The Itis (The Boondocks)

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"The Itis" is the tenth episode in the animated TV series, The Boondocks. It originally aired on January 22, 2006.

Plot

The episode opens with Granddad cooking up a meal to serve to his friends and neighbors. There is a great quantity of soul food being prepared and Granddad seems in his element. Huey looks into a pot and sees broccoli cooking, but smells pork. An argument ensues in which Huey (who does not eat pork) insists that broccoli cooked with pork counts as pork, therefore it is something he cannot eat. Granddad is about to say something in response, but the Dubois family enters and the subject is dropped for the moment.

The dinner turns out to be a great success and everyone at the table (with the exception of Huey) eats their fill. Jazmine says that she is feeling sleepy and Granddad remarks that it's just the itis, the sleepy feeling you get when you've eaten a big meal. Ed Wuncler says that Granddad should open up a soul food restaurant and that he, Ed, has just the location to do it in.

The storefront turns out to be a vegan cafe that Wuncler wants to take down due to the food tasting like "hot armpit on rye bread." It's also directly across from Meadowlark Memorial Park, (named for Meadowlark Lemon, who is not dead, despite the Memorial in the parks name). Ed Wuncler says that he's been trying to buy the park and develop it, but the state won't sell. Wuncler turns to more immediate concerns and tells Granddad that the restaurant will develop under his direction.

Granddad goes home and prepares some food for his new venture. His first creation is the Luther Burger: "A full pound burger with grilled onions, melted cheese, five strips of bacon and sandwiched in between... two Krispy Kreme donuts". Huey looks over the menu and informs Granddad that he can't serve this food to people as it will cause... death! Riley tastes the Luther and promptly passes out. He comes to briefly and states that the Luther is the "best thing ever." Granddad leaves him to sleep the Itis off and starts the restaurant.

With the Itis in mind, the restaurant (named The Itis) has beds instead of tables. Diners eat their food and then fall asleep immediately. The food is a great success until Huey start telling people about what they are putting into their bodies, reciting from Elijah Mohammad's book, How to Eat to Live. Granddad is not amused and forces Huey to serve people their Luther burgers.

Granddad's food is so tasty and addictive that people start eating it every night. Some start going to work late or not going to work at all. Eventually, the bloated people take up residence in nearby Meadowlark Park, stealing from joggers and passers-by to feed their Luther habit. The police stop responding to that area and, as Huey put it, "This had officially become a bad neighborhood."

Granddad and Wuncler don't believe that the situation has gotten that far out of control until a woman attacks Granddad and swipes his supper, stuffing the Luther into her mouth as she sobs in the darkness of Meadowlark Park. Huey again asserts that this food is destructive , not only to people's bodies but also to the community as a whole ("...this place used to sit between a coffee shop and a day spa. Now there's a liquor store, and a damn Foot Locker!"). Granddad tries to keep his dream alive, but the woman who assaulted him sues the Itis, claiming that the soul food ruined her life and made her fat. Wuncler closes the restaurant down and Granddad has to go home, defeated.

As the episode closes, Huey says that Granddad still has Sunday dinners with his friends and neighbors, but will occasionally switch up the menu to things that are not as lethal as what he served at the Itis. Wuncler, meanwhile, looks out over what used to be Meadowlark Park and smiles at the bulldozers and the large sign proclaiming that the land is now a Wuncler property.

Trivia

• The Luther Burger is a real burger. Its creator named the sandwich after R&B legend Luther Vandross, who reportedly enjoyed the sandwich. Some variants have two donuts as the bun, others have one donut sliced in half and grilled. It is served in many places, but is the official burger of the Gateway Grizzlies baseball team of the Frontier League of Sauget, Illinois. It has been served at their stadium since 2006. As Huey points out, Vandross did indeed die in 2005, at the age of 54, of a heart attack.

• The man who interviews Uncle Ruckus at the grand opening of The Itis is an obvious parody of Pat O'Brien with his nasal voice and mention of the recent trouble he got himself into for "drinking Hennessy and making booty calls".

• Huey makes reference to the movie Soul Food, giving his particular view of the story; "And what does the family do after she dies? They get together for a Sunday dinner eating the same food that just killed Big Mama. The same food! They didn't learn a lesson! Nobody went on a diet! And that's the end of the movie."

• This is the only episode in the first season in which the word "nigga" is not used.

• When describing how bad the restaurant's effect on the neighborhood is, Huey makes a negative reference to the Foot Locker athletic store franchise, possibly implying that the store and its products fuel negative/stereotypical behavior in the people who shop there (in other episodes, Nike's complicity in the eruption of "nigga moments" with regard to scuffed shoes is also mentioned).

• The litigation against the Itis is not that far-fetched. There have been lawsuits against fast-food restaurants like McDonald's by people who claim that the chain's unhealthy food choices caused them to become obese or have serious weight-related medical problems.