Kanye West ‘Fish Sticks’ South Park Joke Explained

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In the annals of South Park lore, few roasts have been as significant or prescient as the “Fishsticks” jibe directed at Kanye West. The Season 13 installment not only poked fun at the rapper’s self-importance but strikingly foreshadowed his response to criticism in reality.

Here’s what the South Park Kanye West fish sticks joke about

Then, what are you? A homosexual fish!

The humor hinges solely on a play on words – “fishsticks” sounding similar to an offensive term for male genitalia associated with fish, suggesting that the person finds oral pleasure from fish, making them a “gay fish.” In the show, Jimmy Valmer creates this joke, which rapidly becomes known as the “best joke ever.” However, there’s one individual who fails to grasp its humor: Kanye West.

Kanye West still doesn’t understand the South Park fish sticks joke
byu/Ramy__B ininterestingasfuck

In this episode, West fails to grasp the humor and instead perceives the joke as an insulting label, equating himself with a gay fish. Instead of understanding it as clever wordplay, his inflated ego and hot temper flare up, leading him to lash out at a talk show host, storm off the stage, and even abduct comedian Carlos Mencia, who had mistakenly claimed credit for the joke.

In time, Kanye captures Jimmy Valmer and Eric Cartman, the genuine joke creators, insisting they clarify something. As they squabble over who deserves credit for the jokes, Kanye arrives at a peculiar conclusion: He believes he’s secretly a gay fish instead. The episode concludes with an eccentric music video depicting him swimming in the sea and romantically interacting with various marine life.

As a gamer, I’d rephrase it like this: Kanye West’s fishsticks joke wasn’t mainly about his sexuality; it was all about his ego. Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the geniuses behind South Park, cleverly used Kanye’s self-importance as the real target for their jokes. In fact, they anticipated that Kanye would overreact, which made the satire even stronger when he did. His later reactions in songs and interviews showed that he felt genuinely attacked by the show.

One Reddit user put it aptly: “It’s incredible how they forecasted Kanye’s response in that very episode, and true to form, he reacted precisely as predicted. It’s as if you couldn’t have scripted it better yourself, it’s just so characteristic of Kanye.

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2025-05-15 06:40