Fish Hooks

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Conroy: It says here that "Fish Hooks is one of the most original, inventive animated series on television".
Doggy: How can a show taking place in school be inventive? (Lists long list of shows occurring in high schools)

Conroy: Yeah, but this is the first to have fish in school! Thats totally original!
—The Cartoon Chronicles of Conroy Cat, A School of Fish

Fish Hooks (2010) is a cartoon on Disney Channel, created by Noah Z. Jones (whose other claim to fame is Almost Naked Animals). The show deals with three fish: Milo, his brother Oscar, and their "overly dramatic" friend Bea, as they attend school in an aquarium at a pet store. The series chronicles their daily lives as they deal with various things, such as friendships, dating, and sports, as well as typical t(w)een issues such as giant lobster attacks and field trips to the hamster cages.

Tropes used in Fish Hooks include:
  • Abhorrent Admirer: Clamantha to Oscar, Randy to Bea.
  • Actor Allusion: Milo thinks Kyle Massey is a magical dude. Kyle Massey is his voice actor.
  • Alpha Bitch: Pirahnica, Jocktopus's girlfriend.
    • Clamanda, Clamantha's rival from We've Got Fish Spirit.
    • Lovable Alpha Bitch: Shellsea, who is good friends with Milo, Bea, and Oscar.
  • Ambiguous Disorder: Oscar. He's really smart, can't understand, or act, in some social interactions, and in one episode, he can't seem to understand jokes, or visual gags, so Milo has to teach to fake how to laugh.
  • Ambiguously Gay: Milo. Why? He seems to be very happy about his shorts in "We've Got Fish Spirit". He is too excited to be a girl in "Fish Sleepover Party". He talks like a girl, for example "Girl, you crazy." and he is obsessed with his "booty". Wow, his lyrics in "Fish School Musical" pretty much prove he is gay: "When I get down, shake my booty around, all the potatoes in the town, rise up from the ground." Also, Coach Salmons seems obviously gay.
    • In Halloween Haul, Bea and the other girls are drooling over Steve Jackson's Shirtless Werewolf costume; when Steve does his Pec Flex, Milo approves. Mm-hmm. Though since it is Steve Jackson, it could just be Even the Guys Want Him.
  • Ambiguously Jewish: Bea Goldfishberg. There's also Oscar's Jewfro.
  • And You Were There: Oscar hits his head and wakes up in a fantasy kingdom populated by fish that look like people he knows. He thinks it's all a dream, but Milo and Bea find him and tell him he was just moved to another fish tank. Turns out a lot of fish look alike.
  • Animals Not to Scale: Keep in mind these guys live in a pet store aquarium... and yet it seems like they have a whole town inside it.
  • Anti-Humor: Despite the show having punny character names such as "Clamantha" and "Jocktopus," any reference to the fish-world equivalent of a real-world locale simply has the word "Fish" attached to it rather than a fish-related pun, such as "Fish Broadway" or "Fish Austin, Texas."
    • Semi-justified as there are other species around the pet shop, a point brought up in "Hooray for Hamsterwood".
  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Milo in "Big Fish", complete with Shout-Out to Stay-Puff Marshmallow Man.
  • Berserk Button: If you happen to be a Jerkass, don't even touch Bea. Oscar will be very pissed.
  • Casanova Wannabe: Randy Pincherson, though he only targets Bea.
  • Catch Phrase: Details, details, doodley doo!
    • JOCKTOPUUUUUUS!
    • HOT DOG!!
    • I'M RANDY PINCHERSON!!!
  • The Cast Showoff: Fish School Musical has Chelsea Kane show off her singing voice.
  • Cats Are Mean: The orange cat in the pet shop.
  • Chekhov's Gun: In "Dollars and Fish", Milo gets a loan from Randy Pincherson and spends it on a diamond-encrusted motorcycle. After getting his pay from a job, he realizes that his job alone won't get him the money he needs sooner when Milo's boss points out said motorcycle.
  • Christmas Episode: Word of God confirmed that there will be one this year. We don't know what it's about though.
  • Continuity Nod: In "Fail Fish", Kevin brings up two events that happened in "Doggonit!" and "Fish Out of Water".
  • Couch Gag: Each episode opens with an exterior shot of the pet shop with a sign that says "Bud's Pets And [Insert Plot Relevant Service or Product Here]".
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Clamantha
    • The school counselor Ms. Lips.
  • Creator Cameo: Bud, the photorealistic pet shop owner, is modeled after storyboard artist Sherm Cohen.
    • Noah Z. Jones plays Bea's father, and Maxwell Atoms plays Razor and Bo Gregory.
  • Credits Gag: The Snake and Mouse's commentary.
  • Dawson Casting: Averted with Albert Glass, who is voiced by 12-year-old Atticus Shaffer. The other students are voiced by people who obviously wouldn't be in high school, 19-year-old Kyle Massey being the youngest.
  • Demoted to Extra: Piranhica, despite even appearing in promotional artwork, has had a grand total of seven lines through out season 1. One of them being a part of background noise.
  • Description Cut: One in the first episode.

