • The November 10, 2022 strip has Jon deciding to get rid of the mouse in the house with polka music. Jon being a Dreadful Musician, his polka music succeeds in pushing the targeted mouse and Garfield into leaving the house.
    • The December 13, 2023 strip features a conversation between Jon and Doc Boy where the former tells the latter "Well, technically, yes. If the goat is under the mistletoe, you do have to kiss her".
      Garfield: I'll be leaving for Mars now.
  • Peanuts: When Franklin first visited Charlie Brown's neighborhood he was a Logical Latecomer, mostly bewildered but accepting of how weird the place is. Eventually, one thing proved too much for him:
    Franklin: I'm going home, Charlie Brown. This neighborhood has me shook. I didn't mind the girl in the booth or the beagle in the goggles, but that business about the Great Pumpkin... no, sir!

    Music 
  • "I Ran Away" by the The Arrogant Worms is a whole song about this trope:
    Whenever I was challenged, I'd collapse like a souffle,
    But I'm still alive to sing this song 'cause I ran away!
  • Franco De Vita: Played for laughs in his concerts when playing "Un Buen Perdedor", Franco starts playing the first notes of the song in his piano and the audience starts singing the first verse "Se que piensas marcharte, ya lo sé, y no te detendré. Haz lo que tu quieras" (I know that you want to leave, I already know and I will not stop you. Do whatever you want"). Then the singer stops playing and leaves the stage along with the rest of the musicians. The audience keeps staring until Franco comes back and says "You asked me to do whatever I want, I obey!", the audience laughs and the musicians return to restart the song.
  • The second verse of Lupe Fiasco's song "Hello, Goodbye" is about a general who deserted a war because he didn't believe in the cause. In the end, "He stands, to find himself surrounded by thousands of soldiers, who he once trained to never miss their targets."
  • A more humorous example can be found at the end of Liam Lynch's "Happy Song". The singer, disgusted by the Sickeningly Sweet crap he's been forced to sing about, says, "I'm outta here! Screw you!"
  • Take This Job and Shove It, I ain't workin' here no more / Don't you try to stand in my way as I go walkin' out the door! A case of Covered Up (by Johnny Paycheck, it was written and first performed by David Allan Coe. Not to mention another cover by Dead Kennedys.)
  • "Art" by DJ Damien, a song made for a StepMania competition, consists of a heartbeat-like drum beat for one minute with just three steps held for the duration. "A2 (Art 2)" is a more conventional angry rap song about people who misunderstood the message intended in "Art". The trilogy ends with "The legend of ART", where DJ Damien raps over trance instead in an attempt to please StepMania players until three-fourths of the way through, when after a short Daft Punk sample, it goes back to angry rap. The first lyrics of the coda: "Screw this shit, I'm done / Making trance ain't fun."
  • There's a humorous — and vulgar — version of Jingle Bells where Santa's elves quit, citing that "they do all the fucking work/while he stars in the show"
  • "The Twelve Pains of Christmas" by Bob Rivers has the guy with the fourth pain, sending Christmas cards, give up and say he's not sending them this year while the guy with the second pain, rigging up the lights, ends up yelling "Fine! You're so smart, YOU rig up the lights!"
  • Billy Joel:
    • "My Life" is basically a song about this. The narrator starts off by telling about an old friend of his who "Said he couldn't go on the American way. Closed his shop, sold the house, bought a ticket to the West Coast." The narrator then goes on to indicate he's done something similar, as he tells off someone who's apparently trying to convince him to return to a home he abandoned.
    • In "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)", he decides he would rather move out than live with his crazy mother.
  • Elton John:
    • "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road". Lyricist Bernie Taupin, born in the English countryside mentioned the song was about Bernie having difficulty in relating to upper-crust city life (and in particular, Elton's pre-fame pickle-heiress girlfriend immortalized in "Someone Saved My Life Tonight") and Bernie's desire to revert to the simplicity of small-town life.
    • The obscure 1973 B-side "Screw You", bowdlerized as "Young Man's Blues" in America, is a more humorous take on the trope.
  • "Fuck This Shit I'm Out", by The Theme Song, centers around this trope, but it leaves the actual situation unspecified, because listeners find the song more applicable that way. One person animated it with The Theme Song's permission, and The Theme Song's own short music video for it shows him mentally checking out after finding one guy in a horsehead mask getting head from another guy in a library aisle. The song's applicability has made it a popular choice for AMVs, and it's also a frequently occurring song in Supermarioglitchy4's Super Mario 64 Bloopers. There's also an extended version by YoungBlaze which give some crazy situations where one could say this phrase.
    I don't know what the fuck just happened
    But I don't really care, I'mma get the fuck up outta here,
    Fuck this shit, I'm out.
  • Diamond D's "I'm Outta Here", in which the narrator keeps finding himself in dangerous situations he needs to get away from.
