Q: “What word is pronounced the same when you take out 4 letters?”

A: Queue; Q.

My informant first heard this riddle while attending UCSB.  He was sitting in his dorm room with some friends.  One of his friends mentioned that there was this really good riddle in the daily newspaper.  The friend asked my informant the riddle and my informant did not know the answer.  When my informant’s friend revealed the answer, my informant believed that it was a very tricky riddle.  Even though my informant thought it was tricky, he thought it was a very intelligent one that would be challenging if he told someone else.

Therefore, during a barbeque at a friend’s house, my informant and some friends were asking each other riddles and my informant asked me this riddle.  I did not know the answer and felt very dumbfounded after my informant revealed the answer.  After my informant told me the riddle, I realized that riddles do not usually come up in a normal conversation.  Riddles usually come up when a person has recently just heard a riddle and thought it was very interesting.  After one person brings up a riddle, it breaks the ice of the conversation and many other people start to bring up riddles.  After one riddle is brought up, it seems as if it becomes a game and other people bring up riddles because they want to feel smart since they know the answer.