(no subject)

[ino]

Who: Ino and you!
Broadcast: Fleetwide Video
Action: Three Twins
When: Now

[ Here's your friendly neighborhood blonde ninja with a BURNING question for you all. ]

All right, I have to know. Why is it that people say "tuna fish" and not just "tuna"? You don't say "cat mammal" or "eagle bird". You just say the name of it. Even with other fish you don't do that! Why do people say "tuna fish"? It doesn't make any sense.

Is this some kind of weird English thing?

Comments

[video]

[summerschild]

What's tuna fish?

[video]

[ino]

It's a type of fish that you can eat.

[video]

[summerschild]

Are there fish that you can't eat?

[He's not very familiar with seafood in general.]

[video]

[ishere]

I -

[ HE IS STUMPED and a little alarmed. ]

That's a really good question.

[video]

[ino]

Well, sure, there are fish that are poisonous or too bony.

But either way, there isn't anything else called "tuna" as far as I know, so it seems kind of silly to call it tuna fish when a tuna is obviously a fish.

[video]

[ino]

I need to know, Tadashi.

[ You would think she was trying to solve an actual mystery of life and existence, here. ]

There has to be some reason, right? Is it to make that stupid piano joke?

[permavid]

[summerschild]

Perhaps there used to be another tuna, but they don't exist anymore.

[Bran looks a little proud of this theory.]

[video]

[ishere]

[ he shakes his head as if that's going to somehow help him think, here. ]

Piano joke?

[ NO HE'S NOT MAKING THE CONNECTION YET he's still stumped by 'tuna fish.' ]

voice

[castrationfist]

Isn't English the language with "PIN number" and "ATM machine"? There's much bigger problems than that.

THREADJACKS THIS SHIT

[summerschild]

I know that one!

[Tiny medieval child!]

You can tune a fish, but you can't fish a piano!

[...]

... I think.

OH my god

[ishere]

[ tadashi sputters slightly, before he bites his cheek to keep the laughter down. ]

Right, uh - I think you've got it a little sideways.

OMFG

[ino]

[ She laughs. ]

You can tune a piano, but you can't tuna fish.

video

[ino]

What are those?

[ This girl is not from Earth, oops. ]

[ino]

[ HOW WISE OF YOU, BRAN. ]

You think so? I wonder what it was.

[summerschild]

Oh.

[He considers this.]

What does "tune a piano" mean?

[summerschild]

[He goes a tiny bit pink.]

Ino explained it to me. [See below.] We don't have pianos at home.

... Or tuna.

[ishere]

[ man, he wants to say 'you're not missing much,' but 'music' and 'tuna' are both pretty a+ in his book, so... ]

Sounds like we need to think of some better jokes, then. It's not really fair if you don't get it, right?

[ino]

Sometimes with musical instruments, you have to do something to the way they're set up to make sure the sounds that come out are just right. Like tightening the strings on a stringed instrument. There's a very specific tightness they have to be at so the sounds are the same every time. Setting it up like that is called "tuning" it.

[summerschild]

[He tries to think of the silliest thing one could mix with a fish, and a little laugh breaks out.]

A tuna cow.

[ino]

[ She grins. ]

I can't even imagine what that would taste like.

video

[castrationfist]

They're how you get money, or something...

[This one is! ... from the twelfth century.]

Personal identification number and automated teller machine, I think.

[video]

[stefanged]

[...]

That's a really good point. The same reason we say "polar bear," I guess?

Video;

[save_the_souls]

I...

[.....]

[...]

[Stops working on the paperwork he was working on, sets down his pen. Stares off into space]

...I don't know.

video;

[angelherding]

I always thought tuna fish is the cheap crap out of a can, and tuna is the fancy stuff you'd get at a restaurant.

[unbearablynaive]

[The Vision speaks with a British accent, so it actually sounds like tuner. Sorry about that.]

It's also the name of a river in Europe in one of the common languages, in fact. Sailors used the word "tunny" to refer to the fish and keep it distinct from the river, but as time went on the distinction became less and the designation was necessary.