Entry tags:

jambar, television

the boondocks: edgy as safety scissors
I'm so burned out on writing criticism that I don't even know why I bother anymore. Self-loathing? Thursday's article guarantees to be a veritable chuckle-fest. I still haven't decided if I like this one, though.

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Since the inception of the Adult Swim programming block in 2001, college students have been able to tune into Cartoon Network on Sunday nights for hours of absurdist entertainment mostly spawned by the brand of humor of 1990s cult hit “Space Ghost: Coast to Coast.” Things aren’t much different four years later; some of the newer additions to the programming block include a family of backwoods southern squids, an alcoholic, crudely-drawn mouse, and an insane mayor torturing his put-upon doormat of a “friend.” There are a few exceptions to the surrealism on Adult Swim, though; shows such as “The Venture Bros.” and “Stroker and Hoop” have surfaced on the network in the last few years to offer a more structured and less Andy Kaufman-esque take on the typical Adult Swim comedy. “The Boondocks,” based on Aaron MacGruder’s newspaper strip of the same name, is the newest traditional comedy on Adult Swim, and marks what may be the most subdued show in Adult Swim’s history. Unfortunately, this low-key tone, along with a few other flaws, really holds “The Boondocks” back from being a much better cartoon.

The first episode of “The Boondocks” quickly introduces the three main characters: the grandfather, simply known as “Granddad,” is a tough-love authority figure from the old school. He lives in a suburban neighborhood with his freshly-relocated grandsons: Huey, an intelligent, observational child (although this seems to change from episode to episode), and Riley, a hell-raiser with a penchant for conspiracy theories and outrage at injustice. While the “fish out of water” scenario would be the most obvious route to take this show - with three black characters living in an upscale white neighborhood - “The Boondocks” is content in treading bold new ground by offering no interesting takes on issues that have been done to death.

The first episode to air focused on class and race differences, as Granddad, Huey and Riley are invited to a dinner party held by a rich white banker. Granddad tries to make a good impression at the party, while Huey wanders around telling the guests the truth about various things with the intent to shock them; instead, the guests find him adorable. In an incredibly contrived instance, the rich banker’s son – returning from Iraq - invites Riley up to his room, and dares Riley to shoot him to in an effort to prove his machismo. Luckily, the former soldier is wearing body armor, everyone has a good laugh, and Granddad and the banker learn that what really connects them are their annoying children. This ending was coated with a treacly “most people are good on the inside” message, which was far from what I was expecting from a show that Adult Swim promised would push the envelope more than a reliable postal service worker. Really, if you took out all of the instances of the word “nigga,” this episode could have aired at 8:00PM on CBS, or perhaps could have replaced the equally lame Nick at Nite Cartoon “Fatherhood” without anyone noticing.

There is one element of The Boondocks that could be considered edgy and somewhat interesting, and this element is characterized in Uncle Ruckus, a rowdy and lewd African-American friend of Granddad who hates black people. Ruckus’s insane rants about his race are the best part of “The Boondocks,” because so much humor can come out of racism when the ridiculousness of it is pointed out. “The Boondocks” kind of cops out in this respect, by informing the viewer at every opportunity just why Ruckus is wrong. Not only is this insulting, but when someone like Granddad tries to rationalize with Ruckus, it drags the show down into a point/counterpoint style of writing, which sadly is not just a problem with Uncle Ruckus.

The writing style of “The Boondocks” seems to be along the lines of “here’s an issue, now let’s provide various arguments on both sides of said issue.” This wouldn’t be a problem if the dialogue was better, but characters will often launch into long speeches about whatever the issue of the episode happens to be, which feels very artificial. In fact, Cartoon Network could save a lot of money on animation if all of the characters delivered their dialogue from podiums in a dark room; it honestly wouldn’t affect the tone of the show. An exchange between Riley and a lawyer about underage sex in the second episode was particularly offensive, not because of the subject matter, but because of the forced high school debate team quality of the exchange. With a little work, it’s possible to show the different views on a subject without being so blatant.

Nothing is more disappointing to me than when a cartoon is not very good, mainly because of all the time and effort it takes to create something like “The Boondocks,” the most expensive Adult Swim original. The show is just too slow, unforgivably preachy, and inconsistent (especially with Huey) to be worth watching. It’s funny; the same night I watched an episode of “The Boondocks,” I also watched an episode of “Squidbillies” that also focused on race. In the episode, the squids are having a “white hate rally,” until their white sheriff friend shows up to tell them about all of the things white people have brought to the world. The examples given by the sheriff are the slam dunk being invented by Larry Bird, and rap music being made possible only through the injustice of the white police state. Racism is not inherently funny, but creatively pointing out the stupidity of racism is. Maybe if “The Boondocks” had a little more of that Adult Swim surrealism, it wouldn’t be so offensively boring.