# Origin of 3.Profit!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-3-profit/308194
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 14, 2005, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-3-profit/308194 "2005-06-14T07:42:28Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2005, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-3-profit/308194/1 "2005-06-14T07:42:28Z")
Step 1. Do this
Step 2. Do this unrelated thing
Step 3. Profit!
Where’s this from?
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2005, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-3-profit/308194/2 "2005-06-14T07:45:22Z")
It is from the _South Park_ episode wherein Tweak’s underpants drawer is repeatedly pillaged by the nefarious Underpants Gnomes. When they are discovered, they present their business plan:
1. Steal underpants.
2. ???
3. Profit!
The Underpants Gnomes all made the fatal mistake of assuming some other Underpants Gnome knew what step two was supposed to be.
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### Author:  [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2005, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-3-profit/308194/3 "2005-06-14T08:16:11Z")
Well, that answers that! Mahalo!
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### Author:  [@zuma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zuma)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2005, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-3-profit/308194/4 "2005-06-14T09:43:50Z")
Are you sure it didn’t predate south park? I seem to remember it in the late 90s on message boards like fuckedcompany when all those idiotic internet companies were around.
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2005, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-3-profit/308194/5 "2005-06-14T10:12:08Z")
> [@zuma](#):
>
> Are you sure it didn’t predate south park? I seem to remember it in the late 90s on message boards like fuckedcompany when all those idiotic internet companies were around.
That episode first aired in 1998. Plenty of time for [fuckedcompany.com](http://fuckedcompany.com) to have a ball with it. 🙂
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### Author:  [@zuma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zuma)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2005, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-3-profit/308194/6 "2005-06-14T11:07:41Z")
Heh… I didn’t realize that episode was so old.
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### Author:  [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2005, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-3-profit/308194/7 "2005-06-14T12:41:49Z")
Besides, [fuckedcompany.com](http://fuckedcompany.com)’s business plan was:
1. Get on the internet.
2. IPO.
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### Author:  [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2005, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-3-profit/308194/8 "2005-06-14T16:57:35Z")
It was a perfect summary of the dot-com boom business plans:
Make website
???
PROFIT!
Just in the interest of completeness, the _South Park_ ep this is from is called _Gnomes_, and first aired December 16, 1998. And the jittery kid’s name is spelled Tweek.
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### Author:  [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2005, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-3-profit/308194/9 "2005-06-14T17:10:05Z")
> [@](#):
>
> And the jittery kid’s name is spelled Tweek.
Too much methamphetamine, no doubt.
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2005, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-3-profit/308194/10 "2005-06-14T17:20:49Z")
> [@UncleBeer](#):
>
> Too much methamphetamine, no doubt.
Caffeine, his dad owns a coffee shop. (All though meth is what it’s supposed to look like).