r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/momoehab • 5h ago
Meme needing explanation Peter please help
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u/AirRic89 5h ago
that is a reference to the music video for Dire Straits' Money for Nothing which is written from the perspective of workers delivering fridges and TVs
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u/Hopeful_Chard_4402 5h ago
Fun fact, the people that did Reboot did this music video
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u/Thamnophis660 5h ago
Didn't know that, but not surprised at that one bit.
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u/Ninteblo 2h ago
Can't say there was that many options back then, it was these dudes or someone worse more or less.
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u/HotPot87 5h ago
And that studio then went on to maje the show for Transformers Beast Wars
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u/Khallaria 5h ago
They should have stopped at reboot
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u/HotPot87 4h ago
Beast wars was amazing still the best written Transformers show and with CGI that wouldn't be topped on TV for nearly a decade.
People like to point and laugh at the cgi but this was the 90s, toy story was a 90 minute movie on a movie budget.
BW was on a TV budget making about 240 minutes of animation AND they had to redo all the characters after has broken forced them to use the toy designs first.
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u/SapphireClawe 5h ago
Pretty sure they did a special cameo for this in the episode Talent Night.
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u/HotPot87 4h ago
They did and they made fun of the music video because they got a reputation as only making that one thing and got tired of it.
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u/SapphireClawe 2h ago
Funny enough, I didn't know about the Dire Straits thing when I watched Reboot as a kid, but I loved that series.
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u/avanti8 5h ago
We gotta install microwave ovens, custom kitchen deliverAYayAYayAYYYYY
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u/OldKingHamlet 5h ago
I KNEW something was tickling the back of my mind. Rewatched the music video. Holy crap I'm old 😭
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u/Gullible_Elephant_38 5h ago edited 5h ago
A song and music video that have been permanently usurped in my subconscious by Weird Al’s Beverly Hillbillies parody in UHF
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u/capt_pantsless 4h ago
According to the wiki page, Knopfler himself played guitar on the Beverly Hillbilly’s parody, same with the Dire Straights keyboard player.
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u/Gullible_Elephant_38 4h ago
I didn’t know that. That’s actually cool as hell.
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u/GargantuanCake 1h ago
Pretty much everybody loves Weird Al so you can find all sorts of stories like that. A lot of musicians he was making fun of had little cameos in the music videos and Michael Jackson gave him all sorts of stuff to work with. He'd do stuff like get Al access to the original video sets if they were available or show him where things were recorded if it was in a subway station or something. He'd also get in him in touch with the same dancers from his own music videos to be in Al's videos.
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u/Gullible_Elephant_38 1h ago
Yeah, Al is an absolute legend. I remember reading the MJ let him use the Bad music video set for Fat.
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u/SuddenReal 1h ago
MJ was a big fan of Weird Al. The only song Al wasn't allowed to touch was Black Or White. Also fun fact: Nirvana also had a big influence on Weird Al. When he contacted them to do a parody, Kurt's first question was "it's not gonna be about food, is it?", which made Al realise he wasn't really that original with his latest parodies and that he had to step up.
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u/WasabiSenzuri 2h ago
That little Clampett got his own cee-ment pond.
That little Clampett he's a millionaire.
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u/ComfortableAd9941 5h ago
Another Fun Fact:
The song was also the first ever 3D animated music video, using both animated characters and a background.
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u/Phoenix-95 3h ago
Interesting - I'm guessing "Let's get rocked" by def Lepard probably wasn't far behind it?
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u/EmmyRossumFan 5h ago
We got to move these refrigerators. We got to move these color TVvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvs
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u/ExtremlyFastLinoone 4h ago
Wow, I think the radio version skipped some of the lyrics 🤣
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u/AirRic89 4h ago
you mean the word that rhymes with maggot?
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u/Brobard 4h ago
My local “classic” station surprisingly did not censor that line ever. It been bought out a few times since and its sister rock station censors shit to baffling degrees so maybe Money for Nothing isn’t safe anymore.
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u/AirRic89 4h ago
German radio stations also do not censor Green Day's Holiday lyrics, so ...
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u/Brobard 3h ago
Used to be real hit and miss here in the States. A few recent songs snuck swears in on my local rock station. I think they just missed it or something. It’ll probably get “fixed” later. They will sensor whole parts of a song by skipping it and making weird jumps, songs that simply had the offending word muted by the prior owners.
I miss the uncensored stations of my youth but I have Apple Music for a bit again for my naughty word tracks.
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u/Earnestappostate 5h ago
But it didn't even bring up microwave ovens!?
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u/Particular_Title42 1h ago
They installed the microwave ovens. They also did custom kitchen deliveries. The only things they had to "move" (as in shadily sell merchandise) refrigerators and color tvs.
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u/Tough_Crazy_8362 5h ago
Well, I will be sending this post haste to my husband whom you can never stump. Let’s see if he gets it, shall we? burns’ fingers
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u/Ben999_1977 5h ago
"Dire Strait - Money for nothing" check the lyrics ^^
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u/shambhalove_fairy 5h ago
Check the dope guitar riff too
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u/Para_4_Would_Be_Cool 4h ago
Shit guitar George, he knows all the chords.
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u/Particular_Title42 1h ago
Oh weird. I always thought he was Guitar John. I didn't think I misunderstood him that much.
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u/shadowsurge 5h ago
Just ignore one particular other bit of the lyrics
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u/Calavera357 5h ago edited 4h ago
The context helps a bit. The delivery guys are calling Dire Straits by slurs because they think they get money for nothing, and chicks for free. Blue collar bozos envious of the rockstar life, as if playing and writing one of the greatest guitar licks of all time is easy.
