Aaron McGruder
Aaron McGruder
Aaron McGruder is an American writer, producer, and cartoonist best known for writing and drawing The Boondocks, a Universal Press Syndicate comic strip about two young African-American brothers, Hueyand his younger brother and wannabe gangsta, Riley, from inner-city Chicago now living with their grandfather in a sedate suburb, as well as being the creator, executive producer, and head writer of The Boondocks animated TV series based on his strip...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCartoonist
Date of Birth29 May 1974
CityChicago, IL
CountryUnited States of America
Every well needs occasional refreshing. I hope that this fall you will agree that the time away from the demands of deadlines has served the strip, your readers and me.
We wrote the script, we did a six-minute presentation, and then it died. Fox wanted a sitcom with an 'A story' and a 'B story,' and there were just very rigid creative rules that work on some shows and don't work on others.
Ultimately I think everyone draws their own line of what's shocking and what is inappropriate in different places. For you, some 10-year-old kids talking about hoes may not (be) that big of a deal. But someone out there is gonna flip. There's no way to know. So I just try to deliver an amusing and decent story and leave the shock and the awe to whatever people have in their own heads.
Oprah has the power to lay waste to entire industries with a mere utterance. That's a power that you have to respect. And ultimately I respect it.
To me, being in the top 10 for African-American audiences is not justification to keep a show on the air. I would not be shedding any tears for the loss of those shows.
A lot of people looked at the Fox pilot and said, 'We don't think it needs to be this pretty; can't you make it simpler?' They really get and appreciate everything I'm trying to do here.
This isn't the n---a show. N---a, n---a, n---a, n---a, n---a. I just wish we would expand the dialogue and evolve past the same conversation that we've had over the past 30 years about race in our country. & I just hope to expand the dialogue and hope the show will challenge people to think about things they wouldn't normally think about, or think about it in a very different way.
I tried to instill a realness into them. I wanted to do this from a black point of view. I wanted to show that they're the only people playing on this playground.
For me, it really first has to be a good story and be funny. If you're doing sincere comedy, the edgy stuff kind of happens on its own.
they're not really thrilled about it, but I keep trying to push them.
As long as they let me, I guess.
I've never been able to predict what people are going to get mad at. I've tried and I've always been surprised.
Our show is not 'Family Guy,' ... The element of race changes everything.
that's what late-night cable is for, I guess. You don't have to hear it at 8 o'clock, but you sure can hear it at 11:30, or 11 o'clock, on Adult Swim, if you so desire -- it will be there for you.