“Washington Redskins totally gets people’s attention.” – Eric Cartman
I recall an epic road trip from many moons ago. One of my best pals and I took a five-week sojourn across this great nation, slicing across monstrous miles and trekking along the groaning highway through the south, stopping wherever whim and friends and family took us along the way, modest tastes (Denny’s was our friend in many states) and budget sustaining us in the prime of our post-collegiate youth days.
My pal, not nearly the TV and pop culture junkie that I was even then (his tastes ran to semi-obscure ’70s soul and funk bands more than anything), was obsessed with this new TV show called South Park. Something about it just struck him, as it has for so many millions over so many years. As a musician he became obsessed with the now legendary theme song (by Primus), and wouldn’t stop singing it on that long and dusty road… I’m going down to South Park, gonna have myself a time. He was also quite fond of equating his hunger level to an equivalent number of “Marvins” e.g I’m starvin’ like three Marvins dude, seriously.
We found ourselves near Albuquerque (and probably eventually hung a left, as a famous bunny once advised) and as calendar and TV schedule conspired we realized… we need to get ourselves in front of a TV pronto. We hit a hostel and made our way to a local pub frequented by young hipsters of the southwestern variety, and lo and behold, the entire crowd had gathered around a TV to catch the new episode. I’ll never forget watching “Mecha-Streisand,” which features Barbra Streisand visiting South Park after the gang discovers some kind of mystical and ancient stone, with a bunch of Albuquerque kids wearing snowboarding beanies.
The month and year, you ask? February of 1998.
And here we are, nearly 17 years later as we embark on the 18th season of one of the truly influential and groundbreaking and subversive creative works of our time. That it’s an animated show ostensibly about a bunch of little kids in a snow-laden town in Colorado makes that statement all the more incredible.
But here we are, 2014, and the song – to quote Led Zeppelin – remains the same.
From sublime praise to the sublimely crude and/yet hilarious, we cut to our old friends trotting (read: belching) out phrases like “barking vaginal belch” as sweet, cheerful music tinkles in the background. Like so many of the best South Park jokes, it works on both lowball and high minded and oddly subversively levels at the same time. The fellows are looking for a unique/not-yet-taken startup name (because, why not, but also plays on kids skipping college in favor of going entrepreneur these days), and finally land on Furry Balls Plopped menacingly on the table, Inc. Which, for good measure, is insane brilliance taken within its own Word Silo.
And then, the hook into the broader theme. Cartman, the least enlightened of the gang, comes up with “Washington Redskins.” Because, “Washington Redskins totally gets people’s attention.”
And you have to love Cartman’s “company plan”:
1. Start Up
2. Cash In
3. Sell Out
4. Bro Down
The fact that this plan is not that far off many a bro’s dorm room-birthed start up idea is yet but a bitty piece of South Park’s ongoing genius-in-motion. “Sittin’ on our asses, here we come!” Cartman proclaims.
And then, of course, the Kickstarter funds roll in, Potato Salad-style.
Queue the lusciousness when Daniel Snyder, the owner of the NFL’s Washington Redskins, begs Cartman to stop using the name of the company out of his sense of decency and moral fiber. The joke, of course, playing off the ongoing controversy around the Redskins’ name and offence to Native Americans.
As you might expect, the concept gets taken to its own insane extreme in the form of Washington Redskins, in uniform, murdering and pillaging the Kickstarter offices while Native American war song-like music tinkles in the background.
More thoughts on “Go Fund Yourself”:
- Simple, brutal, and effective ridicule of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell by labeling him a “Goodell-bot,” particularly in light of the recent Ray Rice controversy.
- Dig Cartman’s Apple-like presentation where he sincerely tells the audience, “F— you.”
- “We have fought Eagle and Bear.” – Daniel Snyder
Some stats and info about South Park, “Poor and Stupid”
TV SHOW – South Park
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 18, Episode 1
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – Comedy Central
GENRE – Comedy, Animated Shows
CREATED BY – Trey Parker, Matt Stone
This review was originally published on TV Geek Army.