Earlier today I sat down to write an article titled “When Did Long John Silvers Stop Speaking Fish?” You see, in 2011, the fried fish fast food chain began using the slogan “we speak fish” in their marketing. I always thought it was funny, and referenced it out loud recently, only for no one else to remember it. This made me want to figure out when and why they abandoned the phrase.
I failed to do that. I genuinely looked around for a bit and could not find a simple answer to my question. I still plan to dig deeper, and that article will likely be posted on this site still. I’ll give you a heads up so you know that you can skip reading our post that day.
Why did I stop looking and pivot to this article instead? Well, that’s simple. My google search took me to a forum post from the University of Tennessee forum website “Vol Nation” posted in December of 2010 with the headline “Captain D’s vs Long John Silver’s.” I went to The University of Tennessee (located in Knoxville Tennessee) and had no idea this site (which is still used and updated!) existed. I also had no idea we as a school and culture cared about this specific food feud.
Why is this the chosen battleground? What do Knoxvillians and UTK alumnus know that makes us experts to weigh in on this? What do I secretly know?
I’m obsessed with the first response being a guy with literally zero opinion on the question posed, and the next two responders seemingly knowing him by his real first name?! If I didn’t know any better, I might think Billy is a seafood snob.
New weird hyper-fixation, why are all of them “well-known members.” Why are the well-known members of a UTK forum all showing out for the fish debate? Also, the Bush administration joke is nuts, because at the time of posting, it had only been two years since Bush was in office! I understand he’s saying two years is a long time to not clean food contraptions, but what a strange reference point! I think I love Billy.
Now the amateurs have joined the party. NONE of these people have the status of well-known member and all are just picking things that were not options. This is your fault, Billy. You’ve given a voice to the uninformed masses.
Now this is interesting. Here we have a STAFF MEMBER formally declaring the thread closed with no winner, only for a certified well-known member to open it back up with a new quandary? This site is the wild West.
These two don’t help my narrative, but I felt like leaving out this guy’s joke and this guy’s face would be criminal.
There are three full pages of discourse in this thread. Some people choose a side, many don’t. Still… Past the nostalgia of scrolling an old forum, something bothered me. There was something I couldn’t shake. Something felt unfinished.
IPorange’s post, where they asked which restaurant you would rather make love in, goes completely ignored. It on the bottom of page one, but no one ever acknowledged, or more importantly, answered them.
So I did.
I created an account on Vol Nation, got myself verified and approved to comment on threads, and then left a comment. I stand by it as the true solution to the query the thread was created to answer.
