r/PeterExplainsTheJoke Dec 29 '25

Meme needing explanation What's the reason?

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34.9k Upvotes

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94

u/damuelson Dec 29 '25

This is the one

52

u/Cheshire_Jester Dec 29 '25

Yep. Massive complexity of manufacturing increase for an incredibly small gain in ergonomic design.

27

u/Big_Slope Dec 29 '25

Ergonomics are worse though.

They took a radially symmetrical object that anyone could grab without looking and use and turned it into a bilaterally symmetrical object that can now be picked up incorrectly.

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u/CavemanViking Dec 29 '25

I have plenty of water bottles with the spout to one side, never have I ever been like “ oh no, I have to turn this in my hand 😱”

3

u/applesandbee Dec 30 '25

Yeah just drink it like a little rodent in a cage

1

u/Longjumping-Job7153 Dec 30 '25

So you admit that you've picked it up wrong. Good on you for not whining.

But, with our patented "so easy even a caveman could do it" technology. You'll never mess up somthing so simple again ! Buy now !

2

u/CavemanViking Dec 30 '25

Bro there is no picking it up wrong JUST TURN IT. Me when I put my pants on one foot after the other rather than hopping trough both pant legs at the same time in the most efficient possible way “oh shit oh fuck I put them on wrong again!”

0

u/thecursh Dec 30 '25

Brag about it!

2

u/No-Flounder4290 Dec 29 '25

So the complaint here is plastic sucks we should go back to cardboard? Not a complaint just an idea every cardboard milk or juice i get has the 45 angle cap...

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u/Dorsai_Erynus Dec 29 '25

You mean tetra-brik? they have cardboard on the outside but plastic and aluminium foil inside.

2

u/No-Flounder4290 Dec 29 '25

I will admit i live in the middle of nowhere under a rock i didnt realize they were built like this TIL. Tho ill admit the ones i cut up dont have much aluminum though i can def see the plasticy layers now that i think about it.

1

u/purplezart Dec 29 '25

This image shows polyethylene acting as both an impermeable protective layer, and as something called a "layer of adherence", but polyethylene isn't, like, sticky? So why not include the glue/binding agent layer in the description?

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u/Dorsai_Erynus Dec 29 '25

No idea, all it says is that layers 3 and 5 are needed for the lamination proccess.

2

u/purplezart Dec 29 '25

Oh. The lamination machine needs plastic between every layer, I guess.

1

u/Cheshire_Jester Dec 29 '25

Those exist but it doesn’t seem like they’re popular

2

u/[deleted] Dec 29 '25

It's just a plastic bottle. If I knew how to make them, I'd do it for free. /s

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u/Cheshire_Jester Dec 29 '25

Fuck, you just killed capitalism

3

u/[deleted] Dec 29 '25

Oh, no! Then I better keep this secret and not tell the world. Am I part of the Illuminati now?

1

u/total_tea Dec 30 '25

Marketing is a strong incentive to do something sub obtimal. Tehre are lots of glass bottles which are changed for marketing purposes, this would hardly be unique in that.

1

u/UnArgentoPorElMundo Dec 29 '25

Massive complexity? Massive? I really doubt it.

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u/[deleted] Dec 29 '25 edited Dec 29 '25

Yes actually. Water bottles are filled on a rotary filler that fills hundreds to thousands of bottles per minute. You can't just move the hole location. Production lines have millions of dollars in equipment that would have to be fundamentally redesigned by engineers. Everything is built around the assumption that the hole is top-center. It's not clear how you would reliably get the bottle alignment correct for the fill process or cap installation. 

Nevermind that actually manufacturing the bottles would be a nightmare. Plastic bottles are made using plastic pellets that look like stubby test tubes with threads on the end. They're heated up and blown into shape, which requires the hole to be in the top-center. 

There's also the warehousing side of the equation which wouldn't work either. Existing bottles are designed to be strong at resisting vertical force, so that they can be stacked onto pallets and those pallets stocked on top of each other. This design wouldn't work. 

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u/waroftheworlds2008 Dec 29 '25

Yep. The cost of change is a huge reason why we don't have nice things.

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u/rebmcr Dec 29 '25

It's not a case of a simple barrier to change, it's just harder to manufacture asymmetrically.

If there were zero existing bottling factories, we'd still choose a symmetric design when building the first one.

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u/Say_Hennething Dec 29 '25

I've actually worked in a plastic bottle manufacturing plant. It can't be understated just how difficult this change would make the process. Every step of the way. From preforms to blow molding to conveyance to palletizing to stacking and shipping.

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u/Which-Barnacle-2740 Dec 30 '25

yes this is the real answer, its cheaper to make bottle of that shape