By: Ayanna Jones-Lightsy
WHAT FUN! If you like your comedy on the satirical and ignorant side (and I mean ignorant in the best possible way), then you are going to love this one.
Think of every possible stereotype that you have ever heard of about Caribbean people, from the constant ganja smoker to the big gun toting and even the hypermasculine, homophobic, dreadlocked-wearing hotep and you will have a spot on picture of the lead character. Okay, now I want you to picture the most self-effacing, groveling, self-hating negro stereotype that you can envision and you will have the black sidekick. The stereotypes just continue from there. It’s quite brilliant in its simplicity and quite brutal in its realism.
If you are easily offended, I suggest you skip this comic altogether because it will make you big mad!
Scotland Yardie is the epitome of satire. Satire, as properly defined, is the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices. And this comic exaggerates the heck out of the nonsensical conventions many people have about black folks.
The plot is fairly simple: exposure of crooked cops who use a corrupt and racist system for their own gain. Peppered throughout this plot arc are gems of ridiculousness that are simultaneously funny and sad because of the many folks out there who believe them to be true. For instance, there’s the abusive, drug-dealing baby daddy/boyfriend or the obsessive compulsion for fried chicken that black people have even when that chicken is blue. Blue fried chicken!
The art is classic comic book style with bright pops of primary colors and crisp cartoonish-style drawing. This is not gritty, semi-realistic art, but rather pop art at its finest.
I don’t know what else to say except BLUE FRIED CHICKEN!!
Ayanna is an aspiring cosmopolitan, or “citizen of the cosmos”. She desires to be the type of person that belongs in every place in this universe. Hopefully, the kind of person that would run when The Doctor told her to. The more mundane answer is that she is an attorney, amateur historian and political scientist, mother of two and geek for life. She loves information and hates the way it gets twisted. She has a blog at http://livelearn2015.wordppress.com and her facebook page at www.facebook.com/NyansapoSophia. Follow her on bethelight@JoneslLightsyEsq on twitter.
What's Your Reaction?
