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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
NewishMum85 · 04/12/2018 16:23

Could someone please explain Boscombe Down-I seem to have missed it!

The original joke/riddle ends with "and he walked up the Post Office steps".

The person hearing the joke/riddle can reply with "But did Boscombe Down?"/"But did Bos come down [ie the steps]?"

I don't really think it works as you'd expect some kind of reference to Boscombe Down/the military/the work carried out at Boscombe Down (much of which is controversial) in the body of the joke if that was the answer.

I thought it was "What for/four?" "Well..." but if the "For/Four short" pun is out according to OP's friend then I'm stumped.

captainpantbeard · 04/12/2018 16:31

OP's friend has said it isn't for/four

Ah.

Is it 'Andy walked up the PO steps'?

SlowNorris · 04/12/2018 16:32

It’s definitely theory 6.

It’s only half the story because it’s ‘for short...’.

I’m accepting this as the official answer and never returning to this thread. I will live happily in my blissful ignorance.

captainpantbeard · 04/12/2018 16:33

It can't be Boscombe Down because OP said he could just be approaching a library.

ItWasntMeItWasIm · 04/12/2018 16:35

OP's friend has said it isn't for/four

At least I think the OP said this 🤔 Please may someone else scroll back through all the OP's posts to check..?

NewishMum85 · 04/12/2018 16:37

Is it 'Andy walked up the PO steps'?

It can't be because the friend said it would also work if Bos was a girl.

StripySocksAndDocs · 04/12/2018 16:41

I'm loving the increasingly insane theories.

I think it might showing that some are close to cracking as their answer makes even less sense than the riddle!!

I've concluded we know the answer. It's the only one actually makes sense and isn't dependant one randomly putting punctuation down and pretending it makes sense or just saying gobbledygook with variations of Boswell inserted!!

'does Boscombe Down?' Is the only sane one. Well done person who said that. I'm zen till Thursday

IamAporcupine · 04/12/2018 16:42

@BoswellsLastStand - marvelous summary

OP's friend said: 'it's not so much about the content of the joke',

My guess is that without realising you might be saying something maybe rude or funny? Of all the versions the OP's friend has given, only a few words remain the same. I think all of them result in the words 'Bos' and 'and' together.

English is not my first language, can these two words be misconstrued to mean something else?!

captainpantbeard · 04/12/2018 16:42

Thanks, Newish - I remember now.

Fuck's sake. I promised myself I wouldn't get embroiled in this. No willpower....

StripySocksAndDocs · 04/12/2018 16:46

No OP said her friend said 'going up to the library' would work.

IamAporcupine · 04/12/2018 16:48

No OP said her friend said 'going up to the library' would work.

her friend also said the context did not matter, which makes me thing that some parts of the joke are there so some words could be placed together

Eliza9917 · 04/12/2018 16:49

NewishMum85 Tue 04-Dec-18 16:37:29
Is it 'Andy walked up the PO steps'?

It can't be because the friend said it would also work if Bos was a girl.

Girls can be called Andi.

BloodyUseless · 04/12/2018 16:52

No OP said her friend said 'going up to the library' would work.

Going "up to" a library doesn't mean going up/rising above ground so it's meaningless to say does Bos come down.

BloodyUseless · 04/12/2018 16:54

Is it 'Andy walked up the PO steps'?

Sorry what riddle has been solved here exactly? That Boswell is really called Andy? That's not a riddle or a joke.

BoswellsLastStand · 04/12/2018 16:55

I would just like to point out that now if you type

"for short they" into Google - the FIRST Google auto-complete suggestion is "for short they called him bos" for fuck's sake.

And the first result is this page.

OP's friend has interfered with the universe. The internet is destablised as a result of fucking Boswell and his bloody post office steps.

IamAporcupine · 04/12/2018 16:57

Also, have to say that I totally agree with you @BloodyUseless
None of the answers proposed so far solve the riddle.

ItWasntMeItWasIm · 04/12/2018 16:58

Also if you type Boswell into the search bar one of the first suggestions is "Boswell joke" Likewise "Post office riddle..."

BloodyUseless · 04/12/2018 16:58

"for short they" into Google - the FIRST Google auto-complete suggestion is "for short they called him bos" for fuck's sake.

For short never appears at the beginning of a sentence. It would only ever be "They called him Bos for short".

Even more evidence this riddle is non-existent.

NewishMum85 · 04/12/2018 17:03

If the answer was Boscombe Down, surely the set up would be different? Eg

A: I knew a man called Bos who climbed up to the roof of a military base in Wiltshire.

B: Boscombe Down?

A: No he's still up there.

The above is rubbish but would make sense as a joke. It's too random to be the answer to the OP's friend's joke though and doesn't work with the "and he approached the library" variant.

IamAporcupine · 04/12/2018 17:04

For short never appears at the beginning of a sentence. It would only ever be "They called him Bos for short".

According to my theory (!) that would imply that you need the word 'for' in that position. Maybe right after 'well' ?

BloodyUseless · 04/12/2018 17:10

According to my theory (!) that would imply that you need the word 'for' in that position. Maybe right after 'well' ?

Ah this is the theory that the man's shortened name is longer than his regular name? Yep completely logical.

IamAporcupine · 04/12/2018 17:19

@BloodyUseless - nope, see above my previous post
(and I have already agreed with you)

PunishmentSnart · 04/12/2018 17:21

knocknockknock

No idea what sene means. Was just joining in seeing if it worked with another name 🤷🏻‍♀️

BloodyUseless · 04/12/2018 17:21

My apologies, I am starting to go insane.

BoswellandAndAndyForshort · 04/12/2018 17:25

Google will do that, for you anyway, because of this thread. It's been spying on you.