The S-Word

"The S Word" is the eleventh episode of the second season of the Adult Swim animated television series The Boondocks and The Twenty sixth episode overall. It originally aired on January 21, 2008.

Plot

The show begins with a news report of a third grade teacher being suspended without pay for calling Riley the "N word" ([...]). Mr. Petto (Willard) then says on the news there is a difference between [...] and [...]. Robert wants to sue him for restitution. However, Huey believes they should not take legal action because of the selfish reasons motivating it. Despite Huey's warning, Granddad decides to sue. While giving a press conference Rev. Rollo Goodlove (Cee-Lo) appears and announces that he and the Freemans are expecting money from the district for the emotional distress caused to the Freeman family. The Freemans and Goodlove appear on a number of TV shows, including Larry King Live, on all of which Goodlove does most of the talking. Ann Coulter appears alongside them on each show as their verbal adversary. She argues that the teacher should not be punished, as he used the same word as Riley. Eventually it is revealed that Goodlove and Coulter have been working together to gain more individual press attention. After tirelessly waiting to find out if Riley's school district will award financial compensation, an announcement is made on television stating that, unfortunately for the Freemans, the offending teacher, Mr. Petto, will not be fired. Instead, Mr. Petto is punished with a 10-day suspension and mandatory sensitivity training. Additionally, the Freemans and Goodlove find out that the school board will not award them the funds they had been seeking (since, as both Huey and Tom DuBois had pointed out, the school lacks such funds itself). Disappointed with this announcement, Granddad admits that Huey was right AbOUT the whole thing and the entire family heads home, opting to forgo Goodlove's offer to stage a protest the following day. The episode ends with the Freemans watching Goodlove's protest on television, during which Goodlove and his cohorts were called the "N word" by a group of elderly ladies who had reserved the area for an unrelated protest (namely Second Amendment NRA rights, meaning all the ladies are armed to the hilt with assault weapons). Granddad states that he will never again listen to Huey, as Rollo Goodlove had new grounds for a lawsuit, and, according to Granddad, is "going to get rich for sure." He says he"ll never listen to the boys again.

Allusions

A comparison of the real life incident, and the episode's story.
  • Rollo Goodlove's sitcom, "My Dad Rollo" can be interpreted as a reference to the former NBC sitcom The Cosby Show. This is due to the fact that the two shows bear many similarities including Rollo's large family cast in his show (like The Cosby Show, which included 4 kids and 2 adults), and Rollo's wearing of a sweater (as Bill Cosby would frequently wear in the series history).
    • Additionally, Rollo Goodlove is voiced by Cee-lo Green.
  • Rollo appears to be a broadly drawn caricature of Al Sharpton:
    • He's portly.
    • He dresses elaborately.
    • He has a toupee (which could be interpreted as a possible dig at Al Sharpton's hairstyle)
    • He seems more interested in furthering himself in the media than actually dealing with injustice.
    • He is friends with Jesse Jackson
  • Ann Coulter appears as a satirical version of herself. The Title of her book is similar to her actual books.
  • This episode is based on a real-life incident, where a white teacher actually told his black student to "sit down, [...]." The news report at the beginning of the episode is almost identical to the actual news report. Details such as Mr. Petto's holding up of two papers (with "[...]" written in comparison to "[...]"), his claims that the two words are completely different, and specific points in his dialogue are all based on real-life details of the case.