SHARP CRITICISM

Al Sharpton has denounced the Boondocks cable television program for a recent episode depicting Martin Luther King Jr.'s possible reaction to a post-9/11 America. I didn't see the episode, but it doesn't surprise me that series creator Aaron McGruder would go beyond the threshold of good taste, considering what he's been able to get away with in the comic strip that inspired the show.

I've never understood what the fascination was with either McGruder or his strip: like Al Franken and Janeane Garofalo, he has always struck me as a left-wing "humorist" who simply lacks humor. 90% of his strip is mean-spirited crap; the other 10% is just crap. (The same goes for Doonesbury.) It would be one thing if, like Richard Pryor, McGruder could make left-wing points in a manner that makes people of all political persuasions laugh, but McGruder on his best day couldn't touch Pryor on his worst.

When the strip first became popular, much was made of the fact that very few comic strips are geared to black audiences. The problem, of course, is that The Boondocks is itself not geared to black audiences; much like Spike Lee's "joints," his target audience is actually liberal whites. He is held in high esteem not because of his talent, but because of the aggressiveness with which he goes after right-wing figures like George W. Bush and Condi Rice.

You have to admit that there's a certain morbid humor to be derived from seeing two hard-left figures like Sharpton and McGruder brawling with each other. (Also, isn't it interesting that Sharpton can go after McGruder for desecrating the image of MLK, but he hasn't said one word yet about Kanye West's desecration of the image of Jesus Christ?)

McGruder will, of course, survive this current controversy. He is far too valuable to the left to be shunned for his irreverent depiction of MLK; in so many ways, he is more important to the advancement of progressive political goals than Sharpton. Even though he has mocked the memory of King, there's no way the left will ever send McGruder to the boondocks.