HERE'S AN IDEA:
The Boondocks is the greatest political cartoon in history, and produces more of a world statement than any before it.
First of all, a lot of the readers here might be wondering what the heck The Boondocks is. It was a comic strip produced by Aaron McGruder back when he was at the College of Maryland. The strip turned out to be a big success, so he started to pitch ideas for his creation to be made into a syndicated comic strip for major newspapers and an animated TV series – he got his wish both times.
Here's a sample of the comic strip:
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| Well gee, when you put it like that...! |
The comic strip continued to be a huge success across the United States, appearing in major newspapers from 1999 to 2006, spanning a successful seven years of circulation. The comic strip itself was a brief and snappy political comic that would commonly tackle trending topics in a satirical fashion. Occasionally it would approach matters of racism or ignorance in adults as the comic is centred around a young African-American boy named Huey, who is shockingly aware of the world for his age. Him and his brother Riley live with their grandfather in an all-white community in America, so naturally McGruder liked to occasionally poke fun at the racial minority he created, and to make fun of the general paranoia of some white Americans.
This all sounds rather ... controversial? While the comic would raise a few brows here and there, it was normally pretty well-received – how does one produce a political comic without being met with backlash, right? The real controversy started, however, when McGruder finally managed to partner with Sony Pictures and produce the first season of The Boondocks for Cartoon Network's "grownup" block, Adult Swim. The show was met with a lot of criticism and people sent threats and hate mail to Cartoon Network – the show was extremely faithful to its source material, and it was not afraid to flex its political muscles and mock whatever political stance, ethnicity, and pop culture issue it could get its hands on. That certainly sounds rather controversial. | |
| All critical thinking aside, the art style and animation is awesome! |
Is this really a bad thing, though? The Boondocks is controversial, sure, but for being in the mindlessly violent and vulgar nighttime block for Cartoon Network, it was probably the most intelligent TV series on at the time of its airing (2004-2010), and probably even in Adult Swim's history. The Boondocks is a 22-minute political cartoon through and through. Every episode opens with an issue or focus for the characters to discuss and make fun of – but that's usually where a political comic will end; it will state an issue to talk about, complain about it, and then leave the reader to ponder the issue themselves. The Boondocks takes this a step further, and in the best possible way.
A TV show couldn't only be 22 minutes of mocking political matters, pointing out the stupidity of celebrities, and showing off how racist people are – it needs substance and story. Adult Swim president Matt Lazzo bought up McGruder's idea for The Boondocks as a TV show, but he deemed the show was too "networky." That is to say it would cut away to an issue and make fun of it without providing any closure or final opinion, a la Family Guy. Lazzo wanted the show to "just tell stories," so McGruder did just that. It made The Boondocks into one of the most insightful and loud-speaking TV shows in the last decade, and probably will be equally insightful a century from now.
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| I'm pretty sure this is socially acceptable. |
This all sounds like mindless humour in an attempt to get a cheap laugh, but the way the events in the episode lead up to these major moments reflect a dry, political style of humour. Ed and Rummy abuse Ed's fortune to commit organized crimes, as Ed's father owns the bank they "robbed." Ed and Rummy also pack heavy artillery guns and tear up both a bank and a bookstore, the latter which they do not own. Does it sound like a possible mockery of the Second Amendment, by any chance? Even through all of this, Ed and Rummy are caught by the police at the end of the episode, but are met with no repercussions. Stupid rich people not getting in trouble just because they're rich ... hmm, that sounds like a political topic to me!
The Boondocks made sure to keep up with current issues to accentuate its political roots. The first episode of its Season 3 incarnation, It's a Black President, Huey Freeman, loans itself well to being topical in order to create a political stance both neutral and thoughtful. The entire episode is composed of a documentary-based structure where characters in the show are interviewed to get their thoughts on the possibility of Barack Obama becoming president. Referencing the show's racial tendencies, the black people in the show all feel a sense of kinship for having a black president, and the white folk are, of course, being racist. Not once is any reference to Obama's political agenda brought up by any characters, signifying ignorance. When told about his intentions to raise taxes, among other things, the white people interviewed hate him for a legitimate reason, and the black people interviewed don't like Obama anymore. It's a great summarization for the ignorance displayed by the citizens of a country during elections, that perhaps the politicians aren't the only ones to blame for bad decisions being made. It's a great message strewn throughout the episode, and is done in a very humourous manner.
