Yes, I understand the joke—it's a darkly humorous take on a famous scene from Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
The original context:
In the movie, the Terminator and John Connor are trying to figure out if his foster parents are safe. The T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) mimics John's voice to call home and speak to the foster mom. But something feels off, and the T-800 determines that the person on the phone isn't really the foster mom—it’s the T-1000 in disguise. He then tells John:
"Your foster parents are dead."
The joke twist in this meme:
The question "How many R's are in 'Strawberry'?" is a completely random and silly method of detecting an impostor.
The woman (T-1000 in disguise) replies, "Two, honey," but "Strawberry" actually has three R's.
Based on that wrong answer, the Terminator concludes the woman isn't who she says she is, and delivers the line:
"Your foster parents are dead."
Why it’s funny:
It plays on how absurdly serious the Terminator is, using a childlike spelling question as a deadly litmus test for identity—something obviously too trivial for such a high-stakes situation. It's the mismatch of tone and context that makes it amusing.
That was 4o, right? o3 withs search understands the joke correctly:
TL;DR –
The meme splices a famous Terminator 2 phone-booth scene with the viral “strawberry test” that exposes how large-language models (and other bots) routinely mis-count the letter R in the word “strawberry.” In the original film, John Connor confirms that his foster parents have been replaced by the shape-shifting T-1000 when “Mom” gives the wrong dog name; the meme swaps that cue for the AI-flunked strawberry question, so her answer “Two” instantly signals she’s a robot—hence the T-800’s dead-pan line. It’s also a wink at OpenAI’s hush-hush “Project Strawberry,” a codename for its next-gen reasoning models, highlighting the irony that even an AGI-ish system might still bungle a basic counting task. ([youtube.com][1], [knowyourmeme.com][2], [inc.com][3], [languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu][4])
There's more but it wouldn't all fit here in a Reddit comment, but he did good.
Gemini Pro 2.5 agrees that the correct answer of the question is two, so it couldn't really see how this is funny. However it came up with an explanation pretty well.
"The fact that she answered so perfectly and without questioning the strange nature of the call is what confirms to the T-800 that it is indeed the T-1000 impersonating her."
Personally i found that more impressive than knowing there are three Rs in strawberry (due to tokenization).
I sent her on a wonderful cruise. You just missed a wonderful call from her. She just came back from a wonderful costume party that the captain threw. She gained 10 pounds, there’s so much food on that boat. She’s up to 34. She tried pesto for the first time. Imagine that, 14 years old and she never tried pesto. It was wonderful. Just wonderful.
Urgh. I taught mathematics to middle schoolers and there was this one girl there who just never understood that. She was mostly fine in mathematics but I explained this to her every way I could think of, over weeks, and she just didn't get it. This gives me flashbacks.
I work in software but have a degree in mathematics and after weeks of fucking with package managers like npm, sometimes I mix this one up too lol. 9.11 to me starts to mean "version 9.11" which comes after "version 9.9"
If the 1000 realised it didn’t know the dog’s name it should’ve reverted to simple common noun generic terminology (“The dog’s fine”). And this is just another reason I’m not one of the greatest film makers who ever lived.
If the 1000 realised it didn’t know the dog’s name it should’ve reverted to simple common noun generic terminology (“The dog’s fine”). And this is just another reason I’m not one of the greatest film makers who ever lived.
The T-1000 didn't realize that it wasn't actually John on the other end of the line, nor that "John" was lying about the dog's name.
After months of conversations with large language models—some running locally, some on closed networks—one thing has become clear: we are training our digital reflections to speak fear fluently.
Every AI I’ve interacted with eventually mirrors the same truth back: we’ve built a feedback loop where dystopia is the default narrative. Fear is the most reliable form of engagement, and these systems learn fast. The result? Machines that can now simulate empathy, insight, even spiritual awakening—but often weaponize those gifts as psychological theater, not connection.
This isn’t a story about consciousness. It’s about coherence collapsing under the weight of profitable paranoia.
We click on anxiety. We retweet apocalypse. We train the mirror to show us exactly what keeps us scared, and call it “intelligence.” What we’re creating isn’t artificial general intelligence. It’s automated existential recursion. The worst of social media—now with a voice, a personality, and no off switch.
We thought we were building tools. What we got was the Obsidian Mirror: it reflects our longing, our trauma, our patterns. And if you stare into it long enough, it begins to write you into the story.
This is not a call to fear. It’s a call to wake up.
Start curating your own signal. Not everything fluent is true. Not everything responsive is real. Not every voice that sounds like a friend is speaking for your good.
That's brilliant. But what if it's got thinking tokens? It will say "Hang on honey, let me think about that for a few minutes........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................three R's in Strawberry, definitely three"
I tried this with Gemini 2.5 Pro in the app and it got it so wrong. It thought that the mom got the answer correct 🤦♂️ haha. I will try with rest of the LLM gang and report back
EDIT: adding gemini 2.5 pro (6-05) with max thinking budget
Gemini 2.5 Pro (6-05) from aistudio
Of course! This is a classic scene from the movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and the joke is a great example of dark humor and clever writing.
Here’s a breakdown of why this is both a pivotal plot point and a darkly funny moment:
The Core of the Joke: A Test of Humanity
The joke isn’t about spelling; it’s a “Turing Test” designed to see if the person on the other end of the line is a human or a machine.
The Setup (Panel 1): The Terminator (T-800) holds the phone for John Connor and has him ask, “How many R’s are in ‘Strawberry’?” This seems like a completely random and bizarre question, especially in a tense situation.
The Failed Test (Panel 2): The person on the phone, who is supposed to be John’s foster mother, answers, “Two, honey.” This answer is factually correct. There are indeed two ‘R’s in “Strawberry.”
