The "I Am Not A Fish" Hiccups Cure

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The "I Am Not A Fish" Hiccups Cure, also known as Stop Hiccups By Saying, "I Am Not A Fish," is a theoretical life hack solution for hiccups that entails reminding oneself they are not a fish due to the purported science behind hiccups' origin in human evolution from fish-like creatures with gills. After a viral TikTok video of a girl's boyfriend revealing the trick and emphasizing its effectiveness in September 2022, multiple TikTokers aimed to prove his theory and reiterated their own success stories. The hiccup cure actually originates from a 2008 book called Your Inner Fish by anatomist Neil Shubin. It first surfaced in discourse on Reddit and then later on Twitter in mid-2022.

Origin

On January 15th, 2008, University of Chicago professor and anatomist Neil Shubin published the book Your Inner Fish: a Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body. On the website GoodReads,^[1] a blurb for Shubin's book reads:

Neil Shubin, a leading paleontologist and professor of anatomy who discovered Tiktaalik – the "missing link" that made headlines around the world in April 2006 – tells the story of evolution by tracing the organs of the human body back millions of years, long before the first creatures walked the earth. By examining fossils and DNA, Shubin shows us that our hands actually resemble fish fins, our head is organized like that of a long-extinct jawless fish, and major parts of our genome look and function like those of worms and bacteria.

Shubin's book was covered by The Guardian^[2] a month after its publication on February 10th, 2008. The Guardian highlighted a specific moment in his book on hiccups:

… hiccups are triggered by electric signals generated in the brain stem. Amphibian brain stems emit similar signals, which control the regular motion of their gills. Our brain stems, inherited from amphibian ancestors, still spurt out odd signals producing hiccups that are, according to Shubin, essentially the same phenomenon as gill breathing.

On February 22nd, 2008, Redditor ferality made a post about The Guardian's article to the subreddit /r/reddit.com,^[3] gaining nine upvotes in 14 years. On February 25th, 2008, the news outlet Wired^[4] published an article titled, "The Best Cure for Hiccups: Remind Your Brain You're Not a Fish," that referenced Shubin's book and The Guardian's coverage of it. Although its title was unserious, Wired's article officially cemented the concept online that one should remind themself that their not a fish in order to stop hiccups.

Spread

On July 18th, 2022, Twitter^[5] user AnandaNFT tweeted about the information reiterated in Wired's article, stating that it was an "actual body hack." The thread they started gained over 100 likes in three months (shown below, left). On August 5th, 2022, Twitter^[6] user NetchimenRevery tweeted a screenshot of Wired's article, captioning it, "??? Basically we hiccups because sometimes our brain still think we're fish???" and gaining roughly 166,000 likes in two months (shown below, right). The tweet predominantly started the hype surrounding the hiccup solution.

On August 6th, 2022, Twitter^[7] user Kithikamau1 replied to NetchimenRevery's tweet, stating, "So when ppl say, 'if you're hiccuping, drink a glass of water' are they really saying, 'trick your body into believing that you've reverted to your original fish form," gaining roughly 21,800 likes in two months (shown below, left). Twitter^[8] user OscarOpossum then replied with a stock image of a glass of water, captioning it, "Reject ape, return to feesh," and gaining roughly 13,800 likes in the same time period (shown below, right).

On September 22nd, 2022, TikToker^[9] jadamiller92 posted a video featuring her boyfriend explaining his hiccup cure which was telling himself, "I am not a fish," and essentially reiterating Shubin's original research in a more humorous form. He claimed that the solution had been "four for four" in curing his hiccups thus far. Over the course of one month, the video received roughly 4.7 million plays and 711,200 likes (shown below, left). The video generated multiple reactions on the app going into October 2022. For instance, on October 19th, 2022, TikToker^[10] myles_parr453 posted a video that thanked jadamiller92's boyfriend for the helpful hiccup solution, gaining roughly 2.2 million plays and 284,200 likes in six days (shown below, right).