History WesternAnimation / TheBoondocks

* FabricatedBlackmail
** In "The Red Ball" [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Ed Wuncler I]] to blackmail Huey (who's amazing at kickball) into playing in a kickball game [[AbsurdlyHighStakesGame that will determine the ownership of Woodcrest]], by threatening to show a photoshopped picture of Huey in an embarrassing outfit. Huey doesn't budge. [[note]]Huey decides to play later on, but for unrelated reasons.[[/note]]
** An example that overlaps with AccidentalTruth in "The Passion of Reverend Ruckus". In order to prevent the execution of Shabazz K. Milton Berle, a Black Panther who convicted of a murder he didn't commit, one of Huey's plans involves sending a letter to the Governor claiming that he knows about his gay lover. Huey thinks that he made it up, but when the letter arrives to the Governor's office, it turns out he really does have a gay lover, and so the Governor calls off Shabazz' execution.

* {{Flanderization}}: While not fully given that much characterization when introduced, when Tom makes his debut in "The Trial of R. Kelly" he comes off as a regular, somewhat goody two-shoes of a lawyer, who was, among other things, left speechless in a debate with an eight year old. After that it just went downhill. He finally got some of his dignity back in "A Date with the Booty Warrior".

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The first season is noted to be much different that all that follow, especially in it's tone; the show is much more of a dramedy rather than an overall comedy with the occasional dramatic beat. Other things to note are Huey and Riley's voices being higher pitched (especially the latter's), and the musical score not carrying over; notice how Ruckus's {{Lemitof}} doesn't play at all.

* StopBeingStereotypical: Both this series and the comic strip make regular use of this. A regular [[AnAesop aesop]] and CentralTheme of ''The Boondocks'' is how African-Americans are unjustly oppressed, right to be angry at systemic racism, and need to bring attention to such things as much as possible. At the same time, the comic and the show both criticize African-Americans who play into stereotypes, saying that they're only making things harder for everybody. The latter criticism is best seen in "The Return of the King" where Martin Luther King Jr. goes on a rant decrying the fact that the freedoms he fought so hard for are being taken for granted, even wasted, by the people on whose behalf he fought.

* AnAesop: The OnceASeason StoryArc about [[{{Jerkass}} Colonel Stinkmeaner]] and [[ConflictBall Nigga Moments]] teaches a lesson about the consequences of having a thin skin, [[DisproportionateRetribution pointlessly fighting other people over stupid shit]], and how [[CycleOfRevenge violence begets violence]]:
** "Granddad's Fight": Robert's short fuse eventually led him to kill an annoying (but ultimately harmless) old man, and this only created ''more'' conflicts for him later down the road, as described below.
** "Stinkmeaner Strikes Back": Stinkmeaner's ghost possessed Tom to seek vengeance upon Robert. [[spoiler:And Stinkmeaner was defeated not through violence, but by Huey persuading Ruckus to show [[ThePowerOfFriendship compassion]] towards Stinkmeaner, who rode on ThePowerOfHate.]]
** "Stinkmeaner 3: The Hateocracy": Stinkmeaner's old acquaintances, the Hateocracy, went after the Freemans to avenge Stinkmeaner. [[spoiler:And they were only defeated when someone bothered to [[BoringButPractical call the police and have them arrested]].]]
** "Stinkmeaner: Begun the Clone War Has": Robert finally ends his Nigga Moment by [[spoiler:sparing the life of Stinkmeaner's clone, and agreeing to make peace with each other, letting go of the bad blood and moving on]].

In February 2019, Aaron [=McGruder=] and Seung Eun Kim [[https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2019/02/the-boondocks-comics-back-aaron-mcgruder created some new comic strips]] satirizing the state of American politics and pop culture at the time. Just a few months later in June 2019, [[https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2019/06/sony-return-the-boondocks-creator-aaron-mcgruder it was officially announced]] that a [[ContinuityReboot "reimagining"]] of the animated series was in development at Creator/SonyPicturesAnimation, with [=McGruder=] also returning to produce. The series was slated to premiere in 2022 on Creator/HBOMax, but on February 2, 2022, Cedric Yarbrough [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkzOwrj51r0 confirmed that Sony cancelled the revival,]] leaving the series dead once again.

** Huey becomes less extreme, less aggressively opinionated and becomes wiser; basically, his JerkWithAHeartOfGold activist traits are traded for amplifying his OnlySaneMan traits. This, in turn, leads him to not quite need a foil to mellow him out and point out when he's being hypocritical, which resulted in Michael Caesar not needing to make an appearance.

* ComicBookTime: The characters don't age despite the fact the series takes place in the "present day". Huey should now have been far older than ten when Obama was elected, for example.

* BilingualBackfire: Huey. [[SeriousBusiness High-stakes kickball]]. ''"[[OhCrap I don't like being laughed at.]]"''

* ArtEvolution: Much like ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'', Season 3 improves the animation overall.