    Gotta get away, gotta get away now
    And I'm outta here
  • In "Rock This Town" by The Stray Cats, the narrator takes his girlfriend on a date and they do just this at their first stop:
    Well, we found a little place that really didn't look half bad
    I had a whiskey on the rocks, and changed half a dollar for the jukebox
    Well, I put a quarter right into the can
    But all they played was disco, man
    Come on, baby, baby, let's get out of here right away
  • Daniel Amos' "Horrendous Disc" (from the album of the same name) is about a musician whose hidden wrongdoings inexplicably get broadcast for the whole world to see. In the third verse, he jumps in his car and just drives away from the situation. It doesn't work, because he just finds a billboard displaying his misdeeds.
    He puts his car in gear
    Got to get out of here
    Going somewhere far away
    But through the headlight beam
    He sees a billboard scene
    His fight last night is on display
  • "Banned from Argo" by Leslie Fish (the former Trope Namer for Persona Non Grata) has a gang of Klingons arrive on the planet where the crew is enjoying shore leave, and promptly flee horrified from the carnage.
  • The Ramones' last album, titled We're Outta Here!, is a live album of their final show. Recorded in Los Angeles in 1996, it was the last time the band played together. By 2014 all of the four original Ramones (Joey, Dee Dee, Johnny, and Tommy) had died.
  • The video for R.E.M.'s "Everybody Hurts" ends with all the people in the traffic jam getting out of their cars and walking off. It ends with a stinger featuring a traffic reporter lamenting helicopter footage of the scene:
    Traffic Reporter: ...about an hour and a half ago. We've had no official explanation. Police estimate some three or four hundred people. They just...they just got out and walked. God... We've gotten confirmation, we cannot find anyone. I've never seen anything like this.
  • Bob Dylan's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" ends on this.
    I started out on burgundy, but soon hit the harder stuff
    My friends all said they'd stand behind me when the game got rough
    But the joke was on me, there was nobody even there to bluff
    I'm going back to New York City, I do believe I've had enough!
  • Shania Twain's "(If You're Not in It for Love) I'm Outta Here!" ends with her sighing, stomping away, and slamming a door.
  • The Shel Silverstein song "Put Another Log on the Fire" uses this as the punchline. The singer, a Lazy Bum hillbilly, treats his wife terribly: he makes her do all the chores, insults her ("Don't I tell you when you're gettin' fat?"), and is implied to be fooling around with her younger sister. Apparently his wife has had enough and is storming out, as the song repeatedly asks "Tell me why you're leaving me." It was memorably used on The Muppet Show in an episode with Candice Bergen playing the wife in pioneer clothes; the sketch ends with Bergen tearing off her dress to reveal a feminist T-shirt and shooting at the jerk before triumphantly marching out the door.
  • "Come a Little Bit Closer" (Jay & the Americans) has a guy at a club cozying up to a girl, only to run afoul of the girl's insanely jealous boyfriend. Before anything disastrous happens, the guy hightails it out of the club.
    Well, the crowd gave way and I began to pray
    As the water fell to the floor,
    And I'm tellin' you son that it ain't no fun
    Looking straight down a forty-four
    "Gimme Three Steps" (Lynyrd Skynyrd):
    He turned and screamed at Linda Lou
    And that's the break I was looking for,
    And you could hear me screaming a mile away
    As I ran right past your door
  • In the parody song Screw the Nether, the singers are initially enthusiastic about moving to the Nether, but after one of them falls in lava (AGAIN!), they start complaining about the heat and the fire and losing their gear, and they want to go home to the overworld.
  • In the comic folk song "The Errant Apprentice", when the apprentice discovers his true love married a Turk while he was away, he initially challenges the guy (or rather, attacks him from behind), but on seeing his rival's Sinister Scimitar, opts instead to go "screaming down the Strand" and finally jump in the River Foyle, concluding that "there's bugger all worth dyin' for/So I'll stick to the single life".
  • In the video for "Bibbidiba" by hololive's Hoshimachi Suisei, after Suisei is pulled away from the near-fight with the ''Cinderella"-themed Music Video's Prima Donna Director, she apparently decides enough's enough. She picks up the knocked-over camera and films herself walking off set and taking a jacket off a clothes rack. The view then shows her in street clothes wearing the jacket, and she walks out onto a plaza and effortlessly does the dance number that she'd tried and failed to do earlier because of the high-heeled glass slippers.

    Myths & Religion 
  • Some examples from The Bible:
    • In the Book of Exodus, God knew that if He led His people into the Promised Land through the way of the Philistine territory, since that was the shortest route there, the Israelites would be afraid and then turn tail and head back to Egypt. So, in order to avert that, God led them by the longer route of the Red Sea and the desert.
