Only the Andy Griffith show could take a fish story and turn it into a manhunt! What a show. Howard McNear is magnificent as Floyd the barber. "Awful pushy those carps. Oh yes." A bigone era when talent rained and reigned like a storm across the small screen. The GOAT of all television shows. Greatest of all time.
it's actually a double subversion. at the end, because of her pike line, we're not sure if she knew they were talking about fish all long or simply making a comparison
@@cagneybillingsley2165 Well yeah It was a reflective joke on racism. The actual joke was she thought they were talking about Asians (carp a racial slur for Asians, usually reserved for Chinese immigrants) and she mentioned not killing a pike ( Short for Pikey, a racial slur for those of Romani heritage). Now the word pike is used to slap the audience in the face and make them reflect on why they assumed that it was a race joke. It was in fact a race joke but also a fish joke with the idea of making people aware of racist thoughts they may have had.
The Beverly Hillbillies did something similar. Jed was speaking unknowingly to an undertaker, with this long tale about "putting a mess of greens in the ground" back home. Planting turnips, of course, but the undertaker thought he was talking about a family named Green who they feuded with. Jed says: "Made the mistake of planting those Greens on a slope, a gullywasher come, and the next morning, they was Greens all over our porch!" The mortician was horrified, heh...
Where I live in TN carp are the some of the biggest game and best fighters, especially in creeks. They've absolutely taken over all the creeks and have really devastated native fish populations. Very pushy!
You talking about the Asian Carp? I have heard they were spreading in the south. In Illinois they were fighting those things all up the Illinois River because they were afraid they would get into Lake Michigan and destroy the fish populations there.
I know where I live.. Carp is sold in the fish market for food.. 😅 The fish vendor sell Carp buy the ton. everyday.. Because it's a real cheap price. Yes I do live in the Philippines 🇵🇭
Well the idea is that carp was a racial slur for Asians (particularly Chinese) and the Asian immigrants of the time were well known for being pushy. Well carp are also known for being a very pushy fish. If you are baiting or feeding fish in a pond they will push in and eat all the food even maiming and killing other fish to do so unless all other fish in the pond are also carp of a similar size. Even then they are pretty pushy and aggressive. Due to the time period this is what sold the 3 layer joke. The race joke that was also a fish joke but also a joke of "haha it was a fish joke all along you are a racist hahaha".
Lewis Grizzard once did a column on this fish. He said there were three things his grandfather couldn't stand. They were: Jehovah's Witnesses, opera singers on the Ed Sullivan Show, and carps. Her last line wouldn't have worked with Mayor Stoner.
Comedy has always had profanity and sex, for literally thousands of years. Go read a some 2000+ year old Greek Comedies, they're so filthy we wouldn't put them TV nowadays.
The few times I watched this as a kid, I always thought that being a sheriff looked like the easiest job any man could have. And Floyd reminded me of my 7th grade geometry teacher.
This is one of my favorite bits of dialogue from "The Andy Griffith Show". I grew up in the city, but my family moved to the country when I was in high school. City people think country people are odd, but believe me, country people feel the same way about city people! By the way, from what I've read, carps are considered pests in many parts of the country because they kill other fish. Thus, Floyd was quite right when he said they were "pushy"!
My brother and I just about died laughing at this one when we first saw it. I can understand why the lady was fooled. She walked in after learning that Andy always gets his man. Great scene.
the best part about the way this joke is written is that right at the end when she says “anymore than i’d kill a pike”… it makes you question whether or not she knew he was talking about a fish the whole time and she was just an animal rights type of person. they could’ve had her say any other name that wasn’t also the name of a fish. but they chose that specifically to throw the whole joke into a more “meta” thing. that type of writing wasn’t beret common back then. love it
When I saw this on TV, I immediately thought that this came across like the work of Paul Henning. Sure enough, when the credits rolled, Paul Henning had written this episode. Make a few changes to the costumes and character names, and this scene could have been done word-for-word on another Paul Henning effort, ' "The Beverly Hillbillies".
I pulled one out of the water off an abandoned bridge. Took me at least five minutes to get him up to where I could kill him. He did not want to die. They're pushy! I asked my brother, "should we eat him?" He said no, too many bones, just leave him on the bank. People around my town were glad when we caught a carp and just threw them on the riverbank to die.
This scene reminds me of an episode of The Beverly Hillbilly's,where Jed calls Happy Valley to buy a plot of land for Granny to plant a garden on not realizing it's a cemetery,and the man he talks to played by Richard Deacon thinks Jed and Ellie killed her and a family back in the hills named the Greens.
It’s hard to understand this conversation. We have carp here where I live. Rare to see one in the wild. They are sold in pet stores. Breeders develop huge ponds to keep them in. Some come in the most amazing colors. We have a best in breed show once a year. I guess in the mainland they let them go wild. They are much admired here. It takes money to be able to afford them. It’s rare to see them offered to eat at fish counters.
I was having the opposite problem. I've honestly never heard of carp being admired. Where I live, they've always been thought of as a nuisance -- basically the rats of the lake. If you told someone you were breeding them, it'd be like telling them you were breeding wild field rats. They'd think you were some kind of nut. Fascinating to know that they're perceived differently elsewhere.
Here in Iowa my brother would spear them and throw them up on the bank. When we'd fish and catch one it would go up on the bank behind us to die. Real pushy fish!
So carp were a problem even back then? I’ve been hearing about the problem up in Indiana and Ohio rivers but I thought it was just the invasive Asian species
I don't get it. The comedy is supposed to be that she thinks Carp is a person, but at the end she says "...any more than kill a pike" so she knew he meant a fish. What am I missing?
It's a standard way to resolve a silly situation: you top it with an unexpected twist that's even sillier. The writers knew full well that a pike is another fish. Spoiler: *sigh* yes, the reporter never realized it was a fishing story and not about a manhunt.
@@SonGokusa666 I will do research. Because I needed to know what type of fish it is. Not just be told that it's a fish as if I didn't already know that. Thanks for trying to insult me.
A deep-bodied freshwater fish, typically with barbels around the mouth. Carp are farmed for food in some parts of the world and are widely kept in large ponds.
@@patriciaedwards6793I feel like SonGokusa666 wasn't trying to insult you. You did initially ask "What the heck is a carp anyway?", which definitely implies and sounds as if you didn't know that it's a fish and he was just telling you what it was.
@@spencerfrankclayton4348 I wouldn't say "creepy", but the scene has more of an edge than most sitcom "misunderstanding" episodes, given that the woman actually believes the sheriff is going around murdering people.
@@spencerfrankclayton4348 That's why it's not really "creepy". Again, it's just a bit edgier than the old Three's Company misunderstanding joke when someone thinks Chrissy is pregnant when she isn't. Someone thinking Andy Taylor is a serial killer is funny and a bit surreal.
@@coloradostrong Which witch hazel is the winnah? Might be the witch leading the Flying Monkeys in prayer. Which only goes to show ya.... a witch by any other name is still a pain in the ass.
