"
Fishsticks" is the fifth episode of the
thirteenth seasonSeason thirteen of South Park, an American animated television series, began airing on March 11, 2009. The first half of the season finished airing on April 22; the remaining seven episodes are scheduled to air between October 7 and November 18 of 2009....
of the animated television series
South ParkSouth Park is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become infamous for its crude, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
. It originally aired on
Comedy CentralComedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries predominantly comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
in the United States on April 8, 2009 and aired the Comedy Central UK channel on April 10, 2009. In the episode, Jimmy writes a joke that becomes a national sensation, and
CartmanEric Theodore Cartman is a fictional character on the American animated television series South Park. One of the four main characters along with fellow protagonists Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, and Kenny McCormick, Cartman is often portrayed as the series' main antagonist in opposition of his friends...
tries to steal the credit. Rapper
Kanye WestKanye West is an American singer/rapper. He released his debut album The College Dropout in 2004, his second album Late Registration in 2005, his third album Graduation in 2007, and his fourth album 808s & Heartbreak in 2008. His first three albums have received numerous awards and critical acclaim...
fails to understand the joke, but cannot admit that he doesn't get it because he believes himself to be a genius.
The episode was written and directed by series co-creator
Trey ParkerTrey Parker is an American animator, screenwriter, director, producer, voice artist, musician and actor, best known for being the co-creator of the television series South Park along with his creative partner and best friend Matt Stone.Parker started his film career in 1992, making a holiday short...
, and was rated TV-MA L in the United States. It received mixed to positive reviews as well as a great deal of media attention when West wrote in a blog that the episode hurt his feelings, although he said it was funny and admitted that he needed to work on his ego problem. The episode also spoofed comedian
Carlos MenciaNed Arnel Mencía , better known by his stage name Carlos Mencia, is a comedian, writer, and actor in the United States. His style of comedy is often political and involves issues of race, culture, and social class, juxtaposing existing social issues with ethical convention...
, who praised the episode after it aired. According to
Nielsen RatingsNielsen ratings are audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
, "Fishsticks" was seen by more than 3.1 million households in its original airing, making it the most-watched Comedy Central production of the week.
Plot
Jimmy works on writing jokes for his comedy routine while
CartmanEric Theodore Cartman is a fictional character on the American animated television series South Park. One of the four main characters along with fellow protagonists Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, and Kenny McCormick, Cartman is often portrayed as the series' main antagonist in opposition of his friends...
sits on his couch, eating potato chips. Jimmy comes up with a joke with no assistance from Cartman:
Jimmy: Do you like fishsticksFishsticks, also commonly referred to as fish fingers, are a processed food made using a whitefish such as cod which have been battered or breaded...
?
Cartman: Yeah.
Jimmy: Do you like putting fishsticks [fish dicksThe penis is an external sexual organ of certain biologically male organisms, in both vertebrates and invertebrates....
] in your mouth?
Cartman: Yeah.
Jimmy: What are you, a gay fish?
The joke becomes a hit throughout South Park. When Cartman begins taking half credit for the joke,
KyleKyle Broflovski is a fictional character in the animated television series South Park. He is voiced by and loosely based on series co-creator Matt Stone. Kyle is one of the show's four central characters, along with his friends Stan Marsh, Kenny McCormick, and Eric Cartman...
tells Jimmy he should stand up to Cartman. When Jimmy tells Cartman he feels he wrote most of the joke, Cartman fears Jimmy will try to take full credit and asks Kyle for advice on how to deal with Jimmy. Kyle instead says he believes Jimmy wrote the entire joke, and suggests that Cartman's ego is so big that he subconsciously remembers things incorrectly to make himself feel more important. This is supplemented by Cartman's flashbacks to the creation of the joke, which become more overblown and ridiculous as the episode goes on, showing him to truly believe that he deserves credit.
Meanwhile, the joke becomes a national sensation. Comedian
Carlos MenciaNed Arnel Mencía , better known by his stage name Carlos Mencia, is a comedian, writer, and actor in the United States. His style of comedy is often political and involves issues of race, culture, and social class, juxtaposing existing social issues with ethical convention...
goes on
Conan O'BrienConan Christopher O'Brien is an American television host, television writer, comedian, producer, and the current host of The Tonight Show on NBC. He rose to fame as the host of NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien from 1993 to 2009, before leaving to succeed Jay Leno to The Tonight Show helm,...
