The Secrets of
"Spooky Fish"

by Wild Willie Westwood, with sources from all over the Web

Star Trek Overload

This episode combined at least two classic Star Trek episodes and two Star Trek movies:

"Mirror, Mirror" - In this episode Kirk, Spock, and mates have warlike counterparts who are members of the Galactic Empire in the parallel universe.
"Assignment: Earth" - the portal found in the Indian Burial Ground Pet Store comes from this episode.
"Whom Gods Destroy" - This one has Garth, once a famous starship captain, who learns about shape-shifting from a gentle race. In the end, Spock and McCoy come upon Kirk and Garth wrestling. By this time, Garth looks like Kirk, and Spock has to choose which Kirk to neutralize.
Star Trek - The Motion Picture - The vertical line separating the two Cartmans comes from this movie. In this episode and in the movie, the vertical line splits the screen in two and makes one half higher than the other. The vertical line in the movie is a manifestationn of an entity called V'ger (the space probe Voyager) which takes Decker as its mate.
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country - Iman plays a changeling in the prison planet of Rura Penthe who ends up looking like Kirk when both escape and are confronted by Klingon guards. The lead guard has to choose which Kirk to kill.

The Bad Seed (1956)

One of Trey's favorite films.
I've got such a good boy… - Sharon's behavior and the killings are drawn from The Bad Seed. The killer in that movie was an 8-year old girl named Rhoda Penmark, though.
In the movie, Mrs. Daigle asks Mrs. Penmark to ask Rhoda, who was known to have seen Claude last, what happened to him, what she saw. In this episode, Kenny's mom goes right up to Stan and, sure that Stan saw Kenny last, asks him what heppened to Kenny.
Kenny's Mom's line, "That's right, I'm a little drunk. You'd be drunk, too, if you'd lost your boy," is similar to Hortense Daigle's line, "I'm drunk. It's a pleasure to stay drunk when your little boy's been killed."

Episode features

Each segment of the episode has a different Barbra at the corners.
The various special effects starting with Barbra zooming out of the middle of the screen echo those performed in TV cartoons and shows like the 1960's "Batman and Robin" and "The Superfriends."
You really want spooky vision? Start Windows 95/98 in Safe Mode and try to play a song or video. You won't be able to, and you'll see "Safe Mode" in all four corners.
Cartman makes nice -- until it is discovered that this Cartman is not the real one. The real one has picked up the habit of saying, "hella", short for "hell of a." The parallel Cartman says, "heck of a."
The first time Stan gets out of bed to see what his fish is up to, you can see toes and arches on his feet. Later on, the feet are oval, as usual.
The way Stan deals with his spooky goldfish comes from Poltergeist.
There's a parallel Cartman. And then a parallel Stan and a parallel Kyle.
Comedy Central mentioned that Cartman would begin to identify with Wendy's liberal views. Well, Evil Cartman is the embodiment of those views. He helps the poor (Kenny's family), he helps out when he can (carving pumpkins, searching the phonebook for the pet store the spooky fish is from), and he's enthusiastic and inclusive about things (getting Stan and Kyle to work with him on a squash-o-lantern).

Stereo City = Circuit City

Stan loves Terrance and Phillip. He has a poster of them behind his door and an alarm clock with a Phillip hour hand and a Terrance minute hand by his bed.

From time to time various items disappear and reappear in Stan's room: the light switch, the alarm clock…

One of the pictures Barbrady shows Sharon Marsh is that of William Shatner with his shirt off.

In the basement is a box labeled, "Russell's stuff." Who is Russell?

Halloween Lunch
Spooky Spaghetti /w
freaky french fries or haunted hash browns

creepy cookie and monstrous milk
with a terrifying napkin

Behind the counter, a sign saying, "TRICK OR TREAT," replaces the one saying, "MILK IS YUMMY."

Sometimes there's a line separating the two Cartmans, sometimes not.

Where were the Cartmans when the fish took Kenny into the tank?

Night of 1000 bleeps? - This half hour should have had 500: I count all of two bleeps.

Apparently, animal attacks are as common in the evil, parallel universe as in this one. Evil Cartman simply watches as a man is attacked.

Evil Cartman mentions the Wampanoag, but these are native to the East Coast, specifically, eastern Rhode Island and Massachusetts. No Wampanoag in Colorado.

The sign above the stage changes from "PUMPKIN CARVING CONTEST" to "HALLOWEEN"

Aunt Flo, the monthly visitor for five days or so - a woman's menstrual period. Either Sharon Marsh is pregnant or she really can't menstruate anymore. Menopause.

The Indian Burial Ground - the name of the Pet Semetary.

The Parallel Universes

This Universe	Parallel Universe
Cartman is the mean one, Stan and Kyle are somewhat considerate.	Stan and Kyle are the mean ones, Cartman is considerate.
Kenny is poor. He bought a squash instead of a pumpkin.	Kenny is rich. He bought a new car.
Chef is a fat, black school chef.	Chef is a skinny, white insurance salesman.
The boys have no facial hair	The boys sport mustaches and beards.

Evil Cartman refers to his mom as Mother, as Norman Bates referred to his mom in "Psycho" or as the Avengers refer to one of their bosses, who is actually a man.