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.