's show claiming credit for the joke. The joke is played on rapper
Kanye WestKanye West is an American singer/rapper. He released his debut album The College Dropout in 2004, his second album Late Registration in 2005, his third album Graduation in 2007, and his fourth album 808s & Heartbreak in 2008. His first three albums have received numerous awards and critical acclaim...
, who doesn't understand it but grows angry when others say he doesn't get it because he claims to be a genius and "the voice of a generation". Kanye abducts Carlos Mencia, who admits he stole the joke to compensate for not being funny and claiming that his "dick don't work", but Kanye doesn't believe him and beats him to death. Cartman and Jimmy go on
The Ellen DeGeneres ShowThe Ellen DeGeneres Show is a syndicated television talk show hosted by comedienne Ellen DeGeneres and distributed by Warner Bros. Television. The show features interviews with celebrities, games with members of the public, comedic monologues by the host and music performances. It premiered on...
and claim they invented the joke, prompting Kanye to go after them. Jimmy confronts Cartman, asking how he can live with himself for taking credit for a joke he did not write. They are interrupted by Kanye, who threatens to kill them. By now, Cartman has not only convinced himself he wrote the whole joke without Jimmy's help, but believes he also slew a
dragonDragons are legendary creatures, typically with serpentine or otherwise reptilian traits, that feature in the myths of worldwide cultures.The two most familiar interpretations of dragons are European dragons, derived from various European folk traditions, and the unrelated Oriental dragons, such as...
, defeated an army of "Jew
robotA robot is a virtual or mechanical artificial agent. In practice, it is usually an electro-mechanical machine which is guided by computer or electronic programming, and is thus able to do tasks on its own...
s", and has powers similar to the
Human TorchThe Human Torch is a fictional character and superhero of the Marvel Comics universe. He is a member of the Fantastic Four, making his first appearance in Fantastic Four #1 November 1961...
. Cartman thinks he realizes what Kyle was trying to tell him, but he gets it completely backwards: Cartman believes that Jimmy's ego is the one that is twisted and Jimmy's ego trying to convince itself that he wrote the joke, while not accepting that Cartman wrote the whole thing, and Jimmy believes him. Kanye has an epiphany about his own massive ego and believes he finally understands the joke. However, he incorrectly thinks it means he is, in fact, a gay fish. The episode ends with Kanye donning a wetsuit and diving off the
Santa Monica PierThe Santa Monica Pier is located at the foot of Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica, California and is a prominent, 100-year-old landmark.- Attractions :...
into the ocean to embrace his new identity as a gay fish in the form of a music video, in which he happily swims around the sea, kissing and having sex with random fish.
Production and cultural references
"Fishsticks" was written and directed by series co-creator
Trey ParkerTrey Parker is an American animator, screenwriter, director, producer, voice artist, musician and actor, best known for being the co-creator of the television series South Park along with his creative partner and best friend Matt Stone.Parker started his film career in 1992, making a holiday short...
. It first aired on April 8, 2009 in the United States on
Comedy CentralComedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries predominantly comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
. Parker provided the voice of Kanye, both in the episode and the full length song featured at the end of the episode. The day after it aired, the full two-and-a-half minute version of the Kanye West spoof, "Gay Fish", was made available for download on South Park Studios, the official
South Park website.
Rapper
Kanye WestKanye West is an American singer/rapper. He released his debut album The College Dropout in 2004, his second album Late Registration in 2005, his third album Graduation in 2007, and his fourth album 808s & Heartbreak in 2008. His first three albums have received numerous awards and critical acclaim...
is featured prominently in "Fishsticks" and lampooned for the rapper's perceived ego problem; West frequently speaks highly of himself in interviews, declared himself the "voice of this generation" and said his greatest regret was not being able to see himself perform live. A Kanye West song in the episode about the fact that he is indeed a "gay fish" is a parody of the West song "
Heartless"Heartless" is a song by American hip hop artist Kanye West, released on November 4, 2008 digitally as the second single for his fourth studio album, 808s & Heartbreak. It is based around a sample of "Ammonia Avenue" by The Alan Parsons Project...
", and satirized the hip-hop trend to use an excessive amount of
Auto-TuneAuto-Tune is a proprietary audio processor created by Antares Audio Technologies. Auto-Tune uses a phase vocoder to correct pitch in vocal and instrumental performances...
