Learn English – funny fish – etymology background

etymologymeaning-in-context

I am reading translated version of Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie and I am not sure about the meaning of funny fish. It was translated to my mother language as a tricky thing.

I know that if something is fishy it means that it is not so good. It might be then that the translation of funny fish is following the same roots. Is that so?

Could someone explain the meaning and more importantly the etymology background of "funny fish"?

The text from the book goes like that

Mr Butt managed to make the Mail Coach go even faster. ' "Need to
stop?" ' he bellowed over his shoulder. ' "Need to go so quickly?"
Well, my sirs, I'll tell you this: Need's a slippery snake, that's
what it is. The boy here says that you,sir, Need A View Before Sunset,
and maybe it's so and maybe no. And some might say that the boy here
Needs A Mother, and maybe it's so and maybe no. And it's been said of
me that Butt Needs Speed, but but but it may be that my heart truly
needs a Different Sort Of Thrill. O, Need's a funny fish: it makes
people untruthful. They all suffer from it, but they will not always
admit.

Best Answer

Funny in this case just means strange, or unusual; and, notwithstanding Rushdie's deft use of alliteration, a fish just means a thing, as in "a kettle of fish". So, a funny fish is just a strange thing:

Need's a strange thing: it makes people untruthful.

The use of fish brings to mind Shakespeare's phrase a cold fish, to indicate a heartless person:

it was thought she was a woman and was turned into a cold fish for she would not exchange flesh with one that loved her

A Winter's Tale, Act 4, Scene 4

Also, there is the phrase kettle of fish, where fish refers to some unspecified object. See: Origin of “kettle of fish”.

funny adjective (STRANGE)

strange, surprising, unexpected, or difficult to explain or understand:

The washing machine is making a funny noise again.

Cambridge Dictionary

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