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I've heard the following second half of a story:

A policeman got out of the car and saw the boy. He walked up to him and said amiably, "What's your name?"

"Shut up!" the boy replied.

"Where's your manners?" asked the affronted policeman.

"Up that tree," said the boy offhandedly, pointing to a nearby tree.

"You're looking for trouble, aren't you?" said the policeman.

"No, trouble's looking for me!" the boy answered earnestly.

Can you fill in the first half, or somehow explain the strange conversation? The boy is not being intentionally rude, and his answers all make sense when interpreted correctly.

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    $\begingroup$ Actually, his answers don’t all make sense under any interpretation, because of the pluralization of “where are your manners?”. $\endgroup$
    – Ry-
    Nov 24, 2014 at 22:16
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    $\begingroup$ @minitech - Do they now? $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Nov 24, 2014 at 22:39
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    $\begingroup$ I remember reading this in a joke book when I was about 8 years old. $\endgroup$
    – Ken Y-N
    Nov 25, 2014 at 3:28

3 Answers 3

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The boy's name is "Shut Up", and he's playing hide-and-seek with his 2 friends named "Manners" and "Trouble". "Trouble" is the one who counted, so he's looking for the other two boys. "Manners" hid up in the tree.

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  • $\begingroup$ manners might be his cat? $\endgroup$
    – d'alar'cop
    Nov 25, 2014 at 2:57
  • $\begingroup$ ... and Shut Up hid behind the police car. $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Nov 25, 2014 at 10:03
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A French boy called Joudoupe was sent by his mother Troub Les to catch their cat named Man'ers?

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  • $\begingroup$ No, this was all set in some English-speaking country. I heard it verbally, so the words are definitely right and without French pronunciation. $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Nov 24, 2014 at 22:38
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Three boys decided to play hide and seek. To pick the one who will be counting first, they decided to play another mini game. They agreed to shout any of these three "Shut-Up", "Manners" or "Trouble" at same time and the one who shouts a unique word will be named that word. This will continue until each of them will get a unique name. Then, the one named Trouble will be the one counting first and the other two have to hide.

After the mini game, each of them got named "Shut-up", "Trouble" and "Manners". The one who named "Trouble" started counting. "Manners" Climbed the tree and hid himself in the branch. "Shut-up" was looking for a place to hide. At that time a police car approached stopped there.

A policeman got out of the car and saw the boy ("Shut-up", who was looking for a place to hide). He walked up to him and said amiably, "What's your name?"

"Shut up!" the boy replied.

"Where's your manners?" asked the affronted policeman.

"Up that tree," said the boy offhandedly, pointing to a nearby tree.

"You're looking for trouble, aren't you?" said the policeman.

"No, trouble's looking for me!" the boy answered earnestly.

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  • $\begingroup$ Yes. I saw. But I just tried to "fill in the first half" and tried to make sense, since there is no sense in boys having name as "Manners", "Shut-up" etc ;) :P $\endgroup$
    – AeJey
    Nov 25, 2014 at 10:07

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