-style pitch audio processing. When West first confronts Cartman and Jimmy, Cartman mistakes him for
Puff DaddySean John Combs , known by his stage name Diddy, is an American record producer, rapper, actor, men's fashion designer, entrepreneur and dancer. He won three Grammy Awards and two MTV Video Music Awards, and his clothing line earned a Council of Fashion Designers of America award.He was originally...
, another rapper and record producer.
Carlos MenciaNed Arnel Mencía , better known by his stage name Carlos Mencia, is a comedian, writer, and actor in the United States. His style of comedy is often political and involves issues of race, culture, and social class, juxtaposing existing social issues with ethical convention...
, host of the Comedy Central show
Mind of MenciaMind of Mencia is an American television comedy series on the cable channel Comedy Central. It is hosted by Carlos Mencia.- History :...
, is portrayed in "Fishsticks" as knowingly stealing credit for a joke he did not write; this is a reference to accusations other comedians have made that Mencia plagiarizes jokes from other people. Mencia's death scene in the episode, as well as his claims that he uses a catheter to relieve himself, are a reference to Lalin, a character who uses a wheelchair in the 1993 crime film,
Carlito's WayCarlito's Way is a 1993 crime film based on the novel After Hours by Judge Edwin Torres. The film adaptation was scripted by David Koepp and directed by Brian De Palma. It stars Al Pacino, Sean Penn, Penelope Ann Miller, Luis Guzman, John Leguizamo, Jorge Porcel, Joseph Siravo and Viggo Mortensen...
.
Talk show hosts
Jimmy KimmelJames Christian "Jimmy" Kimmel is an American television host and comedian. He is the host of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, a late-night talk show that airs on ABC. Before that program, Kimmel was also well-known as co-host of Comedy Central's The Man Show...
,
David LettermanDavid Michael Letterman is an American television host and comedian. He hosts the late night television talk show, Late Show with David Letterman broadcast on CBS. Letterman has been a fixture on late night television since the 1982 debut of Late Night with David Letterman...
,
Conan O'BrienConan Christopher O'Brien is an American television host, television writer, comedian, producer, and the current host of The Tonight Show on NBC. He rose to fame as the host of NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien from 1993 to 2009, before leaving to succeed Jay Leno to The Tonight Show helm,...
,
Jay LenoJames Douglas Muir "Jay" Leno is an American stand-up comedian and television host. From 1992 to 2009, Leno was the host of NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. During his tenure, the show held the top ratings position in its time slot on nearly every weekday...
and
Ellen DeGeneresEllen Lee DeGeneres is an American stand-up comedienne, television hostess and actress. She hosts the syndicated talk show The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and is also a judge on American Idol, having joined the show in its ninth season.She has hosted both the Academy Awards and the Primetime Emmys. As a...
were featured in the episode. Kimmel is voiced by his real-life brother
Jonathan KimmelJonathan Kimmel is a writer, producer, actor, composer for television and film. He is the younger brother of Jimmy Kimmel...
, who previously served as a writer and voice actor on
South Park. During a fantasy sequence, Cartman says "flame on" and turns into a fiery, flying superhero; this is a reference to the
Human TorchThe Human Torch is a fictional character and superhero of the Marvel Comics universe. He is a member of the Fantastic Four, making his first appearance in Fantastic Four #1 November 1961...
, a fictional superhero and member of the
Fantastic FourThe Fantastic Four is a fictional superhero team appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The group debuted in The Fantastic Four #1 , which helped to usher in a new naturalism in the medium...
.
On September 13, 2009 during the
MTV Video Music AwardsThe MTV Video Music Awards, also called the VMAs, were established at the end of the summer of 1984 by MTV to celebrate the top music videos of the year...
, Kanye West interrupted an acceptance speech from country singer
Taylor SwiftTaylor Alison Swift is an American country pop singer-songwriter, guitarist and actress. In 2006, she released her debut single "Tim McGraw", which peaked at number six on the Billboard country charts...
by walking onto stage, grabbing the microphone and praising her competitor,
Beyoncé KnowlesBeyoncé Giselle Knowles , often referred to mononymously as Beyoncé , is an American R&B singer, songwriter, record producer, actress and model. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, she enrolled in various performing arts schools and was first exposed to singing and dancing competitions as a child...
. In response to the incident, which received considerable press attention, Comedy Central reaired "Fishsticks" for two straight hours on September 15, 2009.
