You know what member of the associated Stephen Crew I love? Thomas. I’m so upset when he’s not in a game. Luckily we didn’t have to worry about that today. Good ole Thomas!
Sure, I have nothing better to do and the task presented in the video seemed like a good use of my time: How Fish in Trees Relates to American Obesssion With Law Our society is one that is both legal and paradoxical in nature. Petty crimes can land one in jail for several years at a time whereas major acts of fraud or other corporate, "high profile" crimes can land one behind bars for a significantly shorter span of time. In 2012, 3,278 Americans were sentenced to life in prison"without parole for nonviolent crimes that include siphoning gasoline, stealing a bagged lunch, drunkenly threatening a police officer and shoplifting" (Nelson). This paradoxical interplay within the American Justice system has been routinely criticized due to the unstable equilibrium it creates and the double standard it holds in our society. The art piece "Oh no, that's not legal" by RUclips user Stochaztic highlights this paradox in a perfectly blunt, succinct manner. The image of a fish in a tree, dubbed "Oh no, that's not legal" in the Stephen and Friends Tee K.O. Episode published 22 February 2020, frames American obsession over law and the paradoxes housed within. When viewers first analyze the piece, the obvious, almost pointless, conclusion they come to is the same: that fish should not be in that tree. As pattern-recognizing mammals, we are keenly aware that fish live in the water, even if we do not know that fish filter dissolved oxygen and nutrients out of their water via their gills to produce the energy they need to live and usually lack lungs to breathe air. We know this fish does not belong in this tree, but yet the shirt gives us an explanation that does not mesh with our expectations. The shirt is more concerned over the legality of the fish in the tree, it is unconcerned with the actual physicality of both the fish and its surroundings. This resembles the borderline fetishistic obsession we have in American culture over the law, whether something is legal or not often takes precedence over whether it's ethical or moral. This is a similar mindset that leads to the "the rules are the rules" sorts of decisions that we see in court. A drug offense is worth a specific number of days in prison in the minds of the many, and the scale of these crimes need not to be taken into consideration. We are concerned only with the concrete data, and fail to look past them to see the moral issues with what we are doing. In this instance, the shirt depicted in this StephenPlays episode has completely captured our expectations of legality in our modern society. We are not meant to see the fish and fear for its life or wellbeing. Rather, it is the legality of the fish that we are to fear for, to bring into question. We are not meant to see the human and the worldview that might bring one to sell drugs or murder, but instead supposed to look at numbers and figures without context, and that is our only basis for our sentences. We do not even get to compromise with a sentence, in many cases; this crime is worth this many days in jail, and that's the final word, even if it does not make sense; that's how our laws are written, and that's how they have to be. In capturing the problematic nature of law in American culture, the art piece "Oh no, that's not legal" frames the issue in a way that is clear to an outside audience that we are focusing on the wrong thing. We do not care about the people at heart, but the cold, unflinching statistics and figures within their actions, and often are blind to how our law system might be skewed against the less fortunate. We as a society are too busy worrying about the legality of the fish in the tree, but yet do not ask the fish if they need help. We do not care for the people we're convicting or what might turn them towards a life of crime. Instead, we simply care about the very beginning and very end of their story. In an ever-growing world becoming more and more complicated daily, we have to reason with each other sooner rather than later that we are doing something wrong. We need to begin looking at the fish stranded in a tree and asking how we can help the fish, not just either deeming legal or otherwise on a rigid, binary scale. Our world is becoming increasingly less binary, and it's time our systems follow suit. Bibliography: StephenPlays. ""I Wish This Was Alive" - Tee K.O. | Stephen & Friends" RUclips. 22 February 2020. Nelson, Steven. "3,278 Americans Are Serving Life Sentences for Nonviolent Crimes, Report Says" US News: A World Report. 13 November 2013, Accessed 22 February 2020.
E3kHatena This is literally the best comment I have ever seen on a video. I read the whole thing and was impressed by all of it. Properly cited, informative, thought-provoking... If I were a teacher, this would be worth a very high score except for length requirements. However, the prompt given here gave a three-paragraph limit, making that a non-issue. Impressive.
