Article created by: Ieva Pečiulytė

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

Comic depicting confusion in understanding jokes, with characters labeled as various groups interacting with "Jesus' Teachings."

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.

i-asked-1245 , zeprfrew Report

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    #2

    Comic of a car salesman misunderstanding a couple, highlighting a missed joke about who’s shopping for the car.

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

    shalyam Report

    #3

    Cartoon characters in a hospital, family celebrating a patient's recovery, humorous internet reaction.

    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.

    Perfect-Corner6659 , Delli-paper Report

    #4

    Presentation of Google Pixel Buds with two tweets below; humorous comment on translation abilities.

    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).

    @deantak Report

    #5

    SpongeBob looking confused, reflecting on a joke people didn't get, with supportive internet context.

    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.

    Regular-Contact3970 Report

    #6

    Person in front of ancient ruins with a humorous tweet about the Roman Empire and pottery fragments.

    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.

    skywalker_501 , Memer_Plus Report

    #7

    Two people react humorously about a Disney World insurance claim joke, highlighting people's confusion.

    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.

    kolomogorov , Primary-Holiday-5586 Report

    Binky Melnik
    Community Member
    8 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I understand the text explanation, but don’t understand what it has to do with the two photos. What does an intern have to do with anything? And how stupid am I that I have to ask what the explanation has to do with the photos?

    #8

    Shiba Inu meme with captions about first girlfriends, highlighting a misunderstood joke on the internet.

    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!

    Wheybrotons , natholemewIII Report

    #9

    Medieval figure with Bible questions a capybara, humor misunderstood online.

    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.

    pjgraves1620 , TeachingDazzling4184 Report

    #10

    Two people attempting a nail-balancing challenge, showcasing different problem-solving approaches.

    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.

    Fun-Ad-3597 , Thelethargian Report

    #11

    Cartoon character holding money labeled "Swifties" and squinting "Historians" with two identical "T.S. 1989" hoodies.

    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.

    Avocado_Pro Report

    See Also on Bored Panda
    #12

    Cartoon of a family reunion joke with a puzzled vet holding a Vietnam photo, suitcase labeled "Ho Chi Minh City."

    soup_drinker1417: American soldier impregnated Vietnamese lady and left.

    gwenom702 , soup_drinker1417 Report

    #13

    Anime scene of a frog surprised by a 92-degree angle, while a goat character walks away coolly.

    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.

    reddit.com , ARatOnASinkingShip Report

    #14

    Woman sitting in a doorway, wearing a jacket, sharing a humorous story, with hashtag #Womeninmalefields.

    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”.

    OnePunchClam , martopub11 Report

    #15

    Tweet about Gen Z dating compared to escaping Vietnam with a humorous tone.

    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.

    reddit.com , longtermbrit Report

    #16

    Four people humorously labeled as "Founding Fathers" of DOGE, with a tweet about taking over their Discord server.

    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).


    wholesome_giant7 , Morbos1000 Report