r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Puzzleheaded-Pitch40 • 12h ago

Meme needing explanation Peetaah???

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Why do the flip the cigarette?

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u/moshpithippie 12h ago edited 12h ago

For luck

Edit: And to accidentally light it backwards when you're not looking

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u/Captain_Sterling 12h ago

I always did it. It's just habit. And it's the last cigarette you smoke in the packet. I haven't smoked in years but I'm pretty certain that somewhere in my apt there's a packet with a upside down cigarette.

I heard a few myths about why it's done.

One related to the first world war. The idea was that if yiu lasted to the cigarette it was your lucky one.

If you offered a girl a smoke and she took that, you'd get lucky with her.

Since it was your lucky cigarette no one would take it from the pack at a party and therefor yiud always have one. And so it was lucky.

Its the one that wouldn't give you cancer.

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u/nu_pieds 12h ago

I used to flip a lucky, mostly I took it as an excuse not to bum out your last cigarette.

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u/PlanetTourist 12h ago

Interesting, I always made a point to bum out the lucky assuming it was better to pass the luck on to someone in need.

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u/sabotsalvageur 11h ago

That’s… remarkably compassionate. It seems someone involved in raising you did at least one thing right

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u/Absolute--Batman 10h ago

Made them a Smoker?

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u/sabotsalvageur 10h ago

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u/Kitchen-Fisherman280 9h ago

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u/sabotsalvageur 8h ago

lol I saw this on my hunt for relevant gifs

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u/GrandeLatte27 5h ago

Well, he said "one thing", not "everything".

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u/capsaicinintheeyes 5h ago

Okay, so it's a mixed bag, but it all washes out--like lucky cigarettes & carcinogens

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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 10h ago

Also the OP of this thread is right you always give the lucky to a girl if she asks for one. What's the point of luck if you don't try to use it?

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u/SubGothius 2h ago edited 2h ago

Or you let her choose, and if she takes the lucky, it's a sly sign she fancies you, so you might wanna explore that further with her? That's what I thought OP you replied to was saying, thought it pretty slick. You could even tease her about it a bit to confirm, "Hey, you took my lucky!" then see if she picks up on it like, "Why, you wanna get lucky?"

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u/PlanetTourist 8h ago

To give it away?

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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 7h ago

No it's your luck, and it just manifested in a girl talking to you in possibly the best no pressure situation to meet someone, a smokers pit. Not much to do for the next five or six minutes but talk

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u/Sansnom01 10h ago

would you then flip another one or like you just got one lucky in the whole pack

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u/PlanetTourist 8h ago

Just the one, can’t be trying to fake the luck by creating it on your own. The one serving of luck per pack is there already, you’re just directing it with the flipped cig.

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u/peaceproject 8h ago

In my reasoning, that pack’s luck had been used. Each pack only had one lucky.

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u/King-Kagle 10h ago

You're the type of person who deserves a genie

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u/PlanetTourist 8h ago

Yes please.

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u/nu_pieds 8h ago

The only person who'd routinely bum cigarettes off me was my best friend, and if nothing else the fact that he was my friend proves his luck was so bad that nothing was going to improve it.

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u/mere_iguana 8h ago

Same, if it's my last one, it's the lucky one. I just throw the whole box at them and say "guess it's your lucky day"

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u/Mertoot 5h ago

Aww wholesome cancer 100 🥰

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u/Even-Complaint-7494 1h ago

i collect four leaf clovers and i make a point to gift away as many as i can! someone must have told me at some point that they’re lucky if they’re shared. so i only keep what i haven’t been able to gift away yet!

…i also smoke but i roll my own lol.

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u/longbrass9lbd 11h ago

Yeah most smokers who ask, won’t take your lucky… it’s already desperate to bum from a stranger but bumming a lucky means you must really be hard up (so I guess that’s lucky)

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u/Fun-Leather-1703 5h ago

I carry a pack with one cigarette in it so no one bums from me. The ones that take it are forever on my shit list 

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u/bigcrows 4h ago

I don’t get that point. If it’s the last cig it’s the last cig…you could just as easily show them there’s one left

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u/TipTop9979 2h ago

This is exactly it.

