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> "Looks like a fish, moves like a fish, steers like a cow."
by drewzero1 5y ago
> "Looks like a fish, moves like a fish, steers like a cow."
- aaroninsf 5y agoThis line always perplexed me as a kid. I got (still get) stuck on the overlap between moving, and steering. Moving like a fish seems to include sinuous paths, schooling with sudden acceleration and darts to the side, etc... nimbleness and speed. I understood it was a proxy for "accelerates like/is as fast as" but found that unsatisfying. Also, cow works to evoke large, stubborn perhaps, unresponsive... but was an odd choice in as much as few try to steer cows. Shepherd, maybe. A water buffalo or ox or even mule felt like a missed opportunity, since they are prototypically steered and there is a sense of their owners/drivers laboring against their desire to not labor... Total Nicolson Baker rabbit hole, just a specific reading experience that has always stood out from that series. I have uttered that line countless times over the years in various contexts, including while dancing late at night on the playa.
- JackFr 5y agoYikes. It means young (neutered) male cattle prefer a cow.
- Crespyl 5y agoHah, somehow I never once made that connection. "Flies like a banana" has been an old favorite, but out of context I just never picked up on this version despite many re-reads.
- cardiffspaceman 5y agoTime flies like an arrow / Fruit flies like a banana.
- bashinator 5y agoTime flies are utterly terrifying; avoid them at all costs.
- beardyw 5y agoWhilst the flight of fruit, though short lived, resembles that of a banana (which apparently is a berry)
- simondotau 5y agoI know that the second half is intended to convey that bananas are liked by fruit flies, but within the context of that saying, my brain steadfastly refuses to read it that way.
- lurquer 5y agoIndeed. Face-palm. Reminds me of another ‘joke’ I never got which, for all I know, might have been obvious to everyone else: “Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side.” I never knew that “the other side” was referring to death... like, at a seance when you contact the “other side”. Apparently the joke was a big hit in the days of the Spiritist movement (back with Houdini, Doyle, and all the others promoting or debunking seances.) I thought it was some intentionally stupid joke about crossing a road. Doh.
- JackFr 5y agoTIL…
- gweinberg 5y agoI think the "intentionally stupid" interpretation is correct. I think the original answer was "to get from the left to the right", which later got shortened.
- lurquer 5y agoYou may be correct. I got sucked down that rabbit hole years ago. The ‘death’ explanation was in the minority. A quick Google shows that at least one guy — some person named Nick on Twitter — and his followers subscribe to the suicide version: https://www.esquire.com/uk/life/news/a12346/the-upsetting-true-meaning-of-that-why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road-joke/ https://www.esquire.com/uk/life/news/a12346/the-upsetting-tr...
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- Hallucinaut 5y agoI had two jokes in a jokebook at my grandparents place that stumped me as a kid. Waiter: How did you find your steak sir? Man: I looked under a mushroom and there it was I could only put it down to a terrible, Christmas cracker level pun on "much room". The second was something like "What has three feet but no legs? A yard stick" with a picture of a ruler with three feet on it. I found that utterly perplexing... the joys of living in a metric country with predominantly imported imperial system based media! Both took me probably over a decade to understand.
- tudorw 5y agoFrance is bacon...
- zem 5y agoI disagree, that does not seem to fit Adams's style of humour and wordplay in the books. grandparent is just overthinking it; the image is of a ship that glides through space like a fish gliding through water, but turns clumsy and lumbering when you actually try to steer it.
- simondotau 5y agoMy suspicion is that 'cow' was chosen for its natural contrast with a fish, its onomatopoeic nature, and the mental slam of unexpected absurdism. Or in other words, it was funny.
- drewzero1 5y agoI have always interpreted "moves" in this context to relate to straight line acceleration, like when somebody says a sports car "really moves" they mean it's got quick straight-line acceleration. Immediately after this quote Ford (or maybe Zaphod?) says something about how he had been passed by some ship at great speed, and shortly after it crashed into a planet or something. I can't remember off the top of my head. But that seems to support the interpretation that it can move fast but can't steer.