Riley Wuz Here
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| The Boondocks episode | |
|---|---|
| “Riley Wuz Here” | |
 Riley's insane art teacher. |
|
| Original airdate | February 19, 2006 |
| Season no. | 1 |
| Episode no. | 12 |
| Production no. | 113 |
| Director | Kalvin Lee |
| Writer(s) | Aaron McGruder |
| Guest star(s) | Rob Paulsen |
| The Boondocks - Season 1 November 5, 2005 – March 19, 2006 |
|
| Season 2 → | |
"Riley Wuz Here" is the twelfth episode of the Adult Swim animated television 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 actual owner of the house 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 art teacher denies responsibility for creating the impression of owning the house being tagged, uses what is called "reverse psychology", and has a mild manner, phrasing and speaking his words just so, and among other things, saying that he "doesn't like violent things", preferring "to take people by surprise". The teacher is an obvious reference to Bob Ross, the painter, in the pictures he produces for himself, his hairstyle 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 the experiment progresses Huey becomes progressively stupider and lazier, reveling in the very sterotypical behavior which he despises and McGruder satirizes.
As Riley becomes more determined and sincere, the art teacher thinks "it's time to move to a bigger canvas", sometimes "liking to paint murals" thinking that "they're fun". This ends up as nighttime paint-raids. Riley paints a still-life, and pictures of "someone that we love! Maybe, someone who is not with us anymore", that is, a "fallen soldier". Everyone is moved by the works, but refuses to believe that Riley produced them. In a touching moment for the comedic series, the mural at the end of the episode is painted on the side of Granddad's house. After Granddad sheds a tear, he thanks Riley and takes a quick picture of the mural on his digital camera before forcing Riley to paint over the side of the house.
[edit] Cultural references
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- Riley's art teacher is loosely based on the late artist Bob Ross, who hosted The Joy of Painting on the Public Broadcasting System.
- While it is never said who the people in Riley's last mural are, many debate whether the picture is of the parents of Huey and Riley or Granddad and his wife's wedding picture; since his younger self and wife are shown in the next episode, Wingmen, and Robert in the World War II plane flashback looks exactly like the man, people assume the latter to be true.
- Near the beginning of the episode Riley reminds Tom Dubois of when he was scared of being anally raped. He then mentions he was scared of a "salad". This is a reference to analingus.
- References to the 2004 documentary "Super Size Me" are made, such as Huey getting a checkup at the doctor's before conducting his "Black TV" experiment, videotaping himself, and setting rules for the experiment. Also, captions such as "Day 1" appears as he begins the test. When he begins the test, he also says, "Nigger-ize me."
- Riley signs one of his murals "R. Escobar", a reference to Pablo Escobar, the Colombian drug lord. "Escobar" is also an alias used by Hip Hop artist Nasir Jones.In the comic strip, Riley adopts "Riley Esco" as an alias, and insists that his teacher refer to him by this name only.
- 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, although it is also an exact quote from professional wrestler Razor Ramon, who was nicknamed "The Bad Guy". 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."
- There is a reference to Adult Swim, when Granddad is whupping Riley offscreen, he says that Riley watches too much television, and says "You better start looking at that Adult Swim!"
- The Detour on Teletoon's website lists this as two different episodes by the names of The Bob Ross Episode and its original title, The Joy of Graffiti.
- In his speech, Uncle Ruckus mentions "that genius that drew that strip with the talkin' penguin...Master Penguin Drawer," referring to Bloom County, (later renamed Opus) by Berkeley Breathed.
- When Riley draws the "fallen soldier," he draws rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard, who died in 2004.
- When the art teacher drives off in the end, his license plate reads "TREES". When Bob Ross painted on television his favorite subjects were trees and clouds.
- 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 "They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)" by Pete Rock and CL Smooth, released in 1992.
| Preceded by “Let's Nab Oprah” |
The Boondocks episodes | Followed by “Wingmen” |
