http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MoonLogicPuzzle

Zero Punctuation sums up the trope in the review for The Walking Dead "First, think of a problem that the player has to get around  like, say, helping a cat down from a tree. Then, think of how a normal, sensible person would solve the issue with the objects that would be close to hand. Then seal your head inside of a half-full vat of boiling chlorine for about twenty minutes, and write down another way you'd solve the problem that at that moment makes perfect sense to your probably fatally poisoned mind. Repeat this process until you have discovered the most circuitous possible solution."

Advertisement:

Sometimes, it's easy to see how to Solve the Soup Cans  give the chicken noodle soup to the guard with the cold, trade the tomato for the red orb, and pour the cream of mushroom into the chalice with Mario engraved on the side. The puzzles may be challenging, but given enough thought, the solution follows a logical progression.

And then sometimes, standard logic just won't get you to the right answer, no matter how hard you try. To find the solution, you have to look at the problem in a way that may seem entirely unintuitive on its face. This is not a Guide Dang It!; all the information you need to complete your objective is right there in the source. Some people will be able to make the intuitive leap almost immediately, others will struggle for hours and still never spot the bend in logic that leads to the answer.

Advertisement:

If a frustrated player eventually does reach for the strategy guide, there will be two common reactions on discovering the answer: If the puzzle is well written, the answer will make complete, brilliant sense in hindsight, and the player will respect the puzzle designer, perhaps curse themselves for giving in to the strategy guide, or for needing it in the first place.

If it is poorly written or implemented, you still may not think anyone could possibly solve it on their own. You may also find yourself cursing the developer for expecting you to make overly arcane connections, notice absurdly minute details, or for throwing in intentional or unintentional Red Herrings; but even a badly executed but successful moon logic puzzle makes sense after you read the answer. The pieces of the solution were in fact provided, and the solutions make logical sense in hindsight, just in strange or hard to notice ways. Even a highly skilled puzzle-solver will occasionally get stuck on one of these. When this is bad enough that hundreds of players will get stuck on this puzzle, it's That One Puzzle.

Advertisement:

Failed attempts at creating a moon logic puzzle, on the other hand, will have the player screaming at the ceiling in rage upon reading the solution, and are generally unsolvable except by accident. The worst offenders cross the threshold from "convoluted but comprehensible logic" into Non Sequitur or even pure Insane Troll Logic- for example, you should just know which three rocks should be arranged on the three pedestals and in what order.note obviously by size order to form the first three digits of Pi because there are more circles than squares in the pattern on the wall. Other times, the clues that would have led to the solution seem so out of left field that it leaves the player wondering "how was I supposed to know that?". Such "out of left field" examples might entail figuring out the third meaning of a Double Entendre someone you talked to 20 hours ago made, listening to the unlisted audio track included on the bonus disc that didn't come with the rental, knowing some obscure pun in a language other than English that got Lost in Translation, or not being familiar with a common custom of the writer's culture. note for example: "Click the blue button, followed by the purple button." The Russian language recognizes dark blue (siniy) as a separate basic color from light blue (goluboy). The range covered by siniy includes a chunk of what an English speaker would call purple, and is "obviously" distinct from goluboy. Purple, on the other hand, is fioletoviy, which more closely matches "violet". Thus, with a simple slip of translation or colorization, a Russian player may be utterly baffled by having two slightly different siniy buttons, no goluboy or fioletoviy buttons, and no hint as to what the problem is.

This can go full circle into its polar opposite, Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay, where players get so used to game logic that Real Life logic is now what's alien.

If a character In-Universe has to solve one of these without player interaction, they may best display the skills necessary to tackle these kinds of problems if they're the Cloudcuckoolander; anyone else will have to rely on Bat Deduction. And in either case, the solution will turn out to be an Unexpectedly Obscure Answer.

Far, far too many moon logic puzzles are based on Puns.

In real life, the genre of brainteasers known as "lateral thinking puzzles" or "insight puzzles" often fall in this category. Compare and contrast Stock Lateral Thinking Puzzle.

