‘Woman in a boat’ TikTok riddle is leaving people scratching their heads and feeling stupid

As we all know, solving a few brain teasers, puzzles or riddles is a great way to keep our brains active.

These activities enhance our cognitive skills, boost our critical thinking, improve our memory and can even help you relax - but you've got another thing coming if you think attempting this bizarre conundrum will leave you feeling chilled out.

Just ask the hundreds of people over on TikTok who have been agonising over the right answer to this boat-related riddle for the best part of the day, if you don't believe me.

Or, keep reading and see how much your blood pressure rises while you're attempting to crack it.

Trying to keep your thinking skills sharp isn't as simple as you might think, you know - but you can always return to a trusty sudoku if this riddle reminds you why you preferred Maths over English in school.

Anyway, let's get down to this nautical-themed enigma, shall we?

The riddle reads: "There’s a woman in a boat. On a lake wearing a coat.

"If you want to know her name, it’s on the riddle I just wrote.

"What is the woman’s name."

It might sound like a simple rhyme, but this riddle has managed to leave social media users racking their brains for several hours straight.

Hold on a sec... where's this woman's coat? (Getty Stock Image)

People had some pretty hilarious suggestions of what the moniker of the woman heading off on a solo voyage in a coat might be, but more than a few completely missed the mark.

One said: "Her name is Anita. This can be derived from the phrase 'Anita boat' which sounds like 'a need a boat'."

Another added: "Theresa?"

A third joked: "Who gives a toss... She is obviously enjoying herself..."

While a fourth know-it-all added: "If you know the rules of punctuation you can easily answer these kinda riddles."

Any guesses?

Fine, we will put you out of your misery - but the answer was staring you right in the face all along.

If you go back and refer to the riddle, you might notice that the author of this frustrating puzzle made some purposeful punctuation choices, as the social media boffin kindly reminded us.

The boat-related riddle has baffled social media users. (Getty Stock Image)

Apparently, the answer lies in the first sentence of the riddle.

The opening line states that 'there's a woman in a boat' - and a lot of people bypass this as just background information, however, if you put another normal name in its place such as Clare, it would read: "Clare's a woman in a boat."

Get it?

So, the sailor heading out to sea in a coat is named 'There'. Madness, I know.

A lot of people thought that the lack of a question mark at the end of the final sentence suggested that her name was in fact 'What', but apparently that was there just to throw us off of the scent.

I suppose that's exactly why this riddle is going viral - because the majority of social media users were looking in all of the wrong places when the answer was right there in front of them.

That's enough puzzles for today now, lads.