
Have you ever been part of a group project and had the overwhelming urge to punch one of your partners?
Of course you have. We all have. Even those of us who aren't prone to violence can understand the urge. In fact, we're all engaged a big group project right now called The Coronavirus Pandemic, and there are whole lot of people in the U.S. group who are just begging for a smackdown. Still think the virus is a "hoax"? Thwap. Wearing your mask as a chin diaper instead of covering your mouth and nose? Whpsh. Toting your AR-15 to the state capitol to threaten public officials because they insist on trying to protect public health? TKO time.
Apparently, those of us who are feeling a bit punchy these days are in good company. A new study has found that octopuses occasionally punch fish that they cooperatively hunt with, seemingly just because they feel like it. Though it's not clear exactly why they do it, scientists say it doesn't appear to be an act of aggression. Some think that they might do it out of "spite" or to influence better hunting behavior.
In other words, Mr. Octopus is hunting along with some annoying group of fish until he's finally like, "Dude, you're bugging the crap out of me. Stop it." Thwack. Or "Dude, you're fudging everything up. Knock it off." Thwack.
Some scientists also think octopuses will throw a punch in a self-serving, I'm-taking-that-just-because-I-can of way. "Dude, back the hell up. That prey is mine." Thwack.
Why some angry octopuses punch fishwww.youtube.com
If we want to get a bit more scientific about it, octopuses are known to hunt collaboratively with fish so that they can cover more area and increase their chances of catching something. In a new report published in Ecology, scientists describe how one kind of octopus in particular, the big blue octopus (also known as day octopus), seems to express displeasure with their hunting partners by randomly lashing out, using "a swift, explosive motion with one arm." Or in other words, punching.
That's the word the scientists actually use. Punching. Yay, science.
It seems that the humor is just inherent in the visuals. Eduardo Sampaio, one of the study authors and a Ph.D. student at the University of Lisbon, found it hilarious when he first observed the behavior from the cephalopods he was studying. "I laughed out loud, and almost choked on my own regulator," he told Live Science in an email.
It might seem like the most logical explanation is that the octopus is simply knocking the fish away from the prey it wants. Sampaio explained that that is what some scenarios indicate.
"Despite collaborating, each partner will always try to maximize its benefits," he told Live Science. "In the cases where prey is readily available, the octopus seems to use 'punching' as a way to control the partner's behavior in a self-serving way."
However, the researchers also observed that there were instances where there didn't seem to be any benefit to the octopus to punch the fish. More research is needed to figure out what that's all about, but that's where the "spite" speculation comes in.
It is quite something to witness—the octopus and fish swimming along nicely together when all of a sudden one of those tentacled arms flies out and punches a fish out of nowhere. It's also fun to speculate whether the octopus is just being a big old bully or if that fish actually deserved it.
We can come up with whole storylines for why Mr. Octopus feels justified in sucker-punching his partner. Maybe the octopus is in a bad mood and the fish is just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or maybe the little guy is just super needy and hovering, and it's the octopus's way of saying, "Back off. Just because we work together doesn't mean we're gonna be friends."
Octopuses are, after all, one of the most intelligent animals on earth. My guess is if they're punching the creatures they're working with, they probably have a good reason for it.
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A woman is getting angry at her coworker.via
A man with tape over his mouth.via
A husband is angry with his wife. via 
a man sitting at a desk with his head on his arms Photo by
Can a warm cup of tea help you sleep better? If you believe it, then yes. Photo by 
Three women sit on a blanket in the park. 
Two women engaging in a pleasant conversation inside a coffee shop
Two men engaging in a peaceful disagreement.
Resurfaced video of French skier's groin incident has people giving the announcer a gold medal
"The boys took a beating on that one."
Downhill skiing is a sport rife with injuries, but not usually this kind.
A good commentator can make all the difference when watching sports, even when an event goes smoothly. But it's when something goes wrong that great announcers rise to the top. There's no better example of a great announcer in a surprise moment than when French skier Yannick Bertrand took a gate to the groin in a 2007 super-G race.
Competitive skiers fly down runs at incredible speeds, often exceeding 60 mph. Hitting something hard at that speed would definitely hurt, but hitting something hard with a particularly sensitive part of your body would be excruciating. So when Bertrand slammed right into a gate family-jewels-first, his high-pitched scream was unsurprising. What was surprising was the perfect commentary that immediately followed.
This is a clip you really just have to see and hear to fully appreciate:
- YouTube youtu.be
It's unclear who the announcer is, even after multiple Google inquiries, which is unfortunate because that gentleman deserves a medal. The commentary gets better with each repeated viewing, with highlights like:
"The gate the groin for Yannick Bertrand, and you could hear it. And if you're a man, you could feel it."
"Oh, the Frenchman. Oh-ho, monsieurrrrrr."
"The boys took a beating on that one."
"That guy needs a hug."
"Those are the moments that change your life if you're a man, I tell you what."
"When you crash through a gate, when you do it at high rate of speed, it's gonna hurt and it's going to leave a mark in most cases. And in this particular case, not the area where you want to leave a mark."
Imagine watching a man take a hit to the privates at 60 mph and having to make impromptu commentary straddling the line between professionalism and acknowledging the universal reality of what just happened. There are certain things you can't say on network television that you might feel compelled to say. There's a visceral element to this scenario that could easily be taken too far in the commentary, and the inherent humor element could be seen as insensitive and offensive if not handled just right.
The announcer nailed it. 10/10. No notes.
The clip frequently resurfaces during the Winter Olympic Games, though the incident didn't happen during an Olympic event. Yannick Bertrand was competing at the FIS World Cup super-G race in Kvitfjell, Norway in 2007, when the unfortunate accident occurred. Bertrand had competed at the Turin Olympics the year before, however, coming in 24th in the downhill and super-G events.
As painful as the gate to the groin clearly as, Bertrand did not appear to suffer any damage that kept him from the sport. In fact, he continued competing in international downhill and super-G races until 2014.
According to a 2018 study, Alpine skiing is a notoriously dangerous sport with a reported injury rate of 36.7 per 100 World Cup athletes per season. Of course, it's the knees and not the coin purse that are the most common casualty of ski racing, which we saw clearly in U.S. skier Lindsey Vonn's harrowing experiences at the 2026 Olympics. Vonn was competing with a torn ACL and ended up being helicoptered off of the mountain after an ugly crash that did additional damage to her legs, requiring multiple surgeries (though what caused the crash was reportedly unrelated to her ACL tear). Still, she says she has no regrets.
As Bertrand's return to the slopes shows, the risk of injury doesn't stop those who live for the thrill of victory, even when the agony of defeat hits them right in the rocks.