For the last three weeks since its premiere, Adult Swim’s newest show, Black Dynamite, based on the brilliant 2009 blaxploitation spoof of the same name, has hastily been compared to its sister series, The Boondocks, and while the comparison is apt, yes, it isn’t necessarily a fair (or even justified) view of the two shows. While they definitely share the same stomping ground (the antics, tropes, and tribulations of African American society/culture), Black Dynamite and The Boondocks are ultimately two different creatures, and what funny, insightful, and controversial creatures they are. But in order to understand the differences between the two series, we need to come to terms with the difference between parody and satire, the respective comedic aims of both shows that have been misinterpreted and confused for far too long.
Satire is a form of comedy or irony that intentionally exaggerates certain aspects of the human condition to expose/ridicule the vices of that particular facet of society, in some cases, seeking to actively improve the vices that they’re satirizing. Aaron McGruder originally created The Boondocks comic strip for this purpose, and his approach was fresh and highly uncompromising, which lead to it really catching on. Think of The Simpsons’ skewering of the archetypal nuclear sitcom family of the 50s, or The Oblong’s subversive skewering of class relations in American suburbia. In The Boondocks’ case, the target is African American life and culture, simultaneously criticizing aspects that creator/writer Aaron McGruder personally finds annoying, and celebrating what makes the culture unique in the American melting pot, including, but not limited to: black identity, hip-hop culture, interracial relationships, black self- hatred,old school vs new school, celebrities, etc. The satire in The Boondocks, though broad, takes a magnifying glass purely to the people and their effect on the culture (and vice versa).
Just take a look at the three main characters, 10 year old Huey Freeman, a leftist revolutionary misanthropic budding domestic terrorist with roots in many radical political and racial organizations and hair to match, his 8 year old brother Riley Freeman, a rap-obsessed, gang-affiliated youth who is willing to conform to any new fad or position taken up by his fellow gangstas, no matter how hypocritical or silly it may be, or Robert Jebediah “Granddad” Freeman, the boy’s ornery self-centered womanizing grandfather content to hop on the Civil Rights bandwagon and collect Social Security checks in the autumn of his life. All three of these characters represent the most prevalent facets of the African American experience: the revolutionary idealist hell bent on informing/saving his race, despite the resistance and scrutiny that’s put upon him (Huey), the mis-guided hip-hop obsessed youngster bathing in his own ignorance (Riley), and the older generation’s ideals and hang-ups with modern culture personified (Granddad). These are only a few examples of ways that McGruder uses his background and current events to dissect and criticize (and in a way, celebrate) African American culture. Serious-minded, grounded satirical animation is what The Boondocks boils down to.
Black Dynamite, on the other hand, doesn’t take its subject matter nearly as seriously. Unlike satire, parody takes a particular style of filmmaking, writing, or other form of expression and exaggerates it for laughs. Black Dynamite started out as a passion project fake trailer created by Michael Jai White, Byron Minns, and director Scott Sanders. Eventually, positive fan reaction resulted in the trio writing a script for a feature, which wound up as a parody of the tropes of the blaxploitation genre, which involved cheaply made feature films that typically spun off regular genres, like action films, westerns, kung-fu flicks, comedies, etc, and featured all African American casts, over-exaggerated action, and a lathering of funk/jazz music for good measure. As a parody and celebration of the genre, Dynamite was very well received, and an animated series was conceived and made for Adult Swim with the help of subsidiary Titmouse Inc. The animated series, only three episodes in, has already managed to take the concept to places that live-action would’ve made very hard, adding ninjas, aliens masquerading as celebrities, homicidal puppets, and tons of campy action and situations to the mix, already overly exaggerating an overly exaggerated premise.
Unlike The Boondocks, Black Dynamite, being a blaxploitation project, has nothing to say about the culture that it represents; it is playing with conventions of the genre of film for laughs, not at African American’s expense: the straight-faced, no- nonsense bad ass leader (Black Dynamite), the right hand man who rhymes within meter (Bull Horn), the slightly effeminate second hand man (Cream Corn), and the sexy mama who struts her stuff as only she can (Honey Bee). All four of these main characters (and the one-shot characters that permeate the series) are archetypes at the service of the show, nothing more and nothing less. It doesn’t have anything to say about the state of the culture in the 1970s or beyond, it just puts these characters and filmmaking techniques in front of us and asks us to revel in how ridiculous, and funny, this given material is.
Let me make myself clear, here: I’m a huge fan of both shows. They are both insightful, whip smart, and devastatingly funny in their respective approaches to facets of African American culture, I just don’t think it’s fair to compare the shows to each other. In terms of visuals, Boondocks has a muted color palette and more grounded and static animation style as opposed to Dynamite’s saturated, varied color palette and more stylized animation. In terms of humor, both share a writer/executive producer in Carl Jones and voice actors such as Cedric Yarbrough and Michael Jai White, but current events and societal satire still dominate Boondocks, while Dynamite focuses on the tropes of the film genre that birthed it. Both of these shows are incredibly funny portrayals of a culture and form of humor that many people think that they understand. I think comparing a serious-minded satire like The Boondocks to a silly parody like Black Dynamite is fair, but by no means accurate. They’re different projects from some of the same people. Arguing over which is better is pointless (especially this early into the series). Just take the Freemans and the Black Dynamite crew as they are, lop on that grain of salt, and enjoy some of the most intelligent and biting commentary currently available on the air.
Dylan “Rastaman0318” G., who is an ecstatic film, television and pop culture geek, contributed this article to Big Shiny Robot!