# Vomiting Water Puffer Fish Vomiting Water Puffer Fish is a photograph of a nontoxic puffer fish spitting a stream of hot spring water, originally published by a Japanese newspaper in March 2019. The image went viral on Japanese Twitter and spawned a wave of lookalike photos, cartoons and a widely shared Irasutoya illustration riffing on the same pose. ## Origin On March 6th, 2019, the Tokyo Shimbun website tokyo-np.co.jp published an article titled "Nontoxic puffer fish in hot spring water" (translated from Japanese), which included the now-famous photo of a puffer fish spitting up spring water[1]. The piece was a short local-interest story about captive fugu bathing in warm water, and the accompanying image was initially just a quirky illustration of the article's subject. Four days later, on March 10th, 2019, the Twitter account @oyakode_manaboo posted the image along with a link back to the Tokyo Shimbun article[2]. That repost, rather than the original news page, is what kicked the picture into meme circulation on Japanese social media. - **Platform:** Tokyo Shimbun (source photo) / Twitter (viral spread) - **Creator:** Unknown (photo originally published by Tokyo Shimbun) - **Date:** 2019 ## Overview Vomiting Water Puffer Fish is a reaction photo of a plump, slightly bewildered puffer fish shooting a thin jet of water out of its mouth. The original shot came from a Japanese news story about nontoxic puffer fish kept in hot spring water, and the fish's deadpan expression paired with the stream of liquid turned a straightforward wildlife photo into a reusable visual joke[1]. Once the image hit Twitter, users started pairing it with photos of other animals, people and objects caught mid-spit, mid-drip or mid-splash, treating the puffer fish as the ur-example of a specific posture[2]. The follow-up contributions ranged from side-by-side comparisons to full illustrations, and the Japanese stock art site Irasutoya cemented the format by publishing its own cartoon version of a puffer fish exhaling seawater to inflate itself[3]. ## How It Spread The @oyakode_manaboo tweet from March 10th, 2019 pulled more than 42,000 retweets and 81,000 likes in under two weeks, which is where most of the format's reach came from[2]. Replies and quote tweets quickly filled up with other photos of animals and objects mid-spit, treating the puffer fish shot as a template rather than a one-off. On March 14th, 2019, the Japanese stock illustration site Irasutoya published a cartoon of a puffer fish exhaling seawater, described in the artwork's notes as an image "drawn to make the body look bigger" (translated from Japanese)[3]. The same day, the official Irasutoya Twitter account tweeted the illustration, drawing more than 28,000 retweets and 55,000 likes in a week and giving the meme a reusable, royalty-free version[4]. Know Your Meme later archived the whole chain of events, from the Tokyo Shimbun article through the Irasutoya illustration, as a single entry[5]. ## How to Use The format typically pairs the puffer fish photo with another image of a creature, person or object captured in a similar water-spitting pose, often as a side-by-side comparison or a quote-tweet. Users also commonly swap the fish for cartoon stand-ins, like the Irasutoya illustration, when they want the same joke in a cleaner graphic style[3]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Vomiting Water Puffer Fish? It is a 2019 reaction image of a puffer fish spitting a stream of water, originally from a Tokyo Shimbun article about fugu kept in hot spring water[1]. ### Where did Vomiting Water Puffer Fish come from? The photo first ran on tokyo-np.co.jp on March 6th, 2019, then went viral after @oyakode_manaboo reposted it on Twitter on March 10th, 2019[2]. ### What does Vomiting Water Puffer Fish mean? There is no fixed caption; the image is used as a visual gag and gets paired with other photos of animals, people or objects in a similar water-spitting pose[5]. ### How do you use Vomiting Water Puffer Fish? People typically share the fish photo alongside a lookalike shot, or swap it for the Irasutoya cartoon version of a puffer fish exhaling seawater for a cleaner graphic[3]. ### Is Vomiting Water Puffer Fish still popular? The image is still circulated as a classic Japanese Twitter reaction photo, with the Irasutoya illustration giving it a long reuse tail[4]. ## References 1. [https://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/education/manabuu/CK2019030602000123.html]() 2. [https://twitter.com/oyakode_manaboo/status/1104720923033133056]() 3. [https://www.irasutoya.com/2019/03/blog-post_927.html]() 4. [https://twitter.com/irasutoya/status/1106073210204942336]() 5. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/vomiting-water-puffer-fish]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/vomiting-water-puffer-fish Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library