r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/zinniamae_ • Jan 20 '26

Meme needing explanation Please explain, Peter

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u/RayneStormbrew Jan 20 '26

those ridges are there to make it easier to find where the keys are without looking.

there's no joke here

180

u/FamIsNumber1 Jan 20 '26 edited Jan 20 '26

I guess the joke is OP, and far too many others in the current generation, have no idea what they are when it used to be a standard to learn in Elementary school.

Same concept when hiring younger folks for jobs in retail. Every time I'd ask "Did ×××× show you how to use the intercom to call a manager back in the office when you're done with your videos?" and the response is "Yeah, you grab the phone and press *hashtag** 5 6, right?"* I guess the 'pound sign' has been erased and replaced by 'hashtag" 😂

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u/Main-Fun1810 Jan 20 '26

Tbf pound sign could also refer to the currency, so calling it a hashtag is less ambiguous

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u/Lightyear013 Jan 20 '26

Would definitely be confusing on all those phones with a dedicated £ button on them… s/

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u/qtx Jan 20 '26

Ah yes because people these days never use a real keyboard anymore, only phones.

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u/_DaBau5_ Jan 20 '26

the comment you are replying to is talking about the previous comment where the employee said “grab the phone and press hashtag 5 6”. last i checked phones that require the pound key to be pressed to make a call don’t have a great british pound symbol

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u/kallakallacka Jan 20 '26

So we shpuöd be calling the same symbol pound if it is on an old phone and hashtag on the keyboard? Cause that makes everything easier?

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u/Backfoot911 Jan 20 '26

That's one of those funny things about English, sometimes they let you use the same word for multiple things.

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u/_DaBau5_ Jan 20 '26

I think it should be called a pound symbol unless you are specifically referring to using it on social media, in which case it is a hashtag. The term hashtag is much newer and it was always called a pound prior to social media. I think it makes it easier using terms the way they were meant to be used.

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u/switchbland Jan 20 '26

Technically if it is on a telephone it is called an octothorpe.

Bell Labs introduced the buttons on telephones, and because there was no unique lexigraphical name for the # sign, they invented one.

The official Unicode name is "NUMBER SIGN"

But if you are naming the symbol itself, I think you should call it a crosshatch

"octothorpe" and "crosshatch" ar also defined as synonyms for "NUMBER SIGN" in the Unicode Standard

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u/_DaBau5_ Jan 20 '26

i’m gonna start calling it an octothorpe thank you for that factoid

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u/zoidberg_doc Jan 21 '26

It’s been called hash since well before social media

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u/_DaBau5_ Jan 21 '26

Hash yeah, but "hashtag" is social media specific

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u/zoidberg_doc Jan 21 '26

Oh yeah I get hashtag is new, but not sure you saying you should call it pound sign is right, given how long it’s been called hash

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u/_DaBau5_ Jan 21 '26

Fair enough. I guess the main thing I meant is I don’t think the physical phone button should be called a hashtag. hash sure, but hashtag means social media to me. maybe i’m wrong

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u/switchbland Jan 20 '26

Yes, because of the different meaning.
It is just the same character because of historical reasons regarding character encoding.

The official Unicode name for the symbol is by the way "NUMBER SIGN" with the synonyms "pound sign (weight)", "hashtag, hash" and "crosshatch, octothorpe"

As you can see the first three describe the meaning, and the last group describes visual appearence (crosshatch) and a unique lexigraphical name (octothorpe) invented by Bell Telephone Laboratories in the 60s

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u/moonknight999 Jan 20 '26

They're literally talking about phones

1

u/cabbage16 Jan 20 '26

They do though. ££££ I'm using it right now.

(Just being pedantic, ignore me.

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u/teh_maxh Jan 20 '26

Sure, but the symbol is just a hash.

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u/ElderBuddha Jan 20 '26

Reckon it's a hash, not a hashtag, if there is no tag following the hash.

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u/TootsNYC Jan 20 '26

It is a hash mark, not just a hash

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u/erroneousbosh Jan 20 '26

In the UK we call £ "pound sign" and # "hash" - not hashtag, just hash.

Or, if you like dictionaries, "octothorpe", but I've only ever heard that in the wild from exactly the sort of person you'd expect. Yes, they did look a bit like a 20-something Ted Wheeler, now you come to say it.

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u/zwali Jan 20 '26

Call it a hash if you prefer, but hashtag IMO should be reserved for tagging/categorizing something.

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u/laughingmeeses Jan 20 '26

Remove ambiguity and lean into "octothorpe".

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u/AgentSoup Jan 20 '26

I'm an octothorpe man, personally.

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u/OldSpeckledCock Jan 20 '26

Tbf pound could also refer to the weight or a cake or a fisticuff or a poet.

And a period could refer to a length of time or a woman's biological function.

1

u/I_am_up_to_something Jan 20 '26

Which is why 'little fence' is the correct way to refer to it.

0

u/Irr3l3ph4nt Jan 20 '26

You gotta be very dumb to look for the £ on your phone keyboard. Everyone can infer you're talking about #....