Original artwork, not a still
The fishy glitter in his eye became intensified. He looked like a halibut which had been asked by another halibut to lend it a couple of quid till next Wednesday.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
It is Wodehouse's trademark simile at work: a fish, a fishy eye, and the universal awkwardness of being touched for a loan, all folded into one image so exact that fans quote it as the benchmark for the form. The joke is the halibut's wounded dignity; nothing in the sentence needs a plot to land, which is why it travels as a standalone quotation.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for The Word in SeasonShow the scene
The simile comes from "The Word in Season", a Drones Club story by P. G. Wodehouse first published in Punch on 21 August 1940 and collected in A Few Quick Ones (1959). At the Drones, a Crumpet tells the members how Bingo Little bet the ten pounds he had promised for his baby son Algy's first birthday on a horse that lost, and how he scrambled to make the money back, partly by writing a sentimental story about a girl and her cat for the children's paper he edits. The halibut belongs to the Crumpet's comic telling.
Sources (1)
- Wikipedia: A Few Quick OnesThe Word in Season: publication and plotReference checked
Context reviewed
