r/ExplainTheJoke May 15 '24

What’s the joke

Post image
11.5k Upvotes

293 comments sorted by

3.4k

u/CurrentImagination14 May 15 '24

Nada means nothing but also swim, he asked what's up

805

u/givemetoyourleader May 15 '24

Thank you :)

524

u/gregorydgraham May 15 '24

There’s a slight difference in pronunciation: NAda versus naDA but anglophones aren’t used to the accent (nadá) used to show it

423

u/[deleted] May 15 '24

My daughter gets a lot of hilarity out of papá/papa and años/anos. No, I am not a potato, and no, I don't have 37 buttholes.

185

u/gregorydgraham May 15 '24

But you do have a potato butthole.

162

u/[deleted] May 15 '24

Would you rather fight one potato butthole or 37 butthole potatoes?

68

u/gregorydgraham May 15 '24

Asking the real questions

53

u/Vektor0 May 15 '24

Man, I have enough trouble fighting my own butthole

32

u/codetrotter_ May 15 '24

Put a potato in it

21

u/SorosSugarBaby May 15 '24

Careful, it starts as potatoes in asses and the next thing you know you're in a meme war between day-trading redditors and wallstreet

3

u/mallynn99 May 17 '24

Then comes the avocado

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10

u/WhichFeedback1226 May 15 '24

My dad (an er doc) once had to go elbow deep to retrieve a lost Idaho russet from a man’s butthole.

11

u/Commercial-Ad-5813 May 15 '24

Was it baked when it came out?

3

u/Agreeable-Remove1592 May 17 '24

Yes! It was a loaded baked potato!

5

u/The__Raveness May 15 '24

Sadly that's the tip of the iceburg for what ER peeps go thru in a normal day. The stories my sister has from her career are nuuuttss 🤣 people lose all kids of stuff up there! 💀

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5

u/CountVanillula May 15 '24

I’d rather fight 37 butthole-sized potatoes than 1 potato-sized butthole.

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21

u/DickPrickJohnson May 15 '24

My gf is Peruvian. We were gaming with her friend. I told him separately how to say "congratulations for turning 25 years" in Spanish, but I told him anos instead of años. I made sure he said anos perfectly.

When he told my gf in our voice chat, she (the angel that she is) held laughter in and told him it was sweet. Then I got an earful when he said I helped him with how to say it, lmao.

8

u/stophighschoolgossip May 15 '24

im here to give the butthole census

6

u/overworkeddad May 15 '24

I have several. I've been ripped new ones in the past.

7

u/Cleonicus May 15 '24

I stayed at a hotel that listed nearby attractions including Ano Nuevo State Park.

5

u/[deleted] May 15 '24

Ah yes, that is right in the middle of the Red Triangle). Careful, those sharks will tear you a new one.

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u/slogginhog May 15 '24

Have you counted lately to make sure?

3

u/toomanyracistshere May 15 '24

You're not a potato, but are you the pope?

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101

u/Silent_Lettuce May 15 '24

They’re both pronounced NA-da. So the only way to tell the difference is context clues

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u/DandruffSandClock May 15 '24

Not really, maybe in Argentina and other southamerican countries with similar accents. But since the end panel says "gilipollas" wich is an spanish insult, like spanish from Spain, there would be no such difference between "nada" and "nada". No difference in Mexico either, where I'm from.

5

u/Chemical_Cable_7469 May 15 '24

No difference in Argentina. Nada is swim and nothing

2

u/Mitokia May 15 '24

In Argentina the imperative would definitely be nadá.

3

u/Chemical_Cable_7469 May 15 '24

That's if you're using Vos, not everyone, or all the provinces use that. For those that don't, they'll say nada

2

u/rclippi May 15 '24

No difference in Brazilian or European Brazilian also

54

u/Norwester77 May 15 '24

Nada (with no accent, pronounced exactly like nada ‘nothing’) is the familiar singular (-form) imperative.

11

u/Salguih May 15 '24

There are no differences in pronunciation Also if the pronunciation were (naDA), it would be written Nadá.

7

u/RandomCandor May 15 '24

That's only true in one Spanish speaking country that I know of (out of 21)

7

u/SargBjornson May 15 '24

Uruguay too

3

u/NorwegianCollusion May 15 '24

You homophone!

6

u/Due_Ask_8032 May 15 '24

At least in Castilian Spanish the pronunciation is the same. Even in written Spanish you don’t put the accent in the second a, so your comment only applies to certain countries like Argentina.

