This week's episode, A Date With The Booty Warrior, may be a bit more difficult to forgive.
In this episode, Tom Dubois, a character in The Boondocks, takes several students to jail as a part of the "Scared Straight" program, where inmates warn troubled students to either change their ways or end up in jail.
Problem is that in this particular program, the inmates are more concerned with telling the students about raping and being raped in prison.
I won't even talk about the peanut butter and jelly scene.
One of the prisoners is shown in this opening scene raping Chris Hansen of To Catch A Predator:
Now two other things complicate this scenario:
A. Tom Dubois has a serious fear of - in the words of the series - "going to prison and being anally raped."
B. The inmates decide to start a rebellion. In the middle of this rebellion the prisoner in the above sequence decides to go after Tom:
I understand comedy is sometimes x-rated and I really do like the Boondocks, but is making fun of male rape appropriate?
What do you think?
UPDATE - It turns out that Tom's nemesis is based upon this man:
It's hard to tell without watching the video -- I don't have time this AM and will look at it later -- but I bet that "that's the joke". The idea is probably to make fun of the fact that rape is what we indelibly associate with prison, and the fact that most of society seems OK with the fact that rape happens in prison. Because inmates aren't really humans, right? And they deserve it. Knowing Aaron McGruder's history of lampooning things, I suspect this is what's being lampooned.
ReplyDeleteWhat do YOU think?
The constant mention of rape, to me, came across as intentionally absurd, as if all the inmates care about is raping and raping and raping.
ReplyDeleteThat and the fact that it was a vehicle to ramp up Tom's greatest fear.
I found it somewhat insulting how they had to set up the episode by telling us how much Tom loves gay people. You don't have to be a homophobe to not want to get raped.
I got over my discomfort with rape jokes after watching "Girls Will Be Girls" years ago. But I still get that it's a serious subject and one people don't want to laugh about.
No, rape jokes are not funny, but you're to find some LGBT folk who disagree. If they'd laugh at that appalling "Priest Off" video that made fun of pedophilia in the Catholic Church, they'll laugh at anything!
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