South Park (TV Series) Margaritaville (2009) User Reviews

Judas Cartman

[RainDogJr · 10/10 · 27 March 2009]

Unlike of the previous two episodes of this still young Season 13 of South Park (The Ring and The Coon) I didn't knew a thing about Margaritaville, I just entered to South Park Studios yesterday night, saw it, loved it, I think it is the best episode of Season 13 so far and even that it was just the third episode I think that's saying a lot since both The Ring and The Coon were for me truly mind blowing episodes.

Margaritaville has just many of those South Park extremely memorable moments, to name a few of them: Cartman blaming well who else Cartman would blame if not the Jews, in this case he is blaming the Jews for the economic recession saying stuff like that the Jews must had put the money in a secret Jew cave or Cartman saying that he can bring the Jew (to get the attention of those who want to kill the Jew Cartman does just what Bart Simpson did to get the attention of Homer and his nerd college pals in episode "Homer Goes to College", yes I know is not important or something but hell) for sure and the only thing he wants in return is Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for the Nintendo DS. As I wrote, there are many memorable and hilarious moments but actually these Cartman moments are "minor" moments in this episode that has in Stan, Kyle and Randy its protagonists.

It begins with Stan who received $100 from his grandma, at any normal day Stan would have bought I don't know maybe the newest video game but this time and following the advice or better said the orders of his father he will open a bank account and will save his $100. During the course of this episode the people who Stan will talk with will deliver hilarious stuff, in short: in a hilarious scene Stan sees how his $100 practically vanishes, certainly he is not the only one but who to blame for the? Well while Stan goes from place to place trying to return a margaritaville and get back the money that his, stupid, father paid only to basically get confusion and anger but not dollars (the chicken part is brilliantly hilarious!) the people of South Park is having confusion also.

Great, just great the stuff with both of the "leaders": on one hand we have in Randy the guy who says that the economy is having its vengeance since all of them forsaken it by spending money in stupid things like the margaritaville; Randy's solution: people must stop buying, they will only have what is really necessary, no more video games for kids now they will play with squirrels! On the other hand we have that mentioned Jew ¡, actually we have one of the four boys, certainly Kyle Broflovski who says that the economy is not angry with the people; Kyle's solution: people must spend, must recover their faith in the economy and he with his credit card will make that, for example, Randy buys the new version of the margaritaville. Barack Obama's solution: none but it worked!

The people of South Park respond to an economic crisis as Randy begins a cult!

[SLionsCricketreviews · 9/10 · 20 January 2018]

"Margaritaville" backs up "The Coon" to give the thirteenth season of South Park a very nice start. This is a fantastic episode, perfectly aligned in spirit to the great episodes South Park consistently produced during its peak, and is a hilarious and rather ingenious parody of the final days of Jesus Christ.

Randy begins a cult to withstand the economic crisis and begins inspiring the townsfolk into living lives whereby they abandon any and all economic temptations. The results are absolutely hilarious, nothing short of what has become expected with the character of Randy Marsh.

Stan meanwhile goes on a seemingly endless journey to return his father's margarita machine, Margaritaville, during the economic crisis. It's another fantastic storyline and employs what has become one of my favourite little devices on the show which is contrasting the behaviours of Stan and his father through their actions. Randy being the idiot that he is buys one of the most unnecessary purchases he could imagine and Stan, the surprisingly mature young son, goes all over the place fruitless in his attempts to return it. It reminded me of season nine's "Bloody Mary" where Stan was taking care of his alcoholic father!

Then there's Kyle and his attempts to convince the people of South Park that abandoning the economy as a way of living through its struggle is not the way and it has the most perfect pay-off that parodies the final days of Jesus Christ. "He died for our debts" says one individual after Kyle pays off all their debts with his newly purchased credit card and in doing so, puts himself in a pit of debt for his future. He's such a wonderful moral centre for this show and this is among his finest acts.

There's plenty to love about "Margaritaville" and the entire episode works superbly. Each storyline flows very naturally and the writing is crisp sharp, more in line with the show's peak years than the previous season (which I still enjoyed). Whether it be Randy and the cult he creates or Cartman in a parody of Quint from Jaws, this is a superb episode.

While not as strong as the first two episodes, still fairly good

[gangstahippie · 8/10 · 28 March 2009]

"Margaritaville" is the third episode of Season 13 of South Park.While not as strong as "The Ring" or "The Coon", it is still a fairly good episode.Season 13 is having a fairly good run so far, hopefully Trey and Matt keep it up.The episode goes back to spoofing current events.This one spoofs the economic recession that we are currently in.Now that there is a recession, everybody's money is being lost.This starts a wave of different cults, the most popular being the one Stan's dad "Randy" is leader of.They tell everyone to stop spending and buy only basic necessities.The episode starts to mirror the biblical times of Jesus Christ, with Kyle as Jesus.They have the last supper, a "whoever has not sinned cast the first stone" scene, and a scene at the end which could parallel the crucifixion, but not quite.Meanwhile, Stan goes all around to try and return the "Margaritaville" machine his dad bought.He cannot return it at the original store, so now he has to go all the way to wall street to do so.He then finds a shocking secret about the businessmen.This is a fairly good episode, has funny moments, though it's not as good as the first two.Good work!

The economy collapses, Cartman blames the Jews and Randy starts a cult

[Tweekums · 7/10 · 21 November 2012]

When Stan takes a cheque to the bank because his father tells him he must invest rather than spend his money he is shocked when the cashier tells him his money has disappeared moments after he has put it in his account! He suggests that Randy could transfer some money into Stan's account but moments later all his money has gone too! Soon Randy is preaching that people must respect the vengeful economy by stopping all frivolous spending and saving money by wearing sheets and travelling around by riding llamas! When Kyle starts telling people that the economy is not an entity capable of vengeance and the only way to get it going again is to spend money he is vilified by Randy's followers. Meanwhile Stan is trying to get the money back on one of Randy's frivolous purchases; a Margaritaville machine; it isn't easy though; the shop sends him to the financing company; they send him to Wall Street and eventually they send him to the US Treasury in Washington DC.

This was a decent enough topical episode; there are a good number of laughs; I particularly liked the scene where the townspeople started throwing squirrels at Mr. Garrison. The way Kyle was vilified then ended up being some sort of financial messianic saviour was pretty funny as were Randy's rantings about the vengeful economy; his suggestion about llamas was particularly funny. Stan's attempts to get a refund were a bit of a distraction for the most part although its conclusion in Washington provided a good laugh when we see financial policy being decided by the use of a decapitated chicken on a chart with a number of possible courses of action. Over all this episode was fun enough but didn't feel like a classic to me.