''The Boondocks'' was a daily
syndicated comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...
written and originally drawn by
Aaron McGruder
Aaron Vincent McGruder (born May 29, 1974) is an American writer, cartoonist, and producer best known for creating ''The Boondocks'', a Universal Press Syndicate comic strip and its animated TV series adaptation.
Early life and education
Aaron ...
that ran from 1996 to 2006. Created by McGruder in 1996 for Hitlist.com, an early online music website, it was printed in the monthly
hip hop magazine ''
The Source
''The Source'' is an American hip hop and entertainment website, and a magazine that publishes annually or . It is the world's longest-running rap periodical, being founded as a newsletter in 1988 by Jonathan Shecter. David Mays was the ma ...
'' in 1997. As it gained popularity, the comic strip was picked up by the
Universal Press Syndicate
Universal Press Syndicate (UPS), a subsidiary of Andrews McMeel Universal, was an independent press syndicate. It distributed lifestyle and opinion columns, comic strips and other content. Popular columns include Dear Abby, Ann Coulter, Roger Ebe ...
and made its national debut on April 19, 1999. A popular and controversial strip, ''The Boondocks''
satirizes African American culture
African-American culture refers to the contributions of African Americans to the culture of the United States, either as part of or distinct from mainstream American culture. The culture is both distinct and enormously influential on Ame ...
and American politics as seen through the eyes of young, black radical
Huey Freeman
Huey Freeman is the main protagonist and Narration, narrator of ''The Boondocks (comic strip), The Boondocks'' print syndication, syndicated comic strip written by Aaron McGruder, as well as the The Boondocks (TV series), animated TV sitcom of th ...
. McGruder's syndicate said it was among the biggest launches the company ever had.
Publication history
The strip debuted on Hitlist.com
on February 8, 1996. It later appeared in the
University of Maryland
The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...
newspaper ''
The Diamondback
''The Diamondback'' is an independent student newspaper associated with the University of Maryland, College Park. It began in 1910 as ''The Triangle'' and became known as ''The Diamondback'' in 1921. Now a weekly online journal, ''The Diamondback ...
''
under editor-in-chief
Jayson Blair
Jayson Thomas Blair (born March 23, 1976) is an American former journalist who worked for ''The New York Times''. He resigned from the newspaper in May 2003 in the wake of the discovery of fabrication and plagiarism in his stories.
Blair publis ...
on December 3, 1996, paying McGruder $30 per strip—$17 more than other cartoonists. McGruder ended the strip's run in ''The Diamondback'' on March 18, 1997, two weeks after the strip was omitted due to a technical error and a ''Diamondback'' staffer printed the word "OOPS" in its place without an explanation. He pulled the strip after the paper refused to run an apology. (Upon the revelation in 2004 of news article fabrications by Blair, by then a reporter for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', McGruder's comic strip joined others in lampooning Blair.)
The strip was rejected by six syndicates — including the
Washington Post Writers Group
''The Washington Post'' Writers Group (WPWG), a division of The Washington Post News Service & Syndicate, is a press syndication service composed of opinion journalists, editorial cartoonists, comic strips and columnists. The service is operated ...
,
Creators Syndicate
Creators Syndicate (also known as Creators) is an American independent distributor of comic strips and syndicated columns to daily newspapers, websites, and other digital outlets. When founded in 1987, Creators Syndicate became one of the few suc ...
,
United Media
United Media was a large Column (periodical), editorial column and comic strip newspaper print syndication, syndication service based in the United States, owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, that operated from 1978 to 2011. It syndicated 150 comi ...
, and
Chronicle Features
Chronicle Features was the syndication arm of the ''San Francisco Chronicle''. Syndicating comic strips, newspaper columns, and editorial features, it operated from 1962 to c. 1998. The syndicate was known for the offbeat comic strips it championed ...
— before finally being picked up. Many of the syndicates that rejected the strip were supportive but felt that ''The Boondocks'' was "too edgy." An article from the summer of 1997 asserted that
Universal Press Syndicate
Universal Press Syndicate (UPS), a subsidiary of Andrews McMeel Universal, was an independent press syndicate. It distributed lifestyle and opinion columns, comic strips and other content. Popular columns include Dear Abby, Ann Coulter, Roger Ebe ...
(UPS) was taking a "hard look" at the strip; UPS eventually picked it for syndication in April 1999.
