Category Archives: Riddle

Jokes/Riddles

Nationality: American
Age: 50s
Occupation: Drama Teacher
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/23/11
Primary Language: English

The informant is a caucasian female in her 50s. She was born in Southern California to an upper middle class family. The informant was raised presbyterian, but now professes to follow no religion. She attended Stanford University and then settled back in Los Angeles. She works part-time as a high school drama teacher. The informant is married with one child.

The informant learned these joke riddles as a child in the 1960s. In her youth she would retell them to her friends and family frequently. She considers them to be riddles and will supply them if anyone asks for a riddle, even to this day. She remembered these examples specifically because they have interesting and unexpected answers and made her laugh as a child. She says that she was not able to guess the answers to any of these three and that prompted her to remember and retell them.

Text:

What do you loose every time you stand up?    Your lap.

Why do birds fly south?    Because its too far to walk.

When you throw a white hat into the red sea, what does it become?    Wet.

Analysis: It is interesting that the informant still tells these childhood jokes/riddles when well in adulthood. Her fascination with the unexpected answers has transferred these examples into long term memory. It is the subversion of the expected answer type, replacing it with the unusual and ridiculous, that intrigued the informant as a child. This aspect of subverting the norm is common in children’s folklore, representing the exploration of boundaries through the safe means on jokes, songs, stories, etc. While these jokes represent a very mild version of such a rebellion, there is still present a slight twist that pushes against how the mind is taught to think when posed such questions. That the informant remembered these jokes to this day indicates that the resonance she had with the unexpected and surprising nature of these examples. That she still retells them today perhaps indicates that, even as an adult, she is still drawn to the slightly subversive nature of these jokes.

Riddle

Nationality: American. Self-Identified Ethnicity: Caucasian
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/26/11
Primary Language: English

The riddle as performed by Laila:  “So, you are on a path and you come to a fork in the road and your path diverges into two paths and, um, there’s a man and a wo— a person standing there who is from, you don’t know where they’re from, but they’re either from a village that you get to if you take the left side of the road or a village you get to if you take the right side of the road.  And, um, you have to figure out… oh, okay.  So one village they tell nothing but lies.  And the other village they tell nothing but truths.  And you have to get to the village where they only tell truths.  You can find out which way to go by asking the guy only one question.  What question do you ask?”

The answer to the riddle as explained by Laila:  “The answer to the riddle is you ask the guy which village he’s from.  This is the answer because if he’s from the village where they only tell the truth, he can only tell things that are true, so he’ll point you to the right village.  If he’s from the village where they can only tell lies then he has to lie and say he’s from the other village, which is the village where they only tell truths.  So, either way, he points you to the village that tells the truth.”

Laila said that she learned this riddle in her International Relations class at USC from Professor Manning.  She said that they were learning about terrorists, and the teacher just started the class that way one day.  She said that every one was stumped, and it took them about twenty minutes to think about the riddle.  Finally, the teacher had to tell the class the answer.

Laila said that she thinks people tell this riddle because it’s fun to trick people and it’s satisfying because it’s such a simple answer.  She said it was related to terrorism because it brings up the question of how to correctly interrogate people.  It’s hard to get the truth from terrorists, so you have to be smart in the way that you phrase your questions.

I think this riddle is told for the same reason most confusing riddles of a similar nature are told.  The person who knows the answer takes pleasure in the fact that the others do not possess the same knowledge, and enjoys watching them struggle in order to come up with an answer.  Since the person performing the riddle likely learned it from some one else and struggled to come up with an answer, the performer feels excited to make others go through the same process.  This is almost like a little rite of passage— as those that perform the riddle feel superior to those that do not know the answer to the riddle… but afterwards both sides possess the same knowledge and are intellectual equals on the subject.

In Laila’s case, it’s interesting that her professor was able to relate this to questions about carrying out interrogations with suspected terrorists.  In that sense, the riddle shows how fear of terrorism is widespread in modern American culture.  Even though the common person might never think to link the riddle to terrorism, the USC professor was able to use it as an example on the topic in his class.

Riddle

Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Cerritos, CA
Performance Date: March 22, 2007
Primary Language: Korean
Language: English

Q: Why did the chicken cross the road?

A: (according to Hamlet) That is not the question.

Jane Lee first learned this riddle from a friend when she was in first grade.   When her friend asked her the question, she responded with the traditional “to get to the other side.”  Since then, she has heard many versions to the riddle, but her favorite answer to the question has been what she claims Hamlet’s answer would have been – “that is not the question.”  As riddles are often viewed to be sharp and witty, she likes the clever way in which Shakepeare’s Hamlet was incorporated into the joke.  She believes that it brings the academic world into the joke world and stirs humor in a subtle but funny way.

Of the different versions of the riddle, the traditional answer seems most fitting with the American culture.  By providing humor with an answer that is, by itself not funny, the joke becomes funny by the unexpectedness of the answer.  Many individuals expect riddles to be clever and tricky, but because the answer to this riddle is so plain and simple, the twist generates a sense of humor.  The simple nature of the riddle also makes it enjoyable to people.  As it is not a neck riddle, the individual does not feel pressured to answer but can do so at a leisurely pace.  Therefore, this is one of the most well known and enjoyed riddles in the United States.

Riddle – Los Angeles, California

Nationality: Korean
Age: 25
Occupation: Employee
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean, Spanish

There’s a dead man lying next to a rock. How did he die? (after a series of yes/no questions, the person listening to the riddle should eventually find out the answer)

Answer: the man is Superman (rock is Kryptonite)

Origins

Phil Lee heard this riddle from high school friends (in Los Angeles).

Collector’s comments

To further explain this short, odd riddle, the person asking the riddle simply states, “There’s a dead man lying next to a rock. How did he die?” and lets the other person know that they may only ask a series of yes or no questions.

As an example, one may ask questions like:

– Is the man a movie star?

– Is the man a comic hero?

– Is it a normal rock?

Eventually, the person asking the yes/no questions should be able to deduce that it is superman by asking questions that are more and more detailed.

Riddle – Los Angeles, California

Nationality: Korean
Age: 25
Occupation: Employee
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean, Spanish

Play on similar words (1 of 2)

Person 1: Say boast ten times, quickly

Person 2: Boast boast boast boast boast boast boast boast boast boast

Person 1: What do you put into a toaster?

Person 2: Toast?

Person 1: No, bread

Origins

Phil Lee heard this riddle from high school friends (in Los Angeles).

Collector’s Comments

This riddle is the second of two riddles that Phil Lee told me. The riddles are basically intended to trick people into giving a stupid reply to a simple question by using a play on words.

In this case, Phil asked me to say boast ten times very quickly and then he immediately asked what I put into a toaster. I was supposed to reply immediately, but instead I hesitated for a second, processed the question quickly, and replied bread (much to his displeasure).

He later explained that his riddles usually cause others to give an absurd reply if they do not take any time to think about the question and respond immediately. In this case, Phil expected me to say toast since it rhymes with boast.