Text:
“A man rode out of town on Sunday. He stayed the whole night at a hotel and rode back to town the next day on Sunday. How is this possible? The horse’s name is Sunday.”
Context:
A girl from LA who learned this riddle from her grandma.
Analysis:
Interestingly enough, I have heard this riddle before, but the horse’s name was Friday instead of Sunday. This serves as an example of multiplicity and variation when sharing and spreading folk speech like riddles.
Main text:
Religious riddles
Background on informant:
My grandmother is a deeply devout Christian whose faith is woven into her everyday life. Much of the folklore she shares is rooted in her faith, whether it’s Christian riddles or her love for worship music.
Informant: Ohh, I have a good one for you.
Interviewer: Ok, let me have it.
Informant: What is more powerful than God, more evil than the devil, all poor people have it, and if rich
people ate it, they would die?
Interviewer: I don’t know, what is more powerful than God?
Informant: NOTHING!
Interviewer: Ok..
Informant: Nothing….
Interviewer: Ohhhh I get it. Dang that’s a good one.
Informant: My congregation liked that one too.
Analysis: This riddle does more than just make you think, it’s a way for my grandma’s faith community to reinforce their belief in their community values centralized around God’s power. In class, we talked about how folklore keeps group values alive, this is something fun that also reminds everyone that nothing tops God. So, through a simple riddle, they’re passing down what they believe, in a clever and engaging way that wont be forgotten.
Nationality: African American
Primary Language: English
Other language(s): French
Age: 65
Occupation: Management Consultant
Residence: Upstate, NY
Performance Date: 4/20/2025
Context:
My informant, WB, is a family member of mine who lives in the Hudson Valley area of New York. They used to tell me a lot of riddles as a child, and loved to play games with riddles all the time. One day I decided to ask them if they ever heard of an original riddle that stuck with them personally, one they had not yet shared with me. This is what I got:
Text:
“‘What do you get when you put a snake in your pocket? You get bit.’ The meaning of this is to beware of trusting and getting too close to scrupleless people. While I hate that it puts snakes in a bad light, this saying has always taught me to take the time to get to know people who may become a business partners. AND, even then, you may still get bit!! I think this is one that my grandfather created, perhaps it was passed on from an experience his parents had who were in the restaurant business back in the 20’s and finally lost the business to their business partners. This means a lot to me, it has taught me to pay close attention to the motives of people in general when it comes to finance, positive or negative. I know most people say ‘I trust people until they prove otherwise’ but for me, ‘I don’t trust people I meet until they prove trustworthy.’”
Analysis:
Okay, so, this proverb they exemplified, I personally had never heard before, and upon looking it up, I found next to nothing, which is great! This might actually be unique to WB’s family (or at least not widespread) adding to the idea that it was coined by their grandfather or adapted from an older phrase. What’s interesting is how it uses the symbol of the snake, which in many global traditions (from the Bible to African trickster tales to Greek mythology) represents deceit, danger, or moral testing. In this case, the snake stands as a metaphor for untrustworthy people, especially in financial or business settings, with the “pocket” standing in as a symbol for closeness or vulnerability. It’s also compelling how the proverb serves not only as a warning, but also as a reflection of a real, generational experience. I think it’s cool that the personal history gives the phrase emotional weight and makes it more than just a casual saying, almost becoming a tool of survival and a form of inherited wisdom. What I find most fascinating is how WB uses it to define their personal philosophy on trust, flipping the more common belief that trust is given until broken. I honestly lean that way too. Plus, WB seems to approach trust as something earned, which they frame not as cynical, but as careful. It’s a great example of how even a small, family-rooted piece of folklore can carry over an entire worldview.
The riddle is phrased as follows: “What’s black and white and read all over?
The classic answer is “a newspaper.” The humor comes from a play on words—while “black and white” describes the color scheme of a traditional newspaper, “read all over” sounds like “red all over,” creating a pun. Other playful variations exist, such as “a sunburned zebra” or “a blushing penguin,” which lean into the pun by replacing “read” with “red.
I first heard this riddle from my classmate Jon, who shared it with me as a joke during a class conversation. He said it was one of the first riddles he learned as a kid and that he remembers telling it to his younger siblings to see if they could figure it out. Jon mentioned that while the riddle is widely known, it has lost some of its relevance because newspapers are no longer as central to daily life as they once were. He also pointed out that kids today might not immediately associate “black and white” with print media, making the joke less obvious to younger generations.
This riddle reflects the role of wordplay in oral tradition, using a pun to create humor and challenge the listener to think outside the box. The structure follows a classic pattern of riddles, where a seemingly straightforward description leads to an unexpected answer that hinges on a double meaning.
Historically, this riddle likely gained popularity when newspapers were the primary source of information in daily life. It reinforces how humor and language evolve with culture. While it was once an intuitive joke, it may now require explanation for younger audiences unfamiliar with print media. This shift highlights how language, humor, and cultural references change over time as technology and media consumption habits evolve.Beyond its immediate entertainment value, the riddle demonstrates how simple linguistic tricks can teach reasoning and lateral thinking, encouraging listeners to consider multiple meanings of words. It also shows how oral traditions, even in the form of simple jokes, reflect cultural shifts, making this classic riddle both a piece of folk humor and a small artifact of historical media culture.
Date of performance: 2/11/25
Language: English
Nationality: American
Occupation: Student
Primary Language: English
Residence: Los Angeles.
Riddle: “You’re trapped in a room with no windows and no doors, no escape. There’s nothing but a table and a mirror. How are you able to get out?”
Solution: Look in the mirror, and you see what you saw. Take the saw, cut the table in half. Two halves make a whole, jump through the (w)hole.
Context: “I think I heard this from either my older sister or my mom first. It was one of those things they told me to try and stump me because how was I supposed to know the wordplay? I remember getting really frustrated at it but then thinking it was brilliant and immediately telling a bunch of other people, feeling so smart because I knew the wordplay and they didn’t. It’s one of those riddles that’s less about the actual process of finding the answer, it comes down to whether you know the specific wordplay or not.”
Analysis: This is undoubtedly the most creative riddle I’ve heard in a long time. The majority of riddles I’ve heard are just overly vague descriptions of simple things, like an egg or a mountain, but this one is far more interesting. I struggle to think of how someone could solve it without first being clued into the wordplay. But instead of that detracting from the quality of the riddle, I think it adds to it. The unusual nature of the riddle is what captivated the informant and gave it such significance to them, only compounded by the fact that they initially heard it from a close family member.