The Block Is Hot

"The Block Is Hot"

"The Block Is Hot" was the 14th episode in the animated television series The Boondocks. It originally aired on March 12, 2006. The episode heavily references Do the Right Thing by Spike Lee, and satirizes corporate greed as well as liberal activism. A sub-plot features police shooting of Uncle Ruckus which resembles the case of Amadou Diallo, and is caught on tape a la Rodney King.

Plot

Huey, wearing a heavy coat and scarf on a painfully hot day, is handing out fliers to passers-by. He sits on the sidewalk next to a lemonade stand that Jazmine has set up. Huey is unable to get anyone to listen to him, but Jazmine is doing excellent business.

Huey: Prozac can lead to suicide.

Jazmine: But lemonade can lead to smiles, which can cause dimples.

Man: Dimples? I'll take two!

Ed Wuncler offers to buy the stand for the price of one pony. Jazmine agrees, signing the contract without reading it. Wuncler soon makes unreasonable demands and institutes sweat-shop labor conditions. As the days heat up, the line of customers stretches around the block and Jazmine is kept busy. Wuncler says that money from the stand will pay for the pony's food and upkeep, so that if Jazmine leaves, the pony will "starve to death in a puddle of its own feces". Jazmine stays at the stand.

Huey, meanwhile, has used the Internet (including Wikipedia) to find human rights activists who can help shut down the stand. The group arrives, but their plan is only to stand around singing protest songs, rather than the direct action Huey had envisioned. Wuncler arrives in a horse-drawn carriage and announces his new, "cruelty-free" lemonade which is well received by the protesters. He shuts down the stand and tells Jazmine that her cut was only 5%. After expenses, she actually owes Wuncler money.

Huey grabs a trash-can and throws it through the window of the stand, smashing it and letting the assembled protesters and thirsty citizens grab the cups of lemonade that they wanted. A riot begins to break out, but melts away when snow begins to fall.

We see that Huey has been handing out flyers saying "90 degrees in February? This S**t is Crazy!!!" Jazmine thinks about what has just happened and then considers opening a hot chocolate delivery service.

Trivia

This is the second episode that Huey has been seen smiling, or rather smirking, instead of the typical scowl we see from him.

This episode references the skit "Pump Pump Intro" on Snoop Dogg's album Doggystyle. Ed Wuncler says to Tom, "You know the name of the game, your daughter chose me. Now we can handle this like some gentlemen, or we can get into some old gangster s**t."

Huey's throwing of the trash can is a reference to the Spike Lee film, Do The Right Thing.

Martin Luther King controversy

Rev. Al Sharpton had lodged several complaints about Boondock's episode "Return of the King", stating that its portrayal of Martin Luther King, Jr. saying the word nigga was disrespectful and demanding an apology. As Huey looks on-line for human rights groups, we hear radio announcers mentioning that Al Sharpton is all upset over "some cartoon".