I read this entire thing and do not regret it. The first unit of the societies class I'm currently taking was on the Criminal Justice system and the disproportionate jail sentences for street crime as opposed to white-collar crime. So to see this in a StephenPlays video is unexpectedly hilarious!
Given the nature of Alex, I'm very sure that, if he saw this comment, he would harbor nothing but praise for how one could so deftly paint a poignant call out of the flaws in the American Legal system through the medium of a fish in a tree being labelled illegal.
E3kHatena, you may need to check your contractions. Eliminating them helps with the more formal tone of academic writing. Otherwise you’ve met the requirements and written a good and insightful paper.
Well, I guess this is what I'm doing today. They tried to warn us, it seems so clear to me now. I will not say we were fools, how could we have known? It seemed like crazed ramblings, cruel vandals just making up excuses. No, we were not fools, but that hardly matters now. I remember the first one I caught, to me, he was nothing but a mad man. I was on my patrol through some of the frequently used trails, my job as a park ranger had never been particularly interesting until that night. I saw a man, hanging a large trout from a tree. He had a rope tightly wrapped around its tail and was about to finish tieing the other end to the highest branch he could reach. I thought it was a little weird, but probably just some a-hole trying to leave his 'mark'. At worst, he might be trying to hunt some of the wildlife in the park, which would land him with a much harsher fine. It all became so much worse once he started speaking. I called for back-up, but was pretty confidant I could take him if he put up a fight. I told him he was not only trespassing, as the park was closed, but that everything else he was doing wasn't legal either. That's when the ramblings began. He talked about how he *had* to do this, how we were all doomed if he didn't. Other than that insanity he was pretty docile, until I tried to take down the fish. He called me a fool, said I had no idea what I was doing. The way he talked... it was like stopping him was tantamount to launching a nuke. Looking back, I really wish I'd had that 'they don't pay me enough for this shit' attitude and just left him alone. Then just maybe, none of this would've happened. Things really started to get problematic when we caught more and more people, all doing the same crazy thing. At the time all we saw were crazies hanging fish from trees. None of us really questioned why they all had the same story. Jerry laughed about how it might be a cult, but we never thought about it. I really wish I could laugh with Jerry again, but he's gone now. We should've listened, at least a little, about this beast. This thing that could end us all. They rambled about how it could travel the earth and sea, how it would not let a single living thing escape, how the only way to distract, to infuriate it, was to put pray in the one place it couldn't reach. We took down every fish we found, that was our job for weeks, but without all those distractions... All the survivors live up in planes or tall buildings now, don't know how long it'll work, but it's the only hope we have. Up here is the only place it can't reach us. If we'd just left those fish up, let those people keep protecting us without ever asking questions, we could've all lived never knowing... Sometimes I can still here it down there, screaming at how it can't get us. The beast that killed everyone I knew. I hear it scream at the one thig that keeps us all safe. "Fuck the sky"
I was hungry one day so I decided to go fishing. I had never fished before, yet I loved to hunt. I tried using a twelve gauge first off and it didn't work too well. Most fish dodged the bullets, and the ones that didn't would just slip down the stream where I couldn't get them. I next tried some bait and a rope, I read somewhere that, that was the appropriate way. It went pretty swimmingly until the problem occurred. I had no hook, the fish kept eating the bait from my rope as if it were spaghetti. I got very angry that day. My last attempt was to try and snare the fish. I know that as a land hunting technique, but I figured it could work in water. I made the snare and figured out I couldn't anchor it to the side of the river. So I instead anchored it to a nearby tree. I left the snare, and when I came back there was a fish hanging from the tree. I thanked the lord that my plan had worked. However, just then I was caught by the game warden. He informed me that the only legal way to fish is by using a fishing pole. So I had to release the fish and buy a pole like everybody else.
