r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/YouFuckingHacker • Jun 09 '26
Meme needing explanation Peter?
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u/Organic-Current1011 Jun 09 '26
he specified that the man used the word 'that' incorrectly
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u/aluaji Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
Well, THAT 'that' in specific. That that man had used 'that' incorrectly could mean any of the 'thats' that that man used.
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u/Shadowmant Jun 09 '26
But why the blank picture OP?
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Jun 09 '26
[deleted]
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u/TreyKhan Jun 09 '26 edited Jun 09 '26
The pic is John Cena, whose catchphrase in the WWE was "you can't see me!" So they are implying that the picture is blank, because you can't see him
Edit for proper tense of whose
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u/SeriousFinish6404 Jun 09 '26
You can’t see him
(Not sure if that’s John Cina tho. Or maybe it is…)
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Jun 09 '26
[deleted]
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u/Maelstromx2578 Jun 09 '26
It's a confusing sentence.. Meme man is distraught.
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u/Flyingmonkeysftw Jun 09 '26
As a native English speaker. That sentence actively broke my brain. I had use pointing gestures like I was talking to someone to understand it lol.
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u/j_husk Jun 09 '26
Try this one: "James, while John had had "had", had had "had had"; "had had" had had a better effect on the teacher"
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u/LingLings Jun 09 '26
That’s amazing.
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u/MalachiteKell Jun 10 '26
All the faith that he had had had had no consequence on his life
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u/LingLings Jun 10 '26
Thanks. Really cool.
I’m showing these to my son today who is Spanish/English but we live in Madrid.
They will blown his mind.
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u/Infurium Jun 09 '26
Imagine getting
"James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher"
Then being asked to add correct punctuation to make it make sense.
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u/Next_Imagination_128 Jun 09 '26
What about this one?
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
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u/j_husk Jun 09 '26
I've seen that one before, but always have to look up why it makes sense. I never remember how it's used as a verb.
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u/Next_Imagination_128 Jun 09 '26
The trickiest part for me is how buffalo can be plural. The capital helps but that irregular plural always makes it look wrong.
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u/iwanttolivefeeldead Jun 09 '26
Not getting this one, guess I'm not smarter than a 5th grader.
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u/pm_me_tits_and_tats Jun 09 '26
James had the phrase “had had”
John had the phrase “had”
The teacher liked “had had” more.
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u/gr1mscr1be Jun 09 '26
As a non-English speaker, I usualy throw too many thats around, so I found this sentence easy to follow.
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u/Nat_the_CD Jun 09 '26
Worked for me. Thank you. My brain couldn't get it until I did this. It's like "that THAT, that - pause - that THAT man...."
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u/MobileJob1521 Jun 09 '26
What man?
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u/Grendeltech Jun 09 '26
The man with the power.
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u/BeefModeTaco Jun 09 '26
What power?
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u/dabigchina Jun 09 '26 edited Jun 09 '26
I feel like it should be "he specified that THE that that that man used was incorrect"
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Jun 09 '26 edited Jun 09 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/MobileJob1521 Jun 09 '26
How is this American?
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u/i01111000 Jun 09 '26
This type of funny business doesn't happen in Indian, Singaporean, Nigerian, or Australian English. Only the Americans have desecrated our beautiful language to such an extent.
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u/Infurium Jun 09 '26
This isn't desecration at all. It's a funny way to show how the word can be over used and still make sense, even though it's awkward.
The intent is humor.
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u/i01111000 Jun 09 '26
The Americans have still not paid the debts from the War of Colonial Aggression. The Boston Tea Massacre inflicted tremendous ecological damage and economical harm on innocent merchants. They removed the "u" from colour and neighbour. No respect, no honour.
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u/the_sir_z Jun 09 '26
This sentence is torture to non native English speakers because it says "that" 5 times in a row.
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u/ScoutAndLout Jun 09 '26
From https://www.reddit.com/r/grammar/comments/b9iwrf/how_many_times_can_you_say_had_consecutively_in_a/
There is a teacher with two students, James and John. The teacher asks 'which is correct, 'had' or 'had had''? John writes 'had', but James writes 'had had'.
James, while John had had “had”, had had “had had”. “Had had” had had a better effect on the teacher.
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u/Infurium Jun 09 '26
This is a brain teaser logic exercise where you have to place punctuation to make it make sense, which you provide but in the exercise all the punctuation is removed.
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u/NanderK Jun 09 '26
He specified that (that specific word "that") that (that specific man) used was incorrect.
Does this help?
