A School of 22 Fish Funnies for Your Daily Dilly Dally Deep Dive

Ayala Sorotsky • Writer and Editor

Apr 12, 2026 7:30 AM EDT

A fish that grants a wish is a common folklore motif that usually ends with the wishing human being too greedy for their own sake. We were thinking about this for a while today and came to one logical conclusion to take from this type of story - people just need to be as chill as a fish.

There are two particular old folk stories that revolve around a wish-granting fish. One is the Russian "The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish" written in the 19th century by Alexander Pushkin, and the other is the German "The Fisherman and His Wife" by the famous Brothers Grimm. They both basically follow the same narrative beats: A person finds a magical fish that gives them wishes. They wish, and wish, and wish, and gradually become more and more greedy. Once they reach such a covetous state, everything falls apart. They needed to heed the fish's warning and not go too far, but they didn't listen.

The only thing we can think of after hearing about humanity's greed, represented in such fishy stories, is that humans need to chill. Seriously, just relax. Maybe it's the fast pace of modern society, maybe it's the pressure of your current workplace, but feeling so anxious won't help anything. Just channel your inner chill fish. Really, fish can be wholesome. Fish can show love to humans, despite our misconception of them being… you know, fish-brain.

Go with the flow, swim with the currents. It's the fish way.

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via @MemmWithoutCon
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via @mischiefanimals
To understand this meme above, you need to meet the gar fish. They're so ancient, existing for over 150 million years as "living fossils". Gar are torpedo-shaped predatory fish found in North America, known for their long, needle-toothed snouts - which you can clearly see above. So why is this one called a shortnose gar if its nose is so long? Well, honestly, you should google the longnose gar to get the idea…
Just for the oceanic deep dive, here's another gar fun fact: They have diamond-shaped armored scales. How cool is that?
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via @countrytoads
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via @RespectfulMemes
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via @equine__dentist
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via @equine__dentist
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via @equine__dentist
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via @WholesomeMeme
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via @wholesome-animal-images
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via @hometoursandotherstuff
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via @hometoursandotherstuff
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via caribbeanreeflife.com
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via @hometoursandotherstuff
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via @hometoursandotherstuff
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via @hometoursandotherstuff
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via @rayyinday
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via imgflip.com