So as I was laying awake in bed the other night, I was thinking about the question, “Can you hear me?”
If the person responds yes, then they were answering truthfully and can hear you. If they respond with no, they are being a wise ass and are effectively signalling that they can hear you. The only way to respond with a negative to this question would be to say “what?” and even then, the person might just be pulling your chain.
But anyhow, it’s clear that both a yes and a no response to the above question effectively mean yes.
Are there any other questions you can think of where both yes and no as a response would carry the same meaning? Is there a name for this type of thing?
Demetri Martin does a bit in his stand-up routine about how you get the exact same response when answering “yes” or “no” to the question “Are you ticklish?”
“That chap with the squeaky voice, Jon Anderson, didn’t he used to be in… what was the name of that band? Rush?”
“YES!”
“He was in Rush?”
“NO!”
“You just said he was in Rush.”
“NO! YES!”
“Well, make up your mind.”
Etc. You could string it out indefinitely. Like the old MST3K sketch where Mike says that he likes Japanese theatre. Noh theatre specifically: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa-Kx5M-8Ak
Don’t forget the third category where one or both of the answers “yes” and “no” are being interpreted as something other than their usual affirming/rebuffing meanings, like in post 2 or the one about the band.
And I pondered the ‘do you ever lie’ question, but the answers don’t have quite the same meaning; if you answer the question in the affirmative it will be taken as you saying that you think you’re REALLY honest, and if you answer in the negative you will be taken as not having that kind of ego/self-delusion.