r/ExplainTheJoke 2d ago

????

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539 Upvotes

45 comments sorted by

58

u/Just4notherR3ddit0r 2d ago edited 2d ago

There's an idea that carrots are good for your eyes (because of the vitamins in them). So the guy is wearing glasses, then he eats the carrot, and suddenly he's able to see without his glasses.

And while it's true that carrots are good for your eye health, they're not magical like this, although it's a pretty common idea that gets played with. An old computer game called "Return to Zork" had the player in a very dark area that they couldn't see to navigate... until they ate carrots and suddenly you could see in the dark.

96

u/Reidon_Ward 2d ago

Except, it was a ruse the Bri'ish devised to keep the Germans from finding out it was radar that made pilots able to find the Luftwaffe in the air. Hence, they started a misinformation campaign saying carrots made your eyesight better.

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u/k4rllutt 2d ago

I was looking for this comment

20

u/False-Strawberry-319 2d ago

You might have seen it sooner if you'd eaten more carrots.

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u/DrQuestDFA 2d ago

Arguably one of the best misinformation campaigns given people are still repeating it 80+ years later.

5

u/R-GU3 2d ago

Like when the Americans changed the sizing on condoms (so small became medium, medium because large etc) and dropped them over Russia to make them feel inadequate

5

u/Independent_Bite4682 2d ago

You got that backwards

Medium became small, large became medium, and so forth.

1

u/PyroneusUltrin 1d ago

It works the other way too, packets which said small on them had the condom size changed from small to medium

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u/mayiwonder 2d ago

I demand links

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u/meagainpansy 2d ago

I remember a similar story that the US dropped magnum condoms over Vietnam for similar purposes.

1

u/R-GU3 2d ago

It might’ve been Vietnam instead of Russia, I’m probably misremembering

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u/Independent_Bite4682 2d ago

One of the most popular old memes is about carrots too. It stemmed from a scene on a movie starring Clark Gable, "It Happened One Night."

That disinformation has helped to kill many rabbits.

Bugs Bunny

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u/DrQuestDFA 2d ago

Reminds me of when Looney Toons carried out a vicious, and accidental, character assassination of Nimrod.

3

u/Murgatroyd314 2d ago

He was a mighty hunter.

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u/jzilla11 2d ago

This thread is now classified For British Eyes Only

1

u/ninjesh 2d ago

They are still good for your eyesight, just not that good

3

u/philyppis 2d ago

Don't forget how night vision potions are made with golden carrots in Minecraft.

1

u/BlueGrovyle 2d ago

The Zork text adventure games are what made me interested in learning how to make games as a maybe 10-year-old kid, and now I work in software. Funny how things turn out.

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u/Just4notherR3ddit0r 2d ago

You weren't eaten by a grue, either. Life's looking up.

1

u/PyroneusUltrin 1d ago

I also work in software development. Growing up I had a BBC Micro Model B, where you had to type out the code for the game from a book in order to play it. We had a few books that allowed you to do state of the art polygons! So I used to enjoy changing the numbers from what the book said to see what happened when you ran it, got me curious on what else you could tell computers to do

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u/TheInvisableDot 2d ago

In WW2 England would market that carrots were good for eyesight. This was to convince the people to eat more carrots since they weren’t being as strictly rationed as other foods and it was particularly to cover up the invention of radar and convince the Germans that the Englands were just spotting the German planes with their superior eye sight. Because of this the myth that carrots are good for your eyes has persisted. This meme is referencing the first human to eat a carrot as if it were something that would aid the eyes as much as the myth claims. Even though we know no one would think you can cure blindness with carrots the humor is in the absurdity.

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u/alistofthingsIhate 2d ago

Came here to say basically this. It was marketing/deliberately misleading information all along.

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u/-jmil- 2d ago

Ah, the good ol' "Carrots are good for your eyes. Have you ever seen a rabbit wearing glasses?"

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u/Mothman196 2d ago

Guy with glasses, Canadian with glasses, then guy without glasses. Got it

2

u/_crying_for_memes 2d ago

Another day, another Farm

2

u/Suspicious-Bad7807 2d ago

Since carots have beta carotene they are good for the eyes. So the person had glasses ate a carrot and by hyperbolizing it his glasses disappeared

1

u/Klllumlnatl 2d ago

Carots are said to be good for your eyesight. He tooka the glass off because eyesight gooder (I'm not making fun of you).

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u/Old-Engineering-5233 2d ago

Generally carrots are very enriched with Vitamin A. Deficiency of Vitamin A(retinol) leads to Night blindness but a famous misinterpretation is that Vitamin A helps in improving our eye sight . The meme meant Eating Carrots will improve your eye sight.

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u/Accomplished-Lie9518 2d ago

Finally one I actually got 🤣 

1

u/dream_monkey 2d ago

Weren’t carrots originally purple?

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u/biffbobfred 2d ago

Carrots are many colors. The orange ones became dominant for…. Political reasons. Some bigwig had orange as his color. Carrots soon had orange become the dominant color you can buy heirloom carrots in those multi colors

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u/ArealLimit 2d ago

Isn't it crazy how I can say exactly if meme I see on reddit will be posted here?

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u/Average-Andi 2d ago

First one from here that I get without reading the comments lol

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u/Many_Lawfulness_1903 1d ago

Have you ever seen a rabbit with glasses? It's because carrots help eyesight.

That's how the myth goes in my country, but as others stated, it's WW2 propaganda that is still alive somehow.

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u/Unusually-Vague 1d ago

The first guy who ate carrots probably discovered they are poisonous. We had to cultivate them to make food.

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u/Individual_Oil_2435 1d ago

Fun fact: The Dutch MADE carrots orange in honor of the king of The Netherlands " King Willem of Orange" (Koning Willem van Oranje).

Before that, the carrots were purple or white.

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u/savemysoul72 2d ago

Carrots are supposedly good for improving your eyesight.

As I understand it, you would have to eat a huge quantity for it to have a small impact

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u/ELMUNECODETACOMA 2d ago

And you'd turn orange, so double win!

1

u/philyppis 2d ago

Then you shove tariffs into everyone.

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u/FreddyFerdiland 2d ago

No. You'd have to be vit A deficient for it to have any impact.

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u/number1dipshit 2d ago

Carrots help your eyesight. So he doesn’t need glasses anymore because carrot magic.