animal, vegetable, or mineral?

“20 Questions” was a popular parlor game in which players tried to guess the answer by asking no more than twenty questions. The person who answered the questions gave the players the initial hint of whether the subject was animal, vegetable, or mineral. The game's becoming the format of a very successful radio and then television quiz show beginning in the early 1940s spread the opening hint into general use. Anyone who innocently began a query with “I have a question” was liable to be met with “Is the answer animal, vegetable, or mineral?”