# Two truths and a lie **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [June 25, 2008, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-truths-and-a-lie/454166 "2008-06-25T04:39:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2008, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-truths-and-a-lie/454166/1 "2008-06-25T04:39:22Z")
I know this has been done, but not recently, so let’s do it. Stories must be provided upon request and no making it sound way juicier through choice word selection (i.e. "I shot the president . . . _with a camera!_, “I got bit by a tiger . . . _cub!_”, etc.) Give reasons for your guesses since any random guess has a 1 in 3 chance of being right. 1. I have had large roles in independent films 2. I have been to a Ku Klux Klan rally 3. I briefly dated a model who is famous in her home country of Brazil ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2008, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-truths-and-a-lie/454166/2 "2008-06-25T04:54:41Z")
I theorize it’s #1. #2 really isn’t that shocking a thing for anyone to do, really, and is something that can easily be done by accident or morbid curiosity. #3 just FEELS true to me somehow. Plus, it’s more “unique” than #1, which gives it an aura of authenticity to me. ---
**Author:** ![SSG\_Schwartz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SSG\_Schwartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSG_Schwartz)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2008, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-truths-and-a-lie/454166/3 "2008-06-25T05:33:32Z")
1. I have shot and killed someone 2. I have been on a professional Mountain Bikers track 3. I ran 3 naked laps around the barracks at my station in South Korea. SSG Schwartz ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2008, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-truths-and-a-lie/454166/4 "2008-06-25T05:34:34Z")
I think #1 is the lie. I think you’ve been in independent films, but haven’t had “large roles”. #2 is the sort of thing that people might think you’d lie about because it’s the sort of thing you might not admit if it was true. But I think it’s a fake out. #3 is just specific enough to be true. Here are three for me: 1. When I was a kid I accidentally set my bed on fire. 2. I once went skinny-dipping in the Great Salt Lake. 3. I knew someone who was murdered by a mafia hitman. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2008, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-truths-and-a-lie/454166/5 "2008-06-25T05:55:02Z")
Oh, and my own… 1. A famed TV and comic book writer once told me to “fuck off!” 2. As a teaching assistant, I almost failed a future NFL player. 3. A distant relative of mine created a VERY well-known YouTube video/craze. ---
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2008, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-truths-and-a-lie/454166/6 "2008-06-25T06:59:26Z")
[QUOTE=SSG Schwartz] 1. I have shot and killed someone 2. I have been on a professional Mountain Bikers track 3. I ran 3 naked laps around the barracks at my station in South Korea. SSG Schwartz [/QUOTE] 1. I think I would have remembered you mentioning this.\*\* lie\*\* 2. Plausible. **truth** 3. I’m almost sure you’ve done this, or at least are capable. **truth** Here’s mine: I have been attacked by 1) bats, 2) a giant moth, and 3) llamas. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2008, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-truths-and-a-lie/454166/7 "2008-06-25T12:10:10Z")
[QUOTE=Pochacco] I think #1 is the lie. I think you’ve been in independent films, but haven’t had “large roles”. #2 is the sort of thing that people might think you’d lie about because it’s the sort of thing you might not admit if it was true. But I think it’s a fake out. #3 is just specific enough to be true. Here are three for me: 1. When I was a kid I accidentally set my bed on fire. 2. I once went skinny-dipping in the Great Salt Lake. 3. I knew someone who was murdered by a mafia hitman. [/QUOTE] I agree with the two assessments of the OP so far. For yours, #2 is the lie - #3 is unusual enough that you wouldn’t make it up, same for #1 - “When I was a kid” is a double-bluff, trying to get us to think you made it up. > [@Leaper](#): > > 1. A famed TV and comic book writer once told me to “fuck off!” > 2. As a teaching assistant, I almost failed a future NFL player. > 3. A distant relative of mine created a VERY well-known YouTube video/craze. #3 is the lie - I can easily see how famous people get irrationally annoyed once in a while, and #2 is very specific, whereas #3 - “a distant relative of mine” - doesn’t wash. Mine: 1. I once fell asleep in a bar toilet and almost got locked in after closing time 2. I have won a TV quiz show 3. Andy Murray used to be a member of my tennis club ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2008, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-truths-and-a-lie/454166/8 "2008-06-25T13:03:56Z")
[QUOTE=Dead Cat] 1. I once fell asleep in a bar toilet and almost got locked in after closing time 2. I have won a TV quiz show 3. Andy Murray used to be a member of my tennis club [/QUOTE] 4. True. That can happen. 5. It’s happened to other Dopers. True. 6. Who the hell is Andy Murray? So obscure it’s got to be false. My own: 1. My dad worked for NASA. 2. I’m related to Herbert Hoover. 3. I used to be friends with an Academy Award winner. ---
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2008, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-truths-and-a-lie/454166/9 "2008-06-25T13:11:11Z")
**tdn** : 1 & 3 = true ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2008, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-truths-and-a-lie/454166/10 "2008-06-25T13:25:09Z")
In a Homer Simspon/George Constanza vein, two of the following statements are true and one is a lie. 1 - I have taken and then eaten food “off the top” of the trash in a garbage can. 2 - I have eaten food left behind by a stranger on a table at McDonald’s (without having seen the person leave the food behind). 3 - I have eaten food left behind by a stranger on a NYC subway seat (without having seen the person leave the food behind). ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2008, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-truths-and-a-lie/454166/11 "2008-06-25T14:13:14Z")
