Riley Wuz Here
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The Boondocks Season 1 |
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Episodes: |
"Riley Wuz Here" is the 12th episode in the animated series The Boondocks. It originally aired on February 19, 2006.
[edit] Plot
Riley opens the episode by tagging on the side of a neighbor's house. As he paints, an art critic starts to comment on his work and offer him advice, prompting Riley to re-do the tag on a different side of the house with better legibility and color work. Riley is quite pleased with himself, but the neighbor does not think so highly of the work.
As punishment, Granddad forces Riley to take art lessons, reasoning that if Riley learns to draw on paper then he won't go marking up people's houses with spray-paint. The art teacher turns out to be none other than the art critic from the night before. The teacher is an obvious reference to Bob Ross, the painter, both in the pictures he produces for himself as well as the way he speaks to Riley.
Meanwhile, Huey is conducting an experiment to see what would happen to a person who watches nothing but "black television" for 14 days. This is a reference to the documentary Super Size Me, in which the filmmaker ate nothing but McDonald's food for 30 days to see if there was a health risk associated with it. Huey performed a similar social experiment in The Boondocks comic strip from May 6, 2005 to May 14, 2005.
As Riley learns more about art from the teacher, he goes back to tagging houses, but this time painting still-lifes and portraits, finishing up with a vivid depiction of Granddad with Riley's and Huey's deceased parents. The neighborhood is moved by the works, but refuse to believe that Riley is the one who produced them, apart from Granddad. In a touching moment for the comedic series, he sheds a tear, thanks Reiley, takes a quick picture of the mural on his camerea, and then forces Riley to clean the side of the house off.
[edit] Trivia
- The ending sequence of this episode contained a nearly full version of the song "Today" by Tom Scott, from the 1967 album "The Honeysuckle Breeze." A saxophone sequence and several of the backing vocals have been sampled for hip-hop songs, including T.R.O.Y. (They Reminisce Over You) by Pete Rock and CL Smooth, released in 1992.
- Riley signs one of his murals "R. Escobar", a reference to Pablo Escobar, the Colombian drug lord.
- Riley makes two Scarface references in this episode. The first is his line "Say hello to the bad guy" when he is being questioned by the police. This is a reference to Tony Montana's "Say goodnight to the bad guy" speech. The second comes when the art teacher asks him what he wants to paint for his next mural. Riley says he wanted to paint something like the final scene in Scarface, when Tony Montana is having a final shootout with the Colombian drug lords... "with bitches."
- It's been debated among fans as to whether the picture Riley painted was of his parents or grandparents (i.e. Grandad and his unseen wife). Supporters of the latter point out the picture was in black and white and hence is likely to be several decades old. Though it could be equally attributed to Huey and Riley's mother and father since Huey immediately recognized the faces.
- There is a reference to Adult Swim, when Grandad is whupping Riley offscreen, he says that Riley watches too much television, and says "You ain't gonna be watchin' no more o' that Adult Swim!" (ironiclly the show airs on Adult Swim).
- The Detour on Teletoon's website lists this as two different episodes by the names of "The Rob Ross Episode" and it's original title, "The Joy of Graffiti".
- In his speech, Uncle Ruckus mentions "that genius that drew that strip with the talkin' penquin...Master Penguin Drawer," referring to Bloom County by Berkeley Breathed.
