The title that says it all.
From there to here,
from here to there,
funny things
are everywhere.
from here to there,
funny things
are everywhere.
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish is a 1959 picture book written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss.
A pair of siblings watch and marvel at all the funny creatures that exist in the world.
This book includes examples of the following tropes:
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal:
- The old fish wears glasses.
- The fat fish wears a hat.
- The "high" creature wears a jetpack.
- The guy with eleven fingers wears a hat and bowtie.
- One guy wears only a hat and a shoe (yes, a shoe).
- The Gox wears yellow boxing gloves.
- The ten cats the girl balances on her head wear pink bows.
- The two guys on the phone wear bowties.
- Aerith and Bob: Most of the characters are called things like Clark and Joe... but one guy's name is Ish.
- Animal Lover: The kids love observing the animals, and they have many strange pets.
- Cartoon Creature: Many of the animals' species isn't said. For instance, the creatures who run in the sun resemble anthropomorphic dogs, but it's unclear what they are.
- Crying Critters: The sad fish cries.
- Cut Phone Lines: One set of rhymes has two creatures talking on the phone when a mouse cuts the wire. Oddly, one of the creatures still has time to explain this and say goodbye before the connection cuts off.
- Fluffy the Terrible: The two protagonists find a tusked, walrus-like creature in a dark park. They decide Clark will serve as a name.
- Go-to-Sleep Ending: The book ends with the kids falling asleep with their unusual pet and narrating, "And now, goodnight. It's time to sleep, so we will sleep with our pet zeep. Today is gone, today was fun; tomorrow is another one. Every day, from here to there, funny things are everywhere."
- Kneel, Push, Trip: One fish pushes another backward over a third while all three of them are underwater. The two doing the pushing are described as "very, very bad".
- Lethal Chef: The Nook can't even roast sausages, since he's illiterate and can't read cookbooks.
- Make a Wish: One of the creatures, called Ish, has a magic dish he uses to wish with when he wants fish. He offers to let the reader use it.
- No Full Name Given:
- Mr. Gump's first name is unknown.
- We don't know the last name of Ned, the guy with the too-small bed, nor Joe (who was talking on the phone with another guy before a mouse cut the wire).
- No Indoor Voice: The narrator doesn't like one animal since "all he does is yell, yell, yell".
- No Name Given: The only named characters are Mr. Gump, Ned, Joe, Ish, and Clark. The children are unnamed, but in the posthumously-released What Pet Should I Get?, the girl is called "Kay".
- Random Events Plot: Not really much of a plot, it's more of a loose series of sketches. It begins with the Title Drop about the different kinds of fish, before switching over to the children and the many different creatures they own or encounter. Interspersed are random bits about a man whose feet sticks out of his bed, an ambiguous creature who cannot hear because a bird is in his ear, and an old guy with one shoe and a bird doing a handstand.
- Singing in the Shower: The boy and his pet "ying" like to sing in the shower.
- Sleepwalking: At one point, the two kids see a lot of sleepwalking sheep.
- Tandem Parasite: The children have a creature, called Mike, who sits on the back of their bike and doesn't pedal. Subverted, however, in that, while Mike never pedals, he gets off the bike and pushes it up steep hills while the children relax on the seats.