    • In the Book of Numbers, the Israelites sent twelve spies into the Promised Land to check it out and they return with a report that, though it is land that is fertile and good for farming, ten of the spies said it is also filled with fortified cities and that the Anakites, the "sons of the giants", lived there. The Israelites, disheartened by the news, decide that they would be better off returning to Egypt instead of relying upon God's help to conquer the land as Caleb and Joshua had suggested. For their cowardice, God decided to punish the Israelites by having them wander around in the wilderness for forty years until the entire generation from twenty years old and upward had all died, except for Caleb and Joshua, and that God will bring their children into the Promised Land through Joshua's leadership after Moses died.
    • In the Book of Ezekiel, the Judaic religious system at the time of Ezekiel's ministry was so corrupt, with the priests worshiping idols even in God's holy Temple, that the glory of God decided to vacate the premises with Ezekiel watching.
    • The Four Gospels: In Jesus' teaching to the disciples, He says that if a town they enter into doesn't receive them or the words that they speak that come from God, then they are to wipe the dust of their feet when they leave town as a sign of judgment upon them, saying that it will be more tolerable for the city of Sodom in the Day of Judgment than for that town.
    • Jesus in the gospel of Matthew says, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to you, how often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you wouldn't let Me. See, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you shall not see Me again until you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.'" (Matthew 23:37-39)
    • Most of Jesus' apostles resorted to this when Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane (which wasn't even necessary, because Jesus had insisted that the mob let his followers go). They eventually made up for their disloyalty — and then some — after the Resurrection.
    • Acts of the Apostles: Paul's attitude to the Jews in Macedonia who blasphemed him and Silas in Acts chapter 18 when he was presenting the Gospel to them:
      But when they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to them, "Your blood be upon your heads. I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles." (Acts 18:6)
  • Some (definitely not all) schools of Buddhism has leaving the cycle of reincarnation without turning back as the ultimate goal. Others simply seek to become an enlightened being, free from the sorrows of the world, that helps others reach enlightenment from time to time.

    Podcasts 

    Puppet Shows 
  • The Book of Pooh: In "A Welcome to Beat the Band With", Rabbit starts a band with the others to give Kessie a welcome home fanfare. However, he quickly proves a prima donna and insults the other animals' performance, causing them to angrily leave one by one. Only Pooh fails to be offended as usual, though still decides he better flee.
  • In Muppets Tonight episode "The Cameo Show" (The one that starts with Arsenio Hall dying) technician Nigel finally cracks from all of the usual craziness.
    Nigel: All right. That's it, I've had enough. There's nothing on stage, this happens every week. I can't take this anymore! You hear what I'm saying? I can't take it anymore! I mean it this time! I'm quitting! I quit, I quit, I quit! Do you hear me? I said I quit! Good riddance and goodbye, I quit! [leaves]
    Zipity: ...Okay, I'll take over. Get ready to cue the Real World Muppets. And get me a double-chug with a zig-zag.
    Nigel: [comes back] Hey, that's my job.
  • Sesame Street had this in a Monsterpiece Theater sketch parodying Waiting for Godot, where a tree does this:
    Tree: Okay, that does it. I've been standing out here, waiting for this play to make some sense. I don't get it! It's the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. I'm outta here! [uproots self and starts to exit] Why couldn't they do Oklahoma!? I understand Oklahoma! [starts singing the main theme of Oklahoma!]

    Radio 
  • The British Tolkien Radio parody Hordes of the Things begins with the Crown Prince Veganin giving the mighty hordes of Albion a rousing speech about how they will stand fast though Albion is surrounded by the hordes of evil. His speech is interrupted by the wizard Radox, who informs him that the mighty hordes of Albion can't make it today, but have left a sick note.
    Veganin: Well, then, old Radox, but you and I...
    Radox: Umm... (horse gallops away)
    Veganin: So. Farewell, thou cowards. Know you I would scorn to die in your company. To horse unto the King, to raise another force of men who would rejoice to die!

    Scripts 
  • In Watchmen, the SWAT Captain angrily mutters "I quit" and turns away to leave as the Statue of Liberty explodes.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Ars Magica: One mage in the Order of Hermes was a notorious gadfly who received many declarations of Wizard's War from offended magi. Each time, he simply went into hiding until the declaration expired.
  • BattleTech:
    • In the backstory, this was essentially General Aleksandr Kerensky's reaction to the Succession Wars starting up: he took his massive fleet and army and flew out into uncharted space, and vanished. The descendants of that fleet reappear hundreds of years later as the Clans, one of the only threats large enough to make the Successor States (who are still fighting each other) team up to fight back.
    • When Ice Hellion saKhan Connor Rood discovered that their supply lines have been intercepted by Clan Jade Falcon, he knows that his Clan is doomed by the combined wrath of the Falcons and Hell's Horses (which their Clan just ticked off). So he immediately set about saving as much of his Clan as he could and escaped the Inner Sphere. Meanwhile, his Khan continues to lead her forces in a hopeless war against the two Clans.
