One of the funniest things about the pop culture references in the show was that there were no Star Wars references (until after McGruder left), even though we know McGruder is a huge Star Wars nerd and the comic was full of them.
edited 21st Aug '16 10:07:55 PM by KnownUnknown
"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.
Didn't Huey paraphrase a quote from Obi-Wan? Or was that only in the comics?
I've found that one of my favorite depicitions of Huey in the show was in the episode "...Or Die Trying". It helps that his goal is mundane. He's not trying to overthrow the white hiearchy or anything, he's just trying to stop a bad movie. There's a funny moment where he realizes that he left his nunchucks in the restroom while washing his hands. It's nice to see a smart character make a dumb mistake like that. Finally, when he tries to encourage the theater employees to fight for better conditions, it ends up getting them all fired. He's more fallible in that episode than he usually is, without being a complete jerkass or an exaggerated parody.
Speaking of the comics, I enjoyed reading them all online a year ago, although I preferred the earlier strips (1999-2001). Although I did like Caesar, it seemed that after he was introduced, and especially after 9/11, 90% of the comics just boiled down to Huey and Caesar bashing BET and Bush, which got really repetitive and tiresome after a while.
After giving it a bit of thought, I think the best way the series could have introduced Caesar post-Season 3 without making him seem like he was intruding into the dynamic would be to embrace how oddly perfect a remedy he is for Huey's problems. Set him up as the new kid who quickly becomes Huey's friend and brings a little hope, camaraderie and the drive to act back into his life, and then start dropping hints that maybe he's more like the White Shadow: maybe he's not real and just in Huey's head, or maybe he's unreal and there's something we don't know about him.
I keep imagining a perfect ending to an intro episode, where Huey ignores the White Shadow and it's set up as Huey starting to grow past his paranoia and apathy... and then right at the end Caesar turns and stares (or better yet, glares) straight at him when Huey isn't looking.
The main downside (among others) is that would keep Caesar from interacting with the other characters too much, which is a shame because contrasting Caesar with Riley is always great.
edited 31st Aug '16 1:29:01 AM by KnownUnknown
"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.
Or, they could make Huey the same irrational radical that he was in the comics, with Caesar being his voice of reason. Either way though, his jovial nature would still be a good contrast to Huey's stone-cold stoicism.
Who would be a good voice for Mike Caesar? As I suggested earlier, I imagine that he would sound like Phil Lamarr.
I wasn't talking about what personality he should have, or what his character dynamic ought to be with Huey. I was talking about how they ought to insert him into the character dynamics - as I've pointed out before, if there was a season five because of how long the series went on and how strongly it set up the characters' personalities, sticking Caesar in as simply as his comics intro would result in a lot of problems due to it not really working with the atmosphere of the series.
It's really annoying to think about, but Ceasar runs a credible risk of looking like a Cousin Oliver. The most effective solution to fitting him in would be to just create a new show that's not specifically connected to the first (a la a lot of comic strip series that get adapted), but it wouldn't necessarily be the best solution.
edited 10th Sep '16 8:54:39 PM by KnownUnknown
"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.
Rebooting the show to include Caesar does make some sense. Especially for most fans who want to forget that Season 4 ever happened.
What would work better for reviving this show, a straight continuation, or a continuity reboot?
Straight continuation. There's not that much continuity to reboot.
Though as someone else stated, given the controversy surrounding Season 4, it could be removed from the continuity without the fans caring.
After The Boondocks and Black Jesus, Aaron McGruder is creating another TV show, this time as an Amazon Prime original: Black America
. Apparently it's an Alternate History about post-Civil War America, but with a much different premise from another upcoming show (Confederate on HBO).
I have an Amazon Prime subscription, though I doubt I'd really bother to watch this. If I do, I would expect it to have at least some of the satire of The Boondocks. I would be disappointed if it didn't.
edited 27th Aug '17 10:22:06 AM by AHI-3000
-reads-
but passively accepts Mcgruder's vague reasons for not being able to do so.
A Boondocks video game? I wonder what shape that would take. Third-person action adventure?
Edited by Soble on Sep 5th 2018 at 10:39:36 AM
I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
He mentioned the "[Apple] App Store" in that post, so I presume that it's a mobile game for phones and tablets. So probably going to be a relatively simple, low-budget game.
They should pretend season four never happened, because it threw out a lot of character development that Ruckus obtained. In fact, they really need to tone down the flanderization and give these people some needed characterization back.
I imagine a Boondocks video game would be the same approach as Stick Of Truth, that is turning the universe the characters are in into an RPG and having the characters as different classes that explore their way through it. Simply because an RPG gives the most amount of time for both character humor and plot humor in that way.
However, I wholeheartedly believe a Boondocks fighting game would be - as the scientists say - dope as fuck.
"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.
Bushido Brown vs the Hateocracy would be fucking awesome in video game form!
...
It's a shame licensed console games are all-but dead. I wouldn't mind a Boondocks game.
So, it's been making the rounds but The Boondocks (the comic) is back on a minor basis, with a set of strips about Trump (another set featuring Ruckus as one of Trump's staff, under arrest) and a few about R. Kelly.
McGruder and Seung Kim are basically making these as a hobby, so they're going to make more but aren't making it a commitment.
Well, it's like his style has become more anime.
It’s being drawn by Seung Kim, who did the animation for the animated series.
Huey's way more expressive too, even in comparison to the tv series.
Edited by KnownUnknown on Feb 9th 2019 at 10:55:50 AM
"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.
The Boondocks have new comic strips now? At this rate, I would be pleasantly surprised if the TV show somehow also returned (maybe through a revival on Netflix?).
Edited by AHI-3000 on Feb 19th 2019 at 7:47:36 AM
I think Boondocks should get the Netflix treatment.
Does anyone remember that Psycho Star Wars Guy from the comics? Imagine how he'd react to the latest Star Wars movie.