is there a such thing as a "stupid question"

well, is there?

Would not that presume a stupid answer?

If it's asked in a genuine desire for information, no (although if it an easily found answer, expect ribbing for not finding out on your own).

If it's asked to be "cute", or "clever", or to be a jackass, yes, hence the saying "There are no stupid questions, only stupid people." because it's the questioner who makes the question "stupid".

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"Yeah, you chew a little Juicy Fruit--it's good for your soul."
-J.B.

Your query posits its own answer.

(Unrelated to previous comment)
Yes. It's "Can I ask you a question?"

Another good stupid one is "Are you asleep?" Also, the ninth time you say the word wadayamean about the same exact thing it becomes stupid.

My dad had a college prof that presented these introductory remarks on the first day of the term for each new class:

There are three types of questions:
questions that seek information--these I will always answer;
questions that are asked to demonstrate the brilliance of the questioner--these I will answer if the answer is of benefit to the rest of the class;
questions that are asked to demonstrate the ignorance of the teacher--these I never answer.

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Tom~

I had a professor in grad school who refused to answer any question posed in this manner" This is probably a stupid question , but . . . ". If you asked him a question with a fairly obvious answer, he would answer. (In theory. In practice, he argued over almost every minor math error we caught him making, sign errors, and the like.)

A sample - you decide if it counts as a stupid question:

A girl I went to school with worked part time at one of those "educational toys" stores. A guy was buying an ant farm kit, which came in a shrink wrapped box. As she was ringing up the purchase he looked at it thoughtfully and then asked her:

"So, like, are the ants already in here or do I have to find my own?"

A stupid question is a poorly thought out question, usually one in which the questioner could answer if he put more thought into the question rather than experience diarrhea of the mouth.

<< "So, like, are the ants already in here or do I have to find my own?" >>

There are lots of questions that may be obvious to one person, but not to the other. I think your point, Miss Gretch, is that the person could have stopped and thought for about ten seconds and probably answered himself. But not necessarily. A question asked out of ignorance is not stupid. God knows, you should see some of the questions that Cecil gets.

I like Tomndeb's classifications.

What?Could you repeat the question?

I have to agree with Dandmb50. Every time we refrain from asking a question because we don't want to look stupid, we ARE being stupid!
And to Nicrz: to say "Can I ask you a question?" is redundant maybe, not stupid...

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Men will cease to commit atrocities only when they cease to believe absurdities.
-Voltaire

A stupid question is that question that you did not ask. No question is stupid.
I have asked questions all my life and some seem to be stupid, but if we do not ask questions we do not learn and learning is most important.
Some people say I "know" everything ?
No-one "KNOWS" everything unless they asked stupid questions.

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Please feel free to email me
Dandmb50@aol.com

A stupid question is a question that you did not ask? Then, any qustion you are thinking of asking has the potential to be stupid, but is not so. If you decide not to ask it, it becomes stupid. BUT the question, for all intents and purposes, does not exist anymore. Therefore, there is no such thing as a stupid question

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"I had a feeling that in Hell there would be mushrooms." -The Secret of Monkey Island

Diceman:

You contradict yourself... If the question EXISTS in your mind, at least for a few seconds, and you decide not to express it verbally to someone else in order to get an answer, it was then, according to your own words, a stupid question. Therefore, if I follow you correctly, there are TEMPORARY stupid questions, right?

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"Heaven and Hell have been located inside the human brain".
-John Taylor

skeptic:
Ahh, but the question doesn't become stupid until you decide not to ask it. It's not stupid while you're while you're mulling it over in your mind. When you discard the question, it becomes stupid. So it's possable to have a question that was stupid, but not one that is stupid.

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"I had a feeling that in Hell there would be mushrooms." -The Secret of Monkey Island

Diceman:

You win. Your handling of semantics is much, much better than was mine.

¡Salud!

Any question that answers itself is stupid, in my book. A person who asks "Can I ask you a question?" has already demonstrated their ability to do so.
(Questions such as "Where should I stick this?" do NOT qualify)

Here we go....!! Semantics again!

Nicrz says:

A person who asks "Can I ask you a question?" has already demonstrated their ability to do so.

