The Block Is Hot

Infobox Boondocks Episode
Title = The Block Is Hot


Caption = Ed, Tom, and Jazmine discuss business.
Airdate = March 12, 2006
Season no. = 1
Episode no. = 14
Production no. = 114
Writer = Aaron McGruder
Director = Kalvin Lee
Guests = Ed Asner
James Arnold Taylor
Episode list = Infobox Boondocks Season 1

"The Block Is Hot" is the fourteenth episode of the Adult Swim animated television series, "The Boondocks". It originally aired on March 12, 2006.

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 of Jazmine 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 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 (though it's obviously not very cruelty-free). 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 Shit is Crazy!!!" Jazmine thinks about what has just happened and then considers opening a hot chocolate delivery service.

Cultural references

*The racially-driven police assault on Uncle Ruckus and the officers' mistaking his wallet for a gun are clear references to the police murder of Amadou Diallo.
*This episode references the film "The Mack". 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 shit." This is an exact quote from Max Julien's character, Goldie.
*This episode can be seen as a homage to Spike Lee's 1989 film "Do The Right Thing", as it features several references, including the premise of incredibly hot weather, Huey's use of a ghetto blaster to listen to "Fight The Power" by Public Enemy, and him starting each day by listening to the radio. The scene where Huey throws a trashcan through the lemonade shack window in the midst of a riot is a direct lift from the movie. Also, the scene where Riley wrenches open a fire hydrant and uses a can to direct the water parallels a similar scene with Martin Lawrence. Riley's argument with Jazmine over the price of Lemonade is inspired by Sal's argument with "Buggin' Out" over the price of extra cheese.
*This Episode references the Chi Ali track "Funky Lemonade" with Ed Wuncler, Sr. paraphrasing an infamous lyric "Lemonade was a popular drink (in my day), and it still is".
*Rev. Al Sharpton complained against a previous "Boondocks" episode "Return of the King", stating that its portrayal of Martin Luther King, Jr. using the word nigga was disrespectful. He subsequently demanded an apology. In this episode, as Huey looks online for human rights groups, we hear radio announcers mentioning that Al Sharpton is all upset over "some cartoon".
*The episode title may be a reference to the Lil Wayne song of the same name.
*Malcolm X can be heard saying "Today it’s time to stop singing and start swinging" just before Huey throws the trash can into the lemonade stand.
*In the beginning of the episode the radio station speaker says the temperature is hotter than the chamber of Dick Cheney's gun, referring to the incident on February 11, 2006, when Cheney accidentally shot Harry Whittington, a 78-year-old Texas attorney.