Hey Riddle Riddle #377: Hello Dali!

Release Date: October 8, 2025
Hosts: Adal Rifai, Erin Keif, John Patrick Coan (JPC)
Theme: A Surrealist Menagerie of Riddles, Absurd Scenes, and Live Tour Energy

Episode Overview

This episode captures the off-the-rails magic of Hey Riddle Riddle, where the core premise of solving riddles is often an afterthought to the hosts’ rapid-fire banter, surreal improv, and riffing on everything from Salvador Dalí to rabies-awareness car washes. Fresh off live southern shows and prepping for Denver, the trio brings a chaotic energy to what they call “barely a riddle podcast,” peppering the episode with inside jokes, personal stories, and increasingly bizarre hypothetical scenarios.

Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. Southern Tour Vibes & “Bless Your Heart” Culture

• The hosts reflect on their recent live shows in Atlanta and Nashville.
• JPC is “bless your heart” coded and jokingly appropriates Southern idioms:

  “Their culture is my costume. I'm kind of putting it on and trying it out, and I like it.” – JPC (03:09)

• Commentary on recording in the afternoon vs. morning:

  “Turns out, same energy.” – Aaron (04:20)

2. Surrealist & Meta Podcasting Ideas

• Adal proposes pressing a secret podcast episode to vinyl, Wu-Tang style:

  “We record an episode, we put it on a thumb drive, we then hide it somewhere in the world. ... Whoever finds that episode, it's theirs.” – Adal (07:44)

• The trio spirals into hiding episodes at Six Flags and riffing on the dangers of picking up stray thumb drives:

  “Would you ever pick up a thumb drive off the—this is what libraries are for. You go right to the library and you plug it in over there.” – JPC (08:05)

3. Tech Paranoia and Credit Card Skimming

• Cautionary tales about airport charging stations and credit card security.
• JPC shares personal experiences about data breaches:

  “My information is just out there floating freely now forever.” – JPC (11:39)

4. Improv Scenes: Salvador Dalí, Anteaters, and Gas Leaks

• Banter about Salvador Dalí, anteaters as pets, and a spontaneous scene:

  “Yes, this is my new painting. ... It doesn't exist in three dimensional space, so it can never be on a wall.” – JPC as Salvador Dalí (15:07)

• Factoid: Dalí walked a pet anteater in NYC.
• Aaron introduces “everyone walks on and says there’s a gas leak” as a recurring scene starter after a particularly absurd improv bit. (17:01)

5. Dream Exotic Pets & Animal Tangents

• Erin wants a house filled with butterflies, muses (hilariously morbidly) over the trauma of killing them by accident.
• JPC votes raccoon:

  “They wash their little hands and it’s such a cute little thing for a critter to do.” – JPC (22:11)

• Fun animal facts: raccoon hands are 10,000 times more sensitive than human hands (Aaron, 22:15).
• Adal imagines having pet baby rhinos:

  “I'm gonna go ahead and just say blanket statement I would love to have several of them and just assume they're never gonna get big and leathery…” (25:18)

6. Yes, There Are Riddles!

Riddle Warmups (14:22)

• What do Steel Magnolias, the 1997 cloning controversy, and the surrealist painting world have in common?
  • Solution: “Dolly/Dali/Dolly”
  • (“They have Dolly.” – Adel, 14:43)

“Cabin” Riddle (27:45)

• An airplane, Abe Lincoln’s family, Grizzly Adams – what do they have in common?
  • Solution: “They all had/have cabins.”

Restaurant Employee Riddle (46:36)

• A man eats at a restaurant but doesn’t pay — how?
  • Solution: He’s a staff member who gets a free meal.

Famous Parent Letter Riddle (58:47)

• Why is a boy at boarding school content to receive only a letter from his famous father instead of cash?
  • Solution: The letter itself is valuable because of the father’s fame.

