The I Am Not A Fish Hiccups Cure

2022catchphrasesemi-active

The I Am Not A Fish Hiccups Cure is a viral life hack that says you can stop hiccups by reminding yourself you are not a fish, based on the theory that hiccups are an evolutionary leftover from gill-breathing ancestors. The trick traces back to a 2008 book by anatomist Neil Shubin, but it exploded on Twitter and TikTok in mid to late 2022.

life hack memesdelayed virality memes2022 memesabsurdist humor memestiktok memes

Overview

The I Am Not A Fish Hiccups Cure is a life hack that says you can stop hiccups by silently reminding yourself, 'I am not a fish.' The premise comes from an evolutionary theory that hiccups are a leftover reflex from when our distant ancestors breathed through gills, so the fix is essentially informing your brain stem it's a lungs-breathing modern human, not a prehistoric fish 1.

Online, the meme circulates in two shapes: as an earnest wellness tip people swear by after testing it, and as an absurdist joke pairing the science with lines like 'reject ape, return to feesh' 4. The TikTok wave in late 2022 pushed it into full meme territory, with users filming themselves trying the trick during a hiccup fit and reporting back on whether it actually worked 5.

How It Spread

The idea sat mostly dormant for over a decade until July 18th, 2022, when Twitter user @AnandaNFT tweeted about the Wired article and called the fish reminder an 'actual body hack,' pulling in around 100 likes over the following months 3. On August 5th, 2022, @NetchimenRevery reposted a screenshot of the Wired piece with the caption 'Basically we hiccups because sometimes our brain still think we're fish,' and the tweet cleared roughly 166,000 likes in about two months 4.

Reply threads carried the format further. On August 6th, 2022, user @Kithikamau1 asked whether drinking water for hiccups was really about tricking your body into 'believing that you've reverted to your original fish form,' hitting roughly 21,800 likes, while @OscarOpossum answered with a stock photo of a glass of water captioned 'Reject ape, return to feesh' for about 13,800 likes 4.

TikTok took the hiccup cure mainstream on September 22nd, 2022, when @jadamiller92 posted a clip of her boyfriend explaining that he cures his hiccups by telling himself 'I am not a fish,' claiming the trick had worked four times out of four. The video pulled roughly 4.7 million plays and 711,200 likes inside a month 5. Reaction videos followed, including an October 19th, 2022 post by @myles_parr453 thanking her boyfriend for the fix, which hit 2.2 million plays and 284,200 likes in six days 6.

How to Use This Meme

Using the meme is straightforward: next time you get hiccups, quietly repeat 'I am not a fish' to yourself, ideally while explaining the evolutionary reasoning to whoever is nearby. Online, users typically share it either as a factoid post screenshotting the 2008 Wired headline, or as a TikTok in which they test the trick on camera and film their reaction to whether it actually worked 1.

Frequently Asked Questions

The I Am Not A Fish Hiccups Cure

2022catchphrasesemi-active

The I Am Not A Fish Hiccups Cure is a viral life hack that says you can stop hiccups by reminding yourself you are not a fish, based on the theory that hiccups are an evolutionary leftover from gill-breathing ancestors. The trick traces back to a 2008 book by anatomist Neil Shubin, but it exploded on Twitter and TikTok in mid to late 2022.

life hack memes delayed virality memes 2022 memes absurdist humor memes tiktok memes

Overview

The I Am Not A Fish Hiccups Cure is a life hack that says you can stop hiccups by silently reminding yourself, 'I am not a fish.' The premise comes from an evolutionary theory that hiccups are a leftover reflex from when our distant ancestors breathed through gills, so the fix is essentially informing your brain stem it's a lungs-breathing modern human, not a prehistoric fish 1.

Online, the meme circulates in two shapes: as an earnest wellness tip people swear by after testing it, and as an absurdist joke pairing the science with lines like 'reject ape, return to feesh' 4. The TikTok wave in late 2022 pushed it into full meme territory, with users filming themselves trying the trick during a hiccup fit and reporting back on whether it actually worked 5.

How It Spread

The idea sat mostly dormant for over a decade until July 18th, 2022, when Twitter user @AnandaNFT tweeted about the Wired article and called the fish reminder an 'actual body hack,' pulling in around 100 likes over the following months 3. On August 5th, 2022, @NetchimenRevery reposted a screenshot of the Wired piece with the caption 'Basically we hiccups because sometimes our brain still think we're fish,' and the tweet cleared roughly 166,000 likes in about two months 4.

Reply threads carried the format further. On August 6th, 2022, user @Kithikamau1 asked whether drinking water for hiccups was really about tricking your body into 'believing that you've reverted to your original fish form,' hitting roughly 21,800 likes, while @OscarOpossum answered with a stock photo of a glass of water captioned 'Reject ape, return to feesh' for about 13,800 likes 4.

TikTok took the hiccup cure mainstream on September 22nd, 2022, when @jadamiller92 posted a clip of her boyfriend explaining that he cures his hiccups by telling himself 'I am not a fish,' claiming the trick had worked four times out of four. The video pulled roughly 4.7 million plays and 711,200 likes inside a month 5. Reaction videos followed, including an October 19th, 2022 post by @myles_parr453 thanking her boyfriend for the fix, which hit 2.2 million plays and 284,200 likes in six days 6.

How to Use This Meme

Using the meme is straightforward: next time you get hiccups, quietly repeat 'I am not a fish' to yourself, ideally while explaining the evolutionary reasoning to whoever is nearby. Online, users typically share it either as a factoid post screenshotting the 2008 Wired headline, or as a TikTok in which they test the trick on camera and film their reaction to whether it actually worked 1.

Frequently Asked Questions