About

Invest In Rare Fish or Rare Fish Investments refers to a series of parody hustle culture memes that suggest people invest in rare fish and the "rare fish market." Additionally, the need for Multiple Uncles became its own subset of the trend. The memes began on Instagram in March 2021 and spread to TikTok in early 2022.

Origin

The idea of a "rare fish market" is possibly inspired by the video game Cruelty Squad, released in January 2021, which features a version of the stock market where players can trade fish and human organs on a market for profit (shown below).

On April 27th, 2021, Instagram^[1] page @entrapranure, a parody hustle culture page, posted an image macro showing images of Tom Brady and Michael Cera under the caption, "If your friend group isn't talking about these things… find a new friend group," followed by several purposely ridiculous things to talk about, including "piles of sand," "Tom Brandy touchdown," and "rare fish investments" (shown below). The post gained over 1,300 likes in a year.

Spread

The original meme was shared by Instagram^[2] page yourlordandsaviormonke the next day, gaining over 3,000 likes in a year. On May 2nd, 2021, @entrapranure posted another meme about investing in rare fish to Instagram,^[3] gaining over 1,100 likes in 11 months (shown below, left). On May 21st, Instagram^[4] page the.brilliant.ceo.quotes.ig posted a meme referencing the "rare fish market," gaining over 290 likes in a comparable span of time.

On June 4th, Instagram^[5] page @rarefishinvestor posted their first meme about investing in rare fish, posting two more on June 6th and July 11th. On October 21st, a Redditor asked /r/PFJerk^[6] followers, "What Rare Fish are Worth Investing in?" gaining over 30 upvotes in six months. Instagram user @entrapranure continued to post about investing in rare fish in early 2022, with several posts gaining significant attention. A March 29th post to Instagram^[7] gained over 8,000 likes in two weeks (shown below, left). An April 3rd post to Instagram^[8] gained over 8,200 likes in a week (shown below, right).

That month, TikTokers began reposting rare fish investment memes as videos and creating their own videos about investing in rare fish. On April 9th, TikToker^[9] @sigmaindustries began reposting rare fish memes from @entrapranure, gaining thousands of views each. On April 10th, TikToker^[10]timmytebow posted a sparkles and champagne meme referencing rare fish, gaining over 57,000 views in two days (shown below, left). On April 11th, TikToker^[11] @frankniu posted a video suggesting only experts should invest in rare fish, gaining over 150,000 views in a day (shown below, right).

On April 11th, Instagram^[12] page @entrapranure posted a meme about investing in rare fish using an image of Hasbulla, gaining over 34,000 likes in a day (shown below).

Multiple Uncles

On March 26th, 2022, Instagram^[13] page entrapranure posted a meme that captioned an iceberg with multiple criteria to become successful in life, including within the list the need for "multiple uncles." The post earned roughly 6,500 likes over the course of two weeks (shown below, left). On March 29th, entrapranure shared another meme^[7] that included, along with "Rare Fish," the need for "Multiple Uncles." The post earned roughly 8,000 likes in two weeks (shown below, right).

On April 11th, Instagram^[14] page businessmanliving, another ironic, hustle culture meme page, shared their own image regarding "multiple uncles," earning roughly 1,200 likes in one day (shown below).

The concept of "multiple uncles" also spread to TikTok in mid-April 2022. For instance, on April 11th, TikTok^[15] page sigmaindustries posted a video that included, "Mine UNCLES in the Congo," within its criteria, earning roughly 421,200 plays and 45,400 likes in one day (shown below, left). Also on April 11th, TikTok^[16] page 2alexross posted a video that stated the viewer was "Broke" because they were, "Not mining MULTIPLE UNCLES in the Congo," gaining roughly 25,200 plays and 2,000 likes in one day (shown below, right).

Mongolian Fishing Boots, Tech Extremists & Zara Employees

Mongolian Fishing Boots, Tech Extremists & Zara Employees refers to a series of parody hustle culture, sigma grindset and ironic business TikTok videos that emphasized the three aforementioned signifiers as vital components to a successful future. The trend started on TikTok in late 2022, related to the precursor rare fish and multiple uncles trend. The concepts of Mongolian fishing boots, tech extremists and Zara employees (among other topics like ISIS recruiters and Shrek's funeral) were all started by TikToker Luca Maxim (@santeluca) in October 2022.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References