In an interview on Effective Immediately, ‘Boondocks’ producer Carl Jones revealed how a real-life moment inspired that infamous Usher episode from Season 2.
Around 28:30 in the interview, when asked about real stories behind the Adult Swim hit, Jones opened up.
“A lot of these stories in The Boondocks they were inspired by something real,” he shared. “At the time, like, World Star Hip-Hop started popping, VladTV started popping. So we were pulling a lot of things from that, but one episode in particular—the Usher episode—that was actually based on something that happened to me in real life.”
The episode, “Tom, Sarah and Usher,” shows Tom Dubois’ wife Sarah getting swept off her feet by Usher during his visit.
“This is a crazy story, too … It’s not really crazy, but it’s funny,” he went on, before dropping the story about a Mr. Chow’s dinner celebrating Season 2. He was there with his ex-wife, creator Aaron McGruder, and crew when the R. Kelly episode discussion got awkward.
Then Usher rolled in, turning his ex-wife’s whole mood around. She couldn’t stop eyeing the singer from their table. At the end of dinner, she hit up Usher’s table, introducing everyone with “So Usher, this is Aaron, this is his fiancée, this is, uh, my… Carl.”
The next day at the office? The team knew they had TV gold. Jones even snuck in a cameo as a waiter, dropping the line “Wouldn’t let that shit happen to me, though.”
Back in a DJ Vlad interview last year, Jones had also spilled this story, saying he knew right away “has to” end up in the show. You can catch the full chat with Jones above.
