The Answer to the Mad Hatter's Riddle, "Why is a Raven Like a Writing Desk?"

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If you have ever watched Alice in Wonderland or read Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, you must have come across the part where the Mad Hatter asks Alice, "Why is a raven like a writing desk?".

In the 2010 Tim Burton adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, when Alice (Mia Wasikowska) throws the question back at the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), the Hatter answers her in this way: "I haven't the slightest idea".

However, Lewis Carroll actually answers the riddle himself: "Because it can produce a few notes though they are very flat; and it is never put with the wrong end in front!". It was a joke that Carroll had thought of, showing his penchant for wordplay and whimsy.

Other people tried to answer this question as well, and The Guardian gives us a collection of them. They're quite amusing.