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Pigs Is Pigs
This American classic is a humorous turn-of-the-century story about a train agent and the definition of a guinea pig. This hilarious tale of bureaucracy run amok at the Interurban Express Company, and exponential growth of the Guinea pig population shows what can happen when ignorance and bureaucrats get together and decide its fate when anyone with just plain common sense can solve the problem in less than one minute. Ellis Parker Butler (1869-1937) was a native of Muscatine, Iowa. Dropping out of high school to help support the family he worked in a number of jobs including ones in a spice mill, an oatmeal mill, a china store, and a wholesale grocery. Moving to New York City in 1896, he began writing for trade magazines such as the Tailor's Review, the Wall Paper News, and The Decorative Furnisher. In 1905, his humorous short story, Pigs is Pigs appeared in the American Magazine, and the following year it was published in book form. Its phenomenal success allowed Butler to give up editing trade papers and turn to full-time authorship.
52 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1905
19 people are currently reading
227 people want to read
About the author
Ellis Parker Butler
279Ìýbooks9ÌýfollowersEllis Parker Butler was an American author. He was the author of more than 30 books and more than 2,000 stories and essays. His career spanned more than forty years, and his stories, poems, and articles were published in more than 225 magazines.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 68 reviews
December 10, 2020
Trouble multiplies
An argument over whether guinea pigs are domestic pets or livestock escalates into hilarious absurdity. What is at stake in this momentous debate other than being right? Ten cents.
First published in American Illustrated Magazine in 1905, Pigs is Pigs is Ellis Parker Butler's most famous story. Despite a tremendous volume of work, both books and stories, Butler was, for most of his life, a part-time author who worked as a banker. Read this story and try to claim that bankers don't have a sense of humor. P. G. Wodehouse also worked in a bank in his youth but gave it up (really, I think the bank gave up on him, having, as he later wrote, a surfeit of Wodehouses).
The easily offended and the professional offendees should be aware that this story uses slang which was common in 1905. The express company agent's Irish accent and comments and thoughts on the nationality of the pigs is part of the humor. He doesn't care what kind of pigs they are. Guinea pigs, Dago pigs, Irish pigs, Rooshun pigs, Tipperary Pigs - all the same. Pigs is pigs. If you stop to think about it, that could just as easily read, "People is people."
An argument over whether guinea pigs are domestic pets or livestock escalates into hilarious absurdity. What is at stake in this momentous debate other than being right? Ten cents.
First published in American Illustrated Magazine in 1905, Pigs is Pigs is Ellis Parker Butler's most famous story. Despite a tremendous volume of work, both books and stories, Butler was, for most of his life, a part-time author who worked as a banker. Read this story and try to claim that bankers don't have a sense of humor. P. G. Wodehouse also worked in a bank in his youth but gave it up (really, I think the bank gave up on him, having, as he later wrote, a surfeit of Wodehouses).
The easily offended and the professional offendees should be aware that this story uses slang which was common in 1905. The express company agent's Irish accent and comments and thoughts on the nationality of the pigs is part of the humor. He doesn't care what kind of pigs they are. Guinea pigs, Dago pigs, Irish pigs, Rooshun pigs, Tipperary Pigs - all the same. Pigs is pigs. If you stop to think about it, that could just as easily read, "People is people."
May 31, 2023
A small classic on how mismanagement and lack of communication can cause problems to expand when no one is willing to lead. So often leadership and title are confused: and that confusion only increases when there is a belief that both are to be found only in one person. A quick read that will make you laugh (to yourself) the next time you have a department meeting.
July 22, 2017
Absolutely wonderful, humorous short story, where Butler pokes fun at idiotic bureaucracy. Like in his That Pub one can criticize his treatment of animals in this story, but the humor is laugh out loud funny, and the satire works as well. Will definitely re read this one.
September 2, 2008
HILARIOUS! Short, clever novelette. A classic about bureaucracy, miscommunication and common sense. Thanks so much Darla for the rare copy!
August 3, 2011
Anyone that has ever despaired when confronted by the red tape and bureaucracy in a large corporation will find this enjoyable and amusing.
February 5, 2017
I thought I would burst from laughing.
The main concept is known. The bureaucracy grows to an absurd size and becomes ridiculous. And, how the story goes, the narration and the way Mark F. Smith (a reader link: ) reads it made my afternoon very nice and funny ;-)
The main concept is known. The bureaucracy grows to an absurd size and becomes ridiculous. And, how the story goes, the narration and the way Mark F. Smith (a reader link: ) reads it made my afternoon very nice and funny ;-)
February 9, 2013
Another of my all time favorites to read aloud to a class. Great use use of dialect!
August 12, 2013
A simple and short story but very funny.
January 22, 2014
Kind of Barthelme-ish, which I like.
September 17, 2015
Ridiculous and funny.
December 6, 2018
I love guinea pigs and hate the ubiquitous red tape that the world runs on, so I greatly enjoyed this short story. It really was ludicrous but it was lots of fun and had me laughing out loud.
August 13, 2017
When beurocracy meets reality, the result is hilarity!
Funny! Great short story told with wit and wisdom. This quick tale should be required reading for all government employees!
Funny! Great short story told with wit and wisdom. This quick tale should be required reading for all government employees!
October 23, 2016
If you can ignore some hideously stereotyped mock-Irish dialect, this is a delightful exploration of the horrors of bureaucracy. It starts with two pet guinea pigs and ends up with a fabulous mess, with lots of silliness in between.
December 31, 2017
If you believe that modern ideas of political correctness should apply even to books written before 1910, maybe take a pass. But if you have ever been caught in an absurd but enraging morass of senseless bureaucracy, this little book is a hoot!
August 26, 2012
Hilarious. If you want to understand why the US Post Office is bankrupt, read this book.
