Oedipus and the Sphinx

Once there was a smart aleck Sphinx who sat on top of a giant rock and made weary travelers who wanted to enter the city of Thebes answer a riddle. If they couldn't answer the riddle, she would eat them. She thought she was pretty funny.

The people of Thebes, on the other hand, didn't have much of a sense of humor. Mostly because they were hungry and they were too frightened to leave their city.

One day, a man by the name of Oedipus was traveling the road to the city of Thebes. The guards saw him coming, and although they were highly trained in advanced weaponry and could easily thwart off the Sphinx, they decided to just stand there and watch. Unlike the rest of the townspeople, the guards thought it was funny when people got eaten. Mostly because it wasn't them.

As Oedipus approached the rock, the Sphinx swooped down from the sky. Alighted on her rock, she posed the riddle to Oedipus. "What are three silhouettes you can place in a cloud bubble?"

Oedipus thought about it as she closed in for the kill.

Just as the Sphinx was about to strike, he answered, "A man."

This was the first time the Sphinx had ever heard the punch line to her own joke. Although it wasn't funny, she laughed so hard, it knocked her off her rock and she fell into the sea. The townspeople made Oedipus the new king of Thebes where he did a stand up routine every Saturday night. He was given the bums rush shortly thereafter when they found out where the hack stole his material from.