In Fall 2003,
Boston, Massachusetts-based artist
Jennifer Seng
''The Boondocks'' was a daily syndicated comic strip written and originally drawn by Aaron McGruder that ran from 1996 to 2006. Created by McGruder in 1996 for Hitlist.com, an early online music website, it was printed in the monthly hip hop ...
assumed art duties from McGruder. In an interview with ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', McGruder said, "If something had to give, it was going to be the art. I think I'm a better writer than artist."
Carl Jones succeeded Seng as illustrator in late 2004. In the introduction to the collection ''Public Enemy #2'', McGruder wrote, "I had hired an artist to help me on some of the art duties. People think I stopped drawing the strip, but that's never been the case. To this day there has never been a single ''Boondocks'' strip that I did not personally touch—I still obsess over the details of Huey, Riley, Caesar and Granddad. I still go over every panel. I still care what it looks like, and I always will."
On February 28, 2006, McGruder announced that his strip would go on a six-month hiatus, starting March 27, 2006, with new installments resuming in October. Repeats of earlier strips were offered by Universal Press Syndicate in the interim. ''The Boondocks'' was syndicated to over 300 clients at its peak, but more than half substituted different features rather than publish reruns during the hiatus. On September 25, 2006, Universal Press Syndicate president
Lee Salem announced that the comic would not return, saying, "Although Aaron McGruder has made no statement about retiring or resuming ''The Boondocks'' for print newspapers ... newspapers should not count on it coming back in the foreseeable future." He added that Universal would welcome McGruder back if he chose to return.
Greg Melvin, McGruder's editor at the syndicate, met with him in an unsuccessful attempt to talk the cartoonist into returning. McGruder cited his work on the Cartoon Network show among other projects as reasons for not then returning to the strip. After the strip was canceled, reruns continued to be carried by some newspapers through November 26, 2006. Reruns of the strip are available online at
GoComics
GoComics is a website launched in 2005 by the digital entertainment provider Uclick. It was originally created as a distribution portal for comic strips on mobile phones, but in 2006, the site was redesigned and expanded to include online strips ...
.
In February 2019, a series of one-shot strips were published on radio personality
Charlamagne tha God's
Instagram
Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...
page.
Description
The strip depicts Huey Freeman and his younger brother Riley, two young children who have been moved out of the
West Side of Chicago with their grandfather Robert to live with him in the predominantly white fictional suburb of Woodcrest (in
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
, as seen from the area code stated in the March 16, 2000 strip). This relates to McGruder's childhood move from Chicago to Columbia, a diverse Maryland suburb. The title word "
boondocks
The boondocks is an American expression from the Tagalog (Filipino) word ''bundók'' ("mountain"). It originally referred to a remote rural area, but now, is often applied to an out-of-the-way area considered backward and unsophisticated by c ...
" alludes to the isolation from primarily African-American urban life that the characters feel, and permits McGruder some philosophical distance.
Huey is a politically perceptive devotee of black radical ideas of the past few decades (as explained in the May 4, 1999 strip, Huey is in fact named after
Black Panther
A black panther is the melanistic colour variant of the leopard (''Panthera pardus'') and the jaguar (''Panthera onca''). Black panthers of both species have excess black pigments, but their typical rosettes are also present. They have been d ...
Huey P. Newton
Huey Percy Newton (February 17, 1942 – August 22, 1989) was an African-American revolutionary, notable as founder of the Black Panther Party. Newton crafted the Party's ten-point manifesto with Bobby Seale in 1966.
Under Newton's leadershi ...
, who was named for
Huey Long
Huey Pierce Long Jr. (August 30, 1893September 10, 1935), nicknamed "the Kingfish", was an American politician who served as the 40th governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932 and as a United States senator from 1932 until his assassination ...
) and is harshly critical of many aspects of modern black culture. For example, he is at least as hard on
Vivica Fox
Vivica Anjanetta Fox (born July 30, 1964) is an American actress, producer, and television host. Fox began her career on ''Soul Train'' (19821983). She eventually continued her career with roles on the daytime television soap operas ''Days of O ...
and
Cuba Gooding, Jr.
Cuba Mark Gooding Jr. (born January 2, 1968) is an American actor. He is the recipient of an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and an Emmy nomination.
