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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
Wednesdaypig · 03/12/2018 22:30

This is just as infuriating as the Canada Water/Bus emoticon competition a few years back. I don't even know if that was resolved in the end!

Wednesdaypig · 03/12/2018 22:32

Warp - that's good!

HannahnotAgnes · 03/12/2018 22:34

Just read this whole thing & no resolution Angry

DiseasesOfTheSheep · 03/12/2018 22:35

That wasn't necessarily a direct quotation from the friend - the OP's words were:

"It doesn't matter if he goes up the steps, the joke still works if he just approaches the PO"

We don't know exactly what the friend said - "approaches" or "goes up to" (which is the approved alternative wording on the library version). If the friend literally said "approaches is fine", it's not Boscombe Down. If they didn't, well, who knows.

As for "that's not how these jokes work" - it's how some jokes work, certainly. And we don't know what sort of joke this is, because, well, it doesn't really fit any known criteria for jokes of any sort.

RosamundGarth · 03/12/2018 22:37

Was it Christmas when this friend's family first said it? Is it something to do with "No-Well"?

Can't for the life of me see where the Post Office comes in though and I have been thinking about this since lunchtime.

SleepWarrior · 03/12/2018 22:38

There's only one thing for it OP:

Quick annulment, arrange another wedding for tomorrow and actually ask your friend's mum this time!

BumsexAtTheBingo · 03/12/2018 22:39

Exactly it isn’t the format of a joke or a riddle. I’m erring more and more on the side of bullshit I’m afraid. We know how these threads go. Loads of people get hooked, a few updates. The op won’t be back on Thursday or there will be some sort of drama.

SylviaAndSidney · 03/12/2018 22:40

Still no answer? I think I hate you, OP who is a stranger on the internet.

BumbleyBum · 03/12/2018 22:40

Well, this is infuriating!

BumsexAtTheBingo · 03/12/2018 22:41

And seriously a really hard riddle that people spend years trying to work out yet there’s no sign of it anywhere on Google?

tobee · 03/12/2018 22:44

I just had a small epiphany in the shower

ShockShockShockWell that's one way of relieving the frustration.

notyourmummy · 03/12/2018 22:45

I'm far too invested in this... Only sense I can make of it is play on "called", ie they called the person's name and the person walked up the steps to meet them....

Fuzzywig · 03/12/2018 22:46

Don’t wait till Thursday ask your husband -get him pissed if necessary-

Botanica · 03/12/2018 22:46

It's a drinking game. Purely based on the visual cues.

You need to do an action at the time you say walking up the post office steps.

Those who now know the answer are in cahoots on what the pre-defined action is.

That's why she was prepared to tell you at the wedding OP. Not that it was a momentous milestone that deemed you finally worthy of knowing and being in the club, but rather there would be some drinking and the setting would be right for the game.

DontHarshMyMello · 03/12/2018 22:47

You should do a Janet and Roy (John?!) to them as payback.

ItsInTheSpoon · 03/12/2018 22:52

Is this it?:

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

(Punchline:)
‘He was well lost then eh?’

Doyoumind · 03/12/2018 22:57

I agree that the only possible solution is there is a visual in-joke element and the rest is utter bollocks.

MemoryOfSleep · 03/12/2018 22:58

Right, hang on. Does any building work or just libraries and post offices? Would a church, nightclub or grocers also work?

ThanksForAllTheFish · 03/12/2018 22:58

42 is a very good answer - but then I would say that with a name like mine.

TigerDragonMonkey · 03/12/2018 23:06

Ok, given the additional info that the PO is important, and your friend is from London, I’m more invested in my postcode theory than I was initially Wink

lottiegarbanzo · 03/12/2018 23:07

No-well = Noel is brilliant!

Surely, '... noel'?

pallisers · 03/12/2018 23:11

@pallisers "I pass the scissors crossed" was in The Chimney Sweeper's Boy by Barbara Vine

Thank you!

UterusUterusGhali · 03/12/2018 23:13

Marking place for deletion message. Grin

This thread is the pits!

GenericHamster · 03/12/2018 23:16

Is it possible the friend has actually got the answer wrong. Ie they 've assumed one thing but the rest of her family thinks it's another? After all, we've come up with at least three answers on this thread. Who's to say she's right? Did she ever check with the rest of them?

NoTeaForMe · 03/12/2018 23:18

I’ve read all of this and there’s no answer 🧐 OP you better come back with an answer on Thursday!

A family friend of mine used to do the “no thanks I’ve got my bike outside” joke and I always thought it was a non-joke, glad thys been confirmed for me.