Yes. Once you sever the connection between the brain and the spinal chord on an animal the body goes into convulsions from nerves firing off without direction. Its where we get the phrase "running around like a chicken with its head cut off."

Without any direction? Hardly! Spines know how to do a lot more than people think they do. I'm sure Wikipedia has lots of delightful information on experiments on decerebrate dogs and the like.

Yeah, that's fish for you. I had the same reaction the first time I saw a fish get it- I was watching some fishermen at a pier when I was a kid, when one of the fish actually tried to escape (I shit thee not) by hopping out of the bucket and flopping off the pier. Fishy got to within half an inch of the edge before the fisherman stabbed him with a knife, threw him onto the pier's railing, and hacked his head off in one blow. The fish was twitching like crazy, the fisherman's buddies were laughing, and I was traumatized for a month.

But look at it on the bright side: fugu's tasty!

that's the best part

Not horror, just delicious. This is what it looks like when you kill a fresh fish. They don't come out of the ocean wrapped in plastic.

5 stars for horrifying everyone all to hell

I do not pity fish

Like not much, really. It's neither fishy-tasting nor chickeny-tasting, it's just kind of... there. I've only had it a couple times in NYC, so maybe they were doing it wrong, but the taste was "subtle".

It's good, it's got a nice texture, and it makes you feel all badass when you eat it and don't die, but it's not a tasteosterous explosion in your mouth.

Things you probably didn't know about fugu:

-Chairman Kaga, of TV's 'Iron Chef' fame, died from eating Fugu.
-As it mentions briefly in the video, there is a 7-year apprenticeship to learn how to properly prepare this fish. This is regulated by law in Japan.
-If done right it won't kill you, but your mouth will tingle warmly. If it doesn't tingle, then you've likely been fed North Atlantic pufferfish, a common substitute.
-In Japan, fugu cannot be served to the Emperor or his family.
-The poison in fugu is tetrodotoxin, 1,200x more deadly than cyanide. When culled from marine worms indigenous to Haiti, it becomes the active ingredient in 'coupe poudre' powder. This ritual concoction is essential to the creation of the Haitian zombie. Depending on the potency and composition of the powder, it can do nothing, kill you, create paralysis while the brain and senses remain alert - 'the living dead' - or can damage the brain's higher cognitive abilities, producing clumsy, incommunicate beings highly succeptible to suggestion.
-It tastes like halibut.

gambol, best sequence of fun-facts ever. thank you!

It should be noted that the character of Chairman Kaga on Iron Chef was killed off, not the real actor that plays him.

Another fun fact about fugu:
Only wild fugu have the toxin in their tissues. The toxin comes from the shellfish they eat and builds up in their bodies (highest concentration in the liver).
Farmed fugu aren't fed shellfish, so not even the feared tiger pufferfish has any poison at all.

Bonus fact:
The legislation governing pufferfish preparation licences in Kyushu are a bit more lax than the rest of Japan. You can't get your licence there and then go work in a restaurant in Tokyo, for example.

Nothing erratic about it. He is SUSHI MASTER!

It may be better that the chef is in his 'rhythm'