Original air date: 9/24/2014
In an attempt to stay out of school forever, the boys create a startup company to be funded by Kickstarter, using the name and logo of the Washington Redskins football team, whose trademark recently got pulled.
"Go Fund Yourself" contains examples of:
- As You Know: These words are used by Cartman during both of the Washington Redskins conferences.
- Broken Pedestal: While Kyle wants the boy's company to denounce ISIS after the terrorist group supports them, Cartman is against the idea, saying that it would lead their company becoming this trope, using the NFL and the Catholic Church as examples.
- Crying Indian: Dan Snyder invokes this when seeing a news report about the growing popularity of the boys' Washington Redskins startup company.
- Determinator: During a game against the Dallas Cowboys, all of the members of the Washington Redskins football team leave, due to their reputation being reduced to a target of mockery. Dan Snyder attempts take on the Cowboys by himself, only to be tackled by the opposing team. He persists with the game, despite the continued tackling.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Cartman names his startup company "Washington Redskins" because the USPTO removed the copyright on the NFL team. The whole deal is basically
Cartman's Redskins = the NFL team (a company that doesn't care about public opinion) and Washington Redskins = native Americans (people offended by its association with said company). This all culminates in the football players refusing to play the Dallas Cowboys, leading owner Dan Snyder to go by himself and get massacred. Thus in a protest..."There's nothing sweet about a people who were decimated. A once proud nation that finally lost hope and left their leader to be massacred by Cowboys in a defiant last stand!" - Downer Ending: Due to the success of the Washington Redskins crowd-funding company, many athletes left the Washington Redskins football team out of humiliation, leaving Dan Snyder alone against the Dallas Cowboys. The pathetic result of the game led to a boycott against the Washington Redskins crowd-funding company, and the boys decided to go back to school rather than deal with renaming the company.
- Dropped-in Speech Clip: Contains a scene referencing NFL commissioner Roger Goodell's controversial response to the league's 2014 abuse scandals, in which he turns out to be a malfunctioning "Goodell-Bot". Here, actual audio from that press conference was used for his dialogue.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Even ISIS wants nothing to do with the boys' Washington Redskins after what happened in that football game where Dan Snyder kept getting tackled by the Cowboys.
- Hypocrite: Discussed in-universe, and serves as the reason Cartman doesn't want to take a stand on any issues. If the group takes a side on some issue or pretends to care about more than money, then all it takes is one of them doing something awful to ruin the whole group's reputation. By not caring about these things, Cartman believes the group can avoid the backlash, though the end of the episode proves them wrong.
- Meaningful Echo: When the boys discover that their Washington Redskins company is starting to get backers, Cartman declares, "Sitting on our asses, here we come!" Later on, when the Kickstarter staff comment on the success of their website, and that they get to do nothing and receive 5% for every project funded, one of them declares, "Sitting on our asses, here we come!"
- Similarly Named Works: In-universe. There's the fact that there are two organizations called the Washington Redskins — the NFL football team, and a startup (later, crowd-funding) company run by children who don't want to do anything.Commentator 1: A beautiful night in Arlington, Texas as the Dallas Cowboys get set to take on the Washington Redskins. That is, of course, Washington Redskins the football team, not Washington Redskins the audacious crowd-funding company.
Commentator 2: Yeah, and if you ask me, the Redskins are a scam.
Commentator 1: You're talking about the crowd-funding company Redskins, right?
Commentator 2: That's right. And now you've got terrorist groups like ISIS using the Redskins to raise their money. I-I don't like what the Redskins are doing.
Commentator 1: Those Redskins.
Commentator 2: Yeah, whatever. - Shouldn't We Be in School Right Now?: Randy asks the boys why they aren't in school. They answer that they're forming a startup company so they don't have to do anything ever again.
- Take That!:
- The boys' startup company, which only exists so the boys don't have to do any work ever again, mocks those who use crowdfunding as a source of easy money rather than to fund legitimate projects.
- Cartman mixes the NFL with the Catholic Church due to the scandals that their players were involved in around the time the episode aired. In a more general sense, his speech can be seen as mocking companies that take a stand on whatever social issue is trending, but don't actually care about whatever it is they're supporting, just the good publicity.
Cartman: Once you take a stand on something, you're pretending like your company is about more than money. Then all of a sudden you're the NFL and your players get caught molesting little boys!
Kyle: That's the Catholic Church.
Cartman: NFL, Catholic Church, same thing! Okay, let's use the Catholic Church. You take a moral stand on issues, you say you're about honor and integrity, and the next thing you know, your clergymen are getting caught beating up their wives in an elevator.
Kyle: That's the NFL.
Cartman: It's the same thing, Kyle! The point is, if we as an organization claim to be about high morality, somebody is eventually going to get raped or beaten in an elevator and it's most likely going to be Butters. - The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: In fact, doing nothing is the entire mission statement behind the boys' startup company.
- They Killed Kenny Again: Narrowly avoided. Kenny barely avoids being hit in the head by a rock flung into the boys' headquarters by angry protesters towards the end.
- Title Drop: During the conference where Cartman and Kyle announce that their Washington Redskins is now a crowd-funding company in the wake of Kickstarter's destruction.Kyle: People still need a way to raise money for their stupid startup projects, and with the Redskins you can now Go Fund Yourself. (the title of the episode appears on the screen behind them)