    • Ironically, Clan Hell's Horses would later do the same thing. During the Wars of Reaving, the majority of the Clan became irretrievably sick of the constant back-stabbing and duplicity of the other Clans, seeing nothing but one massive betrayal of everything Nicholas Kerensky built the Clans to be. Aside from a small contingent of hardliners (who would later be absorbed by Clan Star Adder and then reformed as Clan Stone Lion), the majority of Hell's Horses turned their back on their fellow Clans once and for all, leaving Clan Space entirely and settling in the Inner Sphere territory they'd claimed during their brief team up with Clan Ice Helion (before the Hellions ticked them off as mentioned above).
    • The Free Rasalhague Republic, a state that briefly existed as a buffer between the Lyran Commonwealth and Draconis Combine, had a severe hatred of mercenaries due to one that pulled this on them. Thanks to a poorly-worded contract, the mercs were able to retreat off the battlefield in the middle of a fight, leaving Rasalhague forces exposed. Though independent analysis of the battle confirmed that the mercs would have been wiped out had they not retreated, it left the FRR with a hatred for mercenaries that never went away.
  • Dead of Winter: One random event card gives the player who draws it the option to leave the game entirely if the Colony's morale counter is on the verge of defeat. Their character attempts an extremely difficult die roll to escape the Colony and either perishes in the attempt or wins the game.
  • Earthdawn: Bards have a talent called "Graceful Exit". It even gives them a head start!
  • Fate system, as used in Spirit of the Century or The Dresden Files, comes with explicit rules support and even some mechanical rewards for conceding a conflict before it gets too far out of hand, which helps encourage both players and Game Masters to remember that enacting this trope instead of always fighting to the bitter end is in fact an option.
  • Warhammer:
    • Necromunda: Spyrers fight for fun and glory but should their prey put up too much of a fight they will retreat to find easier game. To represent this, 2nd Edition Spyre hunter teams had to start testing to see if they would retreat from a battle after they lose a single member rather than 25% of their number as with other gangs.
    • Warhammer: Age of Sigmar: In 2nd and 3rd editions, units had a Bravery characteristic, which represented exactly that, how brave a unit was. If you lost members of a unit, you would have to make a battleshock test, which if failed would result in models fleeing from the unit, effectively being treated as slain.
    • Warhammer 40,000:
      • Certain circumstances such as losing more than 25% of the unit in one phase, losing in close combat, tank shocking or getting hit with some kinds of special weaponry or psychic powers, will cause a unit to have to take a Morale check. If they fail the check, they will pull this trope. Certain units are more vulnerable to Morale hits than others: generally, rank and file grunts such as Conscripts and Gretchen will run away the moment things start going badly, but some units are just so fearless, psychotic and/or fanatical that they will only retreat in the most dire of circumstances... and even then only maybe. Codex-compliant Space Marines Take a Third Option with a special rule (And They Shall Know No Fear) that avoids both total routs and the extra losses fearless units suffer, allowing them to make tactical retreats but then reform regardless of casualties.
      • As Slaanesh and Khorne tore apart the rest of the Aeldari Pantheon, Cegorach the Laughing God went "oh, screw this!" and fled into the Webway.
      • Craftworld Lugganath wrote off the material realm as a lost cause a long time ago and retreated fully into the Webway, choosing to shelter in the one area they believed to be safe and leaving the galaxy's sinking ship early.
      • At the climax of the Horus Heresy, Perturabo was essentially left to run the Siege of the Emperor's Palace by himself while his fellow Traitor Primarchs were occupied either pursuing their own objectives, busy elsewhere or steadily losing their minds and as such not really contributing to the actual objective. When Horus decreed that the Iron Warriors would be spread throughout the occupying force while Mortarion took over their prepared positions, Perturabo's patience — never a long fuse at the best of times — finally ran out and he told Horus where to stick it, gathered his troops, and quit the siege entirely.
  • The World of Darkness:
    • Vampire: The Requiem: The opening fiction to Night Horrors: The Wicked Dead has a recurring character rooming with an up-and-coming supermodel, trying to see if she'd be a good candidate for initiation into a cult. She comes home a bit early one night, and finds some hideously bloated thing sucking what looks like the supermodel's life out from her thigh... and the supermodel enjoying it. Her reaction? "Yeah, I'll just... see myself out."
    • Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Uktena (the totem spirit of the Uktena tribe) was once a servant of the original Wyrm of balance. When the Wyrm went insane, Uktena defected to the Wyld.

