We’ve all been there. Someone shares a joke that just goes right over your head, but you notice that everyone else is laughing. You start to sweat and rapidly begin calculating whether it’s worth the risk of awkwardly chuckling along and praying they don’t notice you’re pretending. Or, you can just be honest and admit that you didn’t get it, which might turn you into the butt of the joke.

The internet, in particular, can be a cruel place when people don’t understand a punch line. But we’ve managed to find a safe space where members can share memes that they didn’t quite grasp without judgment, and others will kindly provide the necessary context. Below, you’ll find some of our favorite posts from r/PeterExplainsTheJoke. So enjoy scrolling through these silly pics, and if some of them go over your head, you’ll be able to understand by simply reading the captions!

#1

zeprfrew: The comic is saying that atheists behave in accordance with Jesus’ teachings despite their lack of faith in religion or God while Christian Nationalists, whose beliefs and identity are fiercely Christian, act for the benefit of capitalism and directly contradict those same teachings.

The point of it is to show the irony that atheists behave as a good Christian should while those seeking to build a Christian society do the opposite.

Image credits: i-asked-1245

#2

dangstaB01: Sight reading is a skill that students in orchestra or band tend to use; it involves looking at sheet music and imagining what it sounds like before playing it. The sheet says it’s Mary had a Little Lamb, but the notes don’t match up; more precisely it’s the music for Rick Astely’s Never Gonna Give You Up. The poster got pissed that they got Rick Rolled.

Image credits: anythingforadom

#3

Jammer_Jim: People expect anti-depressants to make them happy, but often what happens is the person feels no strong emotions at all. Or at least it seems that way after you’ve been having powerful mood swings for years. Depends on the underlying condition and the d***s used, but I’ve often heard it described as a “flattening” effect.

Image credits: Need_Kafkok

#4

West-Cricket-9263: The first picture represents punching drywall, which is what most American houses have. It’s a costly and ultimately pointless endeavor but mostly harmless. The second picture illustrates what happens when you punch an actual wall.

Image credits: Unlegendary_Newbie

#5

Thelethargian: Engineers are paid for efficient and low cost solutions while architects are paid to (in the best of cases but not all) make structures that look good and serve their purpose often increasing the price of and decreasing the efficiency of construction. In this image the engineers solution is practical and efficient while the architects is better looking but is less practical. This is a generalization to better answer the joke.

Edit: this comment ignores the fact that architects and engineers often work hand in hand using both of their strengths. Practical doesn’t always mean beautiful, and we do benefit from beauty around us.

Image credits: Fun-Ad-3597

#6

Glue_Snacc: My guess is, person has a dysfunctional, toxic family and thought that such a thing was normal, until they met girlfriend’s parents and learned what a healthy family actually looks like.

Image credits: Regular-Contact3970

#7

LovecraftianKing: Men don’t get compliments. So the bottom is something completely unrelated because there is no stock reaction to men being complimented.

Image credits: Life_Serve_9479

#8

Adept_Lemon2481: It’s a joke about how metal music has a dramatic unreadable font. More unreadable and dramatic the font the more niche and metal the band.

Image credits: NPCFISH

#9

Delli-paper: Patients who are within minutes or hours of dying often feel much better and become lucid. Family members often see this as promising, but someone around so much death knows what’s coming.

Image credits: Perfect-Corner6659

#10

Primary-Holiday-5586: So a woman died on Disney property after eating a dinner that she was assured was allergen free. Her husband sued. Disney said that when he signed up for a free one month trial of D plus he agreed to arbitration and couldn’t sue.

Image credits: kolomogorov

#11

mklinger23: Autistic people have safe foods that are comforting. A lot of those are things that we grew up eating. That makes the foods familiar and therefore “safe”.

Image credits: Next_Airport_7230

#12

VerySecretHotdog: Nurses keep the death count low but the body count high.

