The Boondocks/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Acceptable Targets: African American culture. Anything from excessive use of the N-Word, to Tyler Perry movies, to even Bill Cosby.
  • Awesome Music: The Hip Hop Docktrine Mixtapes. All of them.
  • The Ace: Ebony Brown. Beautiful, smart, has her own money, athletic, kind... Riley AND Ruckus couldn't find genuine fault with her. She could be considered a Parody Sue by the series' standards.
  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: When John Witherspoon, Granddad's VA, confirmed that Aaron McGruder had begun production on season 4 despite earlier statements that season 3 would be the last one. Cue millions of people doing this. Unfortunately, the season itself was... lacking, to say the least.
  • Anvilicious: The comic strip was a vehicle for the political views of McGruder.
    • The show has distinct political overtones as well, but is more subtle about them... usually.
  • Base Breaker:
    • Uncle Ruckus. He's viewed as either the most awesome character in the series or an Overly Long Gag that has over stayed his welcome. "The Color Ruckus" redeemed him for the most part but became a Scrappy again in Season 4 (though to be fair, most fans blame the season's problems rather than the character).
    • Also Sarah. Some people hate her due to her treatment of Tom and her flirting with other men, while others don't really mind her (especially since she never actually cheats).
  • Broken Base: The fans of the strip and the fans of the show. Mainly because the show is accused of getting the wrong kind of laughs.
  • Complaining About Shows You Don't Watch: The usual opinion on the series amongst people unfamiliar with it is that it's an incredibly racist show that insults white people. If anything, it insults what can be thought of as "black" culture, and usually portrays white people as naive, happy, nonthreatening folk who are simply oblivious to what's happening around them.
  • Crazy Awesome: Riley's art teacher, a soft-spoken blond man with an afro, who quietly encourages Riley to tag houses. Also, he doesn't really like the police very much.
    • Also Bushido Brown.
  • Crosses the Line Twice:
    • Uncle Ruckus does this every time he talks about black people. As an African American white supremacist with a severe case of Gonk, his very existence crosses the line about 3 times. Speaking crosses it a 4th time.
    • A Pimp Named Slickback does this every time he talks, period.
  • Dude, Not Funny: There are those even among the show's fandom who consider the Martin Luther King episode to have overstepped the boundaries of good taste. And then there's Season 4.
  • Ear Worm:
  • Ensemble Darkhorse:
    • Caesar in the comic strip.
    • A Pimp Named Slickback.
    • Tom Dubois, for being one of the few sweet characters of the show, as well as his daughter Jazmine.
    • Cindy hasn't been that prominent, but she's a firm fan favorite due to her sass and friendship with Riley.
    • Hell, many of the villainous characters are this, with Stinkmeaner and the Hateocracy, Lamilton Taeshawn and the Wuncler family being standout examples.
  • Ending Aversion: Season 4's final episode (and end of the series) is very much unanimously despised even by people who did like the season. This is one of the major reasons fans do not acknowledge the season and take Season 3's "It's Goin' Down" as the true ending of the series.
  • Fanon Discontinuity: No fan of The Boondocks really acknowledges Season 4 due to its many problems and the fact it wasn't directed by its creator, only regarding the first three seasons as canonical. Adult Swim joined in this as well.
  • Fan Disservice: Multiple penis shots of Granddad.
  • Foe Yay: Huey and Ming in "The Red Ball".
  • Growing the Beard: The show doesn't really come into its own until season two, at which point the art and animation quality receive a considerable boost, the political themes become slightly less Anvilicious, and the idiosyncrasies of the characters and oddball supporting cast members come into the limelight.
  • He Really Can Act: An odd example in that while Regina King's talent as an actress was never in question, her roles as Huey and Riley Freeman are very different than her usual fare, being little boys rather than the grown women she usually plays (and not to mention, they're among her very few voiceover roles). And yet, not only does she do a magnificent job at selling their youth and in Riley's case, his immaturity, but she gives them very distinct voices that make it easy to forget that their interactions are basically Regina King talking to herself.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: Tom Dubois is not supposed to be Barack Obama. Yes, he is a successful, light-skinned black, highly liberal attorney with a bit of a nerdy/loserly side, and looks an awful lot like Obama. But the character was developed a long time before Obama became a national figure. McGruder apparently noticed this and took full advantage of it.
    • In "Wingmen" Granddad is revealed to have been a Tuskegee Airman and his best friend was a cocky and reckless pilot nickamed Moe "Guns" , Aaron Mcgruder would later go on to write the screenplay for the Tuskegee Airmen biopic Red Tails, which also featured a cocky and reckless pilot as one of the characters(another was nicknamed "Ray Gun").
  • Ho Yay:
    • Uncle Ruckus and Jimmy Rebel.
    • Hell, look at how hurt Grandad acts when Ruckus starts hanging out with Jimmy Rebel. They bicker like an old married couple as it is.
    • Ed Wuncler III and Gin Rummy.
  • Idiot Plot: Purposely done in the "Nigga Moment" trilogy, though the plot was based on the characters being ignorant rather than just stupid.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Uncle Ruckus is revealed to be this in "The Color Ruckus". His father could also count if you can get past his hatefulness.
    • Riley can be this at times, such as "The Story Of Gangstalicious, Part 2". Also Granddad.
  • Large Ham:
    • Stinkmeaner, NYUKKA!
    • A Pimp Named Slickback. Y'all better make that G4 work and stop playin'.
  • Love to Hate: Many of its antagonists, with Uncle Ruckus, The Wunclers, Stinkmeaner and Lamilton Taeshawn standing out in particular.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Ed Wuncler Sr., that despicable genius.
  • Misaimed Fandom: The show as a whole can be considered this. A lot of people are unaware that The Boondocks is a satire.
    • There are actually people that view Uncle Ruckus as being totally in the right.
    • Don't even get started on the Youtube comments of the episode featuring Jimmy Rebel.
    • More aparent when you look at Riley's fanbase. Most of his fans don't realize that he is a parody of them - a wannabe hip-hop star.
  • Moe: Jazmine.
    • This video probably provides one of the best examples at about 1:20.
  • Mondegreen: Lampshaded in "Bitches To Rags".

