From Bankable Insight:
South Park is known for pushing buttons and offending people as much as it is known for its hilarious social commentary. Often the show makes astute observations about social behavior or turns political or economics issues into comedic gold. Here are seven episodes that provide funny and insightful economic insight with links to where you can watch them on South Park’s official site.
WARNING: SOUTH PARK IS OFTEN PURPOSELY CRUDE AND OFFENSIVE. DO NOT WATCH IF YOU ARE EASILY OFFENDED.
1. Medicinal Fried Chicken
In this episode South Park demonstrates that when something is banned or regulated it often causes more harm than good. The externalities stemming from black market activity alone often far outweigh any positive outcomes.
When a new law shuts down KFCs, the stores are converted into medicinal marijuana shops. As Cartman delves into a world of black market fried chicken and organized crime, Randy inspires the men of the town to purposely give themselves testicle cancer in order to get legal weed. In the end it’s obvious that regulating chicken and weed create more problems than they solve.
2. Margaritaville
This episode mocks both the governments boggled attempt to manage the economy and the public’s common lack of understanding.
When the economy crashes South Park is put into one of its often occurring states of panic. False prognosticators come forward to offer varying opinions on the cause of the collapse: The government caused it, one man claims. It was the “covetous Jews,” Cartman proclaims (echoing the character’s often over the top anti-Semitism). But Randy claims the economy was angered by people spending too much money and buying things they didn’t need. He convinces the town to embrace a socialist style minimalist society, where everyone is forced to subsist on bare minimum, wear bed sheets as clothes, and play with squirrels instead of toys. Every opinion presented in the show represents a view of the economic collapse, even the conspiracy theorist ramblings of Cartman.
While the town is undergoing their transformation, Stan is on a quest to return Randy’s Margaritaville Margarita Maker, a luxury now deemed wasteful. His journey takes him from a mall store to Wall Street to Capitol Hill, as he learns the ownership of his margarita maker has suffered the fate of home mortgages. The complex, yet accurate, process ends with the Feds sacrificing a chicken to determine the value of the margarita maker.
Randy’s scheme to institute forced minimalist living is ultimately undermined when Kyle sacrifices himself by taking on the townspeople’s debts, enabling them to spend again. The local economy slowly rebounds as people once again embrace the idea that buying things and owning things is pretty cool.
3. Handicar
In this episode Timmy runs a ride service which is clearly meant to represent the ride-share company Uber. Like Uber, Timmy soon comes under attack for his ride service by a compact of special interests seeking to stifle competition by putting him out of business. To drive the point home, Mimsi, a mentally handicapped henchman, is constantly pointing the obvious facts about competition serving the market and increasing quality of the product or service, or how the bad guys could concentrate on how to make their businesses more attractive to consumers rather than trying to squash Timmy’s company.
The episode also features great homage to Wacky Races, a Saturday morning cartoon show which was popular in the 1960’s.
4. Gnomes
This episode defends corporations and capitalism against popular criticisms. It also shows how liberals often use children for propaganda.
When coffee giant Harbuck’s tries to buy Tweak’s dad’s coffee shop, he refuses on the grounds that a small business is better and more in touch with the community. Harbuck’s responds that they will just open a new store across the street. Tweak’s dad uses his son and son’s friends to rally the townspeople and Mayor against Harbuck’s, seeking to ban the company from South Park. The boys are set to do a report in front of the town on why corporations are bad. However, upon meeting the underwear nomes, who impart a lesson on corporations and the invisible hand of the market to the boys, they come to the opposite conclusion. To the shock of everyone they inform the town that corporations are good and that even Harbuck’s started as a small business that due to its great products and good business practices grew to be a successful giant. The town learns a lesson, they agree to try Harbuck’s coffee, which they all agree is better than Mr. Tweak. Though he is seemingly given the job as manager of Harbuck’s—either that or he sells Tweak into slavery, the ending is ambiguous…
5. Something Wall Mart This Way Comes
In this episode South Park points out that hatred toward big companies and especially retail giants fails to recognize the consumer’s role in creating corporate giants.
When Wall Mart (purposefully misspelled) comes to town, the people of South Park are enthralled. Soon they are all addicted to the bargains while the small shops downtown close. Soon they become enraged and burn the Wall Mart down, only to find it has been mysteriously rebuilt overnight. The boys embark on a quest to destroy Wall Mart once and for all, only to discover what lies at Wall Mart’s at the location of the corporate monster’s heart is just a mirror. It is the consumer which is the heart of retail giants. In a humorous conclusion the townspeople begin to shop at a smaller local shop until it too becomes a retail chain, at which time they burn it to the ground.
6. Crack Baby Athletic Association
Even though college athletes generate billions of dollars for their schools, their leagues, and the companies they’re involved with, they are not allowed to be compensated. When all the rewards of one’s labors are given to someone else, that’s usually called slavery. South Park decided to demonstrate this with a clever and typically offensive metaphor.
Kyle is conflicted when Cartman convinces him to join the Crack Baby Athletic Association, which video tapes crack addicted babies fighting over balls of crack and sells them. Kyle justifies this by noting the videos bring attention to the issue and some of the money made goes to help the babies. At one point Cartman visits a southern college’s football coach for advice on how to legally not pay his slaves.
7. Canada on Strike
When the Writer’s Guild of America went on strike in 2007-08 it did a lot to affect television programming and the plots to several series. It did not achieve, however, its goal of getting writers a share of internet revenues.
In this satirical jab at the Guild, the World Canadian Bureau leads the entire nation of Canada on strike. Perturbed by how it has affected his brother Ike, Kyle sets out the settle the strike. Canada demands some of “that internet money.” In the end it is agreed upon that though the internet is lucrative, it has not reached a point where content online can be fully monetized.