History Main / StockLateralThinkingPuzzle

** Hank is asked this one in an episode of ''CornerGas'', and ends up suggesting that the doctor is a ''ghost''. Brent didn't get it either and asks for clarification of why Hank's theory couldn't be true.

* ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'': Thankfully, the questions are for what is essentially a [[FighterMageThief Jedi placement exam]], so there are no "wrong" answers - but the lateral ones imply you're a character who prefers thinking your way out of problems, as opposed to finessing or forcing.
** No, that's not what it was. Sorry for the nerd rage, but it was not a jedi test. You were trapped in a prison and had a riddle competition to decide who escapes. You ask the question, and the other fails.

** [[spoiler:Or fill the 5 gallon jug, empty it on the 3 gallon one and throw the 3 away, you now have 2 gallon on the 5 gallon jug. Put those 2 gallon on the 3 gallon jug, then fill the 5 gallon jug again; Now you have 2 gallons on the 3 gallon jug and 5 at the 5. Fill the 3 gallon jug with the water from the 5 gallon and throw the water of the 3 gallon jug away, you have exactly 4 gallon on the 5 gallon jug.]]

** ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' In this example the substance is gas pressure, but the method of solving it is exactly the same.

* ''Scrubs'': Used by JD to trick the Janitor and Troy with this puzzle, who are thoroughly confused by the wordplay. Their solution involves scouring a book for coin collectors, finding and [[ShownTheirWork pointing out a coin that the book prices at 29 cents]]. Their response at the end of the episode is to pose their own puzzle. "Two guys destroyed your bike with a softball bat and a crowbar, one of them wasn't me."

** Equally effective is the gender-flipped variation, where it is the boy's mother killed and a nurse objecting to the operation.

** This riddle and several other listed here are lampshaded in "The Office" (US) Season 3 Episode 5 - "The Initiation". Dwight is attempting to teach Ryan - padawan style - the ways of the (sales) force, and is testing his intellect with a series of these hoary old riddles. Ryan knows them all and Dwight gets very frustrated until by the end, Dwight only has to say "A hunter..." and Ryan answers: [[spoiler: It's a polar bear because you're at the North Pole. ]]

* '''Who's buried in Grant's Tomb?''' No-one is ''buried'', but Grant and his wife are ''entombed'' there.

* '''If a plane crashes exactly on a border, where are the survivors buried?''' The ''survivors'' are still alive and don't get buried anywhere.

* '''If a rooster lays an egg on the exact peak of a barn, which side does it fall?''' Roosters don't lay eggs.

* '''How many animals of each kind did Moses bring on the Ark with him?''' Moses didn't have an Ark - at least, not one of the sort that animals could be put aboard, which was actually ''Noah's'' claim to fame.

* '''Is the capital of Kentucky pronounced 'LOU-ee-vil' or 'LEW-iss-vil'?''' Neither, since the capital of Kentucky is Frankfort. (And it's pronounced 'FRANK-furt', though people not from around there might not know that.)

* '''How much dirt is there is a hole ___ by ___ by ___?''' There isn't any dirt in a hole.

* '''Floccinaucinihilipilification is a long word, how do you spell it?''' I, T spells "it"
** In a similar vein: "Railroad crossing, look at the cars; can you spell that without any R's?" Obviously, the answer is "T-H-A-T".
* '''Think of words that end with the letters "gry". "Angry" is one, "hungry" is another. What is the third word in the English language?"''' The answer is "language" - there are, of course, no other actual English words with the suffix "-gry".
** Really? I thought it was "gry," a long-obsolete unit of measure.

** Curiously, this puzzle was invented ''by mistake''. The original version merely asks for the third word ''containing'' "gry", which is "gryphon". Someone asked for a third word ''ending'' in "gry" by mistake, and since there isn't one, several trick answers (of which the "language" one is the most common) were invented to fill the vacuum.
** Er... Puggry is (one spelling for) a light scarf wrapped around a helmet, developed in India.
* Raymond Smullyan's ''What is the Name of This Book?'' includes puzzles which take the reader to an island of KnightsAndKnaves. One puzzle reads: "This time you come across just one inhabitant lazily lying in the sun. You remember that his first name is either Edwin or Edward, but you cannot remember which. So you ask him his first name and he answers 'Edward.' What is his first name?" [[spoiler:It's Edwin, because he was ''lying''.]]
* '''If two's company, and three's a crowd, what are four and five?''' Nine.
* '''What is the difference between here and there?''' The letter "t".
* '''Two girls look exactly alike, they were born on the same day, to the same mother, within an hour of each other, but they are not twins. How is this possible?''' [[spoiler: They are two out of a set of triplets.]]
* '''Jennifer is 20 years old in 1980, but 15 years old in 1985. How?''' [[spoiler: Because she's living in the years Before the Common Era.]]