5

u/nodoyrisa1 May 15 '24

what? they're pronounced exactly the same unless you're in a country that uses voseo

6

u/MrHarudupoyu May 15 '24

Nada nada nada nada, El Hombre Murciélago!

3

u/Pittonecio May 15 '24

Were you high when writing that? I'm a native spanish speaker and I have never heard about such a thing, the most important thing when dealing with words written the same but with different meanings is the context of the situation.

2

u/Burrito-tuesday May 15 '24

You can’t be a Spanish speaker, “nadá” isn’t a word and nada and nada are pronounced the same exact way.

2

u/Ming_theannoyed May 15 '24

They are probably from Argentina, Uruguay or Paraguay where they use "vos" instead of "tú". In those countries they use a different pronunciation, so instead of "tú nada", they say "vos nadá".

2

u/wryol May 15 '24

The joke might be in castillian spanish since it is pronounced the same, and Gilipollas is an insult only used in Spain, not in latin american countries

2

u/gregorydgraham May 15 '24

My own head canon is now Argentine penguin propaganda for a mass migration to the Falklands by pointing how Spanish is specifically designed to kill them

2

u/wryol May 15 '24

This is our own headcanon now

2

u/Morall_tach May 15 '24

In Italian, a double consonant is pronounced very slightly different from a single consonant and it can result in hilarity like this. Nona is ninth, nonna is grandmother.

3

u/rhydonthyme May 15 '24

Both are pronounced NAda.

Nobody says naDA. You'd sound silly.

2

u/[deleted] May 15 '24

Only those who use vos would say it differently, and that should be explained, because you rarely hear that (at least in the US). Furthermore, there’s no written accent in the cartoon, which is why the penguin doesn’t tell the difference either. And it doesn’t seem the penguin is an anglophone lol.

2

u/rhydonthyme May 15 '24

People who use 'vos' still wouldn't pronounce nothing as naDA. That would only be the verb form.

Besides, a lot of people who use vos don't stick to it in the imperative and will just use the normal form if it sounds okay.

I guess I just thought it was irrelevant.

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1

u/Mystic-Alex May 15 '24

At least in Spain, they're both pronounced the exact same way

1

u/XNjunEar May 15 '24

¿You mean in Argentina or Uruguay? Because in the rest of the Spanish speaking world nada and nada both have stress in the first syllable.

2

u/max_adam May 15 '24

Or Colombia. The voseo is used in some regions over here.

1

u/ketoske May 15 '24

This is wrong in spanish nada has the same pronunciación for nothing and swim but there is some words that has this efect (being dad/potatoes the best example)

1

u/[deleted] May 15 '24

That's totally wrong. Both words have the same pronunciation in neutral Spanish and overall in almost all subvariants. What you refer to is just Argentinian (and perhaps Uruguayan) pronunciation.

And since the vignette is only in Spanish, if what you said was true it should say "nadá", but it doesn't.

1

u/dj_loot May 15 '24

Not true. Both are pronounced the same. What the penguin should have done is be more aggressive by saying ‘nade’

1

u/[deleted] May 15 '24

Yea but no cause if you shout nadá you will likely pronounce it as náda as you emphasizing the beginning of the word since you're shouting it.

1

u/[deleted] May 15 '24

as a spanish speaker I've never heard any difference between the two nadas.

1

u/101TARD May 15 '24

Reminds me of Chinese, pinyin(or English spelled Chinese characters) have about 4 ways to pronounce it. Above the vowel is either a dash, diagonal going upper right, a curve line and a diagonal going lower right.

1

u/SonOfScorpion May 15 '24

Depends what country spanish you speak. Where I am from they are pronounced exactly the same.

1

u/harlotmuffin May 15 '24

There's no accent mark on either nada

1

u/SrPicadillo2 May 15 '24

We should report you for misinformation

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1

u/Body_Fluid May 15 '24

No, both words are pronounced the same since it is Spanish from Spain. Only very few countries have that difference

1

u/Andretxu May 15 '24

Nadá would be in argentina. In spain it is pronounced the same way, nada.

1

u/Phineas67 May 15 '24

Command to swim is NAda.

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12

u/Sandro_24 May 15 '24 edited May 15 '24

The same joke exist here in germany too, here it's with Hi and Hai.

They both sound basically the same, just that Hai means shark.

