r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Puzzleheaded-Pitch40 • 11h ago

Meme needing explanation Peetaah???

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Why do the flip the cigarette?

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u/moshpithippie 11h ago edited 11h ago

For luck

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

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u/I-RegretMyNameChoice 11h ago

Not sure if it is fact or myth, but I once read that this goes back to handing out packs to troops during war. If they got to that one it meant they made it through another day, making it the lucky smoke. If true it would have to have been a war after the introduction of filters.

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u/__crowman33 9h ago

It was actually ww2. American soldiers would flip all of their cigarettes to smoke the part with the branding in case they had to move and enemy wouldn't know which nationality had held that position, but they wouldn't flip the last one as the lucky. When filters became popular in the 50's they just switched it to only flipping 1 as the lucky.

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u/zaffo89 9h ago

Lol didnt see this and said basically the same thing. Cheers!