Underpants Gnomes

Underpants gnomes are the theme of a South Park episode, where satire gets to meet reality. The major point being made is that a plan needs to be thought through. It is precisely what the gnomes haven't done; their three step business plan leaves out the crucial step, the HOW to do it as distinct from WHAT needs to be done.

It applies very well to the American government in Washington, especially the State Department. It achieved a proxy war in the Ukraine, in the hope of breaking Russia and failed. It is simultaneously trying to provoke war between China and Taiwan. How is it going to win a war against two major nuclear powers at the same time? It hasn't thought that bit through. BTW it can't. American armed forces managed to win its attack on Grenada. That's about their limit.

Gnomes ex Wiki 
"Gnomes" is the seventeenth and penultimate episode of the second season of the American animated television series South Park. The 30th episode of the series overall, it originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on December 16, 1998. The episode was written by series co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, along with Pam Brady, and directed by Parker. This episode marks the first appearance of Tweek Tweak and his parents.

In the episode, Harbucks plans to enter the South Park coffee market, posing a threat to the local coffee business owners, the Tweek Parents. Mr. Tweek, scheming to use the boys’ school report as a platform to fight Harbucks, convinces the boys to deliver their school report on the supposed threat corporatism poses to small businesses, moving the South Park community to take action against Harbucks.

"Gnomes" satirizes the common complaint that large corporations lack consciences and drive seemingly wholesome smaller independent companies out of business. Paul Cantor described the episode as "the most fully developed defense of capitalism" ever produced by the show because of various themes in the episode. In the episode, smaller businesses are portrayed as being at least as greedy as their corporate counterparts, while their products are of lower quality compared to the products offered by large corporations. The episode is also known for the nonsensical business plan that the gnomes of the title devise, whose three steps consist of:

1. Collect underpants
2. ?
3. Profit

which later became a common meme used to mock poorly-thought-out business and political strategies...........

Gnomes' three-phase business plan

Phase 1: Collect underpants

Phase 2: ?

Phase 3: Profit

When the boys give their presentation for the vote, they do a report that is completely different from their previous piece. They now say, having spoken to the gnomes, that corporations are good, and are only big because of their great contributions to the world. While speaking, they admit that they did not write the previous paper, which causes Mr. Garrison to be carried away as he lashes out at the boys, telling them they have ruined his life for the last time. Mrs. Tweek applauds their honesty and admits to the same facts herself. She convinces the whole town to try Harbucks Coffee. When everybody does try it, they all agree that Harbucks coffee is better than Tweek's coffee, including Mr. Tweek, who accepts an offer to run the Harbucks shop. Meanwhile, the gnomes continue to steal underpants from the oblivious townspeople.

 Theme

Contrary to the anti-corporate propaganda normally coming out of Hollywood, South Park argues that, in the absence of government intervention, corporations get where they are by serving the public, not by exploiting it...................

Cultural impact
Following the episode's release, the underpants gnomes, and particularly the business plan lacking a second stage between "Collect underpants" and "Profit", became widely used by many journalists and business critics as a metaphor for failed, internet bubble-era business plans^[9][10][11] and ill-planned political goals.^[12][13][14] Cantor said "no episode of South Park I have taught has raised as much raw passion, indignation, and hostility among students as 'Gnomes' has. I'm not sure why, but I think it has something to do with the defensiveness of elitists confronted with their own elitism."^[4] In January 2013, when it was announced that Parker and Stone were opening a new production studio, Important Studios, both the pair and their investors were jokingly compared to the gnomes included in "Gnomes".^[15][16]

Elon Musk referenced the underpants gnomes' plan in his presentation on Mars conquest in September 2016.^[17]

Mark Painter compared the "plan lacking a second stage" of socialism between "capitalism creates alienated labor and pauperism" and "socialist revolution leading to world communist utopia" to the underpants gnomes in his "History of The Twentieth Century Podcast" episode 271 "The Roots of Fascism" in which he compares and contrasts socialism, liberalism, conservatism and fascism.^[18]
UNQUOTE
Interesting; relevant too with the Lunatic Fringe ascendancy.