h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

hmmm............

But you didn't ask one :-| ?

Very true, i wasn't clever enough to think of a way of wording one, unfortunately

How do i get out of this mess ?

Damn In hindsight, i should have said 'How do you ask a rhetorical question ?'

It's easy to ask a rhetorical question...
You just...
Um..
Er...
You could always... hmm,no....
Well you could... er...
Jeez! How stupid am I?
I can't even think of a rhetorical question...

Hee hee, i like it..........

To be or not to be ........... is that a question

I'm not sure whether the tricky bit really is to ask or to answer a rhetrical question, but I would like to know if all questions posed when alone can be classified as rhetorical. I think that what I am asking is: is a question rhetorical just because you don't expect an answer (such as most of those that I ask my kids) even though the question itself can actually be answered.

a good point, likewise if you ask a rhetorical question but someone answers it anyway, does it cease to be rhetorical???

I wassn't expecting an answer when i asked the original question and yet here we are days later........

Parent:Do you want me to ssend you to your room?
Kid: Duh... Yea....

A dumb kid ruining a great rhetorical question.
It ceases to be rhetorical and becomes stupid.
Theres a nice example

I wonder if I'll attempt to reply ironically, but fail?

Well if you don't i will

Actually I just did, didn't I?

The problem here is, if i answer you it ruins your rhetorical question

Ooooh, don't you DARE...

Well, thats killed this forun then, hasn't it ?

But that's not really a rhetorical question, it's a statement. (Just because you put a question mark after it doesn't count, either.. that just means you're not the best at punctuation. )

Nope.

I cuss you educated folks bad.

That's not a rhetorical question (or answer) either.
P.S. To those educated folks who have not been too severly cussed to answer this - what is the correct punctuation mark for a statement that you find questionable (such as the one I started this post with)?

I've always found ................... to be effective.

Whether this is correct is, of course, an entirely different matter