my dad told me this true story
happened sometimes in the 70's...
it was a friday night and my dad was having a few beers and playing cards with his workmates at the local bar (next to the river)...

a fisherman entered with a bucket full of fish he had just caught that afternoon. guy drinks a few beers as the locals start asking him silly questions about the fish..where did you get them!?..what kind of fish is this? etc..

a few beers later, someone said: "i bet you a 100 francs (quite a lot back then) that you cannot swallow that small fish alive"..pointing at a 15 cm long Catfish swimming in the bucket.

dude takes said fish tail between his fingers opens a large toothless mouth and starts pushing it down his throat head first..until the fish completely disappears. "WOAW" goes everyone in the pub..pretty impressed...a few seconds later, guy turns red, then blue..fish is obviously stuck in his throat..

he then starts digging into his mouth and tries to pull it out, the more he pulled on the tail and the more the fish would get stuck..fishbones and scales deploying into his throat.

took him a good 2 minutes to die in front of a totally helpless pub crowd.
( olivier8 (euroloon), Thu 1 Nov 2007, 20:12, 7 replies)

Fuck.
Did no one in that pub have a knife and a plastic pen? They could have done an emergency tracheotomy on the guy and saved him!
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Thu 1 Nov 2007, 20:16, closed)

fsh
what happened to the fish?
(sirolimus, Thu 1 Nov 2007, 20:25, closed)

sorry to be pedantic
but its fish and not fishes
( Victor Meldrew, Thu 1 Nov 2007, 21:38, closed)

@ad7
ok, thanks
( olivier8 (euroloon), Fri 2 Nov 2007, 9:45, closed)

Catfish
Catfish (and others) have spines that would render them unshiftable if you tried to pull them out, better pushing it down with a broomhandle. Much like the Candirú (the winky fishibus) except that would hurt rather than killing you.
(Benzyl, Mon 5 Nov 2007, 23:56, closed)

He really
and truly died?
(TDub Nunc id vides, nunc ne vides on, Tue 6 Nov 2007, 5:18, closed)

@ Tdub
well yeah he did trully died...back then probably no one had ever heard of a life saving tracheotomia especially in some remote french village.
( olivier8 (euroloon), Tue 6 Nov 2007, 14:03, closed)