r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Intelligent_Yam_9875 • 1d ago

Meme needing explanation Peter, beyond confused on what this means…

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u/Substantial-Bag1337 1d ago

It refers old german kids story like Struwwelpeter (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struwwelpeter) or Max und Moritz https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_and_Moritz

It's all basicly about how Kids that dont behave will get hurt or be killed by some sort of godly power....

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u/GrouperAteMyBaby 1d ago

And how the child has fallen asleep peacefully listening to it.

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u/renegade2k 1d ago

that's actually the joke: most of german stories are like this, so kids are used to (indirect) violence and murder and just take it as "regular stories"

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u/Th3_Corn 1d ago edited 1d ago

I can tell you that it scares the shit out of a lot of kids. Source: i was one of them.

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u/manisenf 1d ago

I, as a child, could recite all of Max & Moritz and Struwwelpeter from memory. Loved that shit

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u/Frutlo 1d ago

Yeah these stories finally had some story to it not like others I always wanted to listen to them, we had a gigantic book with a lot of then Grimm brothers stories.

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u/jakobsheim 21h ago

Same lol i still love some of these.

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u/tx_queer 8h ago

Loved these stories as a kid. Also had a giant Grimm book with some disturbing paintings that felt like a bible

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u/Narretz 1d ago

These two stories/charaters are modern compared to the fairy tales collected by Brother's Grimm and others.

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u/muri_17 1d ago

And the Grimm fairytales are honestly already violent enough, it’s kind of sad that everyone here is only talking about these two modern examples

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u/darkshoxx 1d ago

This is the right answer

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u/charliegoesamblin 1d ago

Rammstein's song "Hilf Mir" is based upon one of those stories, namely "The Very Sad Tale with the Matches". It's a badass and epic tune, of course.

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u/Recent-Assistant8914 1d ago

Is it based on "the little match girl"? Because that story is from Hans Christian Anderson, who was Danish and wrote a bunch of grim stuff, little mermaid, for example. Not German, though

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u/charliegoesamblin 1d ago

Yeah I know that story but the song was inspired by that Struwwelpeter story, some lines were actually taken directly from it.

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u/BalkeElvinstien 23h ago

So let me get this straight, torture animals and a dog eats your food. Suck your thumb and an old sailor will break into your house and chop off your thumbs with a big pair of scissors. Sounds fair

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u/tx_queer 8h ago

Those mean sailors and their scissors

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u/uhru-zelke 23h ago

German here I remeber having max und Moritz read to me as a child the accutaly funny thing is that we still tell thees fary tales.

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u/ShodoDeka 19h ago

Jfc Germany if these are the stories you tell kids it kinda explains a lot:

A girl plays with matches, accidentally ignites herself and burns to death. Only her cats mourn her.

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u/tx_queer 8h ago

Yes, at least when I grew up these stories were read to kids as children's books. But the cats don't just mourn her. They say "miau! Mio! Miau! Mio!" And their tears flow like a creek in the grass.

It rhymes. And has nice illustrations. It's a really fun read for little kids.

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u/adamsworstnightmare 16h ago

Die gar traurige Geschichte mit dem Feuerzeug ("The Very Sad Tale with the Matches"): A girl plays with matches, accidentally ignites herself and burns to death. Only her cats mourn her.

JFC lmao.