# The I Am Not A Fish Hiccups Cure
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.
## 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
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
### What is The I Am Not A Fish Hiccups Cure?
It's a viral life hack that tells you to stop hiccups by silently reminding yourself, 'I am not a fish,' based on the theory that hiccups are a reflex left over from ancestors that breathed through gills [1].
### Where did The I Am Not A Fish Hiccups Cure come from?
The evolutionary explanation was published in University of Chicago anatomist Neil Shubin's 2008 book Your Inner Fish, which the Guardian summarised on February 10th, 2008 [2].
### What does The I Am Not A Fish Hiccups Cure mean?
The idea is that your brain stem still fires an ancient signal that once controlled gill breathing, so telling yourself 'I am not a fish' is a way of nudging your brain into stopping the reflex [1].
### How do you use The I Am Not A Fish Hiccups Cure?
Next time you have the hiccups, quietly repeat 'I am not a fish' and let your brain catch up. On TikTok, users film themselves trying it during a hiccup fit, following the format popularised by @jadamiller92's boyfriend in September 2022 [5].
### Is The I Am Not A Fish Hiccups Cure still popular?
After the September 2022 TikTok video from @jadamiller92 hit 4.7 million plays, the trick kept circulating through reaction videos into October 2022, though the biggest wave of hype had already peaked by then [3].
## References
1. [https://www.wired.com/2008/02/evolution-expla/]()
2. [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/feb/10/shopping.scienceandnature]()
3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/the-i-am-not-a-fish-hiccups-cure]()
4. [https://twitter.com/NetchimenRevery]()
5. [https://www.tiktok.com/@jadamiller92]()
6. [https://www.tiktok.com/@myles_parr453]()
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Source: https://meme.com/memes/the-i-am-not-a-fish-hiccups-cure
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