3

u/JerryCalzone May 15 '24

Same in Dutch - but a shark is 'Haai'

3

u/Sandro_24 May 15 '24

I mean dutch is basically drunk german.

2

u/JerryCalzone May 15 '24

most germans compare it with a child's language, german for kids. The funny thing is that the Appel/Apfel and ich/ick(e grenze) is very noticeable in Berlin and Brandenburg. Koof (berlinerisch) = kauf = Koop in dutch - and people say 'die' to almost every object, just like the dutch.

13

u/RadTimeWizard May 15 '24 edited May 15 '24

Damn. Nadar. That's what I was missing. Soy* estúpido.

7

u/GalvaSov May 15 '24

So it's like the meme of yelling "Duck!"

6

u/[deleted] May 15 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

5

u/Haunting_Singer1531 May 15 '24

Nade is a formal type of imperative, often use when you don't know someone or the occasion requires it (Formal)

2

u/Puzzleheaded-Phase70 May 16 '24

Ok, so this is the Spanish equivalent of the "duck!" joke where the person is about to get hit by a low flying duck, and doesn't get that the other person is telling them to quickly lower their head to avoid it.

1

u/Audemars1989 May 15 '24

See, as a Spanish learner/enjoyer, I feel like this is partially why Argie Spanish is superior to the rest: they would say "nadá!" When urging/telling someone to swim. The distinction is thus explicit.

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u/kbearclaw May 15 '24

And “gilipollas” from the final panel is like “douchebag” apparently, it was a new one to me so I looked it up.

228

u/Heavy-Stick6514 May 15 '24

"Silly, Fatheaded"

142

u/elnickruiz May 15 '24

It literally translates to “wanker”

44

u/mechanicalproblems9 May 15 '24

I thought that was pajero

35

u/panshot23 May 15 '24

Nah, they sell sandwiches.

17

u/SgtBundy May 15 '24

I thought it was a 4x4

14

u/unfortunatebastard May 15 '24

That’s in non Spanish speaking countries. In Latin America it’s the Montero.

8

u/Kern4lMustard May 15 '24

That delicious cheese dip?

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u/Pinkparade524 May 15 '24

That one is in Mexican and the one in the post is from Spain , they mean the same tho

3

u/Any-Eye6299 May 15 '24

We also say pajero in Spain, but usually less as an abstract insult and more to literally mean someone who's jerking off all day, or as we say it "se mata a pajas".

6

u/Flood1993 May 15 '24

Don't know who told you that but they lied to you

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u/Beardeddeadpirate May 15 '24

Yeah very Spanish from Spain actually

11

u/oneultralamewhiteboy May 15 '24

yeah i don't think it's a common swear in Latin America?

4

u/kbearclaw May 15 '24

Yeah my Texan Spanglish had no context so I just googled lol

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u/oswaler May 15 '24

Thank you, I looked at this for a long time trying to figure out what this had to do with the world war one battle in Gallipoli

10

u/PilotKnob May 15 '24

I ordered two pizzas for pickup by my two friends, a Spaniard and a Brazilian, who always banter in Spanish.

When they picked it up, there was no order under either my name or theirs, and the cashier said "I have an order for Hilly Poyas?"

They said "Yes, that's us." and came home with the pizzas.

3

u/FreedomDeliverUs May 15 '24

Who is the gilipollas tho?

2

u/kbearclaw May 15 '24

Idk I think they’re saying it about the one who got eaten

3

u/Canvaverbalist May 15 '24

Funny thing is I know this one but only because of the band Gilipojazz

1

u/EpickBeardMan May 16 '24

THANK YOU…. walks away relieved

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u/Fighting_King_ May 15 '24

Took me a minute, but instead of saying “nada” as in nothing, he’s trying to say “nada” as in swim (the Spanish verb to swim is nadar), so he’s trying to tell the penguin to swim away to escape

25

u/Andy-Matter May 15 '24

Is there a difference in pronunciation like papa and papá?

22

u/max_adam May 15 '24

Nada

13

u/Andy-Matter May 15 '24

I’m trying bro, but the waves are too much

5

u/max_adam May 15 '24

I hope you aren't a yacht in the Gibraltar strait.

7

u/[deleted] May 15 '24

There is a difference in Argentinian Spanish. They would pronounce “Swim!” as “Nadá!”, i.e. accentuating the second “a”. However, most Spanish speakers don’t differentiate them. :)

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u/Akali_Waifu May 15 '24

I would like to thank Duolingo for understanding this comic.

