ROBERT J.R. GRAHAM: Southpark Explains the Recession

“Margaritaville ” is the third episode of the thirteenth season of the American animated television series South Park , and the 184th overall episode of the series. It originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on March 25, 2009. The episode is a satire and commentary on the global recession affecting much of the industrialized world at the time of the episode’s broadcast. Kyle is portrayed as a Jesus-like savior working to save the economy, and Stan spends much of the episode trying to return a personal Jimmy Buffett Margaritaville machine.

The episode was written and directed by series co-founder Trey Parker, and was rated TV-MA L in the United States. Parker and Stone long planned to create an episode about the economy and considered making it the season premiere, but decided they needed more time to craft the script, and instead opened the season with “The Ring“, a spoof of the Jonas Brothers boy band. In their original idea for an economy episode, Parker and Stone considered having Cartman dress as a superhero who fights the economy. That idea was ultimately scrapped, and elements were transferred to the episode “The Coon“.

“Margaritaville” reflected Parker and Stone‘s belief that most Americans view the economy in the same way as religion, in that it is seldom understood but seen as an important, elusive entity. The Margaritaville blender featured in the episode serves as a metaphor for American consumerism, as well as the housing bubble. The script proved challenging for Parker and Stone, and they did not finish writing it until the night before the episode first aired. Parker and Stone themselves were not entirely pleased with the final product of “Margaritaville”, but it received generally positive reviews by television critics.

According to Nielsen Media Research, was seen by 2.77 million households in its original airing, making it the most-watched Comedy Central production of the week. “Margaritaville” won the 2009 Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program for Programming Less Than One Hour. “Margaritaville” was released on DVD and Blu-ray along with the rest of the thirteenth season on March 16, 2010.

Plot

Stan tries to save money by depositing it into the bank but it disappears moments after. A recession then hits the nation and South Park. Randy explains to Stan that the economy is failing due to people spending their money on luxuries. Ironically, he continues his tirade while making himself a margarita in a Margaritaville-brand mixer, the noise of which drowns out his voice. People in South Park are struggling with the recent economic downturn, and many people on the street are castigating those whom they would blame. Cartman is there too, and predictably blames the Jews, claiming they hid the money in a “Jew Cave”. Randy convinces everyone to reduce their spending to only “bare essentials” in order to propitiate the economy’s anger. He recommends wearing bedsheets and riding llamas. Kyle, getting annoyed, responds that the economy is not actually angry with them, and that they should be out spending money. Kyle continues to preach that the economy only exists as a mental construct, and that if they want the economy to be strong, they must have faith in it. Randy and the council, upon hearing this, decide that they need to kill Kyle. 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.

In a scene resembling that of the Last Supper, Kyle and his friends go out for pizza where he laments that he feels they will not be able to get together like this anymore because he thinks one of his friends will betray him. The next day, Kyle sets up a table with a credit card machine in the town and begins “paying everybody’s debts” with his American Express Platinum Card. Kyle’s mother begs him to stop because he will be in debt for life, but Kyle feels he must to help everybody in the town. The episode ends with a news report giving credit to Barack Obama for the recovery of South Park‘s economy, rather than Kyle.

As a subplot, Stan spends most of the episode trying to return the aforementioned Margaritaville mixer. The trendy retailer Sur La Table will not accept the return because it was bought on a payment plan. He tries to find out to whom he can return it, each person saying the debt has been packaged and sold to someone else (much like real-life mortgage-backed securities). Eventually he goes all the way to the United States Treasury, where a group of associates “consult the charts” and tell him the mixer is worth $90 trillion. One of the three treasury workers says that another insurance company is failing and asks what they should do. They say they have to “consult the charts” again. Stan follows the men inside. He sees a round lit-up gameshow style board. The men cut off a chicken‘s head and let the decapitated chicken run on the board while one of them plays Yakety Sax on a kazoo. The chicken falls on the “bailout!” spot, so that is what the men do. In anger at the ridiculousness of the system, Stan breaks the mixer on the platform by the chicken and walks off.

Theme

“[The script] was one of those things where we just kept talking around it and around it, trying to figure out what it was. And we had this idea for a long time how the economy is really like religion and how it’s all based on faith. If you have faith, it exists, and if you don’t, it doesn’t.”

Trey Parker,

South Park co-creator ^[4]

“Margaritaville” is a satire and commentary on the global recession affecting much of the industrialized world at the time of the episode’s broadcast on March 25, 2009.^[10] Parker and Stone believed many viewed the economy as an important, elusive entity without truly understanding how it works, and felt it mirrored faith in religion.^[4] The duo had difficulty writing the script due to their limited familiarity with religion and Christian history, and they relied heavily on executive producer Anne Garefino for help. In describing the economic elements of the episode, they sought assistance from Stone‘s father, who works as an economist.^[2] The scenes in which Stan explains how his Margaritaville blender was purchased on a payment plan that was eventually combined into securities sold to the banks required particular assistance from Stone‘s father. Parker said the dialogue proved so difficult, they were working on the script right up until the night before the episode was first broadcast.^[4]

The Margaritaville blender itself served as a metaphor for consumerism and the tendency of Americans to buy luxuries that they do not need. Stone said, “We didn’t want to make an episode where it was like, ‘Oh, those Wall Street guys took our money.’ It was one of those things where we all screwed up and nobody really knows what’s going on, but it has something to do with buying shit like Margaritavilles.”^[2] The Margaritaville also serves as a metaphor for the housing bubble.^[11] Parker himself actually owns a Margaritaville, of which he said, “It’s pretty stupid because it really is just a blender”.^[4] Randy’s approach to resolving the recession, calling for frugality and stigmatizing spending on luxuries, and the result of causing the quality of life in South Park to deteriorate, is a demonstration of the paradox of thrift. Kyle’s counter-movement could be broadly interpreted as Keynesian, given Kyle’s heavy emphasis on the demand-driven causes of the recession, his assertion that an entire economy is not a personal being and not driven by a moral imperative, and his final act of liquidating the town’s bad debts in order to stimulate demand.^[12]^[13] Stone said the original script included a great deal more philosophy about the economy, but most of it was cut for time, and “we kept just all the funny stuff in”.^[2]