burning money

Not long ago (February 2), Matthew Perry went on The Daily Show to promote his latest creation and he couldn’t help making a joke about destroying the almighty USD. Which reminded me in turn about an episode of Simpsons where Krusty destroys a $1 bill.

Our first exhibit is the joke Matthew Perry used to introduce his latest TV series.

.. he’s just impossibly happy ..he just loves being Marc Holder .. to the point where it’s affected our friendship .. because.. I’m not exactly that way and I’ll say “how are you?” and he’ll go “I can’t believe how great I am.. If I was any better I’d be two people! His Facebook status reports things like “what a beautiful, beautiful day”. I actually stopped asking him “how are you” because it annoyed me so much what his answer’s gonna be. So, one day I forgot this rule and I said “how are you?” and he said “I just dropped my kids off to school and it’s a beautiful sunny day” and I said “Terrific! I’m gonna go masturbate into some money.”

I linked the clip below, but if you’re in Canada you won’t be able to see it, because the Viacom honchos are punishing you for having a government that insists on cultural protections.

In a similarly disrespectful Simpsons episode, Krusty the Clown, styled like an early George Carlin (7 words) is burning his money to protest selling out (S09E15, The Last Temptation of Krust). Here’s his standup act:

There’s nothing those Madison Avenue grave robbers won’t do to get us to buy their crap.

[Applause + Homer: Repeat Churchill]

Well, here’s $1 those crooks aren’t gonna get their hands on!

[crowd shocked; Cop: umm, isn’t that illegal?]

I don’t care if it is illegal, I’m making a stand here! Who’s with me?

[Homer colleague: I am! I worked like a dog for this! He burns a banknote and everyone follows suit]

Seymour’s mother: Ohh! You’re burning it all wrong, Seymour!

Principal Skinner: It’s my allowance, mother, and I’ll burn it the way I want!

H omer, burning a pile of banknotes: Take that, you greedy fat cats! Marge, give me your purse!

I can’t really post the videoclip as I run the risk of getting banned for copyright infringement, but I can show you a few screencaps from this particular sequence:

Krusty ends up selling out again for a brand new “Canyonero”, an excellent parody of the SUV. Watch the end-song below.

What is it with burning money? Could it be that such gestures are specifically chosen to wake us up from our mindless materialism and to force us to examine our dysfunctional relationship with money, a simple tool?

Sources / More info: wiki-krust, tds-mat-perry

Cracanel, canyonero, money, sell out, sellout, sell-out, selling out, protest, currency, coin, bank note, banknote, bancnota, gold