On a flight from London to the U.S., a law student takes a seat next to a veteran lawyer. The veteran lawyer sizes the student up and suggests, “Let’s play a game.”
“What game?” asks the student.
“I ask you a question. If you can’t answer it, you give me five pounds. Then you ask me a question. If I can’t answer it, I give you fifty pounds.”
“All right, let’s play,” the student agrees.
“I’ll go first,” says the veteran lawyer. “What is habeas corpus?”
The student quietly hands him five pounds, then asks the question. “What is grey and purple and chartreuse when it goes up the hill with three legs, then is blue and red and white when it comes down the hill on one leg?”
“I don’t know,” says the veteran lawyer, handing the student fifty pounds. Then he asks in turn, “So what is it?”
The student hands him five pounds.
Source
Adapted from Carroll, Noel. Humour: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2014.