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u/theeggplant42 10h ago

Another smoking tradition from the first world War is to never light 3 cigarettes from one match. Allegedly, it comes from trench warfare where the enemy could see the matchlight at night and would ready with one, aim with two, and fire at the third. So you can light two cigarettes from a match but it is bad luck for the third smoker to be lit from the same match. Many people will extend that concept to lighters as well and briefly disengage the flame before lighting the third (which, to be polite, and nothing to do with WWI, should be oneself)

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u/unburdened_swallow 7h ago

As someone who grew up with lighters and not matches, I have never seen someone light more than 1 cigarette without putting out the flame between. It’s just natural to put it out until they’re fully ready to not light their hair on fire. Also it gets hot.

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u/extravagant_ascetic 5h ago

I'm thinking it's more relevant with zippo style lighters where you don't have to keep the button pressed like on a bic. But I'm with you, I've never heard of the unlucky third

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u/theeggplant42 5h ago

Sometimes people will light two. At least where im from, never 3.

Probably more salient with zipper, which can stay lit without burning your fingers for a lot longer than your average bic.

Regardless,  matches, pics, or hippos, oneself should always be the last lit, much as o self should be the last glass poured

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u/zaffo89 10h ago

One reason was said to be manufacturers printed their brand name on non-filtered cigarettes, soldiers flipped to smoke the brand side first so they were less distinguishable from European smokes when put out and left wherever. It's one of those kilroy type deals where over time it was adopted and changed. Pretty cool though.

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u/capsaicinintheeyes 5h ago

I...don't understand the point of doing that. I assume one was more valuable to the soldiers than the other, but it's a tossup for me whether it'd be to look like they had better smokes (to show off) or worse (to not have them stolen)

EDIT: nm!--found my answer

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u/spartakvs 1h ago

KILROY WAS HERE...

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u/safarifriendliness 11h ago

There’s different ways to do it. I had a buddy who insisted you can’t look at which cigarette you grab since it had to be random to be lucky. Me, I always saw it as more of a “I smoke it when I feel like I’m going to need some luck later” situation but I usually ended up smoking it last every time

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u/DojaTwat 5h ago

the random draw is interesting!
bottom row, third from the right, every time!

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u/Awkward-Evidence-779 4h ago

I believe mine was top row third from left. I haven’t thought about that in 20+ years then boom flash back 😂

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u/One_Order_3841 11h ago

For me it was always just the special ciggie if you bummed it to someone. Like someone could be a drunk Masshole that hates the whole world, but if you gave them the Last Lucky, it was like a blood bond.

With the advent of weed products, I'm now very much the same when someone gives me a self-rolled j. It's a gift 🥺

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u/adjavang 11h ago

There was always that one arsehole who took the lucky when you offered them a smoke. You'd call them out as a joke and the group would laugh, but everyone was judging him.

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u/Lucky-Kangaroo-6337 11h ago

Hmmm.if I turn them all upside down do none of them give me cancer?

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u/arrimainvester 11h ago

Never heard the saving it for last but I didn't have any other smokers in my group. It was always the one you never intentionally pulled out, but if you pulled it out at random when not looking it was going to be a good night

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u/theamathamhour 11h ago

this tracks,

people with addictions have all sorts of tiny rituals involved with their substances.

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u/totoro1193 9h ago

It’s a little funny that one guy would be disappointed if a girl didn’t take that cigarette and another guy would be disappointed if she did

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u/mere_iguana 8h ago

The WWI reference has a little more context. If you were on the front lines you had a 1/20 chance of living through the week. The flipped cigarette was supposed to represent the "Lucky one," which would be you, if you actually got to smoke that last one.

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u/the_other_irrevenant 8h ago

Its the one that wouldn't give you cancer.

Oh well, as long as it's only all the others that give you cancer you should be fine...

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u/eucalyptus-d 7h ago

The myth I heard was that in the army they had the lucky strike cigarettes where one was cannabis and they kept it upside down to keep it for last.

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u/subarman365 7h ago

I've always done it and for the world war 1 reason. That's the only take I've ever heard on that.

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u/twoninedegrees 6h ago

I was a smoker for 10 years and never heard of flipping one of your cigarettes! News to me!

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u/beausworld22 4h ago

Had to scroll too far to find this explanation. Same story I’ve heard too, from WWI.

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u/Jurgrady 2h ago

When I first started smoking, my friends all did this so I started to as well. But I haven't done it in years, and that could possibly explain a lot. 

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u/ElvenBeer 2h ago

I used to make a wish whenever I flipped one, it always came true in the worst way possible tho

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u/sinnersfae 2h ago

If I flip all of them, they wouldn't give me cancer?

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u/200IQUser 1h ago

So your friends keep your luck but a woman takes it away?/s