Spookyfish

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"Spookyfish" is episode 215 of Comedy Central's animated series South Park. It originally aired October 28, 1998. It was that season's Halloween special.

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Plot synopsis

It is near Halloween, and strange things are happening in South Park. First, Cartman keeps switching between two personalities---one just as annoying as ever, and even more so with a new catchphrase, "Hella"; the other creepily sweet and affable, who is wearing a goatee. Then, Stan's mother's Aunt Flo comes to town for her monthly visit, and the fish she gives Stan begins to murder people in the night.

Eventually, Stan, Kyle and Kenny discover that the two personalities of Cartman are in fact two different Cartmans, and Chef says the kinder one is from an "Evil Parallel Universe." Realizing Stan's fish is from the same world, the boys track down the Ancient Indian Burial Ground Pet Store where it was bought, and discover a swirling portal that leads to the evil world. After returning the fish to the owner and advising him to move his store off the burial ground, the boys leave---just as the Stan and Kyle from the evil world show up! Unlike "Evil" Cartman (as the other-world Cartman was called throughout the show), they are not kind, but cruel (the opposite of Stan and Kyle from the normal South Park), and want to bring their wussy "friend" Evil Cartman back. They align with Good-World-But-Actually-Evil Cartman, who is sick of his goody-two-shoes clone; the trio find Normal Stan and Kyle along with Evil Cartman, and get into showdown.

The Evil Stan and Kyle have a "gentrification gun", which shoots a beam that sends things back to the Evil World. Stan manages to get it and sends back the two clones. He and Kyle then decide to use it on Cartman---their Cartman, though, and keep the Evil one. Cartman then attacks Evil Cartman and rips off his goatee, and the two wrestle until Stan and Kyle don't know which is which. One Cartman says that Stan should shoot them both, so as to be sure to get rid of the "real" Cartman. Figuring this one to be the kind one, Stan fires on the other Cartman. Unfortunately he chose wrong; Cartman---the mean one from the Good World---knew the two would fall for that trick.

Kenny's Death

Stan's evil fish grabs Kenny and kills him.

References/Notes

Comedy Central ran an intensive campaign touting this episode being filmed in "Spooky Vision", with little explanation, claiming only that it was too terrifying to describe. Before the episode was first shown, it was revealed that "Spooky Vision" entailed every frame of this episode having a still photo of Barbra Streisand in the corners. This is no doubt because of her criticism of the show after her characterization in "Mecha-Streisand." "Spooky Vision" is no longer used when Comedy Central airs reruns of this episode, but it is still used during reruns in syndication. The iTunes version of this episode features "Spooky Vision."
Numerous Star Trek references, most notably from the episode "Mirror, Mirror", where the crew discovers an alternate universe of evil clones, including a version of Spock with facial hair.
When the two Cartmans appear together, a line is often down the screen with the different sides out of sync, an obvious and purposely done mistake; the idea may be to parody TV shows where one actor plays two identical characters, where two different scenes are done and then spliced together badly.
Also numerous mentions to The Bad Seed, as Stan's mom thinks he murdered the fish's victims and Mrs. McCormick shows up to ask Stan about Kenny when he goes missing (the fish has killed him). This is said to be one of Trey Parker's favorite movies.
Stan's Aunt Flo is a pun on menstruation; she visits monthly, stays for five days and when she visits, Stan's mom turns into a "bitch". Flo also mentioned, after her sister had buried a corpse that was supposedly killed by Stan (actually his fish) and had blood on it, that the situation had occurred when Mrs. Marsh was twelve years old. When she died Mrs. Marsh was upset, Mr. Marsh said that she should think of it not as an ending but a beginning, later Officer Barbrady said that his wife was upset when she stopped getting her "monthly visitor"---a reference to menopause, though Stan's mom would seem far too young to be in menopause. Also, she apparently has her period in the episode "Towelie." It may be that the events in this episode didn't really happen in the South Park universe, much like the Treehouse of Horror series in the Simpsons, so Mrs. Marsh may not have stopped getting her period.
The Indian Burial Ground Pet Store was a reference to Stephen King's Pet Sematary.
Parallel universe Kenny is rich. Also, Parallel Chef is a white, skinny insurance salesman.
"Fore Father" a Season 2 episode of Family Guy has Cleveland mention his wife's period as Aunt Flo. Many have complained this was stolen from South Park. The rather widespread nature of the joke seems to have escaped these people.
The "Alien" that appears in every episode can be seen on the sign at the bus stop.

Preceded by:
Chef Aid South Park episodes Followed by:
Merry Christmas Charlie Manson!

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