The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Dissertations Spring 5-2015 Running Contradiction: A Negotiated Reading of Encoding Strategies in the Boondocks Animated Series, 2005-2011 Wesley Tyler French University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations Part of the Film and Media Studies Commons Recommended Citation French, Wesley Tyler, "Running Contradiction: A Negotiated Reading of Encoding Strategies in the Boondocks Animated Series, 2005-2011" (2015). Dissertations. 104. https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/104 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The University of Southern Mississippi RUNNING CONTRADICTION: A NEGOTIATED READING OF ENCODING STRATEGIES IN THE BOONDOCKS ANIMATED SERIES, 2005-2011 by Wesley Tyler French Abstract of a Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2015 ABSTRACT RUNNING CONTRADICTION: A NEGOTIATED READING OF ENCODING STRATEGIES IN THE BOONDOCKS ANIMATED SERIES, 2005-2011 by Wesley Tyler French May 2015 This study is comprised of a five-point qualitative critical analysis of denotation strategies employed in the first three seasons of The Boondocks Animated Series, which aired on United States cable television between 2005 and 2011. The five encoding strategies discussed in this study were selectively employed into each episode by the cast and crew of The Boondocks Animated Series. The encoding strategies were employed to facilitate audience accessibility between 2005 and 2011 during The Boondocks Animated Series’ successful initial run on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim programming block. This study focuses on the first three seasons of The Boondocks Animated Series, produced under the guidance of franchise creator Aaron McGruder. The three seasons of The Boondocks Animated Series that comprise this study's sample aired on the Cartoon Network's late-night Adult Swim programming block in forty-five half hour episodes. The study ignores the fourth season of The Boondocks Animated Series due to the lack of creative input from McGruder. Prior to The Boondocks Animated Series' truncated finale season, McGruder singlehandedly oversaw production of his singular creative vision between the 1996 debut of The Boondocks Comic Strip. McGruder's efforts to translate the source material into The Boondocks Animated Series necessitated incorporation of encoding strategies to expand the 1996-2005 audience of The Boondocks Comic Strip. ii The theoretical and structural framework of these chapters are heavily inspired by critical textual reading model developed by British critical commentator Stuart Hall. Adherence to Hall's Encoding/Decoding model and Hall's Preferred / Negotiated / Oppositional Reading Model frames this study within a framework of existing scholarship that incorporate the tenets of critical race theory. A negotiated reading of encoding strategies incorporated into The Boondocks Animated Series is presented across the five chapters that comprise this study. iii COPYRIGHT BY WESLEY TYLER FRENCH 2015 The University of Southern Mississippi RUNNING CONTRADICTION: A NEGOTIATED READING OF ENCODING STRATEGIES IN THE BOONDOCKS ANIMATED SERIES, 2005-2011 by Wesley Tyler French A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Approved: Dr. Cheryl Jenkins____________________ Committee Chair Dr. Christopher Campbell ______________ Dr. Phillip Gentile____________________ Dr. Vanessa Murphree_________________ Dr. Fei Xue__________________________. Dr. Karen S. Coats____________________ Dean of the Graduate School May 2015 DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to the cast and crew of The Boondocks Animated Series (2005-2011). This study would not exist without extensive production efforts from both the United States based Cartoon Network and South Korea based MOI Studio. Between 2005 and 2011, this international staff facilitated a successful transition from franchise creator Aaron McGruder's nationally syndicated comic strip to a half-hour animated format as serialized television entertainment. This study is concurrently dedicated to current and future viewers of The Boondocks Animated Series. Optimistically, this study will offer guidance through increased contextual accessibility to both entry-level and experienced viewers of The Boondocks Animated Series. This study is specifically dedicated to the three season arc of The Boondocks Animated Series produced as a collaboration between The Boondocks franchise creator Aaron McGruder, South Korean animation house MOI Studio, Sony Television Entertainment, and Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim