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Frame from South Park Underpants Gnomes Profit Plan Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed

South Park Underpants Gnomes Profit Plan

Ryan Holota
Comedy
YouTube
Cited on HN 8 times, 2013–2021, never outright recommended score 0
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

HN uses it as a joke shorthand for startups or plans with a missing middle step and no real business model.

The South Park clip in which underpants gnomes explain their three-phase business plan: collect underpants, then a question mark, then profit.

“The South Park underwear gnomes joke was a parody of dot-com startups” (HN, 2015)

1 citations · 1 critical · 6 jokes · Comedy

8 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@wiradikusuma Mar 2014 Pushes back
on HN thread Wanelo: The First Million Users
Call me skeptical, but it reminds me of [this video] Like other commenters have said, how did she, being a non-technical founder with no team, could set up the (what appears to be custom-made) website? It's like going to a hackathon and claim that you build an app within 24 hours, but actually have implemented majority of it beforehand and making it a "library". Anyway, looking at the positive side, had the slides contain more detail, I believe it can be inspiring for many people and not received with skepticisms.
@orionblastar Jan 2013 Makes a joke
on HN thread Beware of Startup Sharks
Many Programmers think all they can do to be a success is just to write code and nothing else. Those who think that fall victim to the startup shark. There is more to a startup than just writing code, otherwise you just have an Underpants Gnome business plan. [this video] Phase 1: Write Code Phase 2: ? Phase 3: Profit!
@rosenjon Feb 2013 Makes a joke
on HN thread The “It” Crowd Doesn’t Like Me and I Finally Don’t Care
If name dropping high profile people is an important part of your businesses marketing strategy, then it seems reasonable to pursue that <i>if it leads to more revenue/profit</i> I think OP's issue relates to the weird, self-referential culture of Silicon Valley, where success is measured in buzz and money raised. It goes something like: Build free software product -> ? -> profit where ? = Get lots of buzz/hype, grow userbase quickly, raise VC money Or course, this is similar to another business plan: [this video]
@unclebucknasty Sep 2013 Makes a joke
on HN thread What did the tech CEO say to the worker he wanted to automate?
Read more
> I think the argument about "hobbies" is a long term one, not one that applies to people who just got laid off. I think that's the reality, but I am not sure that people like White from the article really acknowledge this. That is, he trivializes it by kind of offhandedly suggesting that it is good for people to have these new options open up as a result of losing their jobs. But, in fact, what is required is a radical restructuring of our economy and society at large (including our ideas about work) in order to arrive at what he suggests. This is not a point that can simply be glossed over or assumed if he is being earnest or even remotely serious about addressing the automation issue. Reminds me of this: [this video] . Step one is the automation of workers. Step three is this perfect utopian society, wherein we all just pursue our "hobbies".
@cpursley Sep 2013 Makes a joke
on HN thread Low pay and the rise of the machines
Came here to say the exact same thing; thanks for saying it better than I ever could. I don't get the basic income thing - pay people to not work? What? Where's the money come from? How to you prevent massive inflation and a massive decrease in economic output as people quit their jobs? Who decides who gets this basic income? This all reminds me of a south park episode: [this video]
@cmroanirgo Sep 2018 Makes a joke
on HN thread Posts on Google
I think it's the underpants gnomes profit model[0]: Step 1. Collect underpants Step 2. ??? Step 3. Profit [0] [this video]

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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