[zipwitch]

It may be obvious to those of us with an interest in etymology, but when the phrase came up in my tabletop gaming group (ages 18-50), they were unanimous (save for myself) that the meaning was "the fast and the dead". I had to resort to a web search to convince them otherwise.

[loco5niner]

Probably due to things like the movie "The Quick and the Dead" about fast vs slow gunfighters.

[swish_bob]

But that's a pun! It's literally the whole point!

[TheGallopedHigh]

Could possibly also be a play on words...