About r/PeterExplainsTheJoke
In its own words:
Hey gamers, this is the subreddit where you post a meme/joke you don't understand so it can be explained to you. You can also post memes about u/PeterExplainsTheJoke or just post weird pictures of Peter.
Community guide
r/PeterExplainsTheJoke (#269, about 3.7 million) is where you post a meme/joke you don’t get for an explanation—or Peter-themed meta. Rules ban poor behavior, recently posted jokes, dogwhistles/conspiracies/politics, metaposts, “woooosh”ing users, low effort, and banned-joke lists. Image/Text (~120.8 ppd).
Explain the opaque joke
Post the meme you don’t understand; skip recently repeated and banned jokes.
No politics or wooosh culture
Dogwhistles, conspiracies, and politics are out; don’t “woooosh” people.
Practical pointers
Image-heavy samples; flairs mark explanation asks vs Peter-in-the-wild.
SubMouse Editorial
The community was created on May 26, 2019, which makes it 7 years old. Since Oct 26, 2026, it has gained 11,585 subscribers (+0.31%). It sits just behind r/ethereum (#268) and ahead of r/spacex (#270) in our ranking.
What sets r/PeterExplainsTheJoke apart
Compared with other large communities, r/PeterExplainsTheJoke leans heavily on images (85% of recent posts; the typical Top 100 subreddit sits at 17%). It is a discussion-heavy community, with about 48.0 comments per post over its lifetime versus a Top 100 median of 14.0. For its size it is unusually busy: about 32.6 new posts a day per million members, more than 88% of the Top 100. It is also one of the faster-growing big communities: its 2.33% gain since Sep 19, 2026 beats 99% of the Top 100.
Subscriber growth
Between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 2, 2026, r/PeterExplainsTheJoke went up from 3,616,535 to 3,700,913 subscribers (+84.4K, +2.33%). That is about 1,918 new members per day. The chart uses our weekly snapshots (9 so far), so it gets longer every week.
What r/PeterExplainsTheJoke talks about
Looking at the titles of 633 recent posts (Oct 29–Nov 5), the words that come up most are “peter”, “petah”, “explain”, “help” and “mean”. Other frequent themes are joke, petahh, understand, petahhh, peetah and meme. Recurring phrases include “peter explain”, “peter help”, “mean peter” and “biack white”. By format, 85% are images, 9% are text posts and 3% are videos.
Popular post flairs: Meme needing explanation (582), Peter in the wild (12), Thank you Peter very cool (9), Meme about Peter (6), Mod Post (1).
Activity and best time to post
r/PeterExplainsTheJoke gets about 120 new posts a day. The public archive holds 159,497 posts and 7,650,643 comments in total, about 48.0 comments per post. Last week the busiest day was Sunday (143 posts) and the quietest was Friday (94). Posting peaks around 16:00 UTC and is lowest around 04:00 UTC.
Rules of r/PeterExplainsTheJoke
The moderators of r/PeterExplainsTheJoke list 7 rules. In short:
- Poor Behavior
- Recently posted jokes
- Dogwhistles/Conspiracies & Politics
- Metaposts
- 'Wooooshing' users
- Low effort posts
- Banned Jokes
How to join
Open reddit.com/r/PeterExplainsTheJoke and press “Join”. Read the community rules in the sidebar before you post: every subreddit is run by its own volunteer moderators.
Frequently asked questions
How many subscribers does r/PeterExplainsTheJoke have?
r/PeterExplainsTheJoke has 3,700,913 subscribers (Nov 2, 2026), which makes it the #269 safe-for-work subreddit in the SubMouse ranking. It added 84,378 members between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 2, 2026.
How old is r/PeterExplainsTheJoke?
r/PeterExplainsTheJoke was created on May 26, 2019, so it has been around for 7 years.
How active is r/PeterExplainsTheJoke?
Very active: r/PeterExplainsTheJoke gets about 120 new posts a day (average of the last four weeks). Over its lifetime the archive counts 159,497 posts and 7,650,643 comments. In a sample of 633 recent posts we counted 486 different authors.
When is r/PeterExplainsTheJoke most active?
Based on post counts from Oct 29, 2026 to Nov 4, 2026, the busiest day was Sunday and the quietest Friday, and most posts arrive around 16:00 UTC, with the fewest around 04:00 UTC. More posts also means more competition, so a quieter hour can help a post get noticed.
What is r/PeterExplainsTheJoke about?
The community describes itself as: “Hey gamers, this is the subreddit where you post a meme/joke you don't understand so it can be explained to you. You can also post memes about u/PeterExplainsTheJoke or just post weird pictures of Peter.” Recent post titles often mention peter, petah, explain, help and mean. Most posts are images (85%).
Is r/PeterExplainsTheJoke safe for work?
Yes. Reddit does not mark r/PeterExplainsTheJoke as an 18+ (NSFW) community. SubMouse lists safe-for-work subreddits only.
How do I post on r/PeterExplainsTheJoke?
Join the community on Reddit first, then use “Create post”. r/PeterExplainsTheJoke accepts both text and link posts, with images, videos, galleries and polls enabled. It has 7 posted rules, starting with: “Poor Behavior”; “Recently posted jokes”; “Dogwhistles/Conspiracies & Politics”. Moderators remove posts that break the rules, so read them in the sidebar before posting.
Which communities are like r/PeterExplainsTheJoke?
Communities with similar topics include r/explainlikeimfive (23.7M), r/Jokes (30.4M), r/BikiniBottomTwitter (4.8M), r/dadjokes (12.2M) and r/RelationshipMemes (3.8M).
Stats from public data (data updated Nov 2, 2026; activity, rules and archive totals via the Arctic Shift archive, Nov 6, 2026). Point and comment counts are archive snapshots and can be lower than on Reddit today. SubMouse is an independent directory and is not affiliated with Reddit or the moderators of r/PeterExplainsTheJoke.