Origin

The fish biscuit first made its appearance in the Lost episode 'A Tale Of Two Cities'. In this episode, Sawyer and Kate are held prisoners in two cages. While Kate is treated reasonably well, Sawyer is left to fend for himself. In order to get food, Sawyer must solve the puzzle of a device in his cage. When he solves the puzzle, he is rewarded with a salmon colored biscuit in the shape of a fish. This biscuit, branded with the word 'Dharma' is aptly called a fish biscuit. Soon after Sawyer begins celebrating his reward, he is approached by the Other named Tom, who observes that he has a fisbiscuit. He asks 'how'd you get that?' to which Sawyer replies, 'I figured out your complicated gizmo'. Tom then replies with 'it only took the bears three hours'. Later, Sawyer gives his fish biscuit to Kate.

The Original Fish Biscuit Scene

Spread to Y T M N D

On October 10th 2006, the YTMND user MasterSitsu created the site, Hey! featuring a picture of Tom with a fish biscuit photoshopped in and the audio of, 'Hey! You got yourself a fish biscuit, how'd you do that?'

The dialogue and concept of the fish biscuit became a short lived fad on YTMND, producing such spinoffs as:

The Literal Fish Biscuit
Fish Bizkit
Reward! Fish biscuit!
Got Urself a Fish biscuit
and of course the fish biscuit remix

It wasn't long before fish biscuit was being remixed into other bits of pop culture, including the movies The Shawshank Redemption, and Sideways.

As typical with YTMND, the fish biscuit meme was blended with other memes, creating sites such as Mideval Fish biscuit, Fish Biscuit Lounge, and Conan Summons a Fish biscuit.

Common Usage

The comedy in fish biscuit meme mostly revolves around the concept that a fish biscuit is a lousy reward. After all the hype of the 'gizmo' Sawyer is disappointed to receive only a fish biscuit for his efforts. The meme mostly involves Tom's dialogue, notably the lines of 'Hey, you got yourself a fish biscuit! How'd you do that?' and 'It only took the bears two hours.' Sometimes his line to Kate, 'I'll go get you some antiseptic' and Sawyer's lines of 'I figured out your complicated Gizmo' are also thrown in. In some versions of the meme, later lines such as 'You taste like a fish biscuit' are used.

Spread to other sites

Though the fish biscuit's spread to other parts of the internet, it has reached some places. YTMND hosts the fish biscuit remix on Youtube. Urban Dictionary even offers a definition for fish biscuit:

"A term for reward that doesn't match up to build-up and or effort required to obtain it.

The term is derived from the Season 3 premiere of LOST, where an incarcerated Saywer spends most of the episode solving an elaborate puzzle only to be rewarded with a fish-shaped biscuit."