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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
easterholidays · 03/12/2018 16:14

I'm not new, I've just name changed. Been here a while: Penis Beaker, Boswelland etc.

GrinGrinGrinGrin

choccybiscuit · 03/12/2018 16:15

Love this thread!

Whisky2014 · 03/12/2018 16:16

I honestly dont understand that (non)humour. Totally pointless

Whisky2014 · 03/12/2018 16:16

I'm not new, I've just name changed. Been here a while: Penis Beaker, Boswelland etc.
Oh yeah! Gona go down in history!

OlennasWimple · 03/12/2018 16:17

This thread needs a trigger warning that poster may find both the original "riddle" and subsequent suggestions incredibly frustrating Grin

RatRolyPoly · 03/12/2018 16:21

Okay, okay, I'm late to the party but here's what I'm thinking....

There once was a man called Boswell.

We've been told to call him "Bos" for short, but is there another way of saying "walked up the post office steps", or some part of that?

I'm thinking the next (perhaps rhyming) line of the riddle would be another way of saying "he walked up the post office steps", so "Bos ". I imagine if it's a joke, the two lines together should be amusing...

"There once was a man called Boswell. Bos stairwell" ????

Whisky2014 · 03/12/2018 16:22

But op said post office and steps are irrelevent. Could be approaching library or drs and it still works.

VotingFox · 03/12/2018 16:23

My friend's mum (who I am close to) has always said if I asked her on my wedding day she would tell me. I always insisted that I would remember to ask her, she always insisted I would forget. I got married last week and obviously I did forget! FFS.

I've got it. We're all figment's of Edgar Allan Poe's imagination.

FunkyKingston · 03/12/2018 16:23

And yet this family have somehow remained curiously unmurdered for 20 odd years.

VotingFox · 03/12/2018 16:23

*figments

JessicaJonesJacket · 03/12/2018 16:23

346 posts and still no answer Angry
We've been trolled haven't we?!

PhilomenaButterfly · 03/12/2018 16:24

The bread joke is like:

What's the difference between a duck?

One of its legs is both the same.

JessicaJonesJacket · 03/12/2018 16:26

It must just be 'for short' sounds like 'four short' surely?
OP's guess complicated it by mentioning the letters being at the post office Confused

Whisky2014 · 03/12/2018 16:26

No, the op is real. Its she who has been trolled. For 20 years. Maybe this thread tipped her over the edge.

Original poster
killingtime9198 · 03/12/2018 16:29

Definitely not a troll, definitely still alive.

I'm seeing her on Thursday so let's see if I can get any more info in person...

OP posts:
StripySocksAndDocs · 03/12/2018 16:30
to ask for your help solving this impossible riddle/joke
RatRolyPoly · 03/12/2018 16:30

Okay, I missed a few of the OP's posts there; if "There one was a woman
called Boswell. For short they called her Bos. And she walked up to the library" works too, then the answer must be some common way of describing the action of going up the post office steps or approaching the library. And that then follows the Bos...

Bos approaches? Bos arriving? Bos nearing the building??

VotingFox · 03/12/2018 16:30

I've been awake for 43 straight hours already. Someone make sure to summons OP to my inquest.

Nunya · 03/12/2018 16:31

*Badgersmummy25:

Isn't it just the stupid thing that Bos is 4 (for - obviously a play on four/for) letters short than Boswell. The rest re the steps is just fluff? That is all I can think.*

This^

This is all I can think it is also. For short they called him Bos means that 4 letters off of Boswell is Bos & "for short" they called him Bos. As your friend said it would work with other names, for example Maxwell, for (or four) short they called him Max & the rest is fluff ??

Whisky2014 · 03/12/2018 16:31

stripy gorgeous fish. Not too short!

MiamiLogic · 03/12/2018 16:31

Is Bos something to do with buses?

RatRolyPoly · 03/12/2018 16:31

BOSNIA something??

Whisky2014 · 03/12/2018 16:32

Op no. We cannot wait until thursday. Het her on the phone!

RatRolyPoly · 03/12/2018 16:33

Bos near and he's 'a' goin' a??

OutragedERIC · 03/12/2018 16:34

I bet the dark winter nights just fly by, round their gaff.

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