programming block across a rough half-decade between late 2005 and early 2011. Completion of this study was directly facilitated by the selfless, multi-faceted support of family members Angela Glass French, Bonnie Tyler Crosby, Brian McCormick French, George Tyler French, and Janet Jones French. On a concurrent basis, completion of this study was facilitated by the unwavering support of my fiancé, Ashley Nichole Shaw, who invested a considerable degree of support throughout the production of this study. In closing, I thank close friends Roderick Edmond Gales and Nicholas Martin for their encouragement and feedback throughout the final months of study completion iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This study was produced under the generous guidance of scholars from the University of Southern Mississippi School of Mass Communication and Journalism. Under the leadership of committee chair Cheryl Jenkins, Ph.D., graduate committee members Christopher Campbell, Ph.D., Phillip Gentile, Ph.D., Vanessa Murphree, Ph.D. and Fei Xue, Ph.D. provided quintessential guidance throughout the process of constructing this finished study. Moreover, 2012-2013 graduate committee member Kim LeDuff, Ph.D. provided quintessential input during the initial stages of this study's development. Two members from the University of Southern Mississippi Department of History, Curtis Austin, Ph.D. and Andrew Haley, Ph.D., worked with me to develop the contextual detail imbued within this study. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT …………………………………………………………………………….. ii DEDICATION ………………………………………………………………………….. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ………………………………………………………………. v CHAPTERS I. INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………… 1 II. LITERATURE REVIEW ……………………………………………… 12 III. RESEARCH QUESTIONS ...………………………………….............. 53 IV. METHODOLOGY ....…………………………………………………... 54 V. PROLOGUE …………………………………………………………... 73 VI. STEREOTYPE INCORPORATION …………………………………. 105 VII. HUMOR INCORPORATION ……………………………………….. 137 VIII. MASS MEDIA SATIRE INCORPORATION ………………………... 170 IX. POPULAR CULTURE REFERENCE INCORPORATION …………. 199 X. HISTORICAL REFERENCE INCORPORATION …………………... 218 XI. EPILOGUE …………………………………………………………… 232 APPENDICES ………………………………………………………………………... 238 REFERENCES ……………………………………………………………………….. 268 vi 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This study collects and contrasts five chapter-based critical readings of encoding strategies denoted within the first forty-five episodes of The Boondocks Animated Series. Moreover, this study explores encoding strategy incorporation within individual episodes of The Boondocks Animated Series in regard to the series' efforts to bolster audience appeal for the Adult Swim demographic. Stuart Hall's Negotiated Reading model is employed on a recurring basis through a broad analysis of The Boondocks Animated Series' implementation of five specific encoding strategies on the production level to increase audience accessibility for series premieres on the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block between 2005 and 2011. This study suggests that the encoding strategies were implemented to increase The Boondocks Animated Series' audience appeal with regard to culturally sensitive or controversial thematic content through audience assimilation strategies (Jones & McGruder, 2005). This study offers a negotiated analysis of production-level denotation and audience assimilation tactics denoted within The Boondocks Animated Series throughout the 2005-2011 production of the first three seasons. The main five chapters that comprise this encoding strategy analysis examine (1) The Boondocks Animated Series' implementation of stereotype incorporation towards a positive aim, (2) The Boondocks Animated Series' implementation of humor incorporation through efforts at a concurrent, cross-brow emphasis on satire and shock, (3) the show's audience assimilation efforts through references to mass media usage, (4) the show's extensive incorporation of popular culture references, and (5) the show's extensive lexicon of references to black 2 American history. The study is grounded within a framework of seminal scholarship related to (1) Cultural Race Theory, (2) televised portrayals of black culture, and (3) a contextual explanation of The Boondocks Animated Series' often curious production history. This study focuses entirely on encoding strategies incorporated into episodes of The Boondocks Animated Series produced by McGruder, aired by the Cartoon Network, and released on home video by Sony Television