After his breakthrough role as Tre Styles in ''Boyz n the Hood'' (1991), he appeare ...
at times as he is on the
Bush administration. Riley, on the other hand, is enamored of
gangsta rap
Gangsta rap or gangster rap, initially called reality rap, emerged in the mid- to late 1980s as a controversial hip-hop subgenre whose lyrics assert the culture and values typical of American street gangs and street hustlers. Many gangsta rappe ...
culture and the "thug"/
bling-bling
Bling-bling, often shortened to just bling, is "flashy jewelry worn especially as an indication of wealth or status; broadly: expensive and ostentatious possessions" such as grills and designer bags. The term arose as slang, but grew into a cu ...
lifestyle. Their grandfather Robert is a firm disciplinarian,
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
veteran, and former
civil rights activist
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...
who is offended by both their values and ideas.
Huey's best friend is
Michael Caesar, a
dreadlocked aspiring
MC who agrees with many of Huey's criticisms but serves as a positive counterpoint to Huey's typically pessimistic attitude by taking a humorous approach to issues. He is also a budding comedian, although most of his humor consists of trying to play "
yo momma
''Yo Momma'' is an American television show based upon insulting one's mother. Creators, executive producers and hosts are Wilmer Valderrama, along with Sam Sarpong (Seasons 1 and 2), Jason Everhart and Destiny Lightsy. The show was produced ...
" jokes on Huey, which always falls flat. The Freemans' neighbors are
NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...
member and assistant
DA Thomas DuBois (a reference both to
Uncle Tom
Uncle Tom is the title character of Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 novel, ''Uncle Tom's Cabin''. The character was seen by many readers as a ground-breaking humanistic portrayal of a slave, one who uses nonresistance and gives his life to protect ...
and
W. E. B. Du Bois) and his white wife Sarah, also a lawyer. Their young daughter Jazmine is very insecure about her ethnic identity and is often the subject of Huey's antipathy for being out of touch with her African ancestry.
''The Boondocks'' was very political and occasionally subject to great controversy, usually sparked by the comments and behavior of its main character, Huey. The comic strip has been withheld by newspapers several times. In this respect, it is similar to ''
Doonesbury
''Doonesbury'' is a comic strip by American cartoonist Garry Trudeau that chronicles the adventures and lives of an array of characters of various ages, professions, and backgrounds, from the President of the United States
The president ...
''. In particular, the principal characters often discussed racial and American socio-economic class issues. Because of its controversy and serious subject matter, many newspaper publishers either moved the strip to the
op-ed
An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page", is a written prose piece, typically published by a North-American newspaper or magazine, which expresses the opinion of an author usually not affiliated with the publication's editorial board. O ...
section of the paper, pulled more potentially controversial strips from being published, didn't publish the strip at all, or canceled it altogether. Similar reactions have been faced by other strips, such as ''Doonesbury''.
Main characters
*
Huey Freeman
Huey Freeman is the main protagonist and Narration, narrator of ''The Boondocks (comic strip), The Boondocks'' print syndication, syndicated comic strip written by Aaron McGruder, as well as the The Boondocks (TV series), animated TV sitcom of th ...
– A
cynical
Cynicism is an attitude characterized by a general distrust of the motives of "others". A cynic may have a general lack of faith or hope in people motivated by ambition, desire, greed, gratification, materialism, goals, and opinions that a cynic ...
boy who appears angry most of the time, with strident political awareness, and who sees himself as a revolutionary. Named after
Huey P. Newton
Huey Percy Newton (February 17, 1942 – August 22, 1989) was an African-American revolutionary, notable as founder of the Black Panther Party. Newton crafted the Party's ten-point manifesto with Bobby Seale in 1966.
Under Newton's leadershi ...
, co-founder of the
Black Panthers, he is disturbed by the ignorance in modern-day American society and media. An observant, intelligent child, he often finds himself playing the voice of reason. Huey is fond of some conspiracy theories, and completely distrusts all authorities.
*
Riley Freeman – The opposite of his older brother, Riley praises the "thug life," and admires and emulates the rappers and thugs he sees on television. He has assigned himself the nickname "Esco", a reference to the rapper
Nas
Nas (born 1973) is the stage name of American rapper Nasir Jones.