* The most common form of the question is "A pound of gold or a pound of feathers"? The question is designed to play on the listener's inherent association of gold being heavier than feather. '''Standard Solution''': they both weigh the same since they're both a pound. However, not all examples are that easy to decipher. One standard solution subversion: [[spoiler: The feathers are heavier, since precious metals like gold are measured in Troy weight, not avoirdupois pounds.]]

Solution: [[spoiler: One, buses only have 1 driver regardless of the number of passengers. Other variants include asking the age or sex of the driver. The answer is whatever your age or sex is as 'you' are driving the bus.]]

* ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic''

** This riddle and several other listed here are lampshaded in "The Office" (US) Season 3 Episode 5 - "The Initiation". Dwight is attempting to teach Ryan - padawan style - the ways of the (sales) force, and is testing his intellect with a series of these hoary old riddles. Ryan knows them all and Dwight gets very frustrated until by the end, Dwight only has to say "A hunter..." and Ryan answers: [[spoiler: It’s a polar bear because you’re at the North Pole. ]]

* '''Jennifer is 20 years old in 1980, but 15 years old in 1985. How?''' [[spoiler: Because she's living in the years Before the Common Era.]]

* '''Jennifer is is 20 years old in 1980, but 15 years old in 1985. How?''' [[spoiler: Because she's living in the years Before the Common Era.]]

** This riddle and several other listed here are lampshaded in "The Office" (US) Season 3 Episode 5 - "The Initiation". Dwight is attempting to teach Ryan - padawan style - the ways of the (sales) force, and is testing his intellect with a series of these hoary old riddles. Ryan knows them all and Dwight gets very frustrated until by the end, Dwight only has to say "A hunter..." and Ryan answers: [[spoiler: It’s a polar bear because you’re at the North Pole. ]]

* "Two girls look exactly alike, they were born on the same day, to the same mother, within an hour of each other, but they are not twins. How is this possible?" [[spoiler: They are two out of a set of triplets.]]

** Used by SamualLJackson's character in {{Basic}}.

** This riddle and several other listed here are lampshaded in "The Office" (US) Season 3 Episode 5 - "The Initiation". Dwight is attempting to teach Ryan - padawan style - the ways of the (sales) force, and is testing his intellect with a series of these hoary old riddles. Ryan knows them all and Dwight gets very frustrated until by the end, Dwight only has to say "A hunter..." and Ryan answers: [[spoiler: It’s a polar bear because you’re at the North Pole. ]]

*** This was averted in an episode of ''TheGoldenGirls'', when it was the answer to Final Jeopardy in Dorothy Zbornak's dream sequence. Rose Nylund's response, "Who is ''Cary Grant''?" is deemed to be the correct response by both host Alex Trebek and series creator Merv Griffin.

[[spoiler: For those interested, there is 1 man, 7 wives, 49 sacks, 343 Cats and 2401 kits, making a total of 2801 going ''away'' from St. Ives. Some versions add "Each of the kits have 7 mitts" which would be an extra 16807 mitts for a total of 19608.]]
[[spoiler: The riddle could be played straight as there's nothing in the way it's phrased to make it impossible you OVERTOOK the group on the way to St. Ives - those sacks, cats and kits (and mitts if it's that version) would surely slow them down.]]

Solution:[[spoiler:Fill the 5, use that to fill the 3 gallon then empty the 3 gallon. You now have 2 gallons left in the five, pour into the 3 gallon jug. It now has one gallon of air left at the top, so fill the five gallon, pour out into the 3 until it's full and you're left with 4 gallons in the 5 gallon jug]]

** Used in ''Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.'' In this example the substance is gas pressure, but the method of solving it is exactly the same.