Pismo Beach (Chumash: Pismuʔ) is a city in the southern portion of San Luis Obispo County, in the Central Coast area of California, United States.

The tar was a valuable product, which the Chumash used to caulk their seagoing canoes, called tomol, which traveled along the coast and out to the Channel Islands.

The first European land exploration of Alta California, the Spanish Portolá expedition, passed through the area, traveling up Price Canyon from Pismo Beach, where they camped on September 4, 1769.

Franciscan missionary and expedition member Juan Crespí noted in his diary that they found a Chumash village near the creek.

At first, it was a local resort area; after World War II, it became primarily residential.

Sunset Palisades, originally called Oilport, was the site of an oil refinery from 1907 until after World War II; it is now residential.

[15] The Pismo clam was named for the long, wide beach where so many were once found, once in such abundance that they were harvested with plows.

[16] Pismo Beach adopted the name "Clam Capital of the World" in the 1950s, though this motto is no longer used.

[17] At the southern end of Price Street upon first entering Pismo Beach is a gigantic concrete clam statue.

[18] The southern end of Pismo Beach runs alongside sand dunes, which are followed by eucalyptus trees that attract thousands of migrating monarch butterflies every November through February.

Despite the subtropical latitude (the same as Cape Hatteras, North Carolina,) summers are quite cool and the change in seasonal temperatures is quite small.

The 5,585 housing units had an average density of 414.4/sq mi (160.0/km2), of which 60.9% were owner-occupied, and 39.1% were occupied by renters.

[33] The W. C. Fields comedy The Bank Dick (1940), set in Lompoc, includes a character listed in the film's credits as "A. Pismo Clam".

In the 1957 Merrie Melodies short Ali Baba Bunny, Bugs Bunny and his traveling companion Daffy Duck emerge from a tunnel, with Bugs believing they have arrived at Pismo Beach "and all the clams we can eat".

[34] In the TV movie Dragnet 1966 (1969), Bill Gannon (Harry Morgan) takes disability retirement and moves to Pismo Beach.

After eight months and three weeks of eating Pismo Beach clam chowder, Bill's health returns, his teeth stop falling out, and he is able to be reinstated with the LAPD.

In "Guess Who's Knott Coming to Dinner", the fifth episode of the first season of The New Scooby-Doo Movies (aired October 7, 1972), when the mystery gang makes an unsuccessful escape from Captain Moody's mansion, Shaggy says they must have made a wrong turn at Pismo Beach.

This shout-out inspired the title of the Labradford song "Up to Pizmo" from the band's 2001 album Fixed::Context.