Reception
In its original American broadcast, "Fishsticks" was watched by 3.1 million overall households, according to the
Nielsen RatingsNielsen ratings are audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
, making it the most-watched Comedy Central production of the week. It had over 1.2 million more viewers than the second most-watched Comedy Central show that week, the April 8 episode of
The Daily ShowThe Daily Show, known in its current incarnation as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, is an American late night satirical television program airing each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central in the United States. The half-hour long show premiered on July 21, 1996, and was hosted by Craig Kilborn...
. In June 2009, "Fishsticks" was announced to be the most watched
South Park episode on South Park Studios, the official
South Park website, which had every episode of
South Park to date available for viewing.
Both Kanye West and Carlos Mencia responded within one day of the episode's original broadcast and said they enjoyed the parodies of themselves, although Kanye West said on his blog that his ego was bruised. After the episode aired, Mencia wrote on his
TwitterTwitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers...
feed, "They just made fun of me on South Park. I thought it was hysterical. Catch the rerun." Dave Itzkoff, arts reporter for
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded in 1851 and published in New York City. The largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States, "The Gray Lady"—named for its staid appearance and style—is regarded as a national newspaper of record...
, complimented Mencia for his response. West wrote on his blog, "South Park murdered me last night and it's pretty damn funny. It hurts my feelings but what can you expect from South Park!" West thanked the
South Park writers in his blog entry and acknowledged he has a problem with his ego, but said he was trying to change.
Simon Vozick-Levinson of
Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books and popular culture. Unlike celebrity-focused publications US Weekly, People, and In Touch Weekly, EWs primary concentration is on entertainment...
said the post was "a fascinating look at where Kanye's head is at these days", and complimented West for his "humility and honesty". Daniel Kreps of
Rolling StoneRolling Stone is a United States-based magazine devoted to music, politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J. Gleason.The magazine was named after the 1948 Muddy Waters song of the same...
said: "Many have tried, all have failed, but in the end it only took four animated children from Colorado to topple Kanye West's ego. ... One day, we'll all look back on this day and thank
South Park for ushering in this historic moment in the life of Kanye." Kerrie Mitchell of
Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books and popular culture. Unlike celebrity-focused publications US Weekly, People, and In Touch Weekly, EWs primary concentration is on entertainment...
suggested West's modest response was actually a marketing stunt to help sell his upcoming personal fragrance and energy drink. Mitchell wrote, "Did he just get the last laugh on South Park? Conspiracy!" In response to the media coverage, West wrote another blog entry on April 10 claiming he had only seen part of the episode and found it funny, but he had been working on his arrogance problem for some time and that
South Park did not lead to his "ego epiphany". The next day, he said in another blog entry that while visiting
The Cheesecake FactoryThe Cheesecake Factory, Inc. is a restaurant company in the United States. The company currently operates 146 dining restaurants under The Cheesecake Factory name in 34 states and the District of Columbia...
restaurant, the manager brought him a plate of fishsticks as a joke.
The episode received positive, if slightly mixed reviews. Ryan Brockington of the
New York PostThe New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
said of the episode, "Best. 'South Park.' Ever." He particularly praised the West song parody and the fact that "a simple running joke can hold a full episode; brilliant". Carlos Delgado of
If Magazine said the episode was "another
South Park classic" which "takes full advantage of Cartman's monumental ego". Delgado, who gave the episode a B+ grade, described the West parody as "awesome" and the final scene with the "gay fish" West song as "spell binding".
TV GuideTV Guide is a North American weekly magazine about television programming.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews. Some issues have also featured horoscope listings and crossword puzzles.-Annenberg/Triangle era: The...
listed the episode at number five on the top ten television moments of the week.
Travis Fickett of
IGNIGN is a multimedia news and reviews website that focuses heavily on video games...
said the episode included some good laughs but "never kicks into high gear" and said the themes might have worked better as subplots than a full episode: "'Fishsticks' is one of those episodes that typically occur around now in the South Park season. It's not great, not bad - hovering somewhere around amusing towards forgettable." Sean O'Neal of
The A.V. ClubThe A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. It comes included with the print editions of The Onion, and maintains its own separate website. Unlike its parent publication, The A.V. Club is non-satirical, though it strives for a humorous, snarky tone...
said he was disappointed by the episode and thought the message about celebrity self-delusion might have been better if it focused on only West or Mencia, rather than both. Although O'Neal liked the West song in the episode's final scene, O'Neal said "cramming (West and Mencia) together — even mixed in with Cartman’s very funny fantasy sequences — felt too cobbled to me, and the time limits imposed by cutting back and forth between it all made the respective digs start to feel a little too one-note."
External links