Talk:169: Words that End in GRY

Ok, everything on this page, I already got. The bit I came here for, is the exact nature of the ambiguity. What is 'the phrase'?
"The English language that end in gry", he's wrong because there are more than three words.
"The English language", he's wrong because none of them end in gry.
"There are three words in the English language ...", wrong again because language isn't the third word.
So...? -- Zergling_man 58.96.88.83 15:24, 20 November 2012 (UTC)

The second paragraph in the explanation is what you are looking for. But as a brief overview: The reason it's easy to miss is that the words are written as a dialog would happen. If it had been properly punctuated it would have read "There are three words in 'the English language' that end with gry: 'Angry' and 'Hungry' are two. What's the third?" Cueball is saying there are three words in the phrase 'the English language' but to distract his intended victim he continues the sentence so the phrase is hidden among other words that, when taken as a whole, have a seeming continuity. This is why Black Hat cuts off Cueball's hand. Because the "joke" is not funny and being intentionally ambiguous and then being smug when the ambiguity has its intended effect is not humor. lcarsos_a (talk) 16:01, 20 November 2012 (UTC)