Satire Blog

Since I'm doing my inquiry project on the show "The Boondocks" and the stereotypes it portrays I decided to show a youtube show that I often times watch. This show makes fun of stereotypes and other racial issues as well as a variety of other issues. This particular show is portraying a white mother and black mother and the stereotypes that go with their parenting techniques. It brings about the issue of if these shows actually serve as just a funny show or a resource for getting stereotypical ideas. Some people believe everything thing they watch.

Interview Post

My inquiry project is on the cartoon sitcom “The Boondocks” and the message it brings to its audience which is America’s youth. I decided who better to interview than my nephew who is in the age range in which this show targets and their characters ages are. I interviewed my nephew through Facebook. The questions were 1. What type of sitcoms do you watch on tv? 2. What makes these shows so entertaining to you? 3. How do you feel after watching these shows? 4. In what ways is your life similar to these shows you watch? The shows that my nephew watches on tv includes “Everybody Hate’s Chris”, “Rob Dydreks Fantasy Factory”, “American Dad” and “The Boondocks”. I found this very interesting because “Everybody Hate’s Chris” is the outlier out of this group. This show has a very positive image of the African American family and it’s also very fun. I didn’t know much about the “Rob Dydreks Fantasy Factory” so I asked if he could explain. The show is about a professional skateboarder Rob Dydrek and his life on camera with the people he loves. What was so interesting was the variety of type of shows he watched. They ranged from positive reality shows to stereotypical cartoons. When I asked what made these shows so entertaining to him he said he just likes the laughs that he gets out of them. I can relate to this reason because I also watch shows just for laughs, even negative shows. Shows like “The Bad Girls Club” is full of foul language and fights but I watch it simply for the drama and to laugh and so do other people which says a lot about popular culture. We don’t see anything wrong with women fighting each other and making bad names for themselves because we’re used to it and that’s what we consider entertainment. When I asked how these shows make him feel he said they made him feel good because he’s “learning” new things. I asked him what he meant by learning new things and basically every episode of a show has a message that it tries to get to its audience. For example one episode from “Everybody Hate’s Chris” moral to the story was always asks for help when needed. My nephew said his life is similar to the shows he watches because he loves to skateboard just like Rob Dydrek and he’s known as the comedian of the family so he loves playing jokes and making people laugh. My nephew doesn’t believe any of these shows have a negative impact on his life and there just entertainment.

Reflection

I came across an article on scholar.google.com that dealt specifically with my topic and was quite interesting. The article talked about black identity dealing with cartoons shows including The Boondocks, a show that I’m investigating more deeply into. It talked about how shows like The Boondocks have a negative effect on the black community, confirming stereotypes that others already believe to be true. This article discussed how characters in the shows such as pimps who are obviously not intelligent and have bad grammar make fun of black men. Also it goes into rap music and the videos that go along with it. In most of the rap videos today there’s lots of money, alcohol, expensive cars and plenty of half-naked women dancing in front of the camera. When people of other ethnicities, maybe someone whom has never came in contact with a black person before sees these videos different generalizations and stereotypes are formed. The Boondocks only presses that point further by portraying these negative images of blacks in the show. Many would say well there are some positive images and episodes but overwhelmingly the negative outweighs the positive. More positive cartoon sitcoms need to be made representing blacks so there is a balance. Race, whiteness, "lightness," and relevance: African American and European American interpretations of Jump Start and The Boondocks Naomi Rockler Critical Studies in Media Communication Vol. 19, Iss. 4, 2010