Comedy
Dead Boy Detectives
Dead Boy Detectives targets teens in style and story. But it comes with very adult, problematic content.
The rest of the world might know Long Beach-based rapper Vincent “Vince” Staples from his popular 2015 song “Norf Norf.” And while the contents of that song certainly wouldn’t earn it any accolades from our website, they do point to the tragic circumstances for people in the Long Beach area.
Were you to listen to the song (having been given another hefty warning regarding the content concerns), you’d listen to a first-hand experience of what some people go through while growing up in gang culture—a culture where trauma, poverty, drug use and violence can be daily occurrences.
Staples himself experienced these things, and they’re issues that are still going on today. And in The Vince Staples Show, viewers will experience a few of those issues, too, as Vince simply attempts to go about his life—made all the more difficult now that he’s got a bit of wealth and fame to his name as a result of his rapping career.
Let’s go back to “Norf Norf” for a moment.
The song had a bit of a revival in 2016 when a Christian mother railed against the song in a tearful, and ultimately viral, 11-minute rant against the song’s problem-laden lyrics. Many online made fun of the woman for her beliefs. But Vince, upon learning of the drama, defended the mother, stating in a now-deleted Tweet that “no person needs to be attacked for their opinion on what they see to be appropriate for their children. They have a right to it.”
And were Plugged In to self-reflect, a lot of what we do is much the same: to warn parents about potential content concerns in order to determine whether those things will be appropriate for their families.
And therein lies much of the difficulty in the job, as sometimes, the content itself speaks to a deeper message. That is, that the message behind “Norf Norf”—which paints a grisly picture regarding the reality of inner-city struggles—is an important one, even if the content used to convey that message is far from family friendly.
The same issues apply in The Vince Staples Show. Serious issues aside, viewers may have trouble sitting through when people are shot and killed, or when a bank is robbed and Vince somewhat joins in. They might want to avoid a brief scene of a woman’s naked rear. They might not want to stomach the frequent heavy swearing.
To its credit, The Vince Staples Show, content-wise, doesn’t go nearly as far as Staples’ descriptions in “Norf Norf” do. But the Long Beach comedy still likely won’t be appreciated by many families, either.
Vince is thrown into jail, and he finds himself targeted by a man known for stabbing others.
Gunshots open the episode—as does a news report of a murder.
Vince speeds and is arrested for an alleged assault (it’s later revealed that he was misidentified for the latter). One man threatens to stab Vince, and another man shows off his own scar from where the inmate stabbed him. When a man confronts two other guys committing a crime, they chase after him to beat him offscreen.
A man urinates in public. A woman swaps other real estate signs with her own. A white supremacist begins writing the n-word, but he changes the word to “nightmares” when he sees a couple Black men watching him. A man excretes a lighter and pipe stored in his rear to use a drug while in prison.
When Vince calls his mother and asks her to bail him out, she declines and tells him that he should “ask that little girl that you living in sin with.” When Vince returns home, he kisses his girlfriend.
The f-word is used over 15 times, including a couple instances which are preceded by “mother.” The s-word is used 20 times. The n-word is used over 20 times. Other swears are used, too, including “a–” and “d–n.” God’s name is used in vain twice, and Jesus’ name is likewise used in vain once.
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
Dead Boy Detectives targets teens in style and story. But it comes with very adult, problematic content.
An elf mage contemplates on connection and regret as she watches her human friends grow old and pass away.