7. Improv Gold: Scenes Off Every Riddle

• Over-the-top scenes riff on Abraham Lincoln’s mom at a dinner party, shift meals for fired restaurant staff, and sneaking into Elvis’s bathroom at Graceland.

8. Rabies Bits: Car Washes & Muppet Parodies

• The gang launches into an extended, darkly comic aside about organizing ineffective rabies-awareness car washes, writing rabies-themed parody songs, and remorse after learning it causes 59,000 global deaths annually.

  “We have a whole slate of November episodes that were Patreon ‘Rabies awareness.’ November is now flushed down the drain.” – JPC (52:21)

9. Personal, Relatable Moments

• Aaron confesses to social awkwardness at a party:

  “Yesterday, I went to an engagement party, and ... I was zero for, like, 60 of social interactions. I didn’t do a good job. Not even one time.” (67:10)

• JPC shares an anecdote about forgetting someone’s name at IO Theater.
• Honest talk about social anxiety, self-doubt, and comedic misfires.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

“You guys, unfortunately a few months ago we did promise that we would be working on the most perfect episode of a podcast ever. … We will press that onto vinyl and then we will throw it into the ocean.”
— Aaron (06:06)

“Just like this podcast, the ratio is two to one of crazy men to crazy women.”
— Aaron, explaining animal-exploiting documentaries vs. gender (19:52)

“Everything is a horny thing. Unless it’s a horny thing, in which case it’s about power. And you learn that in English class.”
— Aaron (13:56 & callback, 22:27)

“If I’m getting fingered by a raccoon, feels just as good to the raccoon as it does to me.”
— JPC (22:37)

“Did you know that raccoon’s hands are 10,000 times more sensitive than human hands?”
— Aaron (22:15)

“Turns out, same energy.”
— Aaron, on recording at a different time of day (04:20)

Key Timestamps

• 03:00 – 04:30 — Live tour recap & Southern U.S. energy, “bless your heart” riffs
• 06:00 – 09:00 — Hidden episode/“Wu-Tang Clan” vinyl/Thumb drive paranoia
• 14:22 – 15:47 — Riddle warmup: “Dali/Dolly/Dolly”
• 17:01 – 19:05 — “Everyone walks on and says there’s a gas leak” scene
• 20:09 – 27:40 — Animal tangent: anteaters, raccoons, and butterfly trauma
• 27:45 – 33:40 — “Cabin” riddle and Abraham Lincoln’s mom dinner party scene
• 46:36 – 50:03 — Restaurant riddle/scene: Ex-employee comes for “shift meal”
• 51:27 – 55:05 — Rabies joke fallout & learning about global rabies deaths
• 58:47 – 61:34 — Famous parent boarding school riddle & eBay alerts
• 67:10 – 69:40 — Erin’s party social anxiety and confessional

Episode Tone & Style

• Language/Tone: Fast, absurd, tangential, sometimes blue but always warm. The dynamic is self-deprecating, meta, and unfiltered.
• Structure: Loosely orbiting riddles but often swerving into extended improv scenes and earnest personal stories.
• Vibe: Chaotic good, with recurring callbacks to inside jokes and surreal hypothetical questions.

For New Listeners

If you’ve never tuned in, episode #377 delivers the Hey Riddle Riddle essence: minimal actual riddles, maximal eccentric comedy, “bits on bits,” and a sense that anything (from raccoon erotica to rabies car washes) could become the new running gag. You’ll get equal parts puzzles, improv, weird animal facts, and confessional comedy — with plenty of memorable quotables.

Closing Highlights

• Tour plugs: Denver, Philadelphia, NYC, DC — check heyriddleriddle.com/tour for upcoming dates.
• Running gags: Bizarre podcast distribution, cursed objects, and the haunting power (and potential danger) of nostalgia collections on eBay.
• Final thought:

  “Anything to plug or promote? ... We cut JPC’s [rabies] song. That’s all we had time for.” – Aaron (69:55)