Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood

Don't Be A Menace To South Central While Drinking Your Juice In The Hood, or Don't Be a Menace for short, is a 1996 Wayans Brothers parody of "growing up in the hood" movies, particularly, as the name suggests, Menace II Society, South Central, Juice, and Boyz N the Hood. Taking every trope those movies were known for and turning them upside down, this movie is considered one of the funniest movies the Wayans ever made.

Ashtray (Shawn Wayans) is left by his mother to live with his estranged father in the hood, with the intentionally weak explanation that he needs to learn how to be a man. While hanging out with his crazy cousin Loc Dog and their friends, he quickly gets caught up in violence and crime. He also falls in love with Dashiki, a promiscuous woman with 7 kids, which draws the attention of her Ambiguously Gay ex-con boyfriend, Toothpick.

Works parodied:

 * Boyz N the Hood
 * Dead Presidents
 * Friday
 * Higher Learning
 * Juice
 * Menace II Society
 * South Central
 * Poetic Justice

This film provides examples of:
""MESSAGE!""
 * Abhorrent Admirer:
 * During sex with his girlfriend, Ashtray meets her aged, overweight mom, who tells her daughter to "hold him down and let Mama have him!"
 * Later, Loc Dog and a pretty girl named LaQuanda flirt for a little while. But she has horrible breath, bad gas, and zero social skills (at one point, she picks her nose, then massages his leg with the same hand). Loc Dog rejcts her and runs off, leaving LaQuanda rather confused.
 * And THEN, Loc meets a seemingly nice girl named Keisha. She warns him that when she gets drunk, she gets crazy. In this case, 'crazy' means she turns into an evil, sex-hungry succubus.
 * Actor Allusion: "She's got more kids than Miss Wayans!"
 * Affectionate Parody: It's a lighthearted parody of "hood movies" in general, with some criticism aimed at the fact that some black actors were pigeonholed into these roles at the time.
 * Anyone Can Die / Switching POV: The first two narrators are gunned down shortly after the opening credits. Ashtray steps in to finish the story.
 * Angry Black Man: Preach is a parody of this. He makes powerful speeches about the tyranny of whites, but is unashamed of his fetish for white women.
 * Anvilicious: Parodied and Lampshaded.

"Dashiki: Oh, so you're man enough to come up in me, but you ain't man enough to take care of what comes out, get my nails done, pay my rent, and get me a new car? You know what? You ain't nothing but a little boy.
 * Asian Store Owner: The owners of the gas station.
 * Badass Grandma/NeverMessWithGranny: Loc Dog's grandmother single handedly foils the drive-by at the movie's climax.
 * BFG: Loc Dog incorporates his gun collection into his wardrobe. He even keeps a live nuclear missile in his truck, which he uses to scare off crooks.
 * Bigger Is Better in Bed: This is how Ashtray misinterprets Dashiki's comment that he can't live up to his "responsibilities".

Ashtray: Ain't all about the size of the boat! It's the motion in the ocean.

Dashiki: ...That's not what I'm talking about."

"You ain't so tough now, little nigga. I hate your black bastards, you stink! I hate your black skin. I hate your black pants. I hate black pepper. I hate black keys on a piano. I hate my gums, because they're black. I hate Whoopi Goldberg's lips. I hate the back of Forrest Whittaker's neck. Huh? Most of all, I hate that black-ass Wesley Snipes."
 * Boomerang Bigot: Officer Self Hatred (played by Bernie Mac)

