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Motifs — first 20 of 108
- Dead man visiting wife deceived by wife's absurd actions – "no more absurd than ghost visiting wife". (Cf. E321.2, E474.) E432.2
- Complacent wife agrees with all of husband's absurd statements. H474
- Counterquestions. Riddles answered by a question that reduces the riddle to an absurdity. H571
- Reductio ad absurdum of riddle: stallions of Babylon. "Why is my mare restless when stallions of Babylon neigh?" Hero beats cat for having strangled a cock last night in Babylon (impossible distance away). H572
- Reductio ad absurdum of task. When an impossible task is given, the hero responds with a countertask so absurd as to show the manifest absurdity of the original task. (Cf. H1023.3.1, H1024.1.1.1.) H952
- Task: bringing berries in winter. Reductio ad absurdum: father is sick from snake-bite (impossible in winter). (Cf. H952.) H1023.3.1
- Task: making a bull bear a calf. Reductio ad absurdum: have a man prepare for childbirth. (Cf. H952.) H1024.1.1.1
- Wisdom from fool: absurdity of tight-rope walker's performance. J156.2
- King makes absurd statement about flowers. Flatterer agrees: it is the king he serves, not the wretched flowers. J817.2.1
- Husband discredited by absurd truth. Wife puts fish in furrow where husband plows them up (or like absurdity). At mealtime the husband says, "Where are the fish?" – "What fish?" – "Those I plowed up." He is laughed to scorn. J1151.1.2
- Reductio ad absurdum of judgment. J1191
- Reductio ad absurdum: the decision about the colt. A man ties his mare to a second man's wagon. The mare bears a colt which the wagon-owner claims, saying that the wagon has borne a colt. Real owner of the colt shows the absurdity (1) by fishing in the street or (2) by telling that his wife is shooting fish in the garden. Neither of these things are so absurd as the decision. J1191.1
- "The sea is on fire" – not more absurd than the decision about the colt. J1191.1.1
- Reductio ad absurdum of accusation: object-birth slander. (Later children tell toy animals to drink. No harder than for woman to bear objects.) J1191.5
- Absurd pretence, when allowed, puts pretender out of countenance. J1214
- Reductio ad absurdum of question or proposal. J1290
- Question answered by absurd counterquestion. J1291
- Tide inquires whether moon is up. Minnow seeing absurdity of question (since tide could not be up without the moon) tells the tide to wait till he gets a drink and he will tell. J1292
- Reductio ad absurdum of proposal. J1293
- Little bird as large bird's mate. A large bird wishes to mate with a little bird. The latter says that she is going to swallow a large eel. The large bird sees the absurdity of his proposal. J1293.1