| "Pause" | |||
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| The Boondocks episode | |||
Winston Jerome in drag |
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| Episode no. | Season 3 Episode 37 |
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| Directed by | Sung Hoon Kim | ||
| Written by | Aaron McGruder Rodney Barnes |
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| Production code | 301 | ||
| Original air date | June 20, 2010 | ||
| Guest stars | |||
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Affion Crockett as Winston Jerome |
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| Episode chronology | |||
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| The Boondocks (season 3) List of The Boondocks episodes |
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"Pause" is the eighth episode of the third season of the Adult Swim original series The Boondocks. It aired on June 20, 2010. The title refers to a blue collar African-American cultural practice used by some self-identifying heterosexual speakers to remove any ambiguity after making a double entendre that may be possibly misinterpreted as a claim or implication of homosexual orientation. The phrase "no homo" may also be used instead of or in addition to "pause".[1]
Contents |
Robert plans to audition for the leading male role in Ma Dukes Finds Herself a Man, the latest play by Winston Jerome. Jermone is a superstar African-American playwright, director, and actor whose work, as Huey later describes, is formulaic, Christian-themed, and mostly centers around an outrageous gun-blasting matriarch named "Ma Dukes" (played by Winston himself, in drag). As a former struggling actor in his youth, Robert is excited at the opportunity, and declares his intent to give Winston "everything I've got"; Riley advises him that he has to say "no homo" in addendum because, to Riley, "everything I've got" sounds suspect.
Robert: I gon' really let him have it. Show him my stuff. Give that man everything I got.
Riley: Pause.
Robert: Pause? Pause what?
Riley: You said somethin' gay, so you gotta say "no homo" or else you a homo.
Robert: But what did I say gay?
Riley: You said you was gon' give this dude everything you got. No homo.
Robert: That's not gay. I said I was gon' give the man everything I got.
Riley: Pause, Granddad. If it sound gay, its gay and you gotta say "no homo". How I know you not a homo, Granddad, if you don't say "no homo"?
Robert: I'm not sayin' "no homo".
Riley: Okay, you a homo.
Robert: Stop callin' your granddaddy a homo!
Riley: Then say "no homo"!
Robert: I don't wanna say "no homo"! Imma homo yo' ass, if you don't stop sayin' pause!
Riley: . . . . Pause.
Robert eventually passes the audition and meets Winston himself, who is revealed to be a devout, closeted evangelical Christian who claims Jesus Himself personally inspired him to write. Winston offers him the part of Ma Dukes' love interest and invites him to his compound and inner circle, on condition that he accept Jesus as his savior and renounce Ice Cube and all of his work. At the compound, Winston makes a grand entrance, descending on a golden elevator while singing "It's All Right to Cross-Dress for Christ"; from there, Robert quickly realizes Winston leads a cult-like organization, forbidding the compound residents from contacting their family.
Forced to abandon his family, Robert suffers through grueling rehearsals and evades frequent advances by Winston, whom later reveals that Robert has to kiss him in the play's final act. Despite this, Robert remains hopeful that the play will payoff with fame, riches, and "white women". Huey and Riley eventually attempt to rescue Robert from Winston's cult, but are unable to persuade Robert to leave even though it means kissing Winston on stage; Robert uses a metaphor of contestants on the reality TV show Fear Factor "eating monkey testicles" for a large prize to make his point.
Two weeks later, the play premieres to a packed house, with Huey and Riley attending. Following the performance, Robert expects to be showered with adulation from attractive women, but to his chagrin finds that Winston Jerome's female fans are obese middle-aged housewives. Winston later offers Robert the lead in the film version of Ma Dukes Finds Herself a Man, but flatly demands sexual favors in return. Finally fed up, Robert angrily leaves Winston's dressing room and returns home with Huey and Riley (though not without enduring more "no homo" taunts from Riley, who videotaped the play).
The character Winston Jerome is a parody of playwright and filmmaker Tyler Perry. Jerome's character Ma Dukes (whom he portrays by crossdressing) and the play at the beginning are parodies of Tyler Perry's character Mabel Simmons—known as Madea—and his plays and films.[2]
Jerome asks Robert to renounce Ice Cube "and his work", singling out the 1995 film Friday. This is a reference to Robert's voice actor John Witherspoon, one of whose most successful roles was in Friday and its sequels.
It should also be noted that the scene in which Robert enters the compound and sees Winston Jerome in skimpy leather clothing is an allusion to The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
The script for "Pause" was written over a year before it finally aired. In the original script, McGruder made little effort to disguise Perry's identity, using a name very similar to Perry's legal name for the character before, under network instruction, changing it to "Winston Jerome". McGruder had wanted "Pause" to be the season opener but it was moved.[3]
Greg Braxton of The Los Angeles Times cited "Pause" as "one of the sharpest public criticisms of [Tyler] Perry" and situated it alongside other critiques of Perry's work from African American filmmakers like Spike Lee.[2]
Leonard Pierce of The A.V. Club graded the episode a B+, writing that although the episode felt at times "directionless" it nonetheless featured "a bunch of good laugh lines, a dynamite ending, and an increased role for some characters that have been neglected of late".[4]
LGBT-interest website AfterElton.com contributor "snicks" reviewed the episode, finding that while it started strong it "goes off the rails in the final act" with the jokes becoming more predictable and less funny. snicks singles out the exchange in which Riley explains the use of "pause" and "no homo" to Granddad as "perfectly sum[ming] up the absurdity of the usage of "no homo," especially among insecure straight athletes and hip-hop stars, who Riley emulates". That sequence, along with the Rocky Horror Picture Show parodies and the episode's creators' willingness to skewer Tyler Perry as a "pandering closet case...are as biting and funny as anything seen on South Park. In fact, this episode is very remniscent of that show's "Trapped in the Closet" episode which went after Tom Cruise."[5]
Tyler Perry was infuriated by "Pause", contacting Turner Broadcasting executives and threatening to re-evaluate his relationship with the company.[3] When "Pause" aired, Perry had two series broadcast on Turner networks, Tyler Perry's House of Payne and Meet the Browns on TBS.
Since its initial broadcast, the episode has never been reaired.