Main Piece

CT “heard this literally the other day” from one of his friends:

“A guy walks into a restaurant and asks for Pelican Soup. They serve it up to him and he tries it, then kills himself. Why did he kill himself?”

After we took several guesses to no avail, CT revealed the answer:

“The person was stranded on a desert island with their husband, wife, whatever. And after being stranded there a hella long time, in their delirium they ate their significant other under the impression that it was pelican soup, and when they get back to civilization they asked for pelican soup. And when it tasted completely different they killed themselves because they knew what happened.”

Informant background

CT is a student at the University of Southern California. He is from New York City.

Performance context

This story was told during a folklore collection event that I set up with a diversity of members from the USC men’s Ultimate Frisbee team. We were in a classic folklore collection setting: sharing drinks around a campfire, in a free flowing conversation.

Analysis

For another version of this riddle, called “Seagull Soup,” see the online riddle archive: https://www.riddles.com/archives/2581