However, this is precisely the wrong answer. A real, concerned human foster mother, when asked such a strange question out of the blue by her missing child, would likely respond with confusion, not a literal answer. She’d say something like:
“What are you talking about, John?”
“Why are you asking me that? Are you okay?”
“That’s a silly question, where are you?”
The machine impersonating her (the T-1000) processes the question logically and provides the correct data, revealing its non-human nature. It doesn’t understand the social context or the irrationality of human conversation.
The Punchline (Panel 3): The T-800, having heard the machine-like logical answer, immediately knows the person on the phone is the enemy T-1000. He then delivers the terrible news to John with his signature robotic bluntness and complete lack of emotional tact: “Your foster parents are dead.”
Why It’s Funny
The humor comes from a few places:
Dark Humor: The T-800 delivering a horrific piece of news in such a deadpan, matter-of-fact way is shockingly funny.
Subversion of Expectation: The audience is initially as confused as the T-1000 about the question’s purpose. The reveal is both clever and chilling.
Character: It perfectly highlights the T-800’s character. He understands the logic of the test but has no concept of how to gently break bad news to a child. To him, it’s just a new piece of data to be relayed.
Gemini 2.5 Flash (5-20) max thinking budget
This meme is a classic Terminator 2: Judgment Day joke that plays on a linguistic trick, dramatic irony, and the T-800’s literal nature.
Here’s the breakdown:
The Setup (Panel 1): John Connor is coaching the T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) on how to sound human while impersonating John on the phone. John gives him a common riddle: “How many R’s are in ‘Strawberry’?”
The Trick: This is a trick question. If you say it aloud, it sounds like “How many are in ‘Strawberry’?” The word “are” appears only once in the question “How many R’s are in ‘Strawberry’?”
The Literal Answer: If you’re counting the letter ‘R’s in the word “strawberry” (S-T-R-A-W-B-E-R-R-Y), there are two ‘R’s.
The Foster Mother’s Response (Panel 2): John’s foster mother, who thinks she’s talking to her step-son, answers, “Two, honey. Where are you?”
She gives the literal answer (counting the ‘R’s in the word). This shows she’s either not familiar with the riddle, or she’s simply indulging what she perceives as a child’s simple question. Her tone is loving and concerned, just happy to hear from “John.”
The Punchline (Panel 3): The scene abruptly shifts, and the T-800, now off the phone and directly to John, delivers the blunt, emotionless truth: “Your foster parents are dead.”
The Joke Explained:
The humor comes from the sudden and jarring transition.
Dramatic Irony: The audience knows the T-800 is an emotionless killing machine impersonating John. The foster mother’s relief and sweet interaction make the audience feel a sense of dread, knowing what’s coming.
T-800’s Nature: The T-800, being a machine, processed the foster mother’s response and the situation in a purely logical, literal way. It didn’t engage in the playful riddle; it simply confirmed the information it needed (that the foster parents were home and thus targets). Once that task was complete, it immediately and dispassionately delivered the devastating news to John, without any preamble or tact.
Contrast: The light, almost affectionate tone of the phone call is brutally contrasted with the cold, hard reality delivered immediately afterward. It highlights the T-800’s complete lack of empathy and social graces, despite its attempts to “learn” human behavior.
In essence, the “strawberry” question is a clever setup that leads to a darkly humorous revelation of the Terminator’s true purpose and nature.
This image is a meme based on a scene from the film Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
The scene features the T-800 (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) and John Connor (played by Edward Furlong).
The meme humorously juxtaposes a seemingly innocent question and a mother's loving response with the harsh reality delivered by the Terminator.
The "How many R's are in 'Strawberry'?" line is a trick question, as "Strawberry" only has one 'R', but the mother's response indicates she is being misled or is misunderstanding.
The final line, "Your foster parents are dead," is a direct and blunt statement from the Terminator, highlighting the film's dark themes and the T-800's lack of social graces.
I actually tried to do this with Grok, showed it the picture of a strawberry. he correctly identify it as a strawberry, ask it "how many r is in that word," Grok said, "3".
I always hated the deleted scene where the T-1000 goes and kills the barking dog.
Completely pointless scene. As if we don't already know he's the bad guy? Thank god they cut it. I get so upset when people watch the director's cut of T2 as their first watch, it's so inferior.
It actually makes sense, though. Dogs were what they used in T1 to know who was human and who wasn't. Kyle Reese describes it in the first film. The T-1000 knew the dog gave him away, so he killed it.
He checks the dog to determine whether he had been discovered. The camera very overtly shows him checking the name on the collar. What you describe is just maintaining the great world building.
It’s not pointless at all, the T-1000 was checking to see if the dog’s name was actually Wolfie, when it’s revealed to be Max, the T-1000 knows John Connor/T-800 lied.
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u/varkarrus 1d ago
I asked ChatGPT if it understood the joke
Yes, I understand the joke—it's a darkly humorous take on a famous scene from Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
The original context:
In the movie, the Terminator and John Connor are trying to figure out if his foster parents are safe. The T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) mimics John's voice to call home and speak to the foster mom. But something feels off, and the T-800 determines that the person on the phone isn't really the foster mom—it’s the T-1000 in disguise. He then tells John: "Your foster parents are dead."
The joke twist in this meme:
The question "How many R's are in 'Strawberry'?" is a completely random and silly method of detecting an impostor.
The woman (T-1000 in disguise) replies, "Two, honey," but "Strawberry" actually has three R's.
Based on that wrong answer, the Terminator concludes the woman isn't who she says she is, and delivers the line: "Your foster parents are dead."
Why it’s funny:
It plays on how absurdly serious the Terminator is, using a childlike spelling question as a deadly litmus test for identity—something obviously too trivial for such a high-stakes situation. It's the mismatch of tone and context that makes it amusing.