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"Cash for Gold" is the second episode of the sixteenth season of the American animated television series South Park, and the 225th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on March 21, 2012. The episode centers around J&G Shopping Network, a jewelry direct-sales television channel, and on the idea that television home shopping networks in general, and jewelry shopping networks in particular, prey upon the elderly and fleeces them of their money.
In the episode, Cartman, seeing J&G's success, launches a similar gemstones network show and creates a very lucrative business following J&G's model. Meanwhile, Stan searches for the real value of a piece of jewelry that was a gift from his Grandpa.
The episode was written by series co-creator Trey Parker and is rated TV-MA L in the United States.
Plot
Grampa Marvin Marsh gives Stan a bejeweled Bolo Tie, saying that J&G Shopping Network, from which he bought it, claimed that its 14K gold and diamonds makes it worth $6,000. After being teased by his friends for wearing such a tacky and unfashionable item, Stan takes it to a Cash For Gold store where he is offered $15 for it. Other merchants that Stan patronizes similarly offer him little or nothing for the item.
Cartman subsequently reveals to the boys that he has discovered the formula for making money out of gold, similar in intent to one of the main goals of alchemy. When Stan learns that his senile Grandpa is about to buy him another worthless item from J&G Shopping Network, Stan intervenes, telling him not to. Marvin, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease, is unable to remember that Stan's sister, Shelly, is now 13, and not an infant, and wistfully relates to Stan an oft-repeated anecdote of a Border Collie named Patches he once had but finds his memories of fading.
While Cartman begins his own venture, the Old People's Shopping Network, which similarly exploits elderly customers, Stan calls J&G, and tells them that its exploitation of senior citizens is unjustifiable, and that their only recourse for penance is to kill themselves. He also excoriates cash-for-gold merchants for being part of this system, but the merchants attempt to shift blame to others in the system. Stan goes to one such factory in India, which he learns makes the items, which are shipped to J&G, which sells them to the elderly as gifts. The recipients then sell them to cash-for-gold stores, which sell them back to India after it is smelted to start all over again.
A worker in the factory gives Stan a picture frame as a gift. Stan uses this frame to put a picture of Marvin and his dog and gives it to him as a gift. Marvin, who no longer remembers giving Stan the bolo tie, now remarks that it is "fucking gay as fuck."
J&G is eventually deluged with calls from the elderly now telling the host to kill himself, which he eventually does.
References
- "Episode 1602 'Cash For Gold' Press Release". South Park Studios. March 19, 2012
External links
- "Cash For Gold" at South Park Studios.
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