Learn English – Please kill me or just shoot me now

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Please kill me and (just) shoot me now are two common idiomatic colloquial expressions which are generally used to mean that you, metaphorically, would rather die than do something or to express the idea you just cannot stand something.

  • a ten-hour drive to get there?? Just shoot me now, please.
  • the whole week-end with your parents? No, please kill me.

    (Just) shoot me:

  • Expression of dismay, where the speaker is expressing, metaphorically, his/her wish to die because events (for him/her) are so bad.

  • This phrase can also be used with the ironic meaning 'kill me, I am to blame', equivalent to the Latin phrase mea culpa. It is chiefly a US English phrase made popular in the last decade or so. (wiktionary)

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Though they may be natural expressions and, as noted, there are similar ones in other languages, I think that something (a song, a novel, a TV show etc.)must have made these expressions popular as they are known and used now.

My questions:

  • What made them popular, and are they really used mainly in AmE?
  • What other effective expressions could be used to replace them?

Best Answer

I'll answer only second part of your question. There can be extensive amount of other effective expressions to replace this one.

For example all of mine would start with:

I'd rather [add something causing pain or discomfort] than [something that's about to happen / you're about to do]

as in

I'd rather be quartered and fried than go to school again.
I'd rather clean the city sewers than write another example.
I'd rather walk over a lego bricks on fire than travel by plane.

It might not be a phrase, but everyone understands the comparison between bad situation and a worse situation and sarcasm behind it.

So "shoot me" might just as well be a shorter version of:

I'd rather be shot than ...

The popularity of the "shot" or "killed" might be because that seems like the ultimate misfortune.