Image credits: anothermax1134

#13

starlight_collector: Mining bitcoin takes a lot of electricity.

Image credits: AceofSpadesYT

#14

AdmiralAkbar1: You can find the original twitter thread here. TLDR you can tell what kinds of drugs the writers were getting prescribed based on how trippy stuff is.

Image credits: selentelechia

#15

bremsspuren: There is no snow on that roof because it is significantly warmer than the neighbouring houses.

The joke is that in 2018, the most likely explanation is someone growing weed under hot, hot grow lamps. In 2020, it’s more likely to be someone running 100s of video cards to mine Bitcoin or similar (also very hot). But in 2022, power prices are so f**king high, only a lottery winner could afford to have a house that warm.

Image credits: BackgroundCommon3025

#16

cyclone866: Pets, like cats and dogs, generally do not like taking pills/medicine. A typical way to get pets to take their meds is to cover the pill in a treat like peanut butter or shoving it into a piece of meat so they can’t taste it. In this cartoon it is implied that the princess is intentionally telling knights to hunt down the dragon (common plot point of fantasy stories) and the dragon is eating all of the knights but this is being done intentionally to get the dragon to take their heartworm medicine.

Image credits: Randomposter54

#17

CorpseGeneral: Some men calling themselves “passport bros” come over to SEA countries to find themselves a “traditional, submissive woman”. Philippines and Thailand seem to be the more popular options.

Image credits: MartjinGaritsen

#18

swinkyy_x: It’s basically joking about how guys might say they don’t have a favorite color, but if they do, it’s not just “green”, its something super specific like “the deep green of moss after it rains” or “the exact shade of emerald dust.” Guys don’t go broad; they go weirdly niche.

Image credits: Budget-Foot-8329

#19

Morbos1000: I’m guessing they are young computer nerds and she is a hot girl. So a little flirting with them might convince them to give her sensitive info about the company. In the most extreme case passwords to infiltrate the whole computer system and take over the company ( given this is a joke).

Image credits: wholesome_giant7

#20

natholemewIII: As a general rule, if someone has one crazy ex, the ex was probably crazy. If they describe every single ex as crazy, they are probably the one that’s crazy. The doge in the middle is proud to be the first “nice guy” she’s ever dated, but the one’s around him know he’s doomed to become another crazy ex, because the problem in all his new girlfriends past relationships was probably her. They know they can’t do anything about it, because he has to learn for himself. Hope this helps!

Image credits: Wheybrotons

#21

MothersMiIk: The United Health Care CEO shooter was recently apprehended in Pennsylvania in a McDonald’s after a tip was called in by another customer, contrary to the current belief that it was an employee. The meme is implying that the McDonald’s worker would also snitch on Anne Frank, who was hiding in an attic from the N*zis, because of the belief a McDonald’s employee snitched.

Image credits: Last-Celebration3079

#22

Memer_Plus: Roman Petrus here. The show being referenced is the mockumentary Cunk on Earth, where the titular narrator humorously misinterprets history. The Romans left a lot from their history, including pottery fragments (which broke due to the long time period), which Cunk humorously says is caused by their clumsiness.

Image credits: skywalker_501

#23

TheEmperorOfDoom: Canadians have legal euthanasia.
Britols need to wait before getting medicine.
Amercanus have to pay.

Image credits: Specific-Net-471

#24

ilovesnoppyandfriend: I’m guessing all they are assembling a team of billionaire “assassins” as these are all things that took billionaires out. Tbh idk someone let me know

CroatoanCurse: Billionaire assassin’s is correct. Dude k**led a ceo of UHC. Oceangate k**led it’s founder plus some others. And 1 very angry Russian aquarium orca as been teaching other orcas how to capsized yachts.

Image credits: adamgreattweet

#25

soup_drinker1417: American soldier impregnated Vietnamese lady and left.

Image credits: gwenom702

#26

PM_ME_YOUR_TITS80085: Bras for larger breasts are harder to open.

