Wednesday’s Reliable Source contained two of my favorite artsy things – Artomatic and Thomas Edwards and his diabolically amusing electronic art pieces.

Seems Lenny Campello was watching TV recently and caught a McDonald’s ad featuring a wall-mounted fish singing to a man trying to eat a fish sandwich. Campello noted the similarities to a piece Thomas did 5 years ago.

Edwards’s work, a hit at the local 2004 Artomatic show, portrayed a school of flapping, mechanical fish, each turning to the viewer to gasp, “They’re eating my eggs!” or “I can’t breathe air!” or “Please let me die.” Coincidence? “Mickey D’s needs to get in touch with him soon,” Campello wrote on his DCArtNews blog.

“There are definitely similar themes,” Edwards agreed. But he added: “I am not the first person to hack a Big Mouth Billy Bass.” Though “I’m probably the first person to hack seven at a time in one coherent artwork.”

You can see “School of Fish Pain” in action here and read all about it’s creation.

Here’s the McDonald’s ad. Frankly, if I was ever going to eat a filet-o-fish, this might dissuade me. Kinda creepy.

Maybe not as weird as the official McDonald’s line dance they tried to role out in 1996, but still pretty awkward and unpleasant.