Original air date: 10/28/1998
Beings from a parallel universe come to South Park, such as a nice version of Eric Cartman and a killer goldfish.
"Spookyfish" contains examples of:
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: The pet store owner dug up all the dead Native Americans under his store, urinated on then, then buried them upside down, opening a gate to an evil Mirror Universe, simply because he got drunk. It currently provides the page quote.
- Alternate Universe: In the form of a Mirror Universe where Cartman is incredibly nice to everyone and sings about how Stan, Kyle and Kenny are his best friends, Chef is a skinny white insurance salesmen, Kenny's rich and Stan and Kyle are Cartman levels of Jerkass. Oh, and everyone shown from the Mirror Universe has a goatee.
- Animation Bump: The spaceship in the opening shot is animated far more elaborately than most of the series at this early point in its history. It actually turns 90 degrees in 3D, an effect not usually seen in early South Park.
- Ax-Crazy: The killer goldfish that Aunt Flo gives Stan.
- Beard of Evil: Parodied. Everyone from the evil parallel universe has a beard, including Evil Cartman...who is actually a Nice Guy due to being the polar opposite of this universe's Cartman.
- Character Catchphrase: Cartman says "Hella" all the time, to Stan and Kyle's frustration.
- Characterization Marches On: Randy actually plays straight man to Sharon's antics.
- Compressed Vice: Stan and Kyle are annoyed by Cartman's frequent use of the word "hella," but this is the first and only episode where he ever uses it.
- Continuity Nod: Stan's clubhouse is visible in the backyard when Officer Barbrady is out there.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Aunt Flo only visits once a month for five days and when she's dead, Sharon's devastated that her monthly visitor is gone. Also, whenever she visited, Sharon was a total bitch.
- Easily Forgiven: Officer Barbrady lets things with Sharon slide after she hit him with a shovel, chained him up in the basement, and stole his pants to keep him from finding out about all the dead bodies she buried in the backyard.
- Eye Scream: The killer fish eats one of Kenny's eyes after pulling him into the bowl.
- Indian Burial Ground: A gate to an evil Mirror Universe was opened up after a pet shop owner built his store over one such burial ground, dug up the bodies of the deceased natives, pissed on them, and buried them upside down.
- Killer Rabbit: Stan's goldfish looks like a perfectly normal goldfish, but it's able to murder people without ever seemingly leaving its tank. This applies to the rest of the pets sold at the Indian Burial Ground Pet Store, all of which are cute and outright murderous little critters.
- Knight Templar Parent: Sharon becomes increasingly unhinged as she takes more and more desperate measures to protect her son, burying the bodies of people she suspects he's killed. When Officer Barbrady comes to the house to investigate, she chains him up in the basement and steals his pants.
- Nice Guy: Mirror Universe Cartman. He takes supplies to all of the poor families in town during the storm. He also gives Mr. Kitty affection.
- Noodle Incident: Aunt Flo mentions how when Sharon was a kid, she always had a shovel.
- Oh, Crap!: Chef upon seeing there are two Cartmans.
- One-Shot Character: This episode marks the first time Aunt Flo ever makes an appearance...and the last one since she gets killed by the fish.
- Out-of-Character Alert: All-around skewered: "Evil Cartman" (actually a sweet and lovable Mirror Universe Cartman... from a MU where everyone has a goatee and is the opposite personality) and "Real Cartman" fight to avoid being sent back to the MU. When the goatee gets ripped off, one Cartman says they'll just have to send both back to be sure. Wanting "Evil Cartman" to stay, and knowing the "Real Cartman" would never be selfless enough to suggest such a thing, the boys send the other Cartman back...except that Real Cartman anticipated this and tricked them.
- Preferable Impersonator: "Evil Cartman" is much nicer than the actual Cartman (and doesn't say "Hella"), and the boys are upset that they sent him back to the Mirror Universe rather than the actual Cartman like they hoped.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Various animals from the Mirror Universe, though not the goldfish.
- Running Gag: Sharon burying bodies in the backyard and becoming sensitive of Stan thinking it was him that killed the people when it was actually the fish.
- Madness Mantra: Sharon saying she has such a good boy when dragging off bodies that she thinks are Stan's victims.
- Shout-Out:
- The majority of the Mirror Universe aspects of the episode are a parody of the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Mirror, Mirror".
- The subplot with the pumpkin-carving contest serves as one to A Charlie Brown Christmas, where the boys are initially annoyed at being stuck with a flimsy little squash that Kenny brought in, but later decide it can be turned into something spooky "with some tender, loving care."
- Stop Saying That!: The actual Cartman overuses the word "hella", much to the annoyance of everyone else.
- Stylistic Suck: A deliberately misaligned split-screen effect is used for shots where both versions of Cartman are seen together.
- Take That!: Barbra Streisand is ripped on again by having pictures of her face in all four corners of the screen as part of the episode's Spookyvision.
- Teleport Gun: The evil Stan and Kyle have a gun that sends whoever they shoot back to the Mirror Universe.
- They Killed Kenny Again: Kenny gets killed by the goldfish.
- The Unreveal: We never find out why Sharon felt the need to take off Barbrady's pants when she imprisoned him.
