Shit Sandwich
“Shit sandwich” can literally mean a sandwich of excrement between two slices of bread. The term “shit sandwich” is usually used as an idiom for being forced to take something unpalatable. “Shit sandwich” has been cited in print since at least 1966.
The similar term “turd sandwich” was popularized on the “Douche and Turd” episode of the television show South Park that aired on October 27, 2004; the choices in an election were between a “giant douche” and a “turd sandwich.” “Crap sandwich” became widely used in 2008 when Congressman John Boehner (R-OH) called the proposed $700 billion financial rescue bill by that sandwich name. “Satan sandwich”—a euphemism for the terms above—was used by Congressman Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) to describe a budget deal that he didn’t like.
Urban Dictionary
Shit Sandwich
A bad situation.
“It’s one big shit sandwich and we’re all gonna have to take a bite.”
by anonymous Oct 5, 2003
Google Books
An Anecdoted Topography of Chance: (re-anecdoted version):
Done with the help of his very dear friend Robert Filliou and translated from the French, and further anecdoted at random by their very dear friend Emmett Williams
By Daniel Spoerri, Emmett Williams and Roland Topor
New York, NY: Something Else Press
1966
Pg. 9:
Just this morning MONSIEUR GEORGES expanded the philosophical observation of one of his customers, CAMILLE, that “Life is a shit sandwich” with: “Yes, and we take a bite every day.”
Google Books
High on Gold
By Lee Richmond
New York, NY: Charterhouse
1972
Pg. 411:
Eat my shorts! says the writing on the walls, and Life is a shit sandwich — every day is another bite.
Google Books
Outside the Law;
A thief’s primer
By Bruce Jackson
New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books; distributed by Dutton
1972
Pg. 176:
They made him eat a shit sandwich and a bunch of things like that and they started fucking him.
Google Books
Alphabet Jackson: a novel
By Jack Olsen
Chicago, IL: Playboy Press
1974
Pg. 23:
The main personality factor about Coach is his height, or lack of it. Waering his elevator football shoes with the 3/4-inch cleats, he stands about 5-foot-9, and he never lets any of the rest of us forget that nature handed him a shit sandwich.
Google Books
P.S. Your Cat Is Dead! : a comedy in two acts
By James Kirkwood
New York, NY: S. French
1979
Pg. 24:
So — well, life is a shit sandwich and every day we have to take another bite!
Google Books
Compression Tested: a novel
By Margie Summerfield
San Francisco, CA: McGraw-Hill
1979
Pg. 172:
Life is a shit sandwich, on white bread.
Google Books
July 1981, Mother Jones magazine, pg. 64, col. 2 ad:
“Life is like a shit sandwich. The more bread you have, the less shit you have to eat.”
(T-shirts—ed.)
Google Books
New Blue Line
By Jerome Skolnick and David H. Bayley
New York, NY: Simon & Schuster
1988
Pg. 138:
“Pardner,” he says, looking down on Virgil benevolently, “think of life as a shit sandwich. Some days you have to take a big bite, some days a small bite. Today, you have to take a big bite.”
Toronto Sun
The team that’s only practising
Waterloo Warriors program is starting over
STEVE SIMMONS, Toronto Sun
First posted: Thursday, September 23, 2010 11:32:36 EDT PM
(...)
“It’s a sh-t sandwich,” said Joe Paopao, the former CFL player and coach, with a smile. He runs what’s left of the Waterloo offence.
“But you take a bite of the sandwich and you move on.”
Google Books
The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English
By Eric Partridge, Tom Dalzell and Terry Victor
New York, NY: Routledge
2008
Pg. 231:’
eat a shit sandwich to accept humiliation as punishment. A variation on EAT SHIT. UK 1997