Nas, NaS, or NAS may also refer to:
Aviation
* Nasair, a low-cost airline carrier and subsidiary based in Eritrea
* National Air Services, an airline in Saudi Arabia
** Nas Air ( ...
christening himself "Nas Escobar" in the mid-1990s after infamous drug lord
Pablo Escobar
Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria (; ; 1 December 19492 December 1993) was a Colombian drug lord and narcoterrorist who was the founder and sole leader of the Medellín Cartel. Dubbed "the king of cocaine", Escobar is the wealthiest criminal in h ...
. He also formerly had the nickname "Young Reezy", but that appears to have faded away with time. Other aliases he has given himself have included "
Osama Bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until Killing of Osama bin Laden, his death in 2011. Ideologically a Pan-Islamism ...
" (chosen many months before
9/11
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...
) and
Uday. Riley chose this last nickname on one of the extremely rare occasions he watched the news; he normally goes to great lengths to avoid the acquisition of knowledge. He once became upset after getting a C+ in school because he was afraid such "exemplary" grades would ruin his "
street cred". Since asking for and not receiving rims for Christmas, Riley has been determined to sleigh-jack
Santa Claus
Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a Legend, legendary figure originating in Western Christianity, Western Christian culture who is said to Christmas gift-bringer, bring ...
on Christmas Eve for the dual purpose of taking what he believes is owed to him and meting out punishment. In 2005, Riley's hair became progressively larger due to his lack of haircut; when it turned into an
Afro
The afro is a hair type created by natural growth of kinky hair, or specifically styled with chemical curling products by individuals with naturally curly or straight hair.Garland, Phyl"Is The Afro On Its Way Out?" ''Ebony'', February 1973. ...
he was able to trick people into thinking he was Huey until Grandad made him get
cornrows
Cornrows are a traditional style of braids in which the hair is braided very close to the scalp, using an underhand, upward motion to make a continuous, raised row. Cornrows are often done in simple, straight lines, as the term implies, but they ...
.
*
Michael Caesar – Huey's classmate and best friend who's known simply by his last name Caesar, who agrees with most of Huey's views of life. Unlike Huey, Caesar is more optimistic and cheerful, and usually jokes about whatever issue is at hand. It was Caesar's idea to find a boyfriend for
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice ( ; born November 14, 1954) is an American diplomat and political scientist who is the current director of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. A member of the Republican Party, she previously served as the 66th Uni ...
, reasoning that if she came to truly love somebody living on the planet she wouldn't be so "hell bent to destroy it." Caesar is originally from
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
and needs little prompting to vocally represent his home town. He and Huey have co-founded the newsletter the "Free Huey World Report" and the annual "Most Embarrassing Black People Awards."
*
Robert Jebediah "Granddad" Freeman – Huey and Riley's retired grandfather, a
pragmatist and
disciplinarian
Discipline refers to rule following behavior, to regulate, order, control and authority. It may also refer to punishment. Discipline is used to create habits, routines, and automatic mechanisms such as blind obedience. It may be inflicted on ot ...
who usually sees through the shenanigans of his grandsons. Robert is known to panic at news reports, and values his own peace and comfort over the needs of others while still looking out for the children's welfare.
*
Thomas and Sarah Dubois – An interracial couple in the neighborhood. They both work as lawyers. Tom is often seen talking (sometimes arguing) with Huey about current politics, while Huey tends to deride Tom for being a conformist
yuppie
Yuppie, short for "young urban professional" or "young upwardly-mobile professional", is a term coined in the early 1980s for a young professional person working in a city. The term is first attested in 1980, when it was used as a fairly neu ...
, sometimes going so far as to sarcastically suggest that he is not really black. For a while Tom was kicked out of the house by Sarah after he called her a "two-timing political floozy" when she voted for
Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader (; born February 27, 1934) is an American political activist, author, lecturer, and attorney noted for his involvement in consumer protection, environmentalism, and government reform causes.
The son of Lebanese immigrants to the Un ...
instead of
Al Gore
Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic Part ...
