I can’t understand why, out of everything that was hilarious and brilliant in this episode, Parker and Stone decided to name it “Margaritaville.” Stan’s journey all the way up to the U.S. Treasury took up a bit of the episode, but it wasn’t until the ending payoff that was worth the wait. But I will say that margaritas, when done right and without crappy bar mix, are damned tasty.
I’m surprised the theme of Kyle as Jesus hasn’t been used before on this show, especially with how often Cartman disses him constantly for being Jewish. We’ve seen the “actual” Jesus before, but mapping Kyle to Jesus, the economy to God and Cartman to Judas was sheer brilliance. And look at that “last supper” moment pictured above? Come on, that’s perfect!
There are lots of ways Parker and Stone could have chosen to use South Park to address/mock the current condition of the economy, but this just fit in perfectly, while still allowing them to get a jab in at the end for how the Treasury Department makes decisions for how to spend money — by cutting off a chicken’s head and setting its headless body loose on “the chart,” whilst someone plays ‘Yakkety Sax’ on a kazoo.
There was a point to all of this, though. People do tend to elevate the economy to God-like levels, putting the “fear of God” in people and causing them to panic and shove cash in mattresses, when we really need to try to have faith that it will all be OK and help stimulate the economy as best we can. It’s just a shame we don’t have a savior like Kyle to take all of our current sins … sorry, debt away so that we can once again spend, spend, spend. And when we’ve all done what we can to help fix the ailing economy, everyone will thank President Obama. Am I right?
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Mar 26, 2009 @ 00:01 EST5EDT
I was pretty shocked when Obama was on The Tonight Show and said that 40% of the country’s growth has only been on paper…
What I also don’t get was how easy it is/was to get multiple credit cards and shuffle debt around on them. Or to get a loan at 15+ % interest. Or a mortgage that is 5% the first two years and then explodes. That all that was legal baffles me. It’s as if the banks produced products that had a built in timer and in the end the whole system exploded.
The maximum I ever went over into debt on any of my accounts was 400 bucks and the interest for ONE month alone was 15 bucks. Once you do that you know that it’s not a good idea to go into debt. For nothing. 8% is the Maximum I’ll ever pay.
Of course it was legal and of course it was on paper.
It was a damn good episode. Randy is a hero to all.