Oscar: Uh oh, she's losing it again, Milo.
Milo: Is she bro, is she?
(Cue this)
Oscar: Yes!

  • Disguised in Drag: Milo and Oscar dress as girls to get into Bea's all-girl slumber party. No one was fooled.
    • Except Clamantha.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: Milo and Bea's reaction to Oscar's blogging, and in the same episode, Oscar's attempt at flushing himself down a toilet.

Bea: Listen to me, whatever is troubling you, you'll make it through.

Teacher: You think you got problems? Look at me! I'm pregnant!
[class gasps with horrified looks on their faces; Clamantha laughs, unfazed]
Teacher: You probably didn't know that male seahorses could get pregnant. Well, neither did I! But LIFE HAPPENS!

    • Not to mention the use of "screw" in the same episode, which again wouldn't be a big deal if it wasn't on Disney.
  • Gilligan Cut: It's had a couple.
  • Halloween Episode: One where the fish trick-or-treat outside their fish tanks.
  • Hold Your Hippogriffs: "Ladies and gentlefish" is but one example.
  • Huge Schoolgirl: Koi
  • Interspecies Romance: The brief romance between Pamela Hamster, a hamster, and Milo, a fish.
    • The one-sided romance between Clamantha and Oscar counts, since clams technically aren't fish.
    • Also the one-sided romance between Randy, a crab, and Bea, a fish.
  • Jerkass: Randy Pincherson
  • Jerk Jock: "JOCKTOPUS WILL BE PUNCHING YOU NOW!"
  • Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: At the end of "Fish School Musical", after showing some Hidden Depths, Jocktopus goes right back to bullying.
  • Karma Houdini: Randy Pincherson in the Christmas Episode. He admits out loud that he was only doing the job for money, he treated kids like crap all day, and he even tried to quit before his job was done. Unfortunately, when Bea snapped and tried to get the Santa costume off of him, she got fired after Randy made it seem like it was her fault. He never gets his comeuppance.
  • Keet: Milo
  • Large Ham: Bea
  • Line-of-Sight Name: How Oscar came up with Doris Flores Gorgeous, by altering the words "door" and "floor" and adding an adjective that was also an attractive character trait.
  • Meaningful Name: An oscar is a popular species of aquarium fish.
  • Medium Blending: Most of the fish are drawn in regular cartoon-y style, but their setting and anything outside the tanks are portrayed in a photorealistic style.
  • Mister Seahorse: A literal example with one of their teachers, Mr. Baldwin. Lampshaded, even. And he apparently has the Longest Pregnancy Ever.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In "Mascotastrophe", Milo reveals the fact that he and Oscar are both the school mascot. Because of this, the geckos use this to their advantage and kidnap Oscar so the fishes' basketball team would lose.
  • No Cartoon Fish: Inverted; the fish cast are cartoony, but the rest of the world is photorealistic.
  • Non-Mammalian Hair: Played straight.
  • Noodle Incident: A handful of them come up in "Fail Fish". How did a can of non-stick spray nearly kill Milo, Oscar, Bea, and apparently Albert Glass?
    • How did the gang end up in a tank full of jellyfish?
    • What happened while the gang decided to go for a swim in the pet shop's toilet?
    • What happened in 1986 that caused Mr. Baldwin to never laugh or go out on a Friday night ever again?
  • Not So Different: Oscar doesn't mind Clamantha having a Stalker Shrine of him because he has one of Bea.
  • Not What It Looks Like: Subverted when Clamantha is caught making out with Oscar's laptop.
  • Pac-Man Fever: Oscar's video games.
  • Perky Goth: Oscar, when he was one.
  • Pop Star Composer: Former Jellyfish frontman Andy Sturmer scores some of the episodes.