March 28, 2014
Hilarious short focusing around miscommunication and the bureaucracy! When I listened to the USF Lit2Go recording, I was definitely imagining the cast of Monty Python filling the roles! :D
September 13, 2015
I have arranged my thoughts into haiku:
"What's written down
And fussed over by execs
Means nothing to pigs."
"What's written down
And fussed over by execs
Means nothing to pigs."
February 11, 2017
I enjoyed reading the story. The problem of red tape it raises seems not only relevant but also universal.
February 11, 2018
Genuinely hilarious.
June 26, 2017
Last weekend, I read one book titled “Pigs is Pigs� (Butler, 2010). The book told a very interesting story and we can also learn many valuable lessons. There is an argument arising from pigs. Some people think that pigs are just the same thing like cattle and sheep. While others think that they are pets.
The book starts with this: Mike Flannery, the agent of the interurban express and another man called Morehouse who is a buyer of pigs. Morehouse regards pigs as pets so that he insists on paying 25 cents for each pig. But Mike Flannery holds the opposite idea that pigs are nothing more than pigs. He thinks Mr. Morehouse should pay 30 cents for each pig. Therefore, Morehouse refuses to accept the delivery of two pigs. After this, Morehouse wrote a letter to the transporation express company. And the company told him that he should send a letter to the claims department. Things get much worse. More and more pigs are rejected and held by him until they sum up to 800 pigs. He can not stand it. Flannery has to admit that each pig can be acquired with 25 cents. But 206 pigs ran away after he leaves his office for the home of Morehouse. Finally, all the pigs have been sent to the Franklin company headquarters.
Throughout this story, I understand a truth that anything is flexible in time and chance. We can not do one thing only in one way. Sometimes we should use our brains flexibly to solve problems. Otherwise, it is us who bear the damage. So we should treat things by using true ways.
The book starts with this: Mike Flannery, the agent of the interurban express and another man called Morehouse who is a buyer of pigs. Morehouse regards pigs as pets so that he insists on paying 25 cents for each pig. But Mike Flannery holds the opposite idea that pigs are nothing more than pigs. He thinks Mr. Morehouse should pay 30 cents for each pig. Therefore, Morehouse refuses to accept the delivery of two pigs. After this, Morehouse wrote a letter to the transporation express company. And the company told him that he should send a letter to the claims department. Things get much worse. More and more pigs are rejected and held by him until they sum up to 800 pigs. He can not stand it. Flannery has to admit that each pig can be acquired with 25 cents. But 206 pigs ran away after he leaves his office for the home of Morehouse. Finally, all the pigs have been sent to the Franklin company headquarters.
Throughout this story, I understand a truth that anything is flexible in time and chance. We can not do one thing only in one way. Sometimes we should use our brains flexibly to solve problems. Otherwise, it is us who bear the damage. So we should treat things by using true ways.
April 18, 2016
It's on kindle and very short. I remember reading this in Junior High umpteen years ago. It's a good tale with an unspecified regional dialect depicting a situation where one person's "common sense" and adherence to "rules" brings on hilarious consequences. It shows how bureaucracies and large corporations can often run amok.
February 19, 2016
Cute little story about a fight over guinea pigs. Whether they are pets that ship for twenty-five cents a piece or as livestock for thirty cents a piece.
Great turn of the century story, and how they dealt with it.
Great turn of the century story, and how they dealt with it.
March 3, 2017
When common sense lacks
and you bade by book
ignorance is no more a bliss
troubles are like tiny rodents
but we treat them as giant mammals
and while we brood over the trouble
the guinea pigs just double.
and you bade by book
ignorance is no more a bliss
troubles are like tiny rodents
but we treat them as giant mammals
and while we brood over the trouble
the guinea pigs just double.
January 27, 2019
When a man refuses to pay the rate for regular pigs in shipping a pair of guinea pigs, the situation snowballs into a humorous mess as delays of bureaucracy meet the reproductive proliferation of the critters.
August 26, 2015
This book is about bureaucratic miscommunication, individual endurance. It's short. I enjoyed it.
March 2, 2017
A funny little story which inspired Heinlein to creat Flat Cats and possibly Gerrold (possibly by transitivity) to create Tribbles.
December 6, 2017
an amusing satire.
June 28, 2021
3.5 for this short funny story. A freebie on Amazon for Kindle. Read it on July 17th, national guinea pig day! There a constant nationality slur, but otherwise not much has changed in red tape and mailing guidelines from 1905.
August 11, 2018
Hace poco vi el hilarante episodio "The Trouble With Tribbles" de Star Trek; según , dicho episodio está basado en el relato Pigs Is Pigs de Ellis Parker Butler. Lo podéis encontrar en , y la verdad es que es graciosÃsimo... y una muy buena crÃtica a la burocracia y a la sociedad en general. He acabado imaginándome tribbles en vez de conejillos de indias...
Una lectura super rápida y divertida, perfecta como puente entre otras lecturas más serias.
Una lectura super rápida y divertida, perfecta como puente entre otras lecturas más serias.
May 11, 2015
This is an amusing tale that has both very much and very much not withstood the test of time.
The government/bureaucracy bit is still funny and sadly still true. However, I guess it's a sign of the times that I did not pick up that the story poked fun at Irish immigrants. I just read it as a clerk deliberately trying to rip off an innocent customer who just wanted to get his son some pet guinea pigs. I thought it was symbolic of the customer's lack of rights when going up against a large company.
The government/bureaucracy bit is still funny and sadly still true. However, I guess it's a sign of the times that I did not pick up that the story poked fun at Irish immigrants. I just read it as a clerk deliberately trying to rip off an innocent customer who just wanted to get his son some pet guinea pigs. I thought it was symbolic of the customer's lack of rights when going up against a large company.
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