"Dashiki: ...What are you doing?!
 * Captain Ersatz: Many, since it's a parody. In particular Boyz N the Hood's Tre becomes "Ashtray," Menace II Society's O-Dog becomes Loc Dog, etc.
 * Cluster F Bomb: Loc Dog's Granny is just FULL of them, as is his mother.
 * Coming of Age Story: Parodied.
 * Crouching Moron Hidden Badass: The only job Loc Dog is smart enough to qualify for is a human crash test dummy. But he's got a huge gun collection and he's got no problem with using them.
 * Did I Just Say That Out Loud:
 * Toothpick, the villain, proudly admits he raped a man in jail, but he honestly doesn't expect everyone to react the way they do, so he plays it off as a joke.
 * Later, Ashtray's talk in bed manages to gross out even the promiscuous Dashiki. When she stares at him and gives him a Flat What, he pretends to have not said anything.
 * Flanderization: As part of the above.
 * Genius Ditz: Yes, Loc Dog is an idiot, but when it comes to guns, or baking cakes, he has no peer.
 * Hot Mom: Apparently, having seven kids has done nothing to Dashiki's appearance.
 * Hypocritical Humor: Preach lambasts Ashtray and Loc Dog for using "nigger" in their vernacular, arguing that it demeans their entire race. Immediately after this he asks them to remind him that he still needs to pick up his laundry from "that chink motherfucker up the street".
 * In the Local Tongue: Dashiki explains that her name is Swahili for "doggy-style."
 * Long Title: Long enough that This Very Wiki's search function can't list the whole name in the results.
 * The Man: Magnificently parodied in the gas station.
 * More Dakka: Loc Dog's solution to any problem is to keep shooting at it.
 * Mythology Gag: A lot of the characters are played by actors from the parodied movies, including two actors from Menace 2 Society who basically reprise their roles.
 * N Word Privileges: This IS a Wayans Brothers movies about people in South Central...
 * No Fourth Wall / Medium Awareness: The characters acknowledge that they're in a generic hood movie. Ashtray even has an over the top breakdown in Dashiki's house, causing her to ask:

Ashtray: Trying to win Best Actor at the Soul Train Awards."

"Preach: I'm just trying to do to white women what the white MAN has been doing to us for 400 years!
 * Older Than They Look: A running gag is that Ashtray's father is not much older than his son. This is exaggerated to the point where he isn't allowed at parties that Ashtray can go to because he looks like a teenager. His immaturity doesn't help, either.
 * Profiling: Parodied in the gas station scene. The Asian Store Owners consistently harass Ashtray and Loc Dog while they're frequenting their store, while completely ignoring the white customer who is robbing them blind in plain view of everyone.
 * Really Gets Around: Dashiki, the main love interest. She even points out that only reason she even gives Ashtray the time of day is because she needs a "pussy-whipped fool" to take care of her seven children.
 * Real Men Wear Pink: Loc Dog is not afraid to wear bunny slippers in public, and he loves baking cakes.
 * Record Needle Scratch: After Toothpick's Prison Rape confession.
 * Running Gag: Several.
 * Keenan Ivory Wayans plays a mailman who yells "MESSAGE!" whenever a character makes a profound statement.
 * The crackhead from Menace II Society appears, offering people blowjobs for just about anything, including directions.
 * Every time someone looks out on the street, someone is stealing something. This starts with an Ice Cream truck (a reference to Friday) and gets increasingly ridiculous from there.
 * Spoof Aesop: Parodying Doughboy's speech in Boyz N the Hood, and also Trey's father giving him a speech about drunk driving... about how much fun it is, anyway.
 * Victoria's Secret Compartment: A hospital receptionist has a stick of gum, pen, and cup of water stored in her cleavage.
 * Where Da White Women At:

Crazy Legs: Yeah? What's that?

Preach: Fuck 'em!"


 * It's also exaggerated. The first girl that Preach decides to pursue specifically because she's white is downright ugly, while ignoring the attractive black woman in front of her.


 * Word Salad Philosophy: Farraconvict's increasingly inane philosophical ramblings.
 * 'And always remember my brother, one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish, knick knack, paddy whack, give a dog a bone, two thousand, zero, zero, party, oops! Out of time, my bacon smellin' fine.'
 * Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Subverted. Ashtray's grandmother dares him to hit her as hard as he can, which he naturally refuses at first. Then he suddenly hits her so hard that she flies over to the other side of a table.