What are you Nick? A language purist?

What do you answer when someone asks for a "glass of water"? "...Glasses are made of glass, not water..."?

When someone's asking if they 'can ask you something'(obviously it has to be a 'question'), they're implicitely requesting your permission to do so, without stating the subject of the question firsthand.

How would you construct the question in question (he, he...)? "Can I ask you?"

How do you ask for a cup of coffee? "...excuse me, waiter, can I have a cup filled with coffee?"

As far as I know, the word "can" is colloquially interchangeable with the word "may". You are being too literal, maybe.
Would things change if I say: "MAY I ask you something?"

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"then again, I might be wrong".
-Carl Sagan

One does not have to be a "language purist" to know the difference between "can I" and "may I." Too literal? A matter of semantics? Perhaps, but it also demonstrates a mastery of the English language and the use of proper manners when one seeking permission uses the word "may." Have you never been the victim of this exchange?:

"Can I have a cookie?"
"Yes, you can have a cookie, but no, you may not."

Children in my vicinity quickly learn which word to use, as I did when I was young. Oh - a "please" helps mightily, as well. I am of the humble opinion that the words and grammatical contructs we use in everyday life are one of the most important impressions we can make on those we communicate with. This case is similar to someone habitually using double negatives, in my book.

"Good manners don't cost nothing." And good grammar don't cost nothing, niether.

Well, Nick, you win too.
You see, English is not my natural language. I have learned it painfully over the years, and I agree with you, communication is VERY important!
But we cannot be TOO strict either. If we were, there would be no communication at all. If someone says "Can I ask you a question?", chances are that person is making a grammatical mistake, not a stupidity.
Are we going to call a stupidity ALL grammatical errors?

A person who asks "Can I ask you a question?" has already demonstrated their ability to do so. (my bolding)

their denotes plurality, A person is singular, isn't it?

And BTW, isn't the word 'neither' spelled like I just did?

And good grammar don't cost nothing, niether. (my bolding)

Wouldn't the right phrase be "...good grammar doesn't cost nothing, either."?

You see, I do not think that I master the English language, but for one that criticizes as much as you do, shouldn't YOU master it?

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Men will cease to commit atrocities only when they cease to believe absurdities.
-Voltaire

I can't figure out what the answer to the ant-farm question was. (I know that the ants weren't in the box...) My younger brother had one of those and it came with a coupon that you sent off to get some ants. The ants were huge black things that were much larger than our indigenous ants, and a lot easier to observe. So I'd say that if the customer's question was "Do I have to provide the ants on my own for this thing?", which is probably what he really wondered, then it's not so stupid. I don't know enough about ants to know how to build a self-sustaining colony in a glass box...

ES: Wow.. for someone who does not have English as their (note singular) first language, you sure do like to quibble with those who do.

My "Can I ask you a question" was meant as a humorous example of a stupid question one can have fun with. My typical reply is "You just did." (much laughter) Get it? Instead it turned into a pissing contest because you saw fit to take me to task as being "a language purist" over something that was incidental to the (admittedly lame) joke.

If all you want to do is assert your superior knowledge of grammar and syntax and what is and what is not "colloquially acceptable," please make sure the fly shit you're picking out of black pepper is indeed fly shit. You also might want to look into a little device known as "tongue in cheek."

Wouldn't the right phrase be "...good grammar doesn't cost nothing, either."?

No. The correct phrase is "Good grammar costs nothing." You simply eliminated my intentional triple negative and rephrased it as a double.

"May I borrow a tissue, please?"

-- "Sure. Here. You'll give it back when you're done, right?"

I can't believe I am going to drag Mickey Mouse in to this but what the heck! I attended a seminar that was put on by the Disney University. They were talking about customer service. They gave an example of one of the most often asked question at Disney Land. Picture this Cast Member (Disney Employee) and this poor sap coming up to him and posing the following question:

"What time is the 3 o'clock parade?"

