10 More Most Confusing Movie Moments Nobody Understands

10. Why Is A Raven Like A Writing Desk? - Alice In Wonderland

The vast majority of movie scenes are supposed to be understood by the audience, though there are some where the point is to create confusion and uncertainty. Then, on another level entirely is Alice in Wonderland, and in particular Ed Wynn's Mad Hatter.

Amidst the bizarre things the character says and does in the film, he poses a riddle to Alice (Kathryn Beaumont). Why is a raven like a writing desk? Before she barely has a chance to ponder the question, things have moved on to fixing the White Rabbit's clock, and an answer is never given.

In Tim Burton's remake from 2010, the riddle is doubled down on, as Alice asks the question back to Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter later in the movie, to which even he admits that he has no idea. If even the one posing the riddle doesn't know the answer, then how is anybody else supposed to understand it?

It was apparently author Lewis Carroll's intention for the riddle to have no answer at all, though after being mobbed by questions about it he provided one in a later edition of his novel. "Because it can produce a few notes, though they are very flat; and it is never put with the wrong end in front." No wonder absolutely no one could make sense of it, but that was also the point.