South Park returns for its twenty-second season on Comedy Central tonight, but it’s a joke from an episode all the way back in 2009 that is still, unfortunately for Kanye West, still lingering out there on the internet.
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Back in the show’s thirteenth season, the episode titled “Fishsticks” poked fun at the rapper. In the episode, the character Jimmy writes a joke about fishsticks — the gist is that if you like fishsticks you’re a gay fish — the ends up being a national sensation, but Kanye is the only person who doesn’t understand. Instead of being able to admit that he just doesn’t get the joke, Kanye ultimate embraces a new identity as a gay fish and even makes a music video about it in the episode. After it aired, the rapper noted on his blog that while it was a funny episode it also hurt his feelings.
Well, here’s to hoping he’s better able to see the humor almost a decade later. Over on Reddit, user “Rhaegar” recently posted that if you go to YouTube and search “gay fish” it takes you directly to the rapper’s page. Check out the post below.
It turns out the poster isn’t exaggerating. People commented on the post that they had gone to check to see if the search actually worked and it does, in fact, take you to a page that shares clips from the episode as well as Kanye’s actual music page.
It’s interesting to see how the joke has endured and with the long-running animated series back for even more there will surely be more moments that end up having a long life on the internet, though perhaps not for quite as humorous reasons. A recent promo for the season premiere revealed that the show will take on school shootings as a topic.
In a teaser for the upcoming season premiere, Stan Marsh is asked to tell his parents about his day at school, and his mother Sharon wants him to talk about more than just his failed math quiz. After some prompting, Stan reveals that there was a shooting at his school, but he acts like it’s not a big deal at all and, after ascertaining that Stan is unharmed and uninvolved, his parents follow suit.
The commentary appears to be how common school shootings have become in the United States, so much so that they seem like nothing particularly unique to Stan and his family, though with this being South Park it’s likely the show will deal with the matter with more than just a passing conversation at the dinner table. After all, South Park frequently takes shots at current events and issues. Last season, the series premiere took on white supremacy while Season 20 dealt with Donald Trump’s election to the American presidency.
The series also played a little bit on America’s cultural and political climate in a season trailer earlier this month that jokingly alluded to cancelling the series following a voice over that said, “America has reached a crossroads. What will we do next?” While that teaser got fans concerned about the series’ fate, the show isn’t going anywhere just yet. Comedy Central has already renewed the show for a 23rd season next year.
What do you think about the humorous YouTube search results? Let us know in the comments below.
