The Tale of Mr Jeremy Fisher is a children's book by Beatrix Potter. A frog gentlemen goes fishing for minnows to serve to his friends for supper. His fishing expedition is plagued with mishaps, culminating when he nearly gets eaten by a huge trout. In the end, he gives up on the minnow idea and instead serves his friends some nice roasted grasshopper.
This work provides examples of:
- An Aesop: Sometimes it just isn't worth the trouble.
- Butt-Monkey: Poor Mr. Jeremy. At one point, a bunch of little fishes even poke their heads out of the water and laugh at him.
- Catch Your Death of Cold: Zigzagged. While it's explicitly said that Jeremy didn't catch a cold because of the water, this is implied to be because he's a frog, rather than because water doesn't actually give people colds.
- Fiendish Fish: Downplayed for the trout, who grabs Jeremy and it's implied he would've killed him, but spits him out due to hating the taste of the frog's raincoat.
- Fingore: The stickleback injures Jeremy's fingers, and he sucks on them.
- Food End: The book ends with Jeremy and his friends dining.
- Furry Reminder: Jeremy is mostly anthropomorphic, but he does have a wet house and he also eats bugs like a real frog.
- Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Jeremy wears coats and shirts, but no pants. This comes in useful when the trout spits him out due to not liking the taste of his clothes.
- Happy Rain: Jeremy likes getting his feet wet and is glad to see it raining. This is also because he plans to get some worms to use as fish bait.
- I'm Not Doing That Again: Jeremy, after nearly getting eaten by the trout, declares he'll never go fishing again.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: After the trout incident, Jeremy decides that the minnows just aren't worth it.
- Leaf Boat: Jeremy uses a lily leaf as a boat.
- May It Never Happen Again: Zigzagged. Jeremy decides he will never again go fishing lest he encounter the trout again, but in The Tale Of Ginger And Pickles, he's seen trying on galoshes... but then again, it's never stated that he wanted the galoshes to fish with.
- Meaningful Name: His last name is Fisher, and he goes fishing.
- Pike Peril: Lampshaded when Jeremy, after nearly being killed by a trout, says that at least it wasn't a pike.
- Punny Name: Sir Isaac Newton, who is a newt.
- A Simple Plan: All he wanted to do was catch a few fish.
- Species Surname: One of Jeremy's friends is Sir Alderman Ptolemy Tortoise.
- Super-Persistent Predator: Inverted with the trout — once it gets a taste of Jeremy's mackintosh, it completely loses interest in eating him.
- Weird World, Weird Food: The narrator remarks that while roasted grasshopper with ladybug sauce is a delicacy to frogs, "I think it must have been nasty!"
- You Dirty Rat!: Lampshaded when Jeremy hears an animal and worries that it's a rat.