Examples:

open/close all folders

Video Games

Alternate Reality Game

Junko Junsui /She Stirs, which was notable for being heavily investigation/communication based and only rarely involving puzzles, but it STILL gave into this several times. Resulted in several Facepalm moments for all of the major players when the solutions to each puzzle turned out to be obvious looking back, but only if you happened to guess just the right thing.

/She Stirs, which was notable for being heavily investigation/communication based and only rarely involving puzzles, but it STILL gave into this several times. Resulted in several Facepalm moments for all of the major players when the solutions to each puzzle turned out to be obvious looking back, but only if you happened to guess just the right thing. where.gif. Friggin where.gif! The image was a circle, and inside the circles was "square root of sixty four", mirrored horizontally. From this, the ARG gamers were supposed to figure out to find the digit location of eight eights in a row in the number pi (not including the 3 point). Keep in mind it's not an easy number to find even once you realize that's what "square root of sixty four" refers to; you need to calculate pi to 400 million digits to see it. And when you get that number you had to type it backwards into the admin answer box.

The image was a circle, and inside the circles was "square root of sixty four", mirrored horizontally. From this, the ARG gamers were supposed to figure out to In the Groove 2 released their song-unlock codes this way every month or so, but no matter how hard the puzzles got the rabid fanbase could always solve them in a matter of hours, if not minutes.

Anime and Manga

In Pokémon: Sun & Moon, Lillie and Gladion traverse Poni Canyon alone and are stopped at a puzzle where three statues featuring the three Alolan starters must be pushed into the correct slots right in front of them to open the door...or that is what the enthusiastic Lillie assumes, because as soon as she tries pushing one of the statues across a square, she's pulled back quickly before rusty spears try to skewer her alive from underneath. To her shock and surprise, Gladion goes to the door and pushes it open without issues, telling her that the puzzle itself is a trap to make trespassers believe they needed to solve the "puzzle" just to be met with death. (Notably, at no point beyond the fatal trap is there another gruesome example of a trap.)

Game Shows

A common tactic on Jeopardy! is the "tease-out metric ", or an extra bit of info in the clue that helps hint towards the correct response (e.g. "As Popeye's adopted baby could tell you, April brings this flower." "What is Sweet pea ?").

", or an extra bit of info in the clue that helps hint towards the correct response (e.g. "As Popeye's adopted baby could tell you, April brings this flower." "What is ?"). Some of the Bonus Round puzzles on Wheel of Fortune seem practically set up to be lost  RSTLNE only reveals about 1/4 of the puzzle on average, and even "three more consonants and a vowel" (or four consonants if the contestant has a Wild Card) sometimes do only so much. Perhaps the most evil ones came in the mid-1990s, where it was frequent for the bonus puzzle to be only three to seven letters long, with RSTLNE occasionally MIA entirely. Good luck trying to figure out that the three-letter "Person" they're looking for is GUY in only 10 seconds. Or in the 2010s, something else heavy on the obscure letters like JACK BE QUICK or ZIP UP YOUR JACKET.

The Pyramid franchise sometimes had this in the Bonus Round, where the goal is to give a list of things that fit six given subjects in 60 seconds. No hand gestures, no prepositional phrases, just a list. While this may seem easy for something like "Types of Soup" (just list things like "chicken noodle" or "clam chowder", and so long as your partner says something with "soup" in it, you're good), try doing it with something like "Things That Are Enshrined". Turned Up to Eleven on the 2002-04 revival, which often had super-esoteric boxes like "What Tom Cruise's Dentist Might Say" or "Things on a Cave Wall".

Only Connect drifts from unusual connections into this at times, especially in finals, when they're deliberately being more obscure than usual. One quarter-final in 2010 had this sequence question, the answer being the next in the sequence: Central = 1, Circle = 2, District = 3, ??? - The answer being Bakerloo = 4. London Underground lines sequenced by the correspondingly coloured snookerball value.

