Red Man's Greed

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“Red Man's Greed”
South Park episode
Using Chinese men to infect blankets with SARS
Episode no.	Season 7 Episode 103
Written by	Trey Parker
Production no.	707
Original airdate	April 30, 2003
Season 7 episodes
South Park - Season 7 March 19, 2003 – December 17, 2003
I'm a Little Bit Country Krazy Kripples Toilet Paper Cancelled Fat Butt and Pancake Head Lil' Crime Stoppers Red Man's Greed South Park Is Gay! Christian Rock Hard Grey Dawn Casa Bonita All About Mormons Butt Out Raisins It's Christmas in Canada

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List of South Park episodes

"Red Man's Greed" is episode 707 of the Comedy Central series South Park, first transmitted on April 30, 2003. The episode is a direct parody of the expansion of America in the late 18^th/early 19^th Century. Alex Glick won a guest voice role in a charity auction, and appeared on the show as a child with a red sweater emblazoned with his real life first name.

[edit] Plot

The boys and their parents go to a casino on a Native American reservation, where Kyle's dad ends up losing the house betting on blackjack. It turns out he's not the only one. The entire town is bought out by the Native Americans, who plan to tear it down so that they can build a superhighway connecting their casino to Denver. The entire town is forced to leave their homes, and have no way to buy back their town.

The boys meet with some of the other kids in town to come up with an idea. An unfamiliar, "new boy" called Alex Glick points out that they have to save the town. The boys advise their parents to get all the money they have, and then go bet it at the casino. If they win a round of roulette, they would have enough money to buy back the town, plus $50,000. Amazingly, they win, but then, as expected from avid gamblers, the adults bet all their winnings again, and lose. When they are selling their homes, Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny try to get them to stand up for the town, and are backed up by Alex ("They don't own our town, we do.") and save South Park. At first the adults, being plain stupid as usual, say they will move to Middle Park instead. The boys testify "until the Native Americans come to take Middle Park too." While the adults remain naive, the 4 run outside to stand in front of the Native Americans' bulldozers, blocking their path. Before he leaves, Cartman shouts at them "You're all a bunch of goddamn pussies!" shocking the townsfolk. They soon join the boys in blocking the path. Alex rejoices with the rest of the townspeople. The casino's owner, Chief Runs With Premise, plots another way to get rid of the townspeople.

He decides to give them all blankets, after infecting them with S.A.R.S. using naked Chinese men; the whole town gets sick, except for Stan, and his father tells him that if he doesn't find a way to cure SARS, only 98% of the town would be left. At the same time, however, the casino owner's son, Premise Running Thin, gets infected with S.A.R.S. accidentally, and none of the Native Americans' herbs are able to cure him. The owner decides to take out his anger on the townspeople with Operation Shock and awe. Stan meanwhile goes to a wise old man in a trailer in another town, who gives him an "inward journey" brought on by sniffing paint thinner. He discovers the middle-class white man's way to cure sickness by utilizing Campbell's chicken noodle soup, DayQuil, and Sprite. The people of South Park all recover.

The casino chief, Runs With Premise, arrives and is shocked to find the people are healthy and not half-dead. He begs them for the cure to S.A.R.S. for his son, and they give it in exchange for their town back. Alex gives the lesson that the South Park is really more than a town, it's a community of people. Stan finally asks who he is, and Alex explains that he's some guy named Alex Glick who got to do a guest voice. Kyle tells him to "get the hell out", and Alex leaves, waving to the home TV audience, sending a greeting to his family.

[edit] References to popular culture

The song the townspeople sing is “Love Is a Battlefield” by Pat Benatar with acapella “Ba-Bum -Bumm” emphasis as in the rock video percussion part for lack of a background soundtrack. This is the second appearance of the song in the series.
SARS was a disease which was very prominent in the news when the episode was originally broadcast, largely afflicting people from East Asia, hence the Chinese men rubbed on the blankets. Stan's father incorrectly states that there is only a 98% chance of survival; in reality, SARS had a 9.6% fatality rate (instead of the 2% as stated by Stan's father).
“Shock and awe” was a catch phrase used for the strategies employed during the operation to invade Iraq, which had begun when the episode was originally broadcast.
The using of blankets to give the townspeople SARS is a reference to an infamous incident in Pontiac's Rebellion (1763), when British officers led by General Lord De La Warr gave American Indians blankets exposed to smallpox in an attempt to infect them.
Mr. Garrison says “You had me at ‘free blanket’,’ a snowclone and a reference to Jerry Maguire.
Stan mentions a Wal-Mart within South Park that the citizens of the town shop at, later contradicted in the 8th season episode "Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes" wherein it's established that prior to said episode, there was no such place in South Park.