I love TKO! But I would be interested in some more party pack 6. Specifically press the button because that would be chaos with y'all. It has no audience tho
Stephen, I remember you mentioned a session of TKO where the video did not record. Was that right before this episode, since you were talking about getting everything working?
In all of my time both playing Jackbox and watching Stephen, Tom and the Derps playing, it took this video for me to notice that Paul's character (the fire) actually has a shirt in one of his victory sprites.
I imagined its Luigi saying "Brother. Reconsider." Like they are fighting Bowser and Kamek has turned Luigi into a snowman. Mario has the fireflower powerup and you can figure out the rest of the story.
There is fish in a tree because they couldn't afford a pinata. So they stuffed a dead fish full of candy and strung it up. The children were not find of the smell and the police arrested everyone
I’m sorry but I don’t think I can do _3 paragraphs_ about a fish in a tree being illegal somehow... But I’ll try. Now, you see, fish are born within the depths of the ocean. That, or the banks of the rivers and ponds. Fish are born in many places actually, but what they all have in common is water. They are all born in water. Sometimes the water is deep, other times treacherous, and other times in shallow water. It doesn’t matter exactly where, but all fish are born in water. It is a very well known fact about them. You might wonder “why must they be born in the sea?” The answer is simple. Fish lay their eggs in water. Now, why might the fish be in a tree then? Well, trees are very well known upon the land. They grow in the land. They do not grow in the ocean. They have things like branches and leaves and they need sunlight. If trees were made in the bottom of the ocean, they would not survive. For you see, sunlight does not reach all areas of the ocean. Perhaps, on the banks of a river, half submerged, a tree might be able to live. However, you cannot plant a tree in the shadowy waters of the very very deep sea. But why is this illegal? Fish are very curious creatures. Fish are also quite stupid. They say curiosity killed the cat, but more often it kills the fish. The fish wanted to learn about the trees and nature of land. It did not realize, though, that fish absolutely cannot breathe on land. They were born in the water, so they can only breathe water. Trees were born on land, so they breathe the air. But how exactly is this _illegal_? Put simply, suicide is not good. Therefore it is not legal. The fish is ignorant however, and slowly kills itself examining the high branches of the tree. ... this good?
![[Sonic Adventure] Today isn't that special lol we just finna play Sonic](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/egbl8e6avAk/mqdefault.jpg)
![Noob To Max With DRAGON REWORK In Blox Fruits [FULL MOVIE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LnBMOinoOvA/mqdefault.jpg)
You know, Thomas was quiet this episode.
0:05-2:15
Memorable Moment suggestion. Thomas is not in the audience.
I love Tom's callout to the end slate. "Just throw up the 'blip blip doo-de-lay' and let's get out of here." XD
Very accurate description of collecting a Sonic ring.
You know what member of the associated Stephen Crew I love? Thomas. I’m so upset when he’s not in a game.
Luckily we didn’t have to worry about that today. Good ole Thomas!
The first part (until 2:00): definitely worth a Memorable Moment. Thomas imposter!
That opening needs to be a memorable moment
Sure, I have nothing better to do and the task presented in the video seemed like a good use of my time:
How Fish in Trees Relates to American Obesssion With Law
Our society is one that is both legal and paradoxical in nature. Petty crimes can land one in jail for several years at a time whereas major acts of fraud or other corporate, "high profile" crimes can land one behind bars for a significantly shorter span of time. In 2012, 3,278 Americans were sentenced to life in prison"without parole for nonviolent crimes that include siphoning gasoline, stealing a bagged lunch, drunkenly threatening a police officer and shoplifting" (Nelson). This paradoxical interplay within the American Justice system has been routinely criticized due to the unstable equilibrium it creates and the double standard it holds in our society. The art piece "Oh no, that's not legal" by RUclips user Stochaztic highlights this paradox in a perfectly blunt, succinct manner. The image of a fish in a tree, dubbed "Oh no, that's not legal" in the Stephen and Friends Tee K.O. Episode published 22 February 2020, frames American obsession over law and the paradoxes housed within.