Image credits: Aggressive_Square408

#27

SoSpecialName: Topology (hole science) joke. Socks, by topological standards, have no holes.

Image credits: YourFavoriteMilkMan

#28

Hot_Leading_5295: Nail artists are usually foreigners that talk about customers in their mother language so they can speak badly about customers in their faces (stereotypes).

Image credits: @deantak

#29

red-D-Thor: Guy is Johnny sins.
Does p**no.
Does roleplay of sometimes astronaut, sometimes doctor,… all sorts of professions.

Image credits: Logical-Albatross110

#30

EthanEpiale: Car salespeople are a species physically incapable of acknowledging the existence of a woman if a man is within 50 ft of her.

Image credits: shalyam

#31

JustSimple97: Comedian will interact with them and ask many potentially uncomfortable questions. Depend on your ability to come up with clever things fast this may work in your favor or against you.

Image credits: akin975

#32

Captain_Tappa: There were protests in China, Tiananmen Square, in 1989, ended up with lots of casualties. And TS stands for Taylor Swift, born in 1989.

Image credits: Avocado_Pro

#33

ARatOnASinkingShip: Mountain goats can climb incredibly steep, almost vertical angles with ease. The frog thought he could escape the goat by climbing the wall. The frog was wrong. 92 degrees is a bit farfetched, but the point is that the wall isn’t perfectly vertical, therefore the goat can climb it.

Image credits: reddit.com

#34

longtermbrit: Speaking as a millennial who is single, I feel like the guy on the ground watching that chopper fly off into the sunset. Dating apps are poison for anyone who isn’t conventionally attractive, even if they do lead to relationships occasionally (I have a friend who met their spouse on there but they’re both ridiculously attractive people inside and out) they’re built with the intention of keeping people on the apps. That’s not going to happen if they’re good at pairing people off into relationships.

Add in a chronically online culture exacerbated by Covid lockdowns and a cost of living crisis pushing up the price of going out for a few drinks and you have a population of people who hardly ever go out so are less likely to meet organically and less able to interact with people in a flirty way.

And I include myself in this.

Image credits: reddit.com

#35

Mammoth-Magician-778: It’s a scene from The Mist. Towards the end of the film, the man pictured is held up in a car with a number of others, including his son. Believing that soon they’ll all die, he k**ls them all, but doesn’t have a bullet for himself. After k**ling them, the mist begins to clear and the military starts driving through.
The tragedy is that if he had waited just a few more moments, he wouldn’t have had to k**l his son. Now he has to live with it for the rest of his life.

Image credits: i_drink_bromine

#36

martopub11: There is a trend of women switching roles and saying phrases a male might say to a female: “I would’ve been in the NFL if it wasn’t for my career ending knee injury”.

Image credits: OnePunchClam

#37

b-monster666: I just learned this now, but apparently in the 18th century, Spanish missionaries in Venezuela, Columbia and Brazil ate capybara. They wrote to the pope, describing an animal that lived mostly in the water, had hair and scales and asked if they could eat it for lent. The pope, not knowing what a capybara was, and only having the description to go off of decided that the capybara was a fish, so it was okay to eat.

Image credits: pjgraves1620

#38

CapablePersonality21: There’s a trend on tiktok on women expressing little traits on men that gives them the “ick”, which is disgust and unattractiveness for them. Eventually it got so ridiculous that even the most mundane act would give them the ick, things like feeling cold, walk in a certain way, ordering some kind of food, cooking, etc. There’s a guy on tiktok/instagram that lists everything that give women them the ick and it became comical instantly.

Image credits: thisdiegolopez

#39

JobiWanKenobi47: The joke is that people who act funny and don’t pay attention in class don’t get higher paying jobs making them work at earlier hours rather than a 9-5.

Image credits: SG508

#40

loopingtohell: It’s about the whole alpha, beta, delta, sigma bs that some men obsess over it.

