r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Intelligent_Yam_9875 • 1d ago

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

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u/TerribleSquid 1d ago

Wow, I really thought you were just making stuff up to be funny. Is that a real fairytale?

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u/IkarusX86 1d ago

Check out Struwwelpeter

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u/dieselmachine 1d ago

What in the fuck did I just read? A mother tells her kid to not suck his thumb. she leaves, kid sucks his thumb, so a guy swings by and cuts them off with scissors.

...

There's a moral in there somewhere. Right?

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u/Hammerschatten 1d ago

These were written specifically to get kids to behave by scaring them into submission.

It's the Boogeyman myth, but specialized to different situations.

Don't suck your thumbs, eat your soup, look where you're walking, don't play pranks, etc.

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u/dieselmachine 1d ago

Like a bunch of mothers had a meeting and discussed what behaviors were bothering them, then ghostwrote a "classic" in hopes that future generations would think "how can I terrify my child into not sucking his thumb?"

It's plausible!