Margaritaville (South Park)
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"Margaritaville" is the third episode of the thirteenth season of the animated television series South Park. It aired on March 25, 2009 on Comedy Central. It is based on the story of Jesus, who is played by Kyle.
Plot
The episode opens with Stan and Randy at a local bank, because Randy thinks its important for Stan to learn to save his money. He gives the teller the $100 savings bond from his grandmother. The teller explains how he will invest it in several different ways only to reply a split second later "its gone", meaning that the money is lost. Stan is angry, and the teller asks him to stand aside for customers that actually have money. The teller does this to an elderly woman, whose money also instantly vanishes. And when Randy tries to get his son's money back, the teller goes looking into Randy's account and soon all his money is "gone". At dinner, Randy explains to Stan why the economy is struggling, blaming it on people who spend their money on foolish things, which he explains to Stan while making himself a margarita in an automatic-margarita-making-machine called a "Margaritaville". The machine is so loud that you can't hear his explanation (which is obviously very expensive and is ironically representative of a stupid purchase Randy himself had made).
People in South Park are struggling with the recent economic downturn, and many people on the street are preaching who they should blame. A wall street executive suggests the irresponsible homeowners are at fault, while a regular citizen blames the problems on Wall Street, while Cartman blames it on the Jews, and Randy continues to teach his philosophy to the rest of the city. Randy's ideas become the most popular and he starts to get a following, telling people they have angered the economy with their reckless spending and encourages people not to spend money in order to propitiate the economy's anger. People start to wear togas and try to spend as little as possible to try and earn the economy's favor.
Kyle, getting annoyed with everybody's idiocy, starts to get his own following when he preaches that the economy isn't actually angry with them, and that they should be out spending money. Word gets back to Randy and his friends (representative of the Sanhedrin Council) and they eventually decide that they need to kill "the Jew". Kyle continues to preach to people that the economy doesn't really exist except in people's mind, and that if they want the economy to be strong, they must have faith in it. He shows how easy it is to get money by showing a no-limit American Express Platinum Card that he applied for just a few days ago (to which the people shudder at the sight of it). These occur in settings that evoke paintings of Jesus giving the Sermon on the Mount. Cartman, in his desire to obtain a copy of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, says that he will deliver Kyle to Randy and his friends in exchange for the game and a Nintendo DS.
Kyle and his friends go out for pizza, in an obvious parody of The Last Supper, and laments that he feels they won't get to get together like this anymore because people can't afford luxuries like pizza. He says he worries that one of his friends will betray him. All of them act shocked while Cartman stands up and says that whoever betrays Kyle "is a dick" and "it's not cool!" Kyle admits to his friends while glaring accusingly at Cartman that he knows what he has to do to save everyone.
The next day, it shows everybody in the town lining up to a table with Kyle and a credit card machine, where he is "paying everybody's debts" with the no-limit American Express Platinum Card. Kyle's mother asks him not to do it because he will be paying it off forever. Kyle agrees, but feels he must do it to help everybody in the town. After paying the last person's debt, a $17,000 bill from Randy, Kyle passes out, not dead, just merely tired. The episode ends with a news report about how the economy almost didn't survive in South Park, if it wasn't for the efforts of one very brave person, Barack Obama. It ends with Kyle being upset at the news.
Stan spends most of the episode trying to return a "Margaritaville" margarita mixer. The store won't accept the return because it was bought on credit. He keeps trying to find out who he can return it to, with each person saying the debt has been sold to someone else. Eventually he goes all the way to the US Treasury, who "consults the charts" and tells him the mixer is worth $90 trillion. A man approaches to tell the treasury workers that another insurance company is failing and asks what they should do. They say they have to "consult the charts" again. Trying to find out what the charts are, Stan follows the men inside. He sees a round board, where the men cut off a chicken's head and let the chicken run for a minute while one of them plays a silly tune on a kazoo until it falls over dead. The chicken falls on the "bailout" spot, so that's what the men do. In anger at the ridiculousness of the system, Stan throws the mixer on the platform by the chicken and walks off.
Theme
"Margaritaville" is a satire and commentary on the global recession affecting much of the industrialized world at the time of the episode's broadcast.[1]
Cultural references
Kyle is portrayed as a Jesus-like savior who sacrifices himself to save the economy. A dinner he has with his friends is portrayed as The Last Supper, the final meal Jesus had with his Twelve Apostles before his death. Cartman takes on the role of Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus.[1]
Cartman refers repeatedly says he wants the newly released Grand Theft Auto IV game for the handheld game console Nintendo DS. Since Grand Theft Auto IV is an XBox 360, PS3 and PC game not available for Nintendo DS, video game writers said it was more likely a reference to Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, a DS game that came out within a week of the original "Margaritaville" broadcast. Aside from the first reference to the game, Cartman refers to the game as Chinatown Wars throughout the episode.[2]
Reception
Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly said of the episode, "The episode was the most back-handed endorsement imaginable of President Obama's economic bailout plan. Or the most withering dismantling of it. As usual, South Park had it both ways." Tucker also said of Cartman's blaming the Jews for the recession, "Among its many achievements, South Park has exposed anti-Semitism to such relentless ridicule over the years, it deserves some sort of humanitarian award."[1]
References
- ^ a b c Tucker, Ken (2009-03-25). ""South Park" solves the economic crisis". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2009-03-26.
- ^ "GTA Chinatown Wars receives spotlight in latest South Park episode". 2009-03-26. Retrieved 2009-03-26.