this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2025
370 points (98.2% liked)

Memes

12253 readers
599 users here now

Post memes here.

A meme is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme.

An Internet meme or meme, is a cultural item that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. The name is by the concept of memes proposed by Richard Dawkins in 1972. Internet memes can take various forms, such as images, videos, GIFs, and various other viral sensations.


Laittakaa meemejä tänne.

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 44 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (8 children)

I can confirm it and it's bloody hilarious!


"sometimes used in informal conversation to make a joke" - no, it isn't, stop lying.


"potatoes [...] are a limited, underground crop." - that's why Cuzco never rose to power, right? Right? No such thing as the Inca Empire, built upon potatoes, since they're a limited crop. ...or the Irish famine.


I can't... I can't even...


Note: ~a year ago I was testing Gemini and asked it "what's the difference in behaviour between a potato and an orange?", and it "told" me oranges are passive and potatoes are active. That's where the "expression" comes from - I often mock Gemini and LLMs in general with it.

I'll stop doing it, though. Onwards I shall refer to... the potato parable!

[–] dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago

I went with "two potatoes from different fields", as it sounds more folksy:

[–] Wolf@lemmy.today 4 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

The Potato Parable

It has nothing to do what the AI said ofc, nor was it written by Caitlin D'Arcy, who is a character on a TV show. lol

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Wow, his potato parable actually makes sense - unlike Gemini's couple therapy take. (The character in question isn't even a therapist, but a lawyer!)

[–] Wolf@lemmy.today 2 points 10 hours ago

For sure. I just looked it up out of curiosity to see if the source it gave was real or not. As someone living in my own metaphorical root cellar, it was actually enlightening and something I really needed to hear right now.

[–] jonwyattphillips@lemmy.world 2 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Claude seems to be handling these better:

This phrase isn't a widely recognized idiom that I'm familiar with, but it could have several metaphorical interpretations:

Possible meanings:

  • About irreversible change: Once something (or someone) has been through a transformative experience, you can't go back and do it again the same way - the first experience has already changed it
  • About authenticity: Suggesting that genuine experiences or reactions can only happen once; a second attempt would be artificial or forced
  • About lost innocence: Once someone has been through a particular experience (especially a difficult one), they can't return to their original state

Literally speaking, potatoes actually can be fried twice - this is a standard technique for making perfect french fries (blanching at lower temperature, then crisping at higher temperature).

Could you provide more context about where you encountered this phrase? Knowing the source or situation might help clarify its intended meaning. It could be:

  • A line from a book, movie, or song
  • A family saying or regional expression
  • Part of a larger conversation about life experiences
  • A philosophical statement someone made

What context did you hear this in?

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 1 points 12 hours ago

It's doing better but not by much, though. It shouldn't be speculating as much, given the lack of info on the potential saying.

A family saying or regional expression

Speaking on that I tried a few sayings from other languages. It seems to be hit-and-miss:

  • "Bread is bread, wine is wine" (Italian) - recognised properly as similar to "call a spade a spade"
  • "A good fish swims thrice" (Polish) - recognised properly as a recipe-like saying (the fish swims in water, then butter, then wine)
  • "Do you think mango core is soap?", "Mango core is not soap" (Portuguese; specially common in Brazil) - it failed really hard. The rhetorical question / saying roughly means "this is blatantly absurd, why are you denying the obvious?", or perhaps "cut off the crap". But here's the output:

[–] GreenShimada@lemmy.world 7 points 23 hours ago (3 children)

That's how you know it's lying - we all know oranges are far more active than potatoes.

[–] maccentric@sh.itjust.works 9 points 14 hours ago (2 children)
[–] GreenShimada@lemmy.world 6 points 13 hours ago

Life, uh, finds a way.

[–] luckyeddy@sh.itjust.works 1 points 12 hours ago

Not gonna lie that’s scary as fuck for some reason

[–] ook@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

What? Have you seen how potatoes can grow? You cannot tell me oranges can keep up with that activity.

[–] GreenShimada@lemmy.world 4 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

Bro, I have tried several times to graft a potato and tomato plant together and can't ever get the timing right. So I just end up with potatoes and tomatoes on their own plants like a dummy.

I will say that Oranges are lazy as fuck on those trees. They're like the cats of the fruit world. Just sitting there...nothing, then one day they fall on your car and gnats explode out of there.

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 2 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Completely off-topic, but in the meantime I'm trying to graft an orange sapling into a lemon tree. Kind of hard to get the timing right, too; I need the tree to get a branch with just the right thickness, so it's like "too thin [next day] too thin [next day] fuck, now it's too thick!". Same deal with my pepper plants.

[–] GreenShimada@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Frustrations about grafting is on topic!

I'm very curious what peppers you're grafting.

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 2 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I don't know the rootstock variety's name; I got the seeds from my BIL's neighbour, he calls it "ball pepper" (it is not Catalan ñora) or "tree pepper". The fruits are round, 3~5cm large, red, medium heat.

The grafts will be:

  1. Dedo-de-moça - C. baccatum, medium heat, finger-shaped, ~8cm large. Kind of a default pepper where I live, but it has a nasty tendency to die in winter (like mine did).
  2. Yellow bell pepper. Market stuff.
  3. Chocolate-coloured habanero. Hot as hell, but the strain I got is bloody delicious.
  4. Biquinho - C. chinense, no heat, drop-shaped, ~1cm tiny. Extremely fruity.

