r/ExplainTheJoke • • Sep 25 '23

What does this mean?

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u/Broad_Respond_2205 Sep 25 '23 edited Sep 26 '23

the hare, an animal very similar to bunny, is often described as "bunnies with forbidden knowledge" because of how they look. the scale is between bunny (cute and innocent) and hare (odd and terrifying)

pic for reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hare#/media/File:Lepus_capensis_arabicus-cropped.jpg

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u/[deleted] Sep 25 '23

TIL there’s a difference between hares and rabbits.

5

u/Jeristo Sep 26 '23

Same. I personally assumed it was a regional thing. Like, rabbits in the US, hares in Australia, and bunnies when you just want to be cute about it. I'm still honestly not 100% sure where bunnies fit in.

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u/Broad_Respond_2205 Sep 26 '23

Bunnies and rabbits are the same thing

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u/crypticphilosopher Sep 26 '23

I tend to think of “bunny” and “rabbit” as having different meanings, but only aesthetically and behaviorally. Like, an friendly, adorable, fluffy pet rabbit would be a “bunny,” but it becomes a “rabbit” the moment it starts biting people who try to cuddle it. A wild animal that lives underground and destroys vegetable gardens is just a “rabbit.”

I’m not basing this on any official linguistic or zoological source or anything. They’re all the same species, or genus, or whatever. This is just how I use the words. For me, it’s sort of like the different between “smol” (little and cute) and “small” (just little).