Stupid question right? What they found out is that most of the people who come to the Theme Parks work from an agenda. At 0900 we'll be at Space Mountain, 10:30 we'll be at the Pirates of the Carribian and so on. So the question begs a question. They don't want to know when the 3 o'clock parade is. (That's because it's at 3 o'clock ya dummy!) What they really want to know is what time the 3 o'clock parade is going to pass by where they are going to be. So you ask them "where are you going to be at 3 o'clock?" and go from there. So I would argue that there is no such thing as a stupid question just a mis-phrased question. Remember every business has a "3 o'clock parade" question. Where you will distiguish yourself from you competitors is how you handle it.

My favorite stupid question happened at a KFC twenty years ago.

Me: "Three piece chicken dinner, please."
Counter person (while filling order): "How many pieces of chicken are in a three piece dinner?"
Me (shocked and amazed): "Uh, three."

I was kicking myself moments later for not saying "ten".

Along similar lines, try asking "How many sixteenths (or eighths, or thirty-seconds) are there in an inch?" You'll be surprised how many adults (and most children) will not be able to answer correctly.

How about "How many (whatever) are in a dozen?"

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"We're gonna have lawyers here. It'll be a fun time."
--R.R.S.

Seems to me that the only stupid questions are those that you already know the answer to. If you don't know the answer and you ask, it ain't a stupid question. By the way, things like requests (Can you lend me five bucks?) or permission (Can I go to the toilet?) aren't questions, they're speech acts. Yeah, grammatically, I know they're expressed in the question structure, but semantically, they're not, since they do not seek information.

Nick, you're way out of line on that "can" and "may" stuff. In modern American English both "can" and "may" serve to express permission.

You guys better watch out or I'm going to give you the whole English-teacher lesson on modal verbs.

Lawrence:

I agree with you, and I appreciate the English lesson. As I stated before, English is not my natural language, and every piece of help is always welcome!

Thanks.

"Seems to me that the only stupid questions are those that you already know the answer to. If you don't know the answer and you ask, it ain't a stupid question."

Speaking as a member of the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board, I'd have to say that it's a stupid question if the answer can be looked up in any dictionary or encyclopedia. And you'd be surprised to know how many people DO ask such questions, and then get offended when you tell them to look it up for themselves.


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Lynn the Packrat

Seemingly stupid question that actually has an interesting answer:

Which weighs more, a pound of gold or a pound of feathers?

The answer? The feathers, of course. Featers are weighed in pounds "avoirdupois" (that's French for "the normal pounds your bathroom scale is calibrated in"). Gold, on the other hand, is weighed in "pounds troy", which are slightly lighter than pounds avoirdupois.

Now, if you asked whether an OUNCE of feathers weighed more than and ounce of gold, the andswer would be, "No, the gold would weigh more." ... Because despite the troy-pound being smaller than the avoirdupois-pound, there are only 12 ounces troy in a pound troy (as opposed to the usual 16 ounces avoirdupois in a pound avoirdupois), and thus an ounce troy weighs more.

Gold, silver, platinum, palladium, and now rhodium, all have their going prices listed in the commodities markets in terms of dollars per Ounce Troy.

Just thought I'd throw that in here.

Sure, you can use the words "can" and "may" interchangeably. Chances are you'll be talking to an ignoramus who does not know the difference anyway.

In response to the contention that, "can I ask you a question?" is indeed a stupid question, I would like to point out that this question, or more accurately commonly used phrase, only takes three seconds to ask and I often use it as a precursor to a more complex question if I suspect the questioned is short on time.

[[Speaking as a member of the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board, I'd have to say that it's a stupid question if the answer can be looked up in any dictionary or encyclopedia. And you'd be surprised to know how many people DO ask such questions, and then get offended when you tell them to look it up for themselves.]] Lynn Bodoni

Yeah, I can see that. But - also speaking as a member of the SDSAB - this doesn't stop me (with mailbag questions)from giving the stock dictionary answer, then expanding on it with all the related interesting, esoteric, anecdotal and trivial stuff that I find out with further research. There may be stupid questions, but there are no simple questions.
Jill

[Seemingly stupid question that actually has an interesting answer:

Which weighs more, a pound of gold or a pound of feathers?]

Another is "Who is buried in Grant's Tomb?" I hear the correct answer is "Grant and his wife".

Well maybe not an interesting answer, but at least the question is not as stupid as it first appears.