When viewers first analyze the piece, the obvious, almost pointless, conclusion they come to is the same: that fish should not be in that tree. As pattern-recognizing mammals, we are keenly aware that fish live in the water, even if we do not know that fish filter dissolved oxygen and nutrients out of their water via their gills to produce the energy they need to live and usually lack lungs to breathe air. We know this fish does not belong in this tree, but yet the shirt gives us an explanation that does not mesh with our expectations. The shirt is more concerned over the legality of the fish in the tree, it is unconcerned with the actual physicality of both the fish and its surroundings. This resembles the borderline fetishistic obsession we have in American culture over the law, whether something is legal or not often takes precedence over whether it's ethical or moral. This is a similar mindset that leads to the "the rules are the rules" sorts of decisions that we see in court. A drug offense is worth a specific number of days in prison in the minds of the many, and the scale of these crimes need not to be taken into consideration. We are concerned only with the concrete data, and fail to look past them to see the moral issues with what we are doing. In this instance, the shirt depicted in this StephenPlays episode has completely captured our expectations of legality in our modern society. We are not meant to see the fish and fear for its life or wellbeing. Rather, it is the legality of the fish that we are to fear for, to bring into question. We are not meant to see the human and the worldview that might bring one to sell drugs or murder, but instead supposed to look at numbers and figures without context, and that is our only basis for our sentences. We do not even get to compromise with a sentence, in many cases; this crime is worth this many days in jail, and that's the final word, even if it does not make sense; that's how our laws are written, and that's how they have to be.
In capturing the problematic nature of law in American culture, the art piece "Oh no, that's not legal" frames the issue in a way that is clear to an outside audience that we are focusing on the wrong thing. We do not care about the people at heart, but the cold, unflinching statistics and figures within their actions, and often are blind to how our law system might be skewed against the less fortunate. We as a society are too busy worrying about the legality of the fish in the tree, but yet do not ask the fish if they need help. We do not care for the people we're convicting or what might turn them towards a life of crime. Instead, we simply care about the very beginning and very end of their story. In an ever-growing world becoming more and more complicated daily, we have to reason with each other sooner rather than later that we are doing something wrong. We need to begin looking at the fish stranded in a tree and asking how we can help the fish, not just either deeming legal or otherwise on a rigid, binary scale. Our world is becoming increasingly less binary, and it's time our systems follow suit.
Bibliography:
StephenPlays. ""I Wish This Was Alive" - Tee K.O. | Stephen & Friends" RUclips. 22 February 2020.
Nelson, Steven. "3,278 Americans Are Serving Life Sentences for Nonviolent Crimes, Report Says" US News: A World Report. 13 November 2013, Accessed 22 February 2020.
E3kHatena
This is literally the best comment I have ever seen on a video. I read the whole thing and was impressed by all of it. Properly cited, informative, thought-provoking... If I were a teacher, this would be worth a very high score except for length requirements. However, the prompt given here gave a three-paragraph limit, making that a non-issue. Impressive.
I read this entire thing and do not regret it. The first unit of the societies class I'm currently taking was on the Criminal Justice system and the disproportionate jail sentences for street crime as opposed to white-collar crime. So to see this in a StephenPlays video is unexpectedly hilarious!
Given the nature of Alex, I'm very sure that, if he saw this comment, he would harbor nothing but praise for how one could so deftly paint a poignant call out of the flaws in the American Legal system through the medium of a fish in a tree being labelled illegal.
E3kHatena, you may need to check your contractions. Eliminating them helps with the more formal tone of academic writing. Otherwise you’ve met the requirements and written a good and insightful paper.
The fact that Paul's character is a flame and I think he set the that poor snowman on fire
Oh man, I REALLY needed the gut-busting laughs that this gave me after the heaviness of the week's StephenVlogs. Thank you so much, everyone.
"You called me Thomas!"
I mean, you DID call yourself "Tom, But Not" in this game Tom. So he's technically not wrong.
Well, I guess this is what I'm doing today.
