Didn't you say that we would lose money after filming?

A feeling called 'jealousy' changed him beyond recognition.

If I had not looked down on the two thousand yuan at that time, I would have chosen to sign up as well.

Am I the one who is popular now?

He was puzzled. How could a cheesy skit that seemed to have no substance and was filled with vulgar jokes have such great power?
He doesn't understand.

In his opinion, this skit was even less critical than his own satirical video.

Isn’t his work ironic? Isn’t it ironic that the Spring Festival Gala is getting worse year by year and is just whining without any reason?

Why is this skit being discussed so much that it directly ranks first on the hot search list?

He turned off the live broadcast and was in a daze for a while.

And it was at this time that a tag on the hot search attracted his attention.

That is, it will be performed by another sketch artist who also appeared on the Spring Festival Gala and became a household name, but is now a retired celebrity.

Teacher Cai An.

She published an article titled "Why are skits so popular?"

The content is several thousand words long.

Once it was released, it caused huge popularity.

Gou Cun somehow clicked on it and started checking it out.

At this sight, he was stunned.

First, if you want to analyze this sketch, you need to understand the metaphorical construction of its cultural symbols.

The first point is the absurdity of the "Scottish style" hotel.

The name of the hotel itself constitutes a cultural irony - "Scotland" symbolizes the high-end consumer culture of the West, and "mood" refers to the imagination of petty-bourgeois life.

But the actual scene is a collage-like mix of earthen kangs in rural Northeast China, red and green floral fabrics, and waiters wearing Scottish skirts, which alludes to the extensive imitation of "modernization" in urban and rural areas of Hanxia at that time, exposing the dislocation of cultural identity under the wave of globalization.

Then there is the power discourse of the dish’s name.

The absence of high-end dishes such as abalone and lobster in rural restaurants is actually a social metaphor for economic stratification. Farmers use local symbols such as "small pheasant stewed with mushrooms" to resist urban consumerism, reflecting the humorous resistance of the lower-class groups in the urban-rural dual structure to the unfair distribution of resources.

Then there is the black humor of identity anxiety and class breakthrough.

Grandpa’s “performative consumption.

The character Zhao Shanhai's behavior of bribing the waiter to falsify his spending power reveals the alienation of the "face culture" during the social transition period in Hanxia.

Farmers try to use money (even if it is fake) to open up a path to upward mobility, which is actually a deconstruction of the "grassroots counterattack" narrative of civilian talent shows such as "Star" - success requires capital operation, not pure talent.

The “rule breaker” role of the waiter.

The waiter played by Xiao Shengjing is between the authority of the customer and the boss. Through ambiguous words such as "Is this really not available?" and "Is it available or not?", he shows the survival wisdom of the grassroots workers in the cracks of power. His "yin-yang contract" (collecting tips to cooperate with the acting) is an absurd presentation of the unspoken rules of the market.

The next point is verbal violence and comedy carnival

First is the subversive power of dialects.

The colloquial expressions of the Northeastern dialect (such as "howl~" and "designated") undermine the authority of the CCTV stage and form "a short-term occupation of the mainstream field by folk discourse."

The frequent use of the topic of "death" in the lines has become the embodiment of black humor, breaking the previous taboo that it is unlucky to talk about death during the Spring Festival ("people die without spending all their money"), and using black humor to release the collective anxiety of the people in the transition period about the pressure of survival. Structural jokes with semantic dislocation.

The whole play revolves around the binary opposition of "yes/no", creating comic tension through information gap:
Physical level: The restaurant actually has “no” expensive dishes
Psychological level: Grandpa pretends to have spending power

Ethical level: The waiter “yes” accepted bribes but “no” professional ethics

The triple contradictions were finally resolved in Niu Niu's talent show, suggesting that "talent" is the real "have".

Then comes the deconstruction of values ​​in the postmodern context

Demystifying the myth of the national program "Starlight".

The program itself, as a symbol of "common people creating stars", has been reduced to a tool that requires bribes to enter. The host has been downgraded from an "authoritative judge" to an object of calculation by the peasants, exposing the truth of the collusion between media power and private capital.

The dialectical irony of “not lacking money”.

The title "Not Short of Money" is in a paradoxical state throughout the play:
Grandpa is short of money but pretends that he doesn't need it.

The waiter openly looks down on the farmers to show how upper class he is, but he will do things against his conscience for a little money. This also shows and satirizes some specific groups in society.

You are not that good yourself, yet you look down on others.

Then Niuniu finally broke through with her talent rather than money.
This self-negating rhetoric implicitly criticizes the "money is everything" theory - money can buy false decency, but it cannot buy real opportunities.

The social mirror of the symptoms of the times is also very important.

The skit is a collective psychological projection after the financial crisis in 08. The background of the skit is set in the year of the global financial crisis. It just hits the pain of the consumerism expansion period stimulated by Hanxia's "Four Trillion Plan". Even today, it can resonate with people.

Because many people lived through that time, and even though decades have passed, many memories are still fresh.

The characters' fear of "not having all the money" and the embarrassment of "not having enough money" accurately hit the public's anxiety about economic uncertainty.

The cultural collision of urban and rural flows.

Niu Niu's dream of "going to the big city" and her grandfather's expectation of "changing his fate by appearing on "Starlight"" together epitomize the second generation of migrant workers' desire for class transition. The nonsense of Xiao Shengjing's "Scottish noodle soup" is a metaphor for the parody and misunderstanding of urban culture by migrant workers.

There is also a breakthrough in performance form.

The modern transformation of the "Errenzhuan" gene.

The skit incorporates traditional skills of Northeast Errenzhuan such as "speaking" and "unique skills" (such as imitating Xiao Shengjing's voice and Maomao's high notes), but "de-vulgarizes" it through the medium of television, creating a new paradigm of folk art that conforms to mainstream aesthetics.

A dynamic reversal of role relationships.

Power relations are constantly shifting in the play:
Grandpa went from being a planner → a person out of control (forgot to bring money) → a person who confessed.

The waiter went from being bribed → rule breaker → talent competitor.

The host went from being a deceived person to a rule maker to being conquered by talent.

This mobility deconstructs the stable social hierarchy

Finally, Cai An’s conclusion: An existentialist allegory under the shell of comedy
"Not Short of Money" ultimately transcends the satire of specific social phenomena and rises to a philosophical inquiry into the survival dilemma of modern people: when money becomes the only measure of value, when performative survival becomes a universal strategy, how does an individual construct self-identity between reality and illusion? Niu Niu and Xiao Shengjing tear apart the fake dinner with their singing, perhaps suggesting that in an alienated world, art may still be a glimmer of salvation. This profound mixture of sadness and joy is the fundamental reason why it has lasted for so long. 】

When Gou Cun finished reading this review, he finally raised his head in a daze.

He finally realized that he had lost this time.

Lost completely. (End of this chapter)