Thugnificent: Y'all send me stupid fuckin' messages online, but won't pay for my damn song? I hate y'all niggas, man. Hey, hey, Thugnificent, is it "Booty butt cheeks" or "Move them butt cheeks"? Nigga, who gives a fuck, it's a song about butt cheeks!

Huey: "What the hell is wrong with you people?! Every famous nigga that gets arrested is not Nelson Mandela! Yes, the government conspires to put a lot of innocent black men in jail on fallacious charges, but R. Kelly is NOT one of those men. We all know the nigga can sing, but what happened to standards? What happened to bare minimums? You a fan of R.Kelly? You wanna help R. Kelly? Then get some counselling for R. Kelly! Introduce him to some older women! Hide his camcorder! But don't pretend like the man is a hero! ...and STOP THE DAMN DANCING! ACT LIKE YOU'VE GOT SOME GOD DAMN SENSE, PEOPLE! DAMN! Done playin' around here...

    • "The Itis".

Huey: Granddad, look what you did to the community.
Granddad: It's not that bad.
Huey: Not that bad? This place used to sit between a coffee shop and a day spa. Now there is a liquor store and a damn footlocker. This food is destructive.
Granddad: This food is your culture!
Huey: Then the culture is destructive!

  • Shipping: Many people think that Huey/Jazmine and Riley/Cindy would make great couples.
  • Strawman Political: Let's just say that the show and strip alike are not at their most nuanced when attacking conservatives. Or anyone else, for that matter.
  • Stylistic Suck: Granddad's "diss rap" in "The Story of Thugnificent". We may only hear about 20 seconds of it, but that's still enough to know epically bad it is. Watch it here (at the 1:00 mark).
  • Take That, Scrappy!: When Ruckus' dad gives him a scathing speech about his origins, his personality, his entire being, some people felt sorry for him, many others cheered.
  • Tear Jerker: Ruckus' origins. Lampshaded by the Freeman family's reactions.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Season 4 had interesting concepts, but they never really came into fruition.
  • This Is Your Premise on Drugs: Huey is Huey Newton on lithium.
  • Too Cool to Live: Bushido Brown.
  • Toy Ship: Jazmine/Huey. Subverted in that Huey doesn't know or care. This may be one of the few childish traits that Huey has.
    • In the cartoon, there is much subtler teasing, but the relationship is less childish.
    • Also Riley/Cindy, to a lesser extent.
  • Win the Crowd: Win promos for the show first started airing, a lot of people were skeptical that Boondocks would be another in a long line of shows that just take potshots at conservatives. Boondocks ended up being more than that and by time the third season was airing, it was regularly outperforming all the other Adult Swim shows (including Robot Chicken and Family Guy) in the ratings.
  • The Woobie:
    • Jazmine, especially in "The Block is Hot".
    • This runs in the family, as her father Tom also frequently qualifies for this.
    • Huey during the course of "The Passion Of Uncle Ruckus" and "It's a Black President, Huey Freeman". He in general counts for this considering the fact that his parents and grandmother are all dead, his grandfather constantly ignores him, his brother is constantly getting into trouble, and he has to deal with the reality that he will probably outlive his grandfather and be responsible for looking out for his younger brother Riley all on his own.
    • Uncle Ruckus after "The Color Ruckus" revealed his horrible childhood.
    • Luna has suffered every type of abuse possible, and just as she makes Heel Face Turn for tormenting the Freemans, her friend Nicole unintentionally convinces her to blow herself up with the same grenade she threatened to use earlier when she was with Tom and Robert (who were tied up at the time).

Back to The Boondocks