# 20 questions **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 15, 2003, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/20-questions/195457 "2003-08-15T20:25:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![elusive\_mind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/aeb1de/32.png) [@elusive\_mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elusive_mind)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/20-questions/195457/1 "2003-08-15T20:25:36Z")
I heard the “Twenty Questions” is some kind of phrase. Can anyone tell me where I can find more info or what it means? Google just give me random stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/20-questions/195457/2 "2003-08-15T20:27:47Z")
It’s a party game. [Here](http://www.partydirectory.com/games/g017.htm) are the rules. ---
**Author:** ![bernse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@bernse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bernse)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/20-questions/195457/3 "2003-08-15T20:58:39Z")
20 questions in total, right? Not 20 questions per guest…? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/20-questions/195457/4 "2003-08-15T21:03:41Z")
Twenty questions total. You can play it online [here](http://y.20q.net:8095/btest). ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/20-questions/195457/5 "2003-08-15T22:48:22Z")
For amusement while we’re driving, we play N-Questions and don’t worry about the count. Just keep going until the item is found. Our main reason for that is that we have enlarged the scope of the guessed item from just the _physical object_ implied by the animal/vegetable/mineral stipulation. We have included concepts, sayings, pieces of poetry, all sorts of things that have no physical substance. It can make the miles fly by. ---
**Author:** ![dead0man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/edb3f5/32.png) [@dead0man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dead0man)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/20-questions/195457/6 "2003-08-15T23:45:12Z")
Thanks for wasting my time **Walloon**. Of course I am amused easily. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2003, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/20-questions/195457/7 "2003-08-16T04:32:13Z")
More generally, if somebody is asking you a lot of questions that you think are trivial and making you answer, you can say, “What’s with the 20 questions?” It’s like you think they’re making a game out of what you’re talking about, used with a certain amount of annoyance. It means roughly the same thing as, “I didn’t expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition!” ---
**Author:** ![Stage\_Manager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stage_manager/32/7267_2.png) [@Stage\_Manager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stage_Manager)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2003, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/20-questions/195457/8 "2003-08-16T05:53:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Achernar \* > \*\*“I didn’t expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition!” \*\* Of course not! (wait for it…) NOBODY expects … The Spanish Inquisition!!! Really…I had to. Ow! Stop hitting me! ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2003, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/20-questions/195457/9 "2003-08-17T03:51:22Z")
A simarlary fun game is Initials, where you give the initials of the famous person you’re thinking of and the other person has 20 yes/no questions to guess. In a wierd mind-meld session, I was given TMH, and in six questions I got it right: Tom Mix’s Horse. Don’t ask how I am aware of this before-my-time factoid, or why the other person thought to come up with such an obscure reference (which breaks the rules, since the true name of Tom Mix’s Horse is Tony, and thus I should have been given just T). I got it so readily since, once I asked if the person was human, and got a no, I associated the H with horse, and the rest is history. If you’re going to play this with others, choose people with uncommon first names. To date, I’ve had no one able to come up with Dustin Hoffman within 20 questions. ## Peace. “M” ---
**Author:** ![Stage\_Manager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stage_manager/32/7267_2.png) [@Stage\_Manager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stage_Manager)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2003, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/20-questions/195457/10 "2003-08-17T04:02:28Z")
Oh, I could. I idolize Dustin Hoffman.