Wipeout had one in the form of an obstacle known as the Shape-Shifter, a spinning wheel with three shaped cutouts in it that had to be traversed past. By how the hosts explained it, it was implied that you had to jump through the circular disc to make it to the other side utilizing whatever they gave you that way to do it (trampoline, zip line, swing, etc). However, in reality, it ended up being hard to do so without using the shapes as an assist of some form. Then again, in a moment of disbelief that left even the hosts stunned, Rico "Rolling Thunder" Curtis actually horizontally dived through the hole and landed on the platform with a tummy slide.

Many of Norm Blumenthal's puzzles on Concentration had easy enough clues to parse, but once in awhile, he'd throw in a doozy of a clue. For the puzzle "Great Day In The Morning", a drawing of a Great Dane would be used for the portion "Great Day In". Steve Ryan would get in a good one on Classic Concentration, using a pitcher of ice water for "Onions Make Your Eyes Water".

Idiotest is more or less based on these. Every question is presented as an image on a touchscreen, and contestants must touch the part of the picture that answers the question. Thing is, every question deliberately phrased in a way that makes the most obvious answer incorrect, and the right answer something else entirely. For example, the show might say "Touch the thing that always lets you see through walls", and include pictures of X-ray glasses, infrared cameras, and such. The correct answer? The window that looks like it's part of the background.

The UK gameshow 3-2-1 was notorious for this: the contestants were given a series of props and riddles and had to decide if it led to a grand prize or the Zonk — a dustbin. The clues were utterly bizarre. In one example that was featured on Room 101, the prop was a giant wishbone, and the clue was " "Take one that never changes, add a pub and a precious stone, bring them all up-to-date, and now, you're on your own." Obviously this refers to a package holiday to Istanbul (because the wishbone comes from a turkey, and the riddle indicates the modern name for Constant-Inn-Opal). The contestants seemed no wiser once Ted Rogers explained it, and who could blame them?

Literature

Live-Action TV

The puzzles in the Total Immersion game Red Dwarf from the Red Dwarf episode "Back to Reality" seem to be like this (justified in that the whole thing was an illusion designed to make the crew despair ). For example, the one where their failure ended the game involved using the S.S. Esperanto's guns to destroy the Despair Squid, the "clue" being that "Esperanto" literally means "hope", and hope defeats despair. Another was realising that Rimmer couldn't swim, and therefore there must be a hidden message in his swimming certificates. Andy the game maintenance guy insists these are all blatant clues and anyone who didn't get them "must have been playing like puddings!"

). For example, the one where their failure ended the game involved using the S.S. Esperanto's guns to destroy the Despair Squid, the "clue" being that "Esperanto" literally means "hope", and hope defeats despair. Another was realising that Rimmer couldn't swim, and therefore there must be a hidden message in his swimming certificates. Andy the game maintenance guy insists these are all blatant clues and anyone who didn't get them "must have been playing like puddings!" Overlapping with Brick Joke: There's one episode of NCIS where someone is doing a crossword and says they are looking for a three letter word for "Mistake". This initially is just a set up for a joke, as the other person suggests "FBI", and the scene ends without giving a real answer. Near the end of the episode we learn the correct answer is "Err", which doesn't really work as "Mistake" is a noun and "Err" is a verb meaning "to make a mistake", so they aren't really synonyms. amusingly, this thread has people suggest "dud" or "sin" as answers, which actually make more sense than the canon answer.

Tabletop Games

Mindtrap: A well-known fashion designer wanted to escape the hustle and bustle of the big city. She decided to spend a few days at a rural resort. Feeling like some fresh air after a day of reading and relaxing, she decided to go for a winter stroll. That was the last time anyone saw her alive. The autopsy revealed that death was due to the pack she had on her back. What was so deadly about this pack? Answer: It was a pack of wolves. And this is one of the simpler puzzles in the game. Mindtrap, the game, is based on this kind of puzzle. For most of them, you're allowed to get more information by asking the other player (who can read the answer) yes-or-no questions.

