Boondocks

Look man, people gotta start stayin’ up late on Sunday nights!

The rebel mastermind behind the tell-it-like-it-is comic strip Boondocks has turned his comic strip into a full length cartoon that airs Sunday nights on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim set. Aaron McGruder has delivered an outrageous, but truly insightful, look at the society we live in.

I have admired McGruder for a handful of years now. Not only for his comic strip, but for his no-nonsense, straight-talking manner. I’ve watched him speak on several occasions, and on each one he held no punches.

Look, one time I saw him on a panel of esteemed men in the Black community speaking to middle-teens. Towards the end of his speech, he’d gotten really real with the young people. He finished by saying something along this line: “Look, I’m a critic…I’m not here to tell you that you can do it, ‘cause maybe you can’t!”

I was in awe. I could not believe that he would cast doubt on all the hopes and dreams of those aspiring youths. But he was just being real.

And as I understand things, he has an incredible disdain for Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. Well, can you believe that he actually had to sit next to her during a speaking engagement? So what does he say when he gets to the microphone to speak (while Condi is still there)? “Yall think yall funny sittin’ me next to Condoleeza Rice?!!!”

Again, no-holds-barred!

Well his cartoon is no different!

WARNING: You will be offended WARNING: You will be offended
WARNING: You will be offended WARNING: You will be offended
WARNING: You will be offended WARNING: You will be offended
WARNING: You will be offended WARNING: You will be offended
WARNING: You will be offended WARNING: You will be offended
WARNING: You will be offended WARNING: You will be offended

He takes shots at everyone, no matter the race, religion, social class, sexual orientation, job description, shoe size, disability…no one is safe.

But here’s the great thing about it: McGruder is simply presenting an extreme satire on American Culture. And every satire he’s presented thus far, I’ve actually witnessed playing out in real life. No matter how extreme, I’ve seen each scenario. No matter how not-PC, I’ve been witness to every circumstance.

And I sit there laughing my head off while thinking the whole time, “I shouldn’t be laughing at this.” But I do, cuz it’s real, and in the foolishness of the vicissitudes of this life, we all play into many stereotypes and carry on in shameful fashion. And Boondocks cleverly (but excessively) exemplifies this.

In reading previews for the show, I learned that McGruder and comedian Dave Chappelle are decent friends. And among other things, one of the reason that Chappelle canceled his incredibly successful Comedy Central show was because people didn’t understand the complexity of his many skits. Underneath the hilarity of every parody, there were real-life (often racial) implications. And apparently it bothered Chappelle that people (primarily White-America) would just laugh at his jokes and not consider the message he was purveying.

So what! McGruder is poised to tell it like it is, and he doesn’t care if you get it. I think McGruder said of the cartoon that either it’s going to be a big hit, or it’s going to be a big failure, there’s no inbetween.

Well, in my book he’s already knocking ‘em out the ballpark!

So in the half-hour space after watching 2 hours of ABC’s Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy Sunday nights, make sure to click over to the Cartoon Network and catch Boondocks at 11pm!

-Maelstrom

The Sidebar
Being the avid Michigan fan that I am, I have a deeply engrained disdain for Notre Dame (just a little bit less than I do for Ohio State). Despite being a not-top-ten team all season (I’d argue that maybe they deserve the 10 spot now, but shouldn’t have been ranked that high previously), they somehow find themselves in a guaranteed BCS spot. I don’t think they deserve the spot anymore than Fresno State (a team that also pushed USC to its brink, but doesn’t have the good graces of voter bias in their favor like ND), and certainly not Oregon (why do the pollsters hate on the Pac-10 so much). However, that’s not even what has made me to further dislike ND this season. The administrators at the school have somehow managed to frustrate me this year.

A few weeks back Notre Dame signed first year Coach Charlie Weis to a 10 year contract, apparently worth between $30 and $40 Million bones. This contract is virtually unheard of in college athletics and is incredibly unwarranted. At the time Weis was awarded this contract, ND had a record of 4 wins and 2 losses. Did I mention this was his first year coaching?

So right now you might think that this is just a minor point, and that it does seem a little silly for ND to sign Weis so early on at ND, with only a few games (including a couple losses) under his belt. But here’s what I’m really frustrated with:

3 seasons ago Notre Dame started the season with an 8 and 0 record under then-Coach Tyrone Willingham. It was also his first season, and he had a 5 year contract. By the end of the 3rd season, after suffering through two tough seasons, Willingham wasn’t even afforded the opportunity to finish out his 5 year contract (normally ND honors the contract, no matter how bad the coaching tenure). Willingham got the axe in a very cruel fashion from ND.

What’s the obvious difference between the 2 coaches? Weis is White and Willingham is Black.

Now certainly there are other factors at play. Willingham wasn’t the first choice for coach at the time he was hired by ND. He was hired by default when a scandal arose around the original choice for coach. So he was never endeared by the ND administration. Actually he was once he started out 8-0 and took ND to its first bowl game in years, but that immediately soured once they started to lose. The other thing to note is that Weis comes in with a resume that includes being a coordinator on the thrice Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots team. So he looks to have a bright future.

But all things being equal, if Weis is such a good coach, and his NFL background is so amazing, why in the world does his ND team have 2 losses when Willingham’s had none at the same point in the season. Plus Willingham cultivated many of the players that Weis now has. That means that Willingham was winning with a less experienced team, and Weis has losses with a more experienced team.

So why the big contract extension?

Though I think there are many political reasons for it, I can’t overlook race as a factor since this is occurring at ND. Notre Dame has a history of overt and subcutaneous racism. For many years ND wouldn’t allow Black athletes to participate in sports. And recently as 1999, a major Black hometown recruit that I’m acquainted with noted that ND basically tried to scare him away by threatening him with the Calculus requirement. Essentially saying that we don’t think you can pass the class, and if you can’t pass Freshmen Calculus, then you can’t play for us.

There’s no valid justification for Weis’s contract except his potential. Unfortunately for him I think his potential will crumble once Willingham’s product that Weis is currently benefiting from, QB Brady Quinn, enters the NFL draft.