''Black Jesus'' is an American sitcom created 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 ...

(creator of

The Boondocks Boondocks are remote, usually brushy areas. Boondocks may also refer to: * The Boondocks (band), an Estonian rock band * ''The Boondocks'' (comic strip), a comic strip by Aaron McGruder ** ''The Boondocks'' (2005 TV series), the television ser ...

) and

Mike Clattenburg Mike Clattenburg is a Canadian television and film director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known as creator, executive producer, writer and director of the TV comedy series ''Trailer Park Boys'' (2001–2008), for his work with '' This ...

that aired on

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as dult swim'' and often abbreviated as s'') is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programmed by its in-house ...

. The series stars Gerald "Slink" Johnson,

Charlie Murphy Charles or Charlie Murphy may refer to: Charlie Murphy Politics *Charles Murphy (1880–1958), Irish politician more commonly referred to as Cathal Ó Murchadha * Charles Murphy (Australian politician) (1909–1997), member of the Victorian Legis ...

Corey Holcomb Corey Lamont Holcomb (born June 23, 1969) is an American comedian, radio host and actor. Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Holcomb got his start in comedy with the help of another Chicago-area comedian, Godfrey. He currently hosts his own ...

Kali Hawk Kali Hawk (born October 4, 1986) is an American actress, comedian, model and jewelry designer. She has starred in films such as '' Fifty Shades of Black'', ''Couples Retreat'', '' Bridesmaids'' and '' Tyler Perry Presents Peeples''. She recurred ...

King Bach Andrew Byron Bachelor (born June 26, 1988), also known as King Bach is a Canadian-American Internet personality and actor who rose to fame on the now-defunct video sharing service Vine, where he had 16.2 million followers, making him the most fol ...

Andra Fuller Andra Fuller (born May 29, 1979 in Houston, Texas) is an American actor and stand-up comedian, best known for his role in The CW drama series '' The L.A. Complex''. Early life The youngest of three siblings, he was educated at Baylor Universit ...

, and

John Witherspoon John Witherspoon (February 5, 1723 – November 15, 1794) was a Scottish-American Presbyterian minister, educator, farmer, slaveholder, and a Founding Father of the United States. Witherspoon embraced the concepts of Scottish common sense real ...

. The series premiered on August 7, 2014. On December 10, 2014, the series was renewed for a second season, which premiered on September 18, 2015. Its third and final season premiered on September 21, 2019.

Premise

The scripted live-action comedy features

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and relig ...

living in modern-day

Compton, California Compton is a city in southern Los Angeles County, California, United States, situated south of downtown Los Angeles. Compton is one of the oldest cities in the county and, on May 11, 1888, was the eighth city in Los Angeles County to incorporat ...

, on a mission to spread love and kindness throughout the neighborhood with his small group of followers.

Series overview

Cast

* Gerald "Slink" Johnson as

as Victor "Vic" Hargrove (seasons 1–2) *

as Lloyd Hamilton *

as Maggie (seasons 1–2) *

as Boonie *

as Fish (seasons 1–2) *

Andrew Bachelor Andrew Byron Bachelor (born June 26, 1988), also known as King Bach is a Canadian-American Internet personality and actor who rose to fame on the now-defunct video sharing service Vine, where he had 16.2 million followers, making him the most fol ...

as Trayvon (seasons 1–2) * Angela E. Gibbs as Ms. Tudi * Antwon Tanner as Jason (main seasons 1–2; recurring season 3) * Valenzia Algarin as Dianne (main seasons 1–2; recurring season 3) * Dominique as Shalinka (recurring seasons 1–2; regular season 3)

International broadcast

The series premiered in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

on June 8, 2015, on

The Comedy Channel The Comedy Channel (promoted on air as comedy) is a defunct Australian subscription television channel available on Foxtel, and Optus Television. The channel ceased broadcasting on 1 September 2020. History A joint venture between Artist Serv ...

, and in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

on April 1, 2019, on

Reception

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the first season received an average score of 73, which indicates "generally positive reviews", based on five reviews. Brian Lowry of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' gave the series a positive review, saying "Black Jesus is funny in part because it ventures so eagerly into areas most producers and networks, worn down by years of calls for sponsor boycotts and bad publicity, have simply decided it’s easier to avoid." Robert Lloyd of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'' gave the series a positive review, saying "I'm not saying it's particularly deep, and it is filled with language that cannot be reproduced in this newspaper, but it's good-natured and, compared with a lot of what's on television, the comedy is gentle and hopeful."

Soraya Nadia McDonald Soraya Nadia McDonald is an American writer and culture critic. She was previously a reporter at ''The Washington Post'', and has been the culture critic for '' The Undefeated'' since 2016. McDonald was a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for ...

of ''

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 n ...

'' said, "Like his earthly counterparts, Black Jesus doesn’t have a perfect track record, but he gets the big concepts and leads by example. If anything, it seems McGruder is trying to tell his audience that if Jesus is just like us, maybe it’s not so much of a stretch for us to be just like him."

James Poniewozik James "Jim" Poniewozik (; born July 12, 1968) is an American journalist and television critic. He is the chief TV critic for ''The New York Times''. Earlier in his career, he wrote ''Time'' magazine's ''Tuned In'' column for 16 years. Early life ...

of ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

'' stated, "You might expect McGruder, given his ''Boondocks'' history, to be out for pointed religious satire, but ''Black Jesus'' is really more of a stoner hangout comedy with a heart."As the series shows "Jesus" using several curse words, smoking marijuana, and drinking alcoholic beverages, several pastors called for its removal from the ai

References

Notes

External links

* {{Williams Street 2014 American television series debuts 2019 American television series endings 2010s American black sitcoms Adult Swim original programming Portrayals of Jesus on television Television series by Williams Street Television shows set in Compton, California