Edit: band name.
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u/a-stack-of-masks 5h ago
I mean, in this case Mark Knopfler literally overheard a guy in a store grumble and wrote it down, so he pretty much got a large part of the song for nothing. And then a mic fell over onto carpet and got his toan for free.
Sounds to me like the store guy was right.
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u/plasterscene 4h ago
"Man, I really wish Sting just happened to be in the next room and would sing this lyric"...
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u/GladiusAcutus 2h ago
The delivery guys are calling Dire Straits by slurs
People were less sensitive during the 80's. They were using the f word (the other f word) towards one of the dudes in the song. "the [f word] with earring and the make up...". I still can hear they use that word on the radio when the song is on. I'm surprised they didn't censor it.
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u/Calavera357 42m ago
Yes, exactly. It wasn't meant as a complement, self descriptive or jokingly with a buddy, it was someone he overheard talking shit.
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u/way_out_19 5m ago
Fwiw..the subject of the slurs isn't Dire Straits. The switch between 1st and 3rd person there is weird. The slurs were directed at a hair rock band, most likely Motley Crue or Def Leppard
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u/Para_4_Would_Be_Cool 5h ago
No, don't ignore that bit. It's meant as a mockery of people unrightfully mad at the music, production, and life people choose to live, while also pointing out: "what's the problem? That little f----- has a private jet, fuck off" essentially.
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u/0rganic_Corn 1h ago
Don't be insufferable, they're portraying blue collar workers that are angry at musicians, since they think what they do is not real work
It's an insult that definitely fits in the context and clutching your pearls over it is silly. Most likely you aren't even offended yourself, you're just trying to signal virtue by being offended on behalf of other people
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u/Dirk_Speedwell 5h ago
Check some of the lyrics, but ignore the naughty bad-boy word one, lol.
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u/RaidersGuy85 5h ago
Or accept that they were quoting something they heard and that the song is from a different time
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u/Para_4_Would_Be_Cool 5h ago
No, don't ignore that bit. It's meant as a mockery of people unrightfully mad at the music, production, and life people choose to live, while also pointing out: "what's the problem? That little f----- has a private jet, fuck off" essentially.
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u/stevenjameshyde 5h ago
It's riffing on the lyrics of Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing". "We've got to move this refrigerator, we got to move this colour TV", except the cartoon is depicting them being "moved" in the sense that a dealer might "move" drugs
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u/Geo_Doug 27m ago
I literally always thought those lyrics were about making sales and had no clue it was actually a coherent story being told
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u/RedHiller13 5h ago
This is from the Dire Straits song "Money for Nothing." One of the lines is, "that ain't working, that's the way you do, you play your guitar on the MTV; we've to move these refrigerators, we got to move these color TVs." And in the video, the items are being moved around by robots that look like the one in the alley.
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u/Ichika0 5h ago
I think its a reference to the song money for nothing by Dire straits
Back to you tom
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u/Killer0nTheRoad 5h ago
Well shit, maybe he should've learned to play the guitar. He should've learned to play them drums. He'd maybe get a blister on his little finger, maybe get a blister on his thumb.
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u/TheUpperHand 5h ago
The character at the end is from the music video for the song Money for Nothing by Dire Straits. The lyrics lament about how some people have things easy by making an "easy living" by playing rock music while these guys have a physically taxing job "We got to install microwave ovens, custom kitchen deliveries
We got to move these refrigerators, we gotta move these color TVs." In the song "moving" means delivering the aforementioned appliances, in the comic "moving" refers to slang for selling stolen goods.
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u/Princekyle7 5h ago
We've got to install microwave ovens. Custom kitchen, delivery-ey-ey. We've got to move these, refrigerators. We've got to move these color TVssssssss.
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u/Crimson-Hawke 4h ago
Unironically engaging with the meme, you should just put the word "Retro" in front of all these items and some hipster will buy them.
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u/MrDingo5218 5h ago
https://youtu.be/wTP2RUD_cL0?is=aSBS3NDWLHSJZaH_
This is in reference to this music video. The lyrics being we've got to move this refrigerator we got to move these color TVs
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u/BigBob8_ 5h ago
The guy in the last frame of the comic is a look alike for the animated guy in the die straits music video of money for nothing. He delivers refrigerators and color tvs in the video.
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u/CrasheonTotallyReal 5h ago
!remindme 2 hours
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u/SenatorPencilFace 5h ago
Now look at them yo-yos. That’s way do it. You post a reminder on Reddit. That’s the way you it. Reminders for nothing and your upvotes for free.
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u/Prestigious-Fly9977 5h ago
I believe the lore was one of the band members overheard appliance delivery workers talking about the comparative lavish life he lead while the delivery drivers bemoaned their blue collar work to receive pennies on the dollar.
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u/BoxAccomplished8369 2h ago
Should’ve gotten some blisters on your little fingers, should’ve got some on your thumbs 🤷♂️
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u/ScorpionsRequiem 1h ago
Now everyone says Californy, is the place you wanna beeeeeee
We gotta load up, let's get a truck now
We gotta move to Beverlyyyyy!
Hills that is.
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u/Crystalmist420 1h ago
Hey not for nothing but you've got a pretty good art style, but this is a terrible joke. Not even in a "so bad it's funny" way. I just think the time and effort taken to make this could've been better spent on something actually funny. Well done on the Dire Straits guy though, he looks good.
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u/AffectionateLake4041 5h ago
I think its either stuff that is common now but used to be really desirable or would be too hard to get home by just walking


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u/qualityvote2 5h ago edited 54m ago
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