And this is one of the simpler puzzles in the game.

Visual Novels

Hotel Dusk: Room 215: There is a puzzle where you have to close the DS to give someone CPR. This comes up another time in the game too: when you have to close the DS to flip over a jigsaw puzzle you just put together to see a note written on the back of the pieces. The electric room puzzle is a great example of a problem whose solution is perfectly obvious in real life, but obscure within the context of a Nintendo DS game. You need to flip two switches at the same time. You touch a switch, and it goes up. You release the switch, and it goes down. In real life, you'd just use both your hands to hold both switches up, but the Nintendo DS can only register one touch at a time and freaks out if you try to touch multiple spots at once. So what do you do? Just touch both switches at the same time anyway, and it will work even if it shouldn't.

In Last Window: There's a puzzle where you're trying to prevent a Marie from throwing herself off the roof . The main, Kyle, is on the left screen, while Marie is on the right one (the DS is held on its side like a book). What's the solution? Slam the DS shut when Marie isn't looking to make Kyle leap over to the right screen and pull Marie away. A puzzle requires you to get a key out from a music box, where the key is trapped in the music box's cylinder. You have to close the DS when the cylinder's gap is showing, then while the DS is closed press the R button so that the pin presses at the key, before quickly opening the DS and pulling the key out with the stylus. This puzzle falls into Guide Dang It! for most players, due to how convoluted and finicky it is.

A key plot point of Umineko: When They Cry is the Witch's Epitaph , a riddle that supposedly points to the location of 10 tons of gold. Naturally, it is extremely difficult to solve, although the clues make some sense once you know the answer. How hard is it? For starters, you have to be fluent in English, Japanese, and Chinese to even stand a chance at solving the first clue. You also need an atlas handy (although in-universe, there are scenes of characters consulting an atlas while solving the riddle, so this should be obvious).

Webcomics

Web Original

Western Animation

The Adventure Time episode Time Sandwich has Magic Man steal Jake's sandwich and will only give it back if he gets past his time-slowing force field by solving his riddle which is, "When your face turns 7:20, when green leaves turn brown, the only way forward is down. Then you'll see, the wetter, the better." What does he mean? He meant that Jake has to be sad to be able to move normally. The arms of a clock at 7:20 resembles a frown, brown leaves stands for autumn which is associated with melancholy, moving forward by having a "down" attitude, and wetter as in wet with tears. While the riddle makes sense with the answer in mind, it fits this trope. Jake : That's not a riddle! That's wordplay at best! Magic Man : You try to come up with something on the spot!

While the riddle makes sense with the answer in mind, it fits this trope. Gravity Falls has a series of these when Dipper and Mabel try to track down the secrets of the founder of the town. However, his way of thinking is so strange that Dipper's logic can't figure out the clues, but Mabel's goofiness does. For example: The note turns into a map if it's folded into a hat. The map leads to a picture that looks abstract, but is in fact, just upside down. The picture leads to a graveyard statue. Dipper tries to figure out what the statue is pointing at, while Mabel pushes a secret switch by pretending the angel is picking her nose.



Real Life

Zen Koans. Consider: A monk asked Zhaozhou, "What is the meaning of the ancestral teacher's coming from the west?" Zhaozhou said, "The cypress tree in front of the hall". This is an actual koan from The Gateless Gate. The real trick is, that's not the answer. That's a question. The student is expected to learn and understand this exchange, and come up with the proper response.

This math problem: Three friends are having coffee. They have 12 sugar cubes to share between them. Distribute the sugar cubes such that each person puts an odd number of sugar cubes in their cup of coffee.

The solution: Person A puts 1 sugar cube in their coffee, Person B also puts 1 sugar cube in their coffee, and Person C puts 10 sugar cubes in their coffee. While 10 is not an odd number mathematically, putting 10 sugar cubes in your coffee is very odd; the word "odd" in this case also being used in the same sense as "strange" or "unusual" , and not just as in "leaves a remainder of 1 when divided by two".

