Pause (The Boondocks)

Did You Know?

• In the original script, McGruder made little effort to disguise Perry's identity, using a name very similar to Perry's legal name for the character before, under network instruction, changing it to "Winston Jerome".
• McGruder had wanted "Pause" to be the season opener, but it was moved.

Plot

Robert, a former struggling actor, gets excited about auditioning for the lead male role in Winston Jerome's new play, Ma Dukes Finds Herself a Man. Jerome is a hugely famous Black playwright, director, and actor. According to Huey, his work is predictable, Christian-themed, and always features a wild, gun-toting matriarch named Ma Dukes, a role Jerome plays himself in drag. Robert declares he will give Winston "everything I've got," which prompts Riley to warn him to add "no homo" because, in Riley's view, that phrase sounds gay. Robert nails the audition and meets Winston, who turns out to be a devout but closeted evangelical Christian claiming that Jesus Christ personally inspired his writing. Winston gives Robert the part of Ma Dukes' love interest and invites him to live at his compound, but only if Robert accepts Jesus as his savior and rejects Ice Cube and all his work. At the compound, Winston makes a grand entrance like something from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, descending in a golden elevator while singing "It's All Right to Cross-Dress for Christ." Robert quickly sees that Winston runs a cult-like operation, forbidding residents from contacting their families. Forced to cut ties with his own family, Robert endures tough rehearsals and dodges Winston's frequent advances. Winston later reveals that Robert must kiss him in the final act of the play. Still, Robert holds out hope that the play will bring him fame, wealth, and "white women." Huey and Riley try to rescue Robert from the cult, but they cannot convince him to leave, even if it means kissing Winston on stage. Robert compares his situation to contestants on Fear Factor eating monkey testicles for a big prize. Two weeks later, the play opens to a full house, with Huey and Riley in the audience. After the show, Robert expects to be swarmed by beautiful women, but instead finds that Winston Jerome's female fans are overweight, middle-aged housewives. Winston then offers Robert the lead in a film version of the play, but bluntly demands sexual favors in return. Finally fed up, Robert flips Winston off, walks out of his dressing room, and goes home with Huey and Riley, though not before Riley, who videotaped the whole play, keeps taunting him with more "pause" jokes.

Reception

The episode "Pause" was described by Greg Braxton of the Los Angeles Times as one of the most pointed public takedowns of Tyler Perry, placing it alongside similar critiques from Black filmmakers like Spike Lee. Leonard Pierce of The A.V. Club gave the episode a B+, noting that while it sometimes lacked focus, it delivered strong jokes, a memorable conclusion, and gave more screen time to characters who had been underused. Tyler Perry was angered by the episode, reaching out to Turner Broadcasting executives and warning that he might reconsider his partnership with the company. At the time, Perry had two shows on Turner networks: Tyler Perry's House of Payne and Meet the Browns on TBS. After a repeat broadcast on June 26, 2010, "Pause" was not shown again on Adult Swim until May 29, 2020, when it appeared as part of a marathon alongside two other previously banned episodes, "The Hunger Strike" and "The Uncle Ruckus Reality Show."