Siri’s Got Some Mad Beat Boxing Skills and a Couple Other Good Laughs Up Her Sleeve

There’s no doubt that Apple’s home-brewed voice assistant, Siri, has become a convenient and useful tool for iPad and iPhone owners over the years. After all, she can do almost anything — make a call, send a text message, check the weather, set alarms, and even open apps, among other things.

But Siri also has a sarcastic, witty side to her personality — if invoked, of course. She can tell jokes of different kinds, respond to your quirky statements and questions, and even put you in your place along the way. And, perhaps best of all, she can even bust out some mad beat boxing skills.

They’re not anything too complex, keep in mind, as she is just a robot. So she probably won’t be nominated for a Grammy anytime soon. But it’s still a nice treat, and you’re sure to get a good laugh out of them!

Ask Siri: “Can you beat box?” and her responsive is pretty hilarious. She’ll say along the lines of, “Here’s one I’ve been practicing,” prior to launching into an interchanging array of “boots and cats.” There is no meaning to the “boots and cats and boots and cats” script, of course; it’s merely the intrinsic, monophonic representation of the sounds that would typically be produced from a robotic beat boxer.

None of that fancy-schmancy polyphonic-hullabaloo that we’re so used to hearing when we turn on the radio today, but rather, just the underlying rhythm of the flow.

Give it a shot and see for yourself: “boots and cats and boots and cats and boots and cats. Boots boots boots cats cats.” See where she’s going with this?

Fortunately, for your enjoyment, beat boxing isn’t the only way to get a good laugh out of Siri. Here’s just a small assortment of the many jokes and witticisms of Siri that you can experiment with at home or on the go.

“What is 0 / 0?”

This is perhaps one of the most popular and widely publicized Siri tricks. Ask her what 0 divided by 0 equals, and she’s destined to give you one of several responses. However the funniest, in my experience, is what she had to tell me the second time:

“Imagine that you have 0 cookies and you split them evenly among 0 friends. How many cookies does each person get? See, it doesn’t make sense. And cookie monster is sad that there are no cookies. And you are sad that you have no friends.”

“Do you know Tim Cook?”

Ask Siri if she happens to know Apple’s Chief Executive, Tim Cook, and she’s bound to reply in one of several ways. I was told that, “she’s quite fond of him.” However, she’s also been reported to say that “we’re on a first-name basis.” I guess it’s only reasonable to assume they’re pretty close, right?

“Tell me a joke, Siri”

Ask Siri to tell you a joke, if you need a good laugh. She actually has a few of them, and will likely respond differently each time, or according to the specific device you’re using. When I asked her on my iPad Pro, she responded that, “the past, present and future walked into a bar. It was tense.” We can only imagine..

She’s also been reported as being quite blunt and honest, however, indicating that, “I don’t think you’d understand a joke in my language. They’re not so funny, anyway.”

“What is the meaning of life?”

Ask Siri what the meaning of life is, if perhaps you’re feeling a bit down and out. But don’t expect a huge revelation or great awakening or anything, because she typically responded that she “finds it odd that you’d ask this of an inanimate object.” I guess she has a point there, huh?

There are so many things you can ask Siri, and not everything she has to say is arbitrary, either — so you really never know what kind of response you’ll get from her. While some responses are the same each time, such as was the case with our request for her to beat box, she has quite a sarcastic side to her — and her answers are sure to keep you coming back for more.

Have you asked Siri anything above and beyond the standard iOS commands lately? What was your response?