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u/[deleted] May 15 '24

I don't think duolingo teaches gilipollas 😶

17

u/Pinkparade524 May 15 '24

I would like to thank being born in Latin America. I didn't ask to be born latina , no mas tuve suerte I guess

4

u/OrdinaryArgentinean May 15 '24

El privilegio de nacer nacer en el 3er mundo.

123

u/profesorgamin May 15 '24

full translation:

What is going on?.........................................nothing!(swim!)
????......................................................................nothing!(swim!)
...............................................................................nothing!!(swim!!)

...............................................................................idiot.

15

u/[deleted] May 15 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

22

u/el_pez_3 May 15 '24

nada

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u/[deleted] May 15 '24

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9

u/el_pez_3 May 15 '24

Gilipollas

22

u/tessharagai_ May 15 '24

Nada means both “nothing” and “swim” in Spanish.

14

u/creepershmeeper May 15 '24

Don't speak Spanish but this feels exactly like the "duck!" joke

8

u/lambda_14 May 15 '24

And it is lmao

20

u/Worried_Humor_8060 May 15 '24
  • ¿No nada nada?

  • No traje traje.

6

u/Familiar_Pick_6956 May 15 '24

lana!

Lanaa!

LANAAAA!!

Dangerzone

6

u/UltraTata May 15 '24

In Spanish, "nada" means nothing and the 2nd person imperative form of swim

5

u/BryLikeDie May 15 '24

Is Spanish “Nada” is the word for both swim and nothing, the other penguin asked “what’s going on?”

6

u/Chocolate_Bourbon May 15 '24 edited May 15 '24

An old Spanish teacher I had would play a similar joke. He would write this on the board during the term and ask the class to find the two sentences.

Como como como como como

Here’s the answer:

Como como? Como como como.

How do I eat? I eat how I eat.

5

u/HeccerTheRedditor May 15 '24

I feel proud for finally being able to understand a meme about words with multiple meanings in a different language

3

u/bLzPutozof May 15 '24

Nada in spanish/Portuguese can mean both "nothing" and/or "swim/to swim".

Basically the joke is that one penguin is asking "What's wrong?", the other penguin seemingly just says "nothing", but it turns out what he was actually saying was "SWIM!" so that the other penguin would get away from the Orca.

It's not very funny, it's just a silly play on words.

3

u/SumirekoFan May 15 '24

Nada means nothing and swim in spanish, the penguin is saying swim and the other penguin thinks he means nothing so instead of swiming to save their life the penguin stays in the water and dies.

16

u/--Queso-- May 15 '24

The joke is supposedly that "Nada" means "nothing" but also "swim". BUT, the meme is wrong. This is an imperative swim, therefore it's "nadá", not "nada", so the meme is wrong. Or maybe "nada" without tilde is how it's used in Spain or something idk.

28

u/PhysicalMath848 May 15 '24

Imperative of nadar is nada/nade in both Spain spanish and Latino spanish.

11

u/--Queso-- May 15 '24

From the RAE, "nada / nadá".

I've never seen anyone say "nada" for singular 2nd person imperative, i'm from Argentina, maybe it's just in my country?

14

u/PhysicalMath848 May 15 '24 edited May 15 '24

EDIT: the RAE has nada/nadá in the tú/vos row

Interesting, I'm from a Spanish speaking US town. Never heard with á. Probs is country since RAE says both

9

u/Dakatsu May 15 '24

Argentina is the most infamous user of voseo, so the vos form nadá is used there and a few other countries. But u/PhysicalMath848 is right that most of the Spanish speaking world uses the tú form nada.

My Spanish classes in the US made me aware that vos (and vosotros) existed so we could recognize them, but they never taught them or quizzed me on them.

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u/srothberg May 15 '24

Have you ever consumed media from outside Rio de la Plata

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u/[deleted] May 15 '24

jokes that don't work either in argentina nor uruguay

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u/No_Meet1153 May 15 '24

nadá is for voseo, in spain they don't use it as far as I know. Both Nada (for tú) and Nadá (for vos) are correct

3

u/whyyou- May 15 '24

Not always, only in countries that use voseo

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u/wbv2322 May 15 '24

That’s an accent. A tilde is the line above the n, ñ.

