The Boondocks -vs- Consumerism
Consumerism is normally something that Americans associate with our economy or large corporations, but it has definitely gone beyond just these two concepts. In today’s society, consumerism has managed to spread to movies, songs, advertisements, and more importantly to television shows. Consumerism has been defined by Dictionary.com as, “a modern movement for the protection of the consumer against useless, inferior, or dangerous products, misleading advertising, and unfair pricing.” Aaron McGruder’s, episode of the animated Cartoon Network show, The Boondocks “The Block is Hot,” is about how a heat wave comes to the town of Woodcrest in the middle of the winter. A neighborhood girl named Jazmin starts a lemonade stand, which is bought by a businessman, Mr. Wuncler. Meanwhile, 10-year old political activist, Huey, stands on a soap box and talks about violations of human rights issues. Through these features, one can see how consumerism plays a role in this television show. Because this episode has the distinctive features most animated television shows have, of addressing real issues by exaggerating them, having recurring characters that the audience is familiar with and having a conflict or problem that is usually solved by the end of the episode, it demonstrates how consumerism isn’t just associated with our economy or large corporations.
In, “The Block is Hot,” Aaron McGruder displays a distinctive feature that most animated television shows express when he addresses a real issue that is going on in our society today, by exaggerating it. McGruder addresses the real issues of consumerism, which shows how this distinctive feature supports this episode’s argument of how they're exploitation and corruption with consumer culture in America. The episode starts off with Jazmin who on this hot day in Woodcrest, decides to open a lemonade stand in order to raise enough money to buy herself a pony. Here, with people actually buying Jazmin’s lemonade and her selling the lemonade, this shows one side of consumerism. Later in the episode, the demand for Jazmin’s lemonade increases, this phenomenon is exactly how consumerism works in America. Once a certain good becomes high in demand and people are willing to spend their money on it, this is how consumerism starts. The lemonade business for Jazmin starts off good but takes a turn for the worse when she meets Mr. Wuncler who buys out her lemonade stand in exchange for the pony she wants. Wuncler, buying out Jazmin’s lemonade stand implies the control that he now has over her. With him officially owning Jazmin’s stand, this gives him the rights to do whatever he wants with this business. Here, we see the exaggeration and stretching of the truth done by McGruder because in reality, a lemonade stand run by a little girl, wouldn’t be bought by a rich man who is looking to do serious business.
As Jazmin continues to work for Wuncler with the mindset that she’s working in order to get her pony, demonstrates the problem of exploitation that is associated with consumerism. Even though Jazmin works all day and night selling lemonade, she doesn’t get any of the profits or the pony that she was promised by Wuncler. In this episode you can tell right off that Wuncler has no intention of giving Jazmin her pony when he states “this pony Mr. Sammy Davis Jr. will be your responsibility for now on […] let’s keep him at my stables into you get your own ranch.” Here, Wuncler shows how he’s only using and exploiting Jazmin because if he was going to give Jazmin the pony like he promised her, then he would have brought it to her right away and not made the comment “let’s keep him at my stables” (“The Block is Hot”).
Corruption caused by consumer culture in America is another problem that is being supported by this episode addressing the real issue of consumerism. In this episode, corruption with consumer culture in America can best be seen in Wuncler’s character because he takes advantage of Jazmin, who is only ten years old. He states “every morning I wake up and put one foot on the ground and the other up the ass of a twelve-year-old Indonesian girl”. Here, even though this is meant to be funny and exaggerate the truth, this comment is clearly underplayed and probably holds more truth than some might realize, given the tone of this show. Wuncler then says, “if this country didn’t have unions and child labor laws, maybe your generation would understand the value of hard work,” which demonstrates how some owner don’t care about their workers at all and are more focused on the money that is being produced (“The Block is Hot”).
Wuncler also uses corrupt scare tactics in order to prevent Jazmin from leaving the lemonade stand. He tells her she “can leave whenever [she] want, but Sammy Davis Jr. will have to be put down.” This man will do and say anything in order to keep Jazmin working. Even when Jazmin’s father tries to step in to stop his daughter’s lemonade business, Wuncler pretty much intimidates him to the point that he lets his daughter continue working, despite how tired and sad she looks. What makes consumerism seem even more corruptive is when Wuncler states that Jazmin’s business has been using child labor and he acts like he wasn’t aware of it when we all know that he was. Even though McGruder might have exaggerated a bit on what actually goes on in reality with consumerism, he does a good job with portraying a real life issue and using it to support the argument of how they're exploitation and corruption with consumer culture in America (“The Block is Hot”).
