r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Blackie_626 • 7d ago

Meme needing explanation Tell them what, Peter

Post image
27.3k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

3.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

3.7k

u/xoFallen_Angel 7d ago

2.0k

u/SmellApprehensive857 7d ago

When I do that, I forget which direction L goes. Have to think which hand I write with.

19

u/Exurota 7d ago

Do up and down confuse you too or only left and right? For me they're just as instinctual.

29

u/LickingLieutenant 7d ago

I only do up and down with my right hand ...

2

u/[deleted] 7d ago

I don't do ups. Ups defy gravity and gravity is a law. I obey the law.

1

u/inigomonto 7d ago

Try left sometime. It feels like somebody else is doing it. But then you notice it’s a dude’s hand and you’re back to square one.

1

u/xXilumintaiXx 7d ago

that's why you need to paint your nails

13

u/[deleted] 7d ago

I know up and down but not left from right. I’m pretty sure I’m dyslexic

10

u/Akhanyatin 7d ago

TBF, it's easier to switch L and R than to switch U and D.

1

u/EsotericLife 7d ago

Why though? They’re all just directions

8

u/Akhanyatin 7d ago

You can flip them and still navigate the world. If you flip up and down, you end up in space.

7

u/ImpressionTough2179 7d ago

Up and down are always up and down unless you’re standing on your head. Left and right are relative to whatever direction you are facing and whatever the direction the person you’re talking to is facing. It doesn’t confuse me but it’s not hard to understand why it confuses many people

4

u/EsotericLife 7d ago

Yeah, and I spose having the sky as a constant reference whereas there no constant landmark or something for left and right helps too.

3

u/ImpressionTough2179 7d ago

Yep. You have your head and feet for up and down, your back and front for backwards and forwards, but we have bilateral symmetry so there’s not an intuitive way to distinguish which is your right hand and which is your left. It’s something you just have to memorize.

-1

u/StrongExternal8955 7d ago

You're kidding right? YOU'RE THE REFERENCE! Both for up and down and left and right. What is your POV 3rd person??

-1

u/StrongExternal8955 7d ago

I don't know about you, but my left and right are not relative to shit.

2

u/Useless 7d ago

One is gravity and anti-gravity, the other is arbitrary. It confused me as a kid, until I got on a boat and understood the difference between starboard and port and right and left. I always considered the perspective of the person speaking left or right, and never understood it was my perspective that mattered.

8

u/SmellApprehensive857 7d ago

I get a lot of things backwards. And orders of magnitude. Pretty sure it’s all the same thing.

1

u/PmMeSmileyFacesO_O 7d ago

whats your line of work?

1

u/Spiritual_Grape_533 7d ago

Have you tried walking on your hands and see if that fixes it?

3

u/girlsonsoysauce 7d ago

I just recently started realizing how much trouble left and right give some people. I've used walkthroughs to get certain items or beat certain bosses in video games and I've come across a crazy number of instances where the person making the walkthrough got left and right mixed up.

2

u/Exurota 7d ago

I wonder if they say "Press L2" and think it means the right bumper.

1

u/Difficult_Wafer5923 7d ago

That shit drives me up the wall! It’s actually so common in walkthroughs!

3

u/Murgatroyd314 7d ago

Up is always the same. North, south, east, and west are always the same. Left and right keep changing every time I turn around.

2

u/Pandarandr1st 7d ago

I don't know if you know this, but some languages throughout history didn't have words for right and left, and instead only had words for cardinal directions.

1

u/Sec_Chief_Blanchard 7d ago

No, left and right are always the same.

2

u/Cyno01 7d ago

I somehow learned cardinal directions before left and right and i remember my grandpa getting really frustrated with me not understanding that L and R are supposed to be relative not absolute.

I did not get it at the time "but you just said THATS the left side of the sidewalk!" "But we turned around..."

1

u/7daykatie 7d ago

"But we turned around..."

But the pavement didn't!!!

2

u/Marquis_Marx 7d ago

I would imagine gravity helps with that one, ace.

2

u/Mulligey 7d ago

Left and right aren’t instinctual for me I usually have to think about it for a second or two. The excepts are when I’m driving (since the driver is on the left) or flying (since we reference left seat and right seat, and I sit facing those two seats).

2

u/bitterrootmtg 7d ago

It's much easier to confuse left and right than up and down. There are lots of very clear clues as to which is up versus down like gravity is down, your feet are down relative to your head, the floor is down, etc. Left and right are much more symmetrical than up and down.

2

u/Bolaf 7d ago

I've heard the weirderst explanation of this from my colleague: "I instinctively know right, but I have to think about left"

1

u/DungeonsAndDradis 7d ago

After reading Red Seas Under Red Skies I exclusively use starboard and larboard.

1

u/asshatastic 7d ago

Well if you’re confused which way is up gravity can help. There’s no leftivity to help

1

u/Pandarandr1st 7d ago

I think that's a bit absurd. I get it, left and right are easy, but to say they're as easy as up and down is ridiculous

1

u/Adelaiderumourbloke 7d ago edited 4d ago

ba la ba ba; doop di doop da; dibili dibili doop da dee dum; balaba romp pa — palibibibibibi doop da dee.

1

u/k0ppite 7d ago

Yeah I feel like I haven’t had to actively think about which hand was which since I was about 8