They tried to warn us, it seems so clear to me now. I will not say we were fools, how could we have known? It seemed like crazed ramblings, cruel vandals just making up excuses. No, we were not fools, but that hardly matters now. I remember the first one I caught, to me, he was nothing but a mad man. I was on my patrol through some of the frequently used trails, my job as a park ranger had never been particularly interesting until that night. I saw a man, hanging a large trout from a tree. He had a rope tightly wrapped around its tail and was about to finish tieing the other end to the highest branch he could reach. I thought it was a little weird, but probably just some a-hole trying to leave his 'mark'. At worst, he might be trying to hunt some of the wildlife in the park, which would land him with a much harsher fine. It all became so much worse once he started speaking.
I called for back-up, but was pretty confidant I could take him if he put up a fight. I told him he was not only trespassing, as the park was closed, but that everything else he was doing wasn't legal either. That's when the ramblings began. He talked about how he *had* to do this, how we were all doomed if he didn't. Other than that insanity he was pretty docile, until I tried to take down the fish. He called me a fool, said I had no idea what I was doing. The way he talked... it was like stopping him was tantamount to launching a nuke. Looking back, I really wish I'd had that 'they don't pay me enough for this shit' attitude and just left him alone.
Then just maybe, none of this would've happened.
Things really started to get problematic when we caught more and more people, all doing the same crazy thing. At the time all we saw were crazies hanging fish from trees. None of us really questioned why they all had the same story. Jerry laughed about how it might be a cult, but we never thought about it. I really wish I could laugh with Jerry again, but he's gone now. We should've listened, at least a little, about this beast. This thing that could end us all. They rambled about how it could travel the earth and sea, how it would not let a single living thing escape, how the only way to distract, to infuriate it, was to put pray in the one place it couldn't reach. We took down every fish we found, that was our job for weeks, but without all those distractions...
All the survivors live up in planes or tall buildings now, don't know how long it'll work, but it's the only hope we have. Up here is the only place it can't reach us. If we'd just left those fish up, let those people keep protecting us without ever asking questions, we could've all lived never knowing... Sometimes I can still here it down there, screaming at how it can't get us. The beast that killed everyone I knew. I hear it scream at the one thig that keeps us all safe.
"Fuck the sky"
Well, that was longer than 3 paragraphs and very dumb all things considered, but there ya go.
inatreebythebrook 17
Well whenever someone says to write three paragraphs, you really need to write four or five to get a good grade.
*blink, blink*
So when can I expect a Netflix original on this story?
Well played a wrote good sir/madam, well played...
Memorable Moment Thomas is Here 0:05-2:15
I feel like this is something that was really needed right now. A brilliant episode.
calling tom fawkes thomas is technically not wrong
aaronpiper92 You are technically correct, the best kind of correct!
i’m so glad to see more tee-ko!! it’s definitely my favorite of the stephen and friends series (second only to broken picturephone of course)
I imagine “Brother. Reconsider.” in a James Earl Jones voice.
I like to think the snowman is pissed, and the fiire repressents his rage. And he's just like. Brother, you had best reconsider.
Perfect demonstration of "Haunting the Narrative" by Thomas here
this was nice to watch after the recent string of vlogs, love you guys,
Thomas was great in this episode
'fuck the sky' snake struck me as a discount rayquaza filled with disappointment
I was hungry one day so I decided to go fishing. I had never fished before, yet I loved to hunt. I tried using a twelve gauge first off and it didn't work too well. Most fish dodged the bullets, and the ones that didn't would just slip down the stream where I couldn't get them.
I next tried some bait and a rope, I read somewhere that, that was the appropriate way. It went pretty swimmingly until the problem occurred. I had no hook, the fish kept eating the bait from my rope as if it were spaghetti. I got very angry that day.
My last attempt was to try and snare the fish. I know that as a land hunting technique, but I figured it could work in water. I made the snare and figured out I couldn't anchor it to the side of the river. So I instead anchored it to a nearby tree. I left the snare, and when I came back there was a fish hanging from the tree. I thanked the lord that my plan had worked. However, just then I was caught by the game warden. He informed me that the only legal way to fish is by using a fishing pole. So I had to release the fish and buy a pole like everybody else.
