Category Archives: Riddle

The “Sphinx” Riddle

Nationality: Cuban-American
Occupation: Attorney
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish
  1. The “Sphinx” Riddle:

“What is the creature that walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon and three in the evening?” “Man”.

  1. My father had heard this riddle a long time ago from one of his professors in college. The professor actually offered extra credit to anyone in the class that was able to solve this riddle. My dad was actually pretty good at solving riddles, but with this one in particular he remembered he had an extremely difficult time solving.
  2. Aside from just being a complex riddle people enjoy sharing with others, this riddle is actually significant in Ancient Drama. In the Greek play titled, Oedipus Tyranny, this riddle is featured as the riddle that destroyed the sphinx. Due to this play, this riddle is commonly recognized as the “Sphinx Riddle”.
  3. I actually thought that this riddle was also extremely difficult to solve as well. Even after the answer was given to me I was still slightly confused by it. After a thorough explanation of the answer, I understood the riddle. I think since the answer itself was as complex as the riddle, this is what truly made it nearly impossible to solve on your own without any extra help or guidance.

The Room Riddle

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English
  1. So you’re in a room with no exit. There’s only a round table and a saw. How do you get out? You cut the table in half, because two halves make a “whole”.
  2. This was a riddle the informant had heard in class one day, at her middle school. She likes to re-tell this riddle because most of the time, she discovered that people are unable to answer it. She likes that they are surprised when they learn what the answer actually is, because it then appears to be rather obvious. She actually learned it from her substitute teacher during their class time. Their teacher was trying to see if anyone in their class could solve this riddle before being released for recess. The informant thinks the riddle is light-hearted enough to tell to others just for fun, or in casual conversation.
  3. This riddle can be shared in normal day-to-day conversation if you wish to incorporate something more entertaining within your conversation. This riddle is good for all ages, from elementary school students to adults.
  4. I thought that this riddle was effective. I actually was not able to solve it, but I found it humorous when the informant eventually told me the answer. I think that I would share this riddle with some of my other friends sometime, just for fun. I would also like to know whether or not they would immediately be able to solve the riddle. I have never heard this riddle before, so it’d be interesting to see if this were a well-known riddle among my peers that I just never had learned prior to speaking with the informant.

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

There is a very common joke: “Why did the chicken cross the road?”

Usually, it’s followed by the answer: “To get to the other side.”

From that joke, there has been many other jokes that stemmed from the joke, such as: “Why did the chicken cross the playground?” “To get to the other slide.”

These types of literal jokes are called anti-jokes, in which the punchline is not a clever play on words, but a literal, mundane answer.

For reference of the first time this joke was published, please see: The Knickerbocker, or The New York Monthly, March 1847, p. 283.

Make something round

Nationality: American
Age: 25
Occupation: Student
Residence: LA
Primary Language: English

Informant places 5 sticks on the counter, all parallel to each other.

“Make something round from these sticks, only moving two of them.”

The informant takes the two outside sticks, and places them perpendicular to and above the 2nd and 5th sticks. This forms three letters, which together spell “TIT”.

“So when I was about 10 or so, I went out to visit my uncle. I always used to visit him during the summer. By this time, I was getting older and I had always had older brothers, so, ya know, I was starting to figure some things out. I guess my uncle picked up on this and wanted to initiate me into becoming a man or something. So I go to his house, and he asks if I want to hear a riddle. I say yes, so he lays out 5 sticks and asks him to make something round while only moving two. I consider myself smart, but I couldn’t figure it out. So he shows me, and he got so excited about it.”

This particular riddle seems to be something of a coming-of-age ritual, a way to initiate a young boy into becoming a teenager. This transition is often accompanied by increased interest in sex. This riddle seems to be a way to gradually push the subject over the liminal, and onto the path toward adulthood.

53 Bicycles

Nationality: USA
Age: 19
Occupation: student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 10, 2015
Primary Language: English

Riddle:

A man was found murdered in a room with 53 bicycles. Why was he murdered?

 

The Informant was a nineteen year old female friend that I had dinner with. I told her about the catch riddle we learned in class (what do virgins eat?) and she began telling me all of these riddles that she knew.

Collector: He was a bad man?

Informant: No.

Collector: Did he steal all of the bicycles?

Informant: Nope, try again.

(After several minutes of guessing and failing, she gave a pivotal hint)

Informant: Think of Bicycles as a brand, not as objects. I told you this was a hard one.

Answer via Informant: Well, bicycles is a type of card – you know, poker cards…bicycle playing cards. You’ve heard of those, right? Yeah, yeah. And how many cards are in a deck? Yeah, 52. So the guy was cheating, he had an extra card… so they killed him!(Seemed a little too excited by this).

Collector: Where’d you get this riddle from?

Informant: A high school friend.

Riddles in general are very interesting considering that nothing is ever what it seems to be. You have to really think outside of the box in order to figure out the answer, but it also makes it difficult when a person is not familiar to something that’s being referenced, such as with the brand “bicycles”. I told the same riddle to my dad and he had never heard of Bicycle playing cards, which made it pretty much impossible for him to figure out the answer. So, it can be considered a way of distinguishing between groups: those that understand the references and those who don’t.