I NEED MORE ABOUT BOS WELL - solve a riddle part two

[Bamchicabaawaa]

I have just read forty pages of thread and it’s almost full! Let us congregate here for answers!

@Drogosnextwife I believe that the answer to the question "is it that there is no answer" is yes.

But some people who have figured it out are refusing to answer your question, because if they do it will mean that "there is no answer" is no longer accurate /correct /true. Because telling you that there is no answer means that in fact there is an answer (the answer being "there is no answer").

Yes

There isn't an answer- that much is correct.

But my response implies some degree of humour (although after 20 years it isn't exactly hilarious)

And you shouldn't tell the response/ answer because the person you're telling doesn't "know him as Well"

I don't feel any further on. Let alone satisfied. Or amused.

WOULD SOMEONE MIND PLEASE TELLING ME WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED HERE??

It was me that posted the summary of theories to date at the start

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3442896-I-NEED-MORE-ABOUT-BOS-WELL-solve-a-riddle-part-two?watched=1&msgid=83084636#83084636

I've returned to 26 pages of drivel comprising:

1. The OP saying

anyway, THEN, as a DIRECT RESULT of this thread.....I GOT IT.

The BAD news is.....I really can't tell you the answer. BUT as I genuinely do feel bad about this I will tell you that none of the theories in the long post towards the top of this thread listing the various theories is correct. However, one or two people in the thread HAVE got it.

1. A bunch of people suggesting that "there is no correct answer" and that is the answer that can't be told because telling it means there is a correct answer or some other such existentialist junk. THIS HAS TO BE JUNK BECAUSE THERE IS NO QUESTION IN THE "JOKE" TO BE ANSWERED. IT IS NOT EXPRESSED AS A RIDDLE.

1. A bunch of other people who claim to have "got it" but won't say. I think these are shameless Mornington Crescenters myself.

I'd like to remind you all (including @killingtime9198)

of the original post which read:

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!

COUNT HOW MANY TIMES THE WORD "JOKE" APPEARS IN THIS POST!

IT CARRIES ON:

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 IS REPEATED REFERENCE TO "GETTING A JOKE" AND "GOT IT". THAT DOES NOT FIT AT ALL WITH THE EXISTENTIALIST GARBAGE OF "THERE IS NO CORRECT ANSWER" BECAUSE THAT IS NOT A "JOKE".

WHAT IS GOING ON? I AM SHOUTING INTO THE WIND AND DARKNESS AS I GO MAD.

WHAT IS THE JOKE?

@BoswellsLastStand read my posts and see what you think. I'm bored and taking over the posting as it's mid day where I am

If "there is no answer" is the answer then it is very unsatisfying, very unamusing and pretty shit. If I were the OP and had spent 20 years agonising over this riddle I would be hugely disappointed and a little annoyed at this complete anti climax of a "solution"

But how do you know that there is no answer - you can not validate it - there is no light bulb moment as you can not confirm that what you think is the truth.

I like "I know him as well" but doesn't explain the half knowing but which neither does the no answer bit

None of these answers are a light bulb knowing for sure (or for short )

You cannot just decide that you know for sure with no confirmation of a clever play on words unless the solution really does clear it up and there being no answer does not do that.

It would be good to get confirmation of the facts as the op posted and just quoted just before my post to see if they still hold true now that she knows the answer.

@coolwalking

Exactly!! The joke is that some people know him as bos but you know him as "well". Boswell

If you don't know him as well then you don't have the answer and can't be told

If this is right I apologise for ruining the suspense lol

Well that is very vaguely amusing but still doesn't deal with the problem of the "walked up the post office steps/approached the library".

If you are right that part is totally superfluous.

It also doesn't explain why the OP wouldn't explain this joke to the rest of us and said she can't.

That's a good suggestion though and the best by a long long way.

To be honest, my main thoughts now are that Boswell can pretty much go and fuck himself.

The OP is long gone and likely doesn't care beyond mild amusement that we're still discussing it. The only reason we're still debating this is because we're trying to find closure. It will come naturally in 13 pages time and long as some masochist doesn't start another thread.

@MemorialBeach - I think that is the reason why a few PP (including the OP) preferred to play along the logic of the riddle and not tell

@BoswellsLastStand I think it's part of the "joke"

Unless you know Boswell then you can't say " I know him as well"

I think the paint fumes have gone to my head. Really hoping this is on the right track.

Don't understand the post office library bit either....

It can't be "there is no answer" though because as I've just posted, it does not fit at all with the OP's original post that this was "a joke" that people "got".

"There is no answer" is more akin to "a riddle" that you "work out" not a joke that you get. Plus there is no question in the text as written. It's not a riddle with a question.

There is no answer must be wrong - unless the OP deliberately set the whole thing up to pretend it was a joke when it wasn't even that or a riddle.

Remember the old days where there were no Boswell threads. I miss those days. They feel like a million years ago now.
I just want my old life back it isn't much to ask.

@BoswellsLastStand missed out a part -

You can't be told that you know someone if you don't.....

The bloody post office though.....

Everyone saying there is no answer didn't read the first OP properly.

It's not a question so there is no answer but there is a response which makes it a "joke"

@coolwalking

I feel like it's very close to your suggestion but it's not quite right because of the post office steps/approach the library.

If you were right just on that bit of "you know him as well". The joke would work as

'There once was a man called Boswell. For short they called him Bos" full stop.

It also still doesn't explain why the posters who claim to have "got it" won't say. I get that if you don't know him you don't know him, but the nature of your suggestion is something that could be explained.

Where as the posters were all saying "I CAN'T tell you" not "I am not willing to" or "I am unable to explain it because it will spoil the joke".

I agree with you that the there is no answer posse must be wrong because the OPs original post expresed it as a joke to be got. There is no question in the joke. So there being "no answer" is not funny nor does it make any sense when there is no question.

This is very irritating and unsatisifying bullshit.

The joke is on you for thinking there is an answer...
As soon as you realise there is no answer, that it is a dead end you get the joke...

As I said before... How do you keep an idiot in suspense?

There once was a man called Boswell for short. They called him “Bos!” and he walked up the post office steps.

Change the punctuation.

There once was a man called Bos. Well for short they called him Bos” and he walked up the post office steps.

It could be “what is Bos short for and they have to say “they don’t know, I can’t tell you”.
Or something to do with And he being Andi

OK WHAT ABOUT THIS!!

There once was a man called Boswell, and for short he was known as bos. And he walked up the post office steps as well

@cool OP said one or two people had got it but it wasn't in the list I posted. This was a later addition. Do you think there maybe something in this?

@mummmy2017
Now this is weird...
Just told my Oh half this joke...

When he read it out.... I said AND...
He said oh you know him do you....

So maybe his name is AND and the joke only works and is finally finished when someone says it and the other person says AND as an answer.

Where as the posters were all saying "I CAN'T tell you" not "I am not willing to" or "I am unable to explain it because it will spoil the joke".

Different posters used slightly different wording for this. I think derek said in the 'spirit' of the joke/riddle. bloodyuseless said she was 'following the rules'. I believe they mean the same, you cannot say it because once you said it is no longer true etc etc etc

Oh and I think the word joke was used wrongly

Maybe Bos was at the post office because he's WELL LOST

@IamAporcupine my theory fits with the spirit of the joke