History YMMV / TheBoondocks

* AluminumChristmasTrees: "Re-vitiligo" is a real condition- though its actual scientific name is "lentigo," and is more commonly known as liver spots.[[note]]Which, ironically, means that Uncle Ruckus isn't lying when he says he has it, since he has some liver spots on his head.[[/note]] It's typically caused by sun damage to the skin, and older people are more prone to having it.

* InferredHolocaust: During the Season 3 finale, ''It's Goin' Down'', Ed Wunclear I states that the only person who would have died when he blew up his building would be the receptionist. This should go without saying, but you can't destroy a building without collateral damage. Yet, the episode glosses over the idea of people being hit by falling debris.

*** On a less-topical note, the comic also dated itself by references to technology of the time. For example, the boys started out playing games on an original UsefulNotes/PlayStation before eventually upgrading to a UsefulNotes/PlayStation2, with occasional references to other consoles from the [[UsefulNotes/TheSixthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames 6th Generation]].

** Rollo Goodlove, for always proving himself to be a delightful MagnificentBastard in his three appearances.

** Music/CeeLoGreen isn't even a professional actor, yet he still gives a great performance as MagnificentBastard Rollo Goodlove.

* MagnificentBastard:
** [[ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything Reverend Rollo Goodlove]] is a [[StrawCharacter straw liberal activist]] whose motivations behind his multiple causes are [[{{Greed}} money]] and [[AttentionWhore publicity]]. First appearing in "The S-Word", Rollo convinces the Freemans to sue Mr. Petto for using a "racial slur" on Riley, and prolonging the issue by collaborating with Ann Colter in orchestrating a political debate. In "The Hunger Strike" he convinces Huey to continue his hunger strike in the kid's efforts to boycott ''Creator/{{BET}}'', only to abandon his cause once the network gives Rollo his own TV sitcom. Helping the Freemans once again in "The New Black", he manages to convince the public that Riley is a special needs child using the word "gay" to describe things he doesn't like, switching their ire to those who sued Riley for saying the slur. While the beliefs in his causes might not be genuine, his charisma and master planning are, making Rollo one of the most likable masterminds on the show.
** "[[Recap/TheBoondocksS1E12RileyWuzHere Riley Wuz Here]]": The "[[NoNameGiven Art Teacher]]" is a former ShellShockedVeteran turned crook who moonlights as an educator. Upon overseeing Riley spray painting a house, he immediately takes a liking to him and takes him under his wing. Teaching Riley basic drawing before moving out a bigger canvas, he has Riley paint several beautiful murals on various homes. Proposing on the last night to paint someone who isn't in the picture anymore, he has Riley paint a mural of his deceased parents. When the police show up, the art teacher shoots their tires and takes off. Despite only appearing in one episode, the art teacher stood out as one of the most soft spoken antagonists and provided one of the most touching scenes in the show.

* ValuesDissonance:
** Riley's catchphrase "Nigga, you gay" would be considered a lot more homophobic nowadays than it was in the early 2000s, where homophobic insults were a lot more common. Though this is somewhat subverted by the fact that his homophobia is supposed to be the joke, and that it's immature and ridiculous, and emblematic of fragile masculinity. This is further lampshaded and deconstructed in the last episode of Season 4, "The New Black", when Riley's infamous catchphrase lands him in a lot of trouble with LGBT activists.
** In both the comic strip and the cartoon, Robert would threaten to commit acts of child abuse on his grandsons, such as threatening to "violate some child abuse laws" when Riley asked for a gun while he was watching his stories during the story arc where Riley wanted to join the NRA, or threatening to "beat Huey till the cops come and beat me" when Huey repeatedly asked if his grandfather did drugs. There were also moments where Robert would spank Riley, such as one instance where Riley didn't want to go to school, or the scene from "Smokin' With Cigarettes" where he spanked Riley for hanging out with Lamilton. These scenes were played for laughs, but nowadays it would suicidal to portray such punishment as funny.
** In "Guess Hoe's Coming to Dinner"
*** Robert teaches a single mother how to give her child a whuppin', leading to her spanking her son ''in front of several shoppers'', most of which laugh at the sight. Today, the mother would be kicked out of the store or banned for doing such an action in public, and the shoppers would report to higher authority about such an action being done, if there weren't any security cameras present.
*** The episode has some very sexist undertones in addition to a clear disdain for sex workers. Huey and Riley spend some scenes debating whether or not most or all women are "hoes." Robert's latest crush, Cristal, who is a "hoe" of some kind is portrayed as a loud mouth, gold digging leech on Granddad who willingly chooses to remain with her pimp (i.e. human trafficker) instead of someone who loves her. While sex work as a whole remains controversial, it's well known now that most people turn to it out of need more than want. If this episode were to come out today, Cristal would probably be given a much more sympathetic showing than just some promiscuous woman who plays with men's hearts.

** The strip has also been compared to a black version of ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}''. Huey (and sometimes Caesar) even mutter [[CatchPhrase "Good grief"]] occasionally, the first time being [[https://www.gocomics.com/boondocks/2001/06/08 in response to some of Riley's latest stupidity]].

* ViewerNameConfusion: Many viewers misspell Jazmine's name as "Jasmine".

** The Hungarian dub ads extra profanities and exaggerated the speech mannerisms of certain characters. Uncle Ruckus speaks an improper rural folk dialect, though others randomly dip in and out of the same speech pattern too, especially in scenes where American urban slang proved untranslatable. The word "nigger" is near consistently used in the dub instead of "nigga", mainly because the latter would make no sense in this language -- the closest equivalent to "nigga" would be "feka" (slang for black), which ''is'' spoken at times, but only rarely. However, in scenes that specifically call out the difference between the two words, the dub uses "nigga". Other expressions were changed too. Stinkmeaner's "nyugga" was replaced with "nyugger", a common real life slang term for retired people (from the base word "nyugdíjas", meaning pensioner). The term "bitch dependency" was changed to "picsalódás", a {{portmanteau}} of "picsa" (cunt) and "csalódás" (disappointment).