    Theatre 
  • In the second act of Cabaret, the show's American novelist protagonist Cliff Bradshaw decides to do this after witnessing the rise of the Nazis in Berlin and desperately begs of those around him to do the same. Sadly, the other characters stay; some believing that they'll be alright by sticking it out, and the others thinking that it would all 'work out'.
    Cliff: The fact is you're going a lot further than the Kit Kat Klub...
    Sally: I am?
    Cliff: You're going home. My home. America.
    Sally: You're joking!
    Cliff: (packing up his typewriter) I'm gonna sell this, should get us as far as Paris, and I can cable home for the steamship fare.
    Sally: What are you talking about?!
    Cliff: Leaving Berlin as soon as possible! Tomorrow!
    Sally: But we love it here!
    Cliff: Sally, wake up! The party in Berlin's over! It was a lot of fun, but it's over... and it's only going to get worse.
  • In the Franklin stage show Franklin's Class Trip, Franklin has this reaction when he and his class visit the science museum and are greeted in song by their "highly respected and professional" but nevertheless somewhat eccentric guideperson, Miss Carbunkel. He's already scared because of an incorrect belief that they're going to see a real live dinosaur there and Miss Carbunkel's oddness doesn't do anything to help. He tries to rope Snail into his plan to leave as well, but Snail is actually the voice of reason who puts the kibosh on the plan, noting that the bus back doesn't come until well after lunchtime and they need to just have courage and "do this."
  • Gypsy: By the end of the first act Baby June and the boys from the chorus have all decided they've had enough of Mama Rose's Stage Mom antics and abandon her. Rose is devastated but quickly rebounds by turning her focus onto making Louise a star instead.
  • In Into the Woods, the Witch, fed up with all the arguing about blame in the "Your Fault" song, interrupts it to sing "Last Midnight," then removes herself from the story, declaring that if everyone wants to assign blame, they can blame her, but she's leaving them to their own problems.
    Witch: It's the last midnight / It's the last verse / Now, before it's past midnight / I'm leaving you my last curse! / I'm leaving you alone / Squirming in the mess that you made, / Fix it on your own! / Time for me to go, I'm afraid.
  • The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya: When the Tatars see the city of Greater Kitezh — which they were planning to sack — has grown invisible, they decide to forget the conquest and get out of these eerie lands.
  • In Macbeth, the doctor tending to Lady Macbeth contemplates this while realizing that both of the Macbeths are stark raving insane (and that armies from England and Ireland are about to invade Scotland).
    Doctor: Were I from Dunsinane away and clear, Profit again should hardly draw me here.
  • Westeros: An American Musical: Renly and Vary's Betrayal by Inaction of Eddard Stark at the end of "Plot Development" has an overlap with this. The Five-Second Foreshadowing of Eddard Stark's arrest involves other characters pulling blades out, giving Renly and Varys an extra reason to leave the room once the realize what's about to happen.

    Web Animation 
  • 13 Cards:
    • Dante often leaves when the other clones start wreaking havoc, and tries to stay out of their antics.
    • In Clones Against The Mafia, Waru quietly leaves when the other clones agree to clean the apartment.
  • At the end of the Bowser's Kingdom movie, Jeff and Hal are seen squashed and defeated:
    Hal: That's it, I quit.
    Jeff: Yeah, screw this!
  • Bravest Warriors
    • In the episode "Time Slime", the team is trying to help a space station where time is overlapping on itself, meaning that there are actually three versions of the team performing different stages of the mission. BW #2 find the source of the problem, as well as the corpses of BW #1. They try to keep the same events from playing out again—and fail, winding on the ground right next to their "past" selves. Then BW #3 show up, see a pair of each of their bodies on the ground, and realize that it's probably better to let the people on the station figure this out for themselves.
    • In "Memory Donk", the guy driving the rocket bus can't remember how to fly and bails out... into the vacuum of space. Later, as the bus is flying over Neo-Mars City, Chris asks Jelly Kid for help fighting the rampaging Memory Donk, only for Jelly Kid to make himself a parachute and bail out as well.
  • This trope is how Counterspell begins. Black Mage realizes that the heroes that his team is supposed to fight will kill them, so he up and leaves along with Bruiser, which forces Red Mage to fight the heroes by himself.
  • This is attempted a few times in various DEATH BATTLE! episodes. It never works, and often is directly followed by death of the person attempting to flee.
    • First, in Eggman vs. Wily, Wily tries to bail when Metal Sonic starts killing everyone. The operative word here is "tries": He doesn't get very far before Metal Sonic obliterates him.
    • Nathan Drake attempts this in his battle against Lara Croft, attempting to escape in Lara's helicopter with the Holy Grail. Lara downs the helicopter with her climbing axe, and while the fall doesn't kill Nathan, getting impaled by a helicopter blade sure does the trick.
