The Boondocks

I rented this from Netflix and was surprised at its quality.  I  had never been too impressed with the comic strip - except that Sunday edition when it was predicted that UPN's black version of "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire" was going to be called "Gimme Dat Money." There are now (2013) three seasons of it, each better then the last..

It turns out that Aaron McGruder, the creator of the Boondocks, went to University of Maryland, College Park, and originally published the cartoon in the school newspaper, the Diamondback.

It features the trio of grandfather Robert Freeman, older grandson Huey (above right), and younger grandson Riley (above left).  Huey is the more introspective and intellectual of the three, while Riley has the cocky rap attitude (and loves the gangsta rappers, e.g. Ganstalicious and Thugnificent, not that he's riding their dicks or anything).  Huey seems to like nunchakus and practices some form of martial arts, though it's never explained which one it is, how he learned it, or what level he's reached.  They've been moved from the 'hood to the 'burbs and are now in a somewhat different environment.  They have several intriguing neighbors.

Tom DuBois. The local DA, a light-skinned black of soft-spoken manners who married a white woman.  Their daughter is Jazmine, somewhat of a lightweight compared to Huey.  His wife has a major crush on Usher.

Ed & Rummy.  Ed is the grandson of "The Man", Mr. Wunzler, who - for all intents and purposes - runs the town.  He just got back from Iraq, where he claims he - along with his buddy Rummy - were in "special ops" (if so, that explains why the war hasn't been going too well. But it sounds like bullshit to me).  The two of them talk like blacks - lots like Eminem - yet bust on them for doing exactly what they themselves are doing (super wacked out racial hypocrisy).  They tend to rob banks and stuff and get away with it because Ed's grandfather basically owns the police, usually some really STUPID plan that Riley is all for but Huey considers ill-advised.  In one episode they tried to kidnap Oprah, but got Maya Angelou instead (who kicks their asses).  Ultimately they wound up with Bill Cosby - who no one wants.
   Granpa and Wunzler get along pretty well - apparently Granpa's theory that "the way to win over white people is to give them nice cheese" actually DID work with Wunzler.

Gangstalicious and Thugnificent.  Two of the fictional rappers who enter the story (Usher and Ghostface Killa, we know, are real).  Gangstalicious turns out to be..not what he claimed (he appears to favor "homeys" over "hos").  Thugnificent came from Terra Bella, Georgia - so poor that people even ran around naked - to Woodcrest, and brought his ghetto with him, much to Granpa's disgust.  Riley is a major fan of both.  Huey doesn't seem to care much for rap music - nor does old school Granpa, of course.

Uncle Ruckus.  Easily the most twisted and least politically correct.  He's basically an old, crazy black guy who constantly rips on blacks and claims that whites are superior.  He claims to have "vitiligo", some bizarre disease which makes his otherwise white skin turn black, "the opposite of what Michael Jackson has." Count on him to articulate all the worst prejudices and negative racial stereotypes everyone believes about blacks, even blacks themselves - in the craziest, most colorful language.

A Pimp Called Slickback.  No, not "Slickback", he insists on being referred to as "A Pimp Called Slickback." McGruder isn't ashamed to make him black, nor to dress him just as outlandishly as we would expect a pimp to dress.  He does, however, offer a surprisingly informative array of advice and information.  He reminds me of Eddie Murphy's classic SNL character Velvet Jones, author of "Kicked in Da Butt By Love" and "How to Be A Ho".

"Nigga" tends to be thrown around fairly often, but in the colloquial self-referent context of blacks, not used by whites (except by Ed & Rummy).  I noticed that although Huey has his share of "fight the power" angles, the de rigeur Che Guevara and Malcolm X posters, etc., he also has limited tolerance for blacks behaving badly.  In fact, in the episode which - somehow, I can't remember how - Martin Luther King, Jr. returns to contemporary US society, MLK is shocked and disgusted with the state of the black community, and condemns the blacks as "ignorant niggas." Likewise, in an earlier episode, Huey declines to come to R. Kelly's defense - "the man peed on a girl!  He's not Nelson Mandela!"

According to McGruder's worldview, YES, "The Man" does exist and is trying to keep down the black man.  As Ronald Reagan explained to Uncle Ruckus in a dream, "God hates niggas!" But just about as much of the blacks' problems arise from their own idiotic behavior.  In fact, there's even a name for the occasion when otherwise normal, intelligent black people suddenly lose their common sense and succumb to their most base emotions: "nigga moment".  It's bad enough the system is already biased against them, but God save them from their own stupidity.  Sometimes Riley and Granpa are part of the problem (can't blame Ed & Rummy for everything!)

BET (Black Entertainment Television) features in some episodes, and is supposedly expressly designed to spew out the worst possible crap imaginable, in a deliberate attempt to ruin blacks with complete shit to rot and corrupt their minds.  UPN comes in a close second.

My favorite episode is the one with the crazy woman, Luna, who Granpa met through Internet dating.  It turns out she's a master of White Lotus Kung Fu and won a "kumite" - the mythical/legendary death match, as seen in Bruce Lee's "Enter the Dragon" and the "Mortal Kombat" video games.  Once they determine that Granpa's date is a crazy - though stunningly attractive - killer woman, the issue becomes, "how on earth are we supposed to get rid of her?"

Overall, extremely well done and very funny.  I only wish McGruder would continue it further.