I laughed exactly like Stephen did at the Kirby shirt
Nomination for Memorable Moments: "Impersonating Thomas," aka *THAT ENTIRE INTRO* 00:00-02:16 X,D
It was a bold move of Thomas to speak in a frequence only dogs can hear but it payed off.
jackbox is always so good with you guys
9:14 - Lindsay’s “Oh no..” 😂😂
I'd get "Brother Reconsider" if it was real.
we do in fact love the intros
I love TKO! But I would be interested in some more party pack 6. Specifically press the button because that would be chaos with y'all. It has no audience tho
Stephen, I remember you mentioned a session of TKO where the video did not record. Was that right before this episode, since you were talking about getting everything working?
I need that Kirby shirt and the Fuck the Sky shirt.
Tom fawkes is such a good character on the show just saying
In all of my time both playing Jackbox and watching Stephen, Tom and the Derps playing, it took this video for me to notice that Paul's character (the fire) actually has a shirt in one of his victory sprites.
14:15 the first time a stephenplays video has had the 4th wall broken
A moment of silence for Paul, who was both most prolific *and* most ignored. Oof.
I imagined its Luigi saying "Brother. Reconsider." Like they are fighting Bowser and Kamek has turned Luigi into a snowman. Mario has the fireflower powerup and you can figure out the rest of the story.
I love how Paul submitted the most things but had the least things used.
I would wear brother reconsider
Oh hey look! Tomas Fawkes is in this episode! Cool!
Maybe if the word Snake? Was in it. More 😆. YVW Alex.
Schrodinger‘s Thomas.
There is fish in a tree because they couldn't afford a pinata. So they stuffed a dead fish full of candy and strung it up. The children were not find of the smell and the police arrested everyone
The police arrested everyone? Even the children?
@@ClueFinder654 Especially the children
Ahh yes Thomas Fawkes.
Makes sense.
Don't
Question
The fish
Tom = Thomas confirmed
blip blip doodaling
Stephen, would you ever consider playing Super Mario 64 Land? It's a new Super Mario 64 ROM hack.
8:40 Getting MGS voices in my head
Alright, who's playing as the Tanuki? IT'S REALLY BOTHERING ME!
EDIT: IT'S MAL! I KEPT THINKING I READ MAL'S NAME AS A PLAYER!
The Audio in 2002 how to summon Herobrine tutorials: 3:38
I’m sorry but I don’t think I can do _3 paragraphs_ about a fish in a tree being illegal somehow...
But I’ll try.
Now, you see, fish are born within the depths of the ocean. That, or the banks of the rivers and ponds. Fish are born in many places actually, but what they all have in common is water. They are all born in water. Sometimes the water is deep, other times treacherous, and other times in shallow water. It doesn’t matter exactly where, but all fish are born in water. It is a very well known fact about them. You might wonder “why must they be born in the sea?” The answer is simple. Fish lay their eggs in water.
Now, why might the fish be in a tree then? Well, trees are very well known upon the land. They grow in the land. They do not grow in the ocean. They have things like branches and leaves and they need sunlight. If trees were made in the bottom of the ocean, they would not survive. For you see, sunlight does not reach all areas of the ocean. Perhaps, on the banks of a river, half submerged, a tree might be able to live. However, you cannot plant a tree in the shadowy waters of the very very deep sea.
But why is this illegal? Fish are very curious creatures. Fish are also quite stupid. They say curiosity killed the cat, but more often it kills the fish. The fish wanted to learn about the trees and nature of land. It did not realize, though, that fish absolutely cannot breathe on land. They were born in the water, so they can only breathe water. Trees were born on land, so they breathe the air. But how exactly is this _illegal_? Put simply, suicide is not good. Therefore it is not legal. The fish is ignorant however, and slowly kills itself examining the high branches of the tree.
... this good?
Fish really are quite stupid if they think that they can make suicide illegal.
How could you convict the fish of its crime if it's already dead?