The Boondocks has never been a show that shies away from controversial topics, just like South Park and, years before, All in the Family, and I have always appreciated that. I also have appreciated Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim for allowing them to do that.

This show has made fun of everything… black people, white people, the N word, overeating, Oprah, snitching, religion, MySpace, gold diggers, pimps, anime, Soul Plane…

You would think there would be no sacred topic at all for this show or the network. But that all changed this season.

And the topic that seems perfect for The Boondocks to make fun of is the one entity able to cause Cartoon Network to ban two episodes of the series from airing. That topic…

Black Entertainment Television.

Two completed episodes of The Boondocks were already supposed to air: One involving Uncle Ruckus getting his own reality show on BET. The other, which is the main episode in question, revolves around Huey Freeman going on a hunger strike until BET is completely taken off the air for its constant negative depictions of African-Americans.

The episode includes scenes from BET headquarters where “Debra Leevil” (a cross between BET president Debra Lee and Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers movies) plot their fight against Huey. The episode would also feature parodies of Reginald Hudlin and Al Sharpton.

Many black people (with common sense) have always had a love/hate relationship with BET.

While it’s great that black people have a network to call their own, you can’t help but to be saddened that most of its programming is rap videos, black stereotypes, and black versions of other networks’ reality shows (oddly enough, a clip floating on the Internet from the banned Boondocks episode makes the same reference).

And I think it’s pretty safe to say that more white kids in suburban neighborhoods trying to act gangsta or ghetto watch some BET shows more than black people (Have any of you watched the Laguna Beach knock-off Baldwin Hills… seriously…)

But what you think about the network is unimportant in this argument. BET, like many other things in this world, is ripe for parody. So it pains me to see that an alleged legal action from BET to Sony (the studio that produces The Boondocks) is the reason for these episodes not to air.

We are talking about the same show that did an entire episode about what it would be like if Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was still alive, complete with MLK yelling the N word several times to describe his disdain for some elements of black culture.

How in the world can a series satire King’s legacy, and do so in such an inventive way that it earned a Peabody award, not be able to do the same for a freakin’ entertainment network! When did BET become more holy ground than MLK?

I love Adult Swim and its programming, but I am truly upset at how this situation is being handled. Let BET sue. They have no case, parody is parody.

If someone sued everytime a joke or parody was made of them, there’d be no Leno monologues, no episodes of Family Guy, and Meet the Spartans wouldn’t be the #1 movie in America because the parody movie would not exist (hmm, actually that last one might not be so bad).

So seriously, Sony and Cartoon Network, grow a pair! Don’t let a network who replaces Tavis with Tocorra scare you into filling your timeslots with 12 oz. Mouse reruns instead of showing an episode of The Boondocks that, frankly, maybe ignorant people need to see.

Then again, do ignorant people really watch The Boondocks? They probably do, unless Hell Date is on.

Here’s an article discussing the situation in more detail.

And here’s an actual clip from one of the banned episodes! Watch it now before this site gets sued, too.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 at 10:52 pm and is filed under ENTERTAINMENT. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.