    • In Bowser and Eggman's fight, all of Eggman's remaining minions except Orbot, Cubot, and Sage flee the scene once they see Sage using a full-powered Death Egg laser. They are not seen again. It is unclear if they managed to get out of the range of the blast in time or not. Eggman himself tries to run away from the fight when he finds that Bowser survived and his Death Egg was transformed, but Bowser Jr. cuts off all of his escape options.
    • Finally, there's the fight between Tomura Shigaraki and Mahito, where Mahito, similarly to what happened with Yuji in Jujutsu Kaisen proper, tries to flee once his Instant Body of Distorted Killing and Domain Expansion prove useless. He ends up caught by a wave of Decay, and even after amputating himself to just a Waddling Head, he cannot escape fast enough, as Shigaraki promptly catches him and delivers the finishing blow, decaying his head to nothing.
  • DSBT InsaniT:
    • When Portica and Kayla run into an Ice Beast in 'Untamed and Uncut', Kayla tries to make a break for it, but Portica stops her and tells her they have to defeat it.
    • K-Seal gives up and leaves after the Icers help Portica and Kayla escape.
    • In 'VRcade', right after she and Julie finish the game, Asia is quick to exit...That is, if Psycho Man hadn't shown up.
    • After his Villainous Breakdown, Psycho Man does this at the end of 'VRcade'.
  • Etra chan saw it!: When Tokusa is called in by his crazy boss Hiiragi, he is asked to bear a child for his equally insane daughter. This causes Tokusa to gather his stuff and leave the company as quickly as possible. Shortly after, his coworkers also leave when Hiiragi tries to ask the same of them.
  • The Fruitless Quests of Nabiu: Karoto defeats the guards who have been pursuing him with a lucky Dice roll, but just as many show up, making him almost run out of MP while remaining in the exact same position as before. After which he decides to hide.
  • The premise of the music video "Fuck this shit I'm Out".
  • The aptly-named Fuck This Shit I'm Out is this trope in musical form. Perfect to send to your boss in lieu of a resignation letter if the job was terrible and/or he treated you badly.
  • Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures: Badtz-Maru, when Trapped in TV Land, decides to make a break for it when Kuromi shows up with vampire fangs. "I'm off the menu!" In the same episode, Kuromi tries to cut the scene short when she finds out she's in a musical. "I'm leaving before anyone makes me sing show tunes."
  • In the Helluva Boss episode "Exes and Ohs", the priest for Moxxie's forced wedding closes his "holy book", raises his hands in surrender, and walks off with both fingers raised. To be fair to the priest, Millie was on a fucking rampage and had killed almost everyone there by the time he called it quits.
  • In the episode of How It Should Have Ended for Logan, Wolverine, who was saved by Deadpool, leaves after the first thing Wade does after saving Logan is to bring him along to watch as he mocks and moons Superman and Batman. After Wade mocks Bruce's catchphrase of "I'm Batman", the Dark Knight decides to also walk in disgust.
  • Little Runmo: About halfway through the Meatball Man run, Runmo just turns around and bolts back to the exit ten times faster than his "game"-given actual max speed, just to get the hell out of there because the Meatball Man has him that freaked out.
  • Manga Soprano: In "Pretentious coworker with 6 boyfriends flirts with my fiancé.But it will be exposed ..." [sic], when Kairi exposes Moka's affair with six male coworkers, Tanaka, Suzuki, Sato, Endo, Takahashi, and Ota, they all admit to dating her and start bickering over who's her boyfriend. While Moka takes advantage of their quarrel to make a break for it, the six lovers quickly catch on and hold her accountable before she can even leave the venue.
    Moka's Lovers: Moka, what's the meaning of this!?
    Moka Kiyoi: (Oh no, I didn't get away in time...)
  • MGT School:
    • In "My New Helper!" Zodiac nervously tried to walk away before Seira noticed her, but failed.
    • In "The Video Contest", after Zodiac announced a video contest between herself and Seira, Yoshiko claimed that she had to go to class, and walked off.
    • In "No Pain, No Gain", Akira attempted this after Rasta said that they have to exercise.
  • The Most Epic Story Ever Told in All of Human History: Said word for word by Ridiculously Epic as he flees the scene in "The Most Epic Mystical Quest", due to a dragon bursting into the room and attacking everyone, making his attempt to scam the Epic Skatepark Owner no longer worth it.
  • This is the reaction of Button-Up Barry in Rat Movie: Mystery of the Mayan Treasure when the Giant Rat shows up and grabs Garon, Guardian of the Treasure Chest. "Ah, fuck this, I'm off."
  • The Reapers Series: This trope is used heavily when the victims of the Reapers find themselves having enough of the torture that they decide to run for their lives. This is usually followed up with the Reapers mostly chasing after them, which usually ends up being a Running Gag in the series. When the Reapers are stopped somehow, they return to the manor by using dark magic.
