This is a modern version of the ancient phrase "Between Scylla and Charybdis."
Around 850 B.C. Homer describes in The Odyssey a very dicey narrow passage his hero has to navigate. It takes him between the monster Scylla and a very large whirlpool called Charybdis. From that time on, this phrase has come to mean that you're in a very difficult situation.
However, since most folks nowadays have only heard of Homer Simpson and Honda Odysseys, the phrase has morphed into one which the common Joe could understand.