Aaron McGruder himself wrote, on the topic of the show and its excessively racial undertones:
The Boondocks made sure to keep up with current issues to accentuate its political roots. The first episode of its Season 3 incarnation, It's a Black President, Huey Freeman, loans itself well to being topical in order to create a political stance both neutral and thoughtful. The entire episode is composed of a documentary-based structure where characters in the show are interviewed to get their thoughts on the possibility of Barack Obama becoming president. Referencing the show's racial tendencies, the black people in the show all feel a sense of kinship for having a black president, and the white folk are, of course, being racist. Not once is any reference to Obama's political agenda brought up by any characters, signifying ignorance. When told about his intentions to raise taxes, among other things, the white people interviewed hate him for a legitimate reason, and the black people interviewed don't like Obama anymore. It's a great summarization for the ignorance displayed by the citizens of a country during elections, that perhaps the politicians aren't the only ones to blame for bad decisions being made. It's a great message strewn throughout the episode, and is done in a very humourous manner.
Aaron McGruder himself wrote, on the topic of the show and its excessively racial undertones:
“This isn't the n#%@a show. N#%@a, n#%@a, n#%@a,
n#%@a, n#%@a. I just wish we would expand the dialogue and evolve past
the same conversation that we've had over the past 30 years about race
in our country. And I just hope to expand the dialogue and hope the
show will challenge people to think about things they wouldn't normally
think about, or think about it in a very different way.”
It's pretty obvious this guy doesn't create to serve politics. I think it's very much the other way around.
And I think we need more people like this: someone bent on making a statement – an offensive and hurtful and, most importantly, a real statement. Just because you're offended doesn't mean you're right, and the Boondocks is the very illustration of this, that a less popular opinion is just as important in an argument as a popular opinion. McGruder's avant-garde creation shows that politics is full of paradoxes, that white people are wrong and black people are wrong. Ultimately, it's an eye-opener to the fact we're all just people trying to make our mark on the world. And sometimes even that goal isn't met, because people will step on one another to achieve that.
The Boondocks brings to fruition a plethora of new opportunities for mainstream entertainment to take. When you can get away with racial slurs on public television, what limit do you really have? Some people are easily offended and think this was a horrible, disrespectful show. They don't see that this show obviously isn't supposed to be taken seriously in what's shown right in front of you – 11-year-olds aren't accustomed to chasing their little brothers with samurai swords, after all. That being said, the show is still a fun parody on our modern world, being intentionally offensive to highlight the harsh fact our world is offensive and wrong. The Boondocks isn't afraid to let the world know we're under the rule of idiots, that we're idiots sometimes, and that a minority idea isn't always a bad one. It is the political statement for the 21st century, right here and right now.
Or if we're too lazy to read into a cartoon from 2004 that closely, we can all just agree with Huey Freeman and be done with it: "Jesus was black, Ronald Reagan was the Devil, and the government is lying about 9/11."
Season 4 of The Boondocks is premiering sometime this year too. Can't wait!
~WILL
The Boondocks brings to fruition a plethora of new opportunities for mainstream entertainment to take. When you can get away with racial slurs on public television, what limit do you really have? Some people are easily offended and think this was a horrible, disrespectful show. They don't see that this show obviously isn't supposed to be taken seriously in what's shown right in front of you – 11-year-olds aren't accustomed to chasing their little brothers with samurai swords, after all. That being said, the show is still a fun parody on our modern world, being intentionally offensive to highlight the harsh fact our world is offensive and wrong. The Boondocks isn't afraid to let the world know we're under the rule of idiots, that we're idiots sometimes, and that a minority idea isn't always a bad one. It is the political statement for the 21st century, right here and right now.
Or if we're too lazy to read into a cartoon from 2004 that closely, we can all just agree with Huey Freeman and be done with it: "Jesus was black, Ronald Reagan was the Devil, and the government is lying about 9/11."
Season 4 of The Boondocks is premiering sometime this year too. Can't wait!
~WILL