Monsters of Television

“See? Tom is going to face his fears. He’s going to walk out of that prison with his rectum and his piece of mind intact.”

I’m gonna go ahead and slap a big ol’ disclaimer on this review. This episode was about gay sex. It’s bound to be offensive to some. If you’re some of that some, you may wanna skip this review (and episode for that matter) and come back next week.

Facing expulsion from school for fighting, Huey and Riley are forced to enter a Scared Stiff program in an attempt to curb their delinquent ways. Tom agrees to chaperone the event as part of his endeavor to overcome his fear of being anally raped in prison. What follows is a very vulgar, politically charged look at the problems with the prisons system and the homosexual subculture amongst prison inmates.  The episode features 2 things the show loves to do: social-political commentary and ripping off the internet. Let’s start with the latter.

Remember Fleece “Booty Warrior” Johnson? How about Tossed Salad Man? These guys gave the world very graphic depictions of gay sex in prisons. McGruder recreates these characters in his prison to do the same in a satirical fashion. The prison inmates value one thing above all else: men’s asses. It’s more precious than food and water. Apparently all there is to do in prison or rape or be raped. After recounting some rape related stories, the inmates turn their attention to Tom. They say he’s the type of guy they’re into, take turns describing in excruciating detail what they want to do to him and his booty. Not really helping Tom get over his fear.

I had a hard time placing exactly what the point this part of the episode was trying to make was. Sure, it’s a well known joke that people get raped in prison. “Don’t drop the soap” is a universal wisecrack. But making it so rampant seems to validate Tom’s irrational fear and in some weird way propagate a form of homophobia. It’s linking rape and gay sex. I doubt that’s the message but it could be construed that way even if Tom is a supporter of gay marriage, which they do mention early in the episode.

“A Date with the Booty Warrior” also hits at the prison system with Huey (as usual) being the outlet for McGruder’s own thoughts and opinions. Huey says that the prison system is a cheap and easy way for the government to try and solve social, political and economic problems using slave labor, discrimination and outsourcing. This is of course what the prisoners have been trying to convey, Huey just said it “smarter” than they did.

The real kicker comes when a riot breaks out. The prisoners lecturing the boys have no idea what to do so Huey suggests they take them as hostages and make a list of demands. So the inmates begin to argue over…chief executive terms and vetoing power? A surprisingly intelligent argument (sprinkled with the occasional “nigga” and “mothafuckin'”)  erupts amongst the  prisoners as they try to decide who gets to propose demands and how they will go about voting on them. It’s a great satire of the problems and idiocy of lawmaking. The prisoners eventually come to terms and decide that demand number one is bitches. Demand number two is white bitches. But wait…should that be a new demand or an amendment to demand number one? And the cycle begins again. When the hostages escape, the prisoners further argue over whose job it was to delegate the responsibility of watching the hostages.

There were funny parts and the voting scenes were great but the episode as was just alright overall. A little awkward, a little vulgar and a little too much stealing borrowing from popular culture once again.

Final Thoughts:

• Homosexual innuendos all over the place in the episode. Some clever, some not. Scared Stiff as a play on Scared Straight was a clever one. Get it?
• The episode was well placed after “Pause” because “pause” was used a few times in the episode. Hooray for continuity.