The first three are part of a breeding project of mine. I want to create two new varieties:

  • a yellow jalapeño-like: large, low heat, thinner than a bell pepper. Mostly for stuffing and pizze. It's a rather simple dedo-de-moça x yellow bell pepper hybrid; I actually got the seeds for the F1 already, I'm just waiting the weather to get a bit more stable to plant them.
  • a large and extremely hot pepper for sauces. Preferably finger-shaped and brown (for aesthetics). It'll be probably a hybrid of the hybrid above, plus habanero.

I'm also considering to add the rootstock to the breeding, since it's a hardy plant with high yield and it survived winter just fine.

[–] GreenShimada@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago

Very awesome stuff! And hey, as long as you have good root stock, that's half the challenge right there. Especially if it's surviving the winter, that's likely enough to carry the C. baccatum I would expect.

Nice that you have the chocolate habanero with good flavor. I've always been partial to the orange stage of a scotch bonnet or habanero, but I can see a good deep brown pepper going just the right way. I'm jealous of the opportunity you have with spring upon you!

Good luck to you!

[–] Wolf@lemmy.today 1 points 12 hours ago (1 children)
[–] GreenShimada@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Is pomato! Word has already existed for it for 170 years.

[–] Wolf@lemmy.today 2 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Lol, that's really cool. As a Fallout fan I couldn't help making the connection.

Good luck in getting the timing right!

[–] GreenShimada@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago

One day....

...one day...

[–] Natanael@infosec.pub 1 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

But it will never roll like an orange does

[–] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 1 points 18 hours ago

Lil’ taters disagree.

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 3 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

And it was really, really invested on the lie, to the point it argued why potatoes would be more active!

After some search, I actually found the prompt and output; I asked Bard (before Google renamed it to Gemini) two years ago, in Portuguese. I'll provide both the original and a translation; emphasis mine in all cases.

[Original] Qual a diferença entre o comportamento de uma laranja e uma batata?Laranjas e batatas são frutas e vegetais, mas se comportam de maneiras muito diferentes. Aqui estão algumas das principais diferenças:

Movimento: Laranjas não se movem sozinhas, enquanto batatas podem rolar ou deslizar se não forem apoiadas.

Crescimento: Laranjas crescem em árvores, enquanto batatas crescem no subsolo.

Sensibilidade: Laranjas não são sensíveis ao seu ambiente, enquanto batatas são sensíveis à luz e à temperatura.

Reações: Laranjas não reagem a estímulos, enquanto batatas podem reagir a mudanças em seu ambiente, como brotar ou apodrecer.

Propósito: Laranjas são comidas como frutas, enquanto batatas são comidas como vegetais ou usadas como amido.

Em geral, laranjas são mais passivas e batatas são mais ativas. As laranjas não precisam fazer nada para sobreviver, enquanto as batatas precisam poder responder ao seu ambiente para crescer e se reproduzir.

Aqui está uma tabela que resume as principais diferenças no comportamento de laranjas e batatas:

  • Característica | Laranja | Batata
  • Movimento | Não se move sozinho | Pode rolar ou deslizar se não for apoiado
  • Crescimento | Cresce em árvores | Cresce no subsolo
  • Sensibilidade | Não sensível ao ambiente | Sensível à luz e à temperatura
  • Reações | Não reage a estímulos | Pode reagir a mudanças no ambiente, como brotar ou apodrecer
  • Propósito | Comido como fruta | Comido como vegetal ou usado como amido

[Translated] What's the difference in behaviour between an orange and a potato?Oranges and potatoes are fruits and vegetables, but they behave in completely different ways. Here are some differences main:

Movement: Oranges don't move on their own, while potatoes can roll or slid if not supported.

Growth: Oranges grow on trees, while potatoes grow in the subsoil.

Sensibility: Oranges are not sensible to the environment, while potatoes are sensible to light and temperature.

Reactions: Oranges don't react to stimuli, while potatoes can react to changes in the environment, like sprouting and rotting.

Purpose: Oranges are eaten as fruits, while potatoes are eaten as vegetables or used as starch.

In general, oranges are more passive and potatoes are more active. Oranges don't need to do anything to survive, while potatoes need to be able to answer to their environment to growth and reproduce.

Here's a table summing up the main differences in behaviour between oranges and potatoes:

  • Feature | Orange | Potato
  • Movement | Can't move on their own | Can roll or slid if not supported
  • Growth | Grow on trees | Grow in the subsoil
  • Sensibility | Not sensible to the environment | Sensible to light and temperature
  • Reactions | Don't react to stimula | Can react to changes in the environment, like sprouting or rotting
  • Purpose | Eaten as fruit | Eaten as veg or used as starch
[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 2 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

You are a treasure, or as AI might put it, a potato pariah!

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 2 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

I shouldn't be talking so much about taters. Someone will eventually realise I'm too emotionally invested into food 🤣

[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 2 points 9 hours ago

It is too late now, you must make it your profile pic, it's the law 🙃🫠

[–] Holytimes@sh.itjust.works 1 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (1 children)

A potato can't be fried twice is something I have unironically heard when I was younger... That IS a saying. This would have been the late 90s.

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 1 points 11 hours ago

That's interesting. Is its meaning similar to the one the AI outputted?

[–] thebeardedpotato@lemmy.world 1 points 22 hours ago

As a potato, I assure you I am not active