The solution: The MIT Mystery Hunt is practically made of these types of puzzles.

Which weighs more - a pound of gold or a pound of feathers? Answer The feathers weigh more, being measured in avoirdupois pounds that are somewhat heavier than troy pounds. Alternative answer The gold weighs more, because Archimedes' Force is density times the gravitational constant times volume of object, and the feathers would have a larger volume. Creatively-worded answer You could interpret it as "How much of each material could you buy with the equivalent value of a pound sterling?", in which case the answer would almost certainly be the feathers. Engineer's answer Either the two weigh the same, or the initial statement is dangerously flawed. The premise states the existence of two units of differing materials, each weighing one unit. This unit has been identified as a pound, and is, by the information stated, identical for both. Using a single term to refer to two non-equivalent units would represent a failure to document critical information. Replace feathers and gold with safe structural loads, and this trick question becomes grounds for serious criminal charges in many nations. Alternative Alternative Answer The feathers weigh more, because you also have to deal with the weight of what you did to all of those birds. Which weighs more; an ounce of feathers or an ounce of gold? Answer The gold weighs more by about 2.75 g, since Troy ounces are 12 to a Troy pound instead of Avoirdupois' 16 to a pound. Which weighs more; a pound or an ounce? Answer An ounce ( snow leopard ) is heavier than a pound (coin), obviously

Subverted often during job interviews as a means of testing for lateral thinking. As can be seen from the many equally valid answers to the gold/feather puzzle above, the interviewer is less interested in getting a "correct" answer and more interested in how the interviewee came about it. Sometimes the question is such that the "correct" answer is straightforward, but would be impossible for the candidate to know. An example given on the show QI is "How many harpsichord repair experts are there in Britain?" For that example, nobody knows the answer. Even official census results don't have enough information since "harpsichord repair" isn't profitable enough to have as your primary occupation.

Cryptic crosswords. Instead of typical crossword puzzle clues, they will usually consist of two parts: a generic clue, and one that requires wordplay or some other contrivance to figure out. (For example: "Tragic arrangement in A-flat (5)": "Tragic" is the generic clue for the word, and "arrangement in A-flat" is the "cryptic" part, suggesting that the answer is an anagram of "A-flat"  in this case, the answer is "fatal" .) During World War II recruiters at Bletchley Park used a particularly difficult cryptic crossword to find potential codebreakers.

.) During World War II recruiters at Bletchley Park used a particularly difficult cryptic crossword to find potential codebreakers. The crossword puzzles featured in Harper's magazine not only use cryptic clues, they often don't follow the normal crossword-puzzle structure. Sometimes they're arranged in a spiral; sometimes they're a whole grid with a few bold lines to delineate where the black spaces ought to be...Suffice it to say that they're very, very devious, and anyone who's brave enough to try one had better learn to think way outside the box.

The book The Mother Tongue notes that British crossword puzzles tend to be much harder than American ones, and often rely on rather complicated wordplay. A particularly vexing one it lists has a five letter word, and the only clue is "Sweetheart could take Non-Commissioned Officer to dance". The answer is "Flame" . The explanation? NCO is short for Non-Commissioned Officer, another word for "sweetheart" is "flame" and the flamenco is a kind of dance. What?

harder than American ones, and often rely on rather complicated wordplay. A particularly vexing one it lists has a five letter word, and the only clue is "Sweetheart could take Non-Commissioned Officer to dance". The answer is . The explanation? What? The famous phrase "think outside the box". The "box" itself refers a classic puzzle, in which one is supposed to connect 9 dots in a box shape with 4 straight lines - which can be eased by going beyond the "box" formed by the dots. The puzzle itself dates back to 1914 at least, but it was popularized as a test of lateral thinking by management gurus in the 60s and 70s, who coined the phrase to refer to it.

To properly end this page, you must shave the bowling pin with the broken paperweight to make a key, and use that to return to... you know what? Forget it.