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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to ask for your help solving this impossible riddle/joke

999 replies

killingtime9198 · 03/12/2018 10:57

My best friend's family have a family 'joke', which she originally told me about when we were about 12/13. When she originally told me she didn't get the joke either, but then later did manage to work it out. When she first met her now husband he didn't get it, but he later also worked it out. I have never managed to get it, and every now and again I will remember the saga of this joke (this has been going on for about 20 years now), try desperately for a few days to work it out and then forget all about it for months.

Anyway, I wonder if the powers of mumsnet can either locate someone who has heard this 'joke' before, or who can work it out!

The joke is:

'There once was a man called Boswell. For short they called him Bos, and he walked up the post office steps.'

The joke is definitely NOT that there is no joke, and they're all having a laugh at me for trying to work it out - I am 100% confident of this.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
10
VotingFox · 03/12/2018 14:50

He is too short to reach the penthouse button of the lift, so normally walks up the stairs but when it is raining he can reach the button with his umbrella.

Why doesn't he take the umbrella regardless or take the lift to the highest floor whose button he can reach?

BumsexAtTheBingo · 03/12/2018 14:51

Considering the end doesn’t have to be about a post office or steps is it just - for short they call him bos and he walked up the post office steps? As in the end of the story is cut short.
It makes sense and is shit so would explain why there’s no sign of it anywhere online.

toomuchtooold · 03/12/2018 14:51

Right, Boswell but for short they call him Bos. So is there something about subtracting "well" that is associated with approaching a building?

Aargh this is going to drive me nuts!

Whisky2014 · 03/12/2018 14:52

"Forget" i think thats irrelevant too?

Pretty sure its just four short = bos. End of riddle.

IfeellikeaJoan · 03/12/2018 14:52

The second one is different.

I think it's saying he's called/known as 'And'

There was a man, whose name was boswell, And for short. They called him bos. And, he walked up the post office steps' '

justonemoreminutepls · 03/12/2018 14:52

add the screenshots of your messages to your friend to prove you're not trolling us

BishopstonFaffing · 03/12/2018 14:53

What's Bos short for? Because he's got little legs. Much better joke.

Olinguito · 03/12/2018 14:54

Is this one of those jokes where the person telling it just answers 'yes' or 'no' depending on whether your question ends with a vowel or something similar? So there is no real joke, apart from winding up the guesser until they twig what is going on. Can you see any pattern in the questions you have asked and her answers?

BloodyUseless · 03/12/2018 14:54

Any half decent troll can make up some fake message screenshots

TinselBee · 03/12/2018 14:54

Maybe he is going to the Post Office to complain about his 4 missing letters? He is fed up of being referred to as just Bos?

Badgersmummy25 · 03/12/2018 14:55

Jeez I can't stop wondering now if there is another bit to "get" about the steps argh

ForgetMeLots · 03/12/2018 14:55

But whisky that’s not a riddle or a joke.

It’s shit.

championquartz · 03/12/2018 14:56

Your friend is a meanie. And incredibly irritating. Asis her husband and her family. And we can be all guaranteed it's a shit joke whenever we find the flipping joke.

It's all anooting.

StripyDeckchair · 03/12/2018 14:56

I think other posters have got it surely?

The man is four letters short (as Bos)
Walking up the post office steps fixes it - no longer short and gets his letters
So it's a kind of very contrived wordplay on for/four, the two different meanings of "letters" and the two different meanings of "short".

It kind of reminds me of some of the awful made up jokes that Adam and Joe used to read out on their radio show

IfeellikeaJoan · 03/12/2018 14:58

or they called him Bosand?? shorter than Boswell...

There was a man, whose name was boswell. And for short they called him bosand. He walked up the post office steps' '

championquartz · 03/12/2018 14:59

anooting ???

I meant annoying though given the joke, 'anooting' is as clear as the joke. You all know what I meant don't you. Or did you NOT work it out
Hmm

TinselBee · 03/12/2018 14:59

StripyDeckchair yup exactly those kind of jokes. Or similar to the ones my kid sister makes up.

Talith · 03/12/2018 14:59

Maybe it's four the missing "letters" (Four short=Bos Vs Boswell) which relate to post office. Perhaps the implication is he "posted" them?

Whisky2014 · 03/12/2018 15:00

Lol Forget it is shit!

No stripy thats been debunked already

dogzdinner · 03/12/2018 15:01

OP has to be making this up. Why would they wait 20 years to ask their friend questions about it?

Whisky2014 · 03/12/2018 15:03

They call him "and"

TinselBee · 03/12/2018 15:04

Talith all I can think it is about too. Relates for to four, letters to name to letters in post office.

(kind of want this to be a troll because then it means the troll went to the effort to make their own riddle and has kept us a lot entertained for a bit)

DerekTheWonderdog · 03/12/2018 15:04

If you said "for short" it could be "for sure", "foreshore" or "four short".

As ^pp said "four candles" and "fork handles". If it's 40 years old that would be about the time of the Two Ronnies - whose got the Two Ronnies dvd collection?

It must be a play on words but which words???

Whisky2014 · 03/12/2018 15:04

Whose name was boswelland, and for short they called him bos.

foggydown · 03/12/2018 15:05

I'm going for Bos wanted the other letters back in his name so went and climbed the post office stairWELL. Don't think its funny so probably wrong.