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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
ItWasntMeItWasIm · 04/12/2018 17:29

WTF Google Angry

ScreamingValenta · 04/12/2018 17:30

I have a theory which I don't think we have had (though I might have missed it on the thread.) It is, however, a bit niche but I will throw it out there.

Boswell could be a reference to James Boswell.
James Boswell was famous for his skill at the game Crambo which involved guessing a rhyming word.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crambo

In the version of the game, Dumb Crambo instead of speaking the word you thought was being indicated, you had to act it out.

So, using this, the riddle would be interpreted as:

There was a man called [James] Boswell. They called him Bos for short [he mistook this for an invitation to play Crambo] and walked up the Post Office (or whatever) steps [to act out the word he thought was being indicated].

The missing link is that I haven't thought of a word rhyming with 'Bos' that could be thus portrayed by charades. If anyone can, it might just be (an obscure) solution.

ItWasntMeItWasIm · 04/12/2018 17:30

Hmm if I type WTF Google enough will it come up if I search WTF?

ItWasntMeItWasIm · 04/12/2018 17:32

Interesting, Valenta!

ScreamingValenta · 04/12/2018 17:34

Well, it would be a mildly amusing joke. But I can't think of what the 'Crambo' word would be. It would have to rhyme with 'Bos' to work.

ScreamingValenta · 04/12/2018 17:34

... and it's a very obscure reference, so not that likely.

Walkthroughthefire · 04/12/2018 17:49

Completely shameless place Mark...

ItWasntMeItWasIm · 04/12/2018 18:00

Valenta - anything goes at this point 😂

Mafrid2 · 04/12/2018 18:04

Also shamelessly place marking Grin

Metaplasia · 04/12/2018 18:07

I can't believe I've wasted precious minutes of my life reading this thread. I'm in the 'there is no joke' camp!

not placemarking for Thursday at all

LatinForTelly · 04/12/2018 18:09

It's going to get to 1000 posts isn't it and we'll never know. Like that poster who was being charged rent for their cul de sac by one of the neighbours. Fwiw I think it's the 'what for?' 'W E L L' lameness too

bringbackthestripes · 04/12/2018 18:11

Op I know your wedding was a big day and everything but....really? After 20 years you couldn’t remember to ask the mum when she had promised to tell you on your wedding day? Grin
Congratulations, hope you had a lovely day.
Please put us out of our misery on Thursday.

ChasedByBees · 04/12/2018 18:12

Reminds me of this joke:

Etino · 04/12/2018 18:13

HmmGrinAngry

daffodillament · 04/12/2018 18:14

Sorry if this has been explained..not reading through 37 bloody pages Grin but have you ever asked your friend to actually explain it to you rather than wait 20 years to ask an online forum ?

AliceLateAgain · 04/12/2018 18:15

I have only read about the 1st 10 pages, so sorry if this has been suggested and discounted.

Could this be along the lines of the old kids riddle 'Constantinople is a very long word, can you spell it?'

Obviously, not a question involved, but some of it is twaddle set to distract, leaving an in-joke to the family of someone absent mindedly going somewhere, perhaps?

BloodyUseless · 04/12/2018 18:22

That's already one of the established theories. The post office bit is to distract you from the hilarious revelation that the word for and four sound alike.

DerekTheWonderdog · 04/12/2018 18:26

Valenta your theory hurt my head.

You all know this thread's going to fill up soon? Then what? Thursday will never come 👀😬

DryIce · 04/12/2018 18:26

I read this whole thread. I am kind of ashamed

ScreamingValenta · 04/12/2018 18:27

"Boz" was an early pen-name of Charles Dickens, if anyone can do anything with that (I have tried and failed).

My instincts tell me the joke must be around the misinterpretation of the exclamation 'Bos' as an instruction or warning that would lead the subject of the joke to walk up some steps.

AliceLateAgain · 04/12/2018 18:29

Fair enough.

I still think it's a family 'in-joke where you need to know of some other tale to make sense of this one. Which is why new family members need time to get it.

I bet it's hilarious when you know the connecting piece Hmm

VisitorsEntrance · 04/12/2018 18:30

What we have learned is that these are a family of smug dicks.

SlowNorris · 04/12/2018 18:36

Who wants to chip in for an application under the Freedom of Information Act?

(Although I’m still certain circle cracked it a few pages ago)

BloodyUseless · 04/12/2018 18:37

And please let's not make a new thread.

OP can make one if she gets the answer on Thursday.

settmenu · 04/12/2018 18:44

Hands down, biggest anticlimax of 2018.