# Lateral Thinking Puzzles - third time is best! **URL:** \ **Category:** Thread Games\ **Created:** [July 18, 2023, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214 "2023-07-18T13:39:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 168
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2025, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/3341 "2025-06-11T23:14:36Z")
> [@Sigene](#): > > so…What are you saying? I offer to tell the guy something, wait for him to encourage me to do so, and then explain that I’m not as smart as somebody else. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2025, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/3342 "2025-06-12T15:49:29Z")
I’m voting for “give us the solution” at this point, but if others want to keep going, please feel free. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2025, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/3343 "2025-06-12T22:06:38Z")
Should I split the difference with a hint? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2025, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/3344 "2025-06-12T22:09:11Z")
I think we’re pretty well stuck, so yeah, a hint might be good. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2025, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/3345 "2025-06-12T22:10:20Z")
I’m saying it in response to being told a joke. ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2025, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/3346 "2025-06-14T03:41:08Z")
didn’t we already establish that this isn’t an “knock knock..Whos’ there…interupting rabbit” type joke? I seem to recall this was asked and the answer was ‘no’…but I didn’t easily find that this question was already asked and denied as the answer. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2025, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/3347 "2025-06-14T03:42:35Z")
Right; there’s no interruption. ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2025, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/3348 "2025-06-14T03:46:24Z")
well, I mean …‘no interruption’ is the joke… I go to a mark and tell them the ‘interrupting cow, knock knock joke.’ Then I tell them "now you do me…but do ‘interrupting rabbit’ . So my foil falls for it and says knock knock…but after they say ‘interrupting rabbit’ they are at a loss for how such a rabbit would interrupt. so “Right, there’s no interruption” is the joke where other people laugh at my targeted foil. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2025, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/3349 "2025-06-14T04:08:59Z")
Ah, got it. No, it’s nothing like that; they tell a joke that doesn’t really require me to say anything; _following_ that, I deliver a quick set-up, pause long enough to get their encouragement to proceed, and then I keep talking at ‘em — by insulting, if anything, only myself — until other people laugh and he doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2025, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/3350 "2025-06-14T04:20:20Z")
in the 4 times this has happened. Were they telling you the same joke that you had heard from the previous people? Or is the joke they are telling different…and irrelevent…to your follow up? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2025, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/3351 "2025-06-14T04:41:43Z")
It’s not the same joke that I’d heard from previous ones, but (a) it could’ve been, because (b) it’s the same _kind_ of joke, which is relevant. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/3352 "2025-06-18T11:51:49Z")
All apologies; I figured that, of all the things I could respond to with a joke, “a joke” would be the default guess — and, if I’m making a comment about my intelligence being lower than someone else’s, then, “a joke about someone’s intelligence being low” would be the default guess — and that, from there, you could pretty quickly zero in on, uh, default jokes of that sort and kludge together the details. Mea culpa. Anyway, years ago I got romantically involved with a Polish woman who had an interesting characteristic. And, some time later, a guy who didn’t know that loudly told me a Polish joke of the usual sort: _did you hear about the Polish X who was so dumb that he Y’d and Z’d?_ In the style of Johnny Carson remarking that it was so hot today — you know, to provoke a _how hot was it_ response — I matched his volume while going into a conspiratorial do-you-wanna-hear-a-punchline tone of voice, in hopes that he’d encourage me to tell him about, heh, “the smartest Polish woman I’d ever met.” And, once he did, I flatly stated that, “Well, she’s a lot smarter than me.” He didn’t laugh; the onlookers did; same story every time since… ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/3353 "2025-06-18T15:19:51Z")
Guess I’m an onlooker. I laughed. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/3354 "2025-06-18T15:35:18Z")
OK, next up, true story: My mom is very active at church, and knows and is known by a lot of people there. So it wasn’t too much of a surprise, about a month ago, when she got a text from someone saying that they weren’t going to be at church, but happy birthday anyway. What puzzled her, though, was that the number wasn’t in her contacts, and she wasn’t sure who would know her well enough to know her birthday, but who wouldn’t be in her contacts. But even though I don’t know the folks at church nearly as well as Mom does, I was able to correctly figure out who it was. How? ---
**Author:** ![Ana\_Byrd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Ana\_Byrd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ana_Byrd)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/3355 "2025-06-18T16:29:34Z")
Was it someone you know? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/3356 "2025-06-18T16:38:02Z")
I think you want to narrow down that question. ---
**Author:** ![Ana\_Byrd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Ana\_Byrd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ana_Byrd)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/3357 "2025-06-18T16:39:11Z")
Is it someone you know better than your mom does? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/3358 "2025-06-18T16:39:52Z")
No, it is not. ---
**Author:** ![Ana\_Byrd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Ana\_Byrd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ana_Byrd)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/3359 "2025-06-18T16:41:05Z")
Is it someone who has a particular reason to keep track of birth dates? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/3360 "2025-06-18T16:45:13Z")
I’m not entirely sure of the answer, but I think probably yes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214.md?page=167) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214.md?page=169)