Bad octopus!

December 23, 2020 10:59 AM

A li’l Twitter thread by Eduardo Sampaio on his (& his coauthors’) paper, “Octopuses punch fishes during collaborative interspecific hunting events”.
A video of eight times an octopus punched a fish without cause (direct link to 124 MB video)
posted by Going To Maine (37 comments total)

Fish glub shit, get hit.
posted by NoxAeternum at 11:12 AM on December 23, 2020 [3 favorites]

Fuck around and find out, fish!
posted by briank at 11:23 AM on December 23, 2020 [18 favorites]

Incidentally - Interspecific: (adj.) existing or occurring between different species.
posted by Going To Maine at 11:28 AM on December 23, 2020 [4 favorites]

1st rule of Octopus Fight Club is...you don't talk about octopus fight club
posted by ShawnString at 11:30 AM on December 23, 2020 [7 favorites]

Opossum being a total dick to a skunk.
posted by gwint at 11:39 AM on December 23, 2020 [24 favorites]

"punch"?
posted by 20 year lurk at 11:42 AM on December 23, 2020 [3 favorites]

Technically "directed explosive arm movements", but they're strikes with a balled up tentacle.

So, punches.
posted by NoxAeternum at 11:45 AM on December 23, 2020 [2 favorites]

Not enough sound effects
posted by Kitchen Witch at 11:45 AM on December 23, 2020 [12 favorites]

"Thus, from the octopus’ perspective, punching serves as a partner control mechanism" so the octopus punch their "partner fish" in order to distract them and grab prey during multi-species cooperative hunts. brilliant.
posted by th3ph17 at 11:49 AM on December 23, 2020 [5 favorites]

Not enough sound effects
posted by Kitchen Witch

bubble bubble bubble
bubble bubble bubble

THUD!

I live to serve. :)
posted by Splunge at 11:54 AM on December 23, 2020 [7 favorites]

Technically "directed explosive arm movements", but they're strikes with a balled up tentacle.

The marvel is not that the octopus punches well.
posted by mhoye at 11:57 AM on December 23, 2020 [7 favorites]

Brings new meaning to "sucker punch".
posted by NoxAeternum at 11:58 AM on December 23, 2020 [85 favorites]

The cats of the ocean? Reminds me of cats randomly swatting people and dogs.

You think you’re friends with someone, then bam, maybe not. Seems like an on-again off-again relationship.
posted by mundo at 12:12 PM on December 23, 2020 [3 favorites]

DRUNK OCTOPUS WANTS TO FIGHT YOU
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 1:45 PM on December 23, 2020 [14 favorites]

As SpongeBob can attest, an octopus can be ill-tempered sometimes. Just look at his friend Squidward.
posted by mundo at 1:51 PM on December 23, 2020 [2 favorites]

I cover this in my upcoming book, Octopuses: Assholes of the Deep.
posted by PlusDistance at 1:53 PM on December 23, 2020 [5 favorites]

And a left, and a left, and another left, and another left....
posted by No Robots at 1:53 PM on December 23, 2020 [5 favorites]

Those fish know what they did.
posted by belarius at 2:39 PM on December 23, 2020 [10 favorites]

The correct sound effect, as any Robin Black follower would know, is "bink".
posted by greenhornet at 3:12 PM on December 23, 2020

If you need some context and want to feel better, that fish was a racist!
posted by cazoo at 3:29 PM on December 23, 2020 [1 favorite]

One more reason I will never ever eat octopus again.
posted by bluesky43 at 4:04 PM on December 23, 2020 [2 favorites]

Just chiming in to recommend "My Octopus Teacher," which made me cry any number of times. In the good way.
posted by nevercalm at 4:23 PM on December 23, 2020 [4 favorites]

8 armed animals punching animals with no arms is so 2020
posted by ericost at 4:49 PM on December 23, 2020 [9 favorites]

This is like the opposite of the kind movie/TV post.
posted by betweenthebars at 5:32 PM on December 23, 2020 [6 favorites]

Look at those fish just swimming around like they own the place. Tentacle punch!
posted by betweenthebars at 5:34 PM on December 23, 2020 [2 favorites]

Why punch fish? Because it's fun, that's why.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 7:57 PM on December 23, 2020

today was really not a very good day for me but i got home and saw this and now i am laughing uncontrollably.

and NoxAeternum, i salute you. that was brilliant.
posted by lapolla at 8:20 PM on December 23, 2020 [1 favorite]

also? "eight times an octopus punched a fish without cause"... are not 8 arms cause enough?
posted by lapolla at 8:28 PM on December 23, 2020

Looks like the octopus is a student of the Cobra Kai Dojo. I see potential students for Daniel LaRusso in these bullied fish.
posted by mundo at 2:13 AM on December 24, 2020 [1 favorite]

On a morning when my partner was being inexplicably loud and woke me up at 3 am, and then my nephews started crying/scream-singing Disney songs at 5 am, this was... exactly what I needed.
posted by sleepingwithcats at 4:41 AM on December 24, 2020 [1 favorite]

Punching fish is how Antifi roll.
posted by xigxag at 7:08 AM on December 24, 2020

"without cause," like they know that octopus's life. FEH.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 8:13 AM on December 24, 2020

Octopus boxing is a lot less violent than octopus wrestling.
posted by eotvos at 10:26 AM on December 24, 2020

What did the octopus say to the mahi-mahi? How about a nice Hawaiian punch!
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 10:32 AM on December 24, 2020 [4 favorites]

Rumors in Hollywood claim that Jean-Claude Van Damme is working on a sequel to Bloodsport titled Ink Sport.
posted by mundo at 12:30 PM on December 24, 2020

The prosecution has established a long pattern of violent behavior from the suspect. The verdict should be clear.
posted by jjray at 2:20 PM on December 24, 2020 [1 favorite]

Anthropomorphise much?
posted by BentPenguin at 2:00 PM on December 25, 2020