The twist would be that someone without a sense of humor takes the joke seriously. Hader, Parker, and Stone thought for a moment about who doesn’t have a sense of humor.

“And in unison we all said ‘Kanye West,’” Hader recalled.

[. . .]

West, in real life, apparently did not appreciate the episode, rapping in his 2010 song “Gorgeous” about choking “A South Park writer with a fish stick” and bringing the subject back up in 2021 on “Life of the Party,” 12 years after the episode was released, with the lyrics “South Park had jokes about fish sticks/ ‘Til this day the whole team can kiss this dick.”

They weren’t wrong.

Hader recollected back to 2008 when he was invited by Parker and Stone to Seattle for a South Park writers’ retreat. While there, Parker really wanted to go to a viewing area where people can see various species of salmon swimming upstream to mate. Watching the salmon swim by gave Stone an idea.

“’Imagine if one of these fish was on a motorcycle and just Evel Knievel-ed all the other fish,’” Hader remembered Stone saying, with Parker adding, “’And he has a big fish dick.’”

“’Are you saying fish stick like those sticks of fish you bake and eat, or are you saying fish dick like a fish’s penis,’” Stone asked, and Parker responded “a fish’s penis, dude,” according to Hader.

Eureka.

The South Park writers contrived an episode where Eric Cartman would tell a joke about whether someone likes fishsticks, and if they do, “Then you’re a gay fish,” with the juvenile bit becoming massive. The twist would be that someone without a sense of humor takes the joke seriously. Hader, Parker, and Stone thought for a moment about who doesn’t have a sense of humor.“

And in unison we all said ‘Kanye West,’” Hader recalled.

I wish there were a way for people to vote on whether a given website should be executed