The next distinctive feature that this episode of The Boondocks has that most television shows have is recurring characters that the audience is familiar with. The characters of Jazmin and Huey are two main characters that the audience should be familiarized with because they’re seen a lot among these episodes. This episode has both Huey and Jazmin and really gives the audience a sense of both their characters’ personalities. With Huey, he’s more of the logical and objective type whereas Jazmin is more of the oblivious and naive type. Knowing and understanding both of their personalities, one can understand why Huey was trying to be a crusader against consumerism when it affected Jazmin, and why Jazmin was, in fact, affected by consumerism.
With knowing Jazmin as a character and realizing that she isn’t one to notice when she is being used and taken advantage of, we would expect her to be the one that is affected by consumerism. Whereas Huey is more accustomed to realizing when something isn’t right, the viewers would expect him to know Wuncler was telling Jazmin lies. Jazmin represents those Americans who are, in fact, oblivious to the corruption, abuse, or exploitation they might be going through because of consumerism and people like Wuncler. Huey’s character most likely represents those who don’t take the crap of consumerism or corruptive people like Wuncler. What Jazmin’s character symbolizes about consumerism is that its decision-makers always looks to target the weak and innocent because they are easily manipulated and influenced. This occurrence is seen in this episode because instead of Wuncler approaching Huey, he decides to approach Jazmin, who is fooled by her desires for a pony. Even though some might not realize it, consumerism makes people do crazy things as shown in this episode of The Boondocks, with its exaggeration of what really goes on in reality.
The last distinctive feature that “The Block is Hot,” has that most television shows have is a conflict or problem that is usually solved by the end of the episode. The conflict is of course the negative events that take place as a result of consumerism and Mr. Wuncler. These two things cause a little girl to go through hell, a community to suffer, Huey to take actions and much more, all of which show how much damage can be done by consumerism. This episode may have ended with no one getting hurt and Wuncler leaving, but him just leaving and not getting penalized for how he treated this community and Jazmin, really says something about consumer culture in America. In this episode Wuncler represents the negative side of consumerism. He, gets away with his actions without being punished, which supports the argument of how consumerism is sometimes not held responsible when it’s in the wrong.
Throughout this episode Wuncler treats Jazmin horribly, but in the end just gets in his carriage and rides away like nothing even happened. By him just leaving like this and not being told what he did was wrong, then he’s going to think what he did to Jazmin was ok and continue with his negative ways. This whole idea goes back to consumerism and how big corporations and companies are most of the time not fined or penalized when they either disobey laws or treat their employees and buyers in a horrible manner. Even though the problem of Wuncler was solved at the end of the episode by him leaving Woodcrest, it still leaves you wondering about consumer culture in America and just how regulated is it?
Another argument about consumer culture in America that is being supported by the distinctive feature of how most television shows have a conflict or problem that is usually solved by the end of the episode is how with this ending, it shows when the going gets tough, consumerism or Wuncler in this case, wants to run from its problems. At the end, this is seen when Jazmin demands Wuncler to give her; her pony and he tells her “I’ve never seen someone so ungrateful, this partnership is over, Sammy Davis Jr. belongs to me now.” With him saying this and getting mad at Jazmin because she wants her pony that she worked so hard for, shows how business owners that are involved in consumerism will do anything and blame anyone just so they won’t have to deal with problems (“The Block is Hot”).
To companies and businesses, having problems is like having the flu, it’s something that they try to avoid so that it won’t disturb the natural order of things. Wuncler running off and leaving Jazmin to deal with the crazy people, who want more lemonade, is another negative aspect of consumerism that needs to change. What business owners need to realize is that when the going gets tough, it doesn’t mean that you up and leave and let somebody else deal with problems that weren’t meant for them. Consumerism can really be a nasty and deceiving operation if certain people, companies, corporations, and much more make it that way.
Consumerism, as seen in this episode of The Boondocks, is something that needs to be changed drastically if it’s going to continue to play a major role in our society. By this episode having the distinctive features of addressing a real issues by exaggerating it, having recurring characters that the audience are familiar with, and having a conflict or problem that is solved by the end of the episode, one can begin to see the arguments that this show is trying to make about consumer culture in America. This show brings up some very disturbing and shocking issues about consumerism that many of us aren’t aware of and really makes me wondering what goes on when people aren’t looking. All we, the American people see is what we want to see, and that’s the goods. Never once do we ever stop and think about what it takes and what people go through in order for us to be able to walk into any store and buy whatever we want. Consumerism might be great for some but for others, as seen in “The Block is Hot,” it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.

Work Cited
"The Block Is Hot." Adapt. Aaron McGruder. Episode #14. The Boondocks. Perf. Regina King and Gabby Soleil. Cartoon Network. 12 Mar. 2006. Television.