Inferences

A few funny examples

Once a good-looking man and a woman walked up to me in Paris and asked me a question in French....

My mother once made a very intelligent guess as to what the word "embarassado" meant.

I once accidentally robbed an old man.   I didn't give him his money's worth.


Inferences come in a variety of levels

CRAZY TALK                  WILD GUESS            GUESS         EDUCATED GUESS 

If no inference is made, there are a variety of reasons

I AM NOT SURE THE MEANING OF THE STATEMENT
THE CONSEQUENCES OF A WRONG INFERENCE ARE TOO RISKY
I AM ONLY PRETENDING TO READ

Often, writers of jokes and riddles use inferences to their advantage, allowing them to create difficult riddles and hilarious jokes.
Riddle example
Joke example

(For the record, magicians take advantage of our bad inferences to fool us as well.)