** Thelma. In all three versions of the Catcher Freeman story, she participated in a deadly slave revolt against Colonel Lynchwater; although in Robert and Ruckus' versions of the story, she was mostly a DistressedDamsel and a FemmeFatale, respectively. [[spoiler:In the true and final version of the story, she was the rebelling slaves' leader, who actually fought a sword duel with Lynchwater.]]

* {{Catchphrase}}: Several characters have at least one. Also most black characters say "nigga" to the point of it being a VerbalTic:

* CelebrityParadox:
** Robert is voiced by John Witherspoon, yet both ''Film/{{Friday}}'' and ''Soul Plane'' exist in the show:
--> "Grandad, you didn't live that, that's from that movie ''Friday''."
** The faux trailer for ''Soul Plane 2'' states that it stars Witherspoon, as well as Gary Anthony Williams, who voices Uncle Ruckus.
** In the music video for Thugnificent's [[TakeThat "Eff Grandad"]], Robert notices that "he" [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall is played by John Witherspoon]].

** This trope is better illustrated [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HhIJEU-S44 in this video]] regarding how foreign dubs handled the episode "Stinkmeaner Strikes Back". To resume this, all the mentions of "nigger/niggah" are either [[TooLongDidntDub left in English]] (the aforementioned Japanese dub, plus Hungarian, Russian, Polish and German ones]] or translated awkwardly due to either language limitations or censorship (Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and Italian dubs).

* LostInTranslation: Due to the idiomatic nature of both this show and American English, some of the humor is practically difficult to translate to other languages:

** In "Early Bird Special", Granddad is initially optimistic about the idea of being a male escort. Believing he will be up to his neck in horny ladies. However, he quickly discovers that his clients are primarily lonely, middle aged women who are looking for companionship rather than sex. As his "employers" point out, woman have no trouble finding men willing to sleep with them and wouldn't need to pay someone to do it.

** The entire series exists largely to drop the anvils on the black community: 1. Apathy to your lot in life is a self-fulfilling prophecy; 2. Society is structured to disadvantage members of certain groups, usually focusing on the black community, but occasionally others.

** Tom's daughter Jazmine is biracial [[ButNotTooBlack with a mostly white appearance]]. As she's also part of the same "white" culture as Tom, she's confused by Huey's insistence that she's black.

* ButNotTooBlack: Huey points out that the typical virtuous, love interest in a Winston Jermone movie will always be lighter then the ungrateful, Jesus-hating husband.

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Two of Jericho Freeman's kids in "Invasion of the Katrinians", apparently.

** ''Soul Plane'' will be fired on with impunity whenever it comes up. Hell, even UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr took shots at it.
** The most severe were probably "The Hunger Strike" and "The Uncle Ruckus Reality Show" which attacked Creator/{{BET}}, which actually got banned from U.S. broadcast.
** "Pause" is a sucker punch to Creator/TylerPerry's plays and films. It was also banned for similar reasons.
** "It's a Black President, Huey Freeman" was a TakeThat at the "Obama Hype Machine" going into the election, especially at [[Music/TheBlackEyedPeas will.i.am]].
** To UsefulNotes/BarackObama's speech patterns throughout Season 3.

After season 3, there were [[WhatCouldHaveBeen aborted plans]] to give [[EnsembleDarkhorse Uncle Ruckus]] a [[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/362353100/the-uncle-ruckus-movie?ref=nav_search live-action feature film]] via {{Website/Kickstarter}}; however, the project failed to receive enough funding. Aaron [=McGruder=] has also expressed an interest in [[https://www.facebook.com/TheBoonDocksShow/posts/im-aaron-mcgruder-and-this-is-my-boondocks-facebook-page-understandably-theres-a/10156346429499873/ making a video game adaptation]].

In February 2019, Aaron [=McGruder=] and Seung Eun Kim [[https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2019/02/the-boondocks-comics-back-aaron-mcgruder created some new comic strips]] satirizing the state of American politics and pop culture at the time. Just a few months later in June 2019, [[https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2019/06/sony-return-the-boondocks-creator-aaron-mcgruder it was officially announced]] that a [[ContinuityReboot "reimagining"]] of the animated series was in development at Creator/SonyPicturesAnimation, with [=McGruder=] also returning to produce. The series was slated to premiere in 2022 on Creator/HBOMax, but on February 2, 2022, Cedric Yarbrough [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkzOwrj51r0 confirmed that Sony cancelled the revival]], leaving the series dead once again.

** Robert uses his belt rather liberally to discipline his grandsons, especially Riley. Granted though, Riley is very poorly behaved most of the time, but you can't help but think that his Granddad still overdoes it.

** The various stereotypical hip-hop songs, particularly "Booty Butt Cheeks," which [[StupidStatementDanceMix consists of nothing but the title phrase being repeated over and over]].

* StupidStatementDanceMix: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JclTRkd1EI "The Kumite".]]