[1] It referred to the Catholic discipline of Friday abstinence from red meat and poultry, for which fish was substituted.
[2][3] The term was also used by a character in the motion picture Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, set in the South Pacific during 1944 (the screenplay compares the rituals and commitment of the Catholic Church and the United States Marine Corps).
In the novel A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving, the title character uses it to describe Catholics during the anti-Catholic phase of his childhood and adolescence.
In the movie Needful Things Father Meehan, the Catholic priest, refers to himself as a Mackerel Snapper.
The term is used in the TV series Barney Miller episode, "Possession", in which a suspect demands to be exorcised of his demons.