# If you have the electronic "20 Questions" game . . .
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-have-the-electronic-20-questions-game/385577
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [December 26, 2006, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-have-the-electronic-20-questions-game/385577 "2006-12-26T02:03:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-have-the-electronic-20-questions-game/385577/1 "2006-12-26T02:03:57Z")
. . . I’d like you to try an experiment and report the results here:
Think of “hummingbird,” answer the questions accordingly, and tell us what it guesses.
This came up yesterday at our Christmas party, and I’d like to see what happens with more data points.
Thanks!
---
### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-have-the-electronic-20-questions-game/385577/2 "2006-12-26T02:10:24Z")
It’s first guess, after 17 questions, was “hummingbird.”
---
### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-have-the-electronic-20-questions-game/385577/3 "2006-12-26T02:11:26Z")
[QUOTE=twickster]
It’s first guess, after 17 questions, was “hummingbird.”
[/QUOTE]
Please ignore what looks like an apostrophe in the first word. It is, in fact, a fleck of hummingbird poop.
---
### Author:  [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-have-the-electronic-20-questions-game/385577/4 "2006-12-26T02:11:31Z")
I don’t have the electronic game, but I just played it at [20q.net](http://20q.net). I played the “Classic” version. It guessed phoenix, then bald eagle, then woodpecker, fossil, and tattoo. Then it gave up.
Judging by my experience with it, this is about average performance.
**Dung Beetle** has the handheld game, I know. Maybe she’ll stop by.
---
### Author:  [@Don26](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don26)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-have-the-electronic-20-questions-game/385577/5 "2006-12-26T02:18:06Z")
[QUOTE=Sattua]
I don’t have the electronic game, but I just played it at [20q.net](http://20q.net). I played the “Classic” version. It guessed phoenix, then bald eagle, then woodpecker, fossil, and tattoo. Then it gave up.
Judging by my experience with it, this is about average performance.
[/QUOTE]
I tried it at [20q.net](http://20q.net):
> [@](#):
>
> Q22. I am guessing that it is a hummingbird?
---
### Author:  [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-have-the-electronic-20-questions-game/385577/6 "2006-12-26T02:22:14Z")
Thanks for the replies so far, but (I think) I’m interested only in results from the handheld game, not the online version.
Interesting that so far I’m not seeing the results we got. (Will report later after we get a few more replies here.)
---
### Author:  [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-have-the-electronic-20-questions-game/385577/7 "2006-12-26T03:45:41Z")
I’ll get mine out of the drawer right now…
…It was somewhere between questions 18 and 20; it guessed hummingbird correctly.
---
### Author:  [@Surbey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surbey)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-have-the-electronic-20-questions-game/385577/8 "2006-12-26T04:20:18Z")
hummingbird, question 17
---
### Author:  [@Surbey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surbey)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-have-the-electronic-20-questions-game/385577/9 "2006-12-26T04:22:39Z")
could you post how you answered it?
---
### Author:  [@Queen\_Tonya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Tonya)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-have-the-electronic-20-questions-game/385577/10 "2006-12-26T04:49:56Z")
Hummingbird, first guess, Q20.
---
### Author:  [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-have-the-electronic-20-questions-game/385577/11 "2006-12-26T05:04:03Z")
1–animal, mineral, vegetable, other–ANIMAL
2–is it small? YES
3–is it usually colorful? YES
4–does it live in the forest? YES
5–can you buy it at a store? NO
6–does it bring joy to people? YES
7–do you know any songs about it? NO
8–does it stand on two legs? YES
9–is it involved in movies? NO
10–does it have a bill or a beak? YES
11–can it climb? DK
12–does it have a long tail? NO
13–is it heavier than a pound of butter? NO
14–can it fit in an envelope? NO
15–is it something you can purchase? NO
16–is it smaller than a loaf of bread? YES
17–does it have claws? NO
18–does it live in groups? DK
19–does it have a tail? YES
20–can it be stolen? NO
It’s a hummingbird?
---
### Author:  [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-have-the-electronic-20-questions-game/385577/12 "2006-12-26T15:04:32Z")
Hm, bizarre . . . my friends played it on two different games, and then we played it on two more different games at the party, and all four answered . . .
IS IT A HUMAN HEAD???
We tried all kinds of variations on possible answers (sometimes/unknown for the ones we weren’t 100% positive about) and always the same answer. Never got “hummingbird” as a response. (And at the party it was a group effort, with several nature lovers in attendance, so I’m sure we weren’t very far off in our answers.)
Perhaps just a local programming glitch on machines that were distributed in our area?
---
### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-have-the-electronic-20-questions-game/385577/13 "2006-12-26T15:43:10Z")
[QUOTE=Sattua]
**Dung Beetle** has the handheld game, I know. Maybe she’ll stop by.
[/QUOTE]
Hi! Unfortunately, I don’t have it with me, but I’ll give it a try tonight when I get home. Here’s hoping for "human head!
---
### Author:  [@Dinaroozie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinaroozie)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-have-the-electronic-20-questions-game/385577/14 "2006-12-26T15:44:33Z")
> [@Scarlett67](#):
>
> IS IT A HUMAN HEAD???
I think you have to consider the possibility that you’re in a horror movie right now.
---
### Author:  [@Alpine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alpine)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-have-the-electronic-20-questions-game/385577/15 "2006-12-26T15:47:24Z")
[QUOTE=Scarlett67]
Perhaps just a local programming glitch on machines that were distributed in our area?
[/QUOTE]
If so, it extends to the East Coast. The one my sister gave us also guessed a human head! The second guess was a dodo bird. Smaller than a bread box and lighter than a pound of butter - I don’t think so. :dubious:
---
### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-have-the-electronic-20-questions-game/385577/16 "2006-12-26T15:49:34Z")
What happens if you try human head?
---
### Author:  [@Alpine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alpine)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-have-the-electronic-20-questions-game/385577/17 "2006-12-26T15:55:07Z")
[QUOTE=Dung Beetle]
What happens if you try human head?
[/QUOTE]
Killer whale, then walrus.
---
### Author:  [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-have-the-electronic-20-questions-game/385577/18 "2006-12-26T15:59:19Z")
We got one of those yesterday. I don’t have it with me but I’ll try when I get home.
My daughter tried to get it to guess “baby” and after 3 tries, the guesses were zombie, armadillo and cadaver.
---
### Author:  [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-have-the-electronic-20-questions-game/385577/19 "2006-12-26T17:39:36Z")
Because my friends and I are five years old, we chose “penis” as the object for one of the games.
There were several questions that elicited a few chuckles from us like, “does it bring joy to people?” and “do you use it at night?”
But the one question to make us completely lose it for about five minutes was this: Does it come in a box?
Like I said, we’re five year olds.
---
### Author:  [@Renee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renee)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-have-the-electronic-20-questions-game/385577/20 "2006-12-26T18:18:21Z")
[QUOTE=Enderw24]
Does it come in a box?
[/QUOTE]
[Yes.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dmVU08zVpA)
(not completely safe for work-uses the word “dick”)
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-have-the-electronic-20-questions-game/385577.md?page=2)