Fans of theAsterix series are well acquainted with the heated rivalry between Fulliautomatix, the blacksmith, and Unhygienix, the fishmonger. Their brawls—usually sparked by a comment regarding the freshness of the fish—are recurring elements in the stories we all know and love. However, it is easy to forget that Unhygienix and his wife, Bacteria, are relatively late additions to the village cast. They first debuted in the volume Asterix in Spain (Astérix en Hispanie), introduced in the very first panel of the first page.

The Tongue-twister

In the German translation of this album, Asterix in Spanien, the translators added a layer of linguistic humor that doesn’t exist in the original French. When Bacteria (Jellosubmarine in German) sells her wares, she yells:
“Frische Fische! Frisch-gefischte Fische!”
(Fresh fish! Freshly fished fish!)
To a German reader, this is not merely a sales cry; it is an instant evocation of the country’s most famous Zungenbrecher (tongue-twister):
“Fischers Fritz fischt frische Fische; frische Fische fischt Fischers Fritz.”
(Fischer’s [the fisherman’s] son Fritz fishes for fresh fish; fresh fish are fished by Fischer’s son Fritz.)

The History of Fischers Fritz

This classic rhyme appears in numerous collections of German folklore and is commonly used for pronunciation training to this day. Its structure relies on repeated consonant clusters—particularly f, fr, and sch—which create significant phonetic difficulty when spoken quickly.

While the earliest printed versions circulated in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Asterix translators cleverly used it to bridge the gap between the Gaulish village and modern German culture, turning a simple speech bubble into a culturally resonant joke.

The Names

One of the great joys of Asterix is seeing how names are localized to fit different languages. The humor often shifts from phonetic puns to cultural references depending on the region.
Here is a breakdown of the fishmonger couple across three major languages:

Explaining the Names

1. The Fishmonger Ordralfabétix (French): This is a pun on “Ordre alphabétique” (Alphabetical Order). It suggests a sense of bureaucracy or perhaps that he sells everything from A to Z, though irony is likely intended since his shop is chaotic. Unhygienix (English): A direct pun on “Unhygienic.” This aligns with the running gag that his fish are imported from Lutetia (Paris) via ox-cart rather than caught in the nearby sea, making them perpetually rotten. Verleihnix (German): This translates to “Verleih nichts” (Lend nothing / Don’t lend anything). It paints the character as stingy or distrustful, adding a specific personality trait that differs from the “dirty” connotation of the English name.
2. The Wife Iélosubmarine (French): A phonetic spelling of the Beatles’ hit song “Yellow Submarine.” The French authors, Goscinny and Uderzo, loved inserting pop-culture references (The Beatles broke up in 1970 while Asterix in Spain is from 1969). Bacteria (English): The English translators (Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge) opted to abandon the musical reference to match her husband’s theme. If he is Unhygienic, she is Bacteria—a perfect, if gross, pairing. Jellosubmarine (German): The German translation retains the Beatles joke found in the original French but adapts the spelling slightly (“Jello” instead of “Iélo”) to make the pronunciation intuitive for German readers.

Eventhough Unhygienix and Jellosubmarine weren’t introduced until the 14th album, they are both know to us by name. Fulliautomatix’s wife was never named by the authors and his know to us only as Mrs. Fulliautomatix. The same is true for Mrs. Geriatrix.