  • In Red vs. Blue, Simmons and Grif plan to flee from the tank that's threatening to attack them and try to make it to the Warthog, agreeing to start running together on the count of three. Although they spend a fairly ludicrous amount of time staring down the tank making sure they are on the same page with regard to "on the count of three", Grif deliberately sneaks away from him and starts running early while Simmons is still counting.
    • "Oh, you backstabbing cockbite!"
    • Happens later with Donut and Grif. They are hiding behind the warthog as Tucker approaches in an out of control tank.
    • This time Donut sneaks off while Grif is counting.
    • In Season 10, the Reds and Blues pull a collective one when Carolina's plan involves them serving as cannon fodder (with her ending up pointing a gun at Tucker when he questions it) and Church angrily declares that every problem he's ever had stemmed from the Blood Gulchers.
    • In Season 15 Grif quits the team. He decides that he's had enough, and that he hates everyone.
  • Refreshing Stories:
  • Revenge Films:
    • "I went to my fiancé's house to see his parents, but what they made me do was unbelievable": OP runs away from Charles' family home upon learning he only wanted to marry her because his mother got cancer and therefore needed someone who could sexually relief his disabled brother Denny in her place. While Charles chewed the OP out for leaving, she refused to come back and her parents helped break up with him.
    • "My wife was cheating on me with 25 different men": After suing his cheating wife for her twenty-five-timing, the MC's former in-laws put up their house for sale to pay off her debt, but it wasn't enough and they eventually abandoned her to pay it by herself; it's rumored that the cheating woman is working at strip clubs to stay afloat.
  • RWBY:
    • This happens twice in rapid succession when the heroes are invited to a fancy party and Qrow is offered wine by a servant. Being a recently recovered alcoholic, he decides to just avoid temptation altogether by leaving to patrol the grounds. Marrow then elects to join him when he notices that the servant is a Faunus.
    • After chewing out her friends for ignoring her pain and trauma for their own needs and having Jaune Arc accuse her of It's All About Me, Ruby Rose turns and runs when Blake Belladonna tries smoothing things over.
  • RWBY Chibi has two skits where Yang and her dad Tai start trading puns (and in the first one on Tai's side, dad jokes) with each other. Both times, with the exceptions of one character (Nora in the first one, who's so engorged on waffles that she can't leave, and Weiss is the second, who simply rests her head on her desk in resignation), everyone decides to get the hell out of dodge before they get too far. A season 1 episode saw Sun attempt to do this when Yang is doing puns as a comedy act, but Ren stops him.
  • Strong Bad Email: In "morning routine," Strong Sad declares, "Okay. I'm movin' out," after his family's antics get too weird even for this story (Strong Bad keeps his sizable collection of various kinds of eggs in the couch and The Cheat apparently steals Strong Mad's underwear, followed by Strong Mad yelling about his "panties").
  • Wolf Song: The Movie: every time he feels he is gonna lose, Cobalt just goes with this. It just so happens that we only see him doing it in one on one battles so he has certainly got a lot of explaining to do to his master, and isn’t happy at the guy who brought that up one little bit.
  • Zero Punctuation:
    • In Yahtzee's review of Alone in the Dark (2008), he finally reaches his breaking point when, after an hour slaying monsters, the game spawns thirty more and tells him he has to kill them too.
      Yahtzee: "No." I replied, "No, I do not. I reject your stupid, fucking, arbitrary, gameplay-lengthening World of Warcraft grind quests, and I'm sick of putting up with your bullshit!"
    • When discussing how the ESC key immediately closes out of Five Nights at Freddy's 1, he then muses that he would want one for awkward situations in real life.
      Yahtzee: Congratulations, Janice, when's the baby due?
      Janice: Um, I'm not pregnant, I just put on some weight.
      [Beat]
      Yahtzee: [slams ESC key] ABORT! [pulls out jetpack] FWOOOOSH.

    Web Original 
  • The Abandon Thread meme, also known as "Fuck This Thread, I'm Outta Here".
  • The Death of Russia:
    • When the Russian Army finally turns on Yeltsin during the 1993 Coup, Anatoly Chubais, considered the mastermind behind the privatization of the economy, flees for the hills before General Grachev even finishes his speech of support for Parliament.
    • Most of Yeltsin's cabinet that manage to avoid arrest follow Yegor Gaidar to Kaliningrad to establish a Government in Exile as Pro-Yeltsin factions are targeted by National Salvation Front militias.
    • After the NSF get elected to power in a sham of an election, many Russians and ethnic minorities (including thousands of Jews still in Russia, with a fair number of them having survived the Holocaust) see the writing on the wall and get the hell out of there while they can, selling everything but the clothes on their back to get a plane ticket out.
    • When the Aiyy Yeurekhé take control of Yakutia, and with many having already taken up their practices, many ethnic Russians see it as a clear sign that the world really is going nuts and decide to flee into the wilderness to get away rather than risk sticking around to see if the Aiyy Yeurekhé are benevolent or not.
