The Boondocks

McGruder, Aaron. Cartoon. "The Boondocks". Universal Press. Chicago Tribune. Teusday March 24, (Discontinued March 26, 2006). 3/28/09 .

The Boondocks is a notoriously controversial comic strip invented by Aaron McGruder, that combats many dark concepts other comics fear involvement in. This primarily includes: Racism, Justice, Ignorance, War, Cultural Divides, Entertainment, Advertising, Drugs, and Politics. The strip's main character is Huey Freeman (the name Huey being a reference to Huey P. Newton, the cofounder of the Black Panthers), a young black who adjusts to life in a white suburb of Maryland after moving from Chicago. Pretty much every one in Huey's immediate environment is a caricature or a stereotype, giving rise to a wealth of comedic situations when these extreme personalities are in conflict with Huey's cool, pessimistic rationalism. McGruder commonly rips on politics by representing political figures, particularly the president, as being relatively true to their real selves, but placed in fantastical situations. One of the longest running repeat set-up jokes in The Boondocks, involves Huey sitting in a chair with a newspaper and either reading an article in which the president is quoted, or watching a fictional press conference on television. The president's statements are either based on something he has recently said (often a direct quote), or are fabricated based on the moral implications of recent political action. For one week, president Bush was featured in every strip giving opinions on Super Soldiers, conflicting heavily with his stances on science research and general morality, and seeking justification through divine right. McGruder's work has been discontinued and cut from multiple newspapers, the most recent form of the cartoon to date is in the form of a television show on cartoon network's late-night block, Adult Swim. The Boondocks is undoubtedly the most contentious strip to appear weekly in major American newspapers, and has gotten panned multiple times for being racist and politically insensitive; but the take home message is ultimately of the struggle for black America, and how those who reinforce negative stereotypes and proliferate ignorance within the black community, facilitate it's abuse and suppression at the hands of white society and the U.S government.