Friday Afternoon Funnies: One Pound Fish

Everyone needs a gimmick in order to help sell stuff. Think “Ice Cold Beer Man” at Toronto Blue Jays games (before he got fired, that is). Earlier this year when I was living in London, I was passed a video of Muhammad Shahid Nazir, a fishmonger at a market in East London. I thought it was mildly comical – a guy who made up some song about selling £1 fish. He garnered a bit of a reputation and had people requesting he sing his song when they went to Queens Market.

Another phenomenon in the UK is the Christmas Number 1 single (trust me – I’m going somewhere with this). Every year, it’s a huge deal as to what single will have the number 1 spot. That shitty reality show, The X Factor, had a string of Christmas Number 1s, up until people got fed up and decided to take the power back. They started a Facebook group trying to get Rage Against the Machine to number 1 – and it worked. This year, music folks are trying to capitalize on gimmicky songs (Gangham Style, I’m looking at you) and nail down a number one. Enter Muhammad Shahid Nazir, the One Pound Fish singer.

His song has been given a dancey, Gangham Style-esque beat, a video with pretty women who clearly don’t want this on their CV, and some auto tune. Do you have a hit? Probably not. But it’s so fucking annoying, it’ll stay in your head until the New Year. Check out One Pound Fish below, and check out the original market video below that.

Unrelated Part 1: That seems like a good deal for fish.
Unrelated Part 2: I think I might have some fish for dinner.
Unrelated Part 3: Season 6 of LOST was terrible.

£1 Fish Man – One Pound Fish

One 1 Pound Fish Man, Queens Market, East London