    • When the Far Eastern Republic is invaded by North Korea, Admiral Ugryumov has the Pacific Fleet abandon Vladivostok for safer ports, seeing the FER as a lost cause. His sailors respond by mutinying against him and returning to provide aid.
    • When the city of Novosibirsk is taken by Alexander Lebed's forces, the local NSF officials are caught trying to flee the city in a car for the Tomsk Nuclear Power Plant (with ten found in the wreckage of the car), desperate to flee the firing squads that Lebed had in store for any NSF officials he captured and seeking to use the threat of destroying it to blackmail Lebed into allowing them to flee into exile.
  • Chip from the web fiction serial Dimension Heroes completely abandons his ally after discovering his Guardian Band, wanting nothing to do with the conflict, despite the fact that he's involved whether he wants to be or not.
  • The Falcon Cannot Hear:
    • After the death of MacArthur, Admiral Fletcher, not wanting to join the fascist Whites, takes the Atlantic Squadron and creates an American community at Guantanamo Bay with Admiral Bloch, the local commander there. They keep to themselves, not getting involved in the Civil War at all, their goals being "to remain apart from whatever tyrannical regime, of whatever color, that may come to power on the mainland" and to "preserve a small fragment of American liberty." This lasts until the invasion of the West Coast by the Whites' Japanese allies; like all the other American factions, they're infuriated by this, abandon their neutrality, and join The Alliance against the Whites.
    • After growing disgusted with the corruption and oppression of the Whites' leadership, and surviving partaking in a failed coup against them, Dwight Eisenhower defects to the American Soviet Republic... after manipulating events to give several thousand troops the opportunity to follow him. They do.
  • Chen Gong ditches Cao Cao in Farce of the Three Kingdoms when Cao Cao's villainy hits home.
  • In the Humanity, Fuck Yeah short story "The Passenger" a species of pirates have a code that they always allow for Combat by Champion to determine whether they leave empty-handed or sell their victims into slavery. Using a device that emits an alarm if someone lies, the leader of the pirates boasts of being from a "Class 7 Rough World" and training in 1.4 times galactic standard gravity to toughen himself up. The opposing champion is an ordinary human from Earth: a "Class 12 Death World" with gravity 1.6 times galactic standard. After hearing that, the pirates all leave without uttering a word.
  • A More Personal Union:
    • After Henri III grows tired of being a Puppet King and seizes power in Paris, his mother Queen Mary quickly flees back to Scotland before she can be imprisoned.
    • As the English-backed slave revolt in Cuba overruns Havana, the Spanish governor leaps from his mansion into the sea, taking his chances with swimming to safety over being captured.
  • New Deal Coalition Retained:
    • When it becomes clear that the Warsaw Pact is starting to lose World War III, and facing popular uprisings, Markus Wolf — who had seized power in East Germany years earlier — flees the country, striking a deal for asylum in Chile.
    • With Brazil, the last Communist nation in South America, on the verge of being overwhelmed by the Allies, President Carlos Marighella flees to the jungle and countryside in order to undertake partisan resistance.
  • Nobody Here: Regardless of whether the frog or the chicken wins in "Pet", Jogchem will walk out as a result of it growing too big to have as a pet.
  • In this Pretty Cure YouTube Poop, Close instantly leaves while playing the song "Fuck This Shit, I'm Out" upon seeing the Cures' super forms.
  • This tweet by A Small Fiction is about a canary being brought into a mine and revealing some strange presence underground. The canary-carriers get out of there, and seal the mine behind them.
  • Something Awful: Dungeons & Dragons:
    • Minerelle gets hit with a -2 to Int. checks and skills in the Tomb of Horrors, at which point she's had enough and tries to leave. This works out pretty well, since she's the only one not cloned for a Mirror Match, but returns in time to help with it.
    • At Paragon tier, Minerelle bursts through a window, advises everyone to take a nap soon, blasts an illithid with massive psionic damage, is almost instantly killed by the backlash, is healed from the brink of perma-death by Kodrinscheiner, and immediately flees screaming into another dimension. All in one turn. Leaving everyone else in the room completely bewildered.
  • Michael Moorer pulls one of these on his trainer in an episode of What If when fighting Mike Tyson.
  • Occurs in Worm when the remaining Travelers that aren't dead or in jail get a chance to return to their home dimension. Also an option allowed for the teenaged Wards when the Slaughterhouse Nine show up.

"But Cartman—"
"No: screw you guys, home!"

Alternative Title(s): Screw You Guys I Am Going Home, Screw You Guys Im Going Home, Screw This Im Out Of Here

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Father Stack

Ted gets fed of Father Stack being an unpleasant jerk.

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