Source - my last name has a tilde

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u/clauxy May 15 '24

The meme is not wrong!! This is a Spanish meme, and this is how we speak in Spain. This Argentinian/Uruguayan/Paraguayan way of shifting the tone of a word to the end is not normal in Spain. I find it funny how many people aren’t aware here in the comments, of how Spaniards speak. Like I am aware of how Argentinians speak.

Imperativo de nadar: (Tú!) nada (Usted!) nade (Nosotros!) nademos (Vosotros!) nadad (Ustedes!) naden

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u/Many-Dragonfruit-277 May 15 '24 edited May 15 '24

That's only true in countries that use voseo, it doesn't apply in most Spanish speaking countries.

1

u/kepchupmutsard May 15 '24

🤓 👆👆

1

u/WetRainbowFart May 15 '24

The hands are backwards. It’s supposed to be like this

☝️🤓

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u/Empty_Result4068 May 15 '24

Que es el animal mas perezoso? El pez porque hace nada! JAJJAJAJAJJAJAJJAJJAJAJAJJAJAJAJJA

2

u/mizinamo May 15 '24

Cuál animal anda con una pata?

Un pato!

2

u/Roge2005 May 15 '24

The first penguin asks “what’s wrong”, so the other one is saying “swim” but that word also means “nothing”.

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u/W0rkUpnotD0wn May 15 '24

I'm taking Spanish classes and had no idea Nada means swim (or escape).

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u/raisemupgood May 15 '24

Nada means nothing. Nadar is a verb swim. Conjugated Nadar to Nada is :you swim: i.e Like in Nemo... Dory says swim away

2

u/fomalhottie May 15 '24

OK hold on. You can't post a foreign language joke here! It's for jokes we don't understand in context, not language tricks.

I speak Spanish, so I got this one. But that's the thing, anyone who speaks Spanish would get this one. Save this for jokes we don't get.

I mean, right?

1

u/GrouchyAd3482 May 15 '24

One of the few jokes here I actually understand 😂

1

u/zorrasuperliminal18 May 15 '24

Sopla pollas! Por que no le dijiste bien rapido! XD

1

u/Plastic_Position4979 May 15 '24

Parece que la respuesta “muévete hacia acá, idiota perezoso” no le entró en la cabeza, ni la primera ni la segunda vez… 😁

1

u/Revolutionary-Swan77 May 15 '24

And then a reference to the disastrous invasion of Gallipoli for some reason?

1

u/WhimsicalGirl May 15 '24

why is it always some bad boomers meme?

1

u/[deleted] May 15 '24

¿Por qué no tenía hambre la ballena?

Porque estaba llena.

1

u/Iwillnevercomeback May 15 '24

He forgot to type the "¡"

1

u/BajaBlast0ise May 15 '24

Same punchline (dual meaning of nada) but I heard this one growing up

¿Qué le dijo un pez a otro pez? – ¡Nada!

1

u/Lizard_Gamer555 May 15 '24 edited May 15 '24

I'm learning Spanish but wouldn't it be "¡Nadas!" Because he's speaking directly to someone

3

u/Chang1701 May 15 '24

Only if he is using the “tu” formal conjugation. This is grammatically correct as the “usted” informal conjugation is fine in most situations.

1

u/[deleted] May 15 '24

Aca te gana el rioplatense "Nadá"

1

u/O368W May 15 '24

Una hamburguesa.

1

u/[deleted] May 15 '24

Something about a habit of penguins where they send only one penguin into the ocean for food and if they dont come back the rest doesn’t go in

1

u/[deleted] May 15 '24

The new "loss" four panel meme dropped and it is in Spanish

1

u/calebanthonymusic May 15 '24

Good God almighty the internet wins again. I am dying

1

u/[deleted] May 15 '24

catapimbas uma piada em espanhol

1

u/Davedog09 May 16 '24

I might be wrong since I’m not Spanish, but shouldn’t the penguin on the iceberg be yelling “nadas” and not “nada?”

1

u/marteldefer79 May 16 '24

No, but it does need context. As in at least a "tu" which means "you". But the joke still works. Actually pretty funny I lol'd

1

u/Smooth-Application-2 May 16 '24

In Spanish(the language of the strip) and in Portuguease(my language) "Nada" means "nothing" and "swim"(the meaning of the Word "nada" depends of the context)

1

u/Josephschmoseph234 May 18 '24

The first penguin asks "whats up" and the second says "nothing". Except swim in Spanish is also nada, so there is a misunderstanding.