Peter Griffin Explains the Joke

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About

Peter Griffin Explains the Joke, also known as Explain-It-Peter, refers to an ironic meme format in which an additional panel is added to a humorous image with Family Guy character Peter Griffin explaining the joke. The format gained significant spread in ironic meme communities in Autumn 2018 and reached mainstream attention in May 2019.

Origin

Before March 11th, 2018, now-deleted ironic Facebook page Boobs Guns Freedom Beer and TRUMP posted a meme in which Family Guy character Peter Griffin explained an older meme in an additional panel. On March 11th, 2018, the post was submitted to /r/comedyhomicide subreddit where it gained over 2,100 upvotes in six months.^[1]

Spread

On September 12th, 2018, ironic Facebook page Boobs Guns Freedom Beer and TRUMP 2: Dale Earnheart Jr's revenge reposted the meme, with the post gaining over 200 likes in eight months.^[2] In the following weeks, multiple memes following the format were posted to the group (examples shown below).^[3]^[4]

On September 21st, 2018, Redditor GnomeNipple reposted the original meme to /r/okbuddyretard subreddit, where it gained over 1,900 upvotes in six months.^[5] Starting on October 10th, 2018, more variations of the meme were posted to the subreddit (shown below, left and center).^[6]^[7] On October 20th, 2018, Redditor mister_god created subreddit /r/explainitpeter, with users posting notable examples of the meme and original works (shown below, right).^[8] As of May 29th, 2019, the subreddit had over 35,000 subscribers.

In the following months, the format saw moderate spread online, with notable examples appearing in ironic communities on Reddit, iFunny and Instagram.

On May 25th, 2019, Reddit account PeterExplainsTheJoke was created,^[9] with the user imitating the format by commenting explanations for memes posted in /r/dankmemes,^[10] /r/memes^[11] and other popular subreddits. The user accumulated over 98,000 points and 35 platinum awards within four days.