Fish Tube

What's in the frame

The center of the frame is a fish: its head and front part have already slipped out of a gray pipe with a soft white rim, while its tail is still inside. Orange-red flexible hoses run up to the pipe. Below are grated metal tanks, and dark water is behind them.

On the left, in the foreground, is a man in a dark green cap and a red-and-black vest. He looks at the pipe and supports the fish from below. Behind him stands another person in the same kind of cap. It is clearly a working environment, not a set: the people look calm, as during a routine procedure.

How the “Salmon Cannon” works

The device was created by Whooshh Innovations. It is a flexible tube through which fish are carried upstream past a dam, where ordinary fish ladders fail or are too expensive. Reportedly, the fish is moved by a pressure difference, and the tube adjusts to its size, so the animal covers the distance in a matter of seconds. The speed is said to be around 35 kilometers per hour. Water mist inside the tube lets the fish breathe.

The name “cannon” was coined by journalists and internet users, not by the designers. The device does not shoot fish; it helps them get past an obstacle on the way to spawning grounds. In newer versions the fish swim into the tube on their own, rather than being guided in by hand as in the old footage.

The video that spread in August 2019

The source material is a video from the American channel Cheddar, published on August 7, 2019. It compiled footage shot since 2014. The next day a Twitter user reposted it, and the clip gathered tens of millions of views. It was shared by well-known people, including TV host Chrissy Teigen and blogger Hank Green.

The first reaction was jokes, the most popular being “throw me through the fish tube.” Edits appeared too, with the footage set to music from computer games. At the same time, the media explained that the device is real and meant to protect fish, so the meme got a rare combination: absurdity on screen and a quite serious benefit off screen.

Why it's funny

The main comic move is suddenness. The fish glides through the tube as if nothing unusual were happening, while the viewer expects a splash and doesn't get one. The flight is absurd but completely painless, so you can laugh at it without pity.

The second reason is the feeling that all of this is a toy. Transparent, flexible tubes resemble an arcade, and people immediately projected their own wishes onto them: I want to go there too, right at the end of the workday.

Caption examples

“Me on Friday at 17:59.” The fish flies out into freedom, and the caption explains its happiness with a single time.

“My salary on payday.” The fish shoots through the tube so fast it doesn't have time to notice anything, and the money behaves the same way.

“Me when I've finally reached the vacation doors.” A gentle exaggeration instead of a direct comment.

“Throw me in the fish tube so I wake up on Monday rested.” A variation on the most popular joke of 2019: a person asks for the same easy path for themselves.

How to use it

The fish-tube picture works well where you need a sharp transition from “it was bad” to “it's easy now.” Captions are easy to write in the first person, as if the speaker were flying through the tube themselves.

Do not look for a metaphor for complex topics in it: the meaning of the meme lies in its simplicity and in the fact that the fish ends up being helped. It is not suitable for jokes about harming nature, because the image is precisely about caring for it.