Jordan Peterson asking what basic words mean has become a perfect meme

Jordan Peterson has been called many names over the years, but now we’re starting to wonder if he actually knew what any of them meant.

The controversial Canadian psychologist may have a PhD, but in one of his most recent interviews, he can’t seem to grasp very basic terms including “do”, “you” and “happen”.

Of course, we’re being facetious here, but during a discussion with YouTuber Mohammed Hijab, posted on Monday, Peterson gave such a mindbogglingly first-year-philosophy-student-style answer, it’s no wonder he’s turned himself into yet another meme.

Hijab was speaking about Christianity and the truth behind the religion’s doctrines when Peterson interjected: “When I hear something like that, the question that arises for me is, ‘What do you mean ‘happening’’?”

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Don’t worry, he went on to elaborate.

“So then when I look at a story like ‘Cain and Abel’ I think, well, the question ‘Did that happen?’ begs the question, ‘What do you mean by happen?’” he continued.

“Because when you’re dealing with fundamental realities and you pose a question, you have to understand that the reality of the concepts of your question, when you’re digging that deep, are just as questionable as what you’re questioning.”

It gets better.

“So people say to me [...], ‘Do you believe in God?’ And I think, ‘OK, there’s a couple of mysteries in that question – what do you mean ‘do’? What do you mean ‘you’? What do you mean ‘believe’? And what do you mean ‘God’?

“And you say, as the questioner, well we already know what all those things mean except belief in God and I think, ‘No! If we’re gonna get down to the fundamental brass tacks, we don’t really know what any of those things mean.”

A number of Twitter users have recognised similar mental meanderings in the essays of teenage students, and the parallels have been rolling in:

Others just accepted that his spiel was perfect, all-purpose meme fodder:

Meanwhile, others hailed it as a Peterson parody of himself:

It comes less than a month after Peterson broke down in tears after being asked whether he saw himself as a hero to the ‘incel’ community.

Director Olivia Wilde previously revealed that the media personality was the inspiration for Chris Pine’s villain in her film Don’t Worry Darling.

“We based that character on this insane man, Jordan Peterson, who is this pseudo-intellectual hero to the incel community,” Wilde said at the time.

Peterson was appearing on Piers Morgan Uncensored when he was asked about the description.

Morgan asked: "Is that you? Are you the intellectual hero to these people?"

"Sure, why not. People have been after me for a long time because I have been speaking to young men, what a terrible thing to do," the professor replied, visibly emotional.

After tearing up, he added: "I thought the marginalised were supposed to have a voice?"

Peterson went on to criticise the term ‘incel’, saying: "God, you know. It’s very difficult to understand how demoralised people are, and certainly many young men are in that category.

"And you get these casual insults, these 'incels' - what does it mean? It’s like these men, they don’t know how to make themselves attractive to women - who are very picky."

We'd suggest that Peterson invest in a dictionary sharpish.

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