The Boondocks is Back — Without McGruder, too

A lot of things have happened since 2010, the last year where the T.V. show The Boondocks left off from their third season.  For a sociopolitical cartoon, our heroes have certainly missed out on a lot to make parodies out of.  Paula Deen’s desire for antebellum black servitude, a murderabilia painting child murderer, a loud music killer, a real life Luna, the democrat Affordable Care Act fumble, the republican government shutdown, 12 Years a Slave/Django movies and response, Olivia Pope, and any other plethora of random acts of insanity that takes place in the world.  Many events transpired without a proper Boondocks episode to answer for it, to make us laugh at our pain like the many times we choose laughter as our medicine of choice.

Well, our Japanese anime style blaxploitation cartoon is back — without it’s creator Aaron McGruder, too.

The Boondocks start it’s 4th Season off with a Chris Brown parody.  Second with a Good Times reference. Then third… Huey’s cooking something like the omni-disciplinary scientist character that many Saturday morning cartoons have.  Um, something might be lost here.  We may have a problem.

“I created The Boondocks two decades ago in college, did the daily comic for six years, and was showrunner on the animated series for the first three seasons.  The Boondocks pretty much represents my life’s work to this point.  Huey, Riley, and Granddad are not just property to me.  They are my fictional blood relatives.  Nothing is more painful than to leave them behind”.

“To quote a great white man, ‘Hollywood is a business’.  And to quote another great white man, “Don’t hold grudges”.

“What has never been lost on me is the enormous responsibility that came with The Boondocks – particularly the television show and it’s relatively young audience.  It was important to offend, but equally important to offend for the right reasons.  For three seasons I personally navigated this show through the minefields of controversy.  It was not perfect.  And it definitely was not quick. But it was always done with a keen sense of duty, history, culture, and love.  Anything less would have been simply unacceptable”. ~ Aaron McGruder on Boondocks departure

Aaron McGruder is the creator of our anti-heroes, the Freeman Family and friends.  With Huey once being the leftist revolutionary, with a capitalistic Riley drenched in consumerism, with Granddad shamelessly caught in the middle making all the the wrong choices…  The “McGruderlessness” of The Boondocks might already be apparent.  Being a fan of the show, I hope that this final 4th season doesn’t jump the shark by deviating from the original intent of the show, and characters by design.  Perhaps Uncle Ruckus joining to defend a Cliven Bundy composite character in an episode.  A Donald Sterling reference.  Something that tells us that the essence of Aaron McGruder is still there.

To me it’s unclear whether to be happy that The Boondocks is back or hurt over the depature of McGruder as creative control. I’m also uncertain if Aaron figures that he has finally outgrown The Boondocks himself or it was a hard separation for him to make.  It doesn’t seem like he got out-muscled.  I’ll continue watching…  we’ll see how this great show shall end.