History Main / TheWindowOrTheStairs

* ''Literature/OlogySeries'': One of the ''Literature/{{Dragonology}}'' choose your adventure books subverts this trope. Choose the nice wide gentle path and you make it to the castle safely, choose the narrow twisty trail you make it to a cave and set of a trip wire and get crushed by a boulder.

* There is a famous joke where three men have been caught by a tribe of natives and get to choose their sentences. The two options are "Death" and "Nugoba"[[note]]or whatever word AsLongAsItSoundsForeign, other popular choices include "Tchi-Tchi", "Poontah", "Unga-Bunga", and "[[WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}} Snu-snu]]"[[/note]]. The first man says "Nugoba", thinking that whatever it is has to be better than death. He is immediately raped by all of the men in the village, then released. The second man chooses the same fate, knowing he will at least live after it is over. The third man, too proud to subject himself to such treatment, chooses death. The chief then says "Death...[[OutWithABang by Nugoba!]]".

* In the SaturdayNightLive game show parody "What Have You Become?", each of the contestants realize that they had taken the fun, easy way throughout their lives (depicted as something that everyone does from time to time and then their horror exaggerated for comedic effect) and in doing so had sabotaged their chances to become so much more (in contrast to their oldest living relatives, who had instead become war heroes or known Eleanor Roosevelt).

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': This is part of Jedi philosophy. The DarkSide is the [[EvilIsEasy quick and easy path to power]], [[BeingEvilSucks but it will exact a terrible price from you and everyone you care about in the long run.]] Unless you're okay with that. [[WebVideo/CinemaSins And I am not okay with that.]]

Named after a RunningGag in the film ''Film/ImGonnaGitYouSucka''. Damon Wayans and Kadeem Hardison play EvilMinions who are always being told by other characters that they can leave the building via "[[DestinationDefenestration the window]] or the stairs". Each time, they choose the stairs and each time they get thrown painfully down a long flight of stairs.

** Played with in the novel ''Literature/GoingPostal''. Main character Moist von Lipwig is given a choice by Vetinari: He can take over the job of Postmaster General, or walk out a door in Vetinari's office, and Vetinari would never bother him again. Being a GenreSavvy sort of chap, Moist goes to the door, carefully peeks through it, and finds a deep pit where the floor should be. He drops a spoon into the pit, and it doesn't make a sound for a rather long time. He takes the job. [[spoiler:At the end of the book, the BigBad is offered the same choice with a job at the Mint. It isn't stated whether he [[TooDumbToLive walks straight out the door without pausing to look]] or [[IDieFree purposefully did not consent to Vetinari's bargain]], but it seems we will not be hearing from him again.]]

* ''Film/HobbsAndShaw'' has a version of this. Hobbs, jumps through a window and rappels down the side of a building after their antagonist, while Shaw takes an elevator along the building exterior that he knew about all this time, mocking his partner through the window.

* One of the ''{{Dragonology}}'' choose your adventure books subverts this trope. Choose the nice wide gentle path and you make it to the castle safely, choose the narrow twisty trail you make it to a cave and set of a trip wire and get crushed by a boulder.

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* There is a famous joke where three men have been caught by a tribe of natives and get to choose their sentences. The two options are "Death" and "Nugoba"[[note]]or whatever word AsLongAsItSoundsForeign, other popular choices include "Tchi-Tchi" or "Poontah"[[/note]]. The first man says "Nugoba", thinking that whatever it is has to be better than death. He is immediately raped by all of the men in the village, then released. The second man chooses the same fate, knowing he will at least live after it is over. The third man, too proud to subject himself to such treatment, chooses death. The chief then says "Death...by Nugoba!".

* ''Anime/KillLaKill'': The first episode has a student who stole a Goku uniform try to escape his pursuers by running down the stairs, while one of said pursuers follows him by jumping out the window.

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* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/PlanetSheen'', Sheen is challenged to a gladiator duel to the death. When given a choice of weapon, he's told that he can use either a trident or a "huggy bunny". He picks the trident, which turns out to be essentially a fork, while his opponent picked the huggy bunny, which is actually a five-headed fire-spitting staff.

