About

Spinning Fish refers to a 3D GIF of a fish spinning around to various songs, such as "Freaks" by Surf Curse and "Funkytown" by Lipps Inc. The GIF has been used in numerous ironic meme videos on YouTube.

Origin

While it is unclear where the 3D fish GIF comes from, on September 25th, 2020, YouTube^[1] user MrFatCatMan uploaded the earliest low-resolution video featuring the spinning fish, adding it to the song "Bumpy Ride, Nightcore Version" by Mohombi. The video received more than 230,000 views in three years (shown below).

Spread

The video started to gain popularity in the 2020s. For example on June 3rd, 2021, YouTube^[2] user Gintong uploaded a video that added Chinese text and the song Ching Cheng Hanji. The video received more than 2.3 million views in two years (shown below, left). On October 12th, 2023, YouTube^[3] user Professional_Retard uploaded a video with the song "Funkytown" by Lipps Inc. The video received more than 7.3 million views in two years (shown below, right).

On August 7th, 2022, YouTube^[4] user 10Hour uploaded a 10 hour version of Professional_Retard's video. That received more than 7.1 million views in one year (shown below, left). On September 30th, 2023, YouTube^[5] user Kenji's Weird Stories uploaded the video with the song "Freaks" by Surf Curse, which received more than 2.4 million views in five months (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References