A question that the audience answers mentally rather than out loud.

Examples

• "How can people have hope when we tell them that they have no recourse, if they run afoul of the state justice system?" Edward Kennedy, Senate debate on the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act, 1968.
• "Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
  When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
  Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
  Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
  And Brutus is an honourable man.
  You all did see that on the Lupercal
  I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
  Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?" William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Act 3, scene 2.

Some rhetorical questions become idiomatic English expressions: Edward Kennedy Edward Moore Ted Kennedy, (born February 22, 1932, in Brookline, Massachusetts) is a Democratic U.S. senator from Massachusetts. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... The Tragedy of Julius Cæsar, more commonly known simply as Julius Caesar, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare probably written in 1599. ... An Idiom is an expression (i. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

• "What's the matter with you?"
• "Don't you know any better?"
• "Have you no shame?"
• "Right?!"
• "What the hell?"
• "Is the Pope Catholic?"
• "Do pigs fly?"/"Do fish swim?"/"Can fish drown?"
• "Are you crazy?"
• "Who cares?"
• "How should I know?"
• "Are you kidding me?"
• "What are you doing?!" (Teacher to Pupil)
• "Do you expect me to do it for you?"

A rhetorical question typically ends in a question mark (?), but occasionally may end with an exclamation mark (!) or even a period (.) according to some writing style guides^{[citation needed]}. For example: The Pope, (or Pope of Rome) (from Latin: papa, Papa, father; from Greek: papas / = priest originating from πατήρ = father )[1], is the Bishop of Rome, the spiritual leader of the Roman Catholic Church and the absolute monarch of Vatican City. ... ? redirects here. ... an exclamation mark An exclamation mark, exclamation point or bang, !, is usually used after an interjection or exclamation to indicate strong feeling. ... Look up period in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

• "What's the point of going on."
• "Isn't that ironic!"

As with much of other American slang, these commonly used phrases may be sometimes confusing to people who may be fluent in English but unfamiliar with the localized meaning. For example, an American English speaker may be likewise befuddled if asked "Are you coming the raw prawn?" which in Australian English is used to mean "Are you kidding me?". Slang is the use of highly informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speakers dialect or language. ... For other uses, see American English (disambiguation). ... Australian English (AuE) is the form of the English language used in Australia. ...

Some TV shows have had rhetorical questions as titles, such as Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and Whose Line Is It Anyway?. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is a television game show which offers very large cash prizes for correctly answering successive multiple-choice questions of increasing difficulty. ... Whose Line Is It Anyway? (sometimes abbreviated to Whose Line?) is a short form improvisational comedy show. ...

Bob Dylan's song "Blowin' in the Wind" contains a series of rhetorical questions. This is spoofed in an episode of The Simpsons, in which Homer attempts to quantitatively answer "How many roads must a man walk down before you can call him a man?" Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is a Grammy, Golden Globe and Academy Award-winning American singer-songwriter, author, musician, and poet who has been a major figure in popular music for five decades. ... Blowin in the Wind is a song written by Bob Dylan in April 1962, and released on his 1963 album The Freewheelin Bob Dylan. ... Simpsons redirects here. ... Homer Jay Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons, voiced by Dan Castellaneta. ...

On the BBC comedy quiz show QI, host Stephen Fry once asked panellist Alan Davies, "Is this a rhetorical question?" to which Davies correctly answered "No". This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... This article or section cites very few or no references or sources. ... Alan Davies (born 6 March 1966) is an English comedian and actor best known for starring as Jonathan Creek on the popular TV mystery series of the same name. ...

See also

• Aporia
• Figure of speech
• Hypothetical question
• Question
• Humane Systems Design Blog: "Types of Questions"

Aporia (Greek: : impasse; lack of resources; puzzlement; embarassment ) denotes, in philosophy, a philosophical puzzle or state of puzzlement, and, in rhetoric, a rhetorically useful expression of doubt. ... A figure of speech, sometimes termed a rhetoral, or elocution, is a word or phrase that departs from straightforward, literal language. ... A hypothesis (= assumption in ancient Greek) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. ... A question may be either a linguistic expression used to make a request for information, or else the request itself made by such an expression. ...

External links

• What is a rhetorical question?
• Audio illustrations of the rhetorical question
• A short definition of the term