. Four years later, Tom kidnapped Nader in hopes of preventing him from taking votes away from
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party (Unite ...
and costing the
Democrats the
2004 Presidential Election. Huey eventually persuaded him to release Nader.
*
Jazmine Dubois – Thomas and Sara's
biracial daughter, who seems to like Huey, despite his general coldness toward her. She is notable for her
insecurity
InSecurity is a Canadian spy comedy television series that aired on CBC Television from 2011 to 2012. The series centres on a team of covert operatives working for the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA), a fictional Canadian intelli ...
over her biracial status. Jazmine is often portrayed as naïve, and is optimistic in contrast to Huey's pessimism. Early in the strip she was deliberately ambiguously colored so as to cloud the issue of whether she was white or black. It even prompted her to be directly asked by her teacher. She disappeared for roughly two years, and it was revealed she had been so frightened of terrorists that she would not leave her house. She tried to turn herself in to the FBI three times, because she thought she was helping the terrorists by being scared (having heard statements to the effect that "If you live in fear, the terrorists win"). She eventually came out because of a "Credible threat against her teddy bear." Jazmine is insecure about her curly and voluminous hair, wishing it looked straighter, like her mother's hair. Huey's suggestion to Tom that he and Sara try "emphasizing the natural beauty of her African features" rather than trying to help her change her appearance fell on deaf ears. On one occasion when Jazmine was complaining about her "big and poofy" hair, Huey interrupted her to ask what she thought of clouds. She thought clouds were pretty, but completely missed the point Huey was trying to make.
*
Uncle Ruckus
Uncle Ruckus (born July 4, 1939) is a fictional character on the American animated sitcom ''The Boondocks''. Voiced by Gary Anthony Williams, he first appeared on television in the show's pilot, "The Garden Party", on November 6, 2005. Created and ...
– an elderly, overweight black man who is notably racist and
self-loathing
Self-hatred is personal self-loathing or hatred of oneself, or low self-esteem which may lead to self-harm.
In psychology and psychiatry
The term "self-hatred" is used infrequently by psychologists and psychiatrists, who would usually describe ...
. He is the darkest skinned character of the cast. He first appears in December 2004 as a replacement
mall Santa Claus after Riley took out the first one with a flying folding chair. He appeared again in his first Sunday feature in September 2005 as Huey and Riley's bus driver and he also admitted to working as a janitor at the school. He and Robert are sometimes seen playing checkers together between and after the aforementioned appearances.
* Cindy McPhearson – A white girl in Huey's class who appears to be utterly clueless about racial issues. She shows a fondness and curiosity for
rap music
Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...
, particularly
Snoop Dogg
Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. (born October 20, 1971), known professionally as Snoop Dogg (previously Snoop Doggy Dogg and briefly Snoop Lion), is an American rapper. His fame dates back to 1992 when he featured on Dr. Dre's debut solo single, " ...
.
Minor characters
* Hiro Otomo – One of Huey's friends, a young Japanese-American DJ. Hiro only appeared in the original ''Diamondback'' version of the strip.
* Principal Williams – The principal of J. Edgar Hoover Elementary. An out-of-touch white man who prepared for the arrival of Huey and Riley by renting several
blaxploitation
Blaxploitation is an ethnic subgenre of the exploitation film that emerged in the United States during the early 1970s. The term, a portmanteau of the words "black" and "exploitation", was coined in August 1972 by Junius Griffin, the president o ...
films, mistakenly thinking of them as representative of black culture. He somehow has access to FBI files of Huey.
* John Petto – Huey, Cindy, and Caesar's white teacher, who is as clueless about how to handle them as the principal is. Old-fashioned and not used to black people, he is intimidated by Huey's intellect and has struggled trying to debate with Huey during class.
* Mrs. Peterson – Riley's teacher, who has a strict rule of giving her students no special treatment, where they must pull their weight or fail. Because of this, she once failed a girl from Romania, who was a math genius, but could barely read or write. Before she started teaching, she was originally a nun, then she worked in three maximum-security prisons. Mrs. Peterson has little patience for Riley and his street behavior.
* Flagee and Ribbon
* Psycho Star Wars Guy
Controversies
The content of McGruder's comic strip often came under fire for being politically left-wing and occasionally risqué, leading to its being published in the
op-ed
An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page", is a written prose piece, typically published by a North-American newspaper or magazine, which expresses the opinion of an author usually not affiliated with the publication's editorial board. O ...
section of many newspapers. For example, a strip making fun of
BET
Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los A ...
's
rap
Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...
videos (some of which rely on the sexually suggestive gyrations of female dancers) and a strip mocking
Whitney Houston
Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer and actress. Nicknamed "The Voice", she is one of the bestselling music artists of all time, with sales of over 200 million records worldwide. Houston in ...