Image credits: ManicalDaredevil00

#41

flashpoint71: These were sold in vending machine inside break rooms, usually at manufacturing plants. They were usually in the vending machine that rotates. You have to open the little door and pull it out.
Edit: These were a great choice at 7 am, first thing In the morning, because you didn’t get home from the bars before 3:30 am.

Image credits: butWeWereOnBreak

#42

AndTheOscarGoesTo-:
(deep breath) Here we go, in Zootopia, Disney made several significant changes to the plot before its release, altering the film’s tone and themes. Originally, all predators were supposed to wear control collars that shocked them when they felt strong emotions, symbolizing societal oppression, but this concept was deemed too dark for a family movie. The initial story also presented a bleaker view of discrimination, with prey animals as the oppressors of predators, which was shifted to focus on cooperation and understanding instead. The main villain was Initially going to be Mayor Swinton, a pig representing societal control, but was changed to Bellwether, a sheep whose betrayal added a surprising twist. Nick Wilde’s backstory was originally darker, emphasizing his childhood trauma from prejudice, but this was toned down for a lighter narrative. The first draft included a storyline where Nick dealt with a virus causing savage behavior but managed to control it, this was simplified in the final version to highlight themes of acceptance. (Sigh of relief)

Image credits: Dizzy-Natural8763

#43

Wordwind: She was an American painter who did a lot of flower paintings that could be seen as…reminiscent of sexy lady parts.

Image credits: DevelopingSoftware

#44

Ash_an_bun: The fade and an actually groomed beard are regarded as the type of hairstyles used by Caucasian males to indicate they would like to have relations with women of African descent.

Image credits: Concubhar

#45

Psyberpunk777: Small cylinder means his w**ner.

Image credits: marharth

#46

Bulky-Party-8037: There was a clip of him and P Diddy from years ago. So likely he was a member of those freak out parties that everyone including Homeland Security is concerned about leading people to think he was groomed by him, or worse.

Image credits: yotyotinfinity

#47

NoTePierdas: A new sonic weapon was unveiled in Serbia against protestors.

So, the problem is that it is going to be a new “non-lethal” weapon. Non-lethal weapons have the problem of making people at home feel okay about it while causing severe problems to people it’s used on.

Sonic weapons and stun grenades absolutely f**king deafen you and pierce your eardrums. Rubber bullets will still break bones, and can totally k**l you, they’re just less likely to kill you. Tear gas causes severe respiratory distress.

As a guy whose seen stun grenades used, I’d kinda prefer if they just fired over protestors’ heads or something. My ears haven’t stopped ringing since I was 13. I can’t sleep without a cocktail of medicine.

Sonic weapons, as far as I know, can’t be defended against deafening you by wearing earpro. The equivalent amount of sound is multiple .45 ACP rounds going off inside of you, radiating throughout your body.

Image credits: Lord-Firebomb

#48

CartographerKey4618: The backrooms are a fictional location of infinite rooms that you supposedly access by glitching yourself or being glitched out of reality. The rooms are liminal spaces, spaces that are eerily empty and are portrayed with featureless carpets, white walls, and older fluorescent lighting. If there is something inside of a backroom that seems innocent, like a soda machine, chances are it’s some kind of eldrich horror trying to lure you in. More than likely, it’s not a coincidence our thirsty protagonist ran into a pepsi machine.

Image credits: maruo93838

#49

Armisael2245: I seen people say the algorithm is promoting violent, horny and generally unhinged videos.

Image credits: NOOBIK123456789

#50

Berkamin: This is Ramanujan, the Indian mathematician who got mystical revelations of mind blowing mathematical theorems.
Many of his mathematical conjectures were later proven true, which is baffling because it leaves you wondering how he was even able to make such conjectures in the first place. According to him he had mystical dreams about math. (Or ‘maths’ as he might have said, since he did his academic work in the UK.) That’s his source for these conjectures

Image credits: Sora5016

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