Fishsticks (South Park)

"Fishsticks (South Park)"

"Fishsticks" is the fifth episode of the thirteenth season of the American animated television series South Park, and the 186th overall episode of the series. It was originally broadcast on Comedy Central in the United States on April 8, 2009 and on the Comedy Central UK channel on April 10, 2009. In the episode leo Gay , Jimmy writes a joke that becomes a national sensation, and Cartman tries to steal the credit. Rapper Kanye West fails to understand the joke, but cannot admit that he does not get it because he believes himself to be a genius.

The episode was written and directed by series co-creator Trey Parker, 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 Mencia, who praised the episode after it was broadcast. According to Nielsen ratings, "Fishsticks" was seen by more than 3.1 million households in its original broadcast, making it the most-watched Comedy Central production of the week.

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 with almost no assistance from Cartman:

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 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 doesn't understand it. West grows angry when others say he doesn't 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". 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 Show 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 dragon, defeated an army of "Jew robots", 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. 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 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 having sex with random fish.

Production and cultural references

"Fishsticks" was written and directed by series co-creator Trey Parker. It was first broadcast on April 8, 2009 in the United States on Comedy Central. 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 was broadcast, 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. Shortly after "Fishsticks" was originally broadcast, the site also featured T-shirts and hooded sweatshirts based on the episode. One featured Jimmy asking, "Do you like fishsticks?" The other features text from Kanye West's whiteboard in the episode: "Fishsticks + Me = Gayfish".

Carlos Mencia, comedian and host of Comedy Central's Mind of Mencia, is spoofed in "Fishsticks".

Rapper Kanye West 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", and satirizes the rapper's tendency to use an excessive amount of Auto-Tune-style pitch audio processing. When West first confronts Cartman and Jimmy, Cartman mistakes him for Puff Daddy, another rapper and record producer.

Carlos Mencia, host of the Comedy Central show Mind of Mencia, 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 Way.

Talk show hosts Jimmy Kimmel, David Letterman, Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno and Ellen DeGeneres were featured in the episode. Kimmel is voiced by his real-life brother Jonathan 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 Torch, a fictional superhero and member of the Fantastic Four.

Reception

In its original American broadcast, "Fishsticks" was watched by 3.1 million overall households, according to the Nielsen ratings, making it the most-watched Comedy Central production of the week. It had over 1.2 million more household viewers than the second most-watched Comedy Central show that week, the April 8 episode of The Daily Show. 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 feelings were hurt. After the episode was broadcast, Mencia wrote on his Twitter 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 Times, 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.

Kanye West, who was spoofed in "Fishsticks", wrote on his blog within one day of the episode that it was funny, although it hurt his feelings.

Simon Vozick-Levinson of Entertainment Weekly 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 Stone 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 Weekly 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 Factory restaurant, the manager brought him a plate of fishsticks as a joke.

The episode received positive, if slightly mixed reviews. Ramsey Isler of IGN declared it the best episode of the season, calling it a "beautiful Kanye West spoof that was so well-timed, so hilarious and so spot-on" that it because a "phenomenon". Ryan Brockington of the New York Post 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 Guide listed the episode at number five on the top ten television moments of the week.

Travis Fickett of IGN 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. Club 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."

On September 13, 2009 during the MTV Video Music Awards, Kanye West interrupted an acceptance speech from country singer Taylor Swift by walking onto stage, grabbing the microphone and praising her competitor, Beyoncé Knowles. The incident received considerable press attention and drew further attention to "Fishsticks", which Comedy Central re-broadcast for two straight hours on September 15, 2009. Actor John Stamos wrote on his social networking Twitter feed, "Matt and Trey had it so right with South Park's FISHSTICKS episode on how DENSE you are – KANYE."

External links

• "Fishsticks" at SouthParkStudios.com
• "Fishsticks" at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com episode
• "Gay Fish (Long Version)" at SouthParkStudios.com