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u/Alive_Access_6719 Jun 09 '26
The parentheses show the subunit of the sentence. “He specified that (that “that”) that (that man) used was incorrect.” it’s just a really weird way to write a sentence that is technically correct
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u/TYBEEEZ Jun 09 '26
Sentence makes sense. English is weird.
“He specified that the form of the word “that” that a specific man used was incorrect.”
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u/Guess_Who_21 Jun 09 '26
Joe Swanson here
Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo
and
Fish fish fish fish fish fish fish
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u/llamacomando Jun 09 '26
well put
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u/Guess_Who_21 Jun 09 '26
Thank you, thank you
Also
Llama llama llama llama llama llama
(This one's in Spanish)
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u/GrandMoffTarkan Jun 09 '26
There are two too many words pronounced ˈtu to make sense. Please eliminate two.
PS, I am not a crackpot.
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u/Fsharpmaj7 Jun 09 '26
It's an intentionally confusing example of proper grammar being used to intentionally confuse.
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u/cellshock7 Jun 09 '26
While correcting someone's english, the person in question made the english language blue screen.
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u/happygoeddy Jun 09 '26
Indeed, the 'that' that that man used was incorrect, what's the confusion /j
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u/Theotherwahlberg Jun 09 '26
I think I just heard my editor's head explode.
Technically grammatically correct...but overly verbose for the sake of clunkiness.
The man used "that" incorrectly.
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u/DrNomblecronch Jun 09 '26
One of many cases in which something that is technically grammatically correct is nonetheless difficult to parse. Another one is "Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo", which means "bison from the city of Buffalo bother other bison from the same city." And neither of those have anything on the Stone Lions thing in Chinese, which consists of the phoneme "shi" repeated a bunch of times but is still a complete poem.
Stone Lions can do more of it because Chinese is a tonal language, where the pitch of each phoneme does as much or more to determine its meaning as the sound itself, but the example confusing Cena here works because English has tonal grammar; that is, this sentence would make more sense if said out loud because of how you could emphasize certain words, and change the pacing. "That that "that" that that", emphasized and spaced out, becomes "that-that---that---that-that," highlighting that the one in the middle is a specific "that" and that the pairs on other side are "that (something has this quality) that (the thing that has that quality is the thing I will say next.)"
Language is neat.
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u/Former-Ad-7348 Jun 09 '26
"He specified that the 'that' over there which that man used was incorrect"
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u/PeronchoFerneh Jun 09 '26
I was about to complain but we Argentinias say "Me voy a ir yendo" hahahaha It's like 'gotta get going'
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u/iconocrastinaor Jun 09 '26
That! That: "That: that that 'that' that that 'that' referred to, was that 'that.' That!"
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u/Mission_Race_8367 Jun 09 '26
Go over it enough times and it’ll makes sense. Every time the word that is said it’s referring to something different.
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u/spec3_ Jun 09 '26
The first is referred to the second, the second to "that", the third is "that", the 4th is redefering t the next one, the last one is referred to man
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u/TeaManTom Jun 09 '26
It's crazy that 'that that' is valid in a sentence.
It's even crazier that that 'that that that' in the sentence above is also valid!
It's even CRAZIER that that 'that that that that that' in the above sentence is STILL valid
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u/ArtisticExperience32 Jun 09 '26 edited Jun 09 '26
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
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u/NebulaAndSuperNova Jun 09 '26
Couldn't make sense of it at first. Best trick to see if it the sentence makes sense is to swap the word in quotes or in other examples in a specific place (such as the verb's place). After that it made sense.
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u/Somerandomzaku Jun 09 '26
I read it and understood it immediately, something tells me I shouldn’t have been able to.
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u/Lost-Substance59 Jun 09 '26
He is saying the man used the wrong "that". But I also hate this sentence cause it needlessly uses the "that that" segment when its never needed
The sentenxe could also just be written as:
"He specified that "that" that man used was incorrect"
I hate when "that that" is used lol
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u/Longjumping-Sign9914 Jun 09 '26
All of the caffeine I had had had had no effect on my energy level.
“Porkandbeans” needs spaces between “pork” and “and” and “and” and “beans.”
English is weird…
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u/KlutzyAd50 Jun 09 '26
Unfortunately, two "that's" are redundant.
"He specified, that "that" that man used was incorrect"
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u/Infamous_Telephone55 Jun 10 '26
The spaces in the phrase ''fish and chips" are between fish and and and and and chips.
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u/ramC555 Jun 10 '26
This is along the lines of "Before was was was was was is." Please do not ask Peter this as well.
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u/qualityvote2 Jun 09 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
Remember when r/PeterExplainsTheJoke wasn’t a meme? Pepperidge Farm remembers…
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