[QUOTE=bbs2k] Here’s mine: I have been attacked by 1) bats, 2) a giant moth, and 3) llamas. [/QUOTE] Hmmm. I’ll go with “bats” as the false one. Moth’s don’t really “attack” people, but they certainly can buzz by real close and freak you out; Llamas are often in petting zoos and, if they’re anything like the goats they physically resemble, could well have mounted an assault. Bats, on the other hand, would probably just ignore you. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2008, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-truths-and-a-lie/454166/12 "2008-06-25T14:19:05Z")
1. I have never separated a joint 2. I have never broken a bone 3. I have never received stitches ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2008, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-truths-and-a-lie/454166/13 "2008-06-25T14:21:41Z")
[QUOTE=bbs2k] **tdn** : 1 & 3 = true [/QUOTE] #3 is true. And I am related to Herbert Hoover. My dad never worked for NASA. He worked at a company that worked for NASA, but he was one of the few who didn’t work on that project. Feeling frustrated, he quit and took another job in a different state. A month or so later, his former company lost the NASA contract and laid off about 90% of its work force. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2008, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-truths-and-a-lie/454166/14 "2008-06-25T14:26:41Z")
[QUOTE=Cisco] 1. I have had large roles in independent films [/quote] **True**. I’ve been acting for about 4 years now and I’ve gotten some big roles in some very small films. I just got the DVD of a movie I did last summer. It’s _awful_ :). > [@Cisco](#): > > 1. I have been to a Ku Klux Klan rally **True**. The KKK held a huge outdoor march/rally in the downtown part of my sleepy southern town when I was 7 and my dad took us there “to teach us a lesson.” I quickly lost interest and ran off to smash pennies on the railroad tracks with a classmate I ran into. Now I wonder what he was doing there . . . > [@Cisco](#): > > 1. I briefly dated a model who is famous in her home country of Brazil Hah, I wish! Constructed to sound like the truth, and executed perfectly! ---
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2008, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-truths-and-a-lie/454166/15 "2008-06-25T17:03:55Z")
[QUOTE=robardin] Hmmm. I’ll go with “bats” as the false one. Moth’s don’t really “attack” people, but they certainly can buzz by real close and freak you out; Llamas are often in petting zoos and, if they’re anything like the goats they physically resemble, could well have mounted an assault. Bats, on the other hand, would probably just ignore you. [/QUOTE] How very astute! I was actually referring specifically to a petting zoo incident that got out of hand with goats; and I swear to this day that there was this one crazy Australian moth that would not leave me in peace for about twenty minutes. Bats though, especially the fruit bats I’ve met, I find adorable. ---
**Author:** ![trustno\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc29f/32.png) [@trustno\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/trustno_1)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2008, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-truths-and-a-lie/454166/16 "2008-06-25T17:21:02Z")
Ok I’ll play but I warn you I have had a boring life! 1. Ive climbed to the top of Mt Kilimanjaro 2. I had an affair with my married music teacher 3. I had a threesome in my local park as a teenager with my boyfriends two best friends ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2008, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-truths-and-a-lie/454166/17 "2008-06-25T17:24:59Z")
[QUOTE=trustno\_1] 1. Ive climbed to the top of Mt Kilimanjaro [/QUOTE] That one is false. You were too busy mounting dudes to mount anything else. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2008, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-truths-and-a-lie/454166/18 "2008-06-25T17:26:45Z")
[QUOTE=Dead Cat] I agree with the two assessments of the OP so far. For yours, #2 is the lie - #3 is unusual enough that you wouldn’t make it up, same for #1 - “When I was a kid” is a double-bluff, trying to get us to think you made it up. [/QUOTE] Nope … I never set my bed on fire when I was a kid. I did set my backyard on fire twice though … . As for the other two. I did go skinny-dipping in the Great Salt Lake. I was hanging out in Utah with some friends and we were talking about how the high saline content makes it easy to float. One girl and I decided to go check it out. And the mob hit was a friend of my fathers. He got mixed up in a crooked jai alai operation and got a bullet in the head while he was sitting in his car in a country club parking lot. The details eventually came out when the FBI broke up the Whitey Bulger gang. ---
**Author:** ![trustno\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc29f/32.png) [@trustno\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/trustno_1)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2008, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-truths-and-a-lie/454166/19 "2008-06-25T17:53:37Z")
**tdn** Im sorry to disappoint but I did infact climb Kili back in 2003! Ill leave it for ya to figure out if 2 or 3 is the other truth! Your comment made me laugh like hell tho! ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2008, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-truths-and-a-lie/454166/20 "2008-06-25T18:01:59Z")
[QUOTE=Dead Cat] #3 is the lie - I can easily see how famous people get irrationally annoyed once in a while, and #2 is very specific, whereas #3 - “a distant relative of mine” - doesn’t wash. [/QUOTE] Very correct! Man, thinking up the lie is really hard! Kudos to **Cisco** for his convincing one! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-truths-and-a-lie/454166.md?page=2)