Deep in “The Boondocks”

Twenty Years Later, Alum’s Comic Creation Still Hits Hard

Black culture, satirical comedy and a heaping helping of no-holds-barred societal commentary. No cartoon franchise has ever combined these elements like “The Boondocks,” a comic strip and later a TV series created by Aaron McGruder ’98.

It spread its caustic humor in the pages of The Diamondback before becoming a nationally syndicated comic from 1999 to 2006. The Cartoon Network run lasted from 2005 to 2014, and Sony Pictures Animation in June announced plans to reboot the series next year with McGruder.

“It was important to offend, but equally important to offend for the right reasons,” he wrote in a statement on his initial departure from the series. “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.”

Earlier this year, McGruder sent fans into swoons by publishing six new strips on the Instagram account of radio host Charlamagne Tha God. The strips were as biting and relevant as ever, swiping at Michael Jackson, MSNBC and the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Twenty years after “The Boondocks” introduced America to the struggles of 10-year-old revolutionary-minded Huey Freeman and 8-year-old gangsta-wannabe brother Riley in acclimating from the South Side of Chicago to fictional affluent suburb Woodcrest, Md., Terp looks back at some of its signature storylines and episodes.

Strips

October 2001

In the emotional weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, McGruder stirs controversy with strips that charge U.S. administrations with arming the terrorists, and Huey calls for the arrest of President George W. Bush.

July 2003

Characters celebrate the death of segregationist U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond, with Huey reflecting, “You can really, really, really, really, really hate black people … and it’s basically OK with everyone.”

October 2003

The Washington Post and other newspapers decline to run a series of strips about finding a boyfriend for Condoleezza Rice, then Bush’s national security adviser.

Episodes

November 2005

In the series’ second episode, McGruder tees off on R&B singer R. Kelly, questioning the avid support of some in the African-American community despite accusations of child pornography and sexual abuse of minors.

January 2006

In an alternative history episode, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. survives his assassination attempt, awaking from a coma decades later only to be disappointed by the state of African-American culture and the nation’s progress toward civil rights.

January 2008

McGruder again confronts clashing African-American perspectives among different generations and socioeconomic groups with a plot based on a white teacher calling Riley the n-word. Who in society controls the use of the explosive term, Huey wonders?

May 2010

Amid a celebration in Woodcrest over President Barack Obama’s winning the presidency, Huey—doubtful that an elected official can fix society—is indifferent to the historic occasion.