The Internet Is Obsessed With This Salmon Cannon and Honestly How Could You Not Be?

There is a mysterious alchemy to the formation of a social media trend. I’m not talking about current events or celebrity gossip or sports. I’m talking about those completely random moments than wiggle their way into our timeline and capture the world’s imagination. These bizarre cultural nuggets have a way of unifying the oft-divided internet around a collective feeling of WTF that inspires us to share them with everyone we know. Case in point: the salmon cannon.

Now the salmon cannon is nothing new: Whooshh Innovations’ Fish Transport System has been around since 2011, when the company began to prototype an environmentally friendly system to safely transport live fish from one areas to another. The salmon cannon uses a flexible, pressurized tube which helps migratory fish reach new locations to spawn, a journey made increasingly difficult by hydro-electric dams.

While the technology is impressive, it is also undoubtedly hilarious, because come on, fish zooming through a tube is just plain funny. John Oliver thought so when he devoted a segment of his HBO series Last Week Tonight to the salmon cannon in 2014, enlisting a bevvy of special guests to test it.

But now, thanks to a viral tweet, the internet has fallen in love with the salmon cannon:

In these violent and troubled times, there is something weirdly soothing about watching these fish zoom through a pressurized slide like some sort of Dr. Seuss/Monty Python fever dream. Long live the salmon cannon and the irrepressible weirdness of the internet. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have watch this video 30 more times.

(via Twitter, image: YouTube/EarthFixMedia)

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Chelsea Steiner

Chelsea was born and raised in New Orleans, which explains her affinity for cheesy grits and Britney Spears. An pop culture journalist since 2012, her work has appeared on Autostraddle, AfterEllen, and more. Her beats include queer popular culture, film, television, republican clownery, and the unwavering belief that 'The Long Kiss Goodnight' is the greatest movie ever made. She currently resides in sunny Los Angeles, with her husband, 2 sons, and one poorly behaved rescue dog. She is a former roller derby girl and a black belt in Judo, so she is not to be trifled with. She loves the word “Jewess” and wishes more people used it to describe her.

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