30 Times People Just Couldn’t Figure Out The Joke But The Internet Had Their Backs

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.

30 Times People Just Couldn’t Figure Out The Joke But The Internet Had Their Backs

Image source: i-asked-1245, zeprfrew

#2

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

30 Times People Just Couldn’t Figure Out The Joke But The Internet Had Their Backs

Image source: shalyam

#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.

30 Times People Just Couldn’t Figure Out The Joke But The Internet Had Their Backs

Image source: Need_Kafkok, Jammer_Jim

#4

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 w**d 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.

30 Times People Just Couldn’t Figure Out The Joke But The Internet Had Their Backs

Image source: BackgroundCommon3025

#5

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.

30 Times People Just Couldn’t Figure Out The Joke But The Internet Had Their Backs

Image source: anythingforadom

#6

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.

30 Times People Just Couldn’t Figure Out The Joke But The Internet Had Their Backs

Image source: Perfect-Corner6659, Delli-paper

#7

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.

30 Times People Just Couldn’t Figure Out The Joke But The Internet Had Their Backs

Image source: Randomposter54

#8

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).

30 Times People Just Couldn’t Figure Out The Joke But The Internet Had Their Backs

Image source: @deantak

#9

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.

30 Times People Just Couldn’t Figure Out The Joke But The Internet Had Their Backs

Image source: adamgreattweet, ilovesnoppyandfriend

#10

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.

30 Times People Just Couldn’t Figure Out The Joke But The Internet Had Their Backs

Image source: skywalker_501, Memer_Plus

#11

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.

30 Times People Just Couldn’t Figure Out The Joke But The Internet Had Their Backs

Image source: Regular-Contact3970

#12

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.

30 Times People Just Couldn’t Figure Out The Joke But The Internet Had Their Backs

Image source: kolomogorov, Primary-Holiday-5586

#13

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

30 Times People Just Couldn’t Figure Out The Joke But The Internet Had Their Backs

Image source: ManicalDaredevil00

#14

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!

30 Times People Just Couldn’t Figure Out The Joke But The Internet Had Their Backs

Image source: Wheybrotons, natholemewIII

#15

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.

30 Times People Just Couldn’t Figure Out The Joke But The Internet Had Their Backs

Image source: pjgraves1620, TeachingDazzling4184

#16

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.

30 Times People Just Couldn’t Figure Out The Joke But The Internet Had Their Backs

Image source: MartjinGaritsen

#17

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.

30 Times People Just Couldn’t Figure Out The Joke But The Internet Had Their Backs

Image source: Fun-Ad-3597, Thelethargian

#18

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.

30 Times People Just Couldn’t Figure Out The Joke But The Internet Had Their Backs

Image source: Avocado_Pro

#19

PM_ME_YOUR_T**S80085: Bras for larger breasts are harder to open.

30 Times People Just Couldn’t Figure Out The Joke But The Internet Had Their Backs

Image source: Aggressive_Square408, PM_ME_YOUR_TITS80085

#20

soup_drinker1417: American soldier impregnated Vietnamese lady and left.

30 Times People Just Couldn’t Figure Out The Joke But The Internet Had Their Backs

Image source: gwenom702, soup_drinker1417

#21

starlight_collector: Mining bitcoin takes a lot of electricity.

30 Times People Just Couldn’t Figure Out The Joke But The Internet Had Their Backs

Image source: AceofSpadesYT, starlight_collector

#22

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”.

30 Times People Just Couldn’t Figure Out The Joke But The Internet Had Their Backs

Image source: Next_Airport_7230, mklinger23

#23

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”.

30 Times People Just Couldn’t Figure Out The Joke But The Internet Had Their Backs

Image source: OnePunchClam, martopub11

#24

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.

30 Times People Just Couldn’t Figure Out The Joke But The Internet Had Their Backs

Image source: reddit.com, ARatOnASinkingShip

#25

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

30 Times People Just Couldn’t Figure Out The Joke But The Internet Had Their Backs

Image source: DevelopingSoftware

#26

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.

30 Times People Just Couldn’t Figure Out The Joke But The Internet Had Their Backs

Image source: Last-Celebration3079, MothersMiIk

#27

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

30 Times People Just Couldn’t Figure Out The Joke But The Internet Had Their Backs

Image source: anothermax1134, VerySecretHotdog

#28

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.

30 Times People Just Couldn’t Figure Out The Joke But The Internet Had Their Backs

Image source: reddit.com, longtermbrit

#29

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).

30 Times People Just Couldn’t Figure Out The Joke But The Internet Had Their Backs

Image source: wholesome_giant7, Morbos1000

#30

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

30 Times People Just Couldn’t Figure Out The Joke But The Internet Had Their Backs

Image source: Specific-Net-471, TheEmperorOfDoom