Googly Eyes Glued Onto Fish To Make Them Seem Fresh

Real life really is stranger than fiction. And this bizarre yet oddly interesting story further proves it.

A seafood shop in Kuwait became the subject of widespread online attention after it was closed down when it was discovered that its owners were attaching googly eyes to their not-so-fresh fish to give them a livelier appearance.

Disappointing discovery

The deception was discovered by a customer who was trying to wash the fish she bought from the shop. Washing the fish under running water, the plastic eyes came off to reveal the fish’s real eyes which turned out to be yellow.

Soon after, the Kuwait Minister of Commerce ordered the closing down of the store after being able to trace the seller.

Photo evidence

Pictures of the fish were released by an Arab-language newspaper called Al-Bayan on their Twitter account.

And, yes, they’re as funny as you thought they’d be.

What would you have done if the fish you bought from the grocers had fake eyes?

Birth of a meme

Due to the hilarious nature of the incident, it became fuel for a bunch of creative jokes from various Twitter users.

One of them is another Kuwaiti seafood shop which mocked their devious opponent by posting a picture saying that their shop sells ‘fish without cosmetics’ and showing a fish alongside some contact lenses.

Reading the story, one Twitter user, Lil HeftyChonk, commented how the incident reminded her of another tweet which features a one-eyed cat who’s wearing the same kind of googly eyes.

The difference though is that the cat lost its other eye in a fight and its owner gave it the eye to give the cat more confidence.

Another user, JJ the Santa Barbarian, showed a picture of a cat with googly eyes on its backside making it look like an elephant.

Meanwhile, other Twitter users expressed their disappointment over the incident.

“That is gross, and bad business practice, but I can’t help laugh at the same time. Did they honestly think people wouldn’t notice?”

– Elodie Mainze wrote in a tweet

One user commented on how ridiculous the owners thought process must be to come up with the idea.

“The intersection of people who know enough about fish to look at their eyes to judge freshness and people who would be tricked by googly eyes can’t possibly be very large?” 0

– Old School Gamer

Still, there are people who praised the fish seller’s ‘craftiness’ in attracting more people to buy their fish.Too bad that it backfired.

But at least, people had some hilarious material to work with.

Here are some more comments from Twitter users:

Twitter user, El nino perdido, replied to Al-Bayan’s tweet with a picture of a fridge filled with food that has googly eyes.