Category Archives: Riddle

What’s the difference…

Nationality: American
Age: 25
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Diego
Performance Date: Feb 2023
Primary Language: English
Language: None

Text:

Q: Do you remember any other jokes that we used to tell

R: Yeah, …fuck, what were the ones about like-  oh I remember. You know the one that are like whats the difference between this and this.

Q: Oh yeah I think so. Do you have any specific ones

R: Yeah, so, whats the difference between a Buck [male deer] and a Witch

Q: I remember this one but you should say the answer

R: Now it feels weird, no- ok, ones a hunted stag the others a stunted hag

Q: Thats a good one, there were so many

Context: This was told by a high school age boy to other high school age students in upstate New York on a small collective. 

Analysis: I feel like there is not too much of a deeper meaning to this riddle except word play as the other jokes in this group are similar in format but equally random objects with seemingly no connection. For example whats the difference between a coyote and a flea. One howls on the prairie the other prowls on the hairy. This was told by my brother so I remember we also made up some of our own as young adults. It was sort of a way to test wit and mental agility in a similar way to a pun battle for example. 

“Made You Say Pink”

Nationality: Asian-American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 2/14/2023
Primary Language: English

My informant (18), from Maryland, describes a riddle that she and her friends performed in middle school: “It’s not really a joke, but it’s more like a challenge, like a “are you dumb” challenge. So it’s like I bet I can make you say the color pink ‘okay’ okay so then you’re like ‘what’s the color of the sky?’ ‘Blue’ ‘What’s the color of this chair?’ ‘Brown’ ‘What’s the color of my hair?’ ‘Black’ ‘What’s the color of the grass?’ ‘green’ ‘Ha, I told you I could make you say green’ ‘no you didn’t, you told me you would make me say pink’ and that’s how you make them say pink”

“And so it’s like this little thing that my swim friends and I, back in the past, like middle school? We would just always perform this on each other to like try and get the other person and just to make them seem, you know, like it’s more of like one of those ‘stupid tests’”

The informant began by saying this was a joke, and then changed to calling it a challenge, and finally called it a “test”. I think this piece is actually a kind of riddle, because it tests the wits of the person it is performed on, but instead of wordplay, there is a “trick” meant to catch the subject. Because this is used within the informants team, it might imply that performing this trick affords the performer a kind of social capital in the group when they are successful, suggesting that intelligence is valued in the group.

“What is something that runs but has no feet; has a bed but never sleeps?”

Performance Date: February 17th, 2023

SM is a 20 year old environmental studies major at USC. She grew up in Dallas, Texas, where she would spend weekends camping with her family and being out in nature. In her past time, she enjoys hiking and exploring new areas. The following riddle was told to her when she was younger by her grandfather while they were camping once.

“What is something that runs, but has no feet; has a bed, but never sleeps?” “A river.”

Riddles are very popular in many cultures, especially with children. SM heard this riddle when she was a young girl, and it was told to her during a camping trip. This riddle stuck with SM for so long not only because she heard it as a child, but because of its content. As someone who is a huge nature lover and environmentalist, it’s no surprise she loves this riddle. Most riddles have some sort of uniqueness that puts it into categories. As a writer, the riddle that stuck with me the most is “What’s black, white, and read all over? A newspaper.” The riddles that stick with children as they grow up usually relate to a part of their personality or interests, so there is a hint of familiarity. Riddles are meant to stump or confuse the audience they’re being told to, so when children can find familiarity within them, the riddles tend to stick.

Electricity Riddle

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: USC Student Housing
Performance Date: 2/20/23
Primary Language: English

Main Performance:

HG: Basically you’re in this, like, house that’s like a labyrinth, or whatever. Um… and there’s no electricity and its like dark and whatever, and there’s these doors. There’s these three doors, um… I’m gonna tell you the doors and you pick, actually.

Me: Ok.

HG: So the first one, there’s Red Door, Blue Door, and Green Door. Which one do you pick?

Me: Blue Door.

HG: Ok, um… and then there’s door one, two and three. Which one do you pick?

Me: One.

HG: One? Ok, and then there’s pink door, white door, and black door. Which one do you pick?

Me: White.

HG: White? Ok, um… then there’s five doors. One with a picture of a giraffe and the other four are just one, two, three, and four.

Me: Three.

HG: Ok… Lotta people pick the giraffe door but that’s ok.

Me: *Laughing*

HG: And then finally there’s three more, its just sky door, grass door and moon door.

M: I’ll go with moon door.

HG: And then you’re presented with three options, you finally enter this room and um… they are all ways to die, basically. The first way is to enter a cage with a lion in it. The next is you have to hang yourself. And then the last one is an electric chair. Which one are you picking?

Me: The electric chair.

HG: Aw yeah why’s that

ME: *Laughing* Because there’s no electricity in the house!

HG: *Laughing* Aw f*ck you


Background: The respondent heard the riddle in middle school to the best of his memory. He is from New York City.

Thoughts/Analysis: I had definitely heard a riddle with the same sort of punchline before the informant had told me his riddle, but I didn’t realize it until he said the last option. To someone who hasn’t heard the riddle before, it is supposed to rely on the complex steps that the riddler walks the subject through before arriving at the final decision. You are thinking about so many things throughout the course of the riddle that you forget one of the basic things about the house. In the performance of the riddle, the informant took many “thinking” pauses between each of my decisions to try and signal to me that he was thinking about the path that I was taking in order to throw me off.

Goldfish Riddle

Performance Date: 2/14/23
Primary Language: English
Language: German

Main Performance:
JC: Alright, so, my name is JC and I heard this riddle the other day here in my German class. My German professor told it to me in German but I am unsure of the origin of the riddle.

Me: Can I hear it in German first?

JC: I can’t do it in German sorry. But basically, so, the idea is that, uh, so you come into a room right?

Me: right

JC: and there are two bodies on the floor, and one of the bodies is Jim and one of the bodies is Sally. And, they’re lying in a pool of water and there is glass everywhere on the floor. And the murderer is also in the room. What happened?

Me: Am I the murderer?

JC: No

Me: Was it a suicide?

JC: No

Me: Is the murderer time?

JC: No

Me: Is the murderer water?

JC: No

Me: Is the murderer glass?

JC: No

Me: *I ask clarifying questions about the riddle*

Me: Is there anything else in the room? Like a chair or a window?

JC: Its like a normal room, like a house

Me: Is the murderer a person

JC: No

Me: Is the murderer a living being?

JC: Yes

Me: Are there any fish in the room?

JC: Yes!

Me: Are they poisonous?

JC: No

Me: Are they piranhas or sharks?

JC: No

Me: Did the fish kill the people?

JC: No, did I say it was people?

Me: Oh, no…

JC: It was just two bodies right?

Me; I give up what’s the answer?

JC: So the bodies on the floor are two fish. And the murderer is a cat and he knocked the bowl off of the table. So the whole trick is that you’re supposed to think it was two people, but its actually two goldfish.

Context:
JC and I are in the same discussion section for our class, and we decided to share riddles to help us with our projects. We both shared the first riddles we could think of, and it seemed like this was the most recent on that JC had been told.

Thoughts/Analysis:
This riddle definitely relies on our thoughts of what a body could be. When looking at two dead fish, I would never consider them to be “bodies” as that is a term I would typically reserve for a dead human. However, the riddle works on the technical level that the dead fish are “bodies” and so by subverting my expectation for what a “body” was supposed to mean I was unable to get the answer to the riddle. If the origin of the riddle is, in fact, German, then perhaps it says something about the German perspective on both human and non-human life in that it treats the death of animals and humans relatively equally.