to ask for your help solving this impossible riddle/joke

[killingtime9198]

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.

There once was a women called Boswell. They called Bos, 4 short (4 less letters) and she went wherever the feck she felt like, whether it was a library, or a post office, and changed her gender even if she/he wanted........and slapped the family upside the head for tormenting her for 20 years......the end. 😂

Or it's just all just a massive troll by the friend or OP, my preferred solution.

Well OP is called Killingtime, my guess is OP was just killing time and started a daft thread. When people started guessing answers which were plausible, as in letters and post office connection, OP had to change to story in order to kill more time.

There is no friend of 20 years, and there is no real answer to the riddle that isn't a riddle.

I am convinced there's no joke. It just won't be funny no matter what.

Even the most common "solution": "for short" and "four short", mean exactly the same thing and changes nothing about the sentence. Its just different ways of saying taking some letters off the end of a name. It's not a solution to anything!

icerebel

Exactly. It has been amusing though.

But 'for short' implies Bos is a nickname.
Four short, missing the letters they had to call him Bos. Totally changes it!
It's all about his venture to the post office to reclAim missing letters...

We need to know whether Bosworth wouldn't work, whether Hartwell would, or whether, say, Boswood would. Edward Woodward would probably know.

Please RTFT - the post office is an irrelevant destination. Could be the library, so missing 'letters' are irrelevant. And no, you haven't solved it if you've realised that 'for short' could be 'four (letters) short (of his full name)

No it isn't Mouse14, read the OP's updates.

Well OP is called Killingtime, my guess is OP was just killing time and started a daft thread.

Suddenly went rogue with badger and rice? Well I believe her.

In a similar vein to 'Boscombe down' , could there be anything connected to 'Well-come back/Well, come back ...' [clutches straws]

this is what I keep coming back to, and also the fact that it could potentially be written 'There once was a man called Bos. Well, for short they called him Bos' BUT my friend has written it out for me before and done it the way I originally wrote it above. Plus it is known as 'the Boswell joke'.

OP have you actually put this solution to her though?

"The Boswell Joke". The joke with no meaning. You/we've been had.

Is it not that Bos was short and so he climbed steps to be bigger ie regain the missing letters in his name.

Boswell
Bos ‘for short’
Climbs steps (post office is misdirection)
Standing on steps = ‘taller’
Now Boswell again.

Utter drivel.

I'm with @3luckystars in thinking there's a reply. How about the following?

A: There once was a man called Boswell. For [four] short they called him Bos, and he walked up the post office steps.

B: What for? [four?]

A: Well...

I'm not sure it quite works but it's my best guess so far.

FancyPuffin that's merely trying to interpret the sentence... it doesn't reveal any humour or cleverness in the riddle.

Come on ....fess up @killingtime9198 ,the jokes on us isn't it ?!?!

'Well-come back' is good!

newishmum, I think you're right.

Ok!! I might have got a little excited and arrived at the party far too late

Yep- the what for/four? Well...
Sounds a pretty good crack at it...

The answer is going to be so obvious and underwhelming when it's revealed.

dont worry many of us came to that conclusion too without reading the full thread haha Mouse14

I want this to be a troll so then at least it means there isnt a god damn answer anyway! plus we were actually kinda clever coming up with all these solutions to something that has no solution. Shows you how many ways something can be interpreted

Where is the Daily Mail when you need it? This surely must have made it on to the front page with an email address where concerned readers could send in their suggestions on this riddle/crap joke. I can't believe we're at nearly 750 replies and not one of them makes the slightest bit of sense!

It's like the Victorian safe thread all over again . . .

I can't solve the riddle, but this reminds me of a girl I was at college with. She introduced herself as Jennifer Short, but then added " But you can call me Jenny for short." You have to say it out loud!