# And then there were fewer....
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-fewer/679205
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [January 19, 2014, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-fewer/679205 "2014-01-19T15:14:46Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@compositejoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/compositejoe)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2014, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-fewer/679205/1 "2014-01-19T15:14:46Z")
Imagine this scenario: You are sent an anonymous letter inviting you and your family to a dinner party. Many of your friends and work colleagues are sent the same invites to this dinner party. When you get to the address shown on the invitation, you find that you are at an isolated mansion of a very famous person who you, your family and your friends etc know very well and this person wants to make amends with them for his various wrongdoings to them over the years.
During the dinner party, one of the guests gets killed. Panic and chaos ensues. All of the guests start trying to leave, but they can’t, because the bridge to the mansion, (the mansion is on a tiny island, with a bridge to access the mansion) has been broken in a heavy thunderstorm.
The famous person who invited everyone to the dinner party also gets killed, and nobody can call the emergency services due to the landline not working and no mobile phone signal being available due to the mansion being in such a remote area.
All of the guests search for more clues, and unfortunately, more of the guests get killed, and later on, the killer is caught and in the morning arrested. However, it turns out they were innocent and you find the real killer, and they threaten to kill you, as you might blab about it to everybody else.
How would you feel about the entire thing? Would you end up feeling traumatized for the rest of your life, seeing so many people die, then nearly being killed yourself?
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### Author:  [@Silver\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Fire)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2014, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-fewer/679205/2 "2014-01-19T15:17:51Z")
I don’t think I’d like it very much at all.
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### Author:  [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2014, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-fewer/679205/3 "2014-01-19T15:19:46Z")
Sounds like Murder by Death. Try again.
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2014, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-fewer/679205/4 "2014-01-19T15:29:45Z")
> [@sinjin](#):
>
> Sounds like Murder by Death. Try again.
Which is based on the book “And Then There Were None”, hence the thread title, though I’m guessing the OP was thinking of the Family Guy episode And Then There Were Fewer, also based on the book.
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### Author:  [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2014, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-fewer/679205/5 "2014-01-19T15:46:21Z")
Only in books and movies do people start to look for clues.
In real life, we panic and freak out.
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### Author:  [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2014, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-fewer/679205/6 "2014-01-19T16:44:18Z")
Everyone knows that the third or fourth victim is really the killer, faking his own death to avoid suspicion. I’d have figured it out early on in the proceedings.
Bonus Question: can anyone tell us the \*original \*name of the Christie book, before they went and made it all politically correct?
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### Author:  [@bobkitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobkitty)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2014, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-fewer/679205/7 "2014-01-19T17:15:25Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#):
>
> Bonus Question: can anyone tell us the \*original \*name of the Christie book, before they went and made it all politically correct?
Ten Little N\*\*\*ers.
(an interim title, Ten Little Indians, was also used)
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### Author:  [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2014, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-fewer/679205/8 "2014-01-19T17:17:33Z")
^^^^ Chicken Dinner!
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### Author:  [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2014, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-fewer/679205/9 "2014-01-19T17:28:07Z")
Well, if I’m Lori Alan, I wonder what I did to deserve getting killed off and not ever being given another character to voice since then. (Even the “dead” James Woods was brought back to life in a later episode.) I also wonder how the back of the mansion suddenly got a lot larger, when an early shot shows that the back is pretty much right up against the cliff.
For that matter, I wonder why everyone would suddenly believe that the real killer did it, seeing as how her body would be found at the bottom of the cliff with a bullet hole going through her.
For those of you who don’t know, the OP is describing an episode of _Family Guy_ which was not so much a mystery as it was a convenient excuse to get rid of some characters.
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### Author:  [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2014, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-fewer/679205/10 "2014-01-19T17:36:34Z")
> [@compositejoe](#):
>
> How would you feel about the entire thing? Would you end up feeling traumatized for the rest of your life, seeing so many people die, then nearly being killed yourself?
I’d be fine with it. I’m actually the real killer, as it turns out.
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### Author:  [@compositejoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/compositejoe)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2014, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-fewer/679205/11 "2014-01-19T18:52:27Z")
> [@Giraffe](#):
>
> I’d be fine with it. I’m actually the real killer, as it turns out.
Why did you try and frame me for it then? 😕:mad:
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### Author:  [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2014, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-fewer/679205/12 "2014-01-19T19:50:27Z")
Sounds like a party to remember.
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### Author:  [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2014, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-fewer/679205/13 "2014-01-19T23:57:22Z")
BTW, the story is also much like _The Last of Sheila_ – a good movie which, now 40 years old, may not be well known.
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### Author:  [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2014, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-fewer/679205/14 "2014-01-20T01:19:47Z")
I’d go.
😉
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### Author:  [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2014, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-fewer/679205/15 "2014-01-20T02:04:13Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#):
>
> Only in books and movies do people start to look for clues.
>
> In real life, we panic and freak out.
Nonsense. We keep calm and carry on.
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### Author:  [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2014, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-fewer/679205/16 "2014-01-20T02:24:08Z")
> [@j666](#):
>
> Nonsense. We keep calm and carry on.
Some do. Alas, some don’t. Worse, some try to restore order, sometimes ham-fistedly, and only make things worse. We’re a diverse lot!
And…fuck yeah I’d be traumatized the rest of my life.
(Which might not be long, because I would blab to the cops!)
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### Author:  [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2014, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-fewer/679205/17 "2014-01-20T02:27:19Z")
I would medicate myself with a bottle of scotch and a candlestick in the Billiard room.
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### Author:  [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2014, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-fewer/679205/18 "2014-01-20T03:10:22Z")
But, no, I don’t think I’d look for clues.
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### Author:  [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2014, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-fewer/679205/19 "2014-01-20T03:20:48Z")
At the first opportunity, I’d find the little kid with the bow tie and glasses and ask him who the real killer is.
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### Author:  [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2014, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-fewer/679205/20 "2014-01-20T20:03:24Z")
I’d give Scooby AND Shaggy a Scooby snack then sit back and laugh at their slapstick antics which ultimately result in unmasking the killer.
Really, y’all, life is easy.
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