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** Troops under fire are trained to use a variety of movement techniques which can involve crawling without lifting your head or body up, springing to your feet and running for three seconds before sprawling to the ground, and so on. In a modern army, a soldier might be expected to do this with about a hundred pounds (forty five kilograms) of load. Of course, they could just walk normally - and be picked off much more easily.

** Troops under fire are trained to use a variety of movement techniques which can involve crawling without lifting your head or body up, springing to your feet and running for three seconds before sprawling to the ground, and so on. In a modern army, a soldier might be expected to do this with about a hundred pounds or forty five kilograms of load. Of course, they could just walk normally - and be picked off much more easily.

* Subverted and then completely lampshaded in ''Film/GalaxyQuest''. Captain Taggert sees the path between himself and the Berylium Sphere he needed for his ship is clear. Suspecting the Window or the Stairs, he begins taking the 'window' by dodging from boulder to boulder and rolling behind cover. Meanwhile the other characters simply stroll unmolested up the path. Gwen [=DeMarco=] looks over at him as they do and comments, "Does the rolling help, actually?" Capt. Taggerty stands up and dusts himself off. Unwilling to admit defeat, he says, "Uh huh. It helps." Then she points out that during his somersaults he actually dropped his raygun.

* A very minor example happens in ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'': When Sans implies that crosswords are tough, his brother Papyrus immediately says that Junior Jumble is much harder, and asks the player to settle the argument. As Sans is more likable, players have a tendency to agree with him. However, Sans is a laid back guy. The only thing he cares about is his brother, so he is actually grateful if you agree with Papyrus, because he likes it when he's happy.

-> ''"The easy way is always mined."''

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** Played with in the novel ''Discworld/GoingPostal''. Main character Moist von Lipwig is given a choice by Vetinari: He can take over the job of Postmaster General, or walk out a door in Vetinari's office, and Vetinari would never bother him again. Being a GenreSavvy sort of chap, Moist goes to the door, carefully peeks through it, and finds a deep pit where the floor should be. He drops a spoon into the pit, and it doesn't make a sound for a rather long time. He takes the job. [[spoiler:At the end of the book, the BigBad is offered the same choice with a job at the Mint. It isn't stated whether he [[TooDumbToLive walks straight out the door without pausing to look]] or [[IDieFree purposefully did not consent to Vetinari's bargain]], but it seems we will not be hearing from him again.]]
--> '''Vetinari:''' [[spoiler:You have to admire a man who ''really'' believes in freedom of choice. Sadly, he did not believe in angels.]]
** Further played with in ''Discworld/MakingMoney'': Moist is given the same choice, and referred to the same door, on being offered a new job. Having ostentatiously repeated his previous actions, [[ParanoiaGambit he discovers the room now has a perfectly normal floor]]. When he asks what happened to it, Vetinari claims to have no idea what he's talking about.

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode [[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E1TheRibosOperation "The Ribos Operation"]], the Doctor is given a mission by the White Guardian, and told that "nothing" would happen to him if he refused. The Doctor responds, "What? Nothing? You mean nothing will happen to me?", and the Guardian replies "Nothing at all. (pause) Ever."

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': This is part of Jedi philosophy. The DarkSide is the quick and easy path to power, [[BeingEvilSucks but it will exact a terrible price from you and everyone you care about in the long run.]] Unless you're okay with that. [[WebVideo/CinemaSins And I am not okay with that.]]

* In the packed-in adventure ''Rivers of Light'' in the classic 8-bit computer game Adventure Construction Set, you face an area called Hell on your trip through the afterlife. Two paths are visible, one which is blank and the other which is on fire. Adventure Construction Set allows you to make any tile have any appearance; in this case, the "fire" tiles do minor damage that you can survive if you rest frequently or use healing items, while the "blank" tiles do horrific damage. The clue was found much earlier in the game -- an inscription saying that [[ExactWords nothing is worse than the fires of Hell]].

* ''Film/ImGonnaGitYouSucka'', as described above. The trope is subverted at the end of the film when the protagonist says "There's two ways you can leave this place..." at which point Wayans screams and jumps out the window. This prompts one of the heroes to say, "Didn't he know about the elevator?"