What’s Black and White and Red All Over?

Ha! How ridiculous were these riddles from the 1970s and 1980s? The jokes were totally innocent and fabulously silly.

What’s black and white and red all over? Do you remember that riddle? There were two different answers that my challenged memory recalls.

1. The intellectual answer which plays on the homophonic words “red” and “read”: A newspaper! But now newspapers are obscure so this joke is probably meaningless to the younger generation!

2. The gross-factor answer: A skunk in a blender! Bah! Because these are the macabre things we thought were funny three decades ago!

I know there were many other variations of this riddle, so my curiosity was piqued and I did a little Google search which yielded these other answers:

3. A sunburned penguin.

4. An embarrassed skunk.

5. A zebra painted red.

I also discovered some less politically correct, incredibly insensitive, and not very socially acceptable answers. According to ask.com (the only resource I actually checked!), many variations of this “joke appeared in at least 21 collections of folk riddles published between 1917 and 1974.” (Hashtag useless information!)

When I did an image search for memes including this phrase, I discovered an overwhelming amount of perverted, disgusting, and only sometimes funny alternatives to the classic riddle. (Search at your own risk. You have been warned. It is difficult to shock me, but what I found out there was troubling to my maturing values.)

Back to the lighter side of this riddle…I love the phrase in reference to color combinations in clothing. Mostly because one of my favorite color pairings is black and white. So classic and clean. I love it even more with a splash of color…in particular red. When I realized that I wore this color pairing three times in the past two weeks, I thought a post about it was in order! So I have a new answer to “What’s black and white and red all over?” Answer: Shelbee’s outfits! (And hashtag dork!) Take a look.

Outfit 1: Red Polka Dot Pixie Pants with Black Tunic

Style note: The tunic I am wearing looked too shapeless, so I tied the sides to create a bit of a billowy shape. Better than no shape at all, I suppose!

Outfit 2: Black and White Shorts with Red Sweater

Outfit 3: Black and White Blouse with Red Cape

Which of my three black and white and red all over outfits do you like best? Do you have a favorite color combination? Do you have a favorite joke or riddle to share? We can all use a laugh! I will leave you with one of my all time favorites:

Keeping it on the edge,

Shelbee