Goldfish Swallowing

Swallowing live goldfish became a wildly popular fad among college students during the spring of 1939. Although the rage only lasted a few months, swallowing goldfish has become synonymous with foolish and short-lived fads.

The craze began in March 1939, when a Harvard University freshman took a bet that he would not swallow a live goldfish. He gathered a crowd to watch, swallowed the fish, and collected $10 from his classmate. Soon the word spread to other colleges. Other students began to take up the challenge, swallowing more and more goldfish each time to top the last record. By the time students were downing dozens of live, wriggling goldfish to uphold their school's honor, the Massachusetts legislature stepped in and passed a law to "preserve the fish from cruel and wanton consumption." The U.S. Public Health Service began to issue warnings that the goldfish could pass tapeworms and disease to swallowers. Within a few months of its start, the fad died out.

Goldfish swallowing has been revived from time to time among college students and other young people anxious to prove their daring. One student during the 1970s claimed to have swallowed three hundred of the little fish.

—Tina Gianoulis

For More Information

"Goldfish Swallowing." Bad Fads Museum.http://www.badfads.com/pages/events/goldfish.html (accessed February 14, 2002)

"Swallowing Goldfish." Olde Time Cooking and Nostalgia.http://www.oldetimecooking.com/Fads/goldfish.htm (accessed February 14, 2002).