
Kanye West, as portrayed in the episode.
"Fishsticks" is the fifth episode of the 13th season of the American satirical comedy, South Park, and the 186th overall episode of the series. It premiered on April 8, 2009.
The episode is infamous for its satirical jabs against Kanye West, whose personality in the episode is very arrogant and egotistical. The episode also features a song named "Gay Fish", which parodied "Heartless" from Kanye's 2008 album, 808s & Heartbreak.
Background[]
The idea of the episode began when South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone had an idea about a salmon dressed as Evil Knievel. They eventually drew a connection to the music video for Kanye's "Touch the Sky" (from Late Registration), which featured Kanye (dressed up as "Evil Kanyevel") jumping the Grand Canyon in a rocket.
Plot[]
Jimmy works on writing jokes for his comedy routine while Cartman sits on his couch, eating potato chips. Jimmy comes up with a joke when Cartman asks if he has any snacks, and Jimmy remarks that there may be fishsticks in the freezer:
Jimmy: Do you like fishsticks?
Cartman: Yeah.
Jimmy: Do you like putting fishsticks in your mouth?
Cartman: Yeah.
Jimmy: What are you, a gay fish?
The joke, which plays on the similarity of the phrases "fishsticks" and "fish dicks" when spoken, becomes a hit throughout South Park. When Cartman begins taking half credit for the joke, Kyle 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 Mencia goes on Conan O'Brien's show claiming credit for the joke. The joke is played on rapper Kanye West, who does not understand it. West grows angry when others say he does not get it, and will not allow anyone to explain it to him, because he claims to be a genius and "the voice of a generation". West abducts Carlos Mencia, who admits he stole the joke to compensate for not being funny and claiming that his "dick don't work" in a parody of Viggo Mortensen's character Lalin in Carlito's Way, but West does not believe him and beats him to death with the help of his hired thugs. Cartman and Jimmy go on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and claim they invented the joke, prompting West 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 West, 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 saved his life from a black widow (in actuality, Jimmy's mother killed it), slew a dragon, defeated an army of "Jewbots", and has powers similar to the Human Torch. 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. West 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 West donning a wetsuit and diving off the Santa Monica Pier 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 humping random fish.
Reception[]
To Trey and Matt's surprise, Kanye's response to the episode was much more humble than they would have imagined. On his blog, Kanye gave his opinion about the episode:
"South Park murdered me last night and it's pretty funny. It hurts my feelings but what can you expect from South Park! I actually have been working on my ego though. Having the crazy ego is played out at this point in my life and career. I use to use it to build up my esteem when nobody believed in me. Now that people do believe and support my music and products the best response is thank you instead of "I told you so!!!" It's cool to talk shit when you're rapping but not in real life. When you meet Little Wayne in person he's the nicest guy for example.
I just wanna be a doper person which starts with me not always telling people how dope I think I am. I need to just get past myself. Drop the bravado and just make dope product. Everything is not that serious. As long as people think I act like a bitch this type of shit will happen to me. I got a long road ahead of me to make people believe I'm not actually a huge douche but I'm up for the challenge. I'm sure the writers at South Park are really nice people in real life. Thanks for taking the time to draw my crew. That was pretty funny also!! I'm sure there's grammatical errors in this... That's how you know it's me!"
Despite his humble response, Kanye has made references to the episode in several of his songs, stating his disdain for the South Park crew:
- "Gorgeous" (My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, 2010) - "We make 'em say "oh" / 'cause the world so pimpish / Choke a South Park writer with a fish dick"
- "Made in America" (Watch The Throne, 2011) - "A million hits and the web crashes, damn! / South Park had them all laughing / Now all my n****s designing and we all swaggin'"
- "Life Of The Party" (Donda, 2021) - "South Park had jokes about fish sticks / 'Til this day the whole team can kiss this dick".
- This line was only heard in a leaked demo version of the song.
Trivia[]
- The episode originally had a much darker ending. In the deleted scene, it is revealed that Kanye's adventures in the ocean were nothing more than hallucinations. The coast guard retrieves Kanye's corpse and one of the officers closes Kanye's swollen eyes.