's
drug
A drug is any chemical substance that causes a change in an organism's physiology or psychology when consumed. Drugs are typically distinguished from food and substances that provide nutritional support. Consumption of drugs can be via insuffla ...
problems and emphasizing her buttocks, were pulled out of circulation. ''The Boondocks'' garnered significant attention after the
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...
with a series of strips in which Huey calls a government tipline to report
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
for funding terrorism. Soon after, he "censored" several strips by featuring a talking patriotic
yellow ribbon
The yellow ribbon is used for various purposes. It may be worn on a person, placed on a vehicle, around a tree, or for a neck tie.
History and etymology
Early Puritan history
The song/poem ''"She wore a yellow ribbon"'' has appeared in variou ...
and a flag (named Ribbon and Flagee, respectively) instead of the usual cast.
Several strips have been briefly pulled from prominent publications. For example, the "Condi Needs a Man" strip, in which Huey and his friend Caesar create a personal ad for U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice ( ; born November 14, 1954) is an American diplomat and political scientist who is the current director of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. A member of the Republican Party, she previously served as the 66th Uni ...
, portraying her as a "female
Darth Vader
Darth Vader is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. The character is the central antagonist of the original trilogy and, as Anakin Skywalker, is one of the main protagonists in the prequel trilogy. ''Star Wars'' creator George ...
type that seeks loving mate to torture", resulted in ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' withholding a week's worth of strips, the longest such suspension ever by the paper. However, the paper's ombudsman, Michael Getler, later sided with McGruder.
The ''Post'' also declined to run "Can a Nigga Get a Job?", which had black contestants compete on a reality TV show to work for
Russell Simmons
Russell Wendell Simmons (born October 4, 1957) is an American entrepreneur, writer and record executive. He co-founded the hip-hop label Def Jam Recordings, and created the clothing fashion lines Phat Farm, Argyleculture, and Tantris. Simmons' ...
, only to find that all the contestants were rude and lazy.
[Holtzclaw, Mike]
"'BOONDOCKS' STIRS UP CONTROVERSY,"
'' Daily Press'' (Sept. 20, 2004).
McGruder has often attacked
Black conservative commentator
Larry Elder
Laurence Allen Elder (born April 27, 1952) is an American right-wing political commentator and conservative talk radio host. Elder hosts ''The Larry Elder Show'', based in California. The show began as a local program on Los Angeles radio stat ...
in the comic strip as well as the television series. In response, Elder published an
opinion piece
An opinion piece is an article, usually published in a newspaper or magazine, that mainly reflects the author's opinion about a subject. Opinion pieces are featured in many periodicals.
Editorials
Opinion pieces may take the form of an editorial, ...
in which he created the "McGruder", an award for statements made by black public figures that Elder considers "dumb", "vulgar", and/or "offensive".
[''Satire TV: Politics and Comedy in the Post-Network Era'', Jonathan Gray, Jeffrey Jones, Ethan Thompson. New York University Press, April 2009. p. 271.]
Collected editions
The comic strips have been collected into
trade paperbacks
A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, and often held together with adhesive, glue rather than stitch (textile arts), stitches or Staple (fastener), staples. In contrast, hardcover (hardback) book ...
:
* 2000: ''Because I Know You Don't Read the Newspaper'' (incl. Apr. 19, 1999 – Jan. 29, 2000 strips)
* 2001: ''Fresh for '01...You Suckas!'' (incl. Jan. 30, 2000 – Nov. 5, 2000 strips)
* 2003: ''A Right to Be Hostile'' (Treasury)
* 2005: ''Public Enemy #2'' (incl. Mar. 12, 2003 – Nov. 13, 2004 strips)
* 2007: ''All the Rage'' (incl. Dec. 1, 2004 – Dec. 31, 2005 strips)
See also
References
External links
''The Boondocks''at
GoComics
GoComics is a website launched in 2005 by the digital entertainment provider Uclick. It was originally created as a distribution portal for comic strips on mobile phones, but in 2006, the site was redesigned and expanded to include online strips ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boondocks, The
1996 comics debuts
American comic strips
African-Americans in comic strips
African-American comics
Comics about politics
Satirical comics
Child characters in comics
GoComics
Obscenity controversies in comics
Comics adapted into television series
Comics adapted into animated series
Race-related controversies in comics
Censored comics