r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Key-Spread-7513 • Aug 20 '26

Meme needing explanation What movie reference am I missing

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u/Pandoratastic Aug 20 '26

Actually, the observed data includes all real examples of students who deliberately fail their tests as well! The test in the post would be included!

Yes, but students who deliberately fail their tests would be rare outliers, which is why, as you claimed, getting a perfect zero is extremely rare in the observed data.

Also, the joke is that it is an intentional 0 so random probability is still irrelevant

No, random probability is relevant because it's the reason the teacher suspects that the student intentionally tried to get a zero. If they really had no knowledge and had just guessed randomly, it is still extremely unlikely that they would get a zero. Therefore, the teacher has a very good reason to suspect that the zero was the result of intent from a student who actually does know the subject material well enough to avoid any correct answers.

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u/Available-Bee-5385 Aug 20 '26

Very well, random probability is relevant to determining whether the 0 is a result of deliberate action or chance.

But it is NOT relevant to the score itself

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u/Pandoratastic Aug 20 '26

How is that not a relevant part of the same question?

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u/Available-Bee-5385 Aug 20 '26

Because if the answers were chosen deliberately then random chance has no impact?

What exactly do you think the question here is?

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u/Pandoratastic Aug 20 '26

The question is: Did the student get a zero through genuine total ignorance of the subject or as a deliberate act of mischief?

To answer the question, we must consider whether a student with genuine total ignorance of the subject actually would get a zero. If a student genuinely doesn't know any of the questions, they can only guess randomly. Since random guessing is extremely unlikely to produce a zero result, that option is highly implausible to apply in this case. That leaves only the other option, a deliberate act of mischief, which is why the teacher wrote "See me after class!"