  • Punny Name: Quite a few. For example, Clamantha (guess what she is), Jocktopus, Finberley, Shellsea, and several others, with possibly more to come.
  • Recurring Extra: At the end credits, there is a snake and a mouse who usually give commentary on what's happened in the last episode (or the episode it was paired with, it depends on which one Disney Channel aired). The snake wants to join the fish in their tanks, while the mouse is all right with being in a small terrarium with the snake.
  • Reptiles Are Abhorrent: The geckos are heartless jerkasses that enjoy seeing a fish suffocate without water.
  • Rich Bastard: Randy Pincherson.
  • Series Continuity Error: Run, Oscar, Run, an episode that deals with the possibility of Oscar ruining his perfect attendance record, contradicts a major plot point in The Tale of Sir Oscar Fish, Oscar being tanks away during school.
  • Short Run in Peru: In Poland, the Czech Republic, and Romania, the first 22-minute episode had aired around 2 months before its US airing.
    • In Latin America, Driving in Cars with Fish aired the day before its US airing.
    • Disney Channel UK aired Fish School Musical a week before it came on in the US. They also premiered "Milo on the Lam" 2 months before its US airing.
  • Shout-Out: To Donkey Kong and Super Mario Brothers; one episode has Oscar liken himself to a plumber, Bea to a princess, and their dilemma to a gorilla in a tank top throwing barrels at them.
    • "Hooray for Hamsterwood" has Milo saying that Pamela Hamster is the finest hamster actress of their generation, immediately followed by Pamela (on the TV show) saying, "Science class is so random!"
    • During "Two Clams in Love", Oscar accidentally paints himself blue while trying to run away from Clamantha; the next shot we see depicts Clamantha chasing Oscar in a Pac-Man-like fashion. She even stops to eat a cherry.
    • Pamela Hamster Returns mentions Hamster School Musical and Hamsters of Hamsterly Place. ** "Just One of The Fish" has Oscar making the "Oh Crap" face.
  • Slapstick Knows No Gender: During "Two Clams in Love", the gang had played a video game. Oscar told Milo to hit the B button on his controller. Instead, he hit Bea.
    • There was a string of episodes where Clamantha fell victim to this.
  • Somebody Doesn't Love Raymond: "Fishing for Compliments: The Albert Glass Story"
  • Stalker with a Crush: Clamantha

Clamantha: Love the new 'do, Oscar!
Oscar: It's not a new 'do. Combs just stick to me and never let go.
Clamantha: I'll be your comb...

Shellsea: Giiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirlllllllllll.

  • Widget Series: You'd be surprised how amazingly weird this series actually is.
  • Worthless Yellow Rocks: Jocktopus is given money on his birthday and thinks it's just worthless paper. His girlfriend Piranhica knows what money is, but intentionally keeps him in the dark so she can keep it for herself.
  • Would Hit a Girl: Jocktopus
    • He actually tosses Clamantha out a window (and onto a car) during "Fish Floaters".
    • And was about to beat up Bea in one episode until Oscar stopped him.
  • Yandere: In the episode "Fishing for Compliments: The Albert Glass Story", Bea becomes obsessed with Albert Glass because he doesn't like her. It bugs her so much because she's not used to people not liking her and she spends the entire episode trying to get on his good side. In the end, after going to so much trouble, she no longer cares if anybody likes her or not and realizes that what's important is that she likes herself.

Oscar: I like you.
Bea: Yeah whatever.

[After Milo and Oscar take off their Paper Thin Disguises]
Oscar: Aren't you gonna react? Like angry mob style or something?
Bea: Um... we, like, kinda already knew.
Clamantha: We did? [head explodes]

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