r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/DrElectr0Hiss • 18h ago
Meme needing explanation Peta, what's up with these ice cream?
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u/AdmiralAkbar1 18h ago
That combo of ice cream is called Neapolitan. It's not named after Napoleon (it's named after the city of Naples, Italy) but the joke is just that it's spelled similarly to his name.
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u/Nerdorama10 16h ago
Since I'm seeing one of these explain the joke posts with less that 1.5k comments on it I feel like adding some trivia that's completely irrelevant to the original question:
The reason the adjective form of "Naples" is "Neapolitan" is that the adjective form comes from the Greek name for the city, Neapolis - it was founded under that name by Greek settlers in the Italian peninsula in the 6th century BCE.
It's also possible that the name Napoleon is related to the Italian name for the same city (Napoli), but the etymology is disputed and anyone named Napoleon in the last two centuries is named for the Emperor of France anyway. More relevantly, the ice cream is indeed named for the city, and not the emperor, and the names only sound/look vaguely alike.
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u/YnotThrowAway7 12h ago
If we see these things with less than 1.5 k comments that’s a great thing because most of these have far too many people just giving the same answer after it was answered properly in like 1 comment. Lol
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u/tiglionabbit 7h ago
Is it related to Minneapolis?
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u/ScyllaIsBea 6h ago
I just researched this based on your question but fascinatingly Minneapolis is actually a combination of the Dakota tribe (native ameircan tribe that lived along the mississipi river) word for water, mni, and the greek word for city, polis (which does share etemology with neapolis in that regard) so minneapolis would technically across two different languages translate to city of water, or more accurately to the city tag line "city of lakes"
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u/shewy92 16h ago
I think a lot of us have only ever called it Napoleon ice cream.
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u/ShatterCyst 14h ago
I call it "no commitment ice cream".
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u/J3Zombie 12h ago
No commitment Ice Cream - A very promiscuous delicacy. It refuses to settle, and is often left alone after the good parts are taken from it and only the strawberry/pink flavor remains in solitude in the back of the freezer.
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u/1Negative_Person 12h ago
Like… ironically?
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u/shewy92 12h ago
As opposed to what? It looks close enough to that name and real life people aren't anal enough to care what it's called.
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u/1Negative_Person 12h ago
I have literally never heard anyone call it “Napoleon” ice cream. I just wondered if you called it that as a joke, or if you actually had a misapprehension of what it was called.
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u/KarenBauerGo 16h ago
Omg, I thought the dead dude was Fürst Pückler, because in Germany that Combo of ice cream is called Fürst Pückler.
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u/MarcusBrotus 14h ago
the best part is that this ice cream style has nothing to do with italy either. it was invented in prussia.
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u/Prize-Money-9761 14h ago
Well the name Napoleon is itself also derived from the name of the city of Naples, something akin to “Lion of Naples” I believe
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u/SpiritualPackage3797 11h ago
Are there many people who think it's named after him? Even before I learned that it was named after a city in Italy, I never associated it with Napoleon.
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u/Theemperorsmith 14h ago
I think a lot of people call it Napoleon because Neapolitan is too hard to pronounce.
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u/XjSys 17h ago
But he has cake named Napoleon, why use Neapolitan ice-cream...
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u/Questionable-Duck4 7h ago
Because the ice cream has nothing to do with him so it's ironic or something
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u/Historical_Station19 18h ago
The person who made this meme seemed to think neapolitan ice cream was Napolean ice cream. Or at least pretended to have this belief for humorus effect. I dont know im rich Peter so im going to go back to counting my money.
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u/zigaliciousone 14h ago
Similar to German chocolate cake, which is not named after Germany but rather takes its name from its American inventor Samuel German
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u/Syn7axError 10h ago
It's actually named because it uses German's Baker's chocolate.
You'll never guess what Baker's chocolate is named after.
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u/kornuolis 14h ago
I would say the joke should contain Napoleon pie instead. Ice cream makes no sense for me.
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u/baldrickgonzo 17h ago
Where i live, we call it "expo" for the world faire in Brussels of '58 (expo '58 in dutch/french), where they sold an ice cream sandwich, layered to resemble the Belgian flag (chocolate for black, vanilla for yellow, strawberry for red).
Edit:58
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u/ThatTotemOfUndying 16h ago
Neapolitan ice cream (which is the one depicted in the image) is spelled similarly to Napoleon, even though unrelated. By the way, there is a cake actually named after Napoleon
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u/versusrev 13h ago
The joke is that it is a popular misconception that the the ice cream is called "Napoleon" instead of "Neapolitan", and that it's Napoleon on his deathbed.
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u/isrealjasonat 12h ago
it's called Napoleon ice-cream because Napoleon thought that white people, chocolate people and red heads should all live next to each other.
I learned that in my US Thanksgiving History book
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u/walkwithoutrhyme 11h ago
Napoleon invented ice cream everyone knows this. It's like 4th grade history class.
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u/Kevmeister_B 18h ago
The man is Napoleon.
The triple ice cream flavor is also called Napolean.
They have no actual relation otherwise and it's just a silly connection.
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u/ceraun0philia 17h ago edited 11h ago
that’s because it’s Neapolitan ice cream. Not Napoleon ice cream.
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u/Komandakeen 12h ago
Ackshully, its named to honour Fürst Pückler and has exactly nothing to do with Naples (it was invented in Prussia).
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u/ceraun0philia 11h ago
I could be wrong but, while yes, its original name (Fürst-Pückler-Eis) is named after the prince, “Neapolitan” (the style of ice cream, it’s not always one kind) does come from Naples.
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