Rhetorical Question Blunder/Quotes

"Stephen Fry: And to General Ignorance, where we ask Alan Davies...is this a rhetorical question?


 * awkward pause*

Alan Davies: (hesitantly) No.


 * another pause*

Stephen Fry: Quite right."

- QI

"Clive Anderson: What's the point of rhetorical questions?"

- QI

"Reg: And what have [the Romans] ever given us in return?

Xerxes: ...The aqueduct?

Reg: What?

Xerxes: The aqueduct.

Reg: Oh yeah, yeah they gave us that. Yeah. That's true.

Masked Commando: And the sanitation!


 * Much later**

Reg: All right... But apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?

Xerxes: ...Brought peace.

Reg: Oh, peace... Shut up!"

- Life of Brian

"Mona Simpson: [singing] How many roads must a man walk down before you can call him a man?

Homer: Seven.

Lisa: No, dad, it's a rhetorical question.

Homer: Rhetorical eh? Eight.

Lisa: Dad, do you even know what "rhetorical" means?

Homer: Do I know what "rhetorical" means?"

- The Simpsons, "Mother Simpson"

"Hobbes: I thought that question was rhetorical.

Calvin: The other way, though!"

- Calvin and Hobbes