I've heard someone say that "一匹{いっぴき}" was used at the end of the original Godzilla movie, with Dr. Yamane saying that Godzilla wasn't the last one of "them".
Why did he use that, as opposed to "一頭{いっとう}"? Do Japanese speakers sometimes use the wrong counter to be ironic, or is there another reason?
Answer
There is certainly a reason for that. In this case, it is for expressing Yamane's (or the human kind's) derogatory feelings toward Godzilla.
The counter 「[頭]{とう}」 simply does not carry that derogatory connotation among us Japanese-speakers; It can only be neutral. In case this is what you are wondering about, the size of Gozilla does not matter as Godzilla is way too large to begin with. The general real-life rule of "匹 for smaller animals and 頭 for larger animals" does not apply here.
「[一匹]{いっぴき}」, however, does just the job when used in the right context. With it, you can "say" out loud "little f*****" without actually saying it.
Believe it or not, 匹 can even be used to refer to humans if they are your enemies. In sports, excited fans often use it to refer to the opponents. You will hear people say something like 「さあ, あと一匹だっ！」 at the bottom of the 9th inning with two outs in baseball.
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