Monday, October 08, 2007

Boondocks

Remember Boondocks, the wonderfully "subversive" comic strip and TV show? Well, the comic strip is still gone. But after a two year absence, the show is back on Cartoon Network starting tonight.

Their most controversial episode of the first season was called "Return of the King." The premise was that while Martin Luther King was shot in 1968, he didn't actually die. He merely went into a coma for 35 years.

A controversial, even tasteless idea? Maybe. But what really sent some people into a tizzy was the repeated (and some said excessive) use of the "N word." But sometimes that's what satire does: It makes its points by pissing people off, and in that regard the episode succeeded beautifully.

Return of the King portrays a now old MLK as he comes to terms with the world of today, specifically today's "black" culture. It culminates with his "I Had a Dream" speech (below).


One can only hope that season 2 proves to be as thought provoking as the first.

0 thoughtful ramblings: