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Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Northwestern's newest social club is making a splash, but even its creator, isn't quite sure why.
Speaker 1 00:00:06 Good God, if I had any idea why so many people want to talk about shifts?
Speaker 0 00:00:13 This is Alex Lawson, a Weinberg sophomore, and the founder of the Northwestern fish tier list club. Lawson said the idea came out of a conversation with their partner about a particular fish and that the response was far greater than expected.
Speaker 1 00:00:27 I was explaining that I thought that the ocean sunfish was a trash, your fish. Um, and kind of in like a, uh, an offhanded comment, uh, max said that I should start a club to talk about fish. And I said that I just, I put a message in the class of 20, 24 is big old group me. And I was like, all right, we're going to get maybe like five or six people who want to do this. And then 30 people like that message. So apparently a lot of people really are opinionated about fish
Speaker 0 00:00:58 Club members meet once a week and Kresge to rank different fish against each other on an overall tier list ranking start with F tier as the worst of the worst. Moving up in quality through E D C B and a before hitting the pinnacle of quality at S tier Lawson said the ranking process and criteria gives members a chance to make their case on a variety of qualities.
Speaker 1 00:01:22 Usually for most fish, we have people who've signed up to give short presentations at the beginning of the discussion of the fish about why they think that fish is an STR fish or an eight-year fish, or even an FTE or fish and time. And then we chat about the fish and you know, how it's by the same, um, is this like a really solid fish as far as vibes go? Is it really good at surviving? Is it really bad at surviving? Does it have the ability to attack people?
Speaker 0 00:01:52 Although they do admit that some less objective criteria can slip in as well.
Speaker 1 00:01:56 We also do consider on occasion. Um, some things like how does the fish look? Is it aesthetically pleasing? Um, how does it taste? I'm pretty sure that if I remember right, we put salmon in a fairly high tier, mostly because we liked to eat it.
Speaker 0 00:02:11 The club's group me has over 80 members and the Instagram account, both just under 200 followers meetings, regularly drawing in 10 to 20 fish ranking enthusiasts, Lawson credits. The club's quick popularity to its relaxed and open atmosphere, which is aided by its low stakes subject matter.
Speaker 1 00:02:28 We do our best to make like a pretty welcoming atmosphere. People put funny names and their presentations. Um, I try and get little pieces of humor here and there it's a place to talk about fish, but it's also a place where, you know, you can go and just absolutely take your mind off of your midterms and argue, uh, about something that, you know, you're not being graded on for about an hour. And I think that that's an outlet that people really want
Speaker 0 00:02:56 While Lawson's description of the ranking system was good. I needed to see it in action for myself. So I recruited three fish tearless club members to participate in a one-off exhibition ranking
Speaker 2 00:03:07 And max burn. Um, I'm a class of 24 and I'm majoring in human development and context in SAS state.
Speaker 3 00:03:15 Oh, hi everyone. I'm Bailey a software customers for I'm in Wineburg, uh, majoring in
Speaker 4 00:03:22 Hi, Jaime kinda I'm a freshmen class of 25, uh, majoring in physics and one
Speaker 0 00:03:30 Rather than focus on overall quality. This ranking considered each fish for a specific question. How good would it be as a radio talk show? Host candidates were submitted by WMUR news staff along with a short argument for each. So without further ado here is the fish cheerless club at radio news exhibition. Enjoy,
Speaker 5 00:03:49 We start off with, with submission number one, the catfish quote, little whiskers, and make them distinguished would definitely listen to NPR from our very own Helen Bradshaw discuss.
Speaker 3 00:04:02 Uh, I did see they're negatively buoyant. So this fish it's not going to float. It's actually going to sink. I think that might reflect on his talk show. It's going to flop. No, one's really going to like it. Performance is going to sink and I think that's just, that's going to be another catfish
Speaker 2 00:04:15 To draw on a different strength of catfish. Catfish actually have really well-developed auditory reception and they can produce a variety of different sounds to communicate within catfish, a talk show host, what do you do? You talk not many fish can talk that fish can talk very well.
Speaker 4 00:04:34 Uh, catfish are quite, uh, oh, wise fish. They look wise. I think the whiskers, they make them look very wise. Maybe not the, the best foot forward, because even though the worldwide, I don't think they'll have the best view on things. Cause I think they're only a fresh water fish.
Speaker 2 00:04:51 We can definitely host a niche talk show, but not do general news broadcasting
Speaker 5 00:04:57 Submission. Number two, the electric meal. This was my choice. Um, I've always loved shock jock personalities and it opened its mouth opens like an over-excited DJ. So this was the obvious choice.
Speaker 2 00:05:08 These are actually air breathing fish, which I think is a real benefit to a talk show. Cause it's hard to record audio under one.
Speaker 3 00:05:16 I'll be honest. Uh, if you came up and told me like this fish is an air breather to me, that sounds like one of the harshest insults. You can throw it a fish.
Speaker 4 00:05:24 Now when I think of electricity, I think, you know, high, hot sound. So I think it wouldn't have the right voice for like a talk show host, maybe a DJ. I think one of the only fish on this list that has a sort of aggressive predatory nature to it. So I feel like being a talk show host and being aggressive and predatory, uh, not going to go well together.
Speaker 3 00:05:50 I was speaking to her at the start, but I do think kind of what we're saying, maybe that was more like its presence as like an actual talk to your house. And it's probably actually my, one of the lower, lower fish we have
Speaker 5 00:06:01 Third candidate today is the koala can, uh, again from Helen, they are literally living fossils and probably have some great stories to tell from dinosaur.
Speaker 3 00:06:12 So there you go. Fish is estimated to live around a hundred years, which is a good bit longer than your average fish. So these, uh, they have like a lot of time really can hone their craft. Actually the species is still evolving. Like they have this foundation, they have the tradition, they've got a lot of times to build up skills, but don't,
Speaker 4 00:06:31 I think that would have a wonderful voice sort of like a, a Morgan Freeman ask For sure. So yeah, it's definitely one of my top fish
Speaker 2 00:06:40 Scientists hypothesize that they're recognized other fish of their species via electric electric communication. I think that's kind of neat. Maybe not as verbal as the catfish, but so they've got some stuff going on. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:06:54 Working together cooperative, always a good sign for a talk show.
Speaker 5 00:06:58 So this next one was submitted by our co-director next song. So submission number four salmon. Cause it does streaming. Well,
Speaker 2 00:07:07 They do swim up the stream. However, this is specifically because they want to get laid. They have their little, you know, fun time with their, you know, their gal pals and whatnot. And then they literally die. But with talk show hosts, you really want longevity. Like these fish are going to die.
Speaker 3 00:07:26 They're not doing anything interesting. They didn't Zack. Same thing. Basically. Every salmon's gonna be exactly the same. They're they're not mixing up. I just, I gotta be honest, you know, salmon, it might taste good as a food. I don't think they're going to put out good quality.
Speaker 4 00:07:40 Yeah. I feel like someone might be that like one shot wonder host where they have like one really good interview. And then the rest of them are just the same.
Speaker 2 00:07:49 Many of them jumped directly into bears. Mouth's not even just like, oh, they got caught by a predator. It's like, oh, you know, sorry. We're about to go on air. Like where's Steve. Oh, he jumped into the bear's mouth or sorry, like
Speaker 5 00:08:03 We have one more fish submission five, the Blom fish. This one was from, um, Ms. Maria Komanya who says, I feel like he has a lot to say and would ask good questions.
Speaker 3 00:08:15 They live like 1700 meters underwater, high pressurized area. They're not going to break in a pressure. If you put them in these, in these high trust environments, they're going to perform they're they're, they're used to it. They're there. They're going to keep going.
Speaker 4 00:08:27 Fish for me, felt like sort of a, uh, an athlete that have let themselves go in recent years and turned into a talk show host. I feel like they would have a personality like, you know, James cordon, I think very, very humorous and funny, very good jokes. Um, and I think that would work really well for the talk. So host in the end,
Speaker 0 00:08:49 The rankings broke down like this salmon ranked last and eat here followed by electric eel and seats here, blob, fish, and low, a catfish and higher. And the Coachella camp reigning Supreme in S tier perspective. Fish rankers can find FDLC on Instagram at fish tearless club and on Twitter at F S H tier list club meetings are every Sunday from three to 